The Elite: The Complete Series of Boomer and Player (With Bonus) (15 page)

Jack paused to slip on a condom before rejoining me, and I was still shivering after the massive earth shaking orgasm he’d delivered. He teased me with the tip of his rock hard cock, and I opened my eyes, smiling up at him. “God. That was insane,” I said, panting for breath. “You’re insane.”

“We’re not done yet,” he growled, sliding inside me slowly. “I haven’t shown you what this fly boy can do.”

I sighed with pleasure as he began to move inside me, gentle and slow, until I relaxed. Only then did he pull out and thrust inside with force. I groaned against his shoulder as he hovered above me and rocked my hips to keep pace with him, wanting him deeper, harder, faster. I moaned louder with each thrust as he took me to a higher level of pleasure.

He flipped to his back, rolling me over with him, and I didn’t hesitate to straddle him. I lowered myself onto him, taking in every inch of his thick shaft before beginning to grind my hips. Jack grabbed my hips and directed my movements, faster and harder, thrusting me against him, deeper with each pulse. I moaned and dropped my head back, feeling the way my breasts bounced, as a new orgasm built quickly as I rubbed against him. “Jack, oh my…”

“Come on, baby, stay with me.”

He thickened inside of me and the way he expanded that last little bit, sent me over the edge. He kept my hips rocking with his hands, fucking me harder and harder, until moments later, he shuddered and went still. His fingers dug into my hips and I rocked out the last little bit of my own release, before crashing down against his chest.

Our shallow breaths mixed with the sound of the ocean that poured in through the open bedroom windows. Jack’s heart was racing just as fast as mine. I put my chin on his chest and looked up into his eyes that were still sparkling. “All right, fly boy” I panted. “It’s been a while for me, so you just let me know when you’re ready to go again,” I said, teasing him with a flirtatious grin.

“How about now?” He replied, grinning even wider.

Before I could answer, he rolled back on top of me and my eyes popped open wide at the feel of him stiffening against my leg.

“Yeah. Now works,” I answered, crushing his lips into mine.

Chapter Seventeen

Holly

Jack’s arm was draped over my waist, one palm splayed open on my stomach. I sighed, breathing in the quiet peace of the moment, before my mind fully woke up and started to panic. The last time I’d woken up next to a man had been years ago, and it had been with my ex-husband. I pressed my eyes closed, shoving those dark memories aside as fast as possible. I lifted Jack’s hand off my waist and slowly started to inch my way to the edge of the bed. I swung my legs over the edge and looked around the dimly lit room for the nearest article of clothing. My long robe was draped over the side of the dresser, so I darted from the bed to grab it, and was shrugging into it, when a sleepy voice called over to me. “Good morning, beautiful.”

I pulled the robe closed and whipped around. Jack had moved into a half sitting position, his bare chest visible over the edge of the sheet that had fallen away. The image of what lay under the thin covering was still etched in my mind, and I got hot all over again, remembering how good he felt. My cheeks flushed and I turned away again, looking into the mirror over the dresser and fluffing my hair, finger combing it back into some type of order. “Morning.”

“What’s the hurry?” Jack asked, watching me fuss with my hair, and wipe away the smudges of makeup that had gathered under my eyes.

My heart flew into a frantic pace, scraping around my still foggy head for a reason to get away from him as fast as possible. I turned and spotted a short brown tail peeking out from under the bed. “Hunter needs to go out.”

Jack moved the covers aside, and stood up, revealing his glorious body. My eyes ran down the hard lines of his chest, flat stomach, and…before darting back up to his. He grinned at me and I blushed even more, not needing the mirror to know I was verging in on tomato red.

“I’ll take the dogs out,” he said, finding his jeans and slipping into them without bothering to find his boxer briefs. “You relax. I’ll make some coffee and bring it up.”

“No, no. I’ll do it.” Hunter woke up and backed out of his place under the bed. He looked up at me with sleepy, half open eyes, and wagged his tail. “You wanna go outside, boy?”

At the word
outside
, Princess came trotting into the room from wherever she’d been sleeping, and wagged her tail up at Jack. He patted her on the head before pulling on his shirt from the day before. “Okay, looks like we’re both on deck.”

My stomach twisted, but I sighed and nodded. I needed a minute to come up with an excuse to get him to leave anyway.

Downstairs, I clipped Hunter’s leash on him and we took the dogs out the back door. Jack came up from behind me and wrapped his arms around me, gently pulling me back against his chest, while the dogs roamed around the small yard to do their business. I stiffened at his touch, unable to relax fully. “What’s wrong?” Jack asked.

I pulled free of him and put a few paces between us. “I’m sorry, I just…can’t think, when you’re…like that.”

Jack’s face creased into a mix of confusion and disappointment. “All right, we don’t have to
do
anything, but Holly, tell me what’s going on. Did I do something wrong?”

“No,” I said, sighing.

The crease between his brows deepened. “Well, then, what’s up?”

I stared off the deck, watching the rolling tide while I gathered my thoughts. “I just don’t know about this. Last night
surprised
me. I guess. It shouldn’t have. But it did.”

“Are you saying you regret it?” Jack asked.

My eyes flew back to him at his blunt question. His eyes were dark and intense as he waited for my answer, the confusion melting away. “I don’t know.”

“Wow.”

“I’m sorry, Jack. I know this isn’t fair. But, I was serious when we talked about this the other day at the coffee shop. This whole situation is too complicated, and I already know it’s not going to work out for the long term.”

“Oh, you
know
that, do you?” Jack’s question was fast as a whip, snapping me in the face. “How could you possible know that? You haven’t even given it a chance.”

“That’s because it doesn’t have a chance!” I threw my hands up and lost hold of Hunter’s leash. I scrambled to snatch it from the ground before he realized he had a shot at freedom. “Jack, listen, I’m sorry if this seems harsh, but I’m not looking for a relationship. I feel like I was pretty upfront about that.”

Jack’s hard expression softened and he held up his hands. “All right, let’s back this down a minute, here. I didn’t
force
you into anything last night.”

“I’m not saying you did! God, is that really what you’re worried about here? That I’m
accusing
you of something?”

“No! Not at all. I’m saying that because everything last night was well past the friend zone, and you were completely fine with it. So, from my point of view, it goes like this, you said you wanted to be friends, you don’t want to get involved with a military man, and I backed off. Then, on the lifeguard tower you changed the game a little. Which, obviously, led to last night. So, we wake up this morning and I’m supposed to know that somewhere between falling asleep and waking up, you’d changed your mind about the entire trajectory of the relationship?”

I sputtered for a moment, unsure of what I was agreeing to if I said yes. The way he’d put it made me sound like some kind of indecisive bitch who changed her mind on the spin of a dime, just for kicks, which wasn’t true at all.

There was nothing fun about the suddenly sticky situation.

Jack crossed his arms. “Well?”

“No! I just…” I paused to take a deep breath, letting the moment of calm give me strength, “…I wanted to see what it would be like.”

Jack’s mouth opened, but nothing came out.

“I don’t mean it to sound like you were some kind of toy, or conquest.”

“Well, then what do you mean? Cause from what I’m hearing, that’s sure what it sounds like. Somewhere along the way, you decided a fling would add some flavor to your vacation and I was just the guy who happened to be nearby. If that’s all I had wanted, you would have known it, Holly. Trust me. If you were some kind of hookup, I wouldn’t have taken you to Joe’s, or spent an entire day out shopping with you, and I sure as hell wouldn’t have bothered to take you up on a flight. Don’t you get that? I did all that because I like you, and wanted to share your world, and show you mine. I thought…” His voice carried off as he looked past me, his eyes fixed on the ocean. After a moment, he shook his head slowly to himself.

“You know what,” his eyes flashed to mine again, “it doesn’t matter what I thought, because obviously I was wrong. And you’re right, that’s on me.”

He snapped his fingers, one loud click, and Princess jumped to attention. She raced after him as he started towards the gate that led to a small path between the house and the one next door, a short little gravel lined shortcut out to the parking lot. He stopped short, his hand resting on the latch, and turned back towards me. “For what it’s worth, Holly, regardless of how disappointed I am right now, you need to know that you’re worthy of whatever it is you want from life. The way I see it, your head is the biggest obstacle between you and the life you want.”

His words hit me right in the chest, and I sucked in a breath as though the wind had been knocked out of my lungs. Before I could think of a response, he disappeared from view, letting the gate swing shut behind him. I stood there, frozen in place for a long time, staring at the gate, my mind flying through everything he’d said, and all the things I should have said in return.

When warmth finally came back into my body, I called for Hunter and went back inside the house. I kicked the French door closed behind us and it slammed with a solid thud, and the silence that was left in the aftermath was deafening. The hot tears I’d been holding back came rushing to the surface and there was no way to slow them down. They ran down my cheeks faster than I could wipe them away. I folded in half on the couch, curling my legs into my chest, and sobbed, gasping for each breath.

I cried about the end of my marriage, the pain of being cheated on and abandoned. I cried over the cruel things I’d said to Jack, and for causing him so much pain, when he’d done nothing to deserve it. I cried at the realization that I was broken in ways I hadn’t even realized until he came into my life, and most of all…I cried over the fact that I didn’t have a clue on where to start the mending process.

Hunter jumped up on the edge of the couch, putting his paws near my hands. He whined and nudged at my arm with his cold nose. I reached over and stroked his head, which made him more eager to get all the way on the couch. I pat the place beside me, and he jumped up to join me.

“Mommy messed everything up, baby,” I whispered against his soft furry ears.

Chapter Eighteen

Holly

“Oh my gosh! This place is even better than I imagined!”

I followed behind Rachel, only halfway listening to her as she babbled on endlessly on her mostly self-guided tour of the house. After two days of wallowing on the couch, alternating between self-pity and self-loathing, I’d perked up a little to get the place ready for Rachel to arrive. I hadn’t told her anything more about Jack, and decided it would be best to keep it that way. As I’d bustled around the house, straightening and cleaning, I resolved to let our week together be filled with only good times and making memories as friends.

When she’d seen the entire house, she led the way back downstairs, and went to check out the view once again. She spun around and grinned at me. “All right, you’re the vacay pro now, so what’s first on the agenda? I know you have one.” I tried to smile, but the result was probably more of a grimace. Rachel planted her hands on her hips and arched a thin brow at me. “What’s going on with you? It’s like you’re not even happy that I’m here.

“No, no, no. That’s not it. Not even a little bit. I’m very happy you’re finally here. Believe me…” my voice trailed off before I could confess that she was saving me from the third day in a row of mindless TV and a diet made exclusively of crackers and wine.

“Well, then, what’s going on? Did Hunter eat another pair of shoes?” She asked, shifting her eyes down to the puppy who had been absolutely jubilant to be reunited with his Auntie Rachel. “Huntey…what did I tell you about those?”

I smiled at Hunter as he swung around to look up at me, as though waiting for me to defend him. With Princess around, he’d been on his best behavior, and there hadn’t been any incidents for several days. The smile slid from my lips as the memory of them playing together on the beach in front of Joe’s crossed my mind.

“He’s been a good boy. I think we can finally check off the potty trained box,” I said.

“Oooh! Good boy!” She squealed and bent over to plant kisses all over the top of his head. He licked her face and she stood up quickly, wiping his messy kisses off of her cheek. “So, what do you want to do? Are you hungry? I’m starving! I’ve been driving since four am and was too excited to stop for breakfast on the way up. I just wanted to hurry up and get here!”

“Oh, all right. Well, we can make something here if you want.” I crossed from the foot of the stairs to the kitchen.

“Here?” Rachel said, a hint of confusion in her voice. “Why would we eat here, Holly? It’s vacation! We eat out, have drinks at every meal, and sleep in late! That’s kinda how this whole vacation thing works…”

I hid behind the open door of the fridge and pressed my eyes closed. The only places I’d gone to, were now tainted with memories of Jack.

“Come on, let’s go to that coffee shop you’ve been raving about all week! I want to try the cinnamon thing you had.” Rachel came over and tugged me away from the fridge.

Going to Carly’s was the last thing I wanted to do, but I couldn’t turn Rachel down without coming up with a good reason. I contemplated telling her I’d seen a rat in the bathroom on my last visit, or something equally as outlandish that would detract her interest, but she was racing out the door before I could get my story straight. Hunter chased after her and I sprang into action to grab his leash and get to him before he ran off again.