Chapter Twenty-Five
I’m really worried about Jake. He’s been so distant, so closed off these last few days in the lead up to his dad’s funeral.
It’s affected him so much more than I ever anticipated it would.
I guess, I just thought because he hadn’t seen his dad in so long, and what happened the last time he did see him, well … not that I thought he would be happy he’s dead, I suppose I just didn’t realise it would hit him so hard.
It’s like he’s here, but he’s not. And I’m worried that he’s slipped back into a time he’s tried so hard to forget.
It’s a hot August day here in Manchester, and I’m thankful for the sleeveless black linen dress I’m wearing and for the air-con in the BMW X5 which Dave is driving, taking us to Paul’s funeral. Stuart’s in the front next to him, and I’m in the back with Jake, who’s been staring out of the window since we left the hotel to make the journey to the crematorium. He’s wearing a black Armani suit, crisp white shirt and black tie, and dress shoes. It’s strange to see Jake in a suit, and even though he’s look absolutely amazing, breath-taking, I want him out of these clothes and back in his Jake threads. I want my Jake back.
I just hope the surprise, if you can call it that on a day like today, will help lift his spirit and bring him back to me.
I called Susie, Jake’s mum. I got her number from Jake’s phone when he was in the shower yesterday morning.
She wasn’t going to come to the funeral. Understandable of course after what Paul did to her and Jake. But she needs to, for Jake’s sake.
I’m doing everything I can for him, but for this, I think she’s the only person who can help him.
They lived it together, now they need to lay it to rest together.
It was weird speaking to her after all these years.
Once we got past the initial awkwardness, it was actually really nice to talk to Susie again. She told me that she’s really happy Jake and I have found each other again, and more so that we’re together. She said she always knew we were meant for one other.
I actually felt really teary hearing that.
Then I told her my reason for calling.
She took the first flight out of New York to Manchester. Stuart booked her into our hotel, but her flight was landing at lunchtime, so she’s coming straight to the funeral from the airport. Dale couldn’t come with her as he’s currently in China on business.
Susie and I are keeping our phone conversation between us.
That was my decision.
I don’t want Jake to know I called her. I want him to think she turned up because she wanted to be here for him.
Not that she didn’t want to help her son. Of course she does. She was just blinded by her own anger for Paul, understandably, and she just needed a nudge in the right direction.
Dave pulls the car down the long road to the crematorium. I feel Jake’s hand tighten around mine.
I lean close to him, and rest my cheek against his. “Are you okay?” I whisper in his ear.
He moves back from me, staring into my eyes. He looks so different, so little boy lost. It makes me ache for him.
I’m praying that Susie is already here waiting for us.
Jake lifts his hand to my face, tucking my hair behind my ear, he kisses me gently on the lips and murmurs, “You’re everything to me, Tru. You know that right?”
I nod, confused as to where he’s going with this.
He takes my chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Just … don’t ever leave me. No matter what – just don’t ever leave.”
I swallow down. He’s worrying me with these words.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m yours, Jake. You have my heart. I belong to you.”
Nervous and unsure, I lean in and kiss him lightly on the lips. But he grabs hold of my hair, kissing me harder, desperately, his tongue invading my mouth, claiming me. And it reminds me of the time he kissed me in bed when we were still having an affair. The first time he talked to me about Jonny. The desperation and intensity I felt then, I feel now, and more.
It’s almost like he’s trying to tell me something with this kiss. Something he can’t say with words.
When Dave pulls the car up outside the building, Jake’s already released me from his hold, and I see Susie is here, waiting with my mum and dad outside the building. I almost sigh with relief.
As Jake registers her, I see it on his face, the surprise, the relief; I don’t miss that, it almost breaks me.
Susie comes over to the car as Jake climbs out, me behind him.
She looks so different to how I remember her. I guess that’s what happiness and a lot of money can do for you.
“What are you doing here?” He sounds confused, angry … happy.
Susie looks up at him, shading her eyes from the sun with her hand. “I thought you might need me,” she says quietly. Reaching out, she takes hold of his hand.
I slip quietly away, leaving them both, and go over to my mum and dad.
“Hey, daddy.” I smile up at him, as he puts his arm around me, kissing the top of my hair. “Hey, mama,” I say, leaning forward to kiss her. “Thank you so much for coming, I know it will mean the world to Jake.”
“The only reason we are here is for you and Jake, baby girl,” my dad says to me.
I squeeze him tighter, hugging him. I’m so lucky to have a dad as wonderful as mine is.
Jake comes over to us with Susie a few moments later. She looks like she’s been crying, her eyes are a little bloodshot.
“Hello, Trudy,” she says. “It’s so wonderful to see you again.” She puts her arm out for me, and I step out of my dad’s embrace and into hers.
She kisses my cheek and whispers, “Thank you.”
I give her an understanding smile as she releases me. Then she takes hold of Jake’s hand, and they start to walk into the crematorium together. I follow behind with my mum and dad.
Then Jake stops, pausing, he turns and waits for me, holding his free hand out for me to take.
I slip my hand into his, and we all go into the service together.
After the funeral we all have an early dinner together at our hotel – Jake, me, Susie, my mum and dad, Stuart and Dave.
Jake seems a little more relaxed at dinner. He’s currently talking guitars with my dad, and he looks happier than I’ve seen him in days.
The funeral was difficult and over quickly, thankfully. We were the only ones there. Paul had no one. No family left except for Jake. No real friends. No one who really cared about him.
I know I should feel sad at the thought, but I don’t. I hate him for what he did to Jake. And I never thought I would be happy that someone was dead, but I am, because now, maybe Jake can finally let him go for good. Let his past go once and for all.
There was no wake after the funeral, and this dinner most certainly isn’t one.
This dinner is for Jake to help lift his spirits. I’ve also got a little something planned for later which I’m hoping will put a smile back on his face, one that I hope will stay there for a long time to come.
Not long after dinner is finished, Susie, tired from her flight, tells us she’s going to retire early, which works perfectly for my plans for Jake.
My mum and dad decide to go home too, and Stuart goes for a drink in the hotel bar with Dave.
“You want to join Stuart and Dave for a drink? Or just have an early night?” Jake asks, threading his fingers with mine, pulling me to his side as we walk back through the lobby, after seeing my mum and dad out of the hotel.
“Neither. We’re doing something else tonight,” I say.
Stopping, I turn to face him.
“We are?” His hands go to my hips, his head tilting to the side, assessing my face.
“Ahum,” I nod, smiling.
“What?”
“That, my gorgeous boyfriend, is a surprise.” I take hold of his hand, leaving him wondering, and lead him to the lifts to take us to the car park, and to the waiting car which contains everything I need for tonight.
As it’s my surprise, and Jake has no idea where we’re going, I’m driving … and tonight I’m driving James Bonds car.
Aston Martin’s are Jake’s favourite car, hence the hire for our stay. And I’m so totally flooring it on the motorway.
I honestly didn’t know it was possible to feel sexy driving a car. But I do right now. I feel like I’m a model in an advert or something.
It’s so cool. And I keep wanting to let out little squeals of excitement, but of course I won’t, because that would be weird, and also a little inappropriate considering Jake just buried his dad a few hours ago, or cremated him or whatever.
“So you won’t tell me where we’re going?” Jake asks, as I push the car up to eighty-five.
I don’t get to drive very often, and I have never driven a car as amazing as this one, so I’m totally making the most of it.
“Nope, it’s a surprise.”
“I thought you didn’t like surprises?”
Keeping my eyes on the dark road ahead, I say, “I don’t like receiving them. I never said anything about giving them.”
“Touché,” he laughs.
There’s only so long I can keep it a surprise before he guesses where it is we’re going, as he keeps looking at the bloody road signs. I should have had the foresight to bring a blind fold with me.
Jake, in a blindfold, totally at my mercy. Hmm, I’m liking the sound of that. Maybe later.
As I see the sign post signalling my turn to the place we’re going, I slide a glance at him, seeing the look on his face, and he looks happy.
He turns to me, smiling widely. “You’re taking me to Lumb Falls?”
“I am.” I give him another quick glance, a little smile of my own forming.
Jake reaches his hand over and puts it on my thigh. “Are you going to let me do dirty things to you while we’re there?”
“Well, I was planning on doing dirty things to you, actually.” I bite down on my lip, giving him another quick glance.
“Have I told you just how much I love you?” He slides his hand a little higher up my thigh, fingers inching my dress up.
Heat pools in my tummy.
“You have.” I swat his hand away, grinning. “But behave yourself pervy, or you’ll get no dirty tonight at all. I’m trying to drive James Bonds car here if you don’t mind.” I put my best prim and proper teasing voice on.
“Yes, ma’am,” he says, resting his hands back on his lap, grinning back at me.
He looks so free in this moment, and it makes my heart swell.
Tonight is going to be so much fun, I just know it. I knew bringing him here was the right thing to do.
I park the car up near the Falls. Climbing out, I go straight to the boot, and open it up.
I get the picnic box and cooler out which Stuart helped me get ready earlier on.
I hand the cooler to Jake, as he meets me around the back of the car.
Keeping hold of the picnic box, I grab the blanket, shut the boot and lock the car up.
Jake follows behind me, taking the picnic box from my hand, leaving me with just my bag and the blanket to carry as I navigate our way to the shore of the Falls in the darkness.
When we reach our destination, I set the blanket down and retrieve the lantern that I packed into the picnic box.
“Can I borrow your lighter, baby?”
Jake crouches beside me, handing me his lighter.
I light the candle in the lantern and set it down beside the blanket, then hand his lighter back to him.
Taking it from me, Jake pulls me to him and starts to kiss me.
He eases me back onto the blanket, his tongue roaming my mouth, meeting with mine, stroking it.
Being back here with him, kissing me in the dark like this, with only the sound of the rushing falls around us, feels amazing.
“Thank you,” he murmurs.
“What for?” I push my fingers into his lovely thick hair.
“For this, bringing me here … for being you.”
“You like?” I check.
“I love. We should come back here once a year. Make it our thing. It is our place after all.”
“Once a year it is.”
He takes my face in his hands. “Just like this, Tru, late at night, just you and me, alone. No one around for miles.”
I nod my agreement. Jake kisses me once more, lightly on the lips, then moves off me, and lies down beside me, flat on his back.
Feeling content, I stare up at the night sky, with its gentle smattering of stars and bright glowing moon.
Jake lets out a light sigh.
Instantly, I know his mind and mood have shifted elsewhere, and I think I know where to.
Maybe bringing him here to Lumb Falls hasn’t been as effective as I had hoped.
I can almost feel his thoughts pouring out of his mind. I want to ask him what’s wrong, but I know with Jake it’s best to wait until he’s ready to talk.
“You called my mom and asked her to come didn’t you?” He turns his head to the side, looking at me.
Truth or denial.
Denial.
I want him to believe she came off her own back.
“No,” I shake my head, blinking.
“Tru…” He gives me the ‘I know you did’ look.
Biting my bottom lip, I release my sigh out through my nose. “How did you know?” I concede. “Did your mum tell you?”
He shakes his head, no. “I just know you.”
“Are you angry with me?” I screw my face up.
“No of course not.” He looks surprised.
“Are you angry with your mum?”
He presses his lips together and shakes his head.
No, he’s not angry, he’s disappointed, and that’s worse. Way worse.
“She didn’t realise how much it was affecting you, Jake. The instant I told her, she came off the phone and booked the next available flight to Manchester.”
Turning away from me, he looks up and the sky. I hear him exhale.
“He tried to rape her that night.” His voice is so quiet in the night air.
I turn on my side, facing him. “Your dad?”
He nods.
“He was drunk and high, he’d been out gambling, f*ckin’ around like normal … he’d been gone for weeks.”
“I remember,” I breathe.
“I liked it when he wasn’t there. I always liked it best when he was off on one of his benders.”
“I know.” I put my hand on his chest over his heart.
“And that night he rolled home, broke, wanting money off mom like usual. It was late, but I was still awake. We’d been watching a movie together – I can’t even remember which one now, but she sent me to my room the second she heard his key go in the lock. She told me to lock myself in my bedroom and to not come out no matter what. I mean – what kid has to have a lock on their bedroom door, you know?” He laughs, but there’s no humour there.
“I didn’t want to leave her with him, but I did as I was told. I could hear them fighting downstairs. He wanted money and she didn’t have any to give him. Then he started beating her, like he’d done so many times before, and I could hear it and I just wanted it to stop, Tru. And I just knew this time was worse – I don’t know how, I just knew.” He drags his hands through his hair.
“Then I heard mom running up the stairs, trying to get away from him. He was yelling, and I could hear her screaming out on the landing, and I just couldn’t take it anymore – I just wanted to help her, I wanted him to stop hurting her. So I came out of my bedroom, and he had her there on the floor, and … she was covered in blood – her face was a mess, I barely recognised her and–” He pauses.
My heart is aching as I look at him, seeing him reliving that moment in his mind.
He turns his head and meets my eyes. “I saw the fear in her eyes, Tru. I’ll never forget that look – she was terrified for me and for her. Horrified that I’d seen it – seen what he was trying to do to her. I was only nine, but I knew enough to understand what was happening. Then I just started yelling at him to stop. I tried to grab him and pull him off her. But I was nine, and he was stronger than me. He just grabbed hold of me and tossed me aside like I was a f*ckin’ toy – a f*ckin’ inconvenience. We were near the top of the stairs, and I went down the full flight.”
I briefly close my eyes, and feel a tear run down the side of my face, soaking into my hair.
“I don’t remember much after that. I just remember hearing my mom screaming for help. Then the next thing I knew your dad was beside me, and I could hear the sirens coming, and your dad just kept saying, over and over, ‘I’m so sorry, Jake. I’m so sorry I didn’t stop this from happening to you.’ ”
Tears are streaming down my face now.
“Afterwards at the hospital they told me I had hit my head hard from the fall. I had a concussion, had broken my arm and my jaw, and had cut my chin open, and I’d had to have stitches.” His hand goes to his chin, touching his scar.
He looks so young in this moment, and I wish I knew how to fix things for him. To somehow take his pain away forever.
Jake puts his palms to his eyes for a moment. I know he’s pushing back whatever emotion is in there.
I wipe my face dry with my hands.
That’s the first time Jake has ever spoken to me properly about what happened that night. I knew bits and pieces, but I didn’t know Paul had tried to rape Susie. That part was kept from me by my folks for obvious reasons.
Paul went to prison for what he did to Jake and Susie. Eight years he got. Eight measly years. I know, ridiculous huh? Throw your kid down a flight of stairs and nearly kill him, beat and almost rape your wife, and here you go, we’ll give you eight years in HMS’s finest with the chance of early parole.
“What did Paul die of?” I ask quietly.
I hadn’t plucked up the courage to ask Jake what Paul died of in these last few days. He’s been so closed off and I didn’t want to push things for him.
Whatever it was he did die of, I hope he somehow suffered after what he did to Jake and Susie.
“A heart-attack,” Jake answers quietly. “He’d been dead for five days before anyone found him. It was a neighbour who alerted the police when they hadn’t seen him for a while.”
“Had you heard anything from him over the years?”
Sighing, he takes my hand in his and brings it to his mouth, kissing my knuckles.
“After he went to jail, he was clean for a while, and he was writing me asking me to forgive him, but I never replied. Then we moved to the States with Dale, and I didn’t hear anything until I was twenty-two and the band was flying high. He got in touch with me through Stuart. I don’t how he got hold of his number but he did. It took me a week before I called him back. I had all these things ready that I was going to say to him. I was going to tear him a shred – and you know what?” he snorts. “The second I heard his voice, I felt like that nine year old kid again. I felt so f*ckin’ weak in that moment, and I f*ckin’ blew it.”
I rest up on my elbow. Looking down into his eyes, I brush his hair off his forehead. “It doesn’t make you weak, baby, it makes you human.”
He shakes his head. “I was weak, Tru. I didn’t say a goddamn thing to him about what he’d done to me and mom. And the worst thing was, he hadn’t got in touch because he wanted to apologise for what he’d done, or to even see me – he called because he needed money.”
In this moment, I hate Paul. I can feel the anger bubbling under my skin.
“Did you give him it?” I ask, chewing on the inside of my mouth.
I already know the answer, because I know Jake.
He sighs. “My lawyer sent him a non-disclosure saying that he could never talk about me or my past and what had happened. That he could never make claim to be my dad in the press, or to anyone ever. If he signed he could have the money.”
“Did he sign?”
He looks at me. “There was a two hundred thousand dollar check sitting at the bottom of it, so yeah, he signed.”
“You gave him two hundred thousand dollars?” I gasp.
“It’s nothing to me, Tru. And if it meant keeping him and that part of my life away from me, then it was more than worth it. I knew the money wouldn’t last him long though. He always could burn through money quick. He liked drugs … just like I do. I guess it’s true what they say – the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” He rolls his eyes in on himself.
I grab his face, turning him to look me. “You are nothing like him, Jake – nothing. And you never could be.”
He doesn’t look so sure.
“I am, Tru. I know you won’t want to see it – I know you want to see the good in me, and I love you for that, more than you could ever know … but I am like him – a lot like him. I would never hurt you – I could never hurt you.” He touches my face. “But the drugs and the booze … and the women,” he sighs. “I’m exactly like him. My mom knows it too.”
“She said that?” I gasp.
He shakes his head, no. “She doesn’t have to. I can see it in her eyes every time she looks at me – the disappointment, just how much I remind her of him.”
“No, I don’t believe that. Susie loves you. Yes, you’ve struggled in your past, understandably so because of what he did to you. But you’re not that person anymore, you took control and you’re stronger now.”
His gaze softens on me. He brushes his knuckles across my cheekbone. “Because I have you back in my life.”
I take hold of his hand, kissing it.
“Did you ever hear from him again?” I ask, lying back down beside him, keeping hold of his hand.
“Just before Jonny died. He’d gone through the money, like I knew he would. So I sent him four hundred grand. Thought it might keep him away for double the length of time. Then the next time I hear anything it’s from the authorities. I was listed as his next of kin. He had no one else. So it was left to me to bury him.”
“Well, he’s gone now, so we can leave all of that in the past where it belongs, and move forward – start our life together properly.”
“In LA.”
“In LA,” I smile. “Do you want a beer?” I ask, sitting up, letting go of his hand.
“Thought you’d never ask,” he jibes, and I feel a little of my Jake returning to me.
I grab a couple of beers out of the cooler, pop the caps off and hand him his, as he sits up facing me.
“To Lumb Falls, hot summers, and missing bikini tops,” I grin lifting my bottle and chink it against his.
“And more missing bikini tops to come,” he grins back at me, naughty Jake in his eyes, before taking a swig of his beer.
Resting his bottle against his thigh, he looks back over his shoulder, out at the darkened water of the falls for a long moment.
I wonder what’s on his mind?
I’m just about to ask when he speaks. “I almost died last year because of the drugs.” His face is still turned away from me.
My heart freezes solid in my chest. I guess tonight is the night for confessions from him.
“I drowned, and Stuart saved me,” he adds.
“What? When? How?” I’m up on my knees now, putting my bottle down.
Jake turns and looks at me. His gaze is dark and torn. It’s painful to see.
“It was after Japan. I know everyone thinks I went into rehab because of what happened there, but it wasn’t. When I got back to LA, I was worse than ever … I was using – a lot. A few nights after I was back, I was out partying and was, absolutely high off my ass. Dave took me home. He had to carry me out of the club and to the car I was in that much of a state. He wanted to stay with me, but I told him I wanted to be alone – well basically I told him to f*ck off. I shouted him out of the house. I treated him like a piece of shit that night, and he didn’t deserve it. I’m lucky he stayed working for me.”
I’m glad he did to, because I think Jake would struggle without him, but I don’t say that.
“Stuart was out, I was alone. I passed out for a while on the sofa. When I woke the drugs had worn off, so I took another hit of coke, and sat out by the pool drinking tequila. Then in my blind wisdom, I decided to get in the pool,” he sighs. “The next thing I know, I’m puking up water, and Stuart is over me, holding me up.”
“He saved my life that day, Tru. I owe him everything. He called 911, kept it out of the papers.” He takes a drink of his beer. “Stuart went absolutely f*ckin’ nuts on me at the hospital afterwards though. I’d never seen him like that before.”
“It’s understandable, baby,” I say softly, desperately trying to hold myself together. “If he hadn’t of got there in time … then…” I can’t even say the words. I can’t even bear to think how close he came, it’s scaring the hell out of me.
I gulp back my threatening tears. “And that’s when you went to rehab?” I ask.
He nods. “Stuart threatened to quit unless I sorted myself out. Said he’d watched me destroying myself for far too long … that losing Jonny had been hard on all of us, and he wasn’t going to stay around to watch me die too.”
“What did you say?”
“He’s the best in the business, that’s why he works for me and I couldn’t afford to lose him,” he shrugs. “So I agreed to go to rehab.”
He’s downplaying it. He loves Stuart like a brother, and he knew he was right about rehab.
“No one knows what happened that night, Tru. Not my mom or Tom, not even Denny. There’s only you, Stuart, and the doctors at the hospital who know.”
In this moment I despise Paul. More than I ever knew it possible to hate a dead person.
Jake struggles like he does, because of him.
“You can always trust me with anything, baby.” I touch his face. “I’ll never judge you and I’ll never break your trust, I promise you that. Just please … don’t ever go back there again. Promise me that you’ll never take drugs again.”
He kisses the friendship bracelet on my wrist. “I promise you … so that missing bikini top,” he says, gently pushing me down to the blanket, lying on top of me, he holds my hands above my head.
It’s an obvious attempt at a subject change, and I allow it. Jake sometimes needs sex as a way to rid his mind of his demons. And if that’s what he needs right now, then I’m more than happy to oblige.
“Mmm?” I reply, smiling.
“Well, if I remember right, I’m owed a re-enactment and a few other things too.”
“Well, it just so happens, Pervy Perverson, I have a bikini with me.”
“And that’s why I love you Mrs. P, ‘cause you’re just as pervy as I am,” he grins. “Now get your hot ass into that bikini, so I can slowly take it back off you.”
He climbs up off me, taking my hands, he pulls me to my feet.
Moving away from him, with butterflies doing diving swoops in my tummy, I go to get my bikini out of my bag.
As I turn back around, I find a very naked Jake, standing here before me.
“Wow, that was quick,” I giggle, eyes roaming his hot body.
“Well, when we’re talking sex and you, baby, my clothes just disintegrate,” he shrugs, grinning.
My stomach plummets off to a very happy place.
Unzipping my dress, I step out of it. Watching Jake watch me, I kick off my ballet pumps, and very slowly remove my underwear.
I’m just about to put the bikini on when Jake says in a gruff voice, “On second thought, if I remember right, you were topless that day, and you know how I hate panties on you…”
Coming close, he takes them from my hand and tosses them to the floor. He kisses me hard on the mouth. Then sliding his hand into mine, he breaks our kiss, leaving me breathless and wanting, and starts to pull me in the direction of the water.
“We’re going in?” I tread carefully over the flat rocks.
“Absolutely.”
“You want us to go skinny dipping?”
“Oh, most definitely.” He gives me a cheeky look.
“Oh no, Jake. No way. It’ll be freezing.” This so was not part of my plan.
“It’s a warm night,” he coaxes. “The water won’t be that cold.”
“It will,” I press.
Jake stops, turning to me. “The last time we were here, we were in the water … and tonight I want to see you … wet.” His voice has gone all dark and sultry, and is completely laced with inclination.
Honestly, I’m wet just listening to him, and my stomach has turned to molten lava, heating my insides.
But it’s still not enough to want me to freeze to death in that cold ass water.
“As awesome as that sounds, there is no way in hell that I’m getting in that ass freezing water.”
I step back, dropping his hand. “Let’s just have sex on the nice warm blanket,” I encourage.
Jake tilts his head to the side. His look is challenging, and I know exactly what’s he’s thinking.
“No way! Don’t you dare, Jake Wethers!” I point my finger at him in warning, taking a step back.
“Noooo! Argghh!” I scream as he runs at me, grabbing hold of me.
Picking me up, he hoists me over his shoulder, and kicking and screaming Jake carries me into the water.
“Put me down!” I yell, laughing, wriggling in his strong arms.
Jake is laughing. Deep and loud. And I love the sound. It’s been way too long since I last heard him laugh. So I keep wriggling in his arms, readying myself to take the hit of the cold water for him, to make him laugh, to make him feel happiness.
Jake’s happy, so am I.
Once he’s waded in to his hips, he slides me down his body, dropping me in the cold water.
“Arghhh! It’s bloody freezing!” I screech as the water chills through me. “You’re such an arsehole!”
“Don’t be a girl,” he chuckles deep and throaty.
“I am a girl,” I grin.
“Yeah? Well you feel like a woman to me,” he says low, his hands going around my waist, pulling me close.
I can feel he’s hard already. How, in this cold water? I have no clue. But I love that he is for me. That I do this to him.
Wrapping myself around his body, I hold on tight, as Jake wades us further into the water.
Once we’re chest deep, I decide to take the plunge. Freeing myself from Jake, I swim out a little and immerse myself into the water, wetting my hair.
It’s not too bad now I’m acclimatised to it.
As I surface, I see Jake treading water a few feet before me, staring across at me in the moonlit dark.
He’s looks so beautiful, all wet with the moon shining down on him. He looks like the star he is.
“What are you thinking about?” I ask.
“You. Then, and now. How beautiful you were back then, and how even more beautiful you are now. How I wish I’d seen you through all those years, and how I’m counting myself as one lucky bastard that I got a second chance to have you in my life … and that you’re crazy enough to be mine.”
My heart swells in my chest, replete with love for him. I never knew it possible to love someone as much as I do Jake.
I can’t ever imagine my life again without him in it, and I don’t ever want to.
Jake is my everything.
I swim to him and wrap my arms around his neck. His arms go around me, holding me tight.
“I’ll always be yours.” I kiss his cheek, licking the cool water drops off his skin with my tongue, trailing a lead of gentle sucking kisses to his mouth. “Back then, on that day, I wanted you to make love to me under the waterfall,” I whisper against his lips, casting my glance in the falls’ direction.
And without another word, I take off swimming for the falls.
Jake is hot behind me.
When we hit the cascading water, Jake takes me in his arms, kissing me like it’s the first time, and he makes love to me here under the falls, like those two teenagers wanted to all those years ago.
The Mighty Storm
Samantha Towle's books
- Bender (The Core Four Series)
- Embrace the Night
- Wethering the Storm
- One Day In The Life
- Ravenous (Book 1 The Ravening Series)
- Along came the spider
- The Eye of Minds
- The Kill Order (The Maze Runner 0.5)
- The Invention of Wings
- Under the Wide and Starry Sky
- Awakening the Fire (Guardian Witch #1)
- Captured (The Captive #1)
- The Big Bad Wolf
- The Love Game (The Game, #1)
- The Hurricane
- The Program (The Program #1)
- James Potter and the Vault of Destinies
- Charmfall (The Dark Elite #3)