Hope Breaks: A New Adult Romantic Comedy (10 page)

“A little late night reading,” he laughed.  I wanted to throttle him.  “I bet I know what this is!”

He turned his head to look at the cover…
and then he blinked.

“
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
?” he said, his tone questioning.

I grabbed the book from his hand and tossed it back in the drawer.  “So I like sci-fi comedies.  Can we just find the condoms?”

He shook his head, wheezed out a little bark of a laugh, and returned his attentions to finding my box of condoms.  He pulled out bubble gum, a hair scrunchy, an old Jonas Brothers CD—how did that get in there?—and a tampon before he finally uncovered the box of condoms.

Maybe I would have preferred him finding Mr. Wiggles.

Jake scrutinized the plastic wrapped package in his hand.  “Midnight Magic?”

How was I going to tell him that I’d done an extensive condom search to find the one that felt best on my poor va-jay-jay without sounding like a total slut?  I’d have to admit to having Mr. Wiggles in the back of the drawer
, and live down the guaranteed hysterics that would ensue.

So I lied.

“I asked my neighbor what ones were best.”

His eyes watched me for a second.  I kept eye contact, even though it was killing me.  And then his expression relaxed.  “The peeping tom?”

Good… he bought it.  “She likes to go by ‘Bette’.”

He snickered and then leaned down on the bed—and me—planting his elbows as he used both hands to open the condom packet.

Well… tried to open it.  After about sixty seconds of low cursing and fumbling thumbs, it was my turn to snicker.  I knew from experience that the Midnight Magic packets were slippery suckers.

I plucked the foil packet from his hand with two fin
gers, held it to my mouth between thumb and forefinger, and then bit the sucker open with my teeth.  Smooth, practiced—you should have seen how his eyes lit up and his face got that slack-jawed sexual awe look.

Triumphant, I pulled the shiny green condom out of the wrapper and wriggled my eyebrows. 

“Can I help you on with it?”  My voice was all whispery and breathless.

I think he growled.  “I’d appreciate the assistance.”

I reached down and took hold of Jake’s still wondrously hard equipment.  He gasped and jerked, an amalgam of pain, surprise, and ecstasy flashing on his oh-so-handsome face.

“Sorry,” I said.  I guess I’d grasped hold of him a little harder than I’d intended.  Bad
Hope!  Don’t know your own strength.

I placed the condom on the beautiful tip of his penis and gently rolled it down over his tapered
head, then further down the length of his shaft.  The Midnight Magic brand was not only silky smooth, but they were extra large—and Jake had no problem filling it.  Actually, he filled it so well that the latex sheath became extra shiny in the dim light of my bedroom.

I rolled the rubber down his long shaft until it petered out right at the base of his sex.  I strok
ed him with both hands, unable to resist holding and caressing his turgid member.

Jake’s face went slack with loss of control.  I had him…
by the balls, and he was powerless to do anything but ride out the pleasure.

I leaned up and licked his neck, right where it met his clavicle.  His arms started to shake, and suddenly he leaned on one elbow, and with his free hand grabbed hold of my hands, holding them in place on his cock.  His breathing was labored.

“You trying to kill me?” he rasped.

I guess I was in some sort of trance, because it took me a moment to realize he was speaking English to me.

“What?”

“You keep trying to push me over the edge…
and we haven’t even started having sex yet.”

I shook
my head.  What did he mean?  We’d been having sex for… I looked over at my bedside clock, but it was being obscured by something.  Plus, I had no idea what time it had been when we’d gotten back to my place.

As if sensing that my head was suddenly swamped by too many thoughts, Jake leaned down and kissed me. 
It worked.  My mind cleared to a lovely blank.  All I knew were his lips and the soft sound of our breathing.

His lovely mouth traveled down my neck, and lower to my breasts, sucking each nipple into his mouth, licking and nipping at them with his teeth.

Then I felt his weight shift atop me, and the head of his massive manhood press against my opening.  Between the oral sex and the blind lust that had been riding me most of the evening, I was pretty sure I was ready for him.

More than ready…
I was dying to have him inside me.

His face dropped to the side of my face, his lips right by my ear, and he shuddered as he pushed down into me.

So did I.  The pleasure, the elation, the rapture of at last having him pushing into me was so intense I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t pass out. 

There was some pain—I hadn’t had anything but Mr. Wiggles between my legs in years—two years, six months and nineteen days, to be exact.  But it melded with the pleasure effortlessly.  As I stretched inside to accommodate him, he pushed in further, and as he did, he pushed up with his arms, the chorded muscles bulging and trembling.  His flesh was shiny with a sheen of sweat, and his face had that tortured, rapturous look you only saw in old masters’ painting.

The sight of him as he slid home, the feel of him filling me completely, the scent of him, so masculine and strong, and the lingering taste of him on my lips—it all pushed me over the edge.

I lost control of my body.  One leg wrapped around his hip, pulling him to me.  The other leg was braced up against his torso, hanging over his brawny shoulder. 

My arms flew out and grasped for something to hold onto.  It felt as if the world was hurtling away and we had suddenly been flung out into outer space.

My hand hi
t something on my bedside table, there was a sudden flash of light—I think…my eyes were clamped shut in bliss—and then there was the muted sound of something plastic hitting the floor.

My mind didn’t give any of it a second thought…
or a first one.  It had its metaphorical hands full processing the pulsing, overwhelming joy, and delight I was feeling.  It rippled over my flesh, burned through my veins, and pounded with increasing strength with every beat of my heart.

Jake’s head bowed, his face falling into shadow, as his hips pulled slowly away, and his manhood pulled
out of me with excruciating slowness.

I shook violently, my body screaming for him to return, my mind trying to come up with words to make him stay within me…forever.

He didn’t need my coaching.  He pushed back into me, just as slowly as he’d extricated himself from me, filling me once more with his girth and length.

I hissed my satisfaction, and reached up, grabbing hold of his face with both hands, pulling his lips to mine.  The kiss was rushed and desperate, and his arms lost their strength, causing his hard body to topple onto mine.

Which I liked just fine.  I didn’t want anything—not even air—to get between Jake and me.

Jerkily he pulled in and out of me.  We gasped for breath as our bodies melted together over and over again.  From time to time I could hear the rain falling outside, and it mixed with the sounds of our lovemaking. 

This was the soundtrack of life.  And love was the beat, the heart, the ultimate force pushing us through our days.

And it was all the more beautiful together.

Together…

I felt it wash over me without the slightest warning.  Hot and divinely powerful, the wave of my
orgasm slid over me, drowning me in bliss and release.  I’d thought I’d been having orgasms, but I realized as this force of nature roared through my veins, that they had been pale imitations.  There was really no substitute for human sexual contact.  Sorry Mr. Wiggles, our relationship had been lies—smoke and mirrors.

This was real.  This was what I’d been hungering after for oh
, so long. 

I fell back into it, letting it pull me under in invisible arms,
giving up all control.

When I opened my eyes Jake was staring down at me, the look on his face was so strange.  The look a child has on Christmas morning. 

I took a breath to ask what was wrong, but he placed his forefinger over my lips.

“That’s number one,” he said, and before I could ask what he meant, he showed me.  Dipping his face down and capturing my lips as his body hardened and he surged into me once more, tearing moans and happy screams from my lips as he pushed me toward that cliff once more.

I dug my fingernails into his shoulders and he gasped as I clamped my sex tighter around his. 

He was coming with me this time.

Chapter 1
4

THE MORNING SUN GLOWED through my sleep-laden eyes, its rays waking me from probably the best sleep I’d had in years.  It also soothed me, gently caressing my flesh with its warmth.

Something smelled good too.  Something unfamiliar yet
undeniably needed.  I breathed it in and sighed, and then realized that my head was not lying on a pillow, but on something warm and alive… and naked.

A naked man…

That should have woken me up—but I just pushed it off as yet another really good Brad Pitt dream.  I snuggled in and rubbed my cheek against Brad’s strong, smooth chest.

T
hen that chest shook with laughter… and the voice laughing wasn’t Brad’s.

I shot upright in my bed
, pulling the sheet up over my chest, my eyes snapping over my bedroom, at the scattered clothes and the knocked over objects of my bedroom—including the lamp from my bedside table.

I turned and looked at the man in bed with me…

I blinked and squinted…

He was better looking than Brad. 
At the moment he was rubbing his eyes and grimacing into the morning light streaming in through my window. 

Jake…

Oh boy, I was in bed with Jake…

I was naked in bed with Jake…

And from the way I’d just hogged the covers, exposing a wonderfully bare hip and leg, Jake was naked too!

Oh boy…

Okay… I’d slept with Jake…

But I didn’t remember it…

Damn, drat, double damn…

I had to remember it, didn’t I?

It was probably the best sex any woman has ever had and I freaking forgot it?  Somehow, I hit delete instead of auto-save!

No, not possible…

After all, I’d never lost time before… this wasn’t freaking fair!

Jake’s warm, strong hand slipped over my shoulder, his calloused fingers stroking down my arm.

I was suddenly back in last night, in this bed, with Jake against me, around me, inside me…

Ah, it all was coming back to me now…
just like the song said.

Jake pulled me to him and I sighed as I fell into his embrace, once again magically fitting perfectly into the nook under his arm.

I closed my eyes and inhaled again.  His flesh smelled even better with the light of day pressing in on it, warming it.  I wondered if it would taste better too.  So I kissed the firm, smooth flesh of his peck, and then gave him a quick lick.

Yummy…
even better than last night.

“You’re going to have to stop that,” Jake growled in a sleepy, sexy as hell voice.  “Or we’re never going to get out of this bed.”

“Would that be so bad?”

He chuckled.  “No, not at all.  But I have to be at work in about twenty minutes.”

“Maybe you should call off?”

He kissed the top of my head and shook his head.  “I’m an old fashioned kind of guy.  I go to work, no matter what.”

Part of me was ready to whine and grouse that I needed him to stay with me, to do all the things he’d done to me the night before again, and a few new things… if there were any.  Another part of me just loved that he was dependable… a man of his word.

There weren’t that many people
like that in this over hyper, over caffeinated world anymore.

“Fine,” I said with some haughty pout to my voice.  “Do you have time for some coffee?”

“There’s always time for coffee.”  He sat up, leaving me lying alone in my sheets as he stretched that beautiful, strong body and then dragged himself out of bed.

I lost my breath at the sight of him as he ambled across the hardwood floor of my bedroom and snagged his
jeans from where he’d pulled them off. Every part of him just seemed to flow into the next piece of him, as if an artist had rendered him in living marble.

I watched as he pulled his
jeans on, and then scratched his firm, hard ass.

Firm…
was there any part of Jake that wasn’t firm?

I had to tear my eyes from him and push my body to the other side of the bed just so I could make my mind think of anything other than that man naked.  I reached out for my silky canary yellow robe and felt a deep, wonderful soreness that I hadn’t felt in years.

It was as if I could feel him still inside me.

I shivered as I pulled my robe around me and pulled myself up to my feet.  My first steps were more of a stumble, but by the time I made it to my bedroom door I was almost walking in a straight line.

I looked over and saw Jake pulling his now dry black AC/DC t-shirt on over his head and shoulders.  I saw him stop and sniff his shirt, long and hard, as if it smelled divine.

Did it smell like me still?  Even
after the rain?

I walked out to the kitchen and flipped the switch on my coffee machine.  I always had it filled with the best Columbia had to offer, and ready to go.  Morning
s weren’t my best time of day, and the last time I’d tried to load my coffee machine when I had just woken up, I’d made a lovely pot of hot water… twice.

I stood there in the golden morning light and listened to the coffee percolate, to the sounds of my familiar house…
and the sounds of a man pulling on his clothes and using my bathroom.

That was even more unfamiliar than post sex soreness.  
For a scary little moment I almost got pulled into an unwanted and better forgotten memory.

Relationships, even bad one
s, had good moments… sometimes even great moments.

I shook my head and stared hard out my window, at Bette’s house, at my birdbath, grounding myself in the here and now.

Jake came up behind me and wrapped his muscular arms around me, pulling me against him.

Whether he had to get to work or not, he was hard against my backside.

He kissed and nibbled at my neck.

“Coffee’s ready,” I said, reaching out and grabbing a couple mugs from my cupboard and filling them.

I then moved out of his hold, got the cream from the fridge, and made my coffee.  Two teaspoons of sugar too.

Jake sipped his coffee black and smiled.  “You make good coffee, Miss Jones.”

I had to smile back.  T-shirt and jeans aside, he sounded more than a little like a lecherous boss praising his secretary’s “skills.”

I suddenly had this strange feeling that something was off, that there was something we were forgetting to do.

Sex?

No time for that, and hell, hadn’t we had enough of that last night?

One look over at Jake and I knew that NO… and HELL NO we hadn’t had enough sex yet.

T
hen my belly growled, and then so did Jake’s.

Food!  That was what was missing.  Every time we’d done anything there had always been food.

I turned and pulled open the freezer compartment of my fridge.  I pushed past some frozen Brussels sprouts and a half eaten container of butter pecan ice cream to get to my favorite breakfast food.

Breakfast burritos…

They weren’t quite as good as McDonald’s but they were a great runner up.  And you didn’t have to get dressed and drive the ten blocks to the nearest drive through.  A quick wrap up in a paper towel, ninety seconds in my trusty microwave, and voila!  They were hot and steaming, and as much as my stomach was growling, they tasted like freaking ambrosia.

It had been so long since
I’d spent a night… well, spent a night doing anything at all with a member of the opposite sex, that I’d forgotten how exhausting it was.  But as the breakfast burrito filled my hungry belly, I realized that my exhaustion was the good kind.  The kind I hadn’t had in forever. 

Jake finished his food first, drained his coffee and grimaced at the clock on the wall.  For a second I thought he was making fun of my little cow clock.  And that was just so wrong.  The little cow slowly traveled the outside
of the clock, moving from one number to the next.  It mooed once for every hour, and the sun that it traveled past at noon changed—with the sliding off a little plastic door—to a smaller moon.  So in the evenings the cow jumped over the moon.

But then Jake checked his watch and sighed.

It was the time he was grimacing at.  That was okay… tragic that he had to go so soon, but… well, let’s just say he wouldn’t have liked the tongue-lashing I wouldv’e given him for disrespecting the cow.

“You’re leaving?”

“Got to,” he whispered as he came closer and slid his hands around my waist, his soft lips brushed over my earlobe, and then down my neck, ending in a gentle, spine melting kiss on my collar bone.

I lost it.  I reached up grabbed hold of his face with both hands, my palms making little slapping sounds as they fastened to both sides of his head, and pulled him into a desperate kiss.

The kiss seemed to last for a week as our lips got reacquainted, as I licked up into his mouth, as his strong, muscular arms pulled me closer.  One of his hands slid up my spine to hold the back of my head, the other slid downward and cupped a butt-cheek with a possessive squeeze.

Damn, that really got my engine going…

He started to let go, and pulled himself from my lips.

“I really have to go,” he said, smiling, his lips bruised beautifully from the kiss.

“Fine,” I said with feigned haughtiness.  “Go be a grown up.  I’ll just have to…” I shot him a naughty grin.  “I’ll just have to take care of… this feeling… all… by… my… self.”

Jake’s melted chocolate eyes went from smoldering to four alarm fire in about three seconds.  He leaned in closer and seemed on the verge of grabbing me up and dragging me back to the bedroom.

Unfortunately, he closed his eyes and shook his head, stepping slowly away from me.

“That was close…
you’re quite the seductress, Miss Jones.”

I grinned smugly as he backed away from me a few steps.  “I aim to please,” I said in a voice far more sultry than my own.  Maybe it was my inner
Mae West...

Probably my inner Sharon Stone.

He literally backed all the way out of my kitchen, as if I had a loaded gun pointed at him.  He gave me a little wave and a sexy smile as he started out of my foyer and through the front door.

“I’ll call you.”

I gave him a half-hearted return wave, and sipped my cooling coffee, thinking more of how he’d tasted than the coffee did.

He’d cheated.  His breath had been minty fresh.  He’d used some of my
Scope before we kissed.

Little stinker…

I heard his old truck start and then growl deeply as it sped away.

M
y house phone rang.  Almost no one called me on my “landline.”  I knew who it was anyways.  I rolled my eyes and picked it up. 

“Greg?” I teased.

“Very funny,” Jake groused though he was laughing.

“Oh, it’s you…
already?” I continued.

“You are so going to get it when I see you next.”

Breathe…

“Promises, promises.”

He growled through the connection.  I sauntered down the hallway from the kitchen to the front foyer, and then slipped out the door.  I sat down on my front step, not caring that all I was wearing was a silky robe and a smile.  The morning sun glowed warm on my bare legs.

“So do you have plans tonight, or do I have to make an appointment?”

I chuckled.  “I’ll have to check with my social secretary.  I’ll have her call you with the details.”

Another growl, this one lower and sexier than the last.

“Would you look at that,” I said breathlessly.  “You’re in luck… I’m free tonight.”

His growl turned satisfied.  “Good.  Wear something
rippable.”

My eyebrows shot up to my
hairline.  “You’re going to…?”

“Yep…”

“Oh… my…”

“Around eight?”

I had to swallow before I could speak.  “Eight it is.”

H
e hung up.

I sat there in the sun,
basking in the post-coitus afterglow, and the certain knowledge that the man that had given me the afterglow was making a return visit tonight.

Damn…

I saw a sold sticker slapped on the real estate sign in the yard next door.  A new neighbor.  I wondered how long it would take Bette to have the scoop on them. 

My phone rang and I picked it up from where I’d absently set it down, and hit the answer button.

“Now what?” I said with faux agitation in my voice.

“I’ve been calling and calling!” Janine’s voice erupted from the receiver.  My spine straightened and I gulped some air.  She sounded upset…
which was never good.

“What’s wrong?”

“Olivia hates the new cover photos.”