Epilogue | Jax
One year later…
The phone rings just after five, and I pick up without needing to check the caller ID.
“Hey, Fran.”
“Are you sure these numbers are right? These are the figures for the quarterly reports, not the annual profits.”
“Are you doubting me?”
“Completely.”
“Well, one, that’s rude, and two, I’ve inflated the figures so Gray will keep sleeping with me.”
“You’re so gross,” she says, and I can hear her fingers speeding over the keys.
“The figures are right, Fran. Stop bothering me.”
“Check them again.”
“No. That’s what you’re for, and I’ve already been through them three times with Scott. He’s done a good job, even though he’s totally incompetent.”
Scott, who is sitting at the desk opposite, throws a pencil at me.
“Alright, but if they’re wrong, I’m going to tell Gray to fire you.”
“As if,” I say sweetly and hang up as she starts to say something else.
“Don’t piss Fran off, she’s basically running this place single-handedly,” Scott says, sitting back in his chair, pulling a Rubik's cube from his drawer, and beginning to play with it.
“That’s you, actually,” I say warmly. “You know you’re the reason this place is such a success.”
“I didn’t have much of a choice… I’m gonna be proving myself to Flynn for the rest of my life.”
I glance up at my brother and see the familiar little twist of discomfort on his mouth as he flips the cube in his fingers, solving it effortlessly.
“You know he loves you—"
“Scott!” Flynn’s voice ricochets off the walls of the office from down the hall, and Scott groans.
“Oh my god, this is your fault,” he says irritably, putting the cube back in the drawer and going to find out what Flynn wants. “I have enough to do!” he shouts good-naturedly as he passes Gray in the doorway, who walks inside, looking back after Scott curiously.
I narrow my eyes at him, continuing to work on my spreadsheet as he closes and locks the door behind him.
“Evening, my lady,” he says, his voice thick.
“What do you want? I’m busy.”
“That’s no way to greet your boyfriend, Jax. I haven’t seen you for days.”
“I saw you yesterday.”
“Exactly.”
He saunters over to my desk, a look in his eye I know well.
“Have I told you I love your purple hair?” he asks, pulling on the braid over my shoulder, his finger sliding over the skin on the back of my neck, and making me frown up at him as I try to deal with a formula that isn’t behaving itself.
“Stop distracting me. And you love my hair, whatever color it is.”
“Hmm, that’s true.”
He scooches onto the edge of my desk, placing his hands over mine while I’m still trying to type.
“You’re not helping.”
He runs a finger down my neck again, making me shiver. “I’m not trying to.”
“Go and sit over there until I’m done,” I say, shoving at him. “You’re not allowed to distract me when I’m trying to work out the variances. I’ve told you this before.”
He pouts, going to sit at Scott’s desk and pretending to sulk as I continue working on the formula.
“Oh, forgot to tell you, my mom wants us both at lunch on Sunday,” he says. “Well, actually, I think she’d be fine with just you showing up and, of course, my sisters feel the same way.”
I glance up for a brief second and give him a little smirk.
I love the fact that I completely flipped Donna’s opinion of me. It took a while, but she finally came around. And she’s not so bad after all. And I adore his sisters, especially Carrie.
I refocus on the task at hand and spend a few minutes double-checking the figures against the accounts on my iPad and don’t look up again at him until I’m done. When I do, I freeze in place.
He’s sitting in Scott’s chair, fully naked, trying to solve the Rubik’s cube.
“You don’t play fair,” I say, my voice coming out a little choked.
“Learned from the best,” he says, rolling the chair out from beneath the desk and stroking his hardening cock as I glance at the door.
“My brothers are right down the hall.”
“They’re not actually. I gave Flynn some money to go and get dinner. I wanted some alone time with my woman.”
I rise from my chair, enjoying the way his eyes run down my body as I approach him.
“Your what?” I ask, straddling him and trapping his hand around his cock.
“My woman,” he says, raising his hips up to meet mine. “Fuck, you’re so fucking hot,” he growls, tugging my hips against his.
“Don’t you have to go and walk the new venue tonight? You’ve already screwed up the profits for Q4 with that purchase; you might as well visit the damned thing.”
“I’ve seen it.”
“You saw pictures, that isn’t the same thing.”
“Flynn saw it, he likes it, and we’re partners. I trust him.”
“But still—”
“Why are you talking shop when you should be getting naked?” he grumbles, and I stand up, putting on a bit of a show as I strip for him.
Once I’m fully naked, I sit back down on top of him as his hands run over my back.
“Hmm, I never get tired of this view,” he says, his eyes bright and glossy in the light from Scott’s desk. “Will you come with me? To the venue, I mean? I want you to see it.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes, do you have somewhere else you need to be?”
“Well, I might be busy.”
His fingers tighten against my body. “Is that right?” he asks, as he slides them lower, pushing them between my legs as I crush my mouth over his.
“Yeah,” I say, rocking against his dick. “And, just so you know, I’m gonna tell Scott that you got butt-naked in his office chair.”
“That’s a good point,” he says, rising as I give a little squeal of delight, his hands supporting my ass as he carries me to the couch on the other side of the room. “I’m going to fuck you now. You’re always more agreeable after I get my dick inside you.”
I groan, arching against him, as he does just that, slowly pushing into me.
“What the hell? That was like three seconds of foreplay.”
“I know, but I’ve been thinking about this all day. Maybe if you’re a good girl, I’ll let you ride me later.”
The venue Flynn and Gray have found is perfect for what we want. A small, intimate bar linked to the new club, which can be a destination for people on their way to a night out.
It’s long, narrow, and eclectic, and exactly the kind of place I’ve dreamed of owning someday.
Scott has been the floor manager of JJ’s for nearly six months, attending regular recovery meetings and mostly doing better.
I still worry about the implications of everything he has been through, but he seems to be in a good place right now, and that’s what matters.
Gray takes my hand and leads me through the building.
“It’s kind of narrow, don’t you think?” I ask.
“Wait until you see upstairs,” he says, looking back at me as we walk along a hallway that reminds me of the rear service hallways in Jensons.
“This is creepy as hell,” I say as we continue on. Gray doesn’t reach for a light switch the whole way, and it’s very dark by the time we reach a set of stairs leading up to a single doorway at the top.
“Are you planning to lock me away in here for your own amusement?” I ask dryly, and he chuckles.
“Now there’s an idea.”
We reach the top of the stairs, and I step into a beautiful room painted in dark green, with pale gray furniture inside. There’s a white desk at one end, and when Gray closes the door, the sound of the traffic on the street outside is drowned out completely.
“Wow, this place is awesome,” I say.
“I thought you might like it as your new office,” he says casually, in a tone I’ve come to know well. Gray only ever sounds like that when something means a great deal to him.
“Here?” I ask, looking back at him.
“It’s quieter than the club, and I know your migraines have been bothering you.”
“I’m getting old,” I say as he scoffs loudly.
“Shut up, you’re not even twenty-six yet. Wait until you’re ancient like me.”
“True, you’re a regular dinosaur,” I say, walking over to the desk. “It’s so quiet here, I love it.”
“I had it soundproofed when I found the space. I thought it would be perfect for you.”
I glance back at him, smiling, as he stands behind me, his hand in his pockets, his stance strangely stiff.
“You okay?” I say curiously.
“Of course,” he says, but there’s a strange look in his eyes I can’t read.
I stop at the desk, looking down at it with interest. The surface is empty, except for a tiny white box set at its center. I stare at it, my fingers shaking as I reach forward and pick it up.
It’s completely silent in the room as I slowly pry open the lid to find a beautiful ring inside, three diamonds in a row sparkling in the low light.
I turn to find Gray on one knee behind me, smiling up at me with such a look of love and excitement I can hardly breathe.
“Jacqueline Marie Jenson,” he says, his voice shaking slightly. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I love you more than I can possibly express in words, and I want you with me for the rest of our lives. Will you marry me?”
He stands, coming to a stop in front of me as I stare up at him in astonishment, my heart pounding like a drum.
“I bought this ring three weeks after we started officially dating, and I’ve wanted to ask you a thousand times since then. But I thought I would seem less crazy if I waited a bit. And it’s a year to the day since we first met, and I can’t wait any longer.”
My hand shakes as I look down at the ring, Gray’s long fingers coming up to pluck it from the box and hold it out to me.
I look up at him, this incredible and impossible man who has made my life so much better in every conceivable way. Not just mine, but my brothers’ lives, too.
“I love you,” I say as a bright smile breaks across his face.
“I know,” he says reverently.
“Of course I’ll marry you.”
He grins down at me, eyes shining with mischief. “I know that, too.”
A laugh bubbles out of my chest as his answer both surprises and delights me.
So fucking cocky…
And I wouldn’t want him any other way.