Free Me

chapter fourteen

As soon as Rose had thrown herself across Jack’s half clothed body, tucking her face into the crook of his chin, with the thorough excitement of travelling to Santa Monica in just about twelve hours' time; it was apparent that he could feel her against him; bare from the waist down. Within seconds, he was hard against her again but this time it felt as though it was throbbing. She gasped; the feeling wonderfully weird. Blinking through her curious haze, she noted how Jack’s heart beat had accelerated and his pulse was rapid against her face where she nuzzled in his neck. Placing a single kiss there, across the main vein of his neck caused him to twitch. His hands moved as his body did, one hand at her waist and the other in her hair. Rose was straddling him; he was well and truly beneath her and all control seemed to be within her own hands. One didn’t know what to do when faced like this and as she pulled back, slowly, preparing to see the eyes which pinned her to the spot so deeply, she wasn’t primed for the vulnerability within his own eyes. It was as though uncertainty swam about and the ‘happy go lucky’ Jack who had met her was something of a façade to hide beneath.

‘’Jack?’’

Breathing out the nerves, Jack moved his hands to her waist so that both of them were adjacent to the other; holding her there in place. Each time she shifted even a slight bit, it rubbed against him, burning him even more than before.

‘’There’s a church beside the train station,’’ he said in a rushed whisper, ‘’there might be a preacher there in the morning. I have my mother and fathers wedding rings which I have always kept with me. Perhaps they will suffice for now. I have nothing else to offer you, aside from a life full of the unknown, of adventures and know that I love you, so much that it hurts me.’’

Rose placed her hands upon Jack’s shoulders to steady herself before moving them upwards to capture his cheeks. His words moved her, so much that tears lining her eyes were blinked away once more.

‘’Know that me offering you this is for nothing other than that I want my life to be lived with yours; together. My folks were married young and they were the example to me. I won’t put my hands on you until you ask me to and--’’

Rose placed a single finger upon his lips to silence him; they were dry and quivered beneath her slight touch. It was clear to her that this incessant need that Jack had to ensure she felt the security of respect stemmed from her speaking of the way Cal had handled her. The two were not even remotely similar.

Beneath her bare bottom, Jack’s trousers rubbed against her. That was the only barrier separating them from true intimacy. His hands at her waist seemed to steady her for the time but now, as the moment gained clarity, it made her feel less still. How could one stop the trembling? The anticipation was slowly building between the pair of them and it wouldn’t stop.

‘’Marry me tomorrow,’’ Rose whispered, hoping that he didn’t feel the pounding of her heart, the shake of her body and the waver of her voice as she spoke. ‘’Marry me and then take me away from here.’’

Sitting herself back slightly, Rose reached down, pulling at the hem of the shirt which she wore, there was a slight hesitance there, lingering for a second or two as she caught his gaze and the curve of his smile. It played at Jack’s lips beautifully; slowly he turned serious as he understood the reason of her fingers, leisurely trailing the shirt upwards until it was over her head and discarded beside them both on the floor. It was a move unanticipated by either of them and Jack’s hands still sat at her waist, except now his fingers were upon her bare skin, tickling at her, touching the curve of her hips and the softness of her beneath him.

Rose was naked. Atop him.

The throb beneath the trousers startled her and she adjusted herself unknowingly tempting him more. His eyes stayed rooted to hers; too afraid to look down for just a few moments.