Page 11 of The Pilot’s Good Girl (Praise Me Like Fire #3)

Ruby

Four Years.

It’s hard to believe how much can change in that time. How much I’ve changed.

Today, Jake and I are officially opening the doors to the retreat we built together—our own haven for survivors, just like us. A place where people can come and lay down their guilt, their grief, their invisible weight.

People who need what we needed once: Hope. Healing. A second chance.

We have a section for accident survivors, another for military heroes. One for frontline responders, and smaller circles tailored to those battling private wars. It’s taken years of planning, grant-writing, sweat, and sometimes tears…but we made it.

Jake and I made it.

It hasn’t been easy. I don’t think anything worth doing ever is.

But standing here, dressed in a soft champagne-colored dress, my heels sinking into the soil of the land we cleared with our own hands, watching people smile because of what we’ve built…

I feel full. Happy. Fulfilled in a way I didn’t think was possible when I arrived in Sun Valley four years ago with a broken heart and more guilt than I could carry.

My phone vibrates in my hand. I glance down at the screen as a new message pops up.

Mom: Congrats. I know Morgan would be proud.

It’s short. Clipped. There’s no emoji, no “love you,” no offer to call. But my heart still swells.

Because four years ago, she was barely even speaking to me.

We’ve come a long way, my parents and I. It’s not perfect, not like it was before Morgan died. But it’s better than the silence that used to sit between us like a tombstone. I’ve forgiven myself. I think, in her own way, my mom has forgiven me too.

Baby steps, Jake always says. And he’s right. We got here, one honest, painful, beautiful step at a time.

Speaking of my husband…

My eyes find him across the lawn, standing with a group of sharply dressed men who look like they belong in a boardroom, not out here in the Idaho wilderness.

He’s clean-shaven tonight, looking fresh-faced and wholesome…

well, mostly. The black button-down he’s wearing hugs his shoulders in a way that makes me think very unwholesome thoughts.

He laughs at something one of the men says, his head tilted back, the corners of his eyes crinkling with that boyish mischief I’ve come to adore. He looks so alive. So magnetic.

Even now, four years later, he still manages to take my breath away.

As if he can feel me thinking about him, he looks in my direction and our gazes clash. Everything else fades away—the crowd, the music, the gentle clinking of champagne glasses—until it’s just him and me. Still. Always.

He holds my gaze for a moment, then murmurs something to the group and starts walking toward me. My heart skips excitedly.

It’s time!

I dip my hand into the cooler just beside the dessert table, my fingers brushing against the stash I asked one of the teen volunteers to hide for me. I pull out a water balloon, cold, plump, perfect, and press my lips together, hiding the grin that threatens to give me away.

It’s been four years of plotting. This time, I get the drop.

Jake slows down, narrowing his eyes at my suspicious behavior. “Ruby…” he warns.

“Jake,” I reply sweetly, chucking the balloon.

It smacks him in the chest, dead center, with a satisfying splat. He gasps, drenched and stunned, a crowd of guests around us bursting into laughter and applause.

“I owed you one!” I yell over the noise, grinning like a kid.

He shakes his head, water dripping from his shirt, but he’s smiling, his eyes brimming with mirth. “You little menace.”

“You love it.”

“Damn right I do.”

When he reaches me, his hand slides around me to cup my butt possessively. “I missed you,” he whispers huskily, arching his eyebrows suggestively.

“Can’t stay away, huh?” I tease, despite the warmth spreading across my cheeks. “Little obsessed with me, aren’t you, fireman?”

He smirks. “Takes one obsessed person to know another, sweetheart. I saw the way you were ogling me across the lawn like I was a dessert on display.”

“I was trying to figure out who let you out of the house wearing that shirt.”

“You picked it out,” he deadpans.

“Exactly.” I grin. “Because I like watching you suffer.”

He steps closer, so close I can feel the heat rolling off him. His voice drops low, just for me. “First, you get me wet, and now you keep teasing me like that? Baby, I think we’re gonna have a real problem.”

“Oh?” I whisper, sliding a hand up his soaked chest. “What kind of problem are we talking about?”

Heat flares in his eyes. “The kind that ends with that pretty dress of yours bunched up around your waist.”

I suck in a breath, my core clenching at his words.

“Wanna get out of here?” he murmurs.

“Yes,” I say instantly.

Jake grabs my hand, and without looking back, we slip away from the party, laughing and stumbling through the grass like teenagers sneaking out past curfew.

This right here is exactly why I’m still senselessly in love with Jake. The silly banter. The little unplanned adventures. His unfailing devotion.

The fact that he never stopped keeping his promise. He’s still protecting me. Still loving me like I’m the most precious thing in the world.

This is why, even after all these years…I’m still falling.

Jake continues walking toward the back trail, where string lights fade into shadows and the pines grow thicker. He knows exactly where he’s going.

When we’re far enough from curious eyes, he turns on me, crowding me against the side of the maintenance shed, one arm braced above my head, the other curling around my waist. His mouth crashes down on mine before I can even catch my breath.

I whimper against him, my body burning already.

I moan into his mouth, tilting my head to deepen the kiss.

He tastes like whiskey and sin. Like my husband. Like everything I crave.

He slides his tongue into my mouth, kissing me harder, rougher. I open for him without hesitation, my body melting into his.

“You’ve been driving me crazy all damn night,” he growls against my lips. “That dress…those heels…knowing every man in that crowd wanted to look at you the way only I get to.”

“Jake…” I gasp, tugging his wet shirt loose from his pants. I slide my hands under it, over his warm skin and tight muscles. “We shouldn’t. The party…our guests…what if someone notices we’re gone?”

He nips my neck and runs his hot tongue over my skin. “Then they’ll know who the boss is around here. You think I give a fuck if they hear you calling me Daddy?”

My whole body shivers in response.

God, he knows exactly what that does to me.

I swallow hard, lips brushing his ear. “Then take me, Daddy.”

The sound he makes is almost feral. In one fluid motion, he spins me around and hikes up my dress, groaning at the sight of my lace panties.

“Fuck, baby. You came out here lookin’ like dessert.” He hooks his fingers around the waistband and tugs them down my thighs. “Let me show you what happens when you tease Daddy.”

He bends me forward, braced against the shed wall, and kneels behind me. His mouth is on me in seconds. Hot, insistent, devastating. I bite my fist to keep from crying out, but it’s no use. He devours me like he’s starving, until I’m trembling, gasping his name.

“Such a good girl,” he murmurs between strokes of his tongue. “Taste so fuckin’ sweet, baby. God, I love you.”

“Jake, please—”

“Tell me what you want,” he commands, standing behind me now, his belt undone, breath ragged.

“You,” I moan. “I want you. Now.”

He thrusts into me with one smooth stroke, and we both cry out. He pulls out, slowly sliding into me again. And again. Slow, torturous thrusts. My vision swims in front of me, my body overwhelmed with the intensity of the pleasure coursing through my veins.

The he increases his pace, fucking me now in that filthy way he knows I like. I press my palm harder against the wall, grappling for support and a sense of reality.

He holds me by the hips, pounding into me like a man starved. One hand snakes around to rub tight circles over my clit while the other fists in my hair, keeping me right where he wants me.

“Who do you belong to?” he growls against my neck.

“You, Daddy,” I gasp. “Only you.”

“Say it again.”

“I’m yours, Daddy. Always.”

His rhythm grows wilder, hips slamming into mine with delicious purpose. I can feel the orgasm building, coiling hot and tight in my belly. And suddenly, it crashes over me.

I scream his name, my voice echoing loudly in the woods. I don’t care who hears now…I can’t help myself. Jake follows with a strangled groan, spilling inside me with one final, brutal thrust.

We collapse together, tangled and breathless. He whispers my name, wrapping his arms around me from behind as we sink to the grass. I can feel his heart pounding against my back, his lips at my temple.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” I say after a long stretch of peaceful silence. I can feel my heart swell as the words spill out of my mouth, the same feeling I had when I found out for sure this morning. I’ve been waiting for the perfect time to tell my husband, and this seems to be it.

“There is?” he hums, kissing my shoulder, then my arm and neck…

“Seems you’ll be getting called Daddy more often now,” I say softly.

He stills, then slowly pulls back to look at me. “What?”

I smile, placing his hand over my belly. “We’re having a baby, Jake.”

“You’re serious?”

I nod, lip trembling. “Just confirmed for sure this morning. I wanted to wait until after the event to tell you. Thought maybe…we’d have something else to celebrate.”

For a moment, he just stares at me, like he’s trying to make sure this is real. And then his face breaks into the biggest, most boyish grin I’ve ever seen.

“Ruby…” He kisses me hard, then again, then again. “Baby. You’re…god, you’re gonna be the most beautiful mom.”

Tears sting my eyes. “You’re happy?”

“Happy? I’m fucking over the moon.” He laughs, scooping me into his lap. “You just gave me everything I ever wanted.”

He cradles my face, his gorgeous blue eyes soft and full of wonder.

“You’re mine, Ruby. My wife. My everything. Forever and ever. And now I get to raise a little wild thing with you? That’s the dream, sweetheart.”

We sit there tangled up in each other, our hearts full with love, hope, and a future even more beautiful than the dream we’re living right now.

He kisses me again, agonizingly slow this time. I wrap my arms around his neck, giving myself up to him.

I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. Even in my next life, I’d choose Jake Pearson.

Always and forever.

~The End