Chapter Text
Waking up in a hospital was just as disorienting as the movies made it out to be.
The first thing Gwyn noticed was the smell. Like bleach and something purely sterile. Then the lights, fluorescent and blinding, even when she winced away from them.
It took several minutes to gather herself and when she finally did, memories flooded in like an unstoppable tide.
She’d gotten caught. She had barely managed to eject. But she had, and she gotten away unscathed.
Well, mostly unscathed if the pounding in her head was any indication.
She had trouble remembering more than bits of pieces of her mostly losing dogfight, but what she could remember was enough to make her tremble.
They had been so close. So close to not making it home. The throbbing at her temples increased as unbridled tears spilled down her cheeks.
“Hey, enough of that.”
Her eyes snapped open at Alex’s voice and she let out a wet gasp as he pushed into the small recovery room, donning a hospital gown and slippers that she was pretty sure were hers.
“Alec,” she choked out, lifting her hands to reach for him despite the weight of them. She felt so heavy, exhaustion creeping at all corners of her body.
Her RIO slid into a chair near the bed, grabbing her hand and lacing his fingers through hers. “One hell of a first mission flight.”
His face was lined in shadows, dark circles whispering to her that he had barely slept, and her hand squeezed his desperately.
“What happened?” she whispered.
Alec’s brow furrowed, and the seriousness of the expression almost knocked her sideways. Alec, her Alec, was never serious, even when she wished he would be. He ran through life at a full sprint, arms spread wide and eyes bright. Seeing his stricken expression made her head hurt, more than the migraine looming on the edges of her vision.
“Bradshaw handled that last plane for us,” he muttered, voice thick with what she suspected were unshed tears. “We got dinged pretty badly, lost an engine according to Mav. I ejected, and then I-” he swallowed. “I didn’t see you. And then there was shouting and I still couldn’t see you and I thought…” He looked away from her, fingers beginning to tremble in her grasp. “I thought I had left you behind. And all I could hear was how panicked you sounded and how scared you must have been.”
His dark eyes slid to hers again. “I thought I was losing my best friend. And there was nothing I could do.”
For the first time ever, Gwyn thought he looked small. His shoulders had curled inward and his eyes wandered her face, looking just as lost as he sounded. Tears slid past her lips, the taste of salt laying itself on her tongue bitterly. She loved him so desperately that it made her heart constrict in her chest just to be near him. The anguish in the moments leading up to the hit had been the scariest of her life, but not because she might die. No, that was secondary. It was because of Alec and all that he had left to give the world and how many things he still hadn’t done and how much dimmer the world would be without him.
She tried to smile just to see him do the same. “I guess you’re stuck with me.”
He laughed, a pitiful sound compared to his usual air-shattering cackle, but a laugh nonetheless. He brought his head down to their hands, placing a kiss on the back of hers and watching her with an openness he saved just for her.
“I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
They relaxed into the easy quiet and Gwyn swallowed back a sob.
They were okay.
“Are you hurt?” she croaked, voice tired from being overworked.
At that, Alec grinned, toothy and blindingly perfect. “Not at all,” he snorted. “Bruised rib from that pull-up you did, but not enough to get me a Purple Heart. I already asked.”
Her laugh echoed throughout the room and in her chest where it wreaked havoc on her lungs. She shoved at him with their joined hands, but he only held them to his sternum with a smile.
“I feel like I got hit by a train,” she joked, settling further into the thin hospital pillows.
A finger stroked across the back of her palm. “Close.” Alec propped his chin on their tangled fingers and regarded her closely, assessing something. “You had a rough evacuation, but you made it out at least.”
“The handle was stuck,” and memories of that moment, the fear of pulling and pulling and being firmly locked into her seat as she plummeted stung at her.
Another nod, that same haunted expression returning. “Jammed. The team said that can happen sometimes without routine checks. We got lucky and you managed to yank it loose.” A chuckle, then, “Clipped Hangman’s wing on the way down, but you made it.”
Her breath stilled in her throat.
Jake.
She looked at him, not even bothering to disguise the panic she felt. “What do you mean?”
Alec shrugged, far too casual compared to her rising anxiety. “You were coming down, he was coming up. Lost sight of you in the sun and didn’t see you until you were on his wing.”
She swallowed, fearing the answer he might give her if she asked the question flooding her brain. “Is he…”
Alec smiled. “He’s fine. He ejected right after you did, and the bastard doesn’t have so much as a scrape.”
He was okay.
They were all okay.
And whatever had led up to this, whatever fears she had had before, none of it mattered anymore. Not now.
“I have to talk to him.”
Alec was already shaking his head. “You will. Just not now. You both need to rest.”
He was right. No matter how badly she wanted to buck against his command and stomp right down the hall to Jake’s room, he was right. There would be time for that conversation later, when they had both taken time to rest.
They had all the time in the world.
“Alec,” she whispered, voice heavy and tired. The older pilot looked up at her, and God she was so happy to see those eyes and the light dusting of freckles beneath them that she had always loved. “Would you stay with me?”
She felt the squeeze in her hand. “Of course I will.” He stood up, easing into the empty space on the bed next to her she had slid over to create. Arms wrapped around her, strong and warm and familiar. “Always.”
Silence fell, and she found herself basking in it. The cool, calm quiet she hadn’t expected to ever find again, now enveloping her in a very tangible way, every bit as real as the arms around her. Her breath evened out, long inhales echoing the exhales Alec released against the crown of her head.
“Alec?” she asked, nearly asleep.
He hummed, fingers tightening on her back. “Yes, lovey?”
“Do we still have jobs?”
His answering laugh was loud enough to be heard in the hall.
—---------
Gwyn had begun telling time by which nurse came to check on her. Alec stayed by her side the entire time, chastising her when she tried to send the nurse away with promises of “I’m fine”. He had managed to sweet talk Phoenix into going by Gwyn’s house and retrieving her laptop, and he had set it up on her bedside tray so they could watch an endless stream of trashy reality TV.
Several times she had tried to slip past him and go check on Jake, and several times he had stopped her with a stern glare. Just for a moment, she always insisted. She just needed to see him with her own eyes to be sure he was okay. Alec had run himself tired insisting that yes, he was fine, tucking her back into bed whenever she tried to escape.
Three days of constant battle with her backseater later, Bradshaw swung by to say hi and let it slip that Jake had been discharged not even an hour prior. Disappointment bloomed, but she shook it off with the notion that a hospital was probably the least romantic spot for her to confess her complete devotion to him anyway.
With her new goal of “get out of here as quickly as possible and rush straight to Jake’s side”, Gwyn became the glowing picture of a perfect patient. She sat still when the nurses poked and prodded at her, ate the food they shoved in front of her, and any other task they’d give her. Within two days, the doctor on call had decided she had no significant injury beyond some bumps and bruises, and sent her on her way after a massive stack of discharge papers.
So when Alec shoved her into his car and motored them straight to her house, she was more on edge than normal.
“Alec,” she whined, drawing out the vowels and throwing her head back. “I need to go talk to him.”
The older man scoffed, yanking open the passenger door for her and practically carrying her inside where he unceremoniously dumped her on the couch. “He’s at home collecting himself and you need to do the same.”
Thus, the cycle of junk food and reality TV resumed, but Gwyn impressively made it four hours before complaining again.
The fight that ensued was small, microscopic compared to some of their other arguments, but ultimately ended with Alex dismissing himself to her bedroom with a lighthearted, “I’m heading to bed. It’d be a real shame if someone snuck out while I was asleep and couldn’t stop her.”
She counted five minutes, knowing Alec and how quickly he fell asleep once his head hit the pillow, and slipped out the door.
It was only once she was securely in her car that she realized she was still very much in her lounge shorts and shirt that Alec had shoved her in the moment her feet crossed the threshold, but it didn’t matter. It wasn’t about how she looked or what she wore, it was about how she felt and telling Jake about those feelings.
That didn’t stop her from trying to smooth down her hair before pulling out of the driveway.
What would she say when she got there? Would he even want to talk with her? Was he even interested after she borderline rejected him? And what would happen if he still felt the same? If he still…
loved her.
Gwyn considered turning the car around and driving home, tucking herself in bed next to Alex’s sprawled limbs and snores that resembled a plane engine starting, and pretending she had never left. No one would know how close she was to his house and how close she was coming to admitting her feelings.
But she would know. And she’d scorn herself. Selfishly, she wanted to do this for her. Not for Jake or Alec or any of the team, just for her. Her stomach churned with nerves, but she allowed herself to feel them. This was okay, it was part of the process. She had feelings for Jake and she needed to tell him, not for him, but for her. She needed to know that she had been honest in what she felt, even if Jake no longer felt the same. Coming close had changed something in her, but maybe it had changed something in him, too.
And that could be okay.
The clock on her dashboard read 10:47 by the time she pulled in next to Jake’s car. Memories of being in that car with his hand on her leg shook through her, warming her stomach and spurring her to pull open the car door.
Her feet carried her straight to his front door where she silently paced for a few moments while she worked up the courage to knock. Jake was just on the other side of the door, maybe sleeping or watching TV, having no idea that she was on his porch ready to tell him the biggest news of her life.
All she had to do was knock.
Maybe she should have texted first. Just to let him know she was on her way and keep him from being blindsided. Because surely he wouldn’t appreciate her just showing up at his house and laying all of her feelings at his feet for him to possibly stomp all over. She could still text him, send him a quick message asking to chat and come back another time when they were on an even playing field. Giving him a heads up would be the fairest (and safest) course of action, and maybe she could take the extra day or two to string her thoughts together a little more eloquently. Especially considering the events of the last few days, hitting him with another surprise would only give him whiplash. Coming here unannounced had been a bad idea, but at least no one knew she had come so she could excuse herself without-
The door swung open, a very smug Jake Seresin greeting her on the other side.
“You gonna knock any time soon, or should I just leave you to your pacing?”
Her throat constricted and all the air had been sucked from the space around her.
She swallowed. “You knew I was out here?”
A smile, more teasing than anything, but easier than any expression he’d given her in weeks. “I’ve known since the moment you pulled in.”
God, this was so embarrassing. Her relentless anxiety-induced shuffling had been on display for him to watch from his window or peephole, and she could already hear the teasing that was sure to come for the next several months.
She found she didn’t mind that thought as much as she should.
He pulled the door open a little wider. “Come in.”
Not a question, but not a command either. An invitation. She stepped over the threshold hesitantly, eyes sweeping across the living room. Surprisingly neat and very Jake. Small trophies of his life and snapshots into days spent in the sun or the mountains or with friends. It felt intimate, more intimate than the confession sitting on her lips, to see every corner of his life like this.
Gwyn cleared her throat, eyes trained on a framed picture of Jake and someone she suspected was his mom, with the same green eyes and charming smile. “Can we talk?”
She could feel the air still and Jake freeze along with it. If she thought too long about it, she would back out, so she spun around to look him in his eyes. “Please,” she pleaded quietly.
Jake’s jaw ticked. “Sure.”
This was it. This was the very conversation she had been itching to have. But now that she was here, in the moment, she didn’t know where to begin.
“Baby?” Jake tried gently. His voice rattled her, shaking her very core. “Are you-”
“That day in the locker room,” she interjected quickly, afraid she’d give up and leave if she gave herself too long to think. “Do you remember that?”
He looked at her evenly, eyes flickering between hers. “I do.”
Gwyn gripped the hem of her shorts to keep her fingers from trembling. “You said-” she swallowed, nerves suffocating her. “You said you love me.”
A small smirk lit up Jake’s mouth, a playful one that told her he was trying to make this easier on her, whatever it was. “I said I think I love you.”
And leave it to Jake to almost make her laugh at a time like this. She would’ve thrown her head back in a fit of giggles if she didn’t feel like she was teetering on a very dangerous, very scary edge.
“I think I love you too.”
He froze, jack falling slack. It was done. It was out there, and she couldn’t reign the word back in even if she wanted to. She had said it and now it was real. She was bare before him in a way she had never been with anyone else, and even if this went to shit, she could sleep easier knowing she had said everything she needed to say.
Another minute passed before Jake spoke again, choking out the words. “And if I said I know I love you?”
God.
She blinked back the familiar sting of tears. “Then I love you.”
And she did. She was so helplessly in love with him that it left her vulnerable and unguarded against him. It burned her if she got too close to it and even then she found herself reaching for it at every opportunity.
She loved him.
Silence hung for several moments, and then Jake was crossing the room in three long strides before wrapping her up in his arms and kissing her with a force she should’ve expected from him.
The kiss was intense and hungry and desperate, laying out everything they didn’t say and didn’t need to say. Her hands flew up to grip his shirt while his gripped her hips hard enough to bruise. This was perfect. Of course it was, everything Jake Seresin did was perfect. But this was something altogether different, indescribable in its nature and shape.
They pulled away from each other, panting. The look clouding his eyes made her hands flex in the fabric of his shirt, something he took note of with a very proud smirk.
“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to do that,” he whispered, filling what little space was left between them with his voice.
She didn’t have the words to respond. So she kissed him again.
Kissing Jake was like coming up for air in a sea of raw passion. She felt lost in him but his fingers around the flesh at her waist was her lifeline.
Her own hands slid up to tangle in his hair, and the groan he released against her lips made her shiver.
“You better cut that out,” he taunted against her mouth, and she could see why it was so easy for him to get any woman he wanted.
But she wasn’t just any woman and she was certainly not one to back down against him.
“Or what?”
Jake’s mouth returned to hers with renewed vigor, all teeth and tongue while his hands slipped lower on her waist before gripping at her ass roughly.
It was overwhelming, the feeling of him against her, hard and lean and immovable as he palmed at her like a man starved.
Intoxicating.
“You’re the worst,” he breathed, pulling back to kiss his way down her neck where he left bites and licks against her skin. “I’ve spent weeks being tortured by you, leaving me in the locker room, avoiding me at work, getting yourself into trouble and making me worry,” his biting only intensified once he reached the small chain around her throat, a small airplane dangling on the end of it. “And now you show up at my house in the middle of the night in those goddamn shorts and tell me you love me.”
She hadn't realized he’d been slowly backing her up until her legs hit the arm of his couch. “Can't handle me, Seresin?”
Another smirk. “I guess we’ll see.”
A rough shove sent her sprawling against the couch, Jake following after her and swallowing her protest with a kiss.
His fingers trailed down her sides and played with the bottom of her sleep shirt. Her stomach flipped at every brush of his skin against hers, and her pulse skyrocketed when he began to drag the fabric up her torso.
“Is this okay?” he mumbled between kisses.
It seemed silly for him to ask considering how hard she was breathing and how flushed her cheeks were, but she warmed at the sentiment. She gave him a nod and then he was completely pulling her out of her shirt and tossing it somewhere over his shoulder.
He sits up to tower over her and his gaze is piercing as he drags his eyes across her bare chest. Gwyn grips the fabric of the couch to keep herself from covering her body and shielding it from his stare.
He swallows audibly, and lets out a strangled “God” before diving back in to nip and suck bruises into her skin. His mouth sweeps across her sternum and Gwyn is letting out little gasps into the still air that she can’t seem to drink in enough of.
Jake’s hands are wandering across her skin and one eventually travels up to gently grasp at her throat. Not squeezing hard enough to hurt, but enough to keep her still as he continues the assault on her torso. She notices the chain of her necklace wrap around one of his fingers and has to concentrate to choke back the moan that threatens to tear out of her.
Fingers dance lower against her hips until he’s fingering the waistband of her shorts and dragging them down her ankles. Jake pulls his head away from laying sloppy kisses against her stomach to take in the sight of her laid completely naked before him, and a strangled moan slips out of him. Gwyn reaches for his shirt, something close to embarrassment stirring in her chest as his hungry gaze drinks her in, but he stops her by wrapping a strong hand around her wrist and pinning it against the couch.
“No,” his voice is stern, thick with lust. “We’ll get to that. Just-“ he broke off with a curse. “Fuck just give me a second.”
“Jake,” she whispered, fingers curling where he had pinned them down.
Another groan, this one almost pained. “Fuck,” he choked and then he was lowering his head to lick a long stripe up her slit. Gwyn’s hips bucked at the unexpected sensation, a gasp ripping from her chest before she could stop it.
Then he went to work.
Jake’s mouth on her was heated and intense and everything she should’ve expected from “Hangman” Seresin. He was lapping at her like she was fine wine and she found herself already embarrassingly close to the edge.
His lips found her clit where he drew right circles with his tongue that had her seeing stars. She caught the whimper that almost slipped out by throwing her free hand over her mouth, but Jake paused his ministrations in response.
“No,” he huffed and then he was once again pinning her hand down. She struggled to pull her hands free but he only squeezed them harder, pulling them to settle over her stomach so he could fully hold her down. “I have wanted to see you like this since the moment I met you. I’m not gonna let you hold anything back from me.”
God. “Jake,” she whined.
“That’s it,” he encouraged. And then he was bringing his mouth back down on her, sloppily eating her out and groaning against her core at every little whimper, whine, and moan she let loose.
Far too soon, she found herself balancing over that cliff, eyes screwed shut as her stomach tightened into a knot. Her hands were clenched into fists where he had them bound, and her fingers itched to bury in his hair.
“Come on, baby, give it to me,” he muttered against her and then she was coming undone beneath him, throwing her head back in a drawn out whine while her legs shook around his head. She was trembling from the intensity of it as it raced through her limbs and electrified her from the inside out.
Jake still continued to lap at her, even as the aftershocks and overstimulation made her whine pathetically and scramble to get out from his hold. Still, he held her still and licked at every last drop of her, the vibrations of his groans pulsing through her deliciously. She was gasping, trying to force her legs closed against the waves of pleasure he was feeding her, and it wasn’t until she choked out his name again that he pulled away with a starved look in his eye.
He released his grip on her wrists, and she buried her hands in his hair as he dove in to kiss a trail across the neck and chest. “You taste so fucking good,” he groaned, a rough timbre in his tone that made her back arch.
She grasped at the hem of his t-shirt, pushing it up his chest and over his head to reveal an expanse of tanned, toned skin. She had seen him half naked before, particularly at the beach the night he dragged her into a supply closet. But seeing him now, like this, made her head spin.
Jake’s fingers hooked into the waistband of his pants and he pushed them down his strong thighs along with his boxers.
God.
Oh my God.
Gwyn’s breath shuttered as she took in the sight of him naked, all hard lines and muscle. His cock stood straight, achingly hard and thick. He was huge. Of course he was, he was Jake Seresin, and Gwyn should’ve known there was something he was hiding to back up all that cockiness he carried around like a badge.
She leaned in to him, wanting desperately to feel the weight of him in her mouth, but he caught her with a gentle hand to her chest. Still, she pushed against him and once again made to wrap her lips around the length of him.
Jake fisted at her hair, yanking her head back with a force that made her gasp. “Stop,” and there was no room for argument in the tone. “Another time,” he promised, kissing the pout on her lips while keeping his fingers tangled in her locks. “I want to be inside you.”
And how could she argue with that?
He manhandled her on to her stomach, pulling her hips back against him while she buried her head in the couch cushion. Jake’s hands were roughly massaging at her ass again and she hissed at the sting of his teeth biting down on to the swell of it. It would bruise, she was sure, but the idea of him leaving a mark of what they were doing so that she wouldn’t soon forget where he had been gave her a sick sort of satisfaction.
“Please,” she begged, hands curling by her head as she pushed her hips back towards his.
Jake ground into her, the shape of him brushing against her heat. “Please, what?”
And of course he’d make her say it, just to humiliate her a little bit while he had her bent over for him like a whore.
“Fuck me, please,” Gwyn whined. “Need you.”
With a strangled curse, Jake lined himself up and carefully began to push in.
The stretch ached, punching a gasp out of her while he threw his head back with a groan.
“Fuck, baby.” He sounded strained, his voice cutting through the fog enveloping her brain. “So perfect. So perfect for me.”
A desperate moan left her at how rough he sounded, amplifying when his hips drew back before slamming into her once again. The pace he set was immediately bruising. An ache bloomed deep within her at the force of his bones colliding with her ass, and she chased it head first.
His hand found her clit, and he stroked her in slow teasing circles that made her tense up with a groan. Usually she’d be mortified at how quickly she was falling apart around him, but the heat of his thrusts and fingers on her pushed all logical thought from her head.
“Close again?” he asked, not teasing, just observant. Of course he knew, he could read her like a book sometimes. Gwyn was beyond words at this point, only managing an eager nod that seemed to satisfy him. “Go ahead, baby, let me feel you.”
For the second time that night, Gwyn was shaking against him as her orgasm tore through, more intense now that he was buried to the hilt inside her. She was ruined, she thought. No other man would ever come close to making her feel like this, no one could play her like an instrument and make her sing the way he did.
“I love you,” she sobbed out through the mind-numbing pleasure, drawing a sharp curse from the man destroying her with every push of his hips.
His thrusts turned brutal at her words, spurred on by her confession and using it to inflict even more pleasure on to her body. The drag of his cock as it pushed in and out of her cunt made her clench around him, and then hands were grabbing at her throat and waist to pull her flush up against his chest.
I’m the aftermath of her orgasm, her thighs shook from the effort of keeping upright, and Jake’s arm landed around her waist while his other hand held her by the neck as he fucked up in to her.
“One more time, baby,” he groaned. “I want to feel you cum for me one more time.”
“It’s too much,” she whined as her head rolled back against his strong shoulder.
“You can do it.” The praise slipped from his mouth and his fingers tightened around her throat, pressing the cold metal of her necklace into the skin beneath his hand. “You can do one more, right baby? For me?”
Her head spun at the press of his fingers and the pressure of his length brushing her cervix. God, he was big. She nodded, wanting nothing more than to please him. He could’ve asked anything of her in that moment and she would’ve done.
At her nod, his thrusting sped up, sending her speeding towards that cliff again. “That’s it,” voice breathy. “That’s my girl. My perfect girl. All mine.” He groaned as she once again clenched around him desperately. “All mine,” he sighed.
“Yours,” she echoed pathetically, hands scrambling to anchor herself as he fucked her through her words.
Sex had never felt anything like this. No past hookups had ever brought her to this kind of high, bruising her skin and making her head swim.
Just another thing he was fantastic at, she wanted to snark, but that would have to wait until she was a bit more coherent.
“Does that feel good, baby?” Jake asked after she released a particularly loud whimper.
Gwyn answered with another moan as he brushed against that spot that made her feel like she was on fire. She could feel her skin flush from her cheeks down to her stomach.
Everything felt amplified with him, like he had turned her senses up to the max when he was inside of her.
Suddenly, Jake bit down on the space between her neck and shoulder while his fingers squeezed her jaw painfully. A shout broke out of her in the form of a cry and then she was climaxing again, shaking from the intensity of it and the painful pulses of overstimulation that followed. Her vision had gone white, only focusing on Jake’s cock buried inside her and how her walls fluttered around him as he rocked her through her high.
“Fuck,” Jake gasped. He threw his head back even as his grip on her tightened. “God, baby, I’m gonna cum.”
If she wasn’t so spent, she would have finished again at his words and how he practically growled them in her ear.
“Where should I cum, baby? Huh?” his teasing tone brushed against her skin, making her fists clench at how hot the whole situation was.
“I- I need-“ she tried to force out, but the rhythm of his hips made her stutter pitifully.
“Use your words,” Jake commanded, biting at her earlobe.
“In me,” she whined out, unable to find any ounce of shame at the words. “Please.”
The shout Jake released was loud and full of unrestrained wildness that she rarely saw from him. He ground out a curse as he thrust into once, twice more before spilling himself into her with a drawn out groan. It was sick the way she nearly got off on the hot feel of his release against her walls. Jake continued to canter his hips against hers, fucking every last bit of himself into her until she was trying to writhe away with a whine.
He pulled out of her with a sigh, laying a kiss to the space between her shoulder blades before laying her on her stomach. “I’m gonna grab a rag, okay?”
She mumbled non-committedly and listened to his soft footfalls carry him away. Her head was lost in the clouds, higher than any plane could ever take her.
Jake returned, rag in hand, and began the process of gently cleaning her up. He was careful in his ministrations, eyes watching her face to be sure he wasn’t being too rough on her.
“Was that okay? Did I hurt you?” he asked, wiping at the slick staining her thighs.
Gwyn huffed a small laugh, a breathy sound that was taxing on her already exhausted body. “It was good,” she assured.
His eyebrows rose, a small teasing look crossing his face. “Just ‘good’? Damn.”
She let out a brighter laugh this time, chest easing at that look in his eye. Familiar. Very Jake. “Well if I told you how I really felt, your ego would be unstoppable. So yeah, just ‘good’.”
Jake’s fingers brushed her hair behind her ear. “Sit up for me baby, let’s get you dressed.”
Getting “dressed” meant Jake sliding one of his much too large t-shirts over her body. He fussed with the collar of it before helping her stand and steering her towards the bedroom.
His bedroom.
A low whistle sounded from behind her and then Hake was grabbing at her bare ass again. “You look so good in my clothes. Better get you in bed before I jump your bones again.”
Gwyn chuckled, batting his hands away and sinking beneath the blankets he pulled back for her. His bed was warm, cozy, and incredibly inviting. She nestled down into the sheets as he slid in alongside her and pulled her across the mattress so she was flush against him.
“Hi,” she breathed, looking up at him while he stared at her. “What are you thinking?”
He smiled, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear and laying a chaste kiss to her forehead. “I’m thinking I love you.”
Butterflies erupted in her stomach, and for the first time since meeting him, Gwyn felt her spirit settle.
She fell asleep to the quiet sounds of his breathing and the steady pound of his heartbeat.
————
Beach day was brutal. The California sun was burning through the layers of sunscreen Gwyn had forced everyone to lather on, and the smell of sweat tainted to air around them. Dogfight football had turned into dogfight soccer somehow, a game both Gwyn and Jake had tapped out of. A chorus of wolf whistles and crude shouts played out at their surrender, but they laughed it off and planted themselves in the sand a few paces away.
Waves crashed against the shore, lapping at some of their team members while they ran and dodged and tackled each other in a manner that was very much not soccer, but no one was complaining so he didn’t see any need to referee.
Jake looked at the woman beside him, her eyes focused on the game, a smile pulling at her lips.
He loved her. So much. Enough that it hurt.
And she loved him too.
Nothing else mattered beyond that, he supposed.
Gwyn’s eyes met his, her brow furrowing at the intensity of his stare. He wanted to kiss her stupid, tackle her and brush his lips against hers until she was giggling.
She laughed, a musical sound. “What are you thinking?”
Jake smiled, lacing his fingers through hers and laying a kiss across the back of her hand. His eyes turned back to his team and the sun setting behind them.
“You already know.”