Page 75 of Jackson

Ayen breathed out slowly, leaning back into my side once more. “I owe you guys so much.”

“Just stay out of trouble, that’s all I’m asking,” she said.

I pressed my lips softly against Ayen’s forehead. “I think we can manage that.”

CHAPTER 31

Ayen

Jackson’s housein the city was as nice as I’d been expecting it to be.

A raised ranch on a quiet cul-de-sac that was painted a light shade of yellow to compliment the ridiculously blue California sky behind it. The rest of the neighborhood was quite the same, giving that picturesque feel to it that I’d only ever seen in magazines before while waiting in line at the grocery store.

This was the kind of neighborhood that a golden retriever and a family of four made sense in, and it felt wildly disproportionate to be bringing someone likemeinto it, given my history.

But none of that seemed to matter to Jackson at all, or faze him when I practically fainted at him offering me a room at his place.

How the hell did I deserve any of this?

This morning, I’d woken up in a damn jail cell and now, I was walking up the perfectly groomed lawn of a man who hadfought to free me. All of it felt too surreal to even fathom, let alone believe that it would be my life for the next however-long Jackson decided to keep me around.

Carrying my little box of worldly possessions with me up to the red front door, I felt a rush of relief roll through me when he unlocked it and ushered me inside.

I loved this man. So much that it was actually ready to burst out of me.

“Want a tour?” he offered.

I dropped the box by the door and grabbed onto his tie again, wrapping it around my hand twice to pull him down. “Maybe later.”

His mouth was hot on mine, tilting enough to deepen our kiss and draw a moan out of the both of us. He grabbed onto me, his hands on my hips, and spun me around to press me against the wall right next to the door while his hard body ground into me.

Finding out that he missed me was the best news out of all of it.

Sure, our sparkseemedlike it hadn’t died throughout our letters, but that was all subtext in order to get around the COs reading them, anyway. Seeing it—feeling it—in person, was a whole different story.

One of his hands smacked the back of his front door closed and then he rapidly stripped me of my uniform and tossed both scrub pieces onto the floor. Then he was sweeping me up and throwing me over his shoulder like a sack of flour.

I laughed and kicked my feet, giddy like a fucking teenager. “I missed you, too.”

He slapped my bare ass. “Ayen, you have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”

God, that was music to my fucking ears.

I got a quick sweeping look of his house on the way back to his bedroom. It was well kept and modern looking with plenty of natural light coming in from the large bay windows in the living room. A lot of it was an open concept, aside from the kitchen that was blocked off with a thick wall separating it from the rest of the house.

My gaze trailed along the walls of the hallway when we went down it. Pictures of Jackson with friends and Roxy were all displayed, along with a few of a man I didn’t recognize but who looked startlingly like Jackson in an armed forces uniform.

Carter.

I smiled at the picture. He was just as handsome as Jackson was.

The hallway disappeared in place of the walls of Jackson’s bedroom where I was tossed unceremoniously down onto the bed.

Another laugh bubbled up from my throat and I clumsily grabbed at Jackson to pull him up onto the bed with me, not caring that he was halfway through trying to get himself out of theincrediblywell-fitted suit he was wearing.

Damn, I need to find an excuse to get him back in that again.

His lips found mine again while one of his hands grabbed onto my shoulder to press me back down onto the mattress. It was soft under me and felt like a damn cloud with how thick the duvet was.

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