28. Jaxon
Chapter 28
Jaxon
S adie’s breath hitches, taken by surprise, but I can’t hold myself back anymore. I want her and I want her to know .
My fingers tangle in her soft red hair. When I tilt her head up to kiss her deeper, her body melts into my touch. Looks like she wants me, too.
Our breaths grow shallow as the night around us dissipates. Cars. People. Noise. It all fades to a dull murmur compared to the chaos in my mind that zeroes in on the sensation of finally touching her.
Six years since I last held her in my arms. Six years I’ve kept myself from this type of happiness.
She’s soft, smooth and sweet. Her rosy vanilla scent wafts over me intoxicatingly and I burn for it.
Sadie . She’s all I’ve ever wanted. I’m never going to get enough of this.
A soft moan escapes her lips and my blood sings. My cock strains against my pants as her lips part and I dive my tongue in to tangle with hers.
“Sadie.” Her name slips from my lips in a breathless sigh.
“ Yes .”
God, her moan sends me reeling. I spin her around to press her into the wall with my hips. One hand leans on the wall, caging us from the outside the world while the other slices into her soft red waves.
“I love your sounds,” I murmur reverently.
She smiles against my lips. “Even my shower singing?”
“Especially your shower singing.”
She sighs as I nip her bottom lip, teeth grazing down her jaw to her neck to rest at her pulse. When my tongue softly licks her skin, she arches into me, breaths shallow as a primal urge surges through me to throw her over my shoulder and take her back to our hotel.
But a door bursts open. Followed by loud chatter as a tipsy-drunk group filters through—our group that’s finally exhausted our two-hour booking. I push off the wall to give her space, but our eyes remain locked. Lust and longing mixed with an insane heat that lights up golden specks in her hazels. We wait for the group to saunter away. A few people say bye to me, but I hardly pay attention until the one blond I can’t seem to get rid of blocks my vision of Sadie.
“Jaxon! I’ve been looking for you,” Ekaterina purrs. Her smile too-wide, eyes too-bright. She reeks of mischief and alcohol. I step away immediately.
“Ekaterina.”
She takes a step toward me, smirking. “Oh, honey, please. It’s Kat.”
I roll my eyes. This fucking girl.
Ekaterina has been trying to get at me all evening. Not only does it bother me since I know she’s married, but she really blew it out of the park when she climbed into my lap. I know it made Sadie uncomfortable. Fuck, I was uncomfortable. I whispered in her ear as politely as I could to get the fuck off or I’ll send her home . She heeded the warning and stopped bothering me—until now.
This is why I spent all those years alone. I’m not the guy for women to throw themselves at and get an easy night of sex.
Besides, there’s only one woman I’ve ever wanted. And she’s standing right in front of me.
Sadie shifts uncomfortably again as if to leave, so instinctively, I push past Ekaterina to grab her wrist. She pauses, eyeing me questioningly, but I lace my fingers with hers and pull her to me gently. Without taking my eyes off Sadie, I say, “Goodnight, Ekaterina. I’m walking Sadie back to her hotel.”
Ekaterina scoffs loudly. But I don’t give her a chance to respond as I stalk past her, taking Sadie with me .
“I think we pissed her off,” Sadie murmurs with a light laugh.
“Good. She was pissing me off all evening.” Her eyes widen in surprise. “What? You really think I wanted her in my lap?”
“I… I thought maybe...” she stutters and I’m annoyed I gave her the impression that I did. I stop walking abruptly and she walks into me.
“Hey!”
I slide a hand to her lower back to pull her into me as I whisper in her ear, “Were you jealous, Sass?”
She scoffs, and I swallow her response with a rough kiss.
“Don’t worry. The only thing I enjoyed tonight is kissing you, and I don’t plan on stopping now.”
When I look down, her lips are parted in shock. This girl has no idea how long I’ve waited for her. I place a soft kiss on those strawberry lips and wrap her hand in mine again before pulling her along. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Sass that she is, Sadie hits me with a smirk. And it takes everything in me to not pick her up and run us back.
Her earlier anger has simmered down and what’s left is a different type of heat. The type that burns rather than simmers. It’s impatient. Desperate. Needy. Or maybe that’s just me.
Just before the revolving doors of the hotel, Sadie curses. One of her tall heels is stuck between a crack in the cement. She crouches down to work on unbuckling her shoe as I watch her pry it out without breaking the heel.
“And here I thought you were going to ask for a piggyback ride,” I deadpan.
“Desperate to have my legs around you, Tanner?” she teases.
“Gonna be more than just your legs wrapped around me, Sass.”
Her eyes flare, cheeks flushing pink, as she pins me with a challenging glare. When her heel comes free, she buckles it up and steps toward me with a mischievous grin.
“I can think of so many ways I could wrap myself around you.” Her hand lightly grazes the front of my pants before she slips past, through the revolving doors, smiling playfully on the other side.
Heat rushes to my cock as I grin back. The mouth on this girl. I slip through the doors and instantly grab her hand to pull her to the elevators. A vacant one is about to close, so I rush to keep the doors open. I pull Sadie in before the doors shut, and she’s biting back a laugh. Bright white teeth on those pretty pink lips. It makes me want to kiss her, but not yet.
I tap for our floor and when I spin back around, I take in all her beauty. Long, ivory legs. Crimson red hair. Tight black dress.
She looks sexy as sin, and I want to spend all night worshiping her.
“What’s on your mind, Tanner?”
A thousand ungentlemanly things. But I don’t say that. Instead, I say, “That you look stunning.”
Her face softens, eyes gleaming like the city lights that stretch behind her in the glass window. When I close the space between us to cup her face and dive into a kiss, she sighs at my touch, one hand at the back of my neck, another fisting into my shirt. Her spine arches as if she’s softening even as I feel myself harden against her. My hand drags down her ribs, over the curve of her hip, to her thigh. Wanting more. Needing more. I pick her leg up, wrapping it around my hip and push into her. She moans into my mouth and our kiss grows hot, more feverish, more urgent. At this angle, I know she can feel me, how much I want her. How much I need her.
“ Jaxon ,” she gasps.
I growl against her ear. “I love when you say my name.”
“I love when you say mine, too.” Her voice is breathy and I’m transported back six years to our kiss on the porch. The way I wanted her then overwhelmed me. The way I want her now is no less, but this time, I can take it. I can take her. Her fiery passion. Her determination. Her kind heart. All the ways she takes care of me, nurtures me, warms me. All the things I denied myself believing I’d be a burden, but she doesn’t make me feel that way. It’s these things that make her undeniable. In talent. In beauty. In love. She’s seen parts of me no one’s ever seen and I can’t deny it anymore.
It hits me out of nowhere, the words slipping through my lips. “I think I might love you, Sadie.”
She pulls back abruptly. My shoulders stiffen as she pauses. The elevator doors ding open.
“You, what?” She stares at me in shock and I feel the blood drain from my face.
Shit. “I shouldn’t have said that.” I step out of the elevator and start walking down the hall. Sadie jogs after me while my brain scrambles for purchase.
“Jaxon, wait!” She falls into step with me and places a hand on my forearm. We’ve reached our hotel room now and all I want is to get inside. “Jaxon. Look at me.”
I pause, but I can’t bear to look at her. Sadie’s fingers curl over my forearm, my skin underneath heats at her touch.
“Please,” she begs, and it crumbles me. I lift my eyes and when they clash with hers, I feel ablaze.
My voice comes out hoarse. “You really want to know?”
“I want to know everything,” she whispers. Her fingers curl tighter over my forearm, and even with my compression band under my shirt, I feel her touch tenfold.
“Fine. Earlier today I didn’t show up to rehearsal on doctor’s orders. I didn’t tell you because I was afraid of being a burden to you. I thought it would be easier for you to go through rehearsal not knowing where I was. I didn’t expect you to look for me.”
“How—”
I place my hand over hers to quieten her. Now that I’ve started, I can’t stop.
“When Ekaterina was all over me, I was more than annoyed because really I wanted it to be you in my lap.”
Sadie’s eyes widen, and I turn to cup her face gently.
“I feel the most sane when I’m around you. Ever since this injury has worsened, I’ve been scared. Alone. Lost.” I press my forehead against hers. “Except when I’m with you.”
“Jaxon,” she breathes.
“Do I think I might love you?” I pull back to look into her hazel eyes. I trace my thumb lightly over her lips and her body shivers. “I think I’ve known that deep down for six long years and I’m tired of pretending that I don’t.”
I don’t often bare myself. I keep my heart hidden, not on my sleeve. Right now, it pounds in my ears as I wait for her response.
She stares up at me with her wide hazel eyes, shock softening into tenderness as her delicate fingers trace my jawline to cup my cheek. I can’t help but lean into it.
I don’t expect what she says to crumble my defenses. Yet the softness in her voice is like a key that unlocks the barriers around my heart.
“I’m tired of pretending too,” she says, a soft smile tilting her lips. “I don’t think you’re a burden. Ekaterina can go to hell. I’m most myself around you. And Jaxon?” She grins now.
“Yeah?”
“I think I might love you, too.”
My smile unzips slowly and I’m suddenly aware we’re still standing in the hotel hall. Right beside our door. I tap the card and hurl her inside to push her up against it.
She gasps softly. But I’m a man obsessed now.
All I need to hear is that Sadie wants this as much as I do.
“Tell me you want this.” I grab her wrists and pin it above her head, our chests flush, my hips pinning hers to the door.
“You want me to beg for you?” She laughs. Her back arches slightly, accentuating her hard nipples against the light material of her dress. It makes my cock twitch.
“Never said anything about begging, but I won’t stop you.” I hover over her lips with a smirk. Want zings up and down my spine. Need hardens my cock that pushes against her. She’s barely touched me and I’m this turned on. It’s wanting to touch her that has me feral .
“I want your explicit consent before we continue.” My voice is deeper than usual.
Her breath hitches and I pull back to look her in the eye, sucked into the honey amber center before the black of her irises widens in lust.
“What?” she whispers. My hands snake up her wrists to lace into hers as I press them into the door.
“Explicit. Consent. I really want you, Sadie Love. Tell me you want this.”
“I do, too. I want this. I want you.” She squirms beneath for my touch, my lips still hovering over hers. “ Jaxon. Please. ”
Her plea crumbles the last of my control like a dying crescendo and I crash my lips into hers.