11. Jax
ELEVEN
jax
So far, it had been a crap morning.
A land deal I’d been working on for more than a year, one I expected to fall through, had finally received its final nail in the proverbial coffin. Not five minutes after I’d opened that email, my older brother called to tell me his wife had a miscarriage. It was her third and into the second trimester.
There had only been one bright spot.
Pulling into an empty space, I parked and got out of my truck. I wasn’t usually a sweets guy, but I’d been hearing about these cinnamon donuts since I got to town, and I needed to get away from my computer. I tried not to think about that bright spot now.
What kind of a masochist was I that a woman who hated me was the best thing that had happened all morning? Natalie wanted nothing to do with me, and honestly, I didn’t blame her. The problem was that I couldn’t get her out of my mind. Dancing with her Saturday night had been madness, but the urge to touch her, to feel her beneath my hands, was just too strong.
No fucking way.
Although her back was to me, I was positive that was Natalie sitting at a table outside the coffee shop. Computer open, she seemed to be working, and I knew exactly what she was working on too. My case.
I wasn’t gonna lie, when she called to tell me she’d been assigned to it, I’d smiled into the phone. Something about the woman intrigued me. Maybe the fact that she didn’t fall at my feet? Nah, it was more than that. More than her looks. Usually the crunchy, granola type wasn’t appealing to me, so it definitely wasn’t that either.
But no doubt, there was definitely something. Trouble was, she was extremely resistant to letting me explore that something.
“How’s it looking?” I asked, walking up to her table.
Natalie spun around. Looked up at me with those innocent-but-not-so-innocent, eyes. A vision of her on her knees in front of me, looking like that—but with my dick in her mouth—stopped me cold.
Christ. Where the hell had that come from?
Her expression was all the answer I needed. As she dug into the reports, Natalie wasn’t likely to be very pleased. Aside from a small hiccup this winter, this inlet had been one of the most straightforward pieces of property I’d ever purchased.
“Need some help?” I asked when she didn’t respond.
“No, thank you.”
“Coffee? Donut?”
“Already have both,” she said, her clipped tone at odds with the look in her eyes. “Just looking to get some work done and catch some air at the same time.”
Natalie wanted me as much as I wanted her. That had been more than clear on Saturday night even though she fought like hell to hide it. I’d been trained to read peoples’ eyes, to anticipate their next moves. Sometimes, my life and the lives of my battle buddies were at stake, so getting it wrong wasn’t an option.
I stepped forward. “Had,” I corrected. Her mug was nearly empty. “Looks like you’re out. I’ll grab a new one. You take it with milk and sugar, yes?” I asked, already knowing the answer from when she was at my place.
Sighing, Natalie finally resigned herself to me, but I wouldn’t crack a celebratory smile. Today I would be on my best behavior. No instigating.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Turned out, the woman behind the counter knew exactly how to make Natalie’s coffee, so with a bag full of donuts and two fresh coffees, I joined her. Without asking, mind you, as I was pretty sure of her answer.
“One coffee,” I said, putting it in front of her and sitting down on the wrought-iron chair across from her. “Donut?” I asked, taking one out of the bag.
“No thank you.” She picked up the fresh coffee. “I don’t remember inviting you to sit down.”
“No?” I asked, taking a bite.
Damn. That was good.
“No.”
“I figured if you had any questions, this would make it easy. Don’t let me disturb you.”
Pulling out my phone, I opened my own email as I ate. Natalie didn’t say anything more, but she did go back to work, ignoring me.
At least, pretending to ignore me.
Peeking up from time to time, I could tell she wanted to ask something. So I made it easy on her. “Send it.”
Frowning, she sighed heavily. I tried like hell not to smile.
“You’re planning to turn it into a bed and breakfast?”
“No,” I corrected. “I’m planning to sell it to a man who will build a bed and breakfast.”
“Same thing.”
“Not really.”
“Jaxon—”
“Jax.”
“I refuse to call you that. We are not friends.”
“We could be. What if we really started from scratch, like you pretended to do at my house?”
“Pretended?” Her mock indignation was cute.
“Yes, Natalie, pretended.”
She sat back, momentarily abandoning her laptop. Coffee in hand, she watched as a couple, tourists no doubt, walked into Devine.
“How could you tell?”
“Training,” I said, leaving it at that. Staring at her lips.
“Can you be more specific?”
Normally I wasn’t a fan of talking about my time in the military, but for Natalie, I’d make an exception. “Body language, facial expressions, changes in behavior, active listening. Every eye movement or posture reveals a person’s emotional state and level of confidence. Not to mention any potential threat they might be.”
She took a sip of coffee. I’d never wanted to be a lid on a coffee cup until that very moment.
“And did you assess me as a threat?”
Laughing, I answered immediately and honestly. “Hell, yeah.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
As people came and went around us, I noticed, unable to turn off years of training even if Main Street in Kitchi Falls was an unlikely place for trouble.
“Because of the land?”
Time for some truth.
“No, not because of the land. Because I had no plans when I came here to get tangled up with a beautiful woman who also happens to work for the very trust I’m purchasing the land from. But here we are.”
She blinked. Too rapidly. I’d made her nervous.
“Tangled up? I wouldn’t necessarily classify us as being tangled up.”
Should I be blunt?
Yeah, I should.
“We will be.”
Though she tried to remain composed, Natalie’s slightly widened eyes and parted lips told me she was anything but.
“Right,” she said, clearing her throat. “I’m your case manager after all—”
“No, Natalie. That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it.”
“Jaxon—”
“Jax.”
“Jaxon,” she said stubbornly. “We should not have danced on Saturday. This is strictly a one hundred percent professional relationship, and even if I thought you were the hottest, most charming man in the world, I wouldn’t risk my job for a”—she shrugged—“one-night stand. Especially with you,” she tossed in, for good measure.
“We are two consenting adults. I don’t think your job would be in jeopardy.”
“First of all, I’m anything but consenting. Second of all, it wouldn’t look good, at minimum. Especially now that I’m your case manager.”
“Can you alter the findings? Sway opinion one way or another on the purchase?”
That question didn’t please her very much because we both knew the answer.
“My job isn’t to decide on the land purchase but to answer any questions you might have, or anyone else involved. But you know that already.”
“I do. Which is why I’m not too worried about you losing your job when we get together.”
She laughed, and I fucking loved the sound. “We are not getting together.”
“You don’t think so?”
“No. I do not.”
“Alright. How about a friendly wager on that particular point?”
Natalie shook her head. “No way. I’m not betting on something I already know won’t happen. For many, many reasons.”
I’d played my hand. Time to let Natalie finish her work and think about what we’d talked about. “Scaredy-cat,” I said, standing.
“I’m not scared,” she insisted.
“No? Then take the bet. If you win, if we don’t get together, I’ll drop my bid.”
Was it a bit of fucking madness? Sure. But I was that certain that Natalie would crack. More importantly, if she thought I was dropping the bid, maybe she’d stop looking at me with daggers in her eyes.
I’d managed to shock the hell out of her.
“You’re kidding?”
“I’m not.”
“Done,” she said, clearly banking on her victory.
“But if I win...” I reminded her there were two sides to this coin. “You’ll call me Jax.”
Earning another laugh from her might actually be worth the very slim chance I could lose this property because of my goddammed dick.
“That’s it? That’s all you want.”
Walking over to her, I dropped down so that my lips were so close to her ear I had to whisper. “If I win, Natalie, I’ll already have what I want.”
Standing, I watched her reaction, any doubts I had about our little contest erased. Did I think her attraction to me was stronger than her desire to keep that land?
Not yet.
“There is one stipulation.”
She looked up at me with an “of course there is” expression.
“You can work, and catch fresh air, at my place. That way, if you have any questions, I’ll be there to answer them. Since,” I rushed to add, “your job seems pretty portable.”
She opened her mouth, likely to tell me to go screw myself, and then closed it. Natalie had to know a good deal when she saw one.
“How often?”
“Until the deal goes through.”
“Except you’re not buying the land. I will win this bet.”
She was pretty confident of that. “I will move forward but pull my bid if necessary.”
“I have some fieldwork on other jobs too.”
“When you’re working on my case,” I conceded, “my place.”
“Fine. Starting tomorrow.”
“See you in the morning, sunshine, with your coffee ready and waiting.”
With that, I turned and left, knowing I’d pushed my luck as far as it would go. Had I just potentially put an insane amount of money on the line? Maybe. But I’d put a hell of a lot more on the line in the last ten years. This was just money.
Besides, I intended to keep it, and get the girl, too.