The added pressure is just what I need to send me careening over the precipice. My body convulses from a second soul-stealing orgasm. Jax continues fucking up into me, once, twice, then he stills, groaning out his release as he buries his face against my chest.
Sweat-soaked and panting, he tosses the phone onto the mattress and gently lays us on our sides as he softens inside of me. His fingertips trace lazy patterns on my belly. “I’m gonna put a baby in here someday.”
“You want that?”
“Watching you grow big and round with our child? A baby that’s half of you and half of me? Fuck yes.”
“I want that, too,” I whisper.
We exchange no further words, just a heady feeling that something has irrevocably changed between us. His eyes seem to hold the answers to a million questions I don’t dare ask.
His lips touch mine in a barely there kiss, and he nuzzles against my neck. I drift to sleep in his arms, feeling close to whole for the first time in my life.
Chapter 34
Time and Tragedy
? You Should Be Here - Cole Swindell
Callie
It takesCopper nearly a month to fully recover, and Jaxon seems lighter than before, but I can tell there’s still something weighing on him.
As we lie on his couch with our bodies entwined, Jaxon runs his fingers through my hair. He’s been doing that a lot lately. The action, once a painful reminder of my past, now holds nothing but affection.
I tilt my head to look at his face. “You’re quiet tonight. Everything ok?”
“Ryan’s memorial is tomorrow.”
I press a chaste kiss to the closest bare skin I can reach, which happens to be right over his heart. “Do you want to go?”
He props his arm behind his head and stares up at the ceiling. “I think I do.”
“What’s stopping you?”
Jaxon’s confidence wanes, giving way to a vulnerability he rarely lets people see, if ever. “I haven’t seen his family since the funeral. I don’t know what to say, or how to act.”
“They invited you, Jax. They don’t want you to put on an act for them. They don’t need pretty words or apologies. They want to remember their son and brother with the people who loved him most. Go there armed with your best memories, and everything else will fall into place.”
His knuckles brush lightly over my temple. “What would I do without you?”
I prop my chin on my hands. “Spend way less money on pickles.”
“That’s a given.”
“Have less cat hair on your five hundred black shirts.”
“Of course.”
I sigh wistfully. “Live a solitary life, feeling like there’s always something missing, but never quite knowing what that something is. You’ll search for me in every crowd without realizing it.”
“Do I ever get to find you in this hypothetical scenario?”
I glare at him with mock indignation. “Shhh. I’m not done.”
“My bad. Continue.”
I clear my throat with a dramatic flair. “Then fate will intervene, and you’ll walk into the library during one of Janet’s midday naps. Since she can’t help you find what you need, you’ll use the only other option available to you.”
