Chapter Twenty-four

JAMIE

Six weeks later

Tori was kneeling between my legs and running her tongue down the underside of my shaft. I closed my eyes and hissed when she licked my balls.

“Fuck, babe,” I growled, looking down and watching her slowly work her way back up to the tip. Too fucking slowly. “Quit with your playin’ and swallow me.”

“You like it when I play,” she purred, looking at me from behind her lashes. “You especially like it when I do this.” Tori kept one hand firmly planted on the mattress next to my thigh and wrapped her other around my base, then she sucked the head of my dick into her mouth and pulled back until my piercing clacked against her teeth.

The muscles in my legs jumped.

“Fuck yeah, I like that. Jesus,” I groaned.

God-fucking-damn. My woman knew how to give head.

“And this,” she said before hollowing out her cheeks and sucking me so hard it felt like she was trying to pop the head of my dick off.

My hands tightened in her hair as I inhaled a breath.

She pulled her mouth away but stayed crouched forward, giggling as her hand leisurely stroked me.

I pushed her hair out of her face, watching her.

“See? I told you you like it,” she said, then she gathered her hair over one shoulder and started leaning down and parting her lips, and I saw the wet flash of her tongue, readying to keep up this game.

A game I fucking loved, but right now I was over it. She’d played enough. And Tori knew I liked coming in her pussy more than anything, even her hot-ass mouth that fucking watered for it.

The little shit thought she could keep it from me. She thought wrong.

Jerking upright and gripping under her arms, I yanked Tori up my body, causing her giggle to mix with a squeal ’cause she loved teasing me but she also liked getting taken, then I was flipping her underneath me and kneeling between her hips, dragging the tip of my cock through her pussy and pressing in in in.

So wet. God, fuck, she was getting off on licking my dick.

Tori dropped her knees and arched off the bed, moaning yes and do it and I wanna feel you come inside me.

“Yeah?” I asked as I rammed in. We both moaned. “Thought you were playin’, babe,” I teased, dragging my cock slowly back out, then pushing in. Out. In. My hips jerking as I pushed her knees back and held them open. “Sure you don’t wanna go back to that? I know your mouth wants it.”

“No, don’t stop,” she begged, her eyes looking like she’d kill me if I stopped.

“Think I’ll stop,” I shared, starting to pull back again.

Tori’s eyes flashed with panic, then she slid her hand between her legs and started rubbing her clit. Her lips parted. Her eyes rolled closed.

I froze, my eyes going between her hand and her face, blissed out as she built it.

Jesus fuck.

She was trying to come before I slid out of her. Tori was wanting my dick in her when she went off. Damn she was good. Better at the game than me.

No fucking way could I keep from getting there if her pussy started squeezing my dick.

I grabbed Tori’s wrist that was moving over her stomach and her other that was flat on the bed, then I plowed forward and filled her.

She gasped and shook as I moaned into her neck, pressing her hands on the pillow behind her and then sliding them above her head, my fingers skimming over her palms and pushing through hers, connecting us.

I leaned back and looked into her face as I fucked her, hips trusting deeper as her heels dug into my back.

“Harder,” she whispered.

I pressed my mouth to hers. “You love me?” I asked.

“You know I do.”

“Say it, babe. You want harder, I wanna hear it,” I said, keeping the pace I was good at keeping until we both came in an hour, or two, or tomorrow when we were both mad and wild for it.

“I love you, Jamie,” Tori said against my mouth, kissing me softly. “I love that you’re mine. I want everyone knowing it.”

“Yeah, you fuckin’ do,” I murmured, rearing back and going at her harder now that she gave me that. I slammed my hips against hers and pressed her hands into the mattress.

She moaned into my mouth, dragged her legs up my back, and dug her heels in.

“I want three,” Tori said between panting breaths.

I felt the sweat of her body stick to mine.

“Three what?” I asked, kissing down to her jaw.

“Kids,” she gasped, then her legs tightened around me when I stopped building it in her because, fuck me, she was bringing this up. She never brought this up.

I brought it up. She’d agree she wanted it, too, or she’d attack me with her mouth and let me know she was feeling what I was wanting, but never, not once, had Tori broached this topic on her own.

“Jamie, please,” Tori begged, her legs pulling to urge me, and I could feel her growing tighter and wetter and tighter.

Fuck. She was right there.

I lifted my head and took her mouth, and then I fucked her hard and fast, powering into her, and Tori was coming within seconds, crying out and bringing on my own orgasm with how fucking snug her pussy got around me.

I groaned once more into her mouth as I finished.

Tori shuddered and panted beneath me, trying to catch her breath.

“All boys,” she added when I leaned back to look at her. “With hair like yours and skin that always smells like the ocean. I want that so bad.”

I gave her hands a squeeze, pressing my fingertips into her bones as I looked at her messy hair on my pillow and flushed skin, shiny with sweat, then lowering my gaze and seeing the beauty she was giving me in the smile she had lifting her full, soft mouth.

“You wanna get cleaned up before we talk about this?” I asked her.

Tori kept her smile, pinching her lips together, and shook her head.

I smirked, knowing she’d choose that ’cause lately she was always choosing it, saying she liked messy sex with me or some shit like that, then I slowly pulled out, shifted my hips up, and trapped my wet dick between us.

Tori hummed and wiggled beneath me. She loved it when I did that.

“Can’t even get you to go out in the ocean with me again,” I reminded her of the one thing she was still fighting me on and kept pushing off until another time. “And you’re wantin’ a bunch of boys who live in it like I do?”

“Yep.” She smacked her lips on the “p,” smiling bigger.

“Want ’em to surf?”

“Yep.”

“Probably gonna want their momma out there joinin’ them eventually,” I threw out. “You down for that?”

“I’ll be ready when they are,” Tori replied, looking proud of herself.

“Mm.” I lowered my head and nipped at her lip. “Five,” I said.

Tori blinked. Her head pressed farther against the pillow so she could see me better. “Five? You want five kids? Really?” she asked, blue eyes growing wider.

“Yep,” I echoed her, letting my lips smack on the “p.”

Her mouth twitched.

“Got seven bedrooms. We’re in one. Five for them,” I started explaining. “That leaves a game room or a place we can store our trophies, mine and theirs, ’cause they sure as fuck will be collectin’ ’em like I do. Talent’s in the genes, babe. And there ain’t no point in stoppin’ at three when we got room for more.”

“Yeah but, five? I don’t know about five,” she murmured. “Three was sounding really good to me. Perfect actually.”

“Five. I’m firm on that.”

Her eyes narrowed and her mouth grew tight.

“Three,” she shot back.

“Five.”

“Four,” she countered, adding sass to her offer.

I smirked and pressed a kiss to her mouth. “Knew you’d give in,” I said.

“Um, I didn’t. You wanted five.”

“Wanted four,” I revealed, leaning back again and watching her blond eyebrows pull together. “Knew you’d give me shit ’cause you like givin’ me shit. That’s how you work, babe. Knowin’ that, I figured I’d shoot high and then ease off to get what I wanted. Wanted four. Now we’re getting a trophy room and a motherfucking game room. That’s badass.”

Tori pulled her lips between her teeth as she stared up at me. She was fighting a smile.

“You good with four?” I asked.

She nodded slowly.

“Want a girl, too,” I shared. “You get three boys outta me, I’m getting a mouthy little beauty from you. You’re givin’ me that.”

Tori was no longer fighting a smile. Her face was going soft.

“Can you let go of my hands?” she asked quietly.

“Sure thing, babe,” I replied, doing what she was asking and propping my weight on my forearms.

Once her hands were free, Tori threw her arms around my neck and drew me down, pulling my head beside hers with her hand sliding into my hair. She held me tight like she was always doing when I was hitting her soft, letting me know how she felt about what I was giving her.

I wanted this, but I was wanting her words now, too.

I breathed deep against her neck, saying, “You gonna give me that?”

“Yes,” she answered, no hesitation.

I closed my eyes for a beat, then I slid my hands under her shoulders and rolled us, getting to my back and pulling her so she was lying half on my chest and half plastered to my side. I slid my hand down her back to palm her ass and hitched her leg over my hip with the other, keeping hold there.

Tori’s fingers traced a pattern on my ribs as she pressed her cheek to my chest.

“I’m pretty traditional, Jamie. I’d like to get married first,” she proclaimed.

I smiled at the top of her head.

“Beach wedding. Firm on that, too,” I told her, curious as to what she would say to that.

I felt Tori’s quiet laughter rattle in her chest and against my side. Her fingers stilled, then she turned her head and planted her chin on my chest, meeting my gaze.

“Fine,” she said, surprising the shit out of me as she lifted her head to speak. “But we’re sticking to a dry honeymoon. I’m talking desert conditions. And Jamie?”

My body was shaking with laugher. I stopped so I could answer her, asking through a grin, “Yeah, babe?”

Tori crawled higher up my body and got in my face, plastering her tits to my chest and touching noses with me.

“I’m firm on that,” she proclaimed. “Real firm.”

Grinning still, I tipped my chin up, watching her own mouth start lifting.

“Give me a kiss, Legs,” I ordered.

She gave me a kiss.

It started slow and sweet but my hand on her ass starting gripping and then my other joined in as Tori moaned inside my mouth and fuck it. I pulled her thigh so she was popping up to straddle my hips, breaking away and breathing heavy. “Want you ridin’ me this time,” I shared. “Keep those gorgeous fuckin’ tits in my face, and when I tell you, babe, get your mouth on me. I’m finishin’ on your tongue.”

Tori nodded as she tried getting control of her own breathing, then she put her weight on her knees and reached between us, positioning me. She slid down.

Three orgasms later, her two to my one, Tori passed out with her limbs curling around me and her face nuzzling my neck.

We never bothered cleaning up that time either.

I relished the feel of her while thinking about everything she was wanting to give, then an hour later, I finally dozed off.

I never slept better.

*  *  *

It was the next day, nearly noon, and I was standing inside Wax, looking at the new shipment of T-shirts we’d got in with the Rivera Frozen Foods branding on the back.

Turned out, being sponsored by Tori’s family was pretty kick-ass. Her dad was cool as shit about it, coming down here a couple of times now to check out Wax and talk to me about what all I needed from them and what all they needed from me.

My other sponsors never stepped foot inside where I worked. Not once. It was more about my name and how I could benefit them. What the fuck did they care about me owning a surf shop? They weren’t getting anything out of that.

Not John, though. He cared. Wasn’t shy about letting me know that either.

I didn’t need them to do anything for me, and I told him that. Being sponsored was never about what all I could get out of companies. I just cared about surfing. Someone wanted to back me and put my face on their products or give me shit for free? That was up to them. I never asked for it. John understood how I felt about it and said they would support me in any way I needed. He was honored to be backing me and that meant a lot.

Straight up, though, being that it was Tori’s family and knowing how much this meant to her, knowing how fucking huge this was, I was the one who felt honored.

It was why I was staring at another shipment of T-shirts advertising them and why the boards I used were now detailed with their logo.

Tori got a huge fucking kick out of that.

“Can’t believe how these things are selling,” Cole commented, stepping up beside me after I’d opened up the boxes. “Seriously, I’m pretty sure you could put a hemorrhoid cream logo on a tee and triple their sales.”

I slapped his shoulder, grinning. “Leave that one to you, man,” I said. “You should reach out and see if they’re looking to sponsor.”

“Right,” Cole chuckled. “They’d probably fucking pass. And my luck, that shit would get around. I’d never get laid again.”

We shared a laugh, then the bell chimed behind us, indicating someone was stepping inside the shop. I turned my head and watched Tori walk inside.

She was wearing a sweater that dipped low in the front and showed some of her cleavage—all fucking class, though—tight faded jeans that had tears up the front of one thigh, and black knee-high boots. Her jeans were tucked into them. Her hair was half up out of her face, except for those pieces that always fell out and wouldn’t stay behind her ears. Her eyes were lined black. Her lips were painted red. And she was smiling big at me as she lifted her hand to wave.

“’Sup, babe?” I greeted her, turning sideways so I could see her better. “Got the shirts in. Perfect timing.”

“Oh, good!” She clapped her hands together and started walking over. “I told Dad they were set to come in this week. I wanted to grab a couple for him and Mom.”

“Set you up with that,” I replied.

“I’m heading out. Gonna go grab something to eat,” Cole said. He turned and tipped his chin at Tori. “What’s up?”

“Hey,” she greeted him, smiling as he walked past.

“Later, man,” I called out.

“Later,” Cole replied, getting to the door. “See ya around, Tori.”

“See ya,” she said back, keeping her eyes on me.

Cole stepped outside.

“Hey, you,” Tori said, stopping in front of me. She rolled up onto her toes and tipped her chin up. “Kiss,” she requested.

I grinned at her, keeping my arms pulled across my chest and not bending down. “Fuck?” I countered.

Her head jerked back and her eyes widened. She grabbed my elbows for balance, informing me, “Syd and Brian did it on the desk in the office once.”

“Shit,” I muttered. “He christened the place before I did? What a dick.” I bent down then and kissed her soft mouth. “You look hot.”

“So do you,” she said through a smile, rocking back onto her heels but keeping her hands on me.

“Yeah? Wanna fuck?”

Tori swatted my arm and made a face, letting me know she was down but trying to cover that desire.

I chuckled.

“What size you want for your folks? I got ’em up to 2XL.”

She thought for a second, dropping her hands and leaning to look behind me. “I think Dad is down to an extra-large now. He’s lost close to twenty-five pounds.”

“That’s great, babe,” I replied, meaning that.

I knew how important getting his weight down was for his heart. Not just from Tori telling me, but from Travis mentioning it.

Tori looked at me again. Her mouth was lifted. “Yeah. I’m proud of him. I know it’s been hard. Mom is a medium. And she wanted to send my aunts both out a shirt. I think they’re larges.”

I jerked my chin, then I turned around and fished her out the sizes she needed.

“Got something for your dad in the back,” I said, handing her the shirts. “I’ll grab it for you. You meeting up with them today?”

“Yeah,” she answered. She held the shirts against her chest. “Dad has a follow-up with Travis at two and then we’re going to grab something to eat. It’ll be early, though, so I shouldn’t be home too late.”

“Take the time you need, babe. I’ll be there.”

“I know,” she said, eyes closing when I wrapped my hand around the back of her head and kissed the top of it.

“Lemme grab what I got for your dad so you can head out.”

“’Kay,” she replied. “I’ll browse.”

I chuckled, stepping back to look at her. “You don’t have enough Wax apparel?” I asked, backing away.

Every time Tori came in here, she was leaving with a bag full. Fucking loved that. She was wanting to support me and wasn’t shy about showing it.

Tori made a gasping sound. “What? Never! I can always use more surf tees and booty shorts.” She smiled big, then spun around and started moving about the shop.

Booty shorts. Jesus fucking Christ.

I shook my head, laughing inside my chest, then I turned and headed for the office.

Once in there, I grabbed the hat with the Wax logo John was eyeing up last time he was in here—we were running low so I kept one in the back. Good thing, too, since we ran out last week and the next order wasn’t set to come until the end of the month.

Tori was standing at the counter when I made it back out into the shop again, head down and eyes focused on something. Her profile was tense.

“Babe.”

She looked up, meeting my gaze, and I saw the hurt in her eyes. I stopped at the edge of the counter.

What the fuck?

“Why wouldn’t you tell them about us?” she asked, turning to face me. “How could you not say anything, Jamie? I mean, really, you literally said nothing.”

“What?” Confused, I glanced down at the opened magazine she was standing in front of. Tori had her hand on a page. It was my interview with Rail. She’d read it. Or she at least read the question I’d dodged.

“I don’t answer questions like that, Legs. I told you,” I reminded her, tossing her dad’s hat on the counter next to the stack of shirts. “I’m there to talk about surfing. That’s it. They wanna forget that and try and get personal shit out of me, they’re gonna get those kind of answers.”

“You ‘no commented.’ That’s not an answer.”

“It’s my answer.” I shrugged. “Only one they’re gonna get, too.”

Tori blinked, mouth falling open as she looked down at the magazine. “How many people read this?” she asked, meeting my eyes again. “Ballpark. What do you think? Thousands?”

“Probably.”

“And how many times have we talked about claiming each other?”

I stared at her for a breath, seeing her seriousness and not understanding it, then I harshly wiped my hand down my face, shaking my head before gearing up to argue. “Babe, look—”

“I claimed you to my parents and to five strangers in a restaurant,” she interrupted. “And to everyone on my contact list, which I haven’t cleaned up in, I don’t know, months, so I’m sure there’s people on there I don’t even talk to anymore, but it didn’t matter. I wanted everyone to know, Jamie. I wanted a restaurant full of people. And you had opportunity to claim me in the most public way, the biggest way you could ever claim me, and you don’t.”

She was upset and angry, or she was at least getting there. Over this? What the fuck?

“Quit takin’ it personal, babe,” I said, hoping to squash this. “It’s ain’t personal. I don’t answer those questions. Never have.”

“Quit taking it personal?” she echoed, sticking her hands on her hips, cocking one and hitting me with daggers.

Jesus. She wasn’t letting me squash this. Tori was going to keep going.

“Come here,” I ordered, thinking if I got her in my arms, she’d let this go.

Tori shook her head, standing firm.

“Babe, come here.” My voice was sharper. Firmer.

“No.” Her voice shook with emotion.

I took a step toward her. She took a step back.

Jesus.

“I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t do it,” she said, losing some of that fire in her eyes. “You’re the one who’s been pushing us to claim each other this entire time. That was so important to you. And I wanted that. I wanted you to claim me to everyone, Jamie. That’s what made this real. I wasn’t your little secret. You weren’t hiding me like Wes did. But now, I don’t know, it kinda feels like you are.”

I drew my arms across my chest. “Legs, straight up, even if I did answer those questions, what the fuck would I have said?” I asked, growing irritated with this. “You wouldn’t admit to shit then. We were just fuckin’. You weren’t stakin’ claim to me. So what the fuck would I have said?”

Her eyes widened. “We were just fucking? Really? When you did that interview, that’s all we were doing? There was nothing else between us? What about that night when I came to you crying? When I could’ve gone to Syd, or anybody else, what about then? I guess that meant nothing, huh.”

My brow tightened. She was blowing this way the fuck out of proportion. “Babe, ease up on the attitude. You know what I meant.”

“I don’t need to ease up on anything, thank you very much,” she snapped, tipping forward. “You’re the one saying we were just fucking and there was nothing else going on between us when, clearly, that wasn’t the case. At least not for me. So thanks for that. Glad I finally know how you felt about it.”

I felt my jaw clench. My nostrils flared as I pulled in a breath. “You know how I feel about you,” I began, voice vibrating low in my throat. “I’ve told you. I’ve always told you. Never kept nothin’ from you, even when the only fuckin’ thing you admitted to likin’ about me was my cock, babe. And still, even gettin’ that was like pullin’ teeth. I’ve been claimin’ you since the fuckin’ beginning, and now you’re gettin’ pissy over some stupid interview I did when practically every motherfucker in Dogwood Beach knows I’m in love with you? What the fuck? Are you on your period or somethin’?”

She had to be. Getting on my case over nothing? This was bullshit.

Tori inhaled sharply through her nose. She straightened up. “No, I’m not on my period,” she hissed.

“You about to get it?”

Her eyes narrowed. She didn’t answer.

“Take that as a yes,” I murmured.

“Okay.” She shook her head, looking exacerbated. “You know what? Maybe I could have seen your point, but now you’re just being really rude.”

“Get over it. You’re bein’ emotional over shit that means absolutely nothin’.”

“It means something to me, you dick.”

“Easy, Legs,” I warned. “You wanna stand there and run your mouth at me, you better have a damn good reason for it, and right now, you don’t.”

“Oh, is that right?” Her brows shot up. “I don’t have a damn good reason right now?”

“Nope.”

“I was excited to read that interview. I couldn’t wait to read it. And yes, I was hoping and maybe expecting you to mention something about us in there because I thought for sure you would, and you didn’t. And it hurt my feelings. Okay? I was hurt, Jamie. And you don’t seem to care at all. You’re just being an asshole about it.”

“You’re hurt over somethin’ stupid,” I affirmed. “And I’m not bein’ an asshole. I’m just givin’ it to you straight.”

She blinked, mouth falling open. “Wow. Thanks.” She shook her head. “Thanks a lot. I’m glad how I feel matters to you.” Sarcasm dripped from her tongue. Legs glared at me, lips curling in disgust but also trembling, like she was on the verge of either clawing my eyes out if I got any closer or bursting into tears.

Christ. She drove me fucking crazy.

“Blowin’ up over nothin’. Puttin’ somethin’ this stupid between us. That’s fucked up,” I shared, needing to make sure Tori knew she was wrong. “I don’t got nothin’ to apologize for. I told you how it is.”

“Yeah, you did. And you know what?”

“What?”

“Fuck you,” she hissed.

“Fuck me?” My brows shot up. “Fuck me? What the fuck? Fuck you!” I roared.

“You should care about how I feel, and you don’t!” she yelled. “You should care that I’m upset about this. So fuck you. For that stupid interview, and for not knowing this is a damn good reason. I’m going home.” Tori turned on her heel and made for the door, leaving her shirts behind.

My jaw was clenched so tight it fucking ached. She was going home. I knew what that meant—her home. Not mine.

This was complete bullshit.

“Legs, swear to Christ, woman, if you don’t get your ass back over here and get over this shit, I’m lettin’ you leave. And babe…” I met her eyes when she craned her neck around to glare at me. “You walk out that door and I ain’t followin’ you.”

Tori paused, hand flat on the glass, looking back at me with rage burning in her eyes. She wasn’t wearing that hurt anymore. She was pissed. And I knew what that meant, too.

Hurt might’ve kept her here. But that anger was driving her out.

I watched Tori push through that door and walk. And I didn’t follow. Said I wouldn’t, and I didn’t.

Chest heaving, teeth clenched, and muscles locking up, I dropped my arms and turned toward the counter, bracing my hands there. I looked from the stack of shirts piled next to the register to the open copy of Rail.

Then I stared. Until I couldn’t fucking take it anymore.

“Fuck!” I roared, sweeping my arms across the counter and clearing it. Shirts. Her dad’s hat. Even the fucking register. Everything went flying. I didn’t give a shit.

She walked. And I let her.