When one of his hands gripped the bottom of my dress and pushed it up my thighs, I froze. He pulled back, his eyes darting back and forth between mine. “Talk, baby.”
He couldn’t see them.
I met his confused gaze. “You—you can’t take the dress all the way off.” I dragged the right side of my dress down over the damaged skin on my thigh.
He nudged my lips with his nose before moving in to kiss me. “Don’t need it off. Just need it up.” He moved his hand to cover mine.
My breath caught when he focused on my right leg. “Jaxx—”
Meeting my gaze, he palmed my cheek with his free hand. “Hon, the lights are barely on. I can’t see anything. All night long, your soft skin’s been driving me fuckin’ insane. Will you let me touch you?”
It was a question, but not . . .
And I couldn’t bring myself to stop him. When I lightened my grip on the dress, he moved his hand down just above my knee to the end of the scar. With two fingers, he traced the path of it up around my inner thigh to where my hand rested on top of my dress, stopping his progress. He repeated the motion over and over, his eyes never leaving mine, until I grew comfortable with his touch.
I studied his face, watching his eyes, paying attention to any sign of disgust or repulsion, but I saw nothing. Nothing except the hungry look he’d had before he laid a hand on me.
“Most of us have scars, baby—some of us wear ‘em on the outside, and others on the inside. This isn’t who you are.” He kept up the slow, languid trail along my damaged skin. Each time he came to the top of my inner thigh, he inched a little farther up, under my hand. “It doesn’t define you or impair how gorgeous you are to me. Life happened and it left its fuckin’ mark. Happens to the best of us.”
He ran the thumb of his other hand along my cheek as he spoke, and his voice worked like one hell of a muscle relaxer, because I finally let out the breath I’d been holding and rested both hands on his chest, allowing him full access to me.
With a flick of his wrist, he flung the sides out so the dress hung over my hips, exposing the damp black lace covering my cleft.
Running a finger over his wet lip, I leaned into him, brushing my lips teasingly over his, until he groaned and pulled me against him.
“You feel so goddamn good, sugar.” He emphasized the words by pushing his rigid shaft right up against my throbbing slit.
Everything in me craved him and I couldn’t settle down. I set my forehead against his. “Wait,” I huffed, yet couldn’t help digging my fingers into his shoulders.
“Get out of your head, baby.” Putting his hands on my hips, he scooted me back a little, creating enough space to get his hand in between us. “Kiss me,” he demanded before wrapping my hair around his fist and pulling my face to his.
I tilted my head and slammed my lips over his, because he wasn’t wrong. My head was my worst enemy. I sucked his bottom lip between mine until he opened and met my tongue with his. He seduced my lips, my mouth, skillfully teased his tongue in and out in a way that made me yearn for a different kind of slide in a different place.
The hand in my hair tightened. I opened wider for him, took him inside me and savored the taste of him—chocolate and cream, he tasted of chocolate and cream.
The slight brush of his finger over my clit had me jerking up fast and pushing my hands against his shoulders. A tempered breath tickled my cheek in a long rush as he used my hair to pull my forehead to his.
“Valentina . . . Make the call. Doesn’t have to be tonight.”
I kept my forehead pressed to his and closed my eyes. “Okay,” I breathed the word. “Yes.”
He dropped the hand in my hair down to the top of my other thigh and with both thumbs rubbed the hollows between my inner thighs and my labia. “Then trust me.”
My breathing labored faster and with every fragmented breath, my secure world dropped away. Only the touch of his thumbs inching closer to my center mattered. “Jaxx—”
“Relax,” he murmured. “I’ve got you.”
His thumbs teased me through the material of my panties. Long, sure strokes up and down until my thigh muscles quivered. I buried my face in the space between his neck and shoulder and bit down. If I didn’t, I might have begged him to touch me.
“Mmm, fuck.” His low growl reverberated over my ear. “You won’t hurt me, do what you gotta do, but stay with me.” This time, he rubbed his thumb right over my clit. Tiny, barely there circles over the wet lace.
Reaching behind me, I grabbed his knees and pushed my lower body into him.
“Ah, baby, you’re so fuckin’ wet,” he said, slipping a finger inside the soaked material. “Goddamn beautiful.”
At the slide of his finger through my wet lips, I moaned and threw my head back, for once, allowing myself physical pleasure. I’d deal with the guilt and the shame tomorrow. Right now, the strong slide of his finger around my sensitive bud negated all coherent thought.
“That’s it. Move for me, sugar.”
I followed the rhythm he set, arching my hips up as he stroked down, lowering them as he pushed up through the wet folds, still gentle, still a soft caress. “Jaxxon . . . ”
“Tell me what you want,” he demanded, still stroking me, but not touching where I needed him.
I bit my lip so hard a metallic taste filled my mouth. “I—I need more.”
He didn’t answer me, but gave a strong yank on the sides of my panties. Next thing I knew, he slid the fabric out from under me and yanked me against him. “Hug me tight.” He stood up with me and rearranged us on the couch.
At first, I thought he meant to lie on top of me, and I pulled my legs up, giving him room, but he sat facing me. He wedged one of my legs between him and the back of the couch while setting the other over his on the opposite side, opening me up to him. No more hiding. No way to cover up. My dress pooled right above my pubic bone, keeping me covered.
Before modesty had a chance to kick in, he licked his thumb and brought it directly down on my clit. I gasped, arched my back off the couch, and pressed the leg over his hip tighter around his back.
“Fuck me, you’re perfect.” He spread my lips apart with two fingers, while circling my clit in steady, wet strokes.
I should have been horrified, but I wasn’t. I just needed.
I slapped a hand over my mouth to keep from making any noise. He touched me so perfectly—firm, but gentle, teasing, yet giving. Around and around. Up and down, he rubbed around and to the side of my clit. “Please,” I groaned. “Please . . . touch me.”
He circled a gentle finger around my entrance. “Careful, baby. I could get used to making you beg.” And with that, he smoothly slid a finger inside me to the knuckle. “Jesus, you’re fucking tight—so warm.”
I gasped as he worked a slow finger in and out of my body, circling my cleft with his thumb.
When he added a second finger, my body coated them both with a fresh round of lubrication. “Oh. Jaxx . . . please,” I murmured.
He pressed down on my clit for a second before rubbing the bundle of nerves with a firm pressure. “Yes . . . ” I moaned to him.
“Feel, sugar. Feel for me.”
I arched my back farther off the couch and threw my arms over my head, using the armrest of the couch to push my body into him. “Please, please don’t stop.”
“Not a fuckin’ chance.” Dragging his fingers in and out of my body, he moved his thumb down to my opening and coated it with my arousal. Changing his rhythm, he pushed his two fingers inside me against the top wall. I felt full, edgy, but so right.
He spread my lips farther apart with his other hand, stroking his wet thumb right over my clit this time. On a sharp inhale, I relaxed into him. He dragged it up and down over my cleft while he stroked inside my body.
Unable to hold back any longer, I let out a long moan. My body undulated in a way it never had before. Like it recognized him, like it only responded to him. I panted as he rubbed faster, a little har
der, then pressed down hard on my clit before resuming the delicious strokes.
He thrust deeper, dragging his fingers across the sensitive spot inside me on the way out. Every. Single. Time.
“You’re close, baby. Don’t fight it.”
The man was a fucking sexual magician. The throbbing in my lower body built, spread, and threatened to consume me. My chest convulsed as an uncontrollable shaking rippled through every muscle. I arched up higher, pushed into him farther. I’d lost complete control over my body.
“Come, sugar. I got you.”
The words, spoken soft, but insistent vaulted me beyond anything I’d ever experienced before. The aching in my clit pulsed against his finger with each stroke, until my world exploded in a medley of bright colors. My throbbing channel contracted around his fingers, pulling them in deeper, holding him inside me.
“Jaxxon!” I screamed into my own hands. “Oh—God!”
He shackled both wrists and yanked me up to straddle him once again. My soaking wet core pressed tight against his cock through his pants. I flung my arms around his shoulders and buried my face in his neck, panting against his skin.
“Hey, look at me,” he said, trying to pull me back.
But I held tight. So tight.
“Eyes, baby.” He fisted my hair on both sides of my head and forced me to break contact.
My chest heaved as I tried to catch my breath. I could only stare at him. I had no words. Nothing. He’d changed my life—he’d made me feel like a woman, like a normal woman.
I collapsed into myself, locked my arms around my chest and leaned my head against his shoulder.
He held me, tight. When I tried to move off of him, he tightened his hold. “Where are you going?” His voice was hard, stern.
I glanced down between us. Mortified. “Your . . . pants.”
Pulling me flush against him, he locked his arms around my back. “Fuck my pants. Did I hurt you?”
I lifted my eyes to him and captured his face between my hands. “You didn’t hurt me. Not at all. I . . . You—” I sighed and shook my head.
“Okay.” He gave a soft chuckle. “I get it. Lay with me for a little bit, before I leave.”
“You don’t have to leave.” I slid to the side of him, my thigh rubbing over his still hard length. Oh shit!” I would have jumped up if he hadn’t held onto me. “You’re still—”
His laughter exploded and echoed through my living room. “Baby, please calm down. Don’t worry about me. Get over here.” Pulling me to his chest, he took me with him as he lay down on my couch and scrunched a pillow under his head.
We lay face to face and I traced a finger over his lips, unable to help myself.
Reaching up, he covered my hand with his and lay a chaste kiss on the top of it.
“I—I don’t want you to hurt.” And I really wanted a chance to—explore him.
He kissed my forehead and pulled me up so we were nose to nose. “Nothing a cold shower won’t take care of.”
“Jaxxon!”
“I’m kidding. Not really.” He chuckled. “Tonight was for you. I don’t need anything from you. I want something from you, yes, but I don’t need it this second.”
My thoughts jumbled as he pulled my leg over his and kissed my nose. “You’re fucking gorgeous when you come.” He bent to kiss my mouth and spoke against my lips, “You’ll come harder when I do it with my tongue.”
The tops of my thighs dampened with each seductive word. The way he spoke to me. The language he used. How he told me what he was going to do. All of it turned me inside out, when it should have made me want to run. But it didn’t—it made me crave him and everything he said. And that was why I feared him—I couldn’t fall in love with Jaxxon.
After what I’d experienced tonight, I realized I might have a genuine problem making sure I stayed grounded in reality.
19
Valentina
At some point in my near future, I was going to have to force myself to sleep. The excitement of the past few days gave me energy I couldn’t seem to leash, no matter how hard I worked out. After rearranging my office most of the night, so Jaxx would actually have room to work, I was running late for the gym.
Wrist straps. Wrist straps! They’re around here somewhere.
“Ah-ha! You little shits.” Chris and Kyle lay on the floor of my office, their heads moving back and forth, as I jetted from one side to the other.
“All right, guys. Phone. Jeez, you’d think I’d lost my mind in the past few days, right?”
Last Saturday night with Jaxxon had been an awakening. An awakening of the woman I’d always hoped I’d have a chance to be. After he’d laid down on the couch beneath me, I’d fallen asleep on him. I woke up the next morning in my bed, gown still on, kind of, Chris in his bed by the bedroom door and Kyle at the foot of my mattress. I’d jolted up, horrified that not only had I left him with a raging hard-on and fallen asleep like a guy, but also that I hadn’t even roused when he’d obviously carried me to bed. And left.
My heartbeat raced and my mouth hurt at the smile that came when I remembered turning to my nightstand and seeing the note he’d left me.
Hey, sugar. Didn’t have the heart to wake you. Call you tomorrow. Get some fucking rest! You owe me another night for falling asleep. I WILL collect . . .
Jaxxon was an anomaly I couldn’t figure out. I was a hot mess, and I knew it. And now he knew it. Yet he still called me the next day, we’d ended up on the phone for over an hour, and we’d been texting or calling each other all week when not in the gym or working. Our schedules were both full this week, but he’d still made time to talk to me. I’d never had anyone other than Annie to talk to. He was so easy going and he made me laugh. I don’t think Rick and I had ever really talked. At least not like this, we hadn’t.
Curtis Mayfield’s Superfly echoed through my quiet office and I lunged for my purse—perfect timing. Phone found via Jaxxon.
Hey, sleepy-head. Get your fine ass out of bed. Miss you. Get over here.
Shit. That’s right. I was totally late and hit reply.
I know! On my way!
The response came almost immediately.
The gym will still be here in ten minutes, Sparky. Drive safe.
“Smart ass.” I threw my gym bag over my head when my phone rang.
“Seriously?” It wasn’t Jaxxon’s tone, but who the hell would call me this early?
Digging it out of my bag, I saw Leigh’s face light up the screen and I plopped down in my chair for a second. “Hi, Leigh.” I kicked my feet up on what would soon be a desk.
“Toni! Sorry to call so early, but we both know you never sleep.”
She had a point. “Good morning to you too, boss lady.”
The sigh on the other end came through the receiver clear as day and my stomach knotted. Ah, one of those calls.
“Are you sitting down, darlin’?”
Well, that’s an unsettling lead. “I am now. Is it bad?”
Her raucous throat clearing hurt my ear and I held the phone away. She only did that when she was nervous about something. Given the other night with Jaxx, I was in a rather chipper mood for a Monday morning. “Go ahead, Leigh. Rip off the Band-Aid. Am I fired?”
“On the contrary, sweet thing, ya killed it last Saturday. Mr. Carlyle cornered the partners on the plane and had them in meetings all week. He called me last night giving me, more to the point you, the green light.”
I bolted up. “That’s fantastic! We did it—shit!” The silence on the other end became deafening to the point I thought we might have disconnected. “Leigh?”
“We didn’t do shit—you did.” Another moment of silence. “Okay. I’m gonna lay it out for ya. New York in June. Our conference. The house, or rather Carlyle, wants you there.”
Now I got the nerves. I didn’t fly and Leigh knew it. Besides that, Annie always came with me, but the conference overlapped Alexis’s sixteenth birthday this year. “Why? If Carlyle wants to
launch the new line, it should come from him. He’s the house publisher. You’re the editor-in-chief. Why can’t you do it? We worked on this together.”
“You’re the brainchild. You’ve read all the queries, done the research, and have spoken to some of the big published authors we’re courting, as well as the unpublished. We both want you at the conference, and I want you to sell the shit out of this line. I need your A-game, hon.”
They never made me fly unless absolutely necessary and they didn’t need me for this. “Leigh, I—I can’t.”
“The owners want the editor who created and founded the line, Toni. It has to be you.”
“It can’t be! I have Alexis’s sixteenth birthday. She only turns sixteen once, and she’s my godchild. Call Cynthia. I’ve emailed her everything I have—I’ve kept her up to date on everything. She can deliver it, and she works a crowd better than I do.”
No way was I going to New York without Annie. Me, out in public, the center of attention in a huge conference hall, speaking to hundreds of strangers?
“Sorry, darlin’, no choice on this. Carlyle insists it be you and you’re my all-star, my mini-me. I want to see you get the credit you deserve on this accomplishment and it will also solidify your place as my replacement when Carlyle retires.”
“Leigh . . . I can’t miss my goddaughter’s sixteenth birthday.” I sounded like a moron, even to me. This was the biggest opportunity in my career, but I couldn’t let Alexis down.
“Girl, this is huge. You pitched it. You know it better than anyone else.”
I was speechless for a second. “Leigh, I don’t do conferences. I didn’t sign up for this.”
The line went quiet again for a second. “I hate to be the voice of reason, but you did, love. You agreed to speak when necessary, if they allowed you to work from LA, and they agreed. We have people coming from all over the world to hear about a provocative new line our tight-ass house is launching, which qualifies as necessary. If Annie can’t come, hell, bring the hot cover model you’re bangin’.”
Phoenix (Flames & Ashes Book 1) Page 16
