Between Octobers Bk 1, Savor The Days Series (55 page)

A languorous moan rumbled through my chest
as he moved his mouth down my neck. “Oh, I like that.” Jake
whispered as he nibbled my ear. “Are you noisy? Should I make you
scream?”

I gasped and froze; too shocked to remember
what I was doing just a moment ago.

Jake pulled back just enough to look me in
the eye. “I’m making you uncomfortable.” It wasn’t a question.

My hands suddenly tingled. My flushed cheeks
ran cold.

Jake sighed and sat up. “It’s okay, Angel.
I’m not trying to take advantage of you.”

I sat up, too. “I want this. I do. It’s
just—I’ve never . . . you know. And I don’t want to disappoint
you.”

His shoulders dropped while the gaze he’d
kept trained on me shifted to the wall beyond. He offered a small
smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “This is wrong.” He shook his
head. “We should wait.”

My heart seemed to crack at those last three
words and I couldn’t hide my regret for telling him. I couldn’t
explain how I felt. I hadn’t snuck away that morning, planning on
throwing myself at Jake. I was just going to watch him sing and
pretend he was doing it for me. But he asked me for this and I was
more than willing to give him my all. I just didn’t know how.

The hot pricks of tears swelled behind my
eyes, as did the shame of my inexperience. I wanted to disappear
and drew my knees up to my chest. The thought of stopping, of not
having him, made me wilt.

“Hey.” He reached out, taking hold of my
shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

I took a pleading breath. “I’ve been waiting
my whole life.”

After thinking for a long moment, he spoke.
“You can be so sweet,” Jake grinned. “Are you sure?”

I nodded.

“To be honest, Angel, the second I said
‘wait’, I wished to take it back.”

“You did? You want to?”

He placed the backs of his fingers
against my cheek. “Are you serious? I can’t be the first guy to
try. I mean, you’re so damn beautiful. I wanna . . .” He moved his
hands erratically in the air between us. “
Do
things
to you. You
make me feel like a caveman.”

My mind filled with a cartoony image of
Cro-Magnon-Jake. It stretched my face into a grin. “You wanna club
me and drag me away by my hair?”

He gave a slight smile, running his fingers
down my side, to my hip. His eyes held no humor when he said,
“There’ll be no clubbing, Baby Seal.” He put a hand across my
throat. I watched, mesmerized as he ran his tongue across his
bottom lip. “I might go for some hair pulling, though.”

My whole body seemed to go up in smoke,
singed by those erotic words. My heart fluttered, feeling his
fingers around the sides of my neck, his thumb grazing my throat.
The touch relaxed every muscle in my body. “That’s the sexiest
thing I’ve ever heard.”

Jake moved closer, resting his other hand by
my hip. “No, being the one you choose as your first is sexy.”

With a kiss, he tipped me back, pressed his
full weight onto me, letting me feel his long body as his lips sank
to my chin, my collar bone, then my shoulder. My entire body
shuddered at the intensity of this new touch that somehow felt
right and familiar. Like coming home to a place I’d never been. My
insides throbbed. I needed more than his lips. Then, his hands
explored me: creating new planes over my body. New sensations that
made my breath catch. When I started breathing again, I was
suddenly desperate, possessed, and wanting things I never knew I
could. As he whispered my name, those talented fingers that had
sexily strummed his guitar, slithered over me. I bit my lip and
squirmed at the deep, dark ache left in the wake.

Glorious shivers washed through me when Jake
said my name, connecting our bodies in the most intimate way. There
was no pain, only my souls’ recognition of its mate: my Jake and
his breath, this song his body was singing to me. The rhythm of his
heartbeat and my breath conjoined in kisses. Our hearts crashed
like waves, mingling in a passionate sea as the chaise lounge began
to creak. It was a beautifully violent march—harsh and slow,
building into a grating that scraped over the concrete of the pool
area.

My feelings, the sounds made me smile.

Jake’s fingers knotted in my hair, drawing
my attention to his off-centered gaze. His gaze burned so bright
through the dark, that I could see the multihued hazel in them, but
only half of his pupils. His hair fell forward—disheveled, the
roots tinged with sweat—and the volcanic heat that poured from
those fiery orbs commanded me to take what he gave, while the way
he moved promised I would love it. The way his bottom lip curved up
under his teeth as his eyes pleasurably rolled back made me want to
beg him to never stop. Whatever he was feeling, I never wanted it
to end. I wanted to watch him like that forever.

His passion shocked to my core. A sudden
ripple shot through me, from the very center of my being, out to my
fingertips: it was a liquefying cadence, beating from the heart of
every cell in my body. It made me want to scream and cry his name,
but it my breath was gone.

I melted into him, took on his shape as he
held me closer, curling my head into his chest as he relaxed
against me; his heart beating loud against my ear. When he fell
beside me, I still felt his pulse racing, heard his labored
breathing. Jake laid an arm under my head and wrapped another
around my waist, pulling me against him.

“Happy Birthday, baby.” He whispered,
landing a trail of kisses from my forehead to my mouth.

The tingling ease that filled me
disappeared. Suddenly hollowed out, I hid my face in the crook of
his neck, kicking and cringing internally for listening to Avery.
After what we’d just done, how was I going to tell him I lied? I
shoved the unpleasant question into the proverbial box and locked
it away, deciding I’d deal with it another time. And moved closer,
clinging to the rapidly fading sweetness of the moment.

All it took was a little time, a lot of
Jake, and I felt like a different person.

We made our way back to his motel room
and slipped into a pallet on the floor. The lights were out, but
Jake turned on a lamp and set it beside us on the rug. Avery was
asleep in the far corner of the room, tucked into a tight ball on
the extra wide chair. Jake pulled a tablet from his nearby duffle
bag and began writing
.

Then, he wrote a song for me.
He called it my birthday present. I tried to refuse, but he
looked so disappointed, saying I needed my own song, that I
deserved it because I was his friend first. The guilt I had tucked
away reared up, but I didn’t know how or where to start and kept my
mouth shut as Jake called me loyal; because I never let them put me
on a guest list, even though sometimes it was hard to pay for my
ticket, even though going to see them play sometimes meant I had to
hitchhike. But the band wasn’t with a label and what kind of fan
would I be if I didn’t show my support?

In its’ original form my song, oddly
titled
Eve
, was heavy and
lurid. Sweet passion wrapped in a dirty melody. And the lyrics were
beautiful. I think that’s what made me love Analog Controller so
much—their music, in and of itself, was fantastic, but the melody
and content of the lyrics took it all to another level. It was like
the most delicious frosting on the world’s greatest cake. Decadent
and sexy. Addictive. Yeah, that was Jake.

I can admit now that I was a little
obsessive about it, but at the time I didn’t see it that way. Hero
worship can make you see reason in the crazy.

+++

Thank you for reading!!!

_________________________________________________________________________________

A.R. Rivera
loves to read, write, and talk. She blogs about her writing
process, makes up flash fiction over at her author website,
authorarrivera.com, and tweets as @girlnxtdr2u.

She’s a mom to four amazing boys (three of
which are in a rock band), a wife to the greatest husband in the
world, a daughter to two super parents, a baby sister to three
siblings, an aunt to more nieces and nephews than she can count, as
well as a self-professed weirdo, book worm-couch potato, and
people-watcher.

She’s currently hard at work on her
second book in Savor The Days Series, which is also her first
YA/NA/psychological-type endeavor entitled,
September Rain
, releasing in May 2015. She’s
also got a Sci-Fi trilogy in the works that she’s very excited
about and hopes to release late 2015.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I have to thank God and
His Son, Jesus, who gave me a dream and the will to chase it.

Thank you to my mommy, Linda, my daddy,
Denny, my honey-bunny, Cesar (AKA world’s greatest husband), and
the planet’s most awesome kids—Michael, Cesar II, Lucas, and
Sebastian: You all have been so patient with me during this writing
process. Thank you for listening to my character ideas when you
would rather talk about real people, for letting me interrupt you
with absurd questions, and taking the time to answer those
questions with complete sincerity.

A major thanks to Elizabeth and Courtney—the
wonderful ladies of Take Two Publishing. You’ve offered more
guidance, sweat, and creativity than I ever expected or deserved.
Thank you for believing in my story and giving me my first
“Yes.”

This
page would not be complete without recognizing the people who, some
without knowing, helped mold my obsession into an admissible
manuscript. My husband—thank you for being who you are; your
personality is all over these pages. My brother, Jasen—thanks for
calling long distance to listen to my ideas and for encouraging me
on my quest for publication. My wonderful critique partners: L.N.
Russell—my fastest CP—thank you for asking the tough questions, for
having such a big heart, and such a sharp eye. J.C. Emery—you were
the first to meet Evan and you loved him right away. Thank you for
your gentle brutality, expertise, infinite encouragement, and help
with the editing process. Thank you to Gina Denny—through reading
your work I found a way to build better sentences, and thus, better
chapters. Your lessons in the proper use of the apostrophe have
stayed with me. And last but not least, Kari Nunes—for introducing
me to Nora Roberts and her
Public
Secrets
. That novel, though nothing like
Octobers
, really helped me find the
structure mine needed. If it had not been for your casual
recommendation, this book might have remained
my
secret.