Runaway (9 page)

‘Do it,’ I whispered, gazing at him, ‘…
Take me now
.’

Once again, for a brief moment, I felt like an actor in real life, unbelieving that these words were coming out of my mouth. But maybe it wasn’t that… Maybe for the first time, it was him bringing out the real me.

We both breathed heavily with anticipation as I felt his throbbing hardness touch against my soaking entrance, the pressure increasing until I finally gave and he moved into me.

The thought of any protection between us was just a fleeting notion in my mind as Jack filled me up, my tightness grasping around his hard, throbbing cock as I clutched at him, my nails digging into his back as I felt myself teetering on the perfect brink between pleasure and pain. In the fluttering of my eyes I caught his look, his mouth falling open as he indulged himself in my body.

And then, suddenly, Jack began to move, pulling out of me before thrusting his hips against me, working into a slow, perfect rhythm as he took me.

I ran my hands up to his hair, clutching at him tightly as I couldn’t help but grind myself against him. I pulled him into me, wrapping my legs across his back, desperate to bring myself as close to him as I could possibly get, unable to comprehend or process anything else.

He was the only thing I wanted, the only thing in the world I cared about right then.

I panted deeply against him, my head falling back against the sheets as he lowered his mouth to my neck, breathing hard and sharply as he groaned with pleasure, moving faster and faster.

‘You feel
so
good, Emma…’ He growled, I grasping at him tighter than ever as I felt him filling me up over and over again. ‘I’m so close…’

‘Me too…’ I moaned, a shot of pure ecstasy coursing up my spine as I pushed my chest against him, feeling my breasts press against his toned, hard chest. I was getting closer and closer, completely wrapped up in our passion and lust…

But was it really gonna happen? Was I really going to let him finish…
Inside of me?

But right then, as my lust was mounting, my body on the verge of complete ecstasy, I suddenly realised that I had never wanted anything more.

A sharp jolt struck my body as I exhaled sharply, my body feeling like it had collapsed completely as I came harder than I ever had in my life, my tight wetness grasping around Jack’s big, hard shaft with even more tightness. In the inexorable haze of it all I felt his body suddenly jerk and jolt, his torso seizing up as he filled up one last time…

An overwhelming groan escaped him as I shrieked with pure pleasure, smiling uncontrollably, my mouth wide open in passion as he came into me, his hot, sticky seed filling me up. I revelled in the incomparable sensation of it all, wishing for the moment to run on forever…

When we finally gained our senses in the wake of it all, neither of us said a thing. All we could do was gaze at each other, wrapped up in a desire for each other that neither of us could put into words.

It was only early in the afternoon, but after what had happened we didn’t even leave the house until the next day – we spent the next 20 hours doing nothing but talking, eating, laughing… And taking the occasional shower together, all without leaving Jack’s house.

And the hours just ran into each other, passing by without me even realising, until we fell asleep in each other’s arms that night.

Chapter Eleven

Sometimes things have a way of going beautifully before instantaneously turning bad; I guess the universe just likes to kick you in the teeth every once in a while.

When I woke up in Jack’s arms, my warm, satisfied body feeling more relaxed than I had in a long while, I didn’t anticipate what would be happening just a few minutes later.

‘Did you sleep okay?’

‘Very well, thank you,’ I smiled. ‘How about you?’

‘Pretty good. Well, it would’ve been if it weren’t for all your snoring…’

‘I do
not
snore,’ I laughed.

‘How would you know?’

‘I just do-’

That moment, just as I finished my sentence, there was a frantic knocking at the front door downstairs.

‘Eughhh…’ I moaned, ‘I don’t wanna get out of bed…’

‘Don’t then…’ Jack growled, kissing me again, his soft lips and his rough jawline pressing against my face, sending me wild with desire for him yet again.

‘No, I should,’ I said, ‘It’s probably Casey, it could be something important…’

I hopped out of bed in my underwear, pulling on a t-shirt and heading out the door. I snatched my phone up in the meantime, figuring I hadn’t checked it in 12 hours. I had blocked just about every number aside from Casey and my parents when we had arrived.

I stopped in the doorway of the bedroom, turning to look over at Jack as he sat up in bed, his rough, handsome face looking back at me.

‘Don’t be too long,’ he winked, ‘I expect you back in this bed in no less than three minutes.’

‘I guarantee it,’ I smiled back, biting my lip and dragging myself out of the room.

I was more taken with Jack than I could even explain, more utterly smitten and enthralled than I ever knew I could be. For a moment the thought occurred to me that I was completely in love with this man that I had met only a matter of days ago… What more could I say? I wasn’t going to object or question the idea. The thought comforted me… It had just happened.

For a moment everything was going wonderfully as I made my way down the stairs. And then I checked the screen of my phone, unlocking it and checking the text alert. There were three from Casey, all sent just before I had awoken.

Are you at Jack’s?

Text me back please!

Emma are you there???

I naturally assumed it would be her at the front door, so as I made my way to it and unhooked the key from the side of it, turning it in the lock and opening the front door to the outside world, I certainly didn’t expect to be greeted by who it was.

‘Miss Clarke, any statement about your newfound romance in this remote, romantic town?’

The words had spoken as if read from an autocue or blared out from a recording on a Dictaphone. But the smug, punchable smile on the face of so-called journalist, gossip columnist and all round parasite Colbie Roberts was utterly undeniable.

She held out a microphone before her, just as her cameraman came running up to her side – and here I was, in a guy’s house with my hair a mess and wearing nothing but my underwear and a t-shirt.

I couldn’t shut the door fast enough as my heart began to race wildly – over her shoulder I could see her news van, and only hers. It was just her and nobody else… But that didn’t make this situation any better.

I pressed my back against the door, hearing ‘Miss Clarke, Miss Clarke?’ begins said over and over again by Colbie’s grinding voice.

How the fuck had she found me…?

Who was I kidding, she had spies and informants everywhere… Somebody, somehow, would have found out where I was.

I locked the door quickly and dropped the key back on the hook, running back upstairs as my heart raced. I had no idea what I was going to do, but when I reached the bedroom it appeared that that had already been decided for me.

Jack stood at the window in his jeans, looking out from behind the curtains at the van outside, Colbie and her cameraman pacing back and forth.

‘What the fuck is this?’ He said angrily, turning to me. ‘I told you I didn’t want to be found, and now you bring the freaking paparazzi to my front door? This isn’t some kind of clubhouse, Emma!’

‘I know, Jack, I’m sorry…’ I said quickly, feeling my voice begin to break, ‘I didn’t think that anybody would find us here…’

‘You didn’t think anybody would find you? What, did you run away from them, or something?’

I looked off to the side, unable to bring myself to tell him the truth, even though he was already figuring it out by my silence.

‘So that’s it? You ran away from some celebrity drama to come here and hide, and now I have to get sucked into it?’

‘That isn’t what I wanted…’

Jack ran his hands through his hair with frustration, looking around the room before moving through it, snatching up a t-shirt and getting dressed.

‘What are you doing…?’ I asked.

‘Getting out of here… Clearly I’m not allowed to have my solitude here, maybe I can go and find it down at the yard or somewhere else in this damn town…’

I struggled to form the words,
any
words, to fix this whole thing. But he spoke first.

‘Get out of here, Emma…’

‘How… How can you say that? Especially after last night?’

‘How can I say that? Because you violated the one thing I wanted when I came out here – peace and quiet.’

‘Jack…’ I started, the words just coming out of me without control, ‘… I love you.’

Jack had just finished dressing himself, standing from the bed and staring over at me with those dark eyes of his, stubble already beginning to form on his jawline, his muscular figure towering over me.

‘Just… Just be gone by the time I get back, Emma.’

He gave me one last look, his eyes solemn and hurt, before taking off out of the bedroom and shutting the door behind him.

I stood there in the silence of the bedroom, clasping a hand over my mouth as a tear rolled down my cheek. I couldn’t believe it… I had messed it all up, and just because I hadn’t been completely honest with Jack… Maybe if I had been…

I looked out of the window, hearing the front door open and shut as Jack made his way to his truck. Colbie went running over to him with cameraman in tow, spluttering question after question. But Jack wasn’t even fazed – he blanked her completely, throwing his bag onto the passanger seat and carrying on through his routine like she wasn’t even there, commanding the situation like a professional.

I watched his car pull out and take off up the road Colbie scuttling over to the hood of her van to review the footage.

I had to get out of there.

***

Five minutes later and I was sneaking out the back door, making my way down to the shoreline and running back to the house. I was passing along grass, heading through the open back gardens of other people’s lakehouses until I finally reached my own.

I didn’t want to think, didn’t want to take any of it in, what had just happened… All I wanted was to be back inside away from the world.

***

‘I don’t know how she found us,’ Casey said, handing me a glass of wine. It took it and promptly downed, feeling it’s sweet bitterness run down my throat. ‘You know what she’s like, though. She’s got spies everywhere…’

‘I know,’ I replied, breathing deeply, ‘D’you think… Do you think anybody else will show up?’

‘Not for a few days at least,’ Casey said, ‘She’ll want to keep the initial report to herself, so she can pull some breaking news stuff that you were here.’

‘Yeah…’ I nodded. ‘There’s something else, too.’

‘What happened…?’

‘I’ll tell you later,’ I said, setting the glass down on the kitchen counter, trying to keep a hold on myself. ‘I want to get a shower and lie down first.’

Chapter Twelve

‘You have to go talk to him.’

That was the first thing my best friend said to me later that night. I had spent the day in my room after taking a shower, falling between sleep and wakefulness, tears occasionally rolling down my cheeks as I tried to comprehend how badly I had screwed this whole thing up.

‘What am I supposed to say?’

‘You’ll figure it out when you get there.’

‘It isn’t that simple.’

‘Yes, it is, Emma!’ Casey said, a laugh escaping her as she struggled to hold her enthusiasm down. ‘You’re in love with him. You feel that way after a few days. That does
not
happen every other day, you do know that, right? I mean, do you really think that I plan on spending the rest of my life with Rory? He’s nice and everything… And a demon in the bedroom… But I’m not on that level with him. I don’t see us being together through thick and thin until we’re old and grey and whatever. But you’re
in love
with Jack. And you can’t just throw that off.’

I leant against the kitchen counter my head a total mess.

‘He hates me,’ I said, ‘He wanted to live in solitude here, and now I’ve potentially brought the whole paparazzi poopulatin of the East Coast down on him… They could be here in a matter of days.’

‘The only thing you can do,’ Casey said, ‘is try.’

***

Just like I had done two nights ago, I made my way down to Jack’s house. As I reached the curve in the road that brought the front of his house into sight, I found myself scurrying behind a tree to check for Colbie again. But she was nowhere to be seen – she had likely already taken off to compile her half-assed gossip report.

In the half-light I crossed to outside Jack’s porch, his truck no longer there.

He still hadn’t been back… Or he had, and he had left again.

I stepped up to the door, my head a total mess but the only prevalent thing being him and my need for him.

I knocked at the wood panelling, already knowing that he wouldn’t be here, a total lack of response after several minutes and several rounds of pointless knocking confirming it to me.

Making my way into town, I crossed past the bar where we had met – he wasn’t there either. And with that considered, I didn’t even need to ask the bartender where he was.

I knew exactly where he would be.

***

I don’t know what I expected to find. No, that’s a lie. I
did
know, I was just hoping that I wouldn’t be right.

Darkness was cast over Watertown again, save for the floodlit logging yard in which I found the group of men again, shouting and cheering as two unseen men beat each other senseless.

‘Still taking bets, boys,’ a voice from within shouted, ‘still taking bets on the last fight of the night, if anybody think young Mr Landry can make a comeback in the next minute…’

But it didn’t take a minute as I stood by the logging machine that I had stood upon nights ago, watching the fight from afar. There was some more shouting, the loudness and struggling of some more scuffling, and then two hard, flat packing sounds in quick succession, a punch to the face and a slam to the ground.

A cheering roar erupted from the group, making me jump a little from how loud it was. They began to disperse faster than I could comprehened, returning to the cars and spiralling off in different directions as I watched the spot. And slowly, amongst the departing people, emerged the image of a man on the floor, shirtless, looking as if pushing himself up from the hard concrete ground was the last thing he wanted to do.

I pretty much ran to him, seeing the smear of blood on the floor and his cut, bruised body stretched out, his shirt dumped on the floor nearby.

‘Jack? Jack!’ I shouted as I reached him, my heart racing frantically as I brought my hands to one side of his heavy body and mustered all my strength to turn him over onto his back.

He finally heaved over, his torso covered in grazes and one side of his forehead cut, blood dripping down over his head. His eyes were closed and I immediately assumed the worst until they flickered open in a daze.

I looked down at Jack and he up at me, until his eyes focused in on my face and his expression turned from a neutral one to a look of annoyance.

‘What are you doing here, Emma? I told you to leave…’

‘I… I wanted to come and see you,’ I said shakily as he sat up, I moving back a little. ‘I wanted to talk to you.’

‘Yeah, well I don’t wanna talk to you…’ Jack groggily got to his feet, I standing from my kneeling position with him.

‘Jack, you need help-’

‘I don’t need help!’ He growled, turning to look at me with this dark, ferocious eyes, a look of pure animalism on his face.

I visibly jumped, my heart racing faster than ever as I stepped back and away from his intimidating presence.

We stopped there for a moment, our eyes meeting as we both found ourselves completely embroiled in the moment, caught in the circumstances of it all.

Then he turned, the man who meant more to me than anything right now, and walked away into the dark, heading back towards his car. I stood there, watching him go, hearing his car door shut and the engine start up as he took off into the night.

And then I found myself stood there in the dark, as the floodlights went out one by one.