by Piper Lawson
Jax’s mouth comes down on mine, and I grip his arms to stay upright.
His kiss is hungry, but more than that, it’s home. Not the kind of home that promises safety or security, because nothing can promise that.
The kind that promises compassion, and love, and kindness, and support. I know he’s the man I want to have it all with, the ups and the downs.
When he finally pulls back, he nods to Serena. “I want you to hear something.”
She pulls out her phone and hits Play on a song that’s familiar and new at once.
“That’s Tyler’s song.” I keep listening. It’s different than the version he sent me, because Jax comes in on a verse. Amazement bubbles through me.
“Posted it this morning, with a little Riot Act bump. It’s had three million streams since we put it up.”
“You recorded this at Wicked?”
“Yup. Wicked’s going to have a hard time arguing with the program’s success now. It’s pulling in ad revenues already.”
My head starts to spin and I reach for the wall to steady me.
“You okay?”
“I just signed a deal. Anything recorded by my kids in that studio until eight a.m. today is mine. Exclusively.”
His face splits into a grin. “Even better.”
“Todd’s going to freak,” Serena comments. “I don’t want to miss this.”
With a wink, she disappears down the stairs.
“Who’s Todd?” Jax mutters.
My mouth twitches. “No idea. I’m kind of preoccupied.”
Jax’s eyes darken, and I know what’s going through his mind when he says, “me too.”
20
“Hales? You here?” I call from the front hall.
I make my way to the master bedroom to find her rummaging in the closet.
I sneak a look at her cute ass in those jeans as she arranges clothes on hangers. Her hair’s up on her head in a bun, and I’m wondering if I can tug it out with one hand or if it’ll take two.
“I’m not sure about this ‘living in a hotel’ thing,” she tosses over her shoulder, oblivious to my thoughts.
“You were the one who wanted to sell your house. If you want to buy something new, we can swing it. Unless you’d rather sleep on the bus.”
“Definitely not. And since you’re keeping your house in Dallas, it seems crazy to have two.”
I grin. “Hales? I know people with ten.”
She shudders.
“Where’s Annie?”
“Out getting ready for dinner. With Tyler.”
My interest is officially piqued. Anytime my kid is safe and out of the house and Haley is here, I start to think of some really great ideas.
My gaze drops to the computer on the bed. “You were coding late last night. And again today.”
“Mhmm.” She turns back to me, lips curved in a knowing smile. “We have this new app—”
I cut her off with a kiss. “You can talk nerdy to me when my tongue’s inside you.” Without letting her go, I grab her computer and set it on the bedside table none too gently.
Her mouth falls open and I know she’s going to protest before she says a word. “Jax, we have an hour before the dinner meeting to talk about growing Big Leap Studio. Serena set it up, and the kids will be there, and—”
“And I’m not spending the hour between now and then hearing you talk about whatever you’re working on with Carter.”
I topple her onto the bed and she gasps, laughing. “I do not talk about Carter.”
“You’re not going to. That’s why we’re going to have this conversation when my tongue is inside you.”
“Good luck with that,” she says, but it’s breathy. “It’s going to take more than your sweet talk, Jax.”
“I know.”
I strip her shirt over her head, take a second to appreciate the satin of her bra underneath, then reach for my guitar case next to the bed. With a few quick moves, I unhitch the strap from the guitar and hold it out.
Her mouth forms an O. “What are you doing?”
“Wrists out.”
“Tell me this isn’t ending in a dungeon.”
“No dungeons. Just you and me.”
She complies, and that alone has me hard. I wrap the soft, wide strap around her wrists and pin them over her head. “Better.”
“If you say so.” The edge in her voice tells me she’s nervous. And excited.
I fucking love making her that way.
There’s nothing to prove with this woman, but I’ve got two years to make up for.
I take my time, skimming my hands over her curves. Unbuttoning her jeans and tugging them down so she’s in her underwear. Haley squirms but doesn’t move her hands. I hold her hips down on the bed.
Shit, I want to eat her alive.
“What are you doing?” she asks breathlessly.
I strip my shirt over my head, her dark eyes watching every move. “What does it look like?”
My jeans next. And my shorts.
She wets her lips. “I want to touch you.”
“No.”
Surprise has her blinking. “Jax?”
“Hales. Don’t make me tie you to the bed.” I shift over her, avoiding touching her flushed skin except where my lips meet her ear. “Because then we definitely won’t make dinner.”
I couldn’t care less about dinner. She’s a fucking buffet, and I want to savor every bite. So I do, starting with her lips.
I kiss her, my fingers threading in her hair. Her arms reach up, but I push them back down so all she can do is writhe against me.
Damn, I like that. My cock twitches against her thigh.
“Tell me how good it feels.” I move down to her neck, her shoulders. Light kisses punctuated with the scrape of teeth that make her shiver.
“It would be better if you were inside me,” she murmurs.
I suck her hard nipple through the thin lace of her bra, and she jerks against me. “That’s the point,” I groan.
“Of what?”
“You. Like this.”
“That you have to tie me up so we don’t both get what we want?”
I grin, because I love how smart and direct she is. Hell, I love everything about her as she lies on my bed, flushed and wanting and so damned real it makes me ache to think of her as mine. “Exactly.”
My hands move down, my mouth too, covering every inch of her. Memorizing her body. Until I’m between her thighs, and she moans when my tongue swipes over her clit.
“Jax.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Some people say don’t meet your heroes.” She pants the words. “I respectfully disagree.”
I chuckle as I move up her body, my gaze moving from her chest to her flushed face to the binding on her hands. I stroke a finger up her arm, and she shivers. I press the strap into the mattress over her head, and her chest rises.
“Me too. I love you, Hales.”
“I love you, Jax.”
I plunge into her and I’m lost. I pour everything I have, everything I am into her.
Because the thing is, she’s already all of it.
Epilogue
Haley
* * *
Three months later
* * *
“I can’t get it right,” I murmur to no one.
My fingers fly over the keyboard, making adjustments. I play the chorus again, closing my eyes and focusing on what’s streaming from the headphones.
Nope. DRE had it right the first time. I change it back.
Jax was right. Big Leap is a self-contained studio, and it took me two months to realize it. What’s amazing is that starting this fall, we can take it to a school or a library—anywhere really. But it’s still a tour bus. Which means spending too long on it can drive you crazy.
The tapping on my shoulder makes me jump.
“Sorry to scare you,” Annie says, her golden eyes lightening in surprise. “My dad’s looking for you.”
“
Oh.” I set the headphones around my neck. “And he didn’t come himself?”
She has a strange expression on her face. “He’s on his way. Just… be nice, okay?”
I’m completely confused as she wanders toward the front of the bus and drops into a seat with her cell phone in her hands. She sneaks a covert look at me.
I shake my head. I love working with kids, but they still stump me sometimes. “Hey, your mom’s coming up tomorrow, right?”
She nods. “For the weekend.”
Annie still calls Grace her mom and now calls Jax her dad. Is it weird? Sure. Aren’t all families?
Grace’s been visiting. She and Jax have issues, but they’re working through them.
We’ve been running a test of a summer program here. Forty kids get time each week in the bus.
The plan is to go back to Dallas in the fall and spend the school year there. We can take the bus to schools across the region, and I can continue to work on projects with Carter, remotely.
Annie’s made Jax swear to come back to Philly next summer.
Because in Annie’s words: Tyler.
In the past two months, Big Leap’s benefited from some news coverage after the single Jax helped produce went gold. That hit is paying for the costs of running the bus, and we worked with the legal team to make sure the kids get compensated through an education fund they can cash in at eighteen if they decide not to pursue school.
It helps that we’ve put out two more singles, both based on recordings I bought from Wicked, that have been remixed and mastered with the help of my program and Jax’s ear. One of them Lita even came in on.
When I told her what happened at Wicked, she dropped an interesting tidbit.
Apparently Todd hit on her when she recorded her last album.
And texted her constantly with some seriously inappropriate propositions after she told him to stop.
Now Wicked’s looking for a new head of production.
Motion in the corner of my eye snags my attention and has my stomach flipping as the sexiest guy on the planet climbs the steps.
“You texting Tyler again, squirt?” Jax murmurs to his kid.
“No.”
Which means yes.
In two weeks, Annie will be back to school. At least Jax’s concern about her finding friends in Philly seems to be ill-founded. Most nights he has to drag her home from hanging out with kids from school and from the studio. Like Tyler.
For all my insistence that he’s completely well-intentioned, I see how he looks at her when he’s teaching her to play guitar.
Jax thinks Annie will forget him three months after we’re back in Dallas.
I say we’ll be paying for him to fly in and visit by then.
“Hales?”
I set the headphones on the desk in front of me, leaning back to take him in. I don’t even notice what’s tucked under his arm, because he’s as beautiful as the first time I saw him. His body’s hard, lean. Amber eyes that convey way more than they should. A face sculpted from marble, with a mouth made for whispering secrets that make you wet.
He pulls the plexiglass door closed so it’s just us here in the studio. “How’s the track?”
“It’s driving me crazy,” I confess. “But I almost have it.”
He holds out the hoodie and the frustration melts away.
“You found it!” I gush. “I thought it got lost in the move.”
We’ve been back together for three months, and it’s better than I could’ve imagined. I love working with him. Even if he makes me want to tear my hair out sometimes. He’s beyond talented, and any arguments we have are always compensated for by the making up that happens after.
Jax drops onto an amp across from me, shoving the hair back from his face. “Maybe you should put it on.”
I take the hoodie, blinking at him.
That’s when I realize something’s tucked in the front pocket.
I go to pull it out when I notice Jax isn’t over me.
He’s at eye level.
On one knee.
My throat dries as I pull the box out of the pocket. “Jax…”
He takes it from me, holding it between us. “I never thought I’d find someone who makes me feel like you do. Someone who helped me believe I had a choice again. It doesn’t take a crowd to make me feel like a king. All it takes is you.”
“Jax…”
He shakes his head, but it’s the emotion on his face, the conviction on it, that shuts me up. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you. But I’m not questioning it anymore.”
His gaze drops to the sweatshirt but I can’t tear mine from him.
“Hales?”
“Yeah.”
“Read the sweatshirt.”
“It’s been three years,” I manage. “I think we’ve established I have no idea what you put on the damned sweatshirt.” But I force my gaze down to it and realize it’s embroidered. Black-on-black, nearly invisible, in script that matches his handwriting.
Marry me, Hales.
A gasp from behind me makes us both turn. The plexiglass door is wide open, and two sets of eyes are on us.
Tyler’s are amused, poking out from under his hair—which today is green.
Annie’s amber eyes are horrified. “You weren’t supposed to propose on the bus!”
“Why not?” Jax demands.
“It’s not every girl’s dream!”
“You have dreams of getting proposed to?” Tyler asks. Annie flushes, but Jax misses it. His attention is back on me.
“Hales, I’ll ask you anywhere you want. Every day for the rest of our lives. We need to have more kids. Cuz Annie’s old enough to babysit, so it’s cheap from here on in.”
“I heard that!” Annie gushes, then gasps. “Dad, she still didn’t answer.”
“Good point.” Jax shifts back on his heels, eyes intent on mine. He opens the box and lifts the ring.
It’s simple. One diamond in the center, blinking in the light from the window.
“Your move, Hales.”
I bite the side of my cheek as emotions rush through me.
Annie sighs. “Come on, Haley, don’t do this to him.”
“What am I supposed to say?”
He’s starting to look uncomfortable. “Yes would be a start.”
I pretend to consider it. “Well. I guess I’d better.” I lower my voice so only he can hear. “I mean, you’re Jax fucking Jamieson.”
Jax’s grin splits his face, and even before he slips the ring on my finger, I know I’ve done something right.
Jax
“I’m not sure why you wanted to drop me off. I have a car.”
I follow Haley through the carpeted halls of the campus building. “I felt like it.”
She peers through a doorway. “Hey, Carter.”
“Haley.” He comes into view.
Surrounded by books and computers and awards, Dr. Christopher Carter is shorter than I expected.
Which makes me inordinately happy.
His gaze drops, and he makes a noise in his throat. “You got engaged?”
“Last week. We’re moving to Dallas in the fall. Carter, this is Jax.”
I step up next to her, and he raises a brow.
“Jax. As in Jax Jamieson,” he says.
I grin. “Yeah. You’ve heard of me, Connor?”
“Carter.”
“Right.” I wrap my arm around her waist.
She checks her phone. “So I sent you the latest for our meeting today. Did you get the code?”
“Yeah.” But that blue gaze is squarely on me, as though he’s sizing me up.
Bring it.
“Does your boyfriend want to stay?”
“Fiancé. But he’s right, I gotta go, Hales. Shooting a clothing ad spot.” I pat my rock-hard abs through my shirt. “It’s hard to keep in shape after thirty, right? But they keep calling.”
“Uh-huh.” The other man shoves his hands in the pockets of his douchey tro
users.
“See you tonight.” I turn to Haley, tugging on her waist to bring her lips up to mine.
Her eyebrows shoot up, but she lets me kiss her.
At first.
Then she’s totally into it. She knows it’s bullshit, but she can’t stop her fingers from digging into my biceps. Just like I can’t stop the way holding her has blood rushing to my cock.
Before the situation can get too far out of control, I pull back.
She’s blinking and I’m a little dizzy too, but I keep it together.
Haley’s lips curve like she’s onto me, but she stifles a snort. “See you, Jax.”
“Later, Hales.” I turn for the door.
“Yeah. See you, Jax.”
I lift a hand over my head. “See ya, Connor.”
I shove my hands in my pockets and whistle as I start down the hallway.
Thank you for reading Wicked Girl! I hope you loved Jax and Haley’s story.
* * *
Are you hoping Serena lands a sexy stud of her own?
Wondering if she’ll get a HEA?
And most importantly…
Will Scrunchie approve?
* * *
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“This book is the definition of cool! One of my favourite new adult reads. Piper Lawson just became my new must-read author.” ~Bitches Who Brunch with Books
