Tempting Tessa Page 8

  “These are beautiful, what’s the occasion?” she asks me.

  “Just that my girl needed some flowers.”

  “You are so sweet to me, let me go find a vase and get them into water and I will be right back.”

  While she goes inside, Ty and I continue to play catch. When Tessa returns, she joins back in with us.

  “Can we play something else now?” Ty asks after about 10 minutes of us playing catch.

  “Anything you want,” I tell him as I gather up the ball and gloves from playing catch.

  “How about…” He thinks for a minute. “Tag.”

  “Ok, but do you think you can catch me?” I ask him, laughing.

  “Of course, I can! I run super-fast!” he yells and then starts running toward me, so I take off running.

  We run around for probably 30 minutes playing tag, and by the end I am worn out. I don’t know how Ty still has energy left after all of that, but we wrap up so we can head over to Luke and Caroline’s for dinner.

  We have a great time with Luke and Caroline. The kids play like crazy and they all end up falling asleep in the living room while watching a movie. This allows all of us adults to sit outside and enjoy some relaxing adult conversation.

  “So what are your plans for date night tomorrow night?” Caroline asks.

  “It’s a surprise, I’m not telling her what we are doing,” I reply while winking at Tessa. She’s been trying to get me to crack the past couple of days on what I have planned. It has become somewhat of a game, her trying to trick me into telling her.

  “Oh, come on, Jake, give us something!” Caroline says on Tessa’s behalf.

  “There will be eating involved,” I reply.

  “Brat,” Caroline replies.

  Our banter and conversation continue for the next hour or so. I’ve noticed Tessa keeps yawning and looks like she needs to get home and into bed.

  “Hey, babe, why don’t I get you home before you fall asleep?”

  “Sounds good,” she says while yawning again.

  I help Luke clean up what little we still have out, while Tessa goes to get Ty. He’s out cold, so I go and pick him up for her to carry him out to my truck. He stays asleep the entire way back to her house and through being carried up to his bed. It doesn’t surprise me for how much he ran around today. After helping Tessa get him into his pajamas and into bed, we head down to the living room. I know she’s tired, so I won’t stay too much longer.

  “I’m going to go ahead and head home so you can get your beautiful self to bed,” I tell her as I lean down to kiss her good night. “I’ll see you tomorrow. How about I come over and pick you both up and take you out to breakfast?”

  “Sure, Ty is usually up by 8. Is that going to be too early for you?” she asks while leaning into me and yawning again.

  “Nope, how about you text me once you’re up and I’ll head right over?” I say as I lean down to kiss her on the top of the head.

  “Sounds good, see you in the morning.” I kiss her goodbye one more time and head out to my truck.

  “Make sure to text we when you get home,” she calls out at me.

  “Ok, babe, now get to bed before you fall asleep at your front door.”

  I make it home and text her, she doesn’t respond so I figured she fell asleep before I could get home. I head to bed myself since I know she’s going to be calling early tomorrow for our breakfast date.

  Tessa: We’re up, come on over when you’re ready. Sorry I fell asleep last night before you got back home.

  Jake: No problem, I knew you were tired. I’ll leave here in about 10 minutes. I just got out of the shower.

  Tessa: See you soon ;-*)

  I finish getting ready and head over to pick them up. As soon as I pull in the driveway they both come out the front door. Tessa gets Ty into my truck and then hops in herself.

  “Good morning, he’s been bugging me about when we could leave since a little before I texted you, so I hope you don’t mind us leaving right away,” she says as she climbs up in my truck.

  “No problem at all. I’m starving myself. Does the Goose Café sound good to you?”

  “Oh, I love that place! They have the best strawberry crepes and I haven’t been there in forever.”

  After we are all stuffed from our breakfast, we decide to head back to Tessa’s. She needs to get some things done around the house and then is taking Ty over to her parents in the early afternoon. Her dad is taking him to a movie this afternoon, so she needs to get him there earlier than she had planned.

  When we arrive at her house, I take Ty into the backyard to play with him and keep him out of her way so she can get her things done inside.

  “Can you push me on the swing?” Ty asks as he sits down on a swing.

  “Sure can, do you think you can get high enough to touch the sky?” I ask him.

  “No, silly, my swing doesn’t go that high,” he tells me as he laughs at me.

  “Ok, well let’s see how high you can get, how does that sound?” I laugh back at him, as I give him a big push.

  “Good, I love to swing high!”

  Just like yesterday, Ty can run and run and never run out of energy. We have a blast playing together and before we know it, Tessa is coming out to get us for lunch. We sit outside on the back patio and enjoy the sandwiches she made. Once we’re done with lunch we pack up to take Ty over to her parents’ house.

  “Hey, we’re here!” Tessa calls out when we walk into her parents’ house.

  “I’m in the family room,” her dad calls back, so we head in to find them.

  “Hey, Jake, nice to see you,” her dad says to me as he reaches out to shake my hand.

  “Nice to see you again, Jim.”

  “Where’s Mom?” Tessa asks her dad as she leans down to give him a hug and kiss his cheek.

  “She ran to the store quick. Something about being out of Ty’s favorite breakfast food.”

  “She spoils him,” Tessa replies to her dad.

  “Like you don’t?” he replies to Tessa and just laughs.

  “Not all the time, but he is my baby…I’m allowed to spoil him,” she whines and pretends to pout.

  “And as your mother says, we are his grandparents, it’s our job to spoil him,” he says to her.

  “What are your plans for the rest of the day and evening?” Jim asks us.

  “I don’t know…someone will not tell me what we are doing,” Tessa says while trying to scowl at me without smiling and then laughing.

  “Ah, smart man. Keeping you on your toes. I like this one, don’t let him get away,” Jim says on a chuckle.

  I wrap my arms around her and pull her into my chest.

  “I don’t plan on it anytime soon, Dad,” she replies to him and then kisses me on the cheek.

  “Well, say goodbye to Ty and get yourselves out of here. The two of us have a movie to get to.”

  “Thanks, Dad, he’s been so excited to go to the movies with you. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

  We say goodbye to Jim and Ty and head back out to my truck. I have reservations for 6:00 tonight, so we still have hours to burn until we need to get going.

  “So, what would you like to do this afternoon, beautiful?” I ask her, pulling her in for a tender kiss before I open her door so she can climb into my truck. She is so damn beautiful, she takes my breath away.

  “I don’t really care, I just want to spend the day with you!”

  “I think I can accommodate that,” I tell her as I wink at her, closing her door.

  “Want to head over to my house? We can relax and watch a movie together or just hang out before I take you out on the town tonight.”

  “That sounds like heaven.”

  Once we get to my house and pick a movie out, we settle down and I pull her so she is lying in front of me so I can wrap my arms around her. We watch the first bit of the movie and then start talking about anything and everything.

  “Will you tell me about your acci
dent and recovery?” she asks me as she turns to face me. I can tell she isn’t sure if I’m comfortable talking about it, and I’m usually not. But with her, it just feels right. I want to know everything about her, so I feel like she should know everything about me. The past 6 years are a large part of who I am today and she needs to know what I have overcome to get to this point.

  “Yes, I don’t talk about it much, but I will tell you anything,” I tell her while looking down into her eyes. “I was in the middle of my second deployment to Iraq. I was out on patrol riding in a Humvee when we rolled over an IED on my side. I was in the back, which is why I wasn’t killed. My friend in front of me didn’t make it. I was stabilized at the hospital and then shipped to the military hospital in Germany for more treatment. At that point, I had not lost my lower leg and they were doing all they could to save it.” I stop talking for a few minutes, remembering what it was like to be in that hospital fighting for my life in many ways.

  “I stayed at the hospital in Germany for around 10 days. I had multiple surgeries while I was there. Some were on my leg, one was to remove my kidney that was completely damaged by the shrapnel, and they attempted to repair my other one. Once I was stable, they transferred me back stateside to Walter Reed. I was there for over a year. Not long after I arrived, the decision was made that we had to amputate the lower portion of my leg. I started PT within days of my surgery and then went through the processes of being fitted for a prosthetic. While dealing with all of that I also was dealing with PTSD, horrible flashbacks and nightmares. I spent a great amount of time getting therapy to help me overcome and work through all those issues. For the most part, I’ve overcome them. I occasionally will have a nightmare or flashback but they are not common anymore. They usually come back around the anniversary of the date of my accident.”

  “During this time, the doctors determined that the one kidney I had left wasn’t working properly and was damaged more than they had hoped. I ended up on dialysis and the transplant list. About a year after my accident, so just over 5 years ago, a match was found and I went through a successful transplant surgery.”

  “Did you ever meet your donor or their family?” she asks me.

  “No, I was asked by the social workers if I wanted their contact information but I was still dealing with lots of PT on my leg and I was still not in the best mindset dealing with my PTSD. Come to think of it, I think I might actually have the donors’ information in the sealed file they gave me in case I ever changed my mind. Until you just asked I hadn’t even thought of it again.”

  “Did you meet the recipients that received Matt’s organs?” I ask her as I brush her hair out of her face.

  “All but one. When we agreed for his information to be released we were told that they could arrange for us to meet the recipients if they agreed. I thought it might help some with closure. Seeing the people whose lives he saved was very therapeutic. I got to listen to his heart beating again and cried like crazy.”

  We sit in silence holding each other, both just soaking in everything when she asks me, “Do you think you would ever try and find the family of your donor?”

  “I guess it hadn’t crossed my mind since they brought it up to me in the hospital and I declined. Like I said, I just remembered they even gave me their information and I don’t even know if I still have that or not. I’m sure I could always call the hospital and it would be in my chart.” We fall back into a comfortable silence and continue watching the movie that we had both been ignoring. I keep thinking about what she has asked me and wonder if it’s something I should look in to.

  “Do you think I should pursue looking for the information and then contact the family? Wouldn’t it kind of bring up old wounds for them 5 years later?”

  “Everyone is going to handle it differently. I know if the hospital contacted me and the one recipient that I never met wanted to meet us now, I would agree to it. I think about them quite often, wondering if they made a full recovery or not. I’m not sure how much of that is the nurse in me or me just hoping that they were able to go on and live a successful life after his was cut short so early. All I know is that the person was in their mid-20’s and was male. The hospital wasn’t allowed to release any other information to us about him.”

  “I guess it wouldn’t hurt if I looked to see if I still have the paperwork. I’ll look for it later, right now I just want to hold you in my arms…” I maneuver her so that she’s back to facing me so that I can lean down and kiss her. “And kiss you…” I say between kissing her lips and then trailing kisses along her jaw up to her ear, snagging it between my teeth. This pulls a moan and giggles from her.

  “Stop tickling my neck!” she shrieks and starts laughing and trying to squirm out of my arms.

  “Nope,” I say as I purposefully rub my face along her neck, knowing my facial hair is driving her insane. I also know it turns her on and a turned-on Tessa is just what I want right now.

  We continue driving each other crazy with our lazy make-out session. I can’t tell you how perfect this feels just enjoying having her in my arms, no rush to get her or my clothes off. We are just enjoying each other. Don’t get me wrong, I love it when I can get her out of her clothes and I will later. For now, I just want to enjoy this time we have alone together.

  Before we know it, the afternoon has slipped away from us and it’s time to get ready for our date. Tessa had brought a bag with her with a change of clothes in case we ended up here instead of her house, so we grab that and head into my room to get changed and ready. I never realized until this moment how sexy it can be to watch her do simple things like get ready. I could watch her forever.

  We take off for the restaurant that I have reservations at. We arrive and are seated quickly. The entry area is full and it appears the wait for a table is long, so I’m glad I made reservations.

  “I’ve heard such great things about this place! I’ve never been here, so I am excited to try their food,” she tells me.

  “I figured you would love it here and it comes highly recommended. Do any of the appetizers sound appealing to you?”

  “Mmm… everything sounds so good. I don’t know how I’m going to choose.” She smiles at me over the top of her menu.

  “I agree. Everything sounds really good. How does the lobster fondue sound for an appetizer?”

  “I was thinking about the same one.” She lays her menu down and reaches for my hand, lacing our fingers together.

  Just then our waiter comes to take our drink and appetizer order. I order a beer and Tessa orders a daiquiri. Our waiter says it will just be a few minutes for the appetizer and drinks and he will be back to take our order for our main course. Our food is amazing just like we figured it would be and our conversation just flows like normal. After dessert, she’s curious what we are doing after dinner.

  “So, are you going to tell me what else is on our agenda for this date night?” she says while batting her eyes at me, trying to tempt me into telling her what we are doing tonight.

  “Well, that’s up to you. I have a couple ideas on things to do but figured I would let you pick from them.”

  “Well…” she says while gesturing for me to continue.

  I laugh at her, knowing I’m holding out on telling her what her options are. “I think I should just tell you to pick A, B or C and not tell you what they are.” I smirk at her, reaching out to cup her face.

  “No, I want to know so I can pick the best one!”

  “Ok, I will take pity on you,” I tell her as I lean over to kiss her.

  I whisper into her ear, “Option A: We drive down to the riverfront park and walk around and check out the nightlife, then I take you home and strip you naked and kiss you from head to toe.”

  I lean back to see her reaction. She smiles all coy like, so I lean back in and whisper, “Option B: We go play mini-golf, then I take you home, strip you naked and kiss you from head to toe. Or Option C: I take you home now, strip you naked and kiss you from h
ead to toe. Your choice, sweetheart,” I tell her and then give her another kiss.

  “Boy, when you put it that way, how is a girl to choose?” she says while playfully slapping at my chest.

  “Like I said, ladies’ choice tonight.”

  “Hmmm…” she hums as she thinks over each option.

  “I think I am going to choose option…” She pauses, trying to leave me hanging. “I can’t decide! They all sound perfect,” she says as she continues thinking.

  “What one do you want me to pick?” she asks.

  I raise an eyebrow and smirk at her. “You really have to ask me that? I am a red-blooded male the last I checked.” This gets her blushing and I can tell she is thinking of all the things I can do to her body once I get her home.

  She sucks her bottom lip in and bites down on it, she knows it drives me fucking crazy when she does that so I’m pretty sure she is doing it on purpose. “I think I am going to choose option C,” she says as she leans in and kisses me.

  “Good choice,” I say while kissing her back. “Let’s get out of here.” I stand and offer her my hand.

  We make it back to my house and inside. As soon as the door closes, I spin her around and pin her against it, rocking my body into hers. I have been turned on since she picked coming straight home. I lean down and kiss her as I take her hands in mine and bring them up above her head and pin them to the door. I hold both of her hands in one of mine, and I start exploring her body with my other hand, doing my best to drive her crazy.

  I continue to tease her, kissing my way around her face, neck and down her cleavage. She’s pressing her body right back into mine, looking for the contact that will bring her the release she is looking for. I release her hands and reach down to lift her up under her ass. She realizes what I’m trying to do and helps by wrapping her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck. We continue to attack each other as I walk us to my room. I gently set her down on the bed, then break our connection so I can remove some of the clothing that is separating us. I need to feel her against me now.

  “You are so fucking beautiful,” I tell her after removing her shirt. My shirt has been added to the pile on the floor, my jeans follow next. I strip her jeans off her and nudge her to lie back on the bed. I start at her ankle and kiss my way up her left leg until I reach her upper thigh, I repeat this action with her right leg until I reach her lace-covered center. I snag the edge of the lace with my teeth and start dragging it down her body. I could worship her body for hours, and I plan to do just that tonight. After dropping her panties to the floor, I reach up to remove her bra so that nothing else is in my way to access her. I lean down and capture her lips with mine. The chemistry and heat between us is electric. My hands roam her body as she does the same to mine.