Runaway (8 page)

Chapter Ten

Half an hour later and I was stood at the end of the dock, watching Jack approach quickly in one of the long rowing boats that had been tied to the end of his dock out the back of his house. My heart was fluttering at the prospect, his muscular back working tirelessly as he worked the oars back and forth in each hand, finally reaching the dock. He slowed himself to a stop, leaning out his hand to slow himself by gripping the wooden panels I stood on.

‘Don’t you have to be at work?’ I smiled.

‘Well, it kind of works out when you own the company.’

I laughed at his tongue in cheek comment.

‘Yeah, yeah…’ I replied, ‘So how do I get in this thing without it tipping both of us out and making me look like a complete moron?’

‘Just watch your step,’ Jack laughed, ‘And you’ll be fine.’

I took his word for it, kneeling down and stepping sheepishly into the wooden flooring of the boat, feeling it shake a little as my heart skipped a beat and I finally decided to just go for it, stepping in with the other foot too and sitting down, feeling pretty safe.

‘That wasn’t too bad,’ I smiled.

‘Good, I’m glad.’

Jack winked at me and pushed us from the dock with a single, hard push, his ridiculous strength sending us coiling around and towards the open lake. I sat at one end, embracing the day, facing forward as we moved further and further into the calm cool water. Jack continued to row, breaking into a smooth, paced rhythm as he worked his arms back and forth, crossing the surface of the water.

It was a bright morning, the sky clear and the day perfect… And here I was with Jack.

‘Little bit of an impromptu invitation, wasn’t it?’ I smiled over at Jack, tilting my head at him.

‘Well,’ he said, slowing his rhythm, ‘If I hadn’t invited you it would’ve just been me out here by myself.’

‘You would’ve come anyway?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said, his dark eyes pulling away from mine as he looked about the lake, ‘I guess it’s the same idea as the fighting… ‘Clears my head, let’s me think about other things.’

‘You mean…’ I started, not knowing if I should have gone along this route, ‘What we talked about last night…?’

Jack paused, nodding and beginning to work his arms a little harder. ‘Yeah. Basically.’

I looked away from him, my mind fleeting back to everything we had spoken about last night, everything we had discussed this morning.

‘I’ve always liked lakes,’ I said. ‘I know after what I told you this morning… I know that that doesn’t make sense. That I should hate them. But I guess it reminds me of the better times we had together. With the family.’

‘That makes perfect sense,’ Jack said, nodding at me.

I looked over at him and he at me, my heart suddenly open with sympathy for him. There was a foreign closeness that I couldn’t pin down, something so unfamiliar… And then I couldn’t keep it from him any longer.

Not all of it, anyway.

‘Jack… Look, there’s something I have to tell you.’

***

‘So now I’m out here for… For a little peace and quiet, I guess.’

We had stopped in the middle of the lake, Jack having dropped the oars in their holsters the moment I had dropped the news on him about who I was. And now we were floating here in the middle of the lake, sat back in the rowing boat on either side, facing each other.

‘I… Uhh…’ Jack said quietly, taking a breath and looking about the lake. ‘You’re playing a prank on me, aren’t you?’

‘No,’ I said bluntly, ‘It’s the truth, I swear to you.’

‘Well… I didn’t expect you to tell me that,’ he laughed, running a hand through his dark hair. ‘I thought what I told you last night about my work before I came here would have been a shock, but… It looks like you’ve outdone me completely.’

‘I just…’ I laughed, ‘I just wanted to be honest with you about who I am… It doesn’t really make sense for me to be so general about it. But in a way I’m glad that I didn’t say anything from the offset, if you’ll forgive me for not telling you?’

‘There’s nothing to forgive,’ Jack said, ‘But why wouldn’t you tell me?’

‘I don’t know…’ I said, ‘I guess… I guess it was kind of nice to be able to speak to somebody like a normal person, rather than having them treat me like I’m some sort of concept, or an idea or something. This way I could be a person… It just so happened that the one person I hung out with in that way turned out to be somebody who I’ve connected with faster and better than anybody I’ve ever met…’

I don’t know what made me say that… Maybe because it was just me and him out here in the lake in a little boat on this beautiful day, with hundreds of yards of water separating us from the rest of the world… But the moment I had finished speaking our eyes met again, and Jack looked across at me and smiled.

‘Well… I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel the same way,’ he said. ‘I’ve never actually told anybody about… About what I said last night. Not since I got here.’

I didn’t know what to say back to him… All I wanted was to rest in that moment, as we revelled in the quiet serenity of our surroundings, focused on nothing but each other. And we did, for minutes on end, neither of us speaking, both of us shifting our gazes from each other to the scenes around us and then back to each other. Until Jack finally said-

‘D’you wanna head back to the house?’

I smiled over at him.

‘I’d like that,’ I said, nodding.

***

We made our way through the back door of the house, rain clouds having begun to form just as the boat pulled into the dock.

‘Good timing,’ I said.

‘Definitely.’

I followed Jack as he made his way across the room, before he went up the stairs. I stopped at the bottom for a moment before following him up, knowing what I had in mind but knowing if that was on his mind.

When I reached the corridor on the upper floor of the house, Jack stood outside his bedroom door, waiting for me. I crossed to him, stopping before him as he turned to face me.

‘Emma, can I ask you something?’

I looked over at him sceptically, wondering what would possibly warrant such an introduction.

‘Sure.’

‘Why are you here? Like… I know that you came to Watertown to get away from the craziness of your life, but why are you
here?
I mean… In this house, with me?’

I looked Jack up and down, before my eyes returned to his.

‘D’you want the honest answer?’ I asked, feeling my breathing flutter.

‘Yeah.’

‘There…’ I started, my heart racing as I felt myself about to say the words. ‘Because there isn’t anywhere else I’d rather be right now.’

That moment seemed to slow down as we stood there, I looking up at his endearingly handsome face, the top buttons of his lumberjack shirt undone, exposing his toned, dark chest as it rose and fell with anticipation. I returned my eyes to his, and the look of desire he gave me struck me harder and more passionately than I felt I ever had been.

And then… We just let ourselves go completely.

Jack moved towards me more quickly than he had before, wrapping his arms around me and bringing his lips to mine. He kissed more passionately than I ever had been, his lips pressing against mine as I rested my hands against his warm, muscular body, feeling him tense and relax beneath my touch.

My heart fluttered wildly as he moved his hands over my body, caressing my curves, his touch alone sending my wild as he ran his hands up to my shoulders, pulling away my jacket and letting it fall to the floor around my ankles.

I didn’t care; he was the only thing that I wanted right now.

I could have made a move into the bedroom, but Jack was in charge and besides, he was already way ahead of me.

As our tongues found each other, teasing and lashing against each other with warm wetness, he manoeuvred us effortlessly into the bedroom, opening the door and shuffling us into the room as we continued to kiss with relentless passion. I ran my hands up to the top of his shirt, finding the top button and undoing it before my hands descended to the next, desperate to pull that shirt away from him as his hands glided across my body...

But I didn’t get the chance to do it myself – just as I undid the final button, my hands seconds away from gripping the edges of his shirt and dragging it away from his body, he took my wrists in his hands and pulled me from him.

I smiled uncontrollably between our kisses as he pulled my close to him again, my body pushing against his as he ran his hands to the bottom of my shirt and took the edges tightly in his fingers, pulling it up over my body expertly as I raised my arms and let him pull it away from me, throwing it aside.

He brought his hands behind my back, the slight roughness of them against my skin sending waves of pleasure through me as I wrapped my arms around his neck, pushing my lips against his. He found the strap of my bra, with a single deft movement nipping the material and releasing it. I shrugged out of it quickly, letting it fall away as I shrugged out of it.

Effortlessly and without warning, Jack ran his hands down to my behind, grasping my cheeks tightly and lifting me from the floor as I gripped his body tightly, holding onto him. My breathing accentuated as I felt my naked chest push against his, feeling how truly in control he was in the craziness of all of this – and how turned I was getting because of it.

Jack stepped to the edge of the bed, steadily lowering me down onto the sheets with his incredible strength. From the bed I looked up at his figure towering above me, his eyes gazing at mine as he slowly removed his unbuttoned shirt, throwing it aside and revealing his toned, irresistible body once again – something I never tired of.

My heart raced, my chest heaving with exasperated, lustrous breaths as Jack moved atop me, running his fingers into the waist of my jeans before dragging them down across my legs, pulling them away from my feet, taking my socks with them…

And there I was laying before him, in nothing but a pair of lacy, hot pink underwear around my hips, in the dim light of his bedroom, this man I had known for no more three days but could feel myself falling for harder than I ever had in my life. The curtains were drawn, a little light seeping in… And we were all alone in our own safe, little world.

Jack smirked down at my naked vulnerable figure, a smirk rising at the edge of his mouth.

‘What?’ I smiled, ‘Do I amuse you?’

‘No,’ he smiled. ‘I just really want you right now.’

His words washed over like calm, cooling waves as he ran his hands into the waist of my underwear, looking me in the eyes as he did.

‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ he smiled, ‘Did you need these?’

I clenched my eyes shut, smiling uncontrollably at how freaking cocky he was, but unable to deny how hot I felt in response to his ridiculous confidence.

I bit my lip, turning my head to the side, feeling my cheeks sting with redness as he slid my underwear off, running the soft material down my smooth skin to my feet before pulling them away from the ends of my toes, raising my legs up as he did so, throwing them aside carelessly once he had finally removed them.

Jack moved forward between my legs, standing above me off the bed as I laid there.

‘Would you mind?’ He said quietly, smiling and tugging at his belt.

I smiled back at him, biting my lip and bringing my hands to his belt, unbuckling it slowly as my hands rubbed against the front of his jeans, I feeling how undeniably hard he was, how
big
he was.

I pulled his belt away, dropping it to the floor, somehow managing all this from where I laid on the bed, my body completely naked before him. I undid the front of his jeans, tugging them down a little before Jack couldn’t keep himself from me any longer, running his hands into the waist of them and pulling them down, letting everything fall to his ankles as he stepped out of his clothes, leaving him completely naked in the dim light of the room.

My mouth almost fell open as I took in the sight of his throbbing size, his huge cock standing on end before me as I released a long, shuddering breath, my heart feeling like it was about to beat out of my chest. He looked down at me ferociously before picking me up by my waist and shifting me further up onto the bed without any effort at all. I couldn’t explain how fucking much I wanted him right then.

He moved atop me, his dominant, muscular figure moving up my body irresistibly until we were face to face, Jack bringing his lips to mine once again, as he kissed me passionately. He held his body atop mine, I feeling his warmth press against me, wrapping my arms across his broad strong back as he felt his hardness pushing against my skin occasionally, jolts of pleasure running through me…

He ran his lips across my neck, nibbling and caressing my skin as he held him tight and close to me, feeling his hardness run between my legs, sliding over my quivering wetness.

I brought my hands up to his cheeks, feeling his rough, stubbled skin beneath my hands, looking him in the eyes intensely as I had to say it… I couldn’t resist the urge any longer.