I purposefully pretended to think about it and Jaxon lunged for me, tickling me until I almost wet myself.
After our tussle, we lay there together, our breathing mingled and stared into each other's eyes. It felt like he’d waved the surrender flag and the relief I felt was overpowering. “My answer is yes. Yes, I’ll go out with you.”
Jaxon ran his knuckles down one of my flushed cheeks, his eyes boring into mine. He now looked quite serious. “Good. I should think so. Fuck me, you know how to make a guy work for it.”
A thought suddenly occurred to me. A fly in the ointment maybe. “What about our parents, Molly and Chris?”
He pursed his lips. “I think for starters we keep it between us. It would just complicate matters. Let’s take it slow without any interference, see how it goes.”
I was on board with his take it slow comment. At the end of the day, I was smitten now and knew how I felt, but I wouldn’t rush ahead and scare him off. I’d read an article in a magazine about men and commitment. Yes, I’d said I loved him during sex and he’d brought it up, but I hadn’t backed that up since. I would keep the full extent of my feelings for him to myself, for now. I didn’t however, like the idea of keeping it from my mother but I would have agreed with anything he asked at that point.
“OK. I can do that.” Why did I suddenly feel like a dirty little secret?
“So, shall we seal the deal?”
“Yes, please.”
Jaxon pushed his hand into my hair and lowered his mouth to mine.
After that bone-melting kiss, I slipped from his bed and gathered my clothes quickly, giving Jaxon a sexy wiggle as I left his room for mine.
When I got into my bathroom, I realised I’d lost my necklace. It had probably come off during our nighttime antics and I made a note to ask Jaxon to look for it.
For the rest of that morning, I concentrated on freshening up. I wanted to make myself look perfect for Jaxon, my secret love and now my new boyfriend. I was surely sitting on that cloud nine people talked about.
Twelve
Daisy and Marcus came back from their trip on Monday evening, and describing my life as complicated would be the understatement of the century. To be honest, the sneaking around thing hadn’t sat well with me when we’d discussed it, but it did add another element of excitement to our relationship.
Bit by bit, I started to smooth out the rough edges of my life, mainly to give myself more time to focus on my new relationship with Jaxon.
Marcus had helped me to block my father’s number from my phone as he had tried to contact me again. I knew that he and my mum had discussed her filing another restraining order, but wasn’t sure if they had done so. It wasn’t like Jenson would come and see us anyway, even if he knew where we lived.
I received a couple of texts from Dominic but I deleted them without reading them. I knew it would be awkward the next time we bumped into each other. I was still working the occasional days at the paper and so we were bound to run into each other at some point. I refused, however, to get into a text messaging scenario that Jaxon may have ended up seeing.
Chris was now aware that Jaxon and I were together and that it wasn’t just sex and had been sworn to secrecy. His sly glances between Jaxon and me across the dinner table were, however, borderline cat out of the bag. Luckily, my mother and stepfather were too wrapped up in themselves to notice. On the occasions Molly was there, she must have sensed something was different. Her resting bitch face spoke volumes.
Irrespective of all that other shit, things between Jaxon and I were good. He treated me well, so differently than before and spoke to me with respect in front of our parents and Molly when she visited. He even started to get along better with his father. I heard Daisy and Marcus talking about his change in behaviour in the kitchen one night. I had almost dropped the glass I was carrying when Daisy suggested that maybe he was in love or something. How I wished that were the case.
In respect of Jaxon and I getting busted, partway through the week, things did almost come to a head when Daisy handed me my name necklace. I was half pleased she had found it, but that other side of me panicked due to where she’d found it. At the side of Jaxon’s bed. I explained that I’d been in his room as he was helping me with my next article on mental health in the army. Which was of course a blatant lie, as there was no next piece. My performance certainly had BAFTA potential.
Jaxon and I went to the cinema a couple of times and out for a drive to the coast which was amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and was sure he did too. It felt like the bond between us was constantly getting stronger. We had made out in Jaxon's car, with the waves crashing on the shore beneath us and even though I didn’t think I could fall any harder; I had.
Chris was great at covering for us, but his assistance did not come without a price. He wanted me to set him up with Melody, so I had started to drop more hints about him to her and generally bigged him up.
As the colder weather came, Jaxon and I started to spend loads of time in his room. We sat on his bed together talking for ages, all innocent with the door open. Something Marcus had insisted on. I’d convinced my mother and stepfather that I had gotten into gaming, which of course gave us a reason to spend time in his room together (as well as my fake article shyte). When we knew the coast was clear, Jaxon and I threw ourselves into our own erotic gameplay and I don’t mean the kind with a console.
He was so attentive and literally worshipped my body. The foreplay between us was off the chart and I had been an eager learner when Jaxon had taught me all he knew about oral sex. The first time I had taken him into my mouth had turned me on just as much as him. I enjoyed pleasing him, he’d stroked my hair and had given me loads of encouragement. His gentle understanding treatment had smashed away those first-time nerves I experienced when trying something new.
Jaxon messaged me when I was in bed one night, asking what I was wearing and I couldn’t help myself from teasing him. He always threatened that I would pay and when we had the house to ourselves, I did, several times over.
The week before Chris went away to Uni, out of the blue, Marcus suggested a long weekend away on the Norfolk Broads. He owned a narrowboat. I had only been on it once. It was something Molly loved to do in the summer, mainly so she could lay on the boat all day sunbathing without having to pull her weight like a lazy cow. It wasn’t really my cup of tea, as I didn’t swim that well.
In the end, it worked out for the best. I had loads of paperwork to submit before my journalism course started and Jaxon was called to the base at the last minute. This meant Marcus, Daisy, Chris, and Molly all went to the boat and we got to stay at home. I had one night alone and then Jaxon joined me at the house.
It was fantastic, having that space to ourselves.
Jaxon cooked for me, breakfast, dinner and supper and we watched movies together most of the time. We spoke about his mother, and her death and I started to realise how his relationship with his father became so screwed up as Marcus had then jumped from woman to woman. We didn’t speak about my father too much as it was still quite painful; having only recently regained my memories.