By the time she’d finished with her visits, Ivory’s back hurt and feet felt ballooned. On weary legs, she dropped her files off at her desk and checked in with Claire. “Hey, things seem on the up and up.”
Claire waved her inside the small office, and Ivory sank onto one of the wood chairs, rubbing the small of her back. Claire frowned at her. “You didn’t overdo it, did you?”
Ivory shrugged her boss’ concerns away and ran a hand back through her hair. “I’ve still got two houses to do, but I’ll get a hold of them tomorrow. I’ve got to go meet Jax. Said something is up.”
Claire signed off on Ivory’s reports and handed them back over. “When you go to the Miller house, be careful. Desiree has trouble out there.”
Ivory heeded the warning, filing it away for later. Her mind was already halfway to Manchester and Jax.
* * * *
The sound of Jax’s fists as they connected with the punching bag were drowned out by the hardcore music belted over the sound system he’d had installed when he built the room. His side ached, but only when he did too many abdominal workouts.
He’d settled on the bag and jump rope for his routine and finished the cardio portion. Now, he took out his frustrations with life on the bag. The thing would quit and give up soon.
He didn’t hear the door open or see the reflection in the mirrors as he pounded the heavy, black vinyl tube. Only the faces, the sounds of death filled his mind. When he got in the zone, he stopped feeling the rigors on his body, and instead, exhausted the pain he kept inside. The nameless murderers the BPD never caught. The ones who’d taken the one thing he lived for. His parents.
When the harsh sounds of electric guitars and screams stopped, Jax blinked, and caught the bag as it swung toward him. He wiped his dripping forehead with a gym towel. Ivory and Cecilia stood in the doorway to his private workout area.
“Hey. So, you’ve met,” he said.
Ivory, shorter than his goddaughter by two inches or so, stepped onto the padded floor. “We’ve met. Would you like to explain this?”
Her tone conveyed her slight anger, but Jax wasn’t in the mood to spar with her. “My goddaughter, Cecilia. Cecilia, this is, er, Ivory.”
“I know her name,” Cecilia said. “Who is she?”
Ivory crossed her arms over her chest and rounded on the teenager. Jax hid a smile behind his gym towel, the stench of sweat and blood making him grimace. “Don’t piss her off.”
“Jax and I haven’t decided yet what we are to each other.”
Ivory kept her voice level, but Jax could see the curiosity flame beneath her aloof posture. “Ivory is the mother of my child.”
Cecilia’s eyebrows shot so far up her forehead, Jax thought she’d be tweezing the edge of her hairline for the next month. Her mouth gaped open. “You got her pregnant? Where’s the kid?”
Jax shut the lights off, ushered the two women out, and herded them toward the living room. “Cecilia, please show your elders respect.”
The teenager wrinkled her nose. “She’s not my elder. You’re my elder. She and I are practically the same age.”
“Hardly,” came Ivory’s tart reply.
“Retract the claws, ladies,” he muttered. “Ivory, in my office. Now.”
Jax felt the testosterone in his blood rise when he finally had Ivory all to himself. She closed the door behind her, her eyebrow arched at him. “Thought I wasn’t allowed in here.”
“The walls are soundproof,” he muttered seconds before shoving her back against the door and going straight for her lips. He gulped in her essence, her taste, like a starved lion. “I missed you.”
He felt her breasts through her thin shirt, and his cock came to life. Her giggle clouded his head. “We shouldn’t do this.”
“Why not?” He went in for another kiss.
She inserted her finger between their mouths, pressing against his lips. “Because, first, I want to know who she is, and second, I still have to go get Ashley before six. And, as much as I want you inside me”—her voice grew husky—“I can’t lose track of time.”
Jax threaded his fingers through her hair, slid his lips over her jaw, down her neck. “Just a little taste?”
Ivory shook her head. “Later, but I can do something for you,” she whispered against his ear. The tingle that rocketed through his body shot straight to his balls. He felt them quiver in anticipation as her small hands pulled his sweats down. His dick was eye level with her face, and Ivory gave him a wicked smile before her painted lips wrapped around the head.
She swirled her tongue over the weeping slit, and Jax nearly lost his balance. He leaned a palm against the door, watching as she drug her nails down the length of his shaft while she worked her tongue over, then under it. He felt points of pleasure-pain when she nipped the soft flesh, cupping his balls. Jax saw stars.
“Easy, babe.” He panted. “There is such a thing as too much.”
Her giggle vibrated against the hardened flesh, and Jax squeezed his eyes shut. She used her hands to stroke him while her teeth continued to nibble. Her tongue licked, and she relaxed her throat for a deeper connection.
Her hand pulsed in time with her heated sighs and nips, creating a haze of lust so dark and powerful, Jax strained for the release. The threat of her delay hung over his head as she slowed her pace, left him hanging. “Ivory,” he growled.
With one hard pull of her heavenly muscles, swirl of her tongue, Jax’s balls exploded in a volcanic firestorm so intense he bit the inside of his cheek, tasting blood. She sucked him dry, took every last drop of semen from his body while she continued to stroke and soothe him with cool breath on the flared head. Tears converged behind his eyelids. Damn, the woman had a mouth on her.
When she released him, Jax stumbled back into a chair, dazed. “Come here.”
She bent over to kiss him on the cheek. “I have to go pick up Ashley.”
“Wait, I need you to stay with me until Luke comes to get Cecilia,” he breathed out. “Two days, max. And it’ll be a trial run, see how we operate together.”
A dimple appeared in her cheek. “Oh? Well, I’d have to bring Ashley with me.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to leave her behind,” he said in a dead-serious tone. “Just stay with me, in my house, for two days. See how it goes.”
Ivory jangled her keys against her thigh, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “I have to think about it.”
“You do that.”
She shut the door behind her, and Jax sank farther into the chair, a stupid grin on his face, but when the high from her gift receded, he remembered his promise to himself. He wouldn’t put her in a place to be continually hurt.
“Cecilia!”
Jax threw a T-shirt on over his naked stomach and sat down behind his desk, pulling up his welcome screen. She opened the door, a frown on her lips. “You actually think I want to come in here now?”
Jax felt thunder darken his mood. “Sit down.”
She sat across from him, staring at her nails while Jax typed his password in. “Ivory is going to be a guest in my house, and while you are here, I expect you to treat her with respect.”
“Jax, that woman is not for you.”
He jerked his eyes away from his email and studied the girl across from him. Oh, Christ. “Ivory is someone important to me, Cil.”
Her amber eyes softened. “She’s going to hurt you.”
A bark of laughter escaped his throat. “Kid, you don’t know the first thing about relationships between men and women.”
Her saddened expression told him he’d hit a nerve, and Jax backed up. “Well, anything about Ivory’s and mine,” he corrected himself. An email from Mickey caught his attention. “Just cut her some slack. She’s going to be staying here.”
He clicked on the link and scanned the contents of the articles and documents Mickey forwarded to him. The series of information came so fast at Jax, he had a hard time comprehending the implications. Mickey spoke with Christian
about the approximate time of conception for Ashley, and the guy wasn’t even in the country.
Mickey sent scanned copies of his boarding pass and itinerary for his trip to Rome with his wife and parents. They’d spent two weeks in Rome and another two weeks in Amsterdam. The report was far from finished, but Mickey’s thoroughness about Christian Jacob’s whereabouts left no question in Jax’s mind. Mary never conceived Ashley with the man. Jax sat back in his chair, studying the information.
Cecilia cleared her throat. “I assume you called my dad?”
Jax passed the phone over to her. “Call your mother, tell her you’re all right.”
She grumbled about it, but Jax already jumped right back into the information. If Christian didn’t deposit his little swimmers for use, then who did? He retrieved a calendar for the time frame, listed known contacts and customers during the window of time the egg danced with the sperm.
As he looked over the list of names and associates, Jax’s blood froze in his veins. Holy fuck. Jax’s vision bled red at the possibility that niggled at his mind. “I’ll be damned.”
* * * *
When Ivory arrived home with Ashley in tow, silence filled the usually bustling house. “Anyone home?”
Nana appeared at her call, her hair done up and her best Sunday dress on. “Wow, Nana. Look at you, all gussied up.”
Nana patted her hair, and checked the delicate lace, egg shell piece. “You think so?”
Ivory sat Ashley on the floor and inspected her nana. “So, what’s the occasion?”
When Nana’s cheeks heated up, Ivory knew she’d missed something. “What’s going on?”
Mickey followed suit, his face clean shaven. Ivory’s mouth went dry. Who knew the man actually had a chin? “Big day.”
Ivory shed her jacket, picked Ashley up off the floor before she managed to wiggle away. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Mickey winked at her before he took Ashley out of her arms. Nana took her by the wrist, and led her up the stairs to her bedroom. She grew more suspicious of the quiet each stair they climbed and practically pounced on her elderly grandmother when they reached the top.
“Now, come on, Cha-Cha. I’ve got something to tell you.”
Out of nowhere, doom seemed to hang on her shoulders. “Nana, what did you do?”
When they seated themselves on a bench along the upstairs hallway, Ivory turned to face her elderly grandmother. “You know, it’s time you started considering what you’re going to do, Ivory. I see how much you love Jax. Why don’t you just tell him?”
Whoa. Ivory instinctively covered her stomach with her hands, as if to protect herself and her child. “It’s not that simple, Nana.”
“Sure it is, because now that I’m married to Mickey, you’re gonna need to find a home of your own.”
Ivory shot to her feet and paced the length of the hall. “You got married?”
“Calm down, honey. I’m telling you now,” Nana said.
“That’s a little quick, don’t you think?” She felt lightheaded and stopped to sit down on the bench. Blood rushed in her ears, and dots danced in front of her eyes. Nausea coated her stomach and throat in threat.
“Not so quick for us older folks.”
Ivory’s eyes swam with tears. “Oh, Nana. If you’re happy, I’m happy, but, wow.”
Nana’s blue eyes misted, and Ivory embraced her grandmother’s birdlike body. She rocked her slightly as the realization dawned on her things had changed. The entire time Ivory lived with her nana, a man never entered the picture. Now, with Nana married and Ivory with children of her own, she couldn’t stop the change or the resistance she felt to it.
“You owe Jax,” Nana whispered. “I owe him, too.”
“I don’t owe Jax a darn thing,” Ivory muttered. “If anything, he owes me for the weeks of morning sickness.”
Nana’s chuckle became garbled in Ivory’s hair, but the small laugh appeased some of the ache in her heart. “So, what do we do now?”
Nana shrugged, pushing strands of hair away from Ivory’s face. “I think it’s time you got yourself a healthy dose of reality, baby girl. Jax is a good man. He will take care of you. Stop fighting him.”
“I don’t know how,” Ivory admitted. “I feel like if I surrender to him, I lose myself somehow.”
Nana planted a kiss on her cheek and folded her hands over Ivory’s. “What you and Jax have, even an old woman can see. It only comes once in life, Cha-Cha. Don’t let it go out of stubbornness.”
Her grandmother left her alone, and Ivory sat on the bench, thinking about what Nana had said, trying to swallow the news of her marriage. Jax’s goddaughter didn’t like her, and Nathan disappointed her. The only people she could rely on to stay the same were Ashley and Jax. Even Jenny started acting weird after Christmas Eve.
When she finally got her bearings back, Ivory stood and made her way down the stairs. Her phone flashed to let her know she’d missed a call, and when she checked the number, her brow pulled down in concern. “Huh.”
“What?” Mickey asked.
“Nothing. Oh, congratulations,” she said, and gave him a hug. “Grandpa.”
Mickey’s laughter lifted her spirits, and Ivory set about packing Ashley’s things. “Where are you headed?” Mickey asked.
“Well, since you and Nana obviously deserve a night alone, and Jax has an unruly teenager at his house, I figure I’ll get out of your hair and kill two birds with one stone.”
“Cecilia,” Mickey said.
“Yes. Know her?”
“She’s a brat.”
Ivory chewed on her lip while she shoved diapers and night clothes into Ashley’s diaper bag. “Maybe. I don’t know her well enough, but she sure as hell doesn’t like me.”
Mickey bent over to kiss Ashley’s head while he tucked her into her winter suit. “Don’t let her get to you. She’s got some issues, and she’s protective of Jax.”
“I noticed.”
Before she left, Ivory hugged Nana and kissed Mickey’s cheek again. She realized Nana’s marriage would be a good thing. Even if she did have to move out to give them space. Besides, a twenty-something woman shouldn’t be living at home anymore anyhow. She checked her phone when it started buzzing against her hip.
She strapped Ashley in. “We’re going to spend a couple of days with Uncle Jax, but before that, would you like to go see Nathan? Huh? Would you?”
Ashley’s giggle made her smile, but the constant buzz of her phone distracted her. What could Nathan want so late that could be so important?
Chapter Sixteen
Barely backed out her parking spot, Ivory felt the damn phone start to ring again. She ripped it from her belt loop and flipped it open while trying to drive in reverse.
“Ivory Black.”
“We’ve got a situation.”
Nathan’s rambling voice came over the line, and Ivory felt the sense of urgency hidden in the quiet tones. She told him she’d be there as soon as she could, and Ivory didn’t lie. She drove straight to Jax’s house. She banged on the door, and Cecelia jerked it open.
“Jax is in the shower,” Cecelia said. “Is that Ashley?” She rolled a tootsie pop between her teeth.
Ivory barged her way in the door out of the cold and made a beeline for the living area. She undid Ashley’s bundles of clothing and laid her on the floor with a few toys. Satisfied with Ashley for the moment, Cecelia didn’t bother Ivory, and it gave her the chance to talk to Jax.
She rushed up the stairs, taking them two at a time. She marched right into the bathroom in the master bedroom. Steam hit her in the face. “Jax.”
“Ivory?” His bellow roared over the sound of the dual showerheads.
“I’ve dropped Ashley off downstairs, but I have to go into the station. They’ve got a situation.”
Jax slid open the door so he could look at her. Soap bubbles clung to his nose. Ivory loved the smell of his soap. “Can’t they call someone else?” he asked.
/> “Nathan called. It’s not every day the Chief of Police calls on a situation.”
Jax nodded. “Give me a minute. Don’t leave yet.”
Ivory knew better than to ignore Jax’s orders, but the adrenaline rushed through her body, and she couldn’t wait. She instructed Cecelia to watch Ashley until Jax came downstairs, and she tore out of his driveway like bat out of hell. When she finally reached the station, she was directed to Gloucester.
The policeman on duty at the desk gave her the information, but Ivory already knew where she headed. It was one of the other houses she had on her list to check today, and she had put it off. She didn’t get a chance to go out there because Jax had issues he needed her help with. Big help she turned out to be.
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