Page 5 of Wedding Whitney (Alaska Blizzard #4.5)

Whitney

After a lovely day with Hailey and then dinner with Gran, my mother, and a handful of cousins and other female relatives, I feel happily exhausted as I finally settle down for the night.

Jake went golfing with my father and brother, and then they dragged him out to some bar.

He sounded annoyed when we briefly spoke on the phone, but I was busy having fun.

Now that I’m home and getting ready for bed, I feel a little guilty. Jake has been a really good sport about everything so far, even though I know he’s miserable, but we agreed we’d get through it, get past the wedding, and go on an epic honeymoon before heading home to start the rest of our lives.

We’re going to Europe since I love it and haven’t been there since I was a teenager, and Jake has never been at all, except for a hockey tournament once in Switzerland. It’s going to be a blast spending two weeks exploring as many cities as possible.

We’re both excited, but right now, it seems like a lifetime until we can get away.

Jake usually comes up to my room before bed, so we can have a little alone time together, but he’s still not home yet, and it’s after midnight. I trust him, but my brother is a womanizing weasel, so I have no doubt he’s trying to tempt Jake to do something he wouldn’t normally do.

As it gets closer to one in the morning, I pull out my phone and text him.

WHITNEY: Are you on your way home?

JAKE: I’m trying, but your brother’s making it hard. I want to bond with him but…

WHITNEY: You don’t have to. Really. You want me to come get you?

JAKE: I’ll get an Uber. I’m calling one now.

WHITNEY: I’ll wait up for you.

I put the phone in my pocket and pad down to the kitchen.

I decide to brew a cup of chamomile tea while I wait for him, which will hopefully help me sleep.

I don’t like sleeping without him, and though I think there’s some romance in the idea of abstaining until the wedding, I’m not enjoying it—especially not on nights like tonight when he’s out late, and I know he’s not having fun.

Jake doesn’t have to lie to me.

If he’s having a good time at a strip club or something with Brett and his friends, I wouldn’t mind, and he knows it.

He went out with the guys from the team before leaving Anchorage, and I was happy his teammates gave him a night to remember.

I’m secure in our relationship, so I’m not worried about him cheating on me.

He could do that any time, with his travel schedule with the Blizzard, and it makes no sense for me to stress about things like this. Maybe it’s na?ve, but we fought hard to find our way back to each other, so it serves no purpose to think about that kind of thing.

I sip my tea at the island in the kitchen, resting my chin on my hand and staring out at nothing as I wait for him.

Part of me wishes we were home in Anchorage, playing with our black lab puppy, Taz, and getting ready for the honeymoon of a lifetime.

I love my grandmother enough to indulge her in the big wedding, but it’s already getting tiresome.

I hear a step behind me and turn, smiling at the picture my fiancé makes. He’s a little sunburnt and tousled, but as handsome as ever. I tilt up my face for a kiss as he approaches me, and his lips skim mine gently.

“I missed you today,” I whisper against his mouth.

“I missed you too.” He presses his forehead to mine. “Wanna go upstairs and get naked?”

“Yes. Very much.”

I abandon my tea, and we hurry up the stairs as quietly as possible, locking the door to my room behind us.

I’m wearing nothing but a tiny silk chemise and panties under my robe, and he makes short work of taking them off.

I fumble with his belt buckle; it’s a jumble of limbs and mouths and pent-up frustration as he pushes me against the wall.

“I fucking hate sleeping without you,” he growls against my mouth.

“Me too.” I yank at his khakis impatiently. “Now, Jake, I need you now!”

He kicks off his pants, lifts one of my legs, and thrusts inside of me, raising me off the floor.

“Jake…” My voice is a breathy whisper.

“Mine,” he grunts, pushing into me again. “Say it.”

“ Yours .” My eyes fall closed, and I grip his shoulders, holding on for dear life as he pounds into me.

It isn’t like Jake to be so rough, but it’s kind of exciting too, and I lose myself in him. Fast or slow, gentle or rough, everything else stops when we’re together this way. This is our calm in any storm, the moments of tenderness and passion and pure need.

I must have made a sound of distress, because he suddenly slows down, his eyes on mine as he slowly thrusts back in.

“You okay?” he asks softly.

“Mm, yes. Just a little slower. I’ve missed you the last few days.”

“Sorry. I’m here now.”

We kiss and touch and make love as if we have all the time in the world, just like when we’re home in our own bed, our bodies moving together as we build up to a crescendo.

He knows every movement and touch that will get me off, and every time we touch is better than the last. The coiling deep in my belly is the first sign everything is about to spiral for me, and I tilt my head up to capture his mouth.

He drowns out my cries of ecstasy as his tongue swirls with mine, his orgasm right on the heels of mine.

We finish almost as quickly as we started, and I chuckle against his shoulder.

“That might be the quietest I’ve ever been when we make love.”

He dips his head, a faint smile on his lips. “If I couldn’t make you scream, then it probably wasn’t my finest hour.”

“Any time you’re touching me, that’s your finest hour.”

“I love you, Whitney.”

“I love you too.” I pause, wrapping my arms around him. “Do you want to tell me what happened today?”

“Yeah.” He slowly lowers me to the ground. “I really do, because I feel like your brother is going to be a problem.”

“What happened?”

“Can we get into bed first?”

“Sure.” We crawl beneath the covers, and he tells me everything.

I frown. “There was an old clause, I think in my late grandfather’s will, but Gran has no such stipulations.”

“Are you sure?”

I pause. “I mean, I guess it’s possible, but she knows I’m not interested in having a baby just yet. I’ll probably be thirty before we have any, and she’s never said a word about moving up the timeline.” I eye him curiously. “That’s the plan, right? To eventually have a baby or two?”

“Yeah.” He’s absently stroking my back.

“Jake?”

“I think I want kids someday, but I’m not ready now, and I feel like there’s a lot of pressure on us to reproduce.”

“That’s what my family wants, which has nothing to do with what we want.”

“We don’t need your inheritance, but it seems like we should discuss walking away from it.”

“I don’t care about money. Truly. I make plenty with what I’m doing now, and you make a shit-ton. We’ve been diligent about our finances, and we’ve already started building our retirement portfolio. It’s not even a consideration as far as I’m concerned.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll talk to my grandmother in the morning, though. I’m going to put a stop to this bullshit with my father and brother.”

“I really love you, Whit, and just want you to be happy.”

“Love you too, and as long as we’re together, I am happy.”