Epilogue

Jake

Three months later…

"Sparky," I call out while scanning the contents of my closet. "Have you seen my jersey? The one the guys gave Cruz and I at the party last week?"

"Hmmm," she hums. "I'm not sure. Could this be it?"

The way she says it in that playful sexy way of hers, makes my skin prick with heat. I turn around slowly, finding her standing there wearing a jersey, and nothing else, but it's not mine.

"Do you like?" She brings her hand down the front of her jersey for the CU girls' team, fingering the buttons seductively.

"Oh yeah," I run a thumb under my lower lip, eyeing her with approval; the soft curvature of her breasts and those powerful legs I love to feel wrapped around me, making my dick stand at attention. "I like it a lot. In fact, you might even say I love."

"Then come and get it, Hot Shot."

I eat up the space between us and wrap one arm around her lower back, yanking her toward me. "The only thing that is going to be coming," I whisper hotly while leaning in to kiss her neck, "is you."

Wrapping my other hand around her, I pick her up and hold her against me in the pike position while walking toward the bed.

I can't believe I get to love her for the rest of my life. That those blue eyes which render me speechless are those I will get to stare into when we say I do, welcome our first born, and sit on that front porch swing at the end of a long, happy life.

When we reach the bed, I place one knee on the mattress and ease her down gently. Pushing herself up with both elbows, she kicks up one leg seductively, giving me a peek of her perfect pussy.

"Aren't we supposed to be packing?"

I reach for the back of my shirt and pull it over my head, then toss it onto the floor. "Fuck packing. You started it."

I crawl toward her, placing one hand on the bed, running my knee against her entrance while bending down to suck one of her perfect, perky tits.

"Our flight leaves in a few hours," she runs a hand through my hair, nails scraping my scalp as I run circles around her nipple.

"Don't care," I murmur. "We'll catch the next one."

With finals over and another College World Series trophy in the bag, we're headed to Cherry Cove for a couple of weeks with Cruz and Ellery.

Both Jenica and Ellery refuse to let what happened last summer taint their love for the place. For Jenica, it will always be home, no matter how far her dreams take her, and for Ellery it will always be the place where she lost her true love, found her best friend, and then found her love again.

I can't wait to spend the next couple of weeks staying up late, sleeping in, and spending every second with my girl that I can because as soon as we get back it's summer school for Cruz and me, while Ellery and Jenica get to enjoy the rest of their summer.

If anyone deserves a break it's Jenica. Between her family's store and the boardwalk, she has worked every summer since she was a kid. But this year, for the first time in her life, she's doing something she hasn't ever been able to do—taking a load off—because she is no longer worried about saving for her dream. Through the chaos, good won, and her dream is finally coming true.

Coach may have called in a favor to the CU girl's coach, but Jenica is a natural and her arm got her a spot on the team. I was there when she tried out. Flew out to meet her after a series in Ohio and made it just in time for her first pitch.

Her spot on the team came with a full ride and with her enrollment at CU locked in, Ellery filed her own transfer papers and got her acceptance a few weeks back. She was keeping an eye on houses up there and planning to look more seriously in the fall. But this time, I suggested Cruz and I go in on it half and half and she agreed.

While that catcher/pitcher bond between Jenica and I is really something, she and Cruz have a real pitcher/pitcher competition going on. The two talk shit like Ellery and I do, and when she and Cruz head into the back yard for pitch offs, I love to catch for both of them, whistling for my girl when she beats my best friend.

Our time at Highland has an expiration date, but we do not. Jenica is my forever. When I could no longer play ball and my days were filled with sunrises and sunsets, it was her I would drink in those first and last moments of light with each day. I couldn't believe I lucked out. She even charmed my mom, and sister, and when the three of them gang up against me, I am a goner…and it is truly the best.

Jenica Dawn Miller is a force to be reckoned with and I feel sorry for any obstacle life throws at her because she will obliterate it. But for those hurdles that may need a little extra muscle, I'll be standing by, ready to have her back.

"Name your pleasure," I drink her in, wanting her in every way imaginable.

Her eyes drag down my body, landing in the bulge in my shorts. "You know what I want."

Reaching for the waistband of my shorts, she pulls them down, cock springing free. Pushing me onto my back, she crawls between my legs, wraps one hand around the shaft and grips my thigh with the other.

Lowering her head, she wraps her mouth around the tip, sucking gently, humming while swinging that beautiful round ass of hers back and forth like a cat with a toy.

"Shit, Sparky." I drop my head down on the pillow and let out a groan. "My dick in your mouth and your ass in the air, it's a beautiful thing."

I never believed I would ever feel all the things I do with Jenica, but when we're together I see the world in colors I never saw before. I not only want to give her everything, but I want everything, and I know it's okay to feel both because she does too.

She was afraid to trust, and I was afraid to feel, but together, we met each other halfway and now we're insatiable. We may not have the same path and past that Cruz and Ellery have, but there's no less love here. And I love her. I do. In so many ways it's unreal. That connection we share—one of trust, loyalty, safety, security, and friendship—it's rooted in the promise of forever, and I can't help but think sky's the limit.

She pops me out of her mouth and looks up. "How's that Hot Shot?"

I look down, finding her beautiful blue eyes wide on mine. I love being the only guy she's sucked, and I love being the only guy she's let fuck and fill her. Something I plan to do right now.

"Hey…" She laughs as I sit up and push her onto her back. "I wasn't done."

"You are for now because I need to fill you, Sparky."

I kiss my way down her body, stopping at that sweet, warm spot between her legs and sink two fingers into her. Lowering my mouth to her pussy, I flick and suck the way I know she likes, curling my fingers, working her cunt with my hand, while my tongue laps at her clit.

I love that I am the only one she is like this with. Submissive, compliant—ready to do anything I want—and I love that she is the only one I can be this way with—dominant, hungry and possessive as fuck.

I meant what I said that day after the club. She could do or wear what she wanted and I didn't give a shit. She was mine and I was confident in that. But in the bedroom, I loved claiming every inch, every hole, and marking her with my DNA.

Thanks to Jenica I know all those emotions I feel with her are not only okay, but necessary. Humans aren't meant to hold in how we feel. We are meant to cry, laugh, hurt, and love, and the way I love…it is right. Jenica taught me that.

"There it is," I moan when the walls of her pussy contract, seizing around my tongue. I moan, slurping her climax, the very essence of who she is, sweet, and salty, just like her.

I grab both of her thighs, holding them down as her hips move up and down in rhythm with my sucking, and when she drops her ass down on the bed, and exhales, I push up and grin. "I think my uterus just contracted."

"Good. She needs to be healthy for my boys."

She laughs and drapes an arm over her face. "You mean girls."

"Boys, girls, I don't care. I just want a gaggle."

She looks down at me and laughs. "That's geese."

I laugh and kiss the inside of her thigh. I don't think I will ever get over this sight—her in my bed, looking at me as if I am the only man in the world. She is the stuff of dreams. Screw baseball. In ten years—fifteen if I'm lucky and my knees hold out that long—my days on the field will be a thing of the past. But this girl right here, she will be by my side, and our family, the one I didn't think I would ever have, laughing, running around us.

A lazy smile tugs at her lips and she runs a hand through my hair. "That was incredible."

I run my thumb along my lower lip and then suck. "Yes, you are. Now my turn."

Pushing up onto my haunches, I grip her thighs, pulling them apart. "Wet like a bitch in heat," I grin, eyeing her glistening pussy. "Perfect for breeding.

"Shut up," she puffs out. "You keep saying that it may come true."

"Oh, it will," I laugh with a carnal heat only she can tame. "I'm going to fill you with babies, Sparky. So many you won't be able to get away from me in this life, or the next."

She arches her back as I ease into her. "Is that a challenge?"

"No," I crash my mouth down onto hers as the same rush hits me that did that very first time we had sex. "It's a promise."

I take it slow at first, worshiping my girl, and then faster, working up a sweat that covers both of us. As we fuck, she runs her hands up my back, down my chest, and through my hair, which I keep longer now because she likes it that way.

While holding both of her thighs, I rail into her, and she reaches out, touching my chest. "Say it," she pants.

Letting go of her legs, I lay down, locking my eyes onto hers. "I love you, Sparky."

She bites her lip and nods. "Me too, Jake."

"What?" I grin while slowing my pace, climax building. "No Hot Shot?"

"You are always my Hot Shot." She cups my face.

"Correction," I kiss the inside of her wrist, "I am always yours, period, end stop."

I grip her hip with one hand and brush her hair back with the other. "I am going to make all your dreams come true."

"You already have by loving me as I am."

"Sparky, I love you as you were, are, and will be."

The girl she was, the woman she's becoming, and the friend she is…I love all of her. Nothing matters more to me than her. Nothing.

Wrapping her in my arms, I lay down on my back and pull her onto my lap. "Fuck, I want you pregnant, and signing my last name on your checks."

She rides me slow, taking me deep, and I watch in rapt fascination as she places her hands on my chest and pushes back. "Romantic."

"Who said I was a romantic?" I laugh.

God she's beautiful. And mine, all mine. Fuck, how did I get so lucky.

"I'm going to come," she puffs out, slowing her pace, and when she does, I grip both hips, filling her full of my own climax, just as I promised.

Afterward, as we lie there panting and sweaty, I turn to look at her and give her the biggest shit-eating grin. "We should probably tell them we're not going to make the flight. Change in ticket fees can be a bitch, you know."

She winks and I laugh, that weekend feeling like a lifetime ago now.

Leaning in, I give her a quick kiss then get up from the bed and pull my shorts back on, followed by my shirt. "You want to wear this?" I scoop up her jersey and hold it out.

She saunters over to the closet and smirks at me over her shoulder. "Pack it," she winks. "It will be too hot when we land, but I can use it at night at the cave."

Once we're both dressed we head upstairs. Cruz and Ellery are just coming down the stairs, suitcases in hand. "Where are your bags?"

I scratch the back of my head and point to the stairs, then Jenica. "Yeah, sorry, got nothing. We're not going to make the flight. We will take the next one."

Cruz laughs and nods to the door. "Come on, baby. We'll see them down there."

Ellery gives Jenica a hug, then me, and when we're done saying goodbye, makes her way to the door. "Don't be late," she points. "I'm making Momma's crab tonight."

"Or hey, be late," Cruz adds with a grin. "I can help her with dessert before you get there. Speaking of, did I ever tell you about the time Ellery and I made peach cobbler?"

"Why do I think they're not talking about peach cobbler?" Jenica looks up at me.

"Are they ever?" I laugh.

She laughs back and we follow them to the door. As I pull it open we all freeze when we see a guy standing there.

"Asher?" Ellery says with surprise. "What are you doing here?"

He swallows and looks at her apologetically. "Hey, Ellery."

"Don't hey Ellery her," Cruz steps around her. "She asked you a question. What the fuck are you doing here?"

"I….um…" He stammers, while shifting from one foot to the other.

"He's here to ask for forgiveness," Ellery glares at him. "Aren't you?"

When the four of us finally met up that weekend in Charleston and Jenica and I shared with Cruz and Ellery all we'd learned when captured, Ellery vowed to use every resource at her disposal to find the girls and make everyone attached to the club pay.

Last summer, Ellery took her mother's advice to let fate take care of her former friends. But fate wasn't working fast enough she said, so she used a little money to speed things up.

While human trafficking is apparently a problem on the FBI's radar, neither Ellery nor Jenica trust them given the men Richardson had in his pocket. Instead, Ellery hired a special team to work locally and abroad—a process that will take time given the layers of logistics and red tape they have to work through in other countries.

I know it's hard for Jenica to sit by and wait, while watching their families deal with the whiplash of learning their daughters are not just possibly alive but were in the area the whole time, but I do what I can to reassure her the team Ellery hired is doing all they can and we have to be patient and let them do their job.

"If you, your bitch sister and the incest twins, or Skye are connected to that monster's club," Ellery says, crossing her arms, "I promise you, you're going down."

"I wasn't. I had no idea what he was up to," Asher says candidly. "I don't know about the others or my sister even, but I had no clue. I have been in Michigan. I haven't been home since shit went down last summer."

"Well, you should go back to Michigan," Cruz says angrily. "Before you can't walk."

He hated what Asher did to Ellery. Making her believe they were friends when he knew what Elmhurst was up to. But he also hates the fact Asher was the one guy Ellery trusted when they weren't together, and even kissed a time or two.

Cruz has no right to be jealous about that given how many girls he kissed when he and Ellery were apart. But my brother is a possessive fucker, and well, Ellery is his girl, and I know now what that feels like. Looking at my girl is one thing, touching her is another.

"Look," Asher holds up both hands. "I didn't know about Richardson, and I'm not here to make trouble."

"Then why are you here?" Ellery asks accusingly.

Asher's eyes shift and he looks into the house, and down the hall. We all turn and see Marcus standing at the other end.

"I'm not here for you," he says simply. "I'm here for him."