If I Fall

  As they entered his room, he kicked the door shut behind them and lowered her to the mattress, his body covering hers like a blanket.

  “Clothes. Off. Now,” she panted between kisses, as she tugged at his T-shirt.

  Pulling his shirt over his head, he tossed it to the floor. Undoing the drawstring at her waist, he slid the borrowed sweats off her legs and raised an eyebrow when he saw she went commando.

  “I, too, aim to please,” she remarked and pulled her shirt off.

  His hands slid from her ankles to her knees, slowly pressing her thighs apart and exposing her sex. Heat caressed her folds with every breath. The first swipe of his tongue had her body pulling taut. His fingers pressed into the soft flesh at her thighs as his tongue deeply licked. Her fingers locked in his hair as the pleasure intensified, slamming through her. His mouth moved to the sensitive peak at the cleft of her sex and sucked, driving the waves of ecstasy higher.

  Sweet euphoria took hold and she broke, shattering into a million shards of bliss. Breathy sighs sang his name as he continued to pleasure her through the tremors. Her muscles flexed and pulsed with each jolt of exquisite sensation.

  He pressed an affectionate kiss on her tummy as his lips coasted to the underside of her breasts where he licked and teased.

  “Tell me if I hurt you,” he whispered as his mouth closed over her taut nipple.

  The sensation was so extremely acute it nearly had her coming again. She gave a hoarse cry and he paused.

  “No good?”

  “Good, good … don’t stop…” she panted and he returned his wicked mouth to her nipple.

  He gently sucked and nibbled as her hands roved over his muscular back, a masterpiece of chiseled bulges and dips. She longed to run her tongue over every hill and valley. She pressed at his shoulder.

  He lifted, his face flush with arousal, and she nudged his shoulder. “On your back, sailor.”

  Sliding over his legs, she lowered the zipper. His arousal tightened the denim, but once she had his fly undone, she unceremoniously tugged his jeans off his legs.

  “Eager?” he teased, as she yanked his briefs next.

  She crawled between his muscular thighs. Gaze fixated, her lips parted. There was nothing disappointing there.

  Moving his arms to the pillows, he folded them behind his head. His arrogant expression made her want to shatter his control all the more.

  The hair on his thighs tickled her sensitive breasts as she leaned closer. She licked across his hips and he moaned, his cock twitching as she drew closer. Without using her hands, she nuzzled the swollen head of his cock with her cheek and then licked from the root to tip.

  His stomach muscles jumped and another moan escaped his lips. She gave him a look of promise before she took him into her mouth, swallowing him to the hilt. Breath hissed through his teeth as his hands knotted in her hair, clamping her to him.

  “Jesus, Jade…” Her scalp tingled and her eyes watered as his grip tightened. “I’ve had so many fantasies about your sexy fucking mouth. Yes…”

  Her fingernails dug into his rigid thighs and he let her up only to lead her back down. Apparently, Jeremy liked control.

  “Tighter. Fuck.” His hips jerked, stabbing deeper, as he held her to him.

  Her body tightened at the dominant show. Gazing up at him through glassy eyes, his expression was warped with pure pleasure. “Yes,” he hissed. “Let me see those eyes.”

  He rammed his cock deeper, thrusting and using her mouth. It was scary and exciting and absolutely thrilling to see him so impassioned. Her thighs were wet, her pussy clenching with the need to be filled as he fucked her mouth.

  “Enough.” He flipped her to her back and kissed her hard. Urgent energy coursed through the air, matching the burning need pumping through her veins.

  She bit his lip and he playfully bit back. His hand moved to her wet pussy, where he quickly delved past her folds with two long fingers. Her hips bucked, meeting his frenzied rhythm. He added another finger as his eyes locked with hers.

  “More?” He rasped and she nodded. This was it.

  He reached into the nightstand drawer and pulled out a condom. “How will you be most comfortable? How do you like it?” Sliding the condom over his straining erection, he continued to tease her clit as if unable to stop touching her for even a second.

  “I like it from behind, but maybe we should start like this.”

  She didn’t know if sex would feel different now. Sure the baby was only the size of a peach, but that apparently was big enough to make her bladder feel like it was being crushed by an anvil, so who knew what else it affected in that region?

  He spread her thighs and leaned into the cradle of her hips. His cock nudged at her opening but didn’t penetrate. She waited for the dreaded panic to take hold but found nothing but eagerness in her mind. Resting his weight on his elbows next to her head, his eyes met hers as the world slowed to a stop.

  Such intensity showed in his gaze, it was difficult to hold his stare. “I love you, Jade.”

  Before she could reply, time sped forward, seeming to move twice as fast and his lips pressed to hers in a soul-shattering kiss. His cock sank deep and their mouths slowed.

  This was it. Jeremy was finally inside of her. It was a surreal moment. He gradually pulled back, his body lifting and steadily moving over hers, his gaze traveling back with increasing emotion hidden in the depths of his stare.

  Despite his steady pace, her mind raced. He loved her? Tears welled in her eyes and she blinked them back, not wanting to get lost in the significance of the words. Maybe it just slipped out in the heat of the moment.

  Wrapping her legs around his hips, urging him deeper, showing him she wouldn’t break, she pulled him closer. His confident strokes pressed deeper as her mind and body tipped into an overwhelming sea of pleasure.

  His chest, glistening with perspiration, skidded over her nipples as her center tightened and pulsed. She dug her heels into his ass and urged him on. Their bodies rocked together as they built momentum and the room filled with their moans and the scent of sex.

  “Can you handle more?” he asked between breaths and he smiled when she nodded. He pulled out. “On your knees.”

  She quickly readjusted her position. He moved behind her, placing a kiss at the nape of her neck. A calloused finger trailed down her spine to the cleft of her ass.

  Following the crease, he glided his finger over her rear and paused. “This will be negotiated later.”

  She shivered and he aligned himself with her sex. His hand gripped her flesh as he thrust. Slamming her body back into his, she moaned. Her eyes closed as she luxuriated in his complete possession. His hand slid under her body and found her clit, the dual stimulation her undoing.

  She frantically rocked her hips as their bodies came together. The sound of their slick flesh colliding filled the room as did their needy cries. He pistoned in and out of her as his fingers rubbed her clit in tight little circles.

  Sensation grew, tightening into a knot at her center. Her toes pointed as her calf muscles locked. The walls of her sex fluttered and constricted around his cock with such intensity her climax might have been an act of God.

  His hands squeezed her ass as he slid forward, pressing his face into her shoulder. His chest shuddered as he panted her name. She collapsed to the mattress as he tumbled onto his back by her side.

  “That was…” he breathed.

  “Fucking … amazing,” she finished for him on a wheeze.

  They smiled and laughed as they struggled to catch their breath, the moment taking on weight as the subtle levity passed, making room for something too big for her tired mind to contemplate. Suddenly shy, she shut her eyes and snuggled close to him.

  No need to address his outburst. No need to ruin the perfect moment.

  She awoke sometime in the middle of the night, needing to use the bathroom. As she quietly returned to the bedroom she paused to look at Jeremy. His sleeping expression w
as completely serene.

  One arm draped across his chest as it moved with the slow ebb and flow of his breathing. His right leg was twisted in the blankets, his bare hip and left leg peeking out of the covers in the center of the bed.

  Her gaze followed the length of his exposed skin as she moved around the bed, quietly climbing onto the mattress. A trail of scars peppered his thigh. Interspersed with the pale nicks and healed cuts, were larger markings. There was a jagged welt below his hip on his outer thigh and much straighter scars surrounding his knee, likely made by a surgeon’s scalpel.

  Her fingers drifted to the mark at her shoulder. Scars were funny little bookmarks of life. She had one on her knee from when her dad taught her to ride her bike without training wheels. That one made her feel proud. She had another on her hand from when she tried to be a hot shot chef in her first apartment. That one reminded her to be cautious.

  Then there was this one, on her shoulder... No matter what she told herself about being an innocent victim, that one only made her feel shame.

  What did his scars remind him of? Leaning forward, she placed a kiss on the largest scar of his thigh. The linens rustled as his breathing changed. Glancing up, she found him watching her with curious eyes.

  “Do you hate them?” she asked.

  His expression remained unreadable, and she worried this wasn’t something he talked about. “I did at first. Now, I don’t even see them.”

  He scooted toward the head of the bed and she curled into the curve of his arm. His hand stilled her fingers as they traced the scar at her shoulder. She hadn’t realized she was doing that.

  “I hate this more,” he whispered, gently touching hers.

  “Does it bother you? To see it, I mean.”

  She hated that he might see part of her as disgusting, but she couldn’t argue with that judgment. The sight of that curious little mark repulsed her too.

  “It only bothers me because of what it represents,” he murmured, placing a soft kiss on her temple. “In no way does it take away from your beauty, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

  “I despise it.”

  They lay silently for a long time in the dimly lit room, their hands tracing over each other’s bodies, learning every nook and cranny. There was something so peaceful about lying in his arms, something she’d never felt with anyone else. It was real and real was always better.

  “Jeremy?”

  “Yeah, baby?”

  “I love you, too.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Jade awoke to deep, distant voices rumbling from the floor below. A gentle wash of disappointment had her frowning as her hand pressed into the cool side of the Jeremy’s bed.

  What time is it?

  Turning to see the clock, she realized she’d made two grave mistakes. One, sitting up too quickly, and two, it was only seven forty-five. As she rushed to the bathroom, she wondered who the hell made house calls at this hour.

  After a lovely bout of morning sickness and almost peeing her pants—because puking took precedence over peeing—she took a shower and vigorously brushed her teeth. Retrieving her borrowed clothes from the night before, she dressed and pulled her hair into a haphazard ponytail.

  It was almost December and her feet were freezing from the early morning chill. She found socks in a top drawer, exactly where she kept hers and snatched a pair. She also found something that should have been destroyed a long, long time ago—a tattered picture from high school of Jeremy, Kat, and herself.

  He looked like he did now, only rail thin and too naive for his own good. Kat looked the epitome of innocence, which she was until she got pregnant a few months later. Jade smiled, her attention shifting to her younger self. She wore a cocky smirk like her shit didn’t stink—which it didn’t.

  God, we were babies. Where did he get this?

  Feeling like a snoop, she quickly placed the picture back at the bottom of the drawer and covered it with clothes. She pulled his way-too-large socks over her feet and padded into the hall. Pausing at the bottom of the stairs, she listened to the grate of baritone voices rumbling from the kitchen.

  “I want it wired to all the windows and doors,” Jeremy said. “None of that key on, key off bullshit either. I want it so that if a door’s opened, it beeps until it’s shut.”

  “Does she have any pets we need to work into the system?” A deeper voice asked.

  “No, it’s just her. And if someone breaches the system I want to be notified the same time as the police.”

  “You got it. A system like that isn’t cheap though, Jer.”

  “I’ll handle it.”

  Were they talking about her? The cottage? Feeling like she should be a part of this discussion, she stepped into the kitchen.

  Jeremy was sitting with his back to her and a giant of a man was sitting across from him. Holy Goliath Batman.

  She thought Jeremy was big. This guy could turn the chair supporting him into kindling. Every thread of his shirt looked ready to split as it stretched taut over his enormous, chiseled biceps. He was nothing but cut muscle.

  Pitch black hair tucked behind his ears, dusting his shoulders, exposing a jagged scar down his neck which disappeared beneath the collar of his shirt. He was a gigantic broken beauty of a man—

  “I can see why you’d want to protect her.”

  Jade’s gaze snapped to his. Piercing blue eyes, trimmed with lashes so thick and dark they looked lined with coal, stared into her and she found it impossible to move.

  Jeremy walked to her and brushed a kiss across her lips. “Hey, baby. Did we wake you?”

  “No, uh, I was sick,” she mumbled, looking back at the outsider.

  “Do you want some toast?”

  She shook her head and he followed her gaze.

  “Oh, this is Trent. Trent, this is Jade.”

  The man stood, his head nearly clipping the light fixture. He reached out a hand. “Trenton Cole.”

  “Jade Schultz,” she replied as his hand swallowed hers. Pulling away, she took a seat at the far end of the table.

  “Trent lived with me in Okinawa. He lives in PA now and specializes in security.”

  She glanced at Trent but had a hard time maintaining eye contact. His overwhelming size made her sit a little straighter and want to hide at the same time.

  Jeremy poured a glass of milk and put bread in the toaster.

  “Jeremy’s been telling me a little bit about the problems you’ve been having, Jade.”

  She shot Jeremy a chastising look, but he had the nerve to appear unrepentant, pointedly arching an eyebrow at her as if daring her to disagree.

  “He tells me you don’t have an alarm system at your new place.”

  If she was going to be informing anyone about the inadequate security at her home, it certainly wouldn’t be a guy who could smother her in her sleep with his pinky. Her roundhouse wouldn’t even reach this guy’s cash and prizes.

  Jeremy placed a glass of milk in front of her with some lightly buttered toast and returned to his seat. “She doesn’t have sensory lights around the perimeter either.”

  “I have locks,” she grumbled, taking a bite of her toast and pushing her milk aside.

  “She has privacy locks.” Jeremy slid the glass of milk back in front of her.

  “And this is a single home?” Trent asked.

  “Yup, ground level too. Drink your milk, Jade.”

  “That really isn’t a great set-up.” Trent turned his baby blues on her. “I got my one sister all hooked up, mortise locks, night latches, sensory alarms, and a panic button.”

  “Is she expecting an invasion?” she joked, but no one laughed.

  Jeremy gave her a reproving look. “This isn’t a joke, Jade. You live alone and you’re small.”

  “I have Tyson and Kat two houses away.”

  “How’s that going to help if someone breaks in during the dead of night?”

  “Oh, come on, you’ve heard me scream,” she teased, tr
ying to lighten the mood. Trent laughed. Jeremy didn’t.

  “I’m serious. You need to be prepared in case—”

  “Look,” she interrupted, not about to divulge her every vulnerability in the presence of a stranger. “I’ve already started my morning with puking. I’m sorry if I don’t want to follow that up with a discussion about how defenseless I am to predators. You’re going to do whatever you want anyway, so why even argue about it?”

  Her voice cracked and she became painfully aware of Jeremy’s enormous friend watching her. Did he think she’d object to a better security system at her home? She wasn’t an idiot, but she also knew having the best alarm in the world still wouldn’t make her feel safe. Nothing would.

  “If someone wants to harm me badly enough there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m small and uncoordinated and every day I become more and more pregnant.”

  “You’re pregnant?” Trent interrupted.

  “Yes!” Why the hell am I crying? “I’m a big, hormonal mess. So, if you don’t mind, I’d rather skip the lecture. You don’t need to scare me because I’m already terrified. Put whatever goddamn alarm in you want. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” She stood, jostling the table enough to spill a splash of milk over the rim of her glass, but she couldn’t deal with that at the moment. “I need to go cry.”

  When she reached the living room, she sat on the couch and tried to calm down. She wasn’t even that upset—not really. It was super sweet of Jeremy to have his burly security expert friend customize a security system for her home. What other guy would do such a thing? She should be thanking both of them for taking such an interest in her safety, but she couldn’t stop crying. She wanted to bawl into a pillow and the fact that they’d hear her only made her want to cry more.

  “Got yourself a feisty one there.” Trent’s voice carried from the other room.

  “I don’t know why she got so upset.”

  “Well, first of all, she’s a woman. They’re all nuttier than bat shit. Second, she’s pregnant. She won’t be normal until that kid’s at least three. Third, we probably did scare her. No one likes to feel helpless and threatened.”