Jason (Kings of Guardian #4) (12 page)

“Momma?” Reece’s small voice cracked with worry.

Christian stood behind Reece with his hands on the little boy’s shoulders, but the glare he cast was directed at Jared. “I’m sorry, I tried to keep him distracted, but it got rather loud in here. We couldn’t hear the words, but the tone upset him.”

Jason loosened his hold and Faith dropped to her knees and held out her arms. Reece kept an eye on Jared as he hurried over. He grabbed ahold of her and clung tightly. She rubbed his back as she spoke softly to him, “Baby, sometimes adults don’t always agree, and they can forget to use their inside voices.”

Reece pulled away and bent backward, looking up at Jason. “Your mommy is going to be mad at you.”

Jason laughed and dropped down, putting his arms around both her and Reece. The unadulterated warmth, comfort, and rightness of the moment enhanced the light that shone into her desolate soul.

“Little man, we didn’t mean to upset you. I think it is time we all go eat some of the food Christian cooked for us.”

She waited to see what Reece’s reaction would be. Typically, when he was scared, he clung to her like a leech. Reece stared at Jason as he asked, “Will you hold me, Mr. Jason?”

She melted. Tonight was a night of wonder and happiness. Jason scooped the boy into his arms and stood steadying her as she rose. “Buddy, I’ll hold you as long as you want.

***

Faith lifted the covers and tucked in her sleeping son. The connecting door to Jason’s room stood open and the big man leaned on the doorjamb. She kissed her son lightly before she floated across the floor to her man. Jared had left shortly after Reece interrupted their heated conversation, and Christian had begged off immediately after dinner. Reece, on the other hand, wasn’t cooperative, and with the nap on the airplane, he had managed to bounce off just about every wall in the house for the last three hours. She and Jason had played hide-and-go-seek, catching quick kisses and touches, while trying to wear down the unlimited energy of her four-year-old. She leaned into Jason’s strength. He wrapped his massive arms around her and cocooned her in warmth. His expensive cologne, and the undeniable scent of masculinity the man produced, wove its way through her senses, drugging her with his commanding presence.

“It wasn’t supposed to happen, you know.” His voice rumbled through her body.

“What?”

“Telling you that way.”

She smiled and lifted up onto her toes to pull him down to meet her lips. The kiss lingered, soft and sweet, before she pulled away. “I don’t know what you had planned, Superman, but knowing that you love me has made this night perfect.”

“So a pushy brother, a college student and a hyper four-year-old is all I needed to arrange for a perfect night? Good to know.”

“No, Jason. All I needed… all I’ll ever need, is you and Reece. The wrapping is nice, but it’s what’s inside.” Faith placed her hand over his heart and looked into his gorgeous green eyes. “That matters to me.”

Jason’s hand covered hers. “My heart is yours, princess. Yours and Reece’s. I love you both. I refuse to picture a future that doesn’t include you.”

Jason pulled her into his room and shut the adjoining door. “We’ll open it before we go to sleep. But right now, Reece doesn’t need access.” She shivered at the dark timber in his voice. The way he looked at her… the almost desperate need they shared, shook her to her core with its intensity.

Incredibly tender hands removed her clothes as his lips christened each newly exposed expanse of skin. Her naked body trembled with each new caress. Jason lifted her onto his bed. He stood staring at her as he undressed. She loved the scars because they represented his survival. The plates of hard muscle moving across his chest and back and the bulge of his biceps as he moved flooded her senses with lust. The body he’d perfected with countless hours in the gym was hers. His heart was hers. The man completed her. He loved her and he loved her son. Unbidden, her eyes filled with tears as he lowered over her.

“Hey, what’s this?” His thumb swept the first tear from her cheek.

“I’m happy.” She half-sobbed the response.

He laughed and rolled off her before he pulled her onto his chest. “Women. You should come with an instruction manual. At least then we lesser mortals could run a diagnostics check.”

“Women are easy to understand, Superman.” She traced the scars on his neck with her finger and looked at him through her lashes.

“Really? Are you going to give me the secret decoder ring?” Jason’s hands traveled down her back, cupping her ass. His hips lifted and his very erect cock pushed against her clit. Her eyes closed of their own accord at the pleasure.

“Mmmm… there is no secret. Just love me. Let me love you. Everything else doesn’t matter.”

“I will. For the rest of our life together. I love you.” His hips rolled up in a rhythmic and torturous press.

She straddled him and lifted off his chest. She bent down to nip at the dark copper disks on his chest. The jolt of his reaction expressed his enjoyment as much as his weeping cock.

“Condom?” he asked, and pointed toward the nightstand. She ground against his cock and drew her nail from his chest down his ripped abs.

“I’m on birth control and I’m clean. I was tested all the way through my pregnancy and every six months for two additional years after I got out of that hell hole. I’ve never had unprotected sex and I’ve not been with anyone since my last check-up and test. It was negative. I don’t want to use a condom if you are okay with it.” The seconds ticked by and she glanced up at him when he didn’t respond.

Jason lifted off the bed and folded her into his body while she still straddled his lap. He lifted her effortlessly and centered his cock under her. “Then take what you want, princess.” His mouth covered hers. Their tongues tangled in an intoxicating dance of tease and pursuit. She lowered herself onto his cock, bracing her hands on his shoulders. One of his hands cupped her ass. The other held her hip, ready to ease her if his size became too much. Just another reason she loved him without reservation. His size wasn’t easy to take, but the sensations when her body finally accepted him were beyond anything she’d ever experienced. Her channel gripped him tightly as she worked up and down his shaft, opening herself more with each undulation.

She rocked one last time, seating herself against his entire length. She leaned back, placing her arms on the bed by his knees, and arched backward. Black spots danced across her vision at the pressure against that one sweet spot deep within her. Faith rode his cock hard, her need driving her in a near frenzy of lust.

Jason lifted her and repositioned while he held himself deep within her. On his knees now, he lowered her to the mattress and drove into her. His hands wrapped around her hair, pulling it to expose her throat. He feasted on her bared flesh. The pain of his bites and his sharp thrusts blissfully drove her toward the edge. While buried deep within her, Jason lifted her leg and rolled his hips. She gasped as her nails dug into the flesh of his shoulders. “Yes! Please, there. Do that again.”

His lips covered hers immediately. The kiss stilled her words before Jason lifted away. “Shhh, baby. I got you.” His hips rolled again and again. The world, or at least the piece of reality she existed in, shattered. Jason’s lips covered hers again as she came, her cries muffled but definitely not silenced. He snaked both arms under her back and cupped her shoulders with his hands. His hips jacked deep and hard into her core, slamming into her sensitive clit. She was going to come again. Jason’s rhythm faltered, his head dropped onto her shoulder as he drove deep inside her and held her against him. His hips stuttered quickly. The tiny sensation pulled her over again. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t see, either, but for the life of her, why would she need to?

Jason lifted his three hundred pounds off her. The cooler air sent a chill across her sweat-heated body. At his laugh, her eyes opened. He pushed her hair away from her face and dropped kisses across her cheeks and nose as he did.

“You look as blissed out as I feel.” He dropped beside her and pulled her onto his chest.

“I am. Or at least, I think I am. Right now, I’m floating. My body, I mean. Oh hell, I mean I feel like I’m floating. You do that to me. I’m so happy.”

“I’m glad. I like doing that to you.” He didn’t even try to hide his laughter.

“Every time I think you’ve taken me as high as I can go, you outdo yourself, Superman.”

“Glad I can be of service.”

“Oh, I like your service, Jason.”

“But now, unfortunately, we need to get some clothes on and prop open the door for Reece.” Jason pulled her in for one more kiss.

“How did I get so lucky?” There wasn’t any part of her that wasn’t in love with the man next to her—as if accepting him as part of her changed her DNA.

“I’m the lucky one, princess. I’m fucked up.”

“No more than I am. We both have issues we deal with, but between the two of us, at least, we got this right.”

“Yeah, we did.” Jason’s eyebrows waggled. Her giggle turned into a shriek when he tickle-attacked her.

“Stop! Jason, you’re going to make me wake up Reece.” He rolled off the bed and stretched. Good lord, the man’s body looked like the pictures of Hercules that she’d seen in Greek mythology books.

He walked over to the massive chest of drawers and pulled out a pair of black silk pajamas. He tossed her the top and slipped on the bottoms. Faith pulled the top on and laughed. The fabric fell mid-thigh and her fingertips were lost beneath at least six inches of flapping silk.

“Need help?” Jason’s laughter joined hers.

She held her arms straight out. “Yes, please.”

Jason kissed her on the tip of the nose after he cuffed the sleeves of his pajamas. He held up a finger and eased open the adjoining door and slipped into Reece’s room. He returned a minute later and lowered into the bed with her.

“Sleeping like an angel.” He pulled her into him. “I love you, Faith. I’d like you to think about moving up here. I don’t want to be separated from you two.”

She pulled away so she could see him. “Isn’t D.C. expensive? I don’t know if I could find a job. What about my trailer? I couldn’t afford to move it.”

“What?” Jason lifted up on his elbow.

“What, what?” His question confused her.

“Why would you move your trailer? I want you to move in here, with me. I want to take care of you and Reece. Wait… hold on. I’m not doing this right. Faith Collins, marry me. Move in with me and raise a family with me?”

“You… I… but…” Jason pushed her into the mattress and brushed her lips with his.

“Do you love me?” He breathed his words against her lips.

“Yes.”

“Do you believe I love Reece?”

“Yes.”

“What is the problem?”

Once again, tears filled her eyes. “There isn’t one. I was just surprised.”

His thumb caressed her check. “Happy tears?”

“Yes.”

“The only kind I’ll ever allow. Will you marry me, princess?”

“I will.”

“Momma, will I get to call Mr. Jason Daddy?”

Faith smiled into the rearview mirror as she glanced at her son. “I think he’d like that, honey.” She and Jason hadn’t talked about it, but there was no room for worry left in her mind that Jason would be over the moon if Reece called him Daddy. Telling him that Jason loved them and that they would be moving to D.C. was surprisingly uneventful. His biggest concern at the time was whether or not Tippy could come with them. With the simple acceptance of youth and innocence, Reece deemed he was glad Mr. Jason loved him, because he loved Mr. Jason, and then promptly asked the important question, could he watch cartoons.

“Can he come to my school? Mandy makes fun of me ‘cause I don’t have a daddy. But Tyler says not to let it make me sad, ‘cause he has two mommies and no daddy.”

Faith glanced back at the grave expression on Reece’s face. “Why didn’t you tell me Mandy said that?”

“‘Cause Miss Clarence said you loved me enough for two people. But now I have two people who love me. A momma and Mr. Jason. He’ll be my daddy, right? I can tell Mandy?”

“You can. I tell you what, we’ll call him when we get home, and you can ask him to come to your school and tell him you’d like to call him Daddy.”

“Can we?” The excitement in his voice brought an immediate smile.

“You bet. Do you want to stop for hamburgers, or do you want mac and cheese when we get home?”

“Burgers!” The promise of a treat was aided by the huge wad of cash that Jason had put in her purse before they departed for the airport. She’d insisted she be allowed to give two weeks’ notice. After all Max had done for her, she couldn’t leave him in the lurch. Her job wasn’t hard to do, but not having a person to do it would cause Max stress, and that was something she didn’t want—not after he’d been so good to her. Jason had finally agreed and made plans to be down in two weeks to collect them and bring them back to live with him.

Traffic over the I-95 interchange from the airport into Pooler was backed up even for a Sunday. The huge buildup of the community brought its own struggles, and the influx of traffic was directly proportional to the new stores and eateries popping up, seemingly overnight. With the addition of the outlet malls, the traffic flow slowed to a crawl at times. The trip should have taken ten minutes but ended up taking almost forty.

When they finally pulled up to the trailer, Tippy’s barking led them both straight to Helena’s. Faith knocked on the door and held up the hamburgers she’d brought. “We’re home. Want a burger? I bought extra.”

Helena opened the screen door and got out of the way as Tippy and Reece bolted to the small fenced-in area next to Cal and Helena’s trailer. “Stay in Helena’s yard, Reece, we are eating in just a couple minutes.”

“Okay, Momma!” The boy called over his shoulder, as he and his dog raced around the small yard.

“I’m starving, and I just got back from work so your timing is perfect.” Helena pulled a pitcher of lemonade out of the refrigerator and plopped it down along with three plastic tumblers. “I’m surprised you’re just getting home. I told the guy who was looking for you yesterday you’d be home about an hour ago.”

Faith stopped unloading the food from the bags and cocked her head at Helena in question.

Helena noticed her questioning look and shrugged. “Big guy. Said he had some paperwork for you to sign and needed to contact you. He had the neatest accent, like those James Bond movies. Not Bond, but the guys he fights.”

Faith snorted out a giggle. “That leaves about every accent in the known world, including yours.”

“Oh, haha. Brat. Anyway, he didn’t look scary, wore a suit and had a briefcase full of paperwork. I figured it was something to do with Theo again. Seemed the type that showed up here after that.”

Faith worried her bottom lip. That didn’t seem right. Jason would have told her if there were papers for her to sign. He would have taken care of it while she was in D.C. with him… wouldn’t he?

“Want me to call Reece?” Helena’s voice cut into her rambling thoughts.

“No, I got it. He’ll need to wash. I’m sure he’s mauled Tippy, and the dog has probably bathed him in slobber.”

Faith opened the screen door and watched Tippy duck and dodge as Reece chased him around the picnic table.

“Reece, time to—”

She instinctively ducked at the air-shattering blast. A massive fireball mushroomed into the sky, burning the air with acidic, searing heat. Without a thought, she sprinted toward Reece, who stood in shock in the middle of Helena’s yard. She wrapped him up, covering as much of his little body as she could, as she ran back to the relative safety of Helena’s trailer. Her eyes fixed on the spot where her home once stood. Pieces of metal fell around her and one of Helena’s windows shattered when flying debris smashed against the pane of glass. Tippy ran beside her as she ducked into the front door.

Helena grabbed at both of them as she screamed into the phone, “I said an explosion! The trailer next to me blew the fuck up! What do you mean settle down! That was my friend’s trailer and it fucking blew up! Lady, get the cops and the fire department here now!”

Helena slammed the receiver down, reached into the top cabinet over the fridge and brought down a wicked looking handgun. Faith dropped to her knees and drew her hands over Reece, trying to reassure herself he was safe. Tippy pressed into both of them and shook about as badly as she did. She grabbed Reece and hugged him to her. His tear-filled, trembling little body clung to her with a merciless grip.

The wail of sirens pierced the ringing in her ears. She lifted far enough to grab her purse and punched the telephone number she knew by heart.