29. Twenty-Nine
TWENTY-NINE
H arley
Jax drives us to the spot he took me after he picked me up the night I had a date with Leroy Sanchez. After he pulls the emergency break, I unbuckle my seatbelt and turn toward him in the passenger seat. Neither of us have said a word after he left my parents house. The possessive grip on my thigh still lingers on my skin.
I stare at his profile. Watching as he grinds his teeth together, making the muscle in his jaw tick. His chest rises and falls with steady breaths that have his nostrils flaring with each one. He’s all sharp lines and edges. He’s beyond intimidating in the most breathtaking way.
I reach out and trace my finger down his jaw, loving the way his lashes flutter at my touch. When my finger gets to his chin, I move to his nose and drag it down the center. He expels a long breath, making my attention fall to his lips. I move my finger over his lips, loving that I know exactly how they feel against every inch of my skin.
I’ve fallen so hard for this man.
He closes his eyes and drops his head back against the headrest. “I’m sorry,” he whispers.
“Why are you sorry?” I ask, my brows pulling together.
Jax rolls his head in my direction. Those dark eyes lock with mine. “I shouldn’t have stormed into your parents like that.”
I search his eyes, flicking back and forth as I look for any sign that he could be lying. But behind the anger, I can see the remorse and worry swimming in his gaze. “I’m not,” I breathe honestly.
“I’m…fuck, Harley. I’m losing control,” he admits in a gravelly voice. “I don’t know how to stop myself when it comes to you. I want to protect you from anything and everything, including from myself.”
“I don’t need protecting from you,” I tell him with a small smile.
He rolls his head again, staring out the windshield as he says, “Harley, it takes every last bit of control I have not to sink my teeth into you. That’s an urge I haven’t had since before I accidentally scratched Keeley.”
He wets his lips, rolling them a few times. I patiently wait for him to continue, and when he does, my heart breaks for him.
“I’ve only ever wanted to protect the family I have. My parents were ripped from my life before I was barely old enough to really understand what had happened. I wanted her to shift with me. I wanted to be able to keep her strong enough to fight off any enemy. Instead, I hurt her and damned her to a life that will be anything but easy. It’s all thanks to me. I can’t do that to you. I won’t.”
“You’re forgetting something here, Zayden.”
He brings his gaze back to mine again. “What?”
“It’s my choice.”
Jax shakes his head. “I won’t change you.”
“I know you won’t,” I say softly. “But you and I both know there’s a way for you to mark me without changing me.”
His eyes darken. “How do you know that?”
I roll my eyes at him. “Don’t change the subject.”
Jax’s nostrils flare. “There is a way,” he says through clenched teeth.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I lean back against the door and smirk at him. “I already said that, hockey jockey.”
“It’s not just up to me,” he admits quietly.
“I figured that much.”
He cracks his neck from side to side, sighing heavily. “You’re sure about this?”
“If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have brought it up,” I say, raising an eyebrow at him.