Come to Me Softly (Closer to You #2)(70)
Author: A.L. Jackson

Jared hadn’t been the best kid lately. He knew it. Shame always hit him when his mom looked at him with a fading trace of disappointment. She knew it, too.

She’d been talking to him a lot lately. Nagging him, really. Always telling him to make good choices. To be careful. Cautioning him against getting into situations so deep he wouldn’t be able to climb out of them.

“There are some things you just can’t take back, Jared,” she’d warned him on more than one occasion, though she always said it with complete understanding. Like she knew and accepted he wasn’t perfect.

Under his breath, Jared scoffed.

Far from it.

Jared knew he’d been treading dangerous water. All the drinking. Getting high. The girls.

He’d been messing around a lot. Two weeks ago he’d finally just taken it, had sex because he really just wanted to experience it. He didn’t even like the girl. She was annoying and whiny.

For the better part of the week after, he’d felt guilty, because his mom had always told him not to waste himself that way. To make it matter.

Funny that guilt didn’t even cross his mind when he’d hooked up with another girl he’d never even seen before this last weekend.

It was like once he started, he couldn’t stop. But honestly? He didn’t want to. Who knew f**king could feel so good? Sure as hell felt better than his hand. After he had a taste, he had no desire to go back.

“Your mom’s going to love it, Jared,” his dad mused from behind him, breaking into his thoughts. “I’m real proud of you, son. That’s some talent you have there. Not many people can pull off something like this. That’s art.”

Pride heated Jared’s cheeks, and his chest felt a little too full. “Thanks, Dad.”

His dad rumpled his hair, like he used to do when Jared was just a boy. If Christopher would have seen it, he’d have given him shit for days. But Jared didn’t care. His dad was cool—good to him and his sister and most of all to his mom.

His dad’s expression shifted. His eyes narrowed, intense and serious. “I mean it. You are a good kid, Jared. Don’t know many boys getting ready to turn sixteen who’d spend all their afternoons slaving away in a hot garage making a birthday present for their mom.”

A satisfied smile forced its way to Jared’s mouth, mingled with the disagreement at his dad’s assertion. His mom’s birthday was two weeks after his. Just three weeks from now. With all the garbage he’d been getting himself into lately, he wanted to make sure she knew she was far more important than all of that. He wanted her to see the way he saw her.

He was almost finished. All he needed to do was perfect the pattern, deepen the lines, shave to shadow, then stain the wood the dark color his dad had gone with him to pick out.

Jared took his chisel. His lips pressed into a thin line as he focused hard. The blade cut into the wood, carving a defined curve into the intricate floral pattern that graced the top of the jewelry box he’d crafted entirely of his own hands. Each piece had been cut to fit perfectly to build the box. Then he’d set to work to etch the same beauty he found in his mother into the soft wood, her stamp set forever in the elaborate design.

An intricate pattern of petals and leaves, the stems twisted and twined to curl across the top to create a snarled bouquet. A single rose was pronounced in the middle.

The symbol of the greatest beauty.

On the bottom was her inscription.

Helene Rose ~ beauty and light.

NINETEEN

Jared

I’d never had the chance to give it to her.

Did she even know, the way I saw her?

I dropped my head into my hands.

God, I just wanted to breathe . . .

That breath was sharp as I sucked it into my rigid lungs.

Because Aly . . . Aly was my breath. My light.

I rushed to get to my feet, desperate for her touch. Need flashed through me. It blazed as it clashed with the cold.

She was my balm, her fingers the calm I craved, the one drug that would finally take it all away.

I opened the sliding glass door. Who knew how many hours I’d spent alone in the darkness? All the lights inside had been turned off. All except for the single one she’d left on in the kitchen over the stove to guide my way.

And my way was to her.

Cracking open the bedroom door, I snuck inside, my quickened footsteps silent as I stole through the darkened shadows.

Aly lay as a silhouette across our bed. The covers were all twisted around her middle, covering up those legs that I was dying to have wrapped around me. One arm was turned above her head. She jerked, restless where she was lost in the abyss of sleep. Unease twitched through her muscles.

My heart pounded so f**king hard, I was sure it would jar her from sleep, f**king call to her the way she sang out to me. My perfect siren.

Everything I needed.

I climbed onto the bed on my knees. I rushed my hands up her sides.

Aly jumped, then moaned in her sleep. Disoriented, her eyes blinked open. My mouth descended on hers, desperate for the reprieve only she could offer.

“Jared,” she mumbled against my lips. Her sweet breath fanned across my face, stirring that insanity inside of me.

I felt crazed, sick with need. Frantic, I shoved the covers away from her, tugging them free from her legs. She only wore a tight white camisole and a pair of panties. The tiny shirt hugged all her curves, the evidence of our child protruding out from that perfect body.

I dove in, kissing her jaw while I gripped her hips, roughly tugging her against me.

“Jared, wait,” she said.

“Please, baby, need you . . . need to feel you.”

My hands trailed, and Aly lifted to them, accepting their touch, because she needed me, too. Her hands were in my hair, and she kissed me, her mouth so f**king wet and warm and perfect.

I sat back, my hands clamoring for the panties that hindered what I needed most.

Her hands went to my wrists. “Wait,” she said again, her voice a strained command.

She searched me in the shadows. Her chest heaved with indecision, and I could barely make out her face, the sharp lines and her pouty, full lips. Still, she was all I could see.

“We can’t keep doing this,” she pled through a pained whisper.

Palpitations rocked through my heart, and I released my hold on her panties and rushed to move over her, my hands on either side of her head. “Please.” I pressed the word to her neck where my mouth met the sweetness of her skin. I kissed a path upward and nipped at her jaw. “Please.”

She lifted her chin, allowing me access. A whimper rolled up her throat, because she needed me, too.