Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
My eyes open the day after Halloween, my heart somersaulting when I find Jax in the bed next to me, staring at me with those stunning golden irises flecked with rings of fire.
I’m used to depression cloaking me within sixty seconds of waking, but this? This is the polar opposite. A fucking gift from the universe.
My lips curve into a bona fide smile. “Good morning.”
“Good morning,” she rasps, as if she could sound any sexier. The whole combination shoots straight downstairs.
We stare silently at each other, small smiles playing upon our faces. “I’ve missed those eyes,” I admit.
“Mm-hmm. I know exactly how you feel.”
Our gazes stay locked another minute, soaking in one another, and there’s only one thing I want. “Hungry?”
“Ravenous.”
“I’ve got just the thing.” I pull her toward me, and when her leg hitches over my hip, I bring her closer still, and she gasps when my erection greets her, fired up and ready to go. Our centers grind together, mouths finding each other’s ears, necks, shoulders, and anywhere we can suck and kiss.
Fuck, I’ve missed her.
My palms skate over her skin, memory reignited over its softness, where every curve and dip lies, how her breasts dwarf my hands, how responsive her nipples are.
My tongue roves over both areolas. Her hands roam freely, one lodging in my hair, little pants and whimpers spilling from her throat.
My fingers dive lower, straight between her parted thighs, and find her wet and slippery.
I groan around her breast, and she breathes my name out on a sigh.
I push my index finger inside that hallowed place, my cock leaking at the tip and already wanting to explode. Her warm, velvety center rewards me with more of her essence, and I add in another finger, my knuckles disappearing with each thrust.
“Mickkkkk,” she moans, her nails digging into my shoulders. “God.”
I revel at how she grips my fingers, drenching me in her arousal, her addictive scent wafting between us. My dick pulses with energy, screaming for attention, vying to bury itself in this sweet pussy.
I keep pumping my fingers in and out of my beautiful girl, but add my thumb, pressing against what I hope is her clit—it’s pretty much the Braille method right now—and making small, intentional circles to drive her to the brink.
Jax whimpers. “Oh, right there. Don’t stop. Please.”
With the confirmation I’m on target, I latch back on to her taut nipple, laving it with my tongue. Gazing up through my lashes, I’m entranced by her expression, so potent my chest seizes.
“Yessssss,” she husks, spurring me on.
Jacqui starts to unravel. First with her hoarse cries.
Then her stilling breath. Her hips thrust eagerly toward my hand, chasing the gratification in sight.
She wails as she ruptures, her fluttering spasms squeezing my fingers and coating them with her personal extract.
I’m present for all of it, milking her orgasm for all it’s worth, waiting for her soft murmurs and hard breaths to abate.
“Baby,” I whisper, hovering over her face. “What a beautiful sight.”
She smiles but tears spring from her eyes.
I kiss them away. “You okay?”
She nods, and I don’t push. I’m right here with her with my own emotions threatening to overflow.
Her hand snakes between us and she grips my base and strokes my length.
My eyes close, and I forget to breathe as I’m barraged with sensations.
How I’ve missed her touch. How her hands transform me when they caress my skin.
How I flourish under her attention, seemingly whole for the first time in months.
I would pay anyone anything for this to never end.
She pushes me onto my back. If she blows me, I’ll detonate like a firework.
“Jax, I…”
“Nuh-uh. I want to. Please?”
Who says no to that? She goes to work, starting slow, and I make silent deals with the devil.
Her tongue slides along my shaft, her cheeks hollow, and she forms a suction that is fucking perfection.
Her hands stroke in tandem with her warm, wet mouth, and it’s a welcome form of torment not to let go.
When I’m at the breaking point, teetering on the edge of keeping my load in check, I clutch a handful of that pretty hair and give it a firm tug until she meets my gaze. “I want to come inside you.”
She smiles around my dick.
“Please,” I add, returning the same courtesy.
Her smile grows, and she releases me. I start to shift, but she places a hand on my chest and straddles me.
“Is that what you want, baby?”
She nods, positioning herself and sinking onto me. Both of us moan and pant from the sheer, tantalizing, fucking glory of it. I blow out an unsteady breath when our centers join before my lips curve into a smile.
“What?” she says, a smile tugging at her own mouth.
“I’ve got the best seat in the house.”
“I beg to differ.”
Jax rotates her hips and we groan as she rocks back and forth. She’s the sexiest, most breathtaking woman I’ve ever known, and witnessing her take her pleasure infiltrates my system, burrowing her further into my heart, my mind, my soul. I get a hit of pure euphoria, so potent it almost hurts.
When she slows, I take the reins, planting my hands on her hips and thrusting up into her. She emits a sultry cry and I’m desperate for more of them. I do it again, and again, and again. Cataloging her rapturous expression, her breasts and hair bouncing, fuels the fire raging through me.
Her raspberry lips fall open, more of those little whimpers emanating.
Her all-encompassing beauty washes over me, filling me to bursting.
It’s a stake to the heart, and my own eyes well.
Before that gets away from me, my balls tighten and the geyser threatens to blow as I thrust deeper, harder, claiming her, marking her, desperate.
I nearly black out when my release rockets into her.
Penetrating deep, I spill it all, dragging it out as long as possible.
She collapses on my chest, our sweaty bodies heaving as we catch our breath.
Staying lodged inside her, I fold her in my arms, trying to hold onto this woman in more ways than one.
When we move this party to the shower, Jacqui washes me from head to toe, her soapy fingers coasting across my skin, making me want to purr like a tomcat.
No other woman’s hands on me have ever had this effect.
And how I crave her touch. Soothing, medicinal, and life-fueling all at once. Fuck, it’s indulgent.
It’s another moment in a succession of them these past hours where I would die a happy man if my number was up right now.
She finishes, and I emerge from the utopic trance she lulled me into and return the favor.
Taking special care with shampooing her long, golden hair, I soak up her gratified murmurs as I massage her scalp, capturing some of those moans with a kiss.
I’m stealing every one I can, knowing mere hours stand between this…
and my departure back to the hell that is my life.
And we’ve still got to sort out this mess. Her questions are coming—and surely Remy’s. This is the quiet before the storm, and for the umpteenth time, I wish we could stay in this miraculous little bubble forever. Reality holds no hope or happiness for me.
We dry off, and I offer her one of my T-shirts and a pair of sweats. “Not that I don’t love that getup from last night, but I’m thinking this will be more comfortable for you today.” Twirling her garter belt around my finger, I give her a lopsided grin.
“There’s my Mr. Thoughtful,” she says.
I leave to brew a pot of coffee and when Jax enters the living room moments later, I swallow hard at the sight of her in my clothes.
She’s swimming in them but it tugs at something deep inside.
She gazes out the giant glass doors overlooking the bay.
The fog is just starting to burn off, cerulean skies peeking through.
“It’s ready,” I say, handing her a cup when she joins me at the kitchen counter.
She dumps in a ridiculous amount of sugar and milk, and I laugh.
“A little coffee with your sugar?”
She flashes me a knowing smile. “I’m sweet. That’s what little girls are made of and whatnot.”
I think about how she looked a half hour ago, and last night, and my lips form a salacious grin. “You’re delicious.”
She blushes, and it’s adorable.
We take our coffees and sit outside on the deck. I light us a couple of cigarettes, snapping my Zippo shut before handing her one.
“Mick?”
I chuckle. Here it comes. “Fire away, woman. I can feel the questions rolling off you in waves.”
“Last night was amazing.”
“It was.”
“But…what now?”
Yeah…that. I rake a hand through my wet hair and take a pull off my cigarette. “I don’t know. Nothing’s really changed.”
“You mean you still don’t want to be together?”
“Jax. That’s not it. I simply don’t see how this can work. I’m living an hour away—and I’m stuck there in the worst circumstances imaginable. I can’t drive across the bay at my whim.”
“I don’t care,” she says.
My eyes swing toward hers, pinning them. “I care. It’s not fair to you.”
“We could talk on the phone. I could come to your place. We have options.”
This. Everything I expected from her, and all of it unacceptable.
She’s too fucking giving and selfless. And there’s no way in hell I’ll expose her to my father.
Not happening. I tilt my head back, blowing out another stream of smoke, the curls dissipating into nothing.
“I don’t have any idea how long this situation will continue with the old man.
My life is seriously fucked right now. Yours doesn’t have to be. ”
“Do you care about me?”
I nod slowly. “Yes.”
“Then let’s try. I’m going into it with my eyes wide open.”
“And what about Remy?” Yeah…that elephant still sitting in the room.
“I…we…shit.” She worries her bottom lip. “It just happened. Look, you two are my best friends. I love you both so much, in totally different ways.”
I cast her a wary glance. Not exactly what I want to hear right now.
“Remy and I were fucked up—me over you, and him over Karin. And…” She falters, and something about it makes my skin crawl.
“And what?”
She expels a harsh breath. “I got robbed at gunpoint at the station one night.”
It’s like a punch to the solar plexus. “Holy shit, Jax! What the fuck?”
As the relived events tumble from her lips, fury ricochets through me, hot and fast. Guilt and remorse follow, making for a toxic cocktail in my bloodstream, especially as she relays how Remy became her protector, her solace.
Until the party last night when hurt propelled her into the night, walking alone, crying and afraid… when I found her.
I’m quiet, absorbing every difficult detail, ruminating once she finishes. Now I understand better how Remy and Jacqui ended up together, that my best friend didn’t just horn in the minute I split. In the avalanche raining down on me, it actually gives me a strange sense of relief.
“I get it,” I say. “I’m glad he was there for you. I sure as shit wasn’t. Jesus…” My eyes fall closed. “What a fucking mess.”
Her fingers graze my arm, and I tug on her hand. “Come here.”
She crawls into my lap, and I hold her, my free hand stroking her hair and continuing down her spine. Can she tell how sorry I am? How devastated I am at everything she just relayed? How remorseful I feel about us?
“I’m sorry,” I murmur.
She lifts her face from my chest, and I pour it all into an earnest kiss—the yearning, the regret, the unspoken words.
Jax makes us waffles and cuts some fresh fruit.
It tugs at me further, wishing we had more mornings like this.
We’re both quiet as we eat, knowing there’s a reckoning that awaits between Jax, Remy, and me—and I can tell she’s nervous about it.
I might be if it weren’t for my depressive thoughts about returning to Menlo Park and my asshole father.
This bright sun surrounding me will soon be replaced with blinding rain.
My fork scrapes along the plate as I dredge the last bite of waffle in the remaining syrup and pop it in my mouth. It melts on my tongue. After washing it down with coffee, I make the offer. “Want me to call Remy?”
She bites on her bottom lip, her amber irises unable to stay on me for long, and nods.
No point putting it off, and I’m sure Remy’s flipping out.
He answers on the second ring.
“Hey. It’s Mick.”
“Shit, man, how you doing?”
This sucks. “I’m at Mom’s. And…”
There’s a deafening silence. “Jacqui’s with you, isn’t she?”
“She’s here,” I confirm.
He exhales harshly. “Well, fuck me. She’s safe?”
“Yeah, man.”
“I was worried out of my fucking skull. Do you know she just split on me last night? Didn’t say a fucking word to anyone, didn’t have a ride, didn’t come back all goddamned night but her car was still here?
I’m going out of my mind…and all this time, somehow, she wound up with you?
” He laughs dryly. “I’ve got a fuckload of questions. ”
This will be a blast. “We’re headed over.”
“Good. Later.”
Remy hangs up, and he’s clearly pissed. Rightfully. And this is one bizarrely fucked up situation I never expected to find myself in.
“Is he mad?” Jax asks.
I nod. “Worried as fuck too.”