The Beauty Series Bundle (34 page)

I’m still catching my breath as I kiss the top of her head and hold her tightly. This is the place I want to be always—anywhere that includes my American girl wrapped in my arms. “It was a mistake to not tell you how I felt. It’s haunted me since the day I came home and found you gone. You’ll never know how sorry I am for letting you slip through my fingers. But it won’t happen again because I’m never letting you go. Ever.”

She has no idea about the future I want with her—that I want her to be my wife—but I don’t dare bring that up right now. I don’t want to frighten her with talk of marriage. She can’t possibly be in a place where she’d trust me enough, so I choose to postpone that conversation for another time.

Her hand is on my chest and she’s rubbing it back and forth over my nipple. “If you knew you loved me, why couldn’t you say it?”

“I denied what I was feeling for you. I told myself I didn’t know what my feelings were. It all felt so complex at the time, and I wanted to avoid the complications. But as hard as I tried, I couldn’t evade loving you. You made me fall hard. I’ve never loved a woman until you.”

She lifts her face from my chest to look up at me. “It took everything in me to not come running back to Australia to beg you to have me. I know I wasn’t supposed to, but I had the number to the phone you used for calling me. I can’t tell you how many times I thought about calling it, just to see if you would answer. But I was terrified of you turning me away. I couldn’t have taken it if you had.”

Incredible! All this time we were only one phone call away from one another.

“I’ve carried your mobile with me every day since you left. I knew you had the number because you used it to transfer our photos to your personal phone. I got your number from the phone records and tried calling you, but I was too late. You’d already canceled your service.”

“Yeah. I had to switch and get a new number.”

I don’t want to hear the story behind that right now. I know it isn’t going to sit well with me and I just want to enjoy this time together. “I never stopped hoping you’d call and I’d hear your voice on the other end.”

“I wish I had. If I’d known how you felt, I would’ve called. Hell, I would’ve never left you in the first place. God, that must’ve been bad when you found my letter.”

It was awful—the absolute worst day of my life.

There have been so many mistakes made between us, on my part and hers, and saying I love you didn’t automatically mean she’d agree to live happily ever after with me. “What if I’ve changed my mind and decided I want complicated? What if I want to try?”

Her finger is on my stomach and she’s tracing that invisible infinity symbol like she always does when she’s nervous. “When I fell before, you didn’t catch me.”

She’s right. She told me she loved me and I let her down. But never again. Never. “I’ll always be sorry for that, Laurelyn. You’ve never had a single person in your life who didn’t let you down, but that’s not who I’m going to be. I swear I’ll be there for you, if you’ll let me.”

Because of the men in Laurelyn’s past, she’s destined to have trust issues and she’s never hidden this from me. We didn’t have problems with it when our agreement defined very clear expectations, but a normal relationship will be different. I’m certain it won’t come easy for us, but I’m prepared to do anything it takes to be with her.

“I can’t lie. This—me and you—scares the shit out of me.”

I’d be worried if she weren’t frightened. “Me too, but wouldn’t you rather be scared together than be miserable apart? Because I know that’s what I’d be without you.”

“You’re right. I’ve done the being-miserable-apart thing for the last three months and it blows. I’m ready to try the scared-shitless-together part.”

I
turn
my back to Jack Henry and snuggle against him. It hasn’t been quite long enough but I know he’s going to have me again as soon as he’s ready. I’m definitely willing whenever all systems are go.

His hand slides around my waist and he rubs it in a circular motion on my stomach again. He seems to be hung up on that area tonight for some reason. I cup my hand over his. “Are you discovering a second time how much you like my belly-button piercing? You can’t seem to stay away from it tonight.”

“Your piercing isn’t what I’m fixated on.”

Hmm… that sounds interesting. Maybe he’s already revving up for round two. That was quicker than expected, but it has been a long time. I scoot back so I’m pressed against him. “Then what has you so mesmerized tonight?”

He doesn’t make a move or answer right away. “I found your birth control pills after you were gone.”

“Oh.” I knew I’d left them somewhere in the bedroom, so I’m not at all surprised by him bringing that up. I suspect he probably had quite the come-apart when he found them since I already know how badly he wants to avoid a pregnancy.

“There were two nights we didn’t use condoms about the time you missed your pills. I didn’t even attempt to pull out, so you can understand why I would’ve spent the last three months wondering if you were pregnant.” He pushes my hair aside and kisses the back of my neck. “Don’t be afraid to tell me if you are because of that fucked-up misunderstanding we had at my parents’ house.” His mouth is hovering over my ear and he sucks my lobe. “I love you so much and I swear I’d love our baby too.”

Just when I think I can’t love this man more, he says something like that and I fall even deeper.

I reach for his hand splayed on my stomach and lace my fingers through his. He clenches it tightly as he waits for me to answer his question. “I’m not pregnant.”

But right now he sure makes me wish I were.

“I caught up on the pills I missed with a new pack as soon as I got home.”

He doesn’t act relieved the way I’d expect. Did he want me to be pregnant? Before this moment, I thought he would’ve freaked out big time over a pregnancy, but his telling me that he’d love our baby makes me think otherwise.

“I had to ask, Laurelyn. It was driving me crazy thinking you might have our baby growing inside you but were too afraid to tell me because of how foolish I acted before.”

“I probably would’ve been scared to tell you.” Hell, who am I kidding? I would’ve been petrified to tell him I was having his baby. “Just so you know, I’m not on the pill anymore because of my migraines. I had an IUD placed since it didn’t look like I’d be wanting to have children any time in the near future.”

“I would’ve been okay with it if you were. I meant what I said. I love you and I’d love our baby.”

It never ceases to amaze me how much this man can make me desire him. I’m not sure if it’s his hands on my body or hearing him promise to love our baby that never was, but one of the two has me wanting him fiercely.

I’m already grinding my bottom against his groin when I realize what I’m doing and I feel how hard he is against me. Yeah, it’s been long enough for him to be ready again. He slides his hand from my stomach to between my legs and I feel his mouth against the skin on my neck.

He cups his hand between my legs and rubs me until he ignites each and every nerve ending from my waist down. I have no doubt that he remembers exactly what my body needs as he circles the area around my most sensitive spot.

When I rock my hips against his hand, he glides two fingers inside me and uses his thumb to slowly massage my ecstasy controller and the responsive area around it. I begin to feel those earth-shattering contractions as they initiate deep inside me. The sensations are coming hard and fast because he’s too damn good at this. I think he suspects the rush coming over me because he slows the motion of his fingers, but it only ends up applying more deliberate pressure and I spiral even faster. The escalating pleasure is everywhere—in my groin, down my legs, making them stiffen, even radiating to my toes, curling them. In this moment, Jack Henry holds total power over me, which I have a feeling he covets, and I freely give myself to him.

When I reach the end of my orgasm, I melt against him. “Woo. That was another pleasant reminder.”

“You know that I’m not even close to being done yet, baby.”

Of course he isn’t. My caveman never is. “Good.”

He kisses the back of my neck as his hands gently explore my body. But I want… more. I reach over my head so I can touch him behind me and he kisses the side of my face. “Jack Henry, you’ve already made love to me—and it was absolutely wonderful—but it’s been three months since we were together and I really just need you to fuck me hard.”

I hear his husky laughter next to my ear. “Baby, you don’t have to tell me twice.” He takes my hands and lifts both of them above my head as he uses his hips to coax me onto my stomach. “Face down.”

Face down. It sounds so dirty the way he says it. And I love it. From behind—it’s one of his favorite positions and he’s incredibly talented at it, so I know this is going to be great.

I roll with him and he’s holding my arms captive above my head. He scoots me up in the bed and places my palms flat against the headboard. He nips at my earlobe and whispers, “Whatever you do, don’t bend your arms.”

“Whatever you say.” I’ll do anything this man tells me to in this moment.

His knees are on the outside of my thighs forcing my legs together—not his usual method at all—and I feel him pushing against my bottom as he grips my hips. I’m still slick from his semen so he easily slides inside me after he finds the perfect angle.

Oh my… this is different. We’ve never done it like this before.

The position is unexpected because he’s pushing my legs together instead of apart but it feels incredible. He presses my hips into the bed, pounding me into the mattress each time he thrusts deeper. Now I know why he wanted my arms locked. He knew he’d slam my head into the headboard and give me a concussion if I didn’t give him some resistance.

Jack Henry follows instructions well. I tell him to fuck me hard and he doesn’t disappoint. He never does.

I feel his warm skin all over my back when he lowers his body against mine. I hear his ragged breath in my ear. His thrusts are slower but still hard and deep. I know what that means; he’s already close to coming so I wait to hear him call out my name. But he doesn’t. Instead, I hear him groan into my ear, “Ohh, I fucking love you,” as he pushes deep inside me one last time.

I don’t think those words are supposed to go together, or that I’m supposed to like hearing them this much, but Jack Henry totally makes it work for me.

He’s catching his breath as he kisses my shoulder over the patches of freckles he told me he missed. I peer back at him. “I fucking love you too.”

He laughs as he kisses my back between my shoulder blades. He pulls out and trails kisses down my spine. I innately arch my back as chills erupt over my skin. His mouth moves to my lower back and I feel his tongue sweep across the dip he loves so much. His little back fetish can be so weird sometimes but I must admit, I love feeling his wet tongue on my skin. “I’ve had withdrawals from not being able to taste this little salty spot after I’ve finished fucking you.”

“You’re such a weirdo.” I wonder if there’s a name for his strange obsession.

“I know but you love it.” His mouth moves down to my ass cheek and he bites it playfully.

“A sweat-licking, ass-biting freak—that’s what you are,” I laugh as I turn over to face him.

He rolls with me and brings my head to rest against his chest. I hitch my leg over him and he rubs his hand up and down my thigh until he reaches my cheek and squeezes. “It’s true. I’m a confirmed sweat-licking arse-biter. But that only applies to this sweet bum, baby.”

Only my sweet bum, huh?

I’m in total bliss but I know what a highly sexual being Jack Henry is and I can’t stop myself from wondering if there have been other women in his bed the last three months. He asked me if I’d been with Charlie, so don’t I have the right to know if he’s been with other women?

Hell yeah, I have every right to know, but does that mean I can handle it if there have been women taking my place? I don’t know. Not knowing is torture but I also know I’d be in agony if he told me he’d been intimate with another woman. I’m not sure I can stand hearing those words, so I debate if I want to go to that place with no return.

I have to know. “You asked me if I’d been with Charlie. Now I’m asking you the same question. Have you been with others?”

He laughs but I don’t because I find no humor in my question. “I ask you if you’ve been with one man and you ask me if I’ve been with others. Plural, as in more than one.”

“Or plural as in many.”

He slaps my ass and squeezes it hard as he pulls me near. “Baby, my cock has only been acquainted with Mrs. Palmer and her five sisters.”

He didn’t say there hadn’t been women in his bed. “Answer me. Does that mean there haven’t been other women over the last three months?”

He rubs his palm over my ass cheek where he slapped me. “I haven’t been inside another woman since you.”

I’m not sure I’ve ever felt more relieved. “Good. Let’s keep it that way.”

A
s I tell
her that I haven’t been inside another woman, I’m being honest, but it’s only a half-truth. There has been another woman and it was a close call. It’s true that I didn’t fuck her, but I have no doubt in my mind that what I did with her will count for something in Laurelyn’s book. I’ll have to tell her about it at some point, but now isn’t the time. Right now, I just want to hold her in my arms and make up for lost time.

I’m trailing my fingertips softly up and down her spine when she lifts her face from my chest. I think she’s searching my eyes for the truth. “I believe you.”

Now I feel even worse as I look at her smiling up at me. Just like that, she believes me so easily. I’m such a selfish dick because I choose to have this perfect time with her rather than man up and be totally honest.

She puts her face back on my chest and I’m grateful because I don’t want her looking into the windows of my soul. I’m afraid she’ll see my deceit.

She places her palm flat on my chest and begins moving her hand in a slow circular motion. “Tell me about everyone back home.”

I start my family update by telling her about the morning Mum stormed into my place at Sydney and beat me with her purse after I confessed the truth about our relationship. Laurelyn shoots straight up in the bed and twists to look at me. “Your mother knows about our agreement?”

“Yeah, and she was none too happy with me about it.”

She covers her eyes with her hand and scrunches her nose. “Oh, God. Margaret has to think I’m the biggest whore for sharing a bed with you for three months without telling you my name.”

“Mum thinks no such thing. She loves you.”

She takes her hand from her eyes. “I’d think I was a slut if I were her.”

“But she doesn’t think that about you at all.” I debate saying the next words but decide I want to so I can see her reaction. “She wants me to bring you back and make you her daughter-in-law.” I’m quite certain Mum would also settle for me making Laurelyn her daughter-in-law and then bringing her back.

I don’t come right out and say that I want to marry her. I don’t even say I’m the one who wants it, but I do. I really do and I can’t mistake the shocked expression on Laurelyn’s face. She clearly wasn’t expecting me to say anything remotely close to talk of making her my wife.

I told myself I wouldn’t mention marriage for fear of scaring her off, but I don’t see fear in her eyes. It’s something entirely different and it gives me hope—hope that she might have me as her husband.

She’s doing that thing again where she’s searching my face. I think she’s looking for a clue as to what’s on my mind so she’ll know how to respond. “Umm… those sound like some pretty big plans Margaret has for me.”

That is such a Laurelyn move. She answers me without answering me, and I recognize that as her signature defense mechanism. She’s using it because she’s afraid, so I owe it to her to take the first step. I love this woman and I can do it for her if she needs me to.

There was a time when she was able to bare her heart and soul to me, and I’ll make sure she trusts me that way again.

“Laurelyn, I never expected to love you but I do… with every fiber of my being.” She breaks into a huge grin when she recognizes my use of her words from the letter she left for me. “I’ve spent the last three months learning how me without you feels, and I’ve hated every minute. I never want to do it again.” I reach for her hand and lace my fingers through hers. This isn’t me proposing—because I want that to be something unforgettable—but I’m going to tell her how much I want to marry her one day soon so we can talk about our future and how we’ll compromise to make things work. “I want… ,” I start but I’m interrupted by my mobile ringing—Margaret McLachlan’s ringtone. Her timing couldn’t be worse and she’d keel over if she knew what she’d just prevented me from doing.

“Who’d be calling you this time of night?” I wasn’t planning to take my mum’s call because I don’t want this time interrupted, but I hear the suspicion in Laurelyn’s voice and know I’m left without a choice. I have to take Mum’s call so I can put Laurelyn’s unease to rest. It has no place between us.

“It’s my mum. She doesn’t always consider the time change between Sydney and Nashville.” But I know the real reason behind her call. She knew I was going after a big lead tonight to locate the woman I thought was Laurelyn. She’s checking in to see if all is well.

I slide out of bed, completely naked, to retrieve my phone. Laurelyn props up on one elbow to watch me cross the room. “That’s a mighty fine view I’ve been missing.”

“I’m going to show you some other things you’ve been missing too,” I laugh before I take Margaret McLachlan’s call. “Hi, Mum.”

She cuts straight to the chase. “I know it’s late where you are, but I couldn’t stand it. I have to know if you found her.”

“Yes, Mum. She’s with me now.”

She squeals like a child. “Oh, that’s wonderful news—exactly what I was hoping to hear. Are things going as you hoped they would?”

This is Margaret’s code for asking, without actually asking, if we’re making up for lost time. “They were.”

“I interrupted whatever you were doing?”

“Indeed you did.”

“Son, if you stopped to answer the phone, then you weren’t doing whatever well enough and you need to get back to her and do it better. Don’t answer the phone next time.”

Damn. I just got zinged by my mum. “I’m gonna let that one slide, old girl. We’ll call you later when we’re finished doing whatever.”

“Please do, because I want to know everything.” She can forget that. “I love you, son, and I’m so proud of you. I won’t ask to talk to her now, but please tell Laurelyn how happy I am and that I miss her terribly.”

“I will and I love you too.”

I end the call and silence my phone before I drop it on the couch. There’ll be no more interruptions from that little noisemaker tonight.

I return to bed and slide in next to Laurelyn. She doesn’t hesitate in scooting closer to put her head on my chest, wrapping her arm and leg around me. “I presume Margaret is pleased?”

“Yes. She’s satisfied with me for the first time in months. She asked me to tell you how happy she is and that she misses you.” I thought she’d lose her mind when we figured out that finding Laurelyn wasn’t going to be as easy as originally thought.

“I miss her too and I’m glad she’s so easy to please.”

Easy is a subjective word. “I don’t know that I’d call her easily pleased. I’m certain her preoccupation with Em being pregnant again is the only thing that saved me from getting my neck wrung.”

Her face lights up in a way that I only see when she talks about babies. “Aww, Emma and Evan are having a third. When?”

“She’s not due until mid-September but she always has preterm labor and delivers about six weeks early, so we’re predicting sometime in August.”

“She told me they were finished having babies,” she laughs.

“They were but they had an oops.” As soon as I say the word oops, I realize my mistake because Laurelyn was an unplanned pregnancy.

“Then this baby and I already have one thing in common.”

I feel like such an arse. “I’m sorry. Oops was a bad choice of words. He was a surprise, one that they are both very happy about now.”

She quickly gets that glow back. “It’s a boy?”

“That’s what they tell us.”

“Two girls and a boy. That sounds like a perfect little family to me.”

I remember her saying she wanted at least two. “You think three is a good number?”

“Yeah, I think three sounds wonderful.”

Hmm. Three. I never even saw myself with one until a few months ago. Now, I have to get used to the idea of three. But I can and I will for Laurelyn. If she wants three, then that’s how many she’ll have.

I
wake
from the best night’s sleep I’ve had in months, and it’s because my beloved is by my side. I didn’t wake in a panic and reach out for her in the night only to find her side of the bed empty. In fact, I don’t recall waking at all until this moment.

I feel like a trellis the way Laurelyn’s wrapped around me. It’s a first because she hates being touched while she sleeps. She has always insisted on having her space, preferably while she is lying on her stomach with the covers riding low to expose her lower back.

Although I lie perfectly still, it’s as if she can sense my brain waking and her eyes flutter open. When I see her caramel eyes staring back at me, I can’t stop the smile that spreads across my face or resist kissing the top of her brunette head. “Good morning.”

“Why, yes—it is a very good morning indeed. And it’ll get even better if you’ll give me a second in the bathroom.”

She gives me a quick kiss on the mouth and I think she’s going to jump up for the bathroom but she doesn’t. Instead, she strokes her hand along my jawline. “I’ve missed feeling the roughness of your face against my skin in the mornings, but this is even better than before.”

That’s all it takes for me, reminded of our early morning naughties, to get ready for what I want to do to her. “Don’t linger in the bathroom for long or I’ll come in after you.”

She has that look in her eye—a challenge—daring me. “You wouldn’t.”

I grab her hand and bring it down to wrap around my cock so she can feel how hard it is for her. “You better believe I’ll be busting through that door in two minutes if you don’t have your sweet arse back out here.”

“Then maybe I need to work on this before I get out of bed.”

She slides up and over until she’s on top of me. I feel her warm breath beneath my ear where she’s kissing my neck. “Do you like it when my mouth is on your neck right here?”

“Yes.” And I do because she knows exactly how to hit that sensitive spot with her tongue.

“Good. I like it too.”

She takes her time migrating down my body and stops when her mouth is in the center of my stomach. She scrapes her nails down my chest until she reaches the small patch of hair below my belly button. “Do you like my tongue here?”

“Yes,” I hiss through gritted teeth because her fingers have wandered over to the ticklish spot on each side of my groin. She flattens her tongue against my stomach and drags it in one slow, upward motion and then drags her fingernails down through my happy trail. “But this isn’t really where you want my mouth right now, is it?”

“No.” It definitely is not the place I’m craving her lips most.

“Tell me where you want my mouth.”

I reach for my cock and stroke it under her chin in a come hither motion. “Baby, I’m dying for it to be all over this.”

“Please don’t die. You wouldn’t get to enjoy this if you did,” she says. A naughty grin spreads across her face as she goes down.

I feel her tongue sweeping over my tip and my body shudders involuntarily. I think I’ve grown more sensitive to the feel of her wet tongue while we’ve been apart. “Baby, that feels so damn good.”

The curtains are pulled closed but there’s a crack where they meet, allowing the proof of morning into the room. The daylight peeking through illuminates the room just enough for me to be able to see Laurelyn and the motions of what she’s doing—sort of.

Her hair has fallen forward, blocking my view, so I reach down and gather her long brown locks into a fisted ponytail on the back of her head. Mmm. That’s a beautiful sight.

I hold her hair in one hand and massage the back of her neck with my other while she performs what can only be described as an oral pole dance on my cock. That’s my girl. Her body slides up, down, and around in a beautifully sexy way on a pole; her mouth does the same during a blowjob.

“You don’t have a clue how fucking hot you look when you’re doing that.” She lifts her eyes and makes contact with mine. And that winds it up for me. I’m a goner. “I’m about to come,” I warn her in case she doesn’t want me to go in her mouth. But just like always, she keeps going. “Fuck,” I groan as I release. “You give amazing head.”

When she’s finished, she inches up my body and makes a show of licking her lips. I can’t resist asking, “Still tastes like chicken?”

“I don’t know. You tell me,” she laughs as she begins kissing my mouth. When she stops, she pulls back. “What do you think?”

“Hmm. I think I’d go with chicken cordon bleu.”

“Funny… I was thinking jerk.”

“Heeey!”

“Just kidding,” she says as she leans in for a quick kiss. “Be right back.”

I put my hands behind my head and my eyes soak up every inch of Laurelyn’s beautiful naked body as she leaves the bed. I don’t know how I’m lucky enough to love this beautiful woman and have her love me back. I never dreamed something so wonderful could be possible.

I’m in the middle of enjoying my euphoria when I hear a sound that doesn’t belong to my phone, so I can only assume it’s Laurelyn’s. It’s six o’clock and now I’m the one wondering who would be contacting her at this time of morning.

I admit I debate grabbing her phone from the nightstand to see who it is and what it says, but I don’t. Instead I tell her about it when she returns to bed. She doesn’t hesitate in reaching for it. She chews her bottom lip as she reads it and I remember that being something she did when she was perplexed.

“It’s from Charlie.” Great. Another man who’s going to try to come between me and this woman I love. “He says the bus is leaving at eight instead of nine.”

Suddenly, there’s a huge elephant sitting in the bed between us. We both know the bus leaving means it will take her away from me. We’re finally together after all this time and we’ve admitted how much we love each other, but there are all these complications we haven’t had time to discuss. We have completely different lives, with so much distance between, and I have to wonder where I fit into all this.

There’s one thing I know for certain. “I just found you and I’m not ready to let you go.”

She tosses her phone on the bed. “I don’t want to go, either, but I don’t have a choice. We have a show in Austin tonight and the band is depending on me.”

I rack my brain for a solution, even if it’s only a temporary one. “You don’t have to ride with them. I’ll hire a driver with a limo to get us where you need to be.”