Always with You (WIth You Trilogy) (37 page)

“Danny!” She motioned her brother over and whipped her phone out of her tiny handbag. “Take a picture of us, please.”

“Jamie,” I groaned, dragging my hand over my face as I clocked her phone. “You don’t have to use the prototype. It’s buggy as crap, I can give you one of the new ones.” I knew it was pointless to make the offer considering I’d made it a million times.

“It’s perfect,” she pouted, clutching the phone tightly to her chest.

Damn, I wish I was that buggy ass phone.

“You’re crazy,” I grinned against her forehead, pressing a kiss there before obliging her by posing for the photo.

“About you,” she grinned back. Her smile would always be the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

I chuckled and pulled her in for a proper kiss as soon as she had her phone back in hand. My cock was rock solid as her warm
, pliant body merged into mine. I knew she felt it by the mischievous look in her eyes when we pulled away and the way she brushed her perfect little behind against it as she turned around.

The nerves returned somewhat at the notion of what a lucky bastard I’d be to live with the little minx for the rest of my life.
If she’ll have me.

“So, Mr Reed, what’s the plan?” She beamed as I led her out to the Nissan.

I loved hearing my name on her lips and imagining her being my Mrs Reed in the very near future. I didn’t miss Craig eyeing the Nissan longingly as we neared it. I chuckled to myself; I’d probably cave and let him play with it at some point but damn if I wasn’t enjoying torturing him by making him wait.

“We’re off to celebrate private style, then we’ll meet up with the others later,” I answered, holding the door open for her once she’d hugged her family.

Her eyes gleamed happily as I reached across to belt her in and pressed a hot kiss to her lips before shutting the door.

“That thing safe, son?” Jamie’s grandfather’s
gravelly voice resonated in my ear when I turned around.

“She’ll always be safe with me, Peter,” I nodded.

“You better make her happy.” He levelled me with a glare that did nothing to settle my nerves.

“That will always be my goal in life, sir.” I met his gaze so he would understand how serious I was.

“She doesn’t need these flashy cars and fancy money to make her happy. She just needs your love.” He narrowed his eyes even further and I swallowed past the anxiety.

“She’ll always have that and more.”

He studied me for an excruciating second or two before nodding contentedly and clapping me on the shoulder. I shook my head a few times trying to shake off the nerves. I knew we were made for each other, I just had to see whether or not she needed convincing of that fact.

“What was that all about?” Jamie frowned as I lowered myself into the driver’s seat.

“What?” I blurted, momentarily panicked that she might have heard our conversation. “Oh, he’s worried about me driving you around in this beauty.” I revved the engine and wiggled my eyebrows at her, eliciting the laugh that I swear made my heart skip a beat.

“Don’t worry, I trust you.”

I just hoped she trusted me with her future.

“Good, because I need to blindfold you.”

“Blindfold me?” Her expression changed to one of puzzlement.

I nodded, barely containing the grin on my face.

“I always knew you were a perv,” she smirked, tilting her head forwards slightly to allow me to slip the blindfold over her eyes.

“I assure you, my plans are of a mostly non-pervy nature,” I smirked,

“Mostly?” She giggled.

“Baby, it’s impossible not think with my dick
at least a little bit where you’re concerned.”

“I like to think he makes pretty good decisions for the most part,” she teased.

I laughed and pulled onto the ring road, slipping one hand onto her thigh and allowing myself to dip under the hem of her summer dress.

“Non-pervy my rear-end,” she tried to scoff, already parting her legs slightly in invitation.

I just smirked and focussed on the moment I’d been planning for months and the little velvet box burning a hole in my breast pocket.

“Where are we? Can I take the blindfold off? What are we going to do?” Jamie-Lea
demanded once I pulled the car to a stop on the brickwork driveway.

“So many questions, little squirrel,” I laughed. “Keep the blindfold on and you’ll find out soon enough.”

I guided her into the house, knocked down by the lack of hesitation in her step as she trusted me to guide her.

“I’m going to remove the blindfold but I want you to keep your eyes closed, okay?” I prompted once I guided her into the lounge.

She just nodded and licked her bottom lip in anticipation causing me to adjust myself in my trousers. I couldn’t believe she still didn’t fully grasp the power she had over me.

“Before you open your eyes, I need to explain,” I paused, waiting for her to nod. “It doesn’t look like much but
I promise you it will be a dream when we’re done.”

Her brow
s pulled together in confusion as she tried to make sense of my words.

“You know that saying ‘location, location, location’? Well
, that’s kind of the thinking here. I mean, it looks like crap but I swear, baby, we can do whatever you want with it and I-”

“Jason, you’re rambling and I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jamie interrupted me with a sweet smile that I just wanted to kiss.

I ran my fingers through my hair, rapidly rethinking my plan. As soon as she opened her eyes she was going to see what a dump this place was and she was going to hate it.
Fuck, what was I thinking?

“Can I open my eyes now?” Jamie said, her voice curious and excited.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “If you hate it, it’s fine. I got a bit ahead of myself. We can sell it.”

Jamie opened her eyes and they widened as she looked around her. The place was a real mess. All I’d done was gut it of all the shit that had been left behind and the sight that met her eyes was of bare walls and floors. I saw the potential of a home, our home, but what woul
d she see?
What if she hates it?

“Jason, what am I looking at?” She asked cautiously.

“A house,” I answered, hoping to hell she couldn’t hear my voice shaking. I hadn’t been this nervous since the first time I’d told her I loved her.

“Why?” She probed, turning on the spot to look around her.

“I bought it for us,” I explained on a cringe. I could usually read my girl like a book but I couldn’t figure out what she was thinking. If anything she just looked confused.

“You what?” She span around, her eyes wide.

“It’s our house.” I cleared my throat and ran both hands through my hair.
She hates it, oh fuck, she hates it
. I mentally castigated myself.
I should have let her pick. We should have made the choice together.

“Jason… how?” She managed
eventually, after staring at me like I was insane.

“Well usually you give someone money and they give you a house,” I joked, trying to infuse some humour into this horrifying situation. “Paperwork went through yesterday
.” After I threw in an extra twenty grand so that they’d hurry the fuck up.

“I… I don’t know what to say…” she stammered. “Did you win the lottery?”

“Sort of,” I smirked. At least there was no way she could hate that news. I fished my phone out, logging into my banking app.

Her eyes widened to
almost comical proportion as she looked at the exceedingly long figure detailing the contents of my bank account. Well, one of my bank accounts. Ben worked his numbers magic and split everything up into different funds and savings accounts.

“I don’t understand,” Jamie looked up at me, her beautiful eyes almost taking my breath away.

“The company went public, baby,” I smiled. “Reed Systems is out there for the world to see.”

“I know but… where did you get all the money from?”

I laughed; she was so cute when she was confused. And when she was sleeping, and when she was smiling. When she was coming… then she wasn’t cute, she was fucking exquisite.

“Baby, we’ve got investors climbing over each other to get to us. The SQ12 battery is exactly what the industry has been waiting for. It will push mobile technology to the next level. Every single manufacturer wants to be first to offer it to their customers.
We were rich on day one.” I tried to keep my voice calm to hide my excitement at the prospect of being able to buy her anything and everything she wanted and I thought I did an okay job but it was almost impossible.

“Rich?” She raised an eyebrow disbelievingly.

“Yeah, baby,” I grinned. “Filthy rich.”

She studied me a while longer as if she was sure I was playing some sort of joke. “I like you filthy,” she grinned
. “The rich part?” Her grin broadened. “Meh,” she shrugged nonchalantly.

That was why I loved this girl. Because she loved me and only me. She’d loved me through the good and the bad, now all that was left was the fucking amazing.

“You told me you spent all the money you got on the Nissan,” she frowned.

“A lit
tle white lie,” I smirked. “I bought the Nissan with the profit Ben made with our money in one week.”

“One week?” Her jaw
dropped and I pushed it closed with one finger, smirking at the look of disbelief on her face.

I nodded.

“Jason this is… I don’t know what to say…” She stared at me blankly for a few seconds, her eyes still wide but a smile soon crept onto her face. “I’m so proud of you!” She threw herself at me and wrapped her slender, toned legs around my waist.

I had to give my dick strict instructions, which it ignored, because there were bigger fish to fry. There’d be time for that later. Jamie’s lips crash
ed onto mine, their tender, soft skin like nectar to a starved man. Pure, golden, deliciousness. Her kiss was hurried and fervent, yet no less amazing than every single kiss we’d ever shared. Kissing her was never anything less than perfect.

“You bought us a house?” She said breathlessly.

I nodded, my anxiety returning as I set her down and watched her eyes travel around the room again.

“It’s…” she hesitated and I held my breath. “It’s perfect!” She beamed.

I almost passed out with relief.
She thinks it’s perfect?
I couldn’t have dreamed that she’d think that. I could only hope she wasn’t saying it to make me happy.

“Really?” I cocked my head at her.

“Really!” She jumped up and down excitedly. “It’s like a blank canvas… I have so many ideas in my head, I might explode!”

“You do?” I smirked, a weight lifting off my shoulders.

“Yeah, show me the rest!”

Her excitement grew as I showed her the rest of the three-story house. She talked colour schemes, studies, and en-suites whilst I pointed out architectural features.

“I figured we should save some of the rooms for kids,” I said, my hand cinched tightly around her waist as I waited for her response. “In the distant future, I mean.”

“Kids?” Her head whipped round to look at me.
“You… You want kids?” She said hesitantly.

I could see the spark of hope in her eyes and my smile broadened. I knew how much she wanted children. She was a
caregiver, it was who she was. I had no doubts in my mind that she would make an amazing Mum. I’d had my reasons not to want to go there personally but my perspective had changed. My reasons weren’t so well founded any more. Besides, I knew from the bottom of my soul that no child of Jamie-Lea’s could ever be anything less than perfect.

“Yeah, if it’s with you then I want a whole bunch of them,” I grinned.

I was rewarded by a delighted squeal and another of her scorching kisses. As her legs wrapped around me once more, I returned us to the ground floor and made my way to the back door.

“You want to see the best part of our house?”
God that felt amazing to say
.
Our house.
The place where we’d grow old together, watching our children blossom.

“
Of course,” she beamed, squeezing me tighter.

I obliged, opening the back door and taking a few steps into the back garden with Jamie still in my arms. The back garden was pretty huge, in keeping with the house. Both were admittedly too large for just the two of us but I was thinking forwards. Besides, if the Carter household was anything to judge by, we’d pretty much have a revolving door of people coming and going and I was fine with that. I may
have butted heads with the guys a bit every now and then but, since they started treating Jamie the way she deserved, we got on pretty well for the most part.

Jamie squealed happily each time she saw something in the garden that she liked, getting particularly excited by the rope tyre hanging from a large oak near the end of the garden.