Jack Who? (Book 1 Draft Version)

PART TWO~CHAPTER : 14

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CHAPTER 14

The sardonic spark in Jack's eyes and the shared joke between us, inched the intimacy of the moment up several degrees.

“Damn, you're beautiful...” The thunk of my heart was a blissful pain. I would never grow tired of his sweet words. His eyes were all over Me as he advanced. “How attached are you to those earrings?””

My smile broadened. Maybe I did know him better in a week, then Randi did after years.

“I was kind of forced into buying them...” Stopping myself before I clarified that the purchase had been on my own charge card, I joked, “Why? You want to wear them?”

“Maybe.” He shot that smirky smile. Heaven help me, I couldn't kiss him twenty-four seven...but I wanted to, again...

Jack made the decision, leaning down enough to plant a quick one on my lips before moving away. He returned with a gift wrapped box.

Wanting to savor the moment, I back stepped to the bed and sank to the mattress while pulling at the elaborate ribbon. Beneath the flip-up lid, displayed on a bed of black velvet, the diamonds were ice. Tilting the box caused them to glitter and refract the light in brilliant shimmers.

I hadn't been around real jewelry enough to even guess at the carets of each earring stone. The two band bracelets contained smaller diamonds mixed with beautiful black stones, and I wondered if there were such a thing as a black diamond. A full diamond tennis bracelet also rested in the box.

Incredulously, I touched each earring and ran my finger down each bracelet.

“They come out of the box,” Jack quietly joked, and that was all it took for the tears to break free jeopardizing Thomas' make up. Dropping to sit beside me, he viewed the jewelry, but left them for me to extract. “Three bracelets, because we are a family of three. If you like them and want another, well, you know what to do...”

The tease came a few hard heartbeats before the kiss, and overwhelmed, I gave up the tongue match dropping my forehead to his neck with no care of my hair or makeup.

“You always make me cry.”

“Always? Is that good or bad?”

“Good. Bad. Ultimately good.” A sniff punctuated the unmediated admission. I had cried more in the last week over things Jack did, things Jack didn't do, good and bad, than I had cried in my lifetime.

“I'm not sure how to take that answer.” His words were soft and sweet, his breath warm and light against my cheek.

“It's a good answer,” I assured.

When I used my fingertips to dab at my tears, he shucked his tee-shirt off and used a corner to help me.

“We are ultimately good, Mariss.”

“I know.”

“Remember that even when I do stupid stuff. Okay?” “Remember it even when things are just crazy.”

“I will,” I promised. His words brought front and foremost our conversation earlier in the bathroom downstairs, and the drop party. With a last pat at a damp eye, I centered my gaze on his face. “I like this new album. I meant to tell you before. And I meant to listen to it all the way through. Before now.”

His lips brushed at my hairline. “It's okay. I know you don't like hard metal--”

“I like your metal,” I interrupted, and my breathing was calmer. To busy myself, I began to disengage an earring from its velvet resting place.

His forehead rested against the side of my head. “Need some help?” Goosebumps pricked my skin when his lips moved to my ear, his tongue teasing the sensitive parts.

Closing my eyes, I let a mummer escape as this attention continued--maybe more intent than ever before. Seriously, never had he lingered so long on my ear...With a brush of his head against the side of mine, he pulled slightly back reaching for my wrist.

Turning it so that the palm was face up, I felt a shudder of expectation when his head dropped to it. But, instead of teasing with his tongue, he spit the ruby earring into my hand.

My squeal was part surprised, part revolted, and at least half impressed. “Weirdo!” My repulsed reproach held a tremor of laughter, and he curved a crooked grin.

“Want me to do the other?” He offered.

“No!” Pushing away, I promptly put distance between us, and another screech escaped when he playfully tried to grasp my arm.

“Yes you do!”

“How many earrings have you stolen from unsuspecting women?!” Taking my gift, I stalked to the vanity in the bathroom.

Jack left the bed and began to change out what he was wearing. Shorts for ripped jeans and a studded belt...

Often the jewelry in his ears didn't match, and I taunted through the doorway, “Is that how you build up your collection of earrings?”

He pulled on a long-sleeved Jackal tee-shirt and pushed the sleeves up to his elbows.

“You act like it's easy.” With an affronted air, he lifted his dark brows before turning away again. Opening the door of a tall jewelry caddy, he plucked from the necklaces that dangled. “You have no idea how long it took to find a girl wearing those--”

“Do not even dare think about saying my earrings.” With that warning, I dropped the cotton ball used to clean my ears and the new jewelry, and sent a threatening frown through the arched doorway.

Ducking his head into the necklace strands as he walked, he came up behind me.

“I ordered those the day before I left for your house.” My breath caught, but I managed to thread the first into my lobe and clasp the safety. There would be no kissing these out...“Spent half the day at the kitchen bar, then the pool, then the couch, looking for just the right ones.” The next one went in easier now that I was more adept with the design, and I enjoyed the effect in the mirror almost as much as I enjoyed his voice. “Then the bracelets...What screamed Mariss?”

“These definitely scream Mariss,” I went along caught up in the story dialogue and picked up the tennis bracelet. It bent like a snake in my hand, and the flashy backside oddly begged for attention.

The inscription had to be done, letter by letter, one on the back of each stone's setting, and it was antiqued to make it clear.

M all my heart.

On the verge of a great discovery, I picked the next one up, a band with the diamonds set into it. The back read:

Marissa, love of my life

My eyes flew to his, and I almost drowned in the emotion swimming in the dark depths. The next band was my favorite.

Marissa, every song in my soul

“I'm going to cry again...”

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