You're mine

The corners of my mouth tipped up at her quick backpedal. She hadn’t yet grasped that nothing about my life was a secret to her. But I didn’t have time to get into that.

“There’s a problem with one of my foundations that I need to address myself. I didn’t want you to think I wasn’t showing up for coffee for any other reason than the truth. And to know that I will miss seeing you every day.”

Her mouth formed an O, and her blue eyes lit with delight. “Me, too.”

“I wish like fuck I could kiss you goodbye,” I told her after drawing in a ragged breath. “But I know that once I start, I won’t be able to stop.”

Stunned, she stared at me, and I gave in to a smaller temptation, bJacksoning a kiss over the pretty blush on the apple of her cheek.

“Be good. Don’t let any little shits put their hands on you, and I’ll see you on your birthday.”

Her breathing became choppy, and her tits bounced enticingly, making my cock ache to be inside her. The time away would be even more hell than the past ten months because I would be so fucking far away from her.

“Okay,” she whispered.

“If you need anything, Grace gave you my number, right?” Kate nodded, still seeming a little dazed.

“Things are going to change between us when I get home, blue eyes,” I warned her. “So prepare yourself.”

“Change? How?”

“I don’t have time to explain, baby.” A sleek black car pulled up to the curb and honked. “Fuck, I have to go.” I kissed her cheek one more time, then took a step back, but before I could stop myself, I leaned in and put my lips to her ear. “Don’t even think about going to the doctor for birth control, Kate. I’m going to claim you, your tight little virgin pussy, and your fertile womb the day you turn eighteen.”

When I pulled back, she was leaning against the wall as if her legs couldn’t hold her up. Her expression was a mixture of shock and raging desire. I was torturing myself, so I patted her sexy ass, then spun around and dashed to the car.

JACKSON

When the plane landed on the small airstrip we’d built just outside of town, I turned on my phone to call Cano and let

him know I’d arrived, but I had no signal.

The door to the cockpit opened, and the copilot—who happened to be the pilot’s husband, Dean—stepped out, frowning. “You need to rethink your employees here,” he grumbled. “The runway was so covered in debris, we almost turned around. Would have if we weren’t low on fuel.”

My brow furrowed. The people I hired were dependable and ecstatic to have a job, so this news had a lump forming in the pit of my stomach.

“Do you have cell service?” Dean suddenly asked, holding up his phone.

“No.”

Ginger, his wife and the pilot, followed him out of the cockpit. “Not me, either. And no internet. Didn’t you install Wi-Fi in the office?”

“Yep,” I agreed grimly. “Let’s get moving and see what the fuck is going on.”

It was easier to get around on my own here, so I had a couple of vehicles parked in one of the two hangars. We all hopped into the Jeep, and I headed for the road.

“Holy shit,” Dean breathed when we reached the muddy path that used to be a paved road.

The tiny airport we’d built was surrounded by empty fields, so there wasn’t much to look at. But with the road gone, my gaze swept around me, looking for anything else that wasn’t as it should be. There was a lot more mud than usual and a lot of random debris, though I wasn’t sure what it was made of.

I was certainly grateful that I’d had the good sense to buy a vehicle that could handle terrain like this. Stepping on the gas, I started the trek to town. As we approached the town, the ground was less and less visible through all the rubble. By the time we arrived, the Jeep was caked with so much mud, I could barely see through the windows. But the view was sufficient enough to see destruction everywhere we looked.

When we pulled up to the local headquarters for WT, I couldn't do anything but sit and stare. All the windows and doors were blown out, and the whole building was tilted backward as if something had rammed into it. I couldn't believe that Cano had downplayed the damage from the earthquake.

There was a fuck ton of flooding all around us. What few buildings were still standing—most of them constructed of heavily reinforced concrete—looked much like the WT office building. It was eerily quiet, and there seemed to be no one around.

A knock on my window had all three of us jumping in our seats, but when the door was wrenched open, I was relieved to see Cano standing there. His face was lined with stress, his expression grim, and he had an arm in a sling.

“What the hell happened, Cano?” I asked as I jumped out of the car and looked him over. That was when I saw the splint on his leg, from hip to ankle. “Are you okay?”

I felt a suction holding me down when I attempted to move closer, and I realized that the ground beneath the debris wasn’t solid, and I was sinking into the mud.

“We set up a temporary shelter over there,” Cano said raggedly, pointing toward what used to be the sprawling yard of Baro’s mansion. “It’s the highest ground.”

“Watch the mud,” I warned Dean and Ginger as they exited the vehicle, then I worked my feet out and followed Cano as he limped in the direction indicated.“There was another earthquake a few hours after you took off. Ten minutes later, the first wave hit.”

“Oh my gosh,” Ginger gasped. “A tsunami?”

Cano nodded. “The first one was the worst. I was on the top floor of the Worlds Together building and saw the wave right before it hit. Had to be at least ten feet tall. The whole building shook and rocked on the foundation. The other two were smaller, but the first one had done so much damage that the next two wiped out a lot of what was left. I was running down the stairs when the second one hit and was carried out of the building, which turned out to be a good thing since the water pushed the structure back to that weird angle. I can’t imagine it will last much longer.”

“Wait.” I stopped him with a hand on his arm. “You were carried out of the building on the wave? How did you survive?”

We reached a series of tents, and Cano pointed at his arm as he limped toward the nearest one. “When the wave receded, it took me right back to the building, but I was lucky to be away from the windows and doors. Slammed me into the wall pretty fucking hard, though. Broke my arm and a few ribs. Pretty sure my leg is fractured.”

“Fucking hell, Cano,” I rasped, my throat tight with emotion. I didn’t want to ask the next question, but I needed to know. “How many? How many survivors?”

Cano stopped to take a deep breath, and I ignored his feeble protest when I scooped him into my arms and carried him the rest of the way, setting him down on a blanket. “Don’t know yet. I wanted to be out helping to search, but my injuries just made it harder since someone was always looking after me.”

“They’re out searching?” Dean asked as he glanced around. “Where?”

The tents had people in them, but only a handful were moving around while the others lay on beds similar to Cano’s.

“Some are still searching here. They just aren’t in the center of town where we are. The rest are near the outskirts of town, checking on the villages closest to the waves.”

“Did the waves knock out the cell tower?” Ginger asked, her tone concerned as she stared at a blue tent. A small body was resting on

a table, and when it moved, her chest heaved with a deep breath. Dean and Ginger had two toddlers, so I could only imagine that it wasn’t easy for her to see children in danger or injured like this.

“Yeah. But a few guys showed up a couple of hours ago to let us know that aid was on the way. Then they joined the search.”

“Are you okay here?” I didn’t want to leave Cano, but I couldn’t sit around when so many needed help.

He told me to go, and Ginger offered to stay. She had some medical training, so that helped my peace of mind. Dean offered to accompany me, and we set off to see where we could help.

My training as a fireman was extremely useful when it came to rescuing people from buildings or the rubble and debris. But we also encountered a few fires that had sparked after the storm.

When I finally collapsed that night, I was beyond tired and emotionally spent. All I wanted was to see Kate, but I had no ability to make that happen, so I wished her a good night and fell into an exhausted sleep.

It took the entire month to get to a point where we could even think about starting to rebuild the town and surrounding villages. There had been more survivors than I expected, but the losses just motivated me, making me more determined not only to return this place to normal but to make it safer.

At first, we’d assumed that acquiring Baro’s land would be much easier now. Unfortunately, it got tied up in his estate and frozen with his other assets when it came out that he’d been involved in a lot of criminal activity. We hadn’t managed to get anyone out to restore the cell tower yet, so we sent a messenger to the nearest city to call my lawyer, Ian.

He couldn’t get to Greece before the seventh, which meant I missed Kate’s birthday. I tried really hard not to be in a bad mood that day, but Cano eventually banished me off to do something by myself so I would stop acting like a complete asshole. In the end, I was grateful because I’d spent the time switching between being

enraged and feeling sorry for myself. It hadn’t helped that I still dreamed of my girl every night and when I awoke in bed alone. It took a while for me to stop brooding and act like a decent human being.

I’d given the messenger Kate’s phone number and written a message for him to email to her. But I had no way of checking to see if she replied unless I took the trek to the city myself, and I was afraid to leave just yet. The authorities were trying to seize Baro’s land, and the only person they were afraid of was me. Just not enough to back off and give up their claim to the land so we could buy it.

After Ian arrived, I walked him through every step of the process, starting back when we first approached Baros. It took another two days before I felt like Cano and Ian could handle things without me.

I’d sent Dean and Ginger home to their little ones a few days after we arrived, but they’d been the ones to fly Ian out here. So they’d waited around to take me home.

Once I was on the plane, the anticipation began to build, and I imagined a thousand scenarios for when I finally saw Kate. All of them ended up with her flat on her back, legs in the air, and my long, fat cock filling her with so much cream she was sure to get pregnant.

“That’s it, blue eyes,” I groaned as I pushed into her snug channel. “Take it all. Good girl.”

Her pussy was gripping my cock so hard it would have been difficult to pull out if she hadn’t been drenched.

“Jackson,” she moaned.

“Yes, baby. Say my name,” I grunted as I began a steady pace, moving in and out, enjoying the glide of my dick along her inner walls.

“Oh, Jackson.”

Damn, it got me hot when she said my name like that. I sped up until I was pounding her pussy and slamming the bed against the wall.

“Say my name again,” I demanded.

“Jackson, oh yes!”

“Now scream it,” I growled as I plunged in as deep as possible and pinched her clit, setting off an explosive climax in both of us.

“Fuck!” My eyes flew open, and I glanced around wildly. The plane. I’d fallen asleep.

My gaze dropped to my wet, sticky pants, and I groaned. “Son of a bitch.” Thankfully, there was a bedroom on the plane with a shower that was stocked with my clothes and toiletries.

After cleaning up, I checked the time and was relieved to see that we would be landing in less than an hour. My body heated, wanting Kate more with every minute that took me closer to her.

Tonight, I wouldn’t have to dream about it. It would be real.

Better be ready, blue eyes. You’re mine.JACKSON

My driver was waiting for me when I came down the steps of the plane. I thanked Dean and Ginger, then jogged over to the car and hopped in. For the first time in over a month, I reached for my

phone to check my messages. Eventually, not having cell service had just become part of the landscape. It mostly only bothered me when I was missing Kate so much it hurt.

But being back in my car, speeding toward Manhattan, my natural habits were already returning. I’d charged my phone on the plane but hadn’t turned it on. Holding down the button, I watched as the device came to life. Before I could do anything else, my text and call notifications blew up, bombarding the screen. By the time it was done, the little red notification indicated that I had more than a hundred and fifty messages and over thirty missed phone calls.

I scrolled through all of them looking for one name and not really seeing what the others were. But Kate wasn’t in the mix. Sighing, I went back to the oldest and began working my way forward.

My parents, Noah, and Caffery had called several times before I was able to get word to them about my situation. Many of the calls were business. I didn’t recognize some, but the five calls that had come in on the fourth and fifth of the month had stolen all of my attention. They were from Grace. She’d left a message the first time and one the second, which came in the next day, but not after the others.

I was suddenly terrified that something had happened to Kate, so I immediately tapped her number, but it went straight to voicemail. Then I tried again with the same result and growled in frustration. While I dialed into my voice messages, I opened my messenger app and saw a similar grouping as the phone calls. But just as Grace’s voicemail started, I spied her name in my texts. I had over a dozen from her.

“Hey, Jackson, I just wanted to remind you about the party tomorrow. Don’t squander this golden opportunity I’ve given you, fireboy. Please let me know if you’re still coming.” Then she repeated the time and place before hanging up.

“Jackson, I swear to all that is holy, if you don’t show up in the next two hours, I’m going to sick my husband and my dad on you. I’m disappointed. I didn’t take you for the kind of guy who would stand a girl up. Especially one as amazing as my sister.”

My jaw was hanging open when the call ended, and panic was creeping up my throat. She thought I’d stood Grace up? What the fuck?

I opened the text messages, and again, the first one started as a reminder of the details for the party. Then from there, they were increasingly upset until finally, she was raging at me for ruining her sister’s birthday and breaking her heart.

I tried Grace again, and when she didn’t answer, I called Kate, who didn’t pick up either. Why the hell weren’t they answering? And what the fuck happened to the message I’d sent Kate?

The messenger hadn’t been able to use my real email without giving the kid my password. So I’d given him instructions on how to set up a new account and then send it from there. I pulled up the inbox with the confirmation that the messenger sent to me and entered the password. The email to Kate was in my sent box, but there wasn't a read receipt. However, she’d probably been taught by her father to turn that feature off.

I clicked on it and groaned. If that kid weren’t all the way back in Greece, I would wring his neck. He’d sent the email in Greek. He wasn’t even from Greece. He was from Spain and worked with one of the relief organizations. Though he spoke the language decently, his writing skills were clearly lacking.

The worst part wasn’t that he’d sent it in Greek, though. He’d also paraphrased what I wrote, and it didn’t translate well. Especially if you used one of those online programs.

Still, the message should have been decently clear. As I contemplated, my eyes roamed the screen until I glanced at the email name again and froze.

For fuck’s sake.

I’d told him how to spoof the email so that it looked as though it was coming from the one that I normally used. I’d also given him the email name I wanted him to use. He’d not only misspelled my name (how difficult was it to remember R-U-S-H?), but he’d messed up the forward, so the message had come from the new email. Which meant it was likely that the message either went to spam, or she flagged it as junk and didn’t read it.

I slammed my hand on the seat and cursed the universe for being such a pain in the ass. My mind was spinning on what to do next and how to find my girl. That was the moment I remembered. Today was her last day of finals before graduation. I glanced at my watch and mumbled an apology to the universe. The timing couldn’t be more perfect, so I hit the intercom button to talk to my driver and gave him the address of Kate’s school. I spent the rest of the time making more phone calls to put the rapidly forming plan in my mind into place.

When we pulled up out front of the school, I exited the car and leaned back against it to wait for her. It wasn’t long before students began to trickle out. Eventually, I spotted Olive pushing through the doors. Knowing Kate was probably right behind her, I stood at attention as the anticipation of seeing my girl after so long practically vibrated inside me.

My gaze was glued to the school entrance, but I felt a tingling at the back of my neck like someone was watching me. Tearing my eyes away for just a moment, I met the accusing stare of Kate’s best friend. Then she turned around and said something as the door opened again, and my girl strolled out into the sunshine.

Kate’s head whipped up, and she scanned the area until she saw me. Even though I expected her to be resistant at first, I still hated

that her first reaction was a frown. Her lips pinched angrily, but the hurt I saw swimming in her blue eyes squeezed my heart.

She took a step toward me but stopped when Olive grabbed her arm and said something. Kate shook her head, and when Olive released her, she marched toward me with a determined glare.

When she stopped right in front of me, I gave her a lopsided smile and said, “Happy Birthday, blue eyes.”

It was the wrong thing to say. At first, she softened, but then her posture went rigid. She folded her arms over her chest, pushing her tits up and momentarily distracting me. But she regained my attention when she snapped, “My birthday was nearly a week ago, Mr. Baldwyne. Clearly, you forgot. I suppose I misinterpreted what you said right before you left.” The hurt bled into her tone at the end, and I wanted to take her in my arms so badly, but I had some explaining to do first.

“I didn’t forget, baby.”

Olive harrumphed, making me realize she’d walked up to us and stood just behind Kate. “Don’t you ‘baby’ her, you big jerk. Not after you broke her—” Olive slapped a hand over her mouth, and Kate turned crimson, looking like she wished the floor would open up and swallow her whole.

“I’ve got this, Olive,” she sighed. “I’ll see you tomorrow for coffee.”

“I wouldn’t count on it,” I muttered. Kate raised an eyebrow. “Pardon?” “Never mind.”

Olive started to say something else, and my patience reached its end. I opened the door to my Town Car and growled, “Get in.” Kate opened her mouth, and I knew she was about to object. “We need to talk. In private. Get in the car, Kate.”

“I don’t think—hey!” Her voice squeaked when I scooped her into my arms and bent down to put her on the seat.

“What you think is wrong, and if I need to kidnap your sexy ass to set you right, then that’s what I’ll do.” I stood and shut the door, blocking it so she couldn’t climb out. The car didn’t have an exit on the opposite side.