Jake (A Redemption Romance #2) (18 page)

Hope hesitated for a little while, I turned my head, leaned down and kissed the top of her head that was cradled on my naked chest and whispered, “Go on.”

“Well, one night I had study group, Austin, my study partner, walked me to my car because it was really late. He was a nice guy. He was actually engaged, his fiancée was really sweet, I’d met her a couple of times. He was just being a good guy; you know? But Tim was hiding somewhere, watching. Austin didn’t even touch me, but when I got back to my dorm, Tim pulled into the parking lot behind me. He screamed at me forever, said horrible stuff. When I tried to defend myself, he slapped me. I was so shocked, I should have kicked him in the nuts, should have run, something, but as soon as he did it, he broke down, apologized, he even cried telling me he was so sorry, that he was just so upset about me seeing other men and promised he’d never do it again. It didn’t happen again for a long time, a few months I think, but eventually, he would slap me any time I disagreed with him.”

Taking in a ragged breath, she kept going, though I knew it cost her to tell me this much.

“It was the day before Christmas Eve, I was leaving to come home for the holidays, which he wasn’t happy about. He’d met my parents a couple of times, and knew that I had to do what my father told me. Anyway, when I told him I wasn’t coming back to school until New Year’s Day, he got pissed. Nolan was scheduled to be home and I hadn’t seen him in so long. Tim knew that Nolan and I were just friends; that nothing had really ever happened between us, but that’s when he lost his mind. I’ve never been so afraid in my life.”

“You’re doing great baby.” I encouraged her, her trembling body worried me, I wanted to tell her that she didn’t have to continue, but not only did I need her to, I knew that she needed to get this out. I needed her to trust me enough to give me all of her burdens so I could share that load with her.”

“Well, he slapped me a couple of times, which wasn’t new, but instead of stopping there, he punched me in the side of my head.” Pointing to the spot, to show me what she meant. Inside I was vibrating with rage and for the first time in my life actually contemplated murder. It was a good thing he was locked up.

“He punched me over and over, in the head, the face, shoulders, I collapsed to the ground, I curled into a ball trying to protect myself, but I didn’t scream. I lived in the dorms, hadn’t ever gotten my own place, there were always people around, but I didn’t make a sound. I just crouched on the floor and cried quietly. He didn’t let up for so long, he had sneakers on, thankfully he didn’t have on his work boots. He kicked me so many times, my side, my back, my legs, everywhere he could reach. At one point, he grabbed my hair and pulled me into my little room, picked me up and threw me on the bed. It was cold, so I was wearing jeans. I was wrapped up so tight, he couldn’t get me to let go so he could get my pants down. He told me that he was going to fuck me up so Nolan wouldn’t want me, a lot of stuff like that. He tried, he really tried to get my pants off, but after a while, someone must have heard something because my roommate came rushing in the door to our suite. I didn’t look, but he apparently pulled up his pants and ran. I didn’t see him again.”

“Jesus Christ, baby, you are so brave. I can’t believe he did all that to you, look at you now, so fucking amazing.” I said, running my fingers through her beautiful hair. I felt her smile against my chest and we laid there a long time, just taking it all in. I knew the gist of what happened later, but I had to know what exactly that dick had done. I didn’t ever want to trigger her fear because of that. That would kill me.

We lay in silence for a long time, her silent tears dripping onto my chest. I hated when she cried, but these were necessary, I knew she needed this from me now.

“Tell me something about yourself.” She requested long after her tears had stopped falling. I took a few minutes to think about it, then decided to start at the beginning. I told her about my dad, how he left us when I was four, how my mom worked her ass off to raise us on her own. I told her about moving to a cheaper house and meeting Dylan. How we were rivals for the top-dog spot until he protected my sister.

Hope understood why I’d chosen to join the Marine Corps, leaving just days after high school graduation. I even told her about the day Dylan died and about Nolan’s letter.

I didn’t expect my heart to feel lighter after I gave her all that, but it did. Just like I shared her burdens now, she shared mine. We each carried more from the other, but sharing our own made it all more bearable somehow.

Jake

“Honey, come check this one out, it’s huge!” Hope’s voice rang from somewhere in the house. I wasn’t sure where she’d gotten to, she was amazingly fast considering how large she’d gotten.

“Where the fuck are you?” I shouted at her, earning a raised brow from the realtor. Like I gave a fuck what this woman thought of me.

“Master,” she shouted back. I headed that way and found her standing inside an enormous closet. It had been tricked out with shelves and cabinets and all kinds of fancy hooks and shit. I guess from a woman’s perspective; it was pretty cool.

Walking up behind her, I wrapped my arms around her, and positioned my hands so they splayed over her largely rounded stomach. I loved holding her like this.

“You want this one baby?” I whispered in her ear, pressing my semi-hard cock suggestively into her back. I guess it was a good thing the realtor hadn’t followed me back here.

“Mmmhm” she moaned, letting her head fall back onto my shoulder.

I leaned in, kissed the side of her neck and heard the clicking heels of the realtor nearing us. I turned, made eye contact with the woman and said, “We’ll take it.”

We’d been shopping for a house for almost five months. Once Hope had recovered from her injuries and looked back to normal, she’d moved in with me officially. Part of that was me not wanting her to be away from me and part was her not wanting to live in her house anymore. We’d agreed that we’d find something larger to buy, since my place wouldn’t accommodate us comfortably for long.

With both of our schedules, finding time to actually look at houses was a challenge, but we discovered pretty quickly that we had very different ideas of what we would need in a house. I thought we needed at least four bedrooms, if not more. My woman was a sex-fiend during pregnancy and I planned to keep her that way as much as possible for the foreseeable future.

She wanted a large master closet and nice bathrooms. I wanted a good neighborhood, which she agreed with, and schools of course, but I also had narrowed our search to specific areas with the lowest crime statistics. We had gone back and forth with the realtor looking between us like he’d been watching a tennis match.

That had been our first realtor, this woman was our fourth. Apparently, I’d scared off the first guy who I caught ogling Hope’s ass, frankly, he was lucky I didn’t punch him in his preppy ass face. Hope was angry with me for that, she wouldn’t sleep with me for a week – she told me that, but she lasted two hours. Thank god for pregnancy hormones.

The second guy told me that our demands were impossible and there was no way we’d find what we were looking for. We didn’t need that shit, seriously? Who says that to their clients? The third, we don’t talk about her. Apparently I yelled at her or something, she made some bitchy comment about us putting the cart before the horse and I was less than pleased.

That was the day of our biggest argument, since Hope had come back to me. She hadn’t been happy at how I’d responded to the realtor. We’d been engaged since the day Hope officially moved in. I’d taken her to a nice dinner, gave her all the romantic shit I could think of, then came home and in the most romantic way I could, fucked the shit out of her and when she was coming down from her third orgasm, I reached over to the nightstand, opened the drawer, got the ring out and while still inside her, slid that shit on her finger. I asked her really nice, I mean, I thought I did.

“So, how soon do you want to get married?” I was breathing hard, trying to hold off cumming. I had wanted to fuck her, to cum in her with my ring on her finger, it was kind of a symbolic thing for me. I thought it was kind of romantic. She didn’t think so.

“You planning to ask me?” She snapped, quickly coming out of her sex-haze.

“I just did.” I said, still thrusting. By the way, I’d never stopped fucking her, I’d just slowed down enough to talk through it.

“No you didn’t.” She argued. Was she really arguing with me right now?

“Yeah, I did, I said,
how soon do you want to get married
. That was a question.” I wanted to say
duh, but
thought she might hurt me if I did.

“You have to ask me to
marry
you, Jake.”

“What?” I asked, dumbfounded. She was going to marry me, there was no question. Why was there a question?

“You have to propose to me!” She was shouting now. I think she was pissed. Maybe I wasn’t doing this right.

“Hey, baby?”

“Yes, Jake?” She asked back, sounding exasperated.

“I love you.” I was still thrusting, though really slowly now.

“I love you too.”

“You’re going to marry me baby. There’s no fucking question, so, should we fly to Vegas and get married this weekend or do you want to plan something bigger, here and do it in a few weeks?”

“You’re impossible.” She still sounded annoyed, but more resigned to her life. I picked up the pace, having kept my own orgasm at bay for a little while longer and was bringing her to the peak again when I stopped. Hope let out an irritated scream and stared at me with widened eyes. “Why did you stop?”

“Hope, I love you more than life, will you marry me, baby?”

A huge smile broke across her face, tears sprang to her beautiful eyes and she wrapped her arms around my neck, then nodded her head. I’d kissed her that night for so long, moving inside her once more, long and slow, making love to my future wife. This woman I’d love forever, no matter what.

She’d decided that we should wait a while, maybe get married after the baby came. I wasn’t happy about that at all and fought her on it at every opportunity.

When that third realtor made her little comment, we’d fought about how I’d spoken to the bitch, but I’d gotten my way. We were married twelve days later.

Hope’s mother had attended; they were trying to maintain some kind of relationship without her father or nasty sister. My mom and sisters came as well as all of our friends. It was relatively small, but Hope, Aurora, Amber, Dawn and Gillian had been masters at throwing it together. It was a perfect day and now, I had Hope Thompson as mine, forever, standing in the closet of the house we’d buy together and raise our family.

Gavin

Dawn

That man is going to be the one, I will give him everything – tonight. My body, my heart and my virginity; I’ve saved it all for him.

I reminded myself of all that, as I watched Gavin unfold himself from his truck and walk up the sidewalk toward my front door.

“You’re home!” I all but squealed as I watched Gavin stride through the front door of my mom’s house.

“I didn’t think you were going to get leave.” I’d wrapped myself around him the moment he stepped inside. Thankfully, Gavin returned my fierce hug, but didn’t bounce up and down on his toes like I did.

I didn’t care if I looked silly, I was excited. Gavin McNeil had been a close family friend for the past ten years. His family had moved across the street from us when I was only eight, I’d looked up to him, at the age of twelve. He had seemed so worldly and mature to me.

Even then, he was tall and handsome. The first time he’d come to my defense with the neighborhood mean-girls, I’d fallen in love.

“I couldn’t miss your birthday, what is it now, sixteen?” I started to take offense, but saw his teasing smile, so I pulled back and slugged him in the stomach. Unfortunately, it hurt my hand more than his taught belly.

“Ow, that was rude.” I mock-pouted indignantly. “You could at least have the decency to act hurt.”

Pinching my side, Gavin used his other hand to rub at his middle and gave me a feigned expression of pain. Shacking my head, I laughed at his silliness.

One thing I’d always admired was Gavin’s ability to make light of almost any situation. He was a jokester for sure, but he had great skill at diffusing heated situations with his whit.

“Come on, I need some food. The Marine Corps doesn’t feed us, you know.” He slung his arm over my shoulder and practically dragged me toward the kitchen.

As soon as we turned into the room, I heard his mother’s loud shout of excitement. Looking over my shoulder, I watched her run full-speed to her son. He turned and grabbed her up, hugging her tightly to him. He was so tall, her feet dangled almost a full foot off the ground.

“Of course, the favorite son is home.” I whirled around to meet the dark, irritated gaze of Zach, Gavin’s older brother. His sneered words made me so angry. I couldn’t imagine how two such different men could have been brought up by the same soft-hearted woman.

“Don’t be a jerk.” I snapped back. I was never good about holding my tongue. I hated the way Zach treated his younger brother, at least he seemed much kinder to his mother.

I had often wondered if Zach’s animosity came from years of comparing himself to the taller and exceedingly more handsome Gavin. It wasn’t that Zach was ugly, he just didn’t have that same thickly muscled frame or the striking good looks of his brother. He was also at least three inches shorter than Gavin.

I’d always wanted a sibling, an older brother would have been wonderful, but I’d want one like Gavin, not like Zach. Gavin was fun but always protective. Zach was just irritable and easily angered, all the time. I’d never known him to protect anyone – but himself.

“Here, just one more.” My best friend Selene handed over a refilled Solo cup a few hours later. I knew it didn’t just have the punch in it, my mom had made, Selene had spiked it with the vodka bottle she hid inside her bag.

I’d already had three of these, and was beginning to feel pretty buzzed, but if I was going to find my courage and do what I’d planned to, I needed the confidence booster.

“Thanks,” I whispered back, not letting on what we were doing. If my mom or Gavin’s figured out that we were drinking, they’d give us a stern lecture, and take away the alcohol. The last thing I wanted was for Gavin to see that, I didn’t want him thinking of me like a scolded little girl, I wanted him to see me as a woman.

My body had changed a lot over the past year. My breasts had grown, my hair had gotten longer and my curves had definitely made themselves more obvious. I’d had a couple of boys at school show interest, but I always rebuffed their advances, knowing just who I was waiting for. Tonight was the night.

“So, what’s the real reason you’re home?” I heard Zach snap at his brother after our moms had gone to sit and relax in the front room.

“I got leave,” Gavin replied shortly. I knew there wasn’t any love lost between these two.

“You going to the sandbox?” My head snapped around to look at them, not really sure what that meant, but having a bad feeling about it. Gavin’s mouth tightened in frustration as he took a swig of his beer and looked away from his brother. I had no idea what they were talking about, or why Gavin seemed so irritated tonight by his brother’s questions, but I was just drunk enough to do something monumentally stupid.

Leaning up on my tiptoes, I whispered, “let’s go outside,” into Gavin’s ear. I felt his rigid body tighten against me even more, but as he relaxed, I saw him nod slightly and he turned to head to the back yard.

Turning to follow, I glanced at Selene one more time and almost laughed out loud at her audacious wink. Thankfully, I held it inside, but as my foot crossed the threshold after Gavin, I heard Zach’s last muttered barb.

“Bout fuckin’ time you hit that.” My body tensed at the sneer in his voice. I didn’t hate anyone, but sometimes I really wanted to hate Zach.

Thankfully, I didn’t think Gavin had heard him, if he had, my plans probably wouldn’t be successful. I needed them to work. I’d been in love with Gavin forever it seemed, I’d saved everything for him, for this night, I knew he would make it perfect.

Gavin

The last thing I needed right now was to punch my brother in his face. It was Dawn’s night, we should all behave, not act like idiots. Also, I knew that punching him wouldn’t change anything. He seemed to like his asshole behavior. Why he took it out on me, every time I saw him, didn’t make sense though. Zach had been an asshole since we were kids, even before Dad died. Zach was just like him.

Taking a seat on the bench near the farthest fence, I forced myself to relax. It was nice of Dawn to come out here with me, to help me settle down. She was always like that, thinking of other people, always sensing what they needed and doing her best to help them.

Considering how she’d grown up, she was remarkably unmarred, naive even. She’d been born to an eighteen-year-old single mother who had been kicked out on her ass by her judgmental, up-tight parents and abandon by Dawn’s father - whoever the hell he was. I wasn’t sure who even knew. I’d never seen him coming around, not in all the time I’d known her had I even heard of him meeting her.

She sat down next to me, much too close for comfort. I tried to shift away from her, but she followed, pushing her hand into the crook of my arm. The touch was unsettling, causing feelings I had no business acting on. She was way too young, besides, I was going to be deployed for parts unknown.

With an uncertain future, there wasn’t any way I could start something with Dawn, no matter how much I wanted her. Her scent wafted through my nostrils, and as she rubbed the side of her breast against my arm, my dick went from semi-hard to throbbing with need.

“What’s going on with you these days, little girl?” I asked, adding the last on to remind myself of just who she was. When her body tensed next to me, I knew the comment had hit its target perfectly. I wasn’t sure, but I had a feeling she’d brought me out here for more than just getting me away from my brother. That couldn’t happen, not now.

Dawn seemed to relax back into me, pushing herself closer. The November air was cold, but with her sitting this close, I couldn’t feel it. Her heat at my side was all I could focus on, well that and the feel of her luscious tits that seemed to have doubled in size since I’d seen her last. She’d always been pretty before, but now with her long blonde hair that curled at the ends and her body that was definitely that of a woman, she was gorgeous.

“Not much, just working so I can start school next semester. How long will you be home?” Her soft, melodious voice rang through the silent night, wrapping me up in her sweetness. I wanted to stay right there, forever. Not. Going. To. Happen. Asshole! I had to remind myself over and over again, I couldn’t touch her.

“Good, how’s your mom doing?” I decided to go for the trivial. I knew how Sarah was, whenever I spoke to my mom, I got a full update on everyone, including Dawn.

Instead of answering though, she moved in even closer to me, she’d be in my lap next. This shit was ridiculous. Moving her hand down from my arm, she traced little circles on my thigh - my fucking thigh. Was she trying to kill me?

“Gavin?” She purred into my ear, when had she moved her lips to my neck? Jesus, she was kissing the side of my neck. I loved the feel, loved the way her lips were soft against me.

“Yeah?” I asked, my voice sounding strangled, which was about right, since my dick was being strangled in my pants.

“Let’s go to your mom’s house. No one’s there right now.” Was she out of her mind? Somehow she’d grown three extra hands, I felt on my chest and on rubbing my thigh, moving way too high up. She was about to find out just what she did to me.

Instead of allowing her to discover how she affected me, I jumped up, ran my fingers through my almost non-existent hair and started to pace.

The nervous energy that was bottled up inside me, was overpowering, I wanted to pounce, wanted to grab her up, toss her over my shoulder and run to my mom’s. I wanted to throw her down on the grass right here, spread her creamy thighs and sink into what was surely the tightest pussy I’d ever feel. I couldn’t, wouldn’t do any of that. I’d never leave her, abandon her to an unknown future, if I claimed her, it would be forever and I didn’t know if I had a forever right now.

“Dawn, I -” I started to speak, but before I got the chance, to finish I looked down to explain, something. I wasn’t sure what, but I was going to explain something.

When my head dipped, she was right there, again, right fucking on me! How did she move so fast?

“What?” I got out, before she lifted up on her toes and slammed her lips onto mine.

It took me a full thirty seconds for my body to get the message that kissing Dawn wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing. She felt so good pressed to me, her soft curves under my hands, my cock pressing hard into her stomach, I wanted her like nothing I’d ever wanted before.

I can’t have her, I can’t fucking have her, not now, not yet!
I was screaming inside my head until finally the message was relayed to my body. I took a giant step backward, moving my hands to her shoulders to keep her back, away from me.

“Dawn, stop, I can’t do this, I can’t, we can’t. You’re too young, I’m going to be gone, I can’t. It’s not right, we can’t do this. You have to understand.” I was frantically pacing around now, trying to get my thoughts in order. I needed to make her see, I didn’t want to hurt her, but she had to understand that this just wasn’t the time.

“I’m not too young, Gavin McNeal, I’m eighteen! I’ve loved you forever, I waited.” She yelled indignantly.

“You are, you’re too young for me. I can’t see you that way, it isn’t right.” I meant that I couldn’t see her that way, now, not that I wasn’t able to, because damn, I saw her exactly like that.

Unfortunately, I figured out what I’d said and what it had sounded like when her face paled, her eyes widened in horrified embarrassment and her entire body stilled, as if frozen in place. I watched as Dawn Adams’ heart broke, right there in front of me and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

I wanted to take her into my arms and explain, but she didn’t give me the chance. I would have given anything if she would keep waiting for me, but that was something I couldn’t ask for.

“No, god, no. I’m so sorry Gavin. I, I can’t believe I did that. I guess I’ve had a bit too much, right? Party and all. I think I’ll just-” She just stopped, didn’t say any more, just motioned toward the house and looked at it, longingly, as if all she ever wanted in life was to be inside that house.

I watched, dumbstruck as Dawn rushed away from me, going in the side door, closest to her room. She was escaping. I’d fucked it all up. I’d wanted to explain that this wasn’t the right time, that I couldn’t do that, not now. I’d needed to be honest, but I’d fucked it up.

…

Two weeks passed without a single sighting of the blonde haired beauty. She graced my dreams every night and stayed in my thoughts every day. My mom had noticed my bad mood, but chalked it up to the deployment that was coming all too quickly. I wanted to talk to Dawn, to explain what I’d meant, to ease her bruised pride, but I’d never been given the chance.

Considering that she lived across the street, it was odd that I hadn’t seen her. She must have been working hard to avoid me. I had one chance left, just one, before I was gone for who knew how long.

Kissing my mom’s cheek one last time, I left her standing in the living room of her house with tears in her eyes. She’d been an Army wife and now had two sons in the military, so she was a pro at the hardest goodbyes.

I walked out, looked at my truck and over to Dawn’s house. Her car was in the driveway and her mom’s wasn’t. This was my chance.

Jogging across the small, quiet street, lined with old, small houses, I made it to her front door. No lights were visible inside, no noise, nothing at all. Was she hiding from me? I knocked loudly and rang the bell a few times, but heard nothing from inside. She either wasn’t home or wasn’t coming to the door.