Page 14

Chapter 14

“B ut you can only have one. One. As in, singular.”

“Narrowing it down to just one seems fairly strict.” My brows creased as the multiple things I’d offered filtered through my mind.

“Oh, I apologise, ‘Miss I have rules for everything other than when we talk about our goals for the year’.” His chuckle from behind shook through me and I felt my lips curl, my fingers absently drawing patterns on his forearm laced around my stomach. If I turned to look out the window I would see the sun slowly peeking over the horizon, the start of another day. The unbidden signal for us to revert back to our non-sexual companionship. But I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving the warmth of this bed and spending each moment looking for ridiculous reasons to brush past him so my hand could accidentally graze his skin.

“Maybe it’s okay to break the rules this one time.” The words felt foreign leaving my mouth.

“Are you asking me or telling me?” He said incredulously, noting my unfamiliar lilt at even speaking such blasphemy. “Could you go the entire day without rules? A day where anything went and spontaneity was the word?”

I raised my chin so I could show him my scrunched face and his eyes lit up, excited by the prospect or what he thought I would say – I couldn’t be sure. Even thinking about a day where I didn’t have each minute at least tentatively mapped made my skin feel tingly, my hands reaching for the sheet draped over our bodies, my fingertips rubbing circles on the edges.

“Absolutely,” I lied, my mouth pressing into a thin line.

Jack laughed loudly this time, sitting up as he began coughing from the sheer propensity of the unexpected intake of breath. I took the opportunity to leap out of bed and race into the bathroom, desperate for a second alone.

We fell asleep late last night and woke up coiled like a twisted chain. Even in sleep we reached for each other, subconsciously knowing our time was reaching its expiration date. Immediately commencing where we left off, he again brought me to climax with his tongue and teeth, eliciting an elixir of dual intoxication – pain and pleasure swirling until my vision blurred and I lost all control. I’d reciprocated with an eagerness I’d never experienced. With Jack, I found pleasure in the art of giving, and watching his face as he emptied himself down my throat was the single hottest moment of my life.

“There is no way you could go a day without mentioning the word rule, let alone actively choosing not to follow them.” I felt my lips tug at the mockery in his tone through the open doorway as I finished hastily brushing my teeth and returning to bed.

“I’m certain I can go all day without following a rule. In fact, I will not follow a single rule until you leave tomorrow night. Legalities aside – I will not break the law, even for you,” I huffed.

He raised his blow contemplatively, his mind ticking as his dimple popped with the cheekiness of his grin.

“Let’s make it interesting,” he said conspiratorially.

I raised a brow of my own waiting for an explanation I was confident would make me twitch. My eyes narrowed as I drew out my reply. “Okayyyyy.”

“You last until tomorrow night without following or mentioning rules and I will stay another week.”

“Done,” I agreed confidently, willing to do anything if that was on offer.

“Wait, silly. You haven’t heard the rest!” He held up his hand to stop me, my conviction instantly evaporating. “But if you mention rules or you refuse anything I suggest based on or because of them, then tomorrow night, you leave Willow Bay with me and come to the city – for an entire month.”

I felt the colour drain from my face, the immediate refusal on the tip of my tongue like a snake ready to strike the second I opened the cage.

I never took unplanned leave because the guidelines stated unless it was an emergency, your supervisor required three months notice.

I never even used sick days because working from home made pushing through much easier. There was no need to disrupt the company.

I followed rules because they were there for a reason. Hell, I created my own in situations where they didn’t already exist, because it meant circumstances were predictable and measures were controlled.

Two whole days without them with the consequence of failure an impromptu month in a big city was enough to make my gums itch. And the haughty manner in which Jack was shaking his head from side to side told me he had zero confidence in my ability to say yes let alone do it. He thought I would refuse because I was so damn predictable. Devoid of any form of flexibility or spontaneity.

Big black letters sprayed across my locker in high school – Robot Princess Bitch – resurfaced and the humiliation was as raw as the day I discovered the slur. The pain of being exactly what they all said I was, knew I was, as fresh as all those years ago.

“Deal.” I said, a sick sense of pleasure overshadowing the jitters at the way his eyes widened for a nanosecond before his big, confident smile returned, dimples on full display.

“Are you serious?” I couldn’t help but giggle at his incredulous tone. He was as excited as a child on Christmas morning.

“You underestimate me, Grant.”

He grabbed me by the waist, throwing me down onto the bed, the sun beaming through the windows, making it supremely obvious it was no longer night time.

“No rules means our arrangement has no more limits, right?”

“Mmmmhmmmm,” I answered, the promise of chaos already making my skin prickle. But maybe in a good way.

“Excellent,” he said before speaking against my lips. “Because I am going to F-U-C-K you while the morning light sweeps across your face in the most beautiful of ways.”

I grinned against his mouth, opening to tease his tongue with my own, before gingerly wrapping my arms around his neck. Rules like this were definitely meant to be broken.

“Okay, so about that goal?” Jack was lathering sunscreen into my back and I rolled my eyes, thankful he couldn’t see my face.

“Urgh. I hoped you’d forgotten.”

“Here,” he handed me the sunscreen and moved to sit in front so I could return the favour.

I took my time listlessly gliding the cream over the contours of his back, both enjoying the task and determining which I would admit.

“My 2025 goal is to send my manuscript to a publishing house.”

He swung around, his face alight with pride. “Win, that’s awesome. Andy’s fiance Arna works in the industry and apparently she reads constantly. Want me to ask her?”

“That would be good actually. I have no idea where to even start so if you wouldn’t mind.”

“She will probably use it as an opportunity to finally meet you. She was super pissed when she heard you’d come to stay and she hadn’t met you yet.”

“Why?” I was confused. No one ever wanted to meet me, especially anyone from Jack’s world. I was always the painful plus one he thrust into situations where everyone wished I wasn’t there.

I tapped his back indicating he was thoroughly protected from the UV and laid back on the poolside recliner.

“What do you mean why? Because you matter to me. I’m fairly certain she thought I made you up for a while until Andy confirmed he had in fact met you before.” He shook his head but I could see the warmth on his face. These were his friends and he cared about them. As much as it made me happy he wasn’t alone I couldn’t help the little bit of jealousy which crept in. Jealousy at the time and attention which used to belong to me but was now spread with a circle of people I didn’t even know.

“I know I always say no because I am a socially inept loser, but I would really like to meet your friends one day.”

He walked to the edge of the pool and stretched. “There is nothing I want more than for you to meet them all. They would love you. Especially Arna, Marlee and Felicity. You would definitely need earplugs because they are loud as fuck, but you would love them.” He dove into the water, surfacing at the edge near my feet. “Come on, get in.”

“I can’t,” I said pressing the button on my phone so I could see the time. “It’s only been eighteen minutes since we ate.”

“So?”

“You have to wait thirty minutes after eating. That’s the r–” I stopped, slapping a hand over my mouth and jumping up.

“That’s what?” He asked teasingly.

“Argh, nothing. I just need – urgh nevermind.” I added forcefully which made Jack laugh and splash water at me. God. These ingrained bullshit things were so natural to me. I needed to be more careful otherwise he was going to win and my life would become unplanned.

I dipped my toe in, testing the temperature. Maybe I could stand here testing the water for twelve more minutes.

“Just get in, would you?” He called with raised eyebrows.

“Fine,” I huffed, diving into the pool and surfacing next to him.

“What’s your goal?” I asked, realising he hadn’t told me his.

“To do a handstand for ten seconds.” He said, dipping below the water as his legs suddenly appeared. I laughed as not even two seconds later his feet collapsed as gravity brought him back to the surface.

“That was terrible. And it doesn’t count. Proper answer.”

“Hmmm. My goal for this year…” He paused, his lips pulling to one side in thought, “My goal is to forgive myself for a stupid mistake.”

The sincerity in his confession made my heart squeeze. Always my protector, it wasn’t often I saw him as anything close to vulnerable, but that incident changed him and it was so good to hear him set this goal.

“I think that’s perfect,” I responded sincerely. “We all make mistakes. It’s time you moved on, I’m sick of your whining.” I joked. “I have another goal. I want to come and see you play at least three times this year.”

He leapt towards me, gripping my hips and swirling me in the water.

“Now you’re talking dirty, Win. I would love that. I can even get you a private place to sit where it’s heaps quieter and away from my adoring fans. There are a lot of them.” I rolled my eyes and he moved in, pressing his wet mouth against my own tenderly.

“I love having no rules.” He grinned. “And I really would love to see you more. I hate that I’m leaving tomorrow.” The sudden reminder of how in just over twenty-four hours he would again escape this place, with my heart firmly packed in his luggage, made me want to cry. But I was determined not to make it any harder for him. The last thing I needed was for him to realise just how much I wanted him to stay forever, our lines already so blurry.

“You only care because you’ll miss these two,” I said, flicking my eyes at my chest and back up to him.

“It’s true. I have grown fond of Autumn and Spring,” he said, reaching around and easily untying my swimming top.

“Oh my god.” I giggled trying desperately to grab the ties now floating somewhere behind me, while Jack did his best to pull it up and over my head. “You are so annoying, Jack-Off.” I bantered.

“Stop fighting, it will make it so much easier.” He protested, splashing around haphazardly before he eventually succeeded. He cupped my chest in his hands and my smile died when I looked into his heated gaze.

His thumbs slowly drew circles around my taut nipples and my lips parted with the sudden increase in my breathing. I was still a little sore from last night, but my body didn’t seem to care, a fervent hunger pooling in my stomach.

“Again?” I asked while simultaneously reaching for his swimming trunks, putting my hand inside to griphis thick cock. A vehement pulse beating in my swimming bottoms when his eyes closed and his own hand grazed below the water to reciprocate.

“Always.” He answered as I laggardly stroked him below the surface.

With our time coming to end, these stolen moments were only going to last another day and I would take whatever I could when it came to this man. Because tomorrow night, he was going to pull the trigger on my heart and I wasn’t sure if I would have the strength to recover.