Page 29 of Love Lies Bleeding

“Fine, I understand.”

Jake shakes his head, as he holds my clit between his teeth, the sting of pain only making me wetter. My climax is so close it borders on pain at this point but a pain so good it feels like nirvana.

“I don’t believe you.”

His finger hooks inside me and teases that secret place that no man before Jake had found. A moan slips from my lips as every cell in my body screams for the release he holds hostage.

“I understand. Nobody but me. Not now, not before.”

“Or ever again, Blossom. You’re mine.”

“Yes. Oh, yes.”

He must be satisfied because he takes me over the edge, and I scream his name until my throat is sore and I’m sure the university is going to throw me out for making a spectacle of myself. Jake holds my thighs as he laps at me, drinking down every drop of my release like it was the water he needed to survive.

When I look down at him, my body limp from the climax he’d given me, I see his hooded eyes watching me with a smirk before he drops a kiss on my clit and I wince.

“Sore?”

I shake my head, as I feather my fingers through his hair and he lays his head on my inner thigh and almost purrs, as his eyes close. “No, just sensitive.”

His eyes pop open, and he grins at me. “I should probably give you a break before I fuck you then.”

God, his mouth is deliciously dirty and I find I like this side of him as much as the sweet caring one. “I feel like you’ve been holding back on me, Jake Marshall.”

“How so?”

“Well, you’ve shown the sweet, devoted, protective, hot guy, but this is the first time I’ve seen the dirty-talking sex god.”

“Does it scare you or put you off?”

He looks vulnerable as he asks the question and it reminds me that maybe I’m not the only one taking a risk. He has a reputation here and being with me might change that for him. I’m not the cute cheerleader or the girl next door, I’m different and loud sometimes, and abrasive and I’ve never felt the need to blend in, and yet he’s brave enough to want to do it anyway.

Sitting forward, I cock my head, as I palm his face, the stubble scraping my skin. “Nothing you could do would put me off you, Jake.”

“Nothing? What if I said I killed a man or I had a secret cross-dressing fetish?”

I study him, as he holds my gaze and I wonder if perhaps he does have a secret that he’s afraid for me to find out but it’s neither of those things. He’s just testing the waters around me. He has things in his past he’s ashamed of or have wounded him, just like I do, and that’s okay. We’re all a little broken in some ways, aren’t we?

“Not even those things.” And I found I meant it. “There are only two things that would make me walk away from you, and that’s lying to me or cheating on me. You do those, then we’re done, no matter how good the orgasms are.”

“I would never cheat on you, Blossom, and I don’t lie. I won’t say I haven’t in the past because I have. I was a punk, but I’m not that man anymore.”

I kiss him quick, worried I’ll blurt out my feelings for him if I don’t. He kisses me back lazily before pulling away. “How about we get some food and bring it back here and watch a movie?”

“Sounds perfect to me.”

10. Jake

This is what it feels like to walk on air. Knowing that Cherry is mine, that I can walk up to her and kiss her like I want to. That I can touch her, hold her, it feels like victory and redemption all in one.

We still have a lot to learn about each other. I still have secrets that she’ll need to know one day but not yet, not until she trusts me enough to hear them. I need her to know who I am now, so she can forgive the sins of my past later.

Snow falls, blanketing the ground as I walk towards the coffee shop where she’s working the late shift. I hate her closing up on her own and always make sure I’m there with her. I might rule this campus but, as evidenced by Brian Wills, there is always an asshole looking to make a name that will push his luck.

I’ve been around dickheads like him since I was a teen and went to that private school where I met Hunter. They thought they were special because of Daddy’s money or the name they were born with, but they weren’t. Yes, money gave you power but you only held power if you could wield it. Hank McKenzie has taught me that, he was the one to save me after I almost fucked up my life by falling in with Nicholas Kendrick the Third when Hunter and I were still in the early days of our friendship.

I’d been a stupid punk who hadn’t trusted that Hunter was who he said he was and followed Nicholas down a dark path, stealing a car for fun, which ultimately led to an innocent man’s death. I’d regretted it the moment I set foot in the car but I was wild and untrusting, surviving my own demons as best I could.

---