by Lily Cahill
“And you’re here with …,” Ashley’s eyes flicked again to Jax. “Wow. Just … wow!” Ashley smiled almost rabidly and elbowed her husband again, who looked bored out of his mind.
“Tiff,” Jax said through a tight jaw. “Let’s go in.”
Tiff didn’t need to be told twice. She held up a hand in a limp good-bye to Ashley and let Jax lead her onward. She glanced back once, only to see Ashley typing away furiously on her phone.
A few yards up, Jax nodded toward a bouncer and pulled Tiff into the party.
The party planner had certainly gone all out. Little lights covered the ceiling overhead, bathing the whole place in warm yellow. There was an open fire pit in front of the DJ, and a dance floor surrounded by more torches. A long, wooden bar was packed with partiers and bartenders slinging specialty cocktails—a Firestarter heavy with bourbon, a Bonfire made with chocolate liqueur and topped with a roasted marshmallow, and a Deep in the Belly, the flaming shot.
“Jax! I was beginning to wonder if you’d show.”
Jax slipped his hand around Tiff’s and turned toward the sound of his name. Tiff had to fight back a grimace to see Derek ambling over, two cocktails in his hands. He handed one to Tiff.
“And this must be the chick who’s been stealing all our time with you.”
Chapter Thirteen
Jax
JAX BRISTLED AT THE WAY Derek called Tiff a “chick.” He barely held back a growl at the way Derek was looking at her.
Tiff, though, brushed it off. “This chick’s name is Tiff. And sorry about the Jax-stealing.”
Derek shrugged. “It’s not forever.” He smiled greasily at Tiff. “It’s not even for twenty-four more hours, actually.”
Tiff held up her glass in a mock toast. “Then here’s to a busy twenty-four hours.”
Jax couldn’t hold back the sneer in his voice. “Did you need something?”
Derek took his time slugging back the drink. “Just wanted to introduce myself.” His eyes roved over Tiff, and Jax pulled her closer, but he couldn’t protect her from leering looks, as much as he wanted. Derek smiled again, but his eyes remained cold, then he left them.
Tiff watched him go then set her drink down on the bar. “Okay, he definitely slips drugs into drinks, right?”
“He’s our new tour manager. Sorry about him.”
Tiff narrowed her eyes. “He hates you.”
Now that Tiff pointed it out, it seemed pretty obvious. But Jax had no idea why Derek couldn’t seem to stand him. He’d never done anything mean to the guy … well, except for slamming him against a wall. Jax shrugged. “I’m not his biggest fan either.”
Tiff spun away from the bar and grabbed Jax’s hands. “Forget him,” she said, a wicked glint in her eyes. “Let’s go show these fools how to dance.”
She tugged him into the throngs of people on the dance floor and then turned in a tight circle, her hips gyrating as she did. Jax growled out his pleasure to see her move like that and yanked her close. She kept moving her hips in those sensuous circles, and it was driving Jax wild. His hands roved over Tiff’s shoulders, her back, down to those amazing hips.
Tiff shimmied away for a moment, her breasts shaking, her shoulders wiggling, her mouth open in a loose laugh. She locked eyes with Jax—hers bright and wild and full of desire—and sauntered back to him. God, her confidence was sending him over the edge. His dick was already half-hard, and when she pressed her body up against him, his cock went taut as a metal rod and strained against his dark pants.
Tiff kissed Jax’s neck then pushed up onto her toes to flick her tongue against his ear. Her voice was hot and raspy against him. “I’m going to need two things from you, Jax.”
Jax groaned and whispered back. “Anything. You keep dancing like that, and I’ll give you anything in the world.”
He felt her smile against the side of his face and her fingers threaded up into his hair and held tight. She pulled him down toward her. “I need one of those flaming shots you promised. And then I need you to take all my clothes off.”
Jax held up his hand for the bartender and turned away to lean against the bar. His eyes locked on Tiff—even through the surging crowd of dancers out on the floor, he found Tiff easily. She was spinning and dancing, her arms up over her head and those hips working their sins. Jesus. He wanted her to bounce like that on his cock. He didn’t think he’d be able to make it back to her studio or his hotel room. He’d have to take her right there on the dance floor if she kept moving like that.
Two people suddenly obstructed his view. Jax shifted down the bar, his stomach tightening. Two large men were crowding Tiff, dancing up next to her like her body was theirs to claim. Tiff kept dancing, but her smile had faded, and her arms were tight to her sides. Anger surged through Jax as he straightened. The men closed in again, and for an awful second, Jax couldn’t see Tiff.
Then she was there, fighting to get through the crowd. But they all danced on, oblivious. She snarled something at one of the men, but it only made the asshole smile and share a look with his buddy, a giant of a man with buzzed black hair. Tiff shoved her way past them, but the smiling man reached out and snatched her arm.
And that was it. Jax strode toward the dance floor, upending a waiter’s drink tray as he went. He shoved his way through the crowd, not caring at all that he was causing a scene. A few days ago, he would have cared. His image was everything, and gossip could kill a band. Hell, they already had enough press with the constant partying. But right now, Jax didn’t give a shit. All he cared for was that Tiff was alone trying to fend off two brutes. They had their hands on her. They were breathing in her space.
That was going to end. Now.
“Hey,” Jax bellowed.
One of the guys—the smiling one—turned and raised his eyebrows. “I’m busy, dude.”
Jax growled and slammed his hands onto the guy’s shoulders, curling his fingers into the man’s shirt. Then in one powerful movement, he flung the man away. People gasped and jumped back, and the man landed with a heavy thud and a groan. Tiff scrambled to get behind Jax.
“What the fuck,” the second man shouted. He lunged for Jax, one bulging arm arced back in a monstrous punch.
Jax was ready. His entire body surged forward to meet the man’s fist. He batted it out of the way with his forearm and grinned to see the fear flare in the man’s eyes. The man backed up a step, but the three of them were circled within a wall of bodies. The man’s muscles jumped and flexed, and his entire body seemed primed to pounce again. Camera phones flashed, people in the back jumped up to see what was happening. Behind him, Jax felt three people step forward. His brothers came to flank him.
“I’d stand the fuck down if I were you,” Jax said.
“You’d better listen to the man,” Drew said evenly.
Next to him, Chase shrugged. “Or not. I don’t know about my brothers, but it’s been way too long since I’ve had a good fight.”
“Shut it, Chase,” Bret snapped.
The man looked between the four brothers, his eyes darting, but then he snarled and leapt forward. Jax stepped to the side in a single fluid movement and landed a quick, devastating punch straight into the man’s gut. He coughed and hit the ground, curling onto his side.
Jax’s vision cleared and he spun, suddenly consumed with a need to touch Tiff, to make sure she was okay. He ran his hands over her before landing on her face. She looked up at him with her brown eyes wide and her bottom lip pulled between her teeth. He cupped her face in his palms and tried to steady his racing heart.
“Are you okay, my love? Jesus, Tiff. If anything had happened ….” His words tumbled free, low and frantic. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
Tiff stilled. Her mouth fell open. Then she blinked rapidly and pulled away. She turned and ran through the crowd and into the night.
“Tiff!” Jax jogged through the people still waiting outside the boathouse to get in. They all stared. Jax spun in a circle, but Tiff
was gone. He raked his hands through his hair.
“She went that way, man,” a guy said, pointing into the woods, toward the lake.
Jax didn’t waste a second. He took off into the trees, weaving around sturdy oaks and toward the weeping willows at the lake’s edge. Where was she? Jax stopped, closed his eyes. He wasn’t in his bear form, but if he concentrated, he could utilize some of his bear senses.
An owl in the distance. The lap of water on the shore. A whispering breeze through the trees.
A woman crying.
Jax walked softly now, letting Tiff’s quiet cries lead him straight to her. He stopped at the edge of a tree, and there she was. She sat within the sheltering arms of a willow at the lake’s edge, the slender branches reaching all the way into the clear water. Her back was against the trunk, her knees pulled to her chest. Her shoulders hitched with each shuddering cry.
Jax slipped between the soft green willow branches and walked closer. Tiff jerked her head toward him and gasped.
“What are you doing here?”
Jax came closer and knelt on the ground at Tiff’s side. “I don’t make a habit of defending a woman’s honor and then letting her run off.”
“Why’d you do it?” Tiff said, her voice thick. She wouldn’t look him in the eyes. If only she would, then maybe she’d see exactly why he did it. Why he did everything. Because of her, always and forever for her.
“Those men, they were hurting you.” Just saying it made anger pulse hotly under Jax’s skin again.
Tiff finally looked up at him. “Not that. What you said, why would you do that to me, Jax? Your tour manager said all that needs to be said. You’re leaving tomorrow. And this …,” Tiff’s voice hiccupped, and she had to take a moment to breathe. “This will all be over. And you saying that is just mean. So damned mean.”
Jax couldn’t stand this distance between them. How could she not understand? He leaned in close to Tiff and pulled her hands away from where they clamped around her shins. He pressed kisses against her knuckles, her fingertips, the center of her palms.
“It wasn’t mean, Tiff. It was the truth.” She tried to protest, but Jax talked over her. “I love you, Tiff Anderson. I will love you every second of every day I have on this earth, and then I will love you beyond that.”
Tiff shook her head, trying to fend off his declaration. “We’ve known each other only a couple days.”
Jax clasped their hands together. She deserved the truth. All of it. He looked into her liquid eyes, his heart stuttering. “I told you about my father, that he … wasn’t a good man. I …,” Jax stopped, took a breath. How the hell did he explain all this? “He was a powerful man, a clan leader, and it twisted him into something horrible. He murdered people … women. And I—”
Tiff squeezed his hands, and it gave Jax courage. He squeezed back.
“I ran away from Montana to escape not just my father, but what I am, what my family is. But fate has a way of ….” Jax laughed. He both hated fate for what it did to his family and was indebted to it for bringing Tiff to him. “You can’t escape fate. And when it comes to you, I don’t want to. I want to run headlong wherever fate tells me when it comes to you.”
Tiff looked down at their joined hands, but didn’t say anything.
“Tell me you don’t feel this,” Jax whispered. He took Tiff’s hands and held them against his chest. “You do, I know you do.”
Tiff pulled one hand back to swipe at her eyes. “It doesn’t matter what I feel. You’ll be gone tomorrow, and … and I don’t want to think about after that.”
“No, I won’t be gone. My tour is almost over. You can come with me. I can’t promise you much. I don’t know where I’ll live after the tour. I don’t know what comes next. But I know I need you with me.”
“How do you know?”
Jax took a breath. It was now or never. This was Tiff’s chance to choose this life, to choose him.
“Because you’re my mate. I dreamed of you years ago when I came of age and have dreamed of you every night since, and now that I’ve found you I realize what true love really is.”
Tiff’s eyes had gone wide, and she licked at her lips. “I don’t understand.”
“You do. If you let yourself. My people … what I am ….” Jax’s voice had dropped low and soft. He ran a hand over Tiff’s silken hair and then pulled her hand again to his lips. “I kissed you here before, but in a different form.”
He silently willed her to put it together, to realize the truth. Tiff gasped, and her hand tightened within his own.
“The bear.”
Jax nodded.
“You’re a bear,” she whispered, like it was too preposterous to say loudly.
“We’re called shifters.”
Tiff nodded now. “My grandfather used to tell stories about your people. And … and stories about destiny, about mates.”
Jax looked deep into Tiff’s eyes. “You’re mine.”
Tiff breathed slowly, blinked at Jax, then a smile curled on her beautiful lips. “And I’m yours.”
Chapter Fourteen
Tiff
A BEAR! JAX HART WAS a bear! It made no sense, and it made perfect sense. Tiff had felt an odd connection to the animal she’d encountered in the woods, and now that Jax had revealed himself, it all seemed to fall into place. Plus, that explained how he’d known where she lived … because he’d followed her home in his bear form.
Jeez! His bear form. It was all so peculiar, but something about it just felt … right.
Tiff cleared her mind and focused on the man in front of her. The man who had confessed his love for her. No, not just that. He’d confessed that they were fated to be together. If someone had pulled Tiff aside three days ago and told her about this night, she would have died laughing, but now …. Tiff looked into Jax’s amazing gray-green eyes and saw the truth. She was his, and he was hers.
And there was no reason on this great earth that they should be so far apart. Tiff thrilled with an insatiable need—to feel Jax’s skin under her hands, his muscles bunching, the coarse, dark hair on his chest. They were still kneeling on the soft ground, and Tiff dove into Jax’s arms.
Her kiss was a supernova, and Jax responded. His hands ranged greedily over her skin, leaving trails of heat that made Tiff squirm with desire. More. She needed more. She needed everything.
Tiff fumbled with her clothes, kicking off her shoes and tugging open her pants. She was wet just with the promise of his fingers working inside of her, his cock stretching her wide and filling her up. Tiff groaned and reached for her top, but Jax growled.
“Stop,” he said.
Tiff whimpered in protest. She needed out of these clothes. Now. The faster she was, the faster Jax could kiss her everywhere.
Jax’s breathing was labored, and his eyes shone in the pearly moonlight filtering through the willow branches. He licked his lips slowly, then tugged his shirt off. God, he was perfect. His shoulders were broad and defined, his arms roped with muscle. Tiff ran her hand down the plane of his chest and played against his taut abs.
“Turn around,” Jax commanded.
Tiff bit her lip, but obeyed. She’d never liked being told what to do quite so much, especially when she knew what pleasure awaited her. She thought back to how he’d made her come so easily in the SUV, and she could barely wait for more.
Jax’s fingers slipped from the nape of her neck and down, down, down. He took his time undoing each button at the back of her silk shirt, until the garment hung off her shoulders. She felt a tug, then her bra released too. Jax’s wide hands spread out along her spine and wrapped around to her front, to her breasts. His fingers kneaded her for a moment, then he swirled in toward her nipples and pinched her.
Tiff gasped, her mouth open wide, and had to reach out to brace herself against the trunk of the willow tree. Jax covered her from behind, Tiff on her knees, and Jax’s body wrapped around her like a cocoon. He massaged her breasts, pinching and rolling her nipples u
ntil they were peaked and hard. She felt his cock press against her ass, and she arched against it. Jax thrust, grinding himself against her again and again. Tiff’s breath heightened, and she started moving with the motion. It was their own private dance.
Then Jax’s hand was moving. His mouth, too. He sucked at the back of her neck, at the juncture of her shoulder, his tongue hot and wandering across her skin. His fingers slid down her stomach and into her pants. And oh God, she was soaking wet. He slipped against her so easily. Tiff moaned and spread her knees wide. His fingers worked at her clit, teased at her pussy, before plunging deep into her. Tiff arched her back and keened loudly, and Jax responded at her ear, his voice deep and rich.
“God, Tiff. I love you so much,” he groaned.
Tiff couldn’t stand much more of this. She wriggled free and turned on her knees. “I love you too, Jax.” She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him deeply for one long moment, then she pulled back. “This is crazy, but I love you too.”
Wordlessly, she pushed him back until he was stretched out on the ground, propped up on his elbows. She smiled wickedly and tugged his pants down his legs, dragging his boxer-briefs with them. His cock was hard and stood tall. It was so long and thick, a mast rearing up from Jax’s amazing body.
Tiff licked her lips and reveled in the way Jax stared at her, his eyes wide and dark. Tiff wrapped her hand around his massive dick and stroked down the length of him. She hovered above him, her lips so close to his head. Slowly, she tongued the length of him, and he groaned loudly.
“Jesus, Tiff.”
Tiff smiled to herself and poised her mouth at the head of his cock. She met his eyes, then took him into her mouth. He was so big, not even half of him fit into her, but she sucked at him, pulling him as deep as she could go. She rolled her tongue and lapped at him, moving in a deliciously slow way up and down and up and down. She longed to give him even a tenth of the pleasure he was able to give to her. His cock shuddered in her mouth, and she could feel him tighten.
