Chapter 14
" W ell, hello there." Jax catches me right before I can collide with him. His big hands grip my shoulders.
My cheeks burst into flames as I shrug him off.
He's wearing that smug smirk I've been wanting to punch off his face for decades now, his brows raised in implication, and why should I care?
Yes, he did just catch me mid-walk-of-shame, but I have nothing to be ashamed of.
I'm a grown woman who had amazing, incredible, fantastic sex with a guy I've been crushing on for years.
If anything, I should be proud of my conquest.
The way he's looking at me makes me feel inexplicably dirty, though. All I want to do is get away.
"Sorry," I mumble, edging around him.
But he blocks my way. "What? You don't even want to say hello?"
"Not really."
He laughs, mocking. "Jeez. I was hoping if Adam couldn't do it that my boy Cayden could finally fuck that stick out of your ass, but apparently not."
Forget flames. My face is an inferno. Shame I have no freaking reason to feel burns in my gut, and I hate this guy. I hate him.
"Maybe you should give it a try," I spit at him, and holy shit. Where did that come from?
I regret it immediately, my mouth opening to take it back, only his eyes flash dark. He leans in closer, and my breath stutters in my chest.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
"No. It was a—a joke. I—" I what?
I mean, Jax has been an asshole to me since we were pre-teens, but that doesn't change the fact that he's smoking hot.
His long, brown hair is pulled back into a messy man bun at the back of his head, a couple of stray strands framing his chiseled, stubbled jaw.
His full, pink lips are wet and sultry, his gray eyes piercing, and something uncomfortable turns over in my stomach.
It's never boiled over, but our sniping has always had a charged note to it. Suddenly, the tension is hot enough to throw sparks.
Only…only…
Cayden and I finally got together last night.
Shit. Maybe that's what's going on.
"Fuck off." I shove him back, and he goes, but it only buys me a fraction of an inch. "If this is some bullshit bro test, I'm not taking it."
"Excuse you?"
"You know what I mean. I finally get together with your buddy, so you try to get in my pants to see if I'm a cheating skank for him. No way."
I don't know what I expect, but it's definitely not the full-throated way he throws his head back and laughs.
"What?" I demand. God, this guy. If he isn't making me feel like whore, he's doing shit like this and making me feel about two feet tall. "Stop laughing—
He does. In an instant, his mouth snaps closed, and his whole demeanor changes. Intensity colors his gaze as he focuses it, laser-like on me. "He didn't tell you."
"Didn't tell me what?"
"Oh, this is too good."
He backs off, not much, but just enough that I can breathe.
And yet somehow, inexplicably, I miss his presence. The fiery thing that burns between us and maybe always has.
I step forward, getting in his face again. "What?"
"No, I can't."
"Bullshit. What didn't he tell me?"
"You really want to know?"
"Obviously."
I hate feeling like I'm not in the loop. I hate how Jax makes me feel stupid.
I hate the rumbling in my gut telling me that what happened between Cayden and me last night was too good to be true.
What if this is all a trick? What if they're all just fucking with me as they're fucking me, laughing at me behind my back while I go ahead and get invested?
It wouldn't be the first time.
Jesus, what if this is Richard all over again?
Jax pulls me out of my spiral with a hand on my shoulder. The weight of his grip is steadying, somehow, even though a part of me wants to push him away. He tucks a finger under my chin until our gazes lock.
"You know what being in the service together does to guys, right? We're brothers. Forever."
"Okaaay…"
"That means no one gets between us. Especially not a woman."
And there's that churning in my gut again. Great. So it really is as bad as I think.
"Message received." I start to shrug out of his grip, but he holds on tight this time, refusing to let me pass.
"No. I don't think it has been."
"Bros before hoes, blah blah blah. He can't be with anybody—
He speaks over me. "None of us can be with anybody. No one leaves, not for anyone."
"Well, enjoy your little monastery, then. Hope you all love your right hands."
When I try to peel away again, he's having none of it.
He slams me back into the wall. The movement takes me completely by surprise.
I turn my gaze up at him, stunned, but he's looming over me, crowding me in with his bulk, and he smells so good.
My blood is up, the arousal of anger bleeding into the arousal of a hot, hard body so close to mine.
I shake my head, but he doesn't let me get a word out.
"None of us can be with anyone unless she's willing to be with all of us. Unless all of us want to be with her."
Oh.
Oh .
He hasn't left me any room to doubt, but my mind instantly revolts. No, there's no way that can be right.
And even if it was…
"So what, you're the hold out?"
I have no idea if Sergio or Deandre wants to get with me, but Jax hates me. He always has. Right?
Doubt creeps in.
And then he leans closer. I shiver uncontrollably, my skin tingling with hot, wrong desire when he puts his lips right next to my ear. "I'm the one who told Cayden he needed to fuck you first. Because otherwise I could never, ever do this ."
I see it coming a hundred miles away, but it doesn't matter. The searing crash of his mouth into mine shocks me like a bolt of lighting. I'm deaf, dumb, frozen as he assaults my mouth. His kiss is as infuriating as his sneering face has always been.
And I'm instantly, utterly addicted.