Page 45 of Pedal to the Metal

“A thank you. For what?” Jagger asks.

“For inadvertently telling Creed. You did something that I wasn’t ready to deal with and didn’t have the courage to do. If he hadn’t overheard, you talking to Duke who knows when I would have told him. And the longer I took the harder it would have been on him.”

“Well, then I guess you’re welcome," he tells me and before I know it, I’ve sat my bottle of water on the counter and closed the distance between us. I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss his lips. I hear him sit his beer down as both his hands warp around my waist, pulling me closer to him. One of his hands slowly moves up my back until it’s buried in my hair, he deepens our kiss.

At some point his hands move to the back of my thighs, picking me up as he sits me on top of the counter. I wrap my legs around his waist while his tongue teases my neck. A hand slips under my shirt and runs up my bare back. His tongue travels lower and I hear myself moan. He mumbles my name, and the warmth of his breath tickles my neck causing me to let out a small giggle. He pulls back and rests his forehead against mine and looks into my eyes but the way he’s looking it’s like he can see down into my soul.

“You know the best thing about this condo?” I ask him while smiling at him. He raises his eyebrows and I slide off the counter. Taking his hand, I lead him to my bedroom. I pull him inside the room then walk around and shut the door. I lean backagainst the door and slip off my jacket. “Farrah’s bedroom is all the way across from mine and upstairs, it’s like we have privacy.”

He chuckles as he approaches me, the look in his eyes sets a fire through my body. “You are so much trouble.” He takes the hem of my tank and pulls over my head then he pushes me back against the door. His kisses are heated and urgent. I grip his shirt and tip toe to pull it over his head. We make our way back towards the bed and fall on top in a heap of tangled limbs and the night drags on just like that.

****

I don’t know what time it is when I wake up, but I know it’s in the middle of the night. My sheet is wrapped around me tightly and I’m using Jagger’s chest as my pillow. His hand is stroking my hair and I wonder how long he’s been awake. I roll over onto my stomach, so I can see his face. “What’s wrong?”

His hand reaches out and strokes my cheek. “When I came tonight, I wasn’t sure what would happen, and I definitely didn’t see this happening.”

“Honestly neither did I but I’m glad it did," I admit to him. I take his hand in between mine and trace the lines of his palm.

“I came here to tell you something tonight.” I look back into his eyes and I feel my anxiety sky rocket. “I admitted that I thought you were embarrassed by me, and I think on some level I really thought that, but I think it’s more than that. I think I’m trying to ruin this because what I feel for you…scares the hell out of me Londynn.” He takes his free hand and rubs it over his face a few times. “What I felt Harlyn was real, I don’t doubt that but lately I wonder if Sadie wasn’t right. She said that even if Harlyn had lived that we might not be together because people grow and change. I was so convinced that after I lost her that I’d never feel like this again. That I’d never love again and then you walkedinto my life, and I don’t know it’s like every emotion is so much stronger now.”

I kiss the palm of his hand the close my hands around his. “I get what you’re saying but you have to know that everything happens for a reason even if we don’t understand it. I can’t begin to imagine the pain you felt from losing her, but it has shaped the man you are today.” I reach out and run my hand over his chest and through his small patch of chest hair to his heart. “And this man is a man that I could love.”

He lets out a breath I hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Good because I love you, Londynn.”

I stare into his amber eyes then I lean forward and press a kiss to his lips. To a lot of people this would seem too soon but to me it feels like I finally found my home. I finally found my freedom it just happens to be in the shape of Jagger James. When I pull away from our kiss, I rest my forehead on his and look into his eyes. “I love you too.”

****

Jagger

It’s been a week since Londynn and I had told each other that we were in love and honestly it had been one of the best weeks of my life. With the exception of those few moments when the silence set in, and I felt guilty. I still didn’t know if I had a right to feel like this. Did I have a right to move on? In those moments I would always feel like I was doing something wrong to Harlyn’s memory and the memory of the couple we had been. Luckily, I had managed to keep busy between the shop, finding my own place, going to Vegas and picking up the rest of my stuff and spending my night tangled up in Londynn’s bed I’d had very few of those silent moments.

Most of those moments would happen after Londynn had drifted off to sleep. I’d watch her sleeping on my chest, her hairsprayed out across my arm and pillow, the scent of flowers filling my every breath. She seemed so at peace when she slept but it was in those moments that I worried I was doing wrong by Harlyn. I’d try to go to sleep to silence my mind completely, but sleep wouldn’t find me. It wouldn’t be until Londynn woke up and saw me still awake then insist on some hot tea that I’d finally find total silence.

Today was moving day for me. I had found a small loft in the same area as Connor’s. Londynn had wanted to help me move but she had to work at the clothing boutique. I was surprised by how much she loved her job and how dedicated she was to it. To be honest, I figured after her first day she’d quit saying it wasn’t for her since she’d never worked before, but it seemed she liked the idea of making her own money. So, while she was at work I was moving with the help of my brothers.

My goal was to be all moved in by tonight because I planned on Londynn and I having our first official date here. A homemade dinner and movie but at the rate we were getting everything moved in it might not turn out that way. “Man, you own a lot of crap," Bowie said making his way through the door with the box springs. Ace was on the other end, but he had been uncharacteristically quiet today. I need to touch base with him and make sure everything was okay.

A few hours later and we had finally managed to get everything moved in and arranged. I started up my grill and laid some fish out for it, while I was making a salad that Creed had told me Londynn loved I saw Ace coming from the restroom. My other brothers had left already which I was thankful for since I needed to check on Ace. “Hey man, you doing okay?” He just shrugs in response. “Come on, come talk to me.”

“It’s Kynlee.”

“What about her?” I ask him.

“She told me she loved me the other night," he tells me, but I know there’s more to the story than that.

“And?”

“And I started an argument with her which caused her to storm out and we haven’t spoken since.” He tells me looking as guilty as ever.

“How long ago?”

“Three days," he replies.

“Three days! Three days and you haven’t talked to your girlfriend after she told you she loved you?” I exclaim.

Ace runs a hand over the back of his hair. “She isn’t my girlfriend!”

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