The Jaxon Effect

by KC Michaels

  “No, you don't understand,” she tried to explain. “It’s not like that.”

  The look on his face told her that he didn't believe her. He probably thought she was a stalker. “Steven and I went to college together,” she explained further. “I really need to get in touch with him.”

  “As I said sorry doll rules are rules.”

  Kate snapped. “Look buddy, I told you I'm a doctor, not a doll. Please stop calling me that!”

  He held up his hands in mock self-defence. “Okay then, doctor. I’m a little busy here, so you can order a drink or let me get back to my job.”

  Resigning to the fact that she would probably have to speak to Jaxon—even though she was hoping not to—she exhaled in frustration. “No, I don’t want a drink. What I want is to find out how I can reach Steven and, since you won't tell me, tell me where I can find Jaxon. Is he in his office?”

  “Mr. Remington is busy and can't be disturbed.” His answer was quick, too quick.

  “Of course,” she said feeling more and more frustrated. “Listen, I really just need to get in touch with Steven. If you won’t help me and you won’t tell me where I can find your boss then I insist you at least tell Mr. Remington I'm here. Tell him Kate Sims needs to speak with him.”

  The bartender's expression changed from irritation to amusement. “I'm sorry dol—I mean doc—I can't do that.”

  She didn't appreciate the way he said “doc”, putting far too much emphasis on the hard “C”. But it was better than doll.

  “Fine,” she retorted, putting emphasis on the “F”.

  “Is Six Pack around?” she asked, hoping he would remember her from the other night because she was running out of options. She might be able to convince him to let her speak to Jaxon.

  “Yes, there are a few ladies ahead of you but I can add your name to the list. Do you want a slow dance or lap dance?”

  “Excuse me?” Kate climbed off the stool, putting her hands on her hips defensively “What the hell are you talking about?”

  The bartender’s amusement had worn off; now he was just annoyed. “Look lady, as you can see this is a busy place. I have lots of customers who are waiting for drinks. Now do you want your name on the list or not? And just so you know payment is collected up front.”

  It took her a minute but she finally realized what was going on. She had to pay money to dance with Six Pack otherwise she wouldn’t be able to speak with him at all. Realizing that this was probably her only option, she pulled out her wallet. “How much?”

  “That depends, is it a lap dance or a slow dance?”

  She held her tongue between her teeth as she begrudgingly but finally answered him. “Since I have no intention of doing either, just give me the cheaper one.”

  “Fifty dollars.”

  “What? That’s highway robbery!”

  The bartender obviously had enough and started to walk away. Kate pulled out a fifty and slammed it on the bar. “I'll wait over here,” she muttered, pointing to an empty table against the wall.

  With a shrug, he snatched up the bill and gave her a clip board and a pen. “Put your name down here and we’ll find you when it’s your turn.”

  “Great you do that,” she said sarcastically.

  Kate sat idle, waiting, for what seemed like forever. Her watch told her it had only been fifteen minutes. The bathroom sounded like a good plan to pass some time. She was one of those people who could always go. The last time she was in that bathroom she’d been with Jaxon and he’d kissed the daylights out of her. This time she wouldn’t have to worry about that happening. She wouldn’t be surprised if he actually knew she was there and he was hiding in his office purposefully to avoid her.

  Jaxon was sitting in his office trying to make sense of the balance sheets in front of him, but it wasn’t working out. He could not get Kate Sims out of his head. This was such bullshit! He never had trouble focusing on business. It was his life, all he ever worried about until recently.

  He went out into the main area where the customers were. There was a nice crowd for a Monday night. Normally that would have made him smile, but at the moment he really didn't care. He checked the bar area and saw Trent, his bartender for the past five years, serving up a tray to one of the waiters. A line was forming for drinks and Trent had his hands full filling orders for the wait staff. Jaxon removed his jacket and rolled up his sleeves.

  He had already served ten or twelve drinks when Six Pack appeared at the service entrance of the bar.

  “Hey boss man.”

  “What do you need Six Pack?” He was not in the chatty mood.

  “Can you check the list for my next customer?”

  “Sure.” Jaxon picked up the clipboard and the colour drained from his face.

  What the hell? Kate Sims was next on the list. He scanned the bar, but he couldn’t see her.

  “Trent, did you talk to this woman?”

  Trent checked the name on the list. “Yeah, pain in the ass too. She's sitting over there.”

  He pointed to the table against the wall and was surprised when he saw it was empty. “Well she was over there. Maybe she went to the ladies room. I collected from her up front, because she seemed like a bit of a head case, I'm sure she can’t be too far.”

  Jaxon saw red. He was pissed with a capital “P”. He rambled off the name of the person on the list—after Kate’s—to Six Pack. That lady was a regular so Six Pack would be able to find her easily enough. Jaxon dropped the clipboard and grabbed fifty bucks from the till. There was no way in hell she was going to get that dance, not in his club.

  ***

  CHAPTER 10

  She didn't have to see him to know he was there; she instantly felt his presence. Straightening her shoulders she drew a deep breath and peeked at the mirror. He was standing right behind her. He looked so deliciously good in his grey suit pants with a black collarless shirt, his sleeves rolled up. She did however notice slight differences in him. His eyes were weary as if he hadn’t slept in days and they were also angry. Angry and weary eyes that were directed at her.

  “Jaxon hi!”

  His eyes dropped with the sound of her voice and she followed them. He was holding a fifty dollar bill between his thumb and forefinger.

  “Take your money and leave,” he snapped, and his voice was so cold it caused the hair on the back of her neck to stand.

  “Jaxon you don't understand. I'm only here to—”

  “Just get out,” he demanded, dropping the bill on the floor before he stormed off.

  Kate stared at the fifty dollar bill on the floor. She wasn't sure what she did to make him so angry but she wasn't going to stick round and find out. She knew she shouldn’t have shown up there in the first place but still, she was stricken by how cold he was toward her. As much as she wanted Steven's number, she wasn't going to stick around where she wasn't wanted

  From the corner of his eye, Jaxon watched Kate walk out the door. He wanted to go after her; stop her from leaving, but he didn’t. He’d been too harsh with her. After all, he didn't own her. When he slept with her he made sure she knew that it was a one shot deal, she would have no further claims on him. He wasn’t expecting that he would be the one to feel possessive. Why did he lose it when he saw that she wanted a lap dance from Six Pack? It was another man, that's why. The thought of another man touching her, of her looking into another man's eyes when she came, crying out another man’s name, one that was not his; it made him feel sick. What the hell was wrong with him?

  It was best to let her go. There was no point in apologizing because he would never have to see her again because surely she wouldn’t be back any time soon. Even if he was willing to give things a try, it was quite fucking clear to him—after what had just happened—where it would all end up. Eventually she’d be on her back with another man on top of her. After all, she’d moved on to Six Pack pretty quickly.

  Jaxon went back behind the bar and poured himself two fingers of whisky. He t
ossed it back. He poured himself a second glass and tossed it back just as quickly as the first.

  “Hey, what's going on with you?” Trent asked because he rarely ever saw his boss drink.

  “Nothing!” Jaxon barked back.

  Trent got the message to back off.

  There were things Jaxon knew about himself that he was certain most people would never accept. Hell, he couldn’t even accept them most days. His dark past made it impossible for him to see a bright future and a woman like Kate. She deserved much more than a detached, controlling, workaholic who associated physical pain with self-control who also had the genetic DNA of a madman which made him dangerous. That was what Jaxon kept telling himself, even as he stood in front of Kate's front door with Steve’s phone number in his hand. Maybe it would be better to leave the number in the mailbox, rather than give it to her in person.

  A few hours earlier, Trent had knocked on his office door to do a money drop in the safe. Since Jaxon had been helping him behind the bar, Trent asked him if he had taken any money out of the till—he was fifty dollars light. That was when he found out he had jumped to conclusions. He treated her like shit.

  The doorbell interrupted Kate's internal rant. Her first mistake was opening the door without checking the peephole. If she had, her whole night might have turned out differently—she might not have answered it. Standing there, as gorgeous and sexy as ever, was the last person she wanted to see.

  “What do you want, Jaxon?”

  “Before you slam the door in my face, we need to talk. I need to apologize.”

  “More apologizing, go figure,” she replied dryly.

  He slipped past her and into the house.

  “I don't remember inviting you in,” she said, pointedly.

  “Yeah, well after how I treated you, I highly doubt that you would have.”

  “So you think it’s okay for you to just invite yourself in?”

  “Look, I'm sorry about earlier. Please, let me explain. I really need you to hear me out.”

  “Oh really,” she replied. “Like how you let me explain why I was at the club?”

  “I know I was a dick and I'm sorry. Here,” he said, holding a yellow post-it-note out in front of her.

  “What's this?” she asked, looking at the yellow piece of paper.

  “Steven's contact information.”

  She snatched the paper from his hand and then gestured to the open door. “Now you can get the hell out of here.”

  “Not even a thank you,” he said as he made himself comfortable on her sofa.

  Kate gave him the most exasperated look she could muster. “Are you kidding me? After how you treated me, you expect me to thank you. That’s pretty rich.” She crumpled up the yellow paper and threw it at him. “Like I said…get out!”

  She was really pissed now; he could see it. Again he couldn’t avoid noticing the puffy circles around her eyes. She had been crying again.

  “Kate, I'm really sorry about earlier. I misunderstood the situation, but even then, I never should have jumped to conclusions.”

  “No you shouldn't have! I'm not sure what kind of bimbos you’ve slept with in the past, but I assure you, I was not there looking for more of what we did the other morning. I heard you loud and clear when you said it was a onetime thing. I was just looking for some damn information—nothing more and nothing less. Anyway, I am not going to waste any more of my time explain this to you. Please, just leave.”

  She sounded desperate, maybe tired and a bit broken. It tugged at a place in his heart he didn't think existed any longer, almost like her hurt caused him to hurt.

  What was he saying? He’d lost that part of himself when he was just twelve years old and both of his parents had died. He had to be feeling something else? Guilt? Yeah, that was it. He felt guilty for what he had said to her earlier; how he’d treated her. He couldn't, however, shake the nagging feeling that something else was wrong and it bothered him more than he cared to admit.

  He went to the door, but instead of leaving he pushed it closed.

  “Kate, what's going on?”

  “You were supposed to be on the other side of the door when you closed it,” she said dryly.

  Something was eating away at her. He just knew. She was trying to hold it all together, but clearly she was hanging on by a thread. He let out an exasperated sigh and pulled her into a hug. He should have left but something was forcing him to stay and comfort her. His mind told him one thing but his body did something else entirely, as if he had no control over it at all. This was not how he did things. He never made decisions based on emotion.

  She should have held her ground and forced him out the door, but she didn't. Instead she allowed herself to be cocooned in his embrace where she buried her head in his chest and let go of everything she had been holding in since he darkened her door, and then some. He didn't say anything as he rubbed her back and rocked her gently. He kissed the top of her head, probably because he felt sorry for her. He must have thought she was some kind of head case. Still, she didn't want to pull away. She actually felt safe in his arms. She felt protected, like he was her knight in shining armour but she knew that wasn't real.

  “I'm sorry,” she said. “You can let me go now.”

  Jaxon frowned. “Okay,” He backed away from her to give her some space. “Do you want to tell me what's going on?”

  His voice was tender and she knew that his concern was genuine; genuine concern— another contradiction. He was making her crazy, and she never knew what was what with him. She decided she might as well tell him. There really was no reason not to.

  “We should sit,” she said, motioning toward the couch.

  She was about to sit in the chair across from the couch when he grabbed her hand and pulled her onto the couch beside him. She didn't make an issue of it. If she was honest with herself, she liked being near him. He had been a complete ass when he’d ordered her out of his club—thinking that she was breaking their deal by hunting him out—maybe there was some truth in it. Maybe she didn’t need to go around acting like a detective. The police were more than capable of tracking Steven down without her help.

  Jaxon watched and waited while Kate struggled with her thoughts.

  “Why do you need to contact Steven?”

  She took a deep steadying breath and began to tell him the events that led up to her visit to the club. Once she was done she felt an immense weight lifted off her shoulders.

  “Fuck!” Jaxon stammered as he ran his hand through his thick black hair. “I should have taken that guy down when he was here the other morning. I had a bad feeling about him. I knew there was something wrong.”

  “Yeah, well at least you didn’t wait two days before you checked on your best friend only to find her bleeding out on her bedroom floor.”

  “Kate, listen to me. That wasn’t your fault. You had no way of knowing what happened.”

  “I should have never left her. It was my responsibility to make sure she arrived home safely and if Steven hadn't driven her home, maybe this wouldn't have happened. Kenny wouldn't have had any reason to be jealous and he wouldn't have tried to kill her.”

  “You don’t know that for sure Kate.”

  She was crying hard again, her words barely audible. Jaxon pulled her into his arms and let her cry into his chest. Her tears finally subsided and he could hear her breathing become even again.

  “I'm sorry,” she said. “I’ve cried all over you.”

  The evidence was a big patch of wet on his shirt. “It's okay. I'm not going back to work tonight.”

  She jumped to her feet in a panic. “What time is it?”

  “It's almost eleven. Why?”

  “Shit! I need to call the hospital. Jade should have woken by now.”

  Kate ran to get her cell phone from her purse; she dialled the number and disappeared into another room.

  Forty minutes went by and there was still no sign of Kate. Jaxon decided he should go make sure s
he was okay. He hoped she hadn’t got bad news from the hospital. Her bedroom door was closed, so he knocked lightly. There was no response. He pushed open the door and found her lying on her bed; her eyes were closed. Her face was a red blotchy mess and she was holding a crumpled wad of tissue in her hand. She had cried herself to sleep and, as he watched her, he felt that unwanted tug at his heart again. This time he couldn't pin it on guilt. This situation had nothing to do with him. Shit.

  Seeing a blanket at the end of her bed, he picked it up and covered her with it. What he should have done next was make sure her house was locked up and go home, but he didn't. Instead, he took off his shoes and lay down beside her.

  A short while later, Kate woke up next to him; panicked, disoriented and unsure of what was happening.

  “Shhh, it's okay. Kate, it's just me.”

  She didn’t answer him, but she settled.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “She's in a coma,” Kate whispered, not having much of a voice left.

  “I'm sorry,” His voice was gentle.

  He wanted to take it all away; take away her pain, but he felt powerless to do so. Powerlessness—that was another feeling he hadn't felt in a long, long time. He never allowed himself to be in a position where he wasn’t in complete control.

  “Hey,” he said. “Look at me.”

  Kate opened her eyes. He cupped her chin and brushed his thumb over her cheek, across her lips. She looked so innocent, so sad, and so kissable. He placed a light kiss on her forehead.

  “I want to make your pain go away for a little while,” he said, so softly she barely heard him. “Will you let me?”

  She nodded in agreement.

  “Lie back,” he instructed and she did.

  Jaxon pressed his lips to hers but rather than claim her hard, like he really wanted to, he was gentle and slow. She needed it that way, he could sense it. He slowly pushed his tongue past her lips to taste her mouth completely. Her lips were so soft. She was so soft, sweet, and compliant. Her taste was like ambrosia and he couldn’t get enough. He wanted to explore every inch of her. He wanted more, so much more of her, and for some reason he needed to feel an even deeper connection. He needed to devour her, not only for her sake, but for his too. He broke the kiss, gazing down at her with a fire in his eyes. After a few moments of complete silence, he finally spoke.