I listened to his breathing as it grew deeper and let my thoughts drift. There was nothing to worry about, not while I was safe in Jack’s arms.
Chapter 27
The Thirteenth Friday
Ishould have been asleep. A pleasant hum still sang inside my body, but it was also limp and sated. My mind wasn’t spinning. A blanket of fog and exhaustion had settled around me. If I closed my eyes, I’d likely sleep easily.
I kept them open, staring across at Jack’s dresser as time slipped past. Jack remained curled up at my back, his breath slow and even where it puffed against my neck. His leg was slung over both of mine, heavy but making me feel like we were linked together still, even though he was no longer inside of me.
Neil had never liked to cuddle for long. His body would always roll away from me so that he faced the wall. I’d often done the same, facing the opposite wall.
I was facing a wall now, but it felt so different. Jack was touching me. His arm was wrapped around my waist, limp now while he slept, but it was there. Would this be my new normalevery night we were together? Would I get used to it and soon take it for granted, take for granted being safe and warm in this man’s arms?
My eyes burned, but I kept them open. My fingers danced along his arm lightly, so lightly, just needing to ground myself in the fact that he was there, that he was mine.
Jack’s breathing shifted, his arm growing firmer around me.
My stomach twisted in guilt. “Sorry,” I whispered. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
He grunted, nuzzling against my neck. “Why aren’t you asleep, love?”
The term curled up inside of me. I loved that he called me that. Something parched within me sucked up the word like water. Neil had told me he loved me all the time over the years. It had never reached that needy place, not like Jack’s slip of the word did. I wondered if Jack even realized he was saying it. The idea that he didn’t just made it better.
“Everything all right?” Jack asked, placing a soft kiss on my neck, up high behind my ear.
I shivered, my hips pressing back against him, surprised to feel his penis so firm against my ass. “I’m happy,” I whispered, swallowing. “I’m really happy. I don’t want to close my eyes.”
“Hailey.” The way Jack said my name felt like a caress by itself. “My goal is to make you happy in the morning, too. To make you happy throughout the days after today, whether we’re together or apart. Maybe from sending you a message because I’m thinking of you or maybe just from you thinking about me,about us. I guess I’m saying, you’ll be happy on other nights, especially all the nights when we choose to be snuggled up like this.” His arms held me against him. “So you can close your eyes, love. You can sleep.”
I felt so full inside. “Okay. I will.” I stroked his arm down to his hand, linking our fingers together. “Soon.”
Jack kissed my neck, his mouth lingering as my breathing deepened. “I think you’re telling me what you think I want to hear.”
My fingers tightened on his, my eyes drifting shut on their own as he continued to send tingles through my body from teasing my neck. “Jack,” I gasped.
He grew harder against my ass, and then suddenly he was rolling me to my stomach, his body covering my back, his mouth still sucking at my sensitive skin. The hand that wasn’t trapped with mine moved under my body, down my stomach, and between my legs.
“What if I touch you again? Can I do that?”
My legs shifted along his as they parted to give his hand more room. “You’ve already made me come. More than once.” The last time had been while he was inside me, and I rocked against his hand just thinking about it.
“Don’t worry about coming again. I just want to touch you. I want to make you feel good, until your body is nice and loose and you can’t help but to sleep.”
My body relaxed under his, the weight of him an extra comfort as my cheek pressed into the pillow.
Jack’s fingers shifted lower, finding my slit, and he groaned into my neck when he found me wet. “Close your eyes this time, Hailey. Focus on how you feel.”
I couldn’t concentrate on the words enough to tell him that my eyes were already shut. His voice in my ear sounded deeper than usual.
His finger pushed inside of me, the penetration shallow. Then he slid it up to my clit, using firm but slow strokes in a steady rhythm. With my eyes closed, my body trapped and held completely still under him, all I could do was feel the buildup of pleasure.
He dipped back inside, drawing more of my own lubrication up to my clit, where he resumed that perfect rhythm. I didn’t have to think about it. It was just there, and it felt so good. The ache wasn’t sharp and desperate. It was warm and growing.
The pattern remained, that shallow push inside, and the strokes that were going to send me into oblivion yet again, with just a little more… but it wasn’t just a little. The throb extended, grew, fluttered in the stillness.
“That’s it,” Jack breathed in my ear. “Just relax and let go. I’ve got you, love.”
The pulsing broke over me, the clench and release inside not as deep and all-consuming as it had been before, more like a loosening of muscles that shifted into a steady thrum all too soon.
