Claiming Holly (Holiday Cove 1)

“Hey, you’re the one in the fuck me dress,” he fired back, winking at me. He cupped my ass cheeks and tugged at the already too short hem. “Mmmm.”

My breath caught and I shivered as his hands found my bare skin.

“Oh, God, you’re not wearing panties?”

I giggled and looked up into his lustful eyes. “You’re gonna have to wait to find out.” I pulled out of his arms and adjusted the skirt of the dress to cover the bare essentials.

He groaned but followed me out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

I gasped at the sight at the bottom. I covered my mouth as my eyes filled with tears. There were rose petals and candles on the table, arranged in an elegant display. It was a simple gesture but unexpected and so overwhelmingly sweet. Jack wrapped his arms around me and pressed a kiss on my cheek. “Thank you,” I whispered.

“You deserve this and so much more, Holly.”

We stayed that way until a timer went off in the kitchen, pulling Jack away from me. He pulled out my chair and waited until I was seated with a glass of the wine he’d selected before he hustled into the kitchen to finish the last-minute touches. I watched him work, and although I could see a pile of boxes on the counter and knew most of the meal had come compliments of the frozen food aisle, it didn’t matter. It was the sweetest thing anyone had even done for me before.

“I know I probably shouldn’t say this…but it was nice of your friend to clear out for the rest of the weekend,” he said, placing a salad in front of me.

I nodded. “Yeah, she was pretty cool about it.” Rachel had packed up and went back home after Jack and I reunited on the beach. I’d asked her to stay, but with a glint in her eye, she came up with some excuse about having to work and drove away. She didn’t ask a lot of questions—just a silly grin on her face—but I knew when I got back to Irvine, she’d likely be in my condo, waiting to pepper me with a million questions.

He took the seat beside me. “Bon appetite,” he said, raising his fork. We ate the salad and lasagna he’d prepared and were picking at the piece of chocolate tart he’d picked up at Carly’s earlier in the day when he broke the easy conversation and shifted to a more serious tone.

“I do think there’s one thing we need to clear up before…tomorrow,” Jack started, hesitating over the last word.

I dabbed at the corner of my mouth with the linen napkin. “What’s that?”

He grabbed for my other hand, holding them both between his much larger hands. “It’s not going to be easy, Holly, so I’m not going to sugar coat it. I won’t be accessible all the time. We’re going to have to rely on email and sporadic phone calls. It’s six months, and I can guarantee you, it’s gonna suck, it’s gonna be hard, but what I’m asking of you is that you hang tough with me until it’s over until I can get back to you again. After that, we’ll take it one day at a time, but right now, going into this, I need to know you’ll wait for me.”

Tears stung at my eyes at the solemn tone of his words. “I promise, Jack. I’ll be here, waiting.”

Relief flashed in his eyes.

“Now, you have to promise me something,” I said, squeezing his hands.

“Anything.”

“You have to promise,” I paused, swallowing back the lump in my throat. “You have to promise that you’ll come home.”

His dark eyes glistened in the flashing candlelight. He placed a hand on my cheek, cradling my face tenderly. “I promise, Holly. I’ll come home.”

He leaned over the table and brought my lips to his, letting the kiss seal the promises we’d made. Jack dragged his lips from mine and trailed up my jawline with soft, lingering kisses. “Let’s take the rest of this upstairs,” he said, reaching for the dessert plate.

I giggled as he led the way, wondering what he was planning for the last few bites of the tart.

I had my answer within minutes. Jack had me stripped down to nothing but my heels and was drawing a line down my stomach with the chocolate filling and made a final dot with a blob of whipped cream right below my navel. I sighed with pleasure as he made his way down my body, licking and sucking the chocolate. The lower he inched, the more my excitement grew, and my laughter died away when he dropped even lower, hungry for something else.

I dug my fingers into his short hair, writhing and grinding against his face as he slipped his tongue inside me. “Jack,” I breathed, his name turning to a moan.