I blinked back tears at the memories, reassuring Jake with a small grin when he saw the wet in my eyes. “Those six months with you were the best I’ve ever had in my whole life. It’s like… I don’t know, I’m just so relieved to be able to look back on them now and remember falling in love with you without feeling like one of us died.”
Jake nodded solemnly. “That’s how I felt too.”
“We don’t have to feel that way anymore. We’ve made it through.”
Jake cupped my face in his hands. “I’m never letting you go,” he murmured his vow. “Even if you try to make me… never again.”
I nuzzled into his touch. “Right back at you, Caplin.”
Jake laughed, pressed a soft kiss to my lips, and pulled back to stare down at the picnic. “Are we going to eat? I’m a little hungry after all that making up we did last night.”
“Mmm, me too.” I handed him a sandwich. “I should be exhausted, but I’m not.”
He grinned. “I’ll just need to try harder next time.”
“Try any harder and I won’t be able to walk afterwards.”
We laughed and continued to eat in perfect, comfortable quiet. Scrunching up my sandwich wrapper, I settled on my back and stared up at the cloudy sky. “You were kind of bossy last night.”
“Yeah. You didn’t seem that upset, though,” he pointed out.
“Nah, I wasn’t. That was just you asserting your dominance in a pre-evolutionary kind of way.” I rolled my head on the blanket to meet his gaze. “I just went with it, but you should know I would never have given in if I wasn’t about to anyway.”
“Yeah?” He caressed me gently, trailing his fingertips along the bare skin peeking out between my sweater and the waistband of my jeans.
I shivered at his touch. “Hmm… yes.”
“Ah, I see how this is,” he whispered, drawing invisible circles on my skin. “You think you’re in charge here.”
“I am in charge, mister.” It would’ve sounded a lot more convincing if my breath hadn’t hitched.
“We’ll just see about that.” He plucked at the top button on my jeans.
“Jake, don’t.” I covered his hands with mine. “Someone might come up here. They’ll see us.”
He smirked, brushing my hands away. “Come on, Supergirl. Be brave.”
“Jake…” I lost my breath completely at the feel and sound of him tugging down my zipper. My belly flipped as his warm hand slid inside, slipping beneath my panties. “Jake…”
“Ssh.” He was leaning over me now, his eyes on my face as two of his fingers found my clit. “Just feel it.”
I bit my lip, everything else in the whole world disappearing but Jake and the sensations swelling through me. I arched my hips into his touch.
“Do you remember that night in my truck?” his voice rasped in my ear. “Halloween. I do. I remember every second. I’d never been so turned on in my life.”
“I remember,” I whimpered as I grew wet from the memories and his touch.
“Do you remember the first time I went down on you?”
“Uh-huh…” I pushed into his hand, seeking more.
“Do you remember the first time you sucked me off?”
“Mmm.”
“Do you remember how hard you made me come?”
“Yes, yes, yes…” My whole body tensed and soon I was climaxing in jerky shudders around the fingers he’d slipped inside me.
As I came back to earth, Jake zipped my jeans.
Melted against the blanket, I stared into his gorgeous face in a daze. “What was that for?”
“That,” he smirked, “was punishment for taking your sweet time telling me you loved me.”
“Um… I hate to tell you this but that kind of punishment isn’t going to deter me from pissing you off in the future.”
Jake laughed. “I didn’t think it would. Lucky for me, I get off on the punishment.”
“You’re hard,” I said, feeling him against my hip.
His eyes darkened. “As a rock.”
“It’s your fault for talking dirty and getting me off in a public place.”
“So I take it that means you’re not going to take care of me?”
My eyes widened at the suggestion. “I am not doing that on Arthur’s Seat. You can wait until later.”
Jake brushed his lips over mine. “You’re a cruel wench.”
Chuckling, I pushed him off me, pressing his back to the ground. “Down, boy.” I laid back. “No more sexy stuff right now.”
“Okay. I’ll be good.” He put his hands behind his head and stared at the sky. A few moments later, he said, “You’re something special to me, Charley Redford.”
I felt a flutter in my chest as I remembered him saying that to me on our first date. “You’re something special to me too.”
“Yeah?”
“I haven’t let anyone else put their hands down my jeans on top of a hill in Scotland, you know.”
“Well, that’s a relief. I do like to be original.”
I giggled. “You are certainly that.”
“The pressure is now on, though, to feel you up when you least expect it.”
“I can deal with that kind of pressure.”
“You say that now, but wait until I give you an orgasm in the camping section of a department store.”
“You just ruined that location. Now I’m expecting an orgasm in the camping section of a department store. You took the spontaneity out of it.”
Jake tsked. “I’ll just need to come up with somewhere—”
“Sexier?” I suggested.
“What is not sexy about a tent in a department store?” he huffed. “Who have you been dating and what has he been teaching you?”
“Just some guy who was all romance and picnics.”
“He sounds like a tool.”
“Meh, he had his moments. We did have some pretty amazing sex in his pickup, though.”
“Ah, well,” Jake turned his head to smile at me, “that I can do.”
As his meaning sank in, I felt a rush of giddiness. “You still have Hendrix?”
He nodded. “I stopped driving it… well… because it reminded me of you, but my dad kept it in his garage.”
I turned on my side, even more excited about going back to the States now. “The first thing we’re doing when we get to Chicago is taking your truck out, finding a secluded park somewhere, and rechristening that baby.”