“It’s for you. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to feel like you had to stay for more time or like I was trying to buy your affection, but I had planned to give you the money all along. Listen, I didn’t talk about it because I knew that it was a sensitive subject for you, given what you and your dad were going through, but the thing is—I come from money. A lot of it. I have always been able to buy what I want. I have more money than I will ever be able to use. If I could give some away every day I would still have too much. I’m not saying this doesn’t mean anything to me, I’m saying that it’s important to me that you have it. Because I want you to have the things that you want and need. I want you to have the kind of life that you deserve, but that you may not be able to afford yet.”
I shook my head. “I really don’t know what to say to you, Jake. It’s far too generous. I mean…is this for the time I spent with you?”
Jake shook his head, rain flying off his shoulder-length black hair. “It’s not that you earned it, Tay. You just deserve it. I want you to take it and use it to do something amazing. Whatever you want—go to college, expand your family business. You name it—whatever your dream is, I want you to have it. You are so intelligent and strong and frankly, you’re a big ol’ badass. I know that you weren’t really into the idea of submitting to me, but the fact that you did—the fact that you put your feelings aside and were willing to step into the unknown and let me be your guide there. That, Tay,…is what is so fucking hot about you.”
I gulped back tears. We were standing in the rain like some stupid romantic comedy, only there was nothing comedic about this at all. He was standing in front of me trying to tell me how he felt and I still wasn’t sure how I felt about him, was I? All those feelings when I left his house, when he essentially sent me away with hardly a goodbye—it had felt like heartbreak, but why?
“Tay, I’m not trying to tell you how to feel,” Jake raised his voice so I could hear him over the driving rain. “But I think that maybe you aren’t as in touch with your heart as you think you are. I don’t know what the best thing for you is. But I can tell you what the best thing for me is, and that’s you.”
“Me?” I called out over the rain before I grabbed Jake and pulled him into the garage. “I know we’re soaked to the gills, but at least it’s not hitting us in the face in here.”
“I want you!” Jake said. “That’s what I learned during those two months. That I want someone who is willing to take the risks with me, someone who is willing to trust me to make decisions. I never knew that, Tay. Not until you. You have shown me so much about who I am. You showed me what I wanted when I had no clue what that was.”
“But you’ve got this crazy life with the club and I really don’t know how I fit into that. Is it something that you are ready to give up? Because I don’t want to get in the middle of something and find out that you’ve changed your mind. I’m young and have a lot of life ahead of me and I don’t want to get tied down to something that could go away in the blink of an eye.”
Jake grabbed me and pulled me close. “Listen. Any of this could be gone in a heartbeat. You know that as well as I do. Look at how things happened with your dad. That could have gone the opposite way, but it didn’t. I don’t want to keep living life in fear, waiting for the next big high. I’ve been looking for the right person to settle down with…but not to settle down. What I want is someone who can fly with me—someone who dreams big dreams and doesn’t let them go. I want to be with someone who knows that she is in control of her own destiny.”
I laughed through happy tears, something that had never happened to me before. “I’m crying, Jake. I’m crying because I’m happy. What is this all about?”
“I don’t know, is it something new for you?”
I nodded and put my arms around him. “I didn’t know what to think when I left your place this morning. I thought you didn’t want me or that our time together hadn’t meant anything to you or…”
He pulled back to look into my eyes. His were the brilliant green I had come to love over those two months, the green eyes that greeted me every morning when I woke without a blindfold on my face.
“Our time together meant everything to me. I don’t ever want it to end. I’m not asking you to make any promises right now, but I would like us to move forward in life together. Is that something you would be interested in?”
I nodded affirmatively. “And one more thing.”
“What’s that?”
“I love you, Jake Mesa,” I said as I planted a kiss on his mouth.
Six months later we were adding on to the garage. We had a new sign, a new coat of paint, and enough new work to hire six new employees. My dad was thrilled and had bounced back from the trauma of a few months before like it had never happened. He had learned from his mistakes, we all had, and we had all come out on the other side the better for them.
Jake was still with Club V, as he would always be, working there in the same capacity as the other owners. I still stopped by there on occasion, less often to pick up Sam and more often to be seen as the fiancée of one of the owners. It carried all kinds of privileges and I could see why Jake enjoyed the life there so much. It wasn’t something I had imagined for myself, but I was learning to love it.
“What do you think about all of this?” Jake asked as he came up behind me and slid his arm around my waist, pulling me tight against him.
I looked up at the garage at all the changes that were going on around me. “You know, I think I’m getting used to not being in control.”
“That’s for damn sure,” he said as he pulled me against his pelvis and ground himself against me. I could feel the growing hardness of his cock beneath his jeans and it made me ache. I could never have enough of him and it made me happy to know he felt exactly the same way.
“You know,” I said as he began kissing the nape of my neck, making me giggle. “As much as I would love you to fuck my brains out in front of all of these new mechanics my dad has hired, I was thinking there was one other place we could try.”
Jake pulled back and looked at me. “Yeah? Show me.”
I smiled and took his hand, leading him toward the apartment above the garage.
“I know we haven’t done much role play, but I think I might still have one of my school uniforms in the closet. What would you think about me putting that on and us having a go at it in my old bedroom?”
I saw the lust flare up in his eyes and he pic
ked me up and carried me over the threshold of my bedroom, kicking the door closed behind us.
“We can get the uniform out later,” he said, tossing me onto the bed. “Right now I’ve got some business to attend to.”
Ten minutes later we lay on top of my bed, sprawled across the covers, sweating and sated…for the moment.