WhatFriendsAreFor Read online

  “He said that?”

  “Yeah, and I laughed my ass off and told him he was a douche bag.”

  Jacey couldn’t help but giggle.

  Jack stood back up and walked over to take her hands. “Jonas is my best friend, Jacey. He has been for a long time. But you’re my sister and I love you. If he hurt you, I’ll kick his ass.”

  “You’d kick your best friend’s ass for me?”

  “Hell yeah,” he grunted. “Buy him a beer afterward but it’s the point. No one gets to hurt my sister.”

  “I love you, Jack,” she whispered, hugging him close.

  “So what’s it to be?” He sighed, releasing her and stepping back. “Ass kicking?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “Honestly I called because of Dee.”

  There was panic in her brother’s eyes and Jacey had to bite her lip to prevent the burst of laughter from escaping.

  “Did she say something was wrong? Is she not happy? Fuck!”

  He was pacing now and Jacey realized that it was the first time she’d seen him that way over a girl.

  “No, she’s happy,” Jacey assured him and he stopped pacing to turn and face her.

  “What then?”

  “She was giggly and happy and bouncing off the walls.”

  “That’s a good thing. Right?”

  “It’s a great thing. Want to know why?”

  “Do I?”

  She laughed. “Because you said the words, Jack.” When he just looked confused, she told him. “You told her that you love her. You said the words.”

  “But she’s known I love her for a long time. How could she not?”

  “The words were important to her.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So you called me over to tell me that the words were important to her? No offense, Jacey, but you could have told me that in a phone call or a text for that matter.”

  “I called you over because Jonas said he loves me and it terrified me.” She was pacing again, her hand rubbing at her chest. “I don’t know about love. I don’t know if I can love.”

  “Jacey.” Jack sat back down on her couch and patted the cushion beside him until she came over and sat down. “You love me. Mom. Dee. Mischa. You can love.”

  “That’s different. You and mom are family, blood. And Dee and Mischa, they’re like sisters to me.”

  “And Jonas? Tell me what you think of him.”

  “Jonas is….well, Jonas is Jonas. He’s always there for me. No matter what time, I know that I can count on him. He listens, really listens. He’s smart and funny and reliable and not afraid to tell me what he thinks. And sexy, so sexy.”

  “What would you do if something happened to him? How would you feel?”

  “I’d kill anyone who hurt him,” she vowed, her eyes hard.

  “I think you know how you feel then, Jacey,” Jack murmured. “And you know that you’re capable of feeling it.”

  “But how do I know for sure?” she asked. “How do I know it’s changed from what I’ve always felt for him before?”

  “Let me ask you this,” Jack said. “How do you feel when he walks in the room? Do your eyes go immediately to him and only him? Do you get that tingle or tug inside and a smile instantly on your lips? Would you kill to protect him? Die to save him? Do you just want to be with him? You and Jonas have been friends for a long time, Jacey. That makes you lucky, in my opinion. You already know the little things about each other. Each other’s likes and dislikes.”

  She nodded her head.

  “So you have to decide if that friendship is all you want or if you want what comes next.”

  “I don’t know.” She shook her head, eyes wide as she looked at her brother.

  “I think you do.” He tapped his fingers over her heart. “In here. You just have to catch up.” He tapped her temple. “In here. Stop overthinking, Jacey. Sometimes you just need to feel.”

  He kissed her on the top of her head and stood up. “I love you, Jacey.”

  “Love you.”

  “Call me if you need to talk again.”

  Jacey nodded but sat and watched as her brother walked out the door. Her brain was thinking so hard that she was surprised the fire alarm wasn’t going off. He told her not to overthink but here she sat going over and over and over stuff again and again.

  She thought maybe she’d always cared for Jonas. First as her brother’s friend. Then when Jack left for the Marines, she’d kind of claimed Jonas as her surrogate brother. Or had she? Hadn’t a part of her started sharing bits of her sex life with Jonas to see what he would do? To see if she could make him jealous? Then over the years it had just become routine. She had a guy problem, she went to Jonas.

  Jacey was always turning to Jonas. And when he’d told her to find someone else, it had blown her entire world apart. Then she’d seen him at the restaurant with the redhead and she’d gone ballistic. Because it hurt. It cut to the bone to see him with a woman who wasn’t her. Jonas didn’t date. Or at least if he did, he was so discreet that she’d never once known about it.

  Hell, she’d been miserable the two weeks she’d forced herself to stay away from him. She’d cried. She didn’t cry. God, she’d been dripping tears like a weepy woman for two weeks now. She thought about her brother’s questions. She would kill for Jonas in a heartbeat. She thought about him at least twenty million times a day. He always made her feel. Happy, mad, giddy, pissed off. He just made her feel. No other guy had been able to get past her shield and make her feel emotions.

  Maybe Jonas was right and she was a princess just waiting for the right prince to come along. If that was true, then she’d been in a deep sleep for too long. Her prince was here, had been since she was sixteen.

  She took a deep breath and walked to the bathroom to splash cool water on her face. Straightening up, she dried it off and looked at the woman in the mirror. Really looked at her. Her dark hair was pulled back in a high ponytail and her face was bare of makeup. But there was a sparkle in her eyes, a flush to her cheeks. She looked like a woman with a secret.

  She grinned, just couldn’t hold it back. Sometimes overthinking paid off. She hurried back out to grab her bags and head out of the apartment. She was done waiting. She’d finished thinking. She was a woman of action. She had a prince waiting. And she had something really important to tell him.

  Chapter Eight

  Jacey was barely in the front door before Jonas had her against the wall and was kissing her hungrily. Her bags dropped to the floor and her hands were all over him, touching, stroking, rubbing. He pulled away to flip the lock on the door and then took her hand.

  “You don’t mind if we postpone that ride for a bit, do you?”

  She shook her head.

  He leaned in to kiss her again but pulled back before she could deepen it. “I missed you.”

  She grinned. “I missed you too, Jonas. I—”

  “Shhhh,” he said placing a finger over her lips. “Let’s go upstairs.”

  She nodded her head and let him lead her back to his bedroom. She could already feel her pussy getting wet, her nipples hardening into tight points. All he had to do was look at her and she was ready. She knew he would please her, knew her pleasure would come first. But that wasn’t what she wanted this time. It was her turn. Her turn to taste and touch and bring him to orgasm.

  As soon as they were in the door she flipped the tables. She cornered him at the door, shoving him against it and raking her nails down his T-shirt.

  “My turn, Jonas,” she whispered, finding the hem and jerking it up. “My turn to taste every inch of you.”

  He groaned but lifted his hands to help her pull the shirt off.

  She tossed it away and brought her hands back to run over his chest and shoulders. “I love your shoulders. So broad. So strong. They could hold the weight of the world if I asked you to. And your chest with just a light dust of hair,” she traced her finger across it then followed the trail
down over his abs to his jeans, “I love this. Love the delicious place it leads to.”

  She bent forward and ran her tongue over first one nipple then the other. “I love the taste of your skin,” she moaned, continuing to nip, lick and suck at him. “Salty and sweet at the same time.”

  She worked her mouth down to his abdomen and nibbled the prominent muscles there while they rippled and flexed. “I love your body. It should be a sin for a man to be as sexy as you are.” She reached his jeans and dipped her tongue just under the band and ran it all the way across from one side to the other before standing.

  She grabbed his face and took his mouth in a searing kiss. Tongues dueled and fought for dominance as they tasted and ate at each other. Finally she pulled back, kissing and licking his lip and then his chin. “I love your kiss. The way you consume and seduce me with just a glance.”

  Her hands fell back down to his jeans, finding the button and releasing it before tugging the zipper slowly down. She tucked one hand inside, cupping and rubbing his length through his underwear. “I love your cock. I love the way it makes me scream with pleasure.” She took both of her hands and grasped the open front of his jeans and shoved them down over his hips, tugging his underwear with it. “I love it fucking my pussy, my ass, any part of me.” She held his eyes as she dropped to her knees in front of him. “I want to taste it.” She licked her lips and he groaned. “I want to suck and lick and feel the hot splash of your cum in my mouth.” She dropped her gaze to his cock and shoved his clothes lower on his thighs so that his cock and balls were completely bare to her.

  “Jacey,” he moaned.

  “Shhhh,” she whispered, licking over the head of his cock. “Relax, Jonas, and let me have my way with you.”

  She felt the muscles in his legs tense up, watched his abs ripple again, but he just adjusted his position against the door and widened his stance a bit.

  With a moan, she licked him again, this time running her tongue all the way down his shaft and over his testicles. His hands were tight fists resting against the door by his hips. She reached out and ran her fingers over them, smiling as he automatically opened his. She laced their fingers together. Looking up into his eyes, she took the head into her mouth and sucked gently on him. It would take more work to use only her mouth on him, to forgo the use of her hand to hold him in place or stroke him with. But the look on his face promised it would be worth it.

  She moved her lips slowly down, taking as much of him into her mouth as she could. When the head just touched the start of her throat she swallowed, giving a slight squeeze to the very top of him. Jonas moaned and his hands clenched and released around hers. She did it again, swirling her mouth around him. This time when she pulled back she released him from her mouth.

  Her tongue lapped at his bobbing cock, bathing every inch before she tucked lower and rubbed along the seam of his balls. She traced one then the other before sucking gently on them. Then she nuzzled lower, moving her mouth just under his sac and the tight skin there. She licked and sucked, driving Jonas crazy.

  His hands left hers and flew to her hair. Her hairband was pulled free and he wrapped the freed strands around his hands. “Suck it, Jacey. Suck my cock.”

  She grinned against his skin and turned her face to nip his inner thigh with her teeth. Jonas rewarded her with a sharp tug on her hair. She reached up and wrapped a hand around him, jacking it up and down his shaft before cupping her mouth over the head and sucking. She rubbed her tongue in the notched groove just under the head that seemed to be so sensitive and he bucked against her, pressing more of his cock into her mouth.

  She squeezed him with her hand, let him feel the scrape of her teeth, and he plunged in again. Her other hand slid down to fondle and play with the taut sac of his testicles and then lower to rub the skin under them. She swore she felt him grow thicker in her mouth. He was fucking now, thrusting through the tight grip of her fingers and into her mouth. She sucked, licked and matched him stroke for stroke.

  His fingers tightened in her hair and she felt a tingle in her scalp. She hoped he didn’t snatch her bald when he came.

  “Fuck, Jacey,” he grunted, his pace slowing and then speeding up again only to slow once more. “I’m going to come if you don’t stop.”

  She just sucked harder, deep pulls on him and her tongue a wicked blade forcing him closer.

  “Jacey,” he moaned her name. She loved the way it sounded on his lips.

  The first spurt of his cum hit the roof of her mouth in a hot jet and was quickly followed by a second. She swallowed them down and sucked for more. He didn’t disappoint her. She savored him, running her tongue along the slit atop his cock, greedy for every drop. When he pulled back from her, she let him, switching to soft kisses along his thighs while he gasped for air above her.

  “I love the taste of you,” she told him, looking up with a smile. He was leaning against the door and his eyes were closed.

  “Yeah?” he grunted, making her laugh.

  “Yeah,” she told him, coming to her feet in front of him.

  “I love something else too, Jonas,” she whispered.

  His eyes opened. He lifted a hand to brush her hair back from her cheek.

  “What’s that, Princess?”

  “You,” she told him and watched his eyes flare, his body jerk up from his slouch against the door. “I love you, Jonas.”

  “Jacey, you don’t have to,” he started to say but she stopped him by leaning in and kissing him softly on the lips.

  “I know I don’t have to, Jonas,” she said. “I want to. I realized some stuff this morning when I went home.”

  “Like what?” he asked, reaching down to pull his underwear and jeans back up and tug the zipper. He took her hand and led her over to sit on the side of his bed, facing one another.

  “I realized how much you mean to me,” she said. “I count on you, to be there for me no matter what.”

  “That doesn’t necessarily mean you love me,” he told her. “I count on a lot of people who I don’t love.”

  She laughed. “When something happens, good or bad, you’re the first person I think of sharing it with. Not Dee. Not Mischa. You. When I’m happy or sad or lonely, it’s you I think of. I didn’t pay attention to that before. Just didn’t realize until you told me to find someone else to talk to.”

  “I’m sorry, Jacey,” he told her. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  “But you did,” she said. She cupped his face and kissed him softly again on the lips, trying to take the sting out of her confession. “I’m glad you did because it really opened my eyes.” She smiled at him. “You made me cry, Jonas.”

  “Oh god,” he growled. “I’m so sorry.”

  She just laughed. “No guy has ever made me cry before.”

  “Not exactly making me feel good here.”

  “Don’t you see? They couldn’t make me cry because they didn’t mean anything to me. But you made me cry. You made me cry because you mean everything to me. It broke my heart when you sent me away. And when I saw you walk in with that woman—”

  “She was a mistake,” he vowed, interrupting her. “An incessantly chatty, couldn’t-wait-for-dinner-to-be-over mistake.”

  “Good.” She grinned.

  “You love me?” he asked softly.

  “Yeah, I really do,” she said. “I—”

  “Shhhh,” he whispered, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer. He hugged her tight, rubbing his hands up and down her spine.

  “So how badly do you want to go on that motorcycle ride today?” he asked.

  She laughed. “I’ve really been looking forward to it since you mentioned it, Jonas.”

  He sighed, releasing her and standing up. Her eyes immediately dropped to his crotch and the now-hidden cock that she’d just satisfied so well.

  “No more of that,” he said, undoing the zipper just long enough to adjust himself before fastening his jeans closed. He walked over and scooped up his s
hirt from the floor and pulled it on. “We’re more than sex, Jacey.”

  “Yeah.” She nodded and stood up, walked over to him. Sex was easy for her. They both knew that. After all she’d shared with him over the years he probably knew her better than she did. Every relationship she’d tried had been based on sex, and they’d all faded quickly. He wanted more than that from her and she wanted to give him more. She wanted to give him everything.

  “So you want that motorcycle ride then?” she whispered.

  “I think it’d be a good idea to get out for a bit. And I’d like to take you out.”

  “Think you can handle me rubbing against your back while we ride?” she asked, kissing him on the jaw.

  “Just keep your hands above the waist, Jacey,” he told her.

  She stroked her hands up his sides, over his chest, across her shoulders and up his neck. “Promise,” she whispered.

  “Fuck,” he moaned, making her laugh.

  It didn’t matter where she touched him, she’d still turn him on. And they both knew it.

  Chapter Nine

  The cookout had been a last-minute idea but her friends had rallied and shown up. Jonas had asked if she wanted to pick up some steaks to grill and she’d said how much she loved summer grilling with friends. They’d just rolled with it and now their friends were here with more food and beer than they could possibly consume.

  “Look at them,” Jacey said, shaking her head and Dee and Mischa glanced out the kitchen window that overlooked the backyard.

  Jonas was at the grill with Jack while Clint sprawled at the picnic table. Jack and Jonas were arguing over something, that much was obvious. Clint was just laughing. But the three men were relaxed and got along so well. It made the women watching them happy.

  “You know, I’ve always loved Jonas a bit myself,” Mischa said, going back to chopping veggies.

  Jacey laughed. “You love him because if it hadn’t been for him, you would have never met Clint.”