by Lane Hart
"Damn, princess. You miss me getting you off the last few weeks?" I ask, pulling her hips back and lining my cock up to slide inside her.
"Yes," she moans.
"Then why didn't you just ask for it?" I'm sheathed all the way inside her wet heat after one deep shove.
"Oh God, Jax!"
"Is this what you needed?" I ask, my hips pumping like they can’t go fast or hard enough.
"Yes!"
"Then we're lifting...the goddamn... no fucking...sanction," I tell her, leaning down to bite her shoulder.
"Please," she almost sobs that one word.
"Please, what?" I ask through clenched teeth. Sweat is already running down my face while I try to last. "You want me to fuck you...until your body shakes underneath mine?"
"Yes, God yes!"
"You going to let me fuck you all night?" I ask, my hands tightening on her hips to pound into her harder with each word. "Every. God. Damn. Night?"
"Please, Jax!"
I press my chest flush against her back to reach around underneath her. My fingertips circle her trigger point and with one last deep shove her sexy body tenses and shakes, her moans music to my ears.
"Ahhh," I groan with the explosion of my own release. After she milks every last drop from me, I pull out and flop over onto the mattress beside her. Page continues to lay limply on her stomach, face buried in the pillow. "You still alive, princess?" I ask with a poke to her ribs.
"Mmm," comes out softly when she squirms. Finally, she turns her head to the side to face me, hair in her eyes, a fuck-drunk smile stretched across her face.
"You fuck me so good they can have my license," she mutters, making me laugh.
"Have you noticed that you only swear during sex?" I ask.
"Well yeah, that's the only time I'm not able to think before speaking."
"Makes sense. Guess you didn't miss that profanity class in college after all," I joke.
"Huh?"
"I was there that night Elliot showed up outside your office. I was about to come up and see you with the polygraph results."
"Oh. So you heard that?"
"Yeah. You were funny. Until you agreed to leave with him."
"Oh yeah," she says, rolling to her side to face me with a smile. "That night I was thinking about you while he was screwing me. When I came, he thought it was his doing. Idiot."
"You thought about me that night?" I ask in surprise. But wait, that was before she knew I'd passed the polygraph. And she wanted me anyway?
"Uh-huh. More specifically your tongue."
"Well, now you know exactly how many licks it takes me." I laugh, pulling her to me.
"Yeah, I do," she says, and then goes quiet for a few minutes. "I think I know why you got so upset in my office earlier."
"Oh really?" I ask, hoping she's wrong.
"Your mom's name was on your birth certificate, so I did some research on the court database and online..."
Fuck.
"I don't want to talk about that shit, Page," I tell her, getting up and quickly escaping to the bathroom.
Chapter Twelve
Page
As soon as Jax closes the bathroom door, I'm up on shaky legs, grabbing his heavy fireman pants and jacket and hiding them in the wardrobe closet in my spare bedroom. If he doesn't have any clothes, he can't leave.
I barely dive back into bed before he comes out with his angry mask back in place.
"What are you looking so smug about?" he asks with dark, narrowed eyes.
"Nothing. Come back to bed," I say, lifting the covers to climb underneath them. I'm soaking wet between my legs, but I don't want to leave his sight for a second to even go to the bathroom. I know he'll try to make a run for it.
"There won't be any heart to heart talks if I do," he warns.
"Okay," I agree.
As soon as he's back in bed next to me, I cling to him. "You don't have to talk because I already know," I tell him. His entire body tenses and I wait for him to push me away. "It's okay, Jax."
"No, it's not fucking okay."
"What happened to her?" I ask. Yeah, I read the articles, but after a few weeks, there wasn't anything new reported.
"Fuck if I know."
"You haven't seen her or talked to her since then?" I ask in surprise.
"Nope, and I don't want to."
"Why not?" I ask softly.
"She fucked a boy in her and my dad's bed!" he yells. He tries to push me away, but I hold onto him tightly.
"I know. It's okay, Jax."
"It is anything but o-fucking-kay."
I climb on top of him, straddling his hips, so he can't get up and leave without throwing me off. God, I hope he doesn’t actually do that. It's anyone's guess since the volcano from the first day in our office is back and brewing in his dark eyes.
"Talk to me. Please," I beg, leaning down to brush my lips over his.
He throws a big, muscular arm over his eyes, keeping me out. I'm about to give up when he finally says, "It's all my fault."
"What?" I ask, pulling back in confusion. "You were only a little boy, right?"
"I was ten."
"Then how's it your fault?"
"I caught them," he mutters quietly.
"Your mom, and the, ah..."
"Boy in her class? Yeah. They...believe me, you really don't want to hear this fucked up shit, Page!"
"Jax, you can trust me," I assure him, peeling his arm away from his face. "Attorney-client privilege," I say, combing my fingers through the front of his jet black hair, the same color as hers in the photos from the articles. "I just want to know because I care about you."
His face softens, the volcano simmering, temporarily at least. His hands start moving soothingly up and down my back before he blows out a breath in resignation.
"I went to baseball practice after school at the Y like every weekday in the spring, but that day my coach was sick, so they canceled it. I walked home like usual, just...earlier. Jude was eating cereal out of the box and watching The Lion King in the living room. He was only three-years-old."
He pauses, and I'm not sure if he's going to keep going, so I reach for his hands and intertwine his fingers with mine. After a big exhale he keeps going. "I heard...noises coming from down the hall. My parents' bedroom door was shut, and I didn't know what the hell was going on. Only my mom's car was home. It sounded like she was screaming so I went in and just...stood frozen trying to make sense of it. There she was with this kid on top of her, both of them naked. I remember saying something like, 'Get off my mom' and the boy laughs, telling me she liked it. My mom yelled at me to get out, so I did. A few minutes later she came into my room and screamed at me to keep my mouth shut and not to say a word to anyone about what I saw, especially my dad. I think she even threatened to take away my Gameboy and shit if I told anyone."
"I'm sorry," I say during his pause, even though it's completely insufficient for what happened. "Did you tell someone? Because you should have. It was unfair of her to ask you not to."
"Sort of. That night I was still all fucked up and didn't want any dinner. My dad must’ve known something was up because I was always eating everything in sight. He offered to play catch with me in the backyard, and eventually he asked what was wrong. I didn't say anything about her, but I just asked him what sex was, since I thought, you know, that might have been what I'd seen them doing. He gave me the 'You're too young to worry about that' speech. But then later that night he must have told my mom I'd asked him about it. I heard her start screaming at him, asking if he was going to believe a lying kid over her. My dad wasn't stupid and knew if she was freaking out it must be something bad. He came to my room and asked me if there was anything I wanted to tell him. I told him that mom told me not to, and he said ‘Moms and Dads shouldn't ever tell their kids to keep something from the other."
"So you told him?"
"Yeah, with her in the room with us, screaming the whole time. My dad told her he was done
. He was going to get a divorce and was going to the police. She started crying, begging him not to do that to her. She asked him to let her pack a bag and leave town before the police came looking for her. My dad caved. Told her to never to come back. She left in tears, yelling at me, telling me it was my fault. That when Jude cried and wanted to know where she was for me to tell him I was the one that sent her away from him. That it was my fault he wouldn't have a mother. She said she'd miss him..."
"God, Jax," I say when I see the moisture in his dark eyes, wrapping my arms around his neck and laying my head on his chest. What an evil woman to hurt a little boy in such a cruel way.
"After that, all hell broke loose. She left town but took the sixteen-year-old student with her. It was a huge scandal. Two other boys came forward and said she'd sucked them or fucked them when they were students in her math class. Everyone knew she was a fucking whore, even the kids in my class. They probably heard their parents talking about it."
"Is that why you got into fights?" I ask, having already figured as much.
"Yep. Because I was pissed at her, pissed off at the mess she'd left behind, pissed off at all the shit everyone said. God, my dad was so torn up, and Jude...Fuck. He cried all the damn time for her the first few weeks."
"Which made you feel guilty, even though it shouldn't have."
"Hell, I was even angry at him because he made me feel like shit whenever he asked about her, and I was so fucking jealous. She loved him and not me."
"She didn't deserve you or him. Or your dad."
"Whatever."
"What happened to her?" I ask.
"As far as I know the police never found her or the boy. I guess they're off living their own happily ever fucked up after."
"Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me," I say with a kiss to his neck.
"Thanks for not kicking me out when I showed up as a naughty fireman. Can I stay the night?" he asks.
"Yes. I thought there was some sort of promise made about f-wording me all night," I tease him with a smile trying to lighten up after all the heavy.
"That was before you had to bring up old shit that killed my cock."
"Ah. Well, sleeping with you is just as nice, and I've missed waking up with you," I tell him. After I clean up in the bathroom, I climb back in bed naked and get into the spooning position. "Good night," I say to him, and he reciprocates with his arm holding me to him. I timed him, and not even fifteen minutes later Jax was back on top of me, making good on his promise.
Chapter Thirteen
Jax
I hurry into Page's office after her text that said come in ASAP. I figure it must be important since she didn't just call and tell me what was up.
"Oh, Mr. Malone," the receptionist calls out to me when I start walking back to Page's office. I'd done the same thing for almost a month now.
"Hey, Jamie."
"Page and everyone else is already in the conference room."
"Oh," I mutter. Page didn't mention a meeting with anyone.
Instead of her office, I head in the other direction. I wasn't expecting to see my dad, Jude, Coach Briggs and some guy in a suit sitting at the table with Page. When her eyes quickly lower I know exactly what's going on. It's a fucking intervention.
"I'm not pleading!" I yell. How many times do I have to tell them that?
"Jax, just sit your ass down and listen to what they have to say," my dad snaps.
I force myself down into one of the chairs with my blood pressure climbing through the damn roof.
"Jax, let me tell you about it before you yell or say anything, okay?" Page asks softly.
"Let's hear this bullshit yet again."
"This time, we have a real, legitimate plea offer from the prosecutor. You'd plead to one count of misdemeanor assault on a female. Even though with your clean record you would normally be in the low end of the sentencing range, the prosecutor insisted on a maximum sentence of ten months active that would be transcribed. So that's the exact sentence you would get. No more. Then you'd be on supervised release for two years after that."
"With only a misdemeanor you might even be able to fight again, Jax," Coach adds.
"No," I say without hesitation.
"Jax..." almost everyone at the table starts in on me.
"I didn't do anything wrong, and I'm not going to be locked up in a shitty fucking prison for ten months when I'm innocent!"
"Page said she's been over the maximum sentences with you if convicted, correct?" the suit asks.
"Yeah, a shitload of years."
"Right. Going to trial is a huge gamble," he says. "You could win big and walk out, or you could lose big and end up spending twenty some years in prison on felony convictions. When you get out as a convicted felon, your employment options will be seriously limited. This plea is a guarantee of only ten months, and it's only a misdemeanor."
"I'm sure from each of your points of view the plea looks like a no-brainer. But none of you will have to stand up in front of the world and say 'I'm guilty' of something you didn't fucking do, or be locked away in a concrete box for ten months. So, however great it looks on paper, I'm not signing that shit."
"Then we'll need you to write 'rejected' in big letters across the front page of the plea and then sign and date that notation," the suit says, passing me the paper and a permanent marker.
"Wait!" Page exclaims. "Can you all give us a minute?"
Everyone stands up and leaves the conference room so she can try and convince me one-on-one.
"Page, don't waste your time," I warn. Ignoring me, she comes around the table and climbs on my lap, wrapping her arms around my neck and kissing me. "You can't fuck me into submission," I tease her, but when I pull back, I see the tears running down her cheeks.
"I don't want to lose you," she says softly.
"I know, and I don't want to have to spend years locked up away from you," I tell her, wiping away her tears. "But you can't ask me to do this. This, pleading guilty, will break me, more than serving a sentence from a conviction will. I need you to support me on this. I've got faith in you and the system that I'm going to walk out of that courtroom a free man."
"But what if I let you down?" she asks, pressing her wet face to my chest.
"You won't let me down. That's one of only two things in my life I'm certain of."
"Are you sure? Because I'm not so sure," she mutters through sniffles.
"I'm sure."
"What's the other thing that you're certain of?" she asks after a moment.
"That I'm truly, madly and deeply in love with you."
She laughs and tightens her arms around my neck. "I love you, too, you pain in the ass."
After a shaky breath, she pulls away and turns around to grab the plea agreement. "Here, reject it so we can get back to work preparing for trial."
"Hell yes," I agree. With the fat permanent marker, I write the word "Rejected" in huge letters then sign and date it.
"There's one other thing that as your attorney I need to discuss with you. Just don't yell at the messenger," she orders, standing up from my lap.
"Okay." I already know I'm not going to like what comes next.
"Ryan mentioned that sometimes these cases go away, as in getting dismissed, after a civil settlement."
"Let me stop you right there, because if you even suggest that I should give this bitch a fucking dollar, I will go ballistic."
"I don't think you should, no. But as your attorney, it is an option that has to be discussed with you."
"Never. I'd write a check giving away every penny I have to charity before I let that whore have any of it."
"Good. Let me get them back in here just so Ryan can be another witness that you don't want to engage in civil settlement negotiations," she say, grabbing a tissue to wipe her face.
"Then can we go back to my place?" I ask. As what feels like the doomsday clock ticks down I want to spend every waking minute with Page.
"Your pla
ce?" she asks in surprise. "So I finally get to see your bachelor pad?"
"Yeah," I respond, trying to find the courage to tell her what I've been thinking about more and more lately. "And if you like it then I hope you might consider sharing it with me after I'm found not guilty."
"Really?" she asks with a smile, one that quickly fades. "But then everyone will know..."
"Can we just not worry about that until the time comes?"
"Okay," she agrees.
…
Page
I'm nervous and excited as I park my Mercedes in the lot of Jax's apartment building. He'd given me directions before leaving the office, and now here I am looking up at what appears to be a brand new tower, standing moderately high in downtown.
Heading inside I climb in the elevator and hit the number twelve to begin the ascent to the top. When the door opens, I wonder which way to go, but soon realize there's only one apartment up here - Jax's. After a quick knock on his door, he pulls it open and smiles in greeting.
I can't help but look past him into the big open room behind him.
"Wow, this place is really nice, Jax."
"Thanks," he replies as he steps aside to let me in.
The glass ceiling and entire wall of windows make the already massive space seem even larger, handy for a man that doesn't like small spaces. There are various beautiful potted plants and shrubs around the wooden deck that juts out over the city. The double balcony doors are open, so I head out them to get a better look. A patio set of chairs with thick cushions and a long bench seem like perfect places to sit and relax, along with the hot tub. More doors further down the way are open, leading into the bedroom and kitchen.
The entire place is so serene, done up in whites, creams and a touch of gold. It's not at all what I expected for the tough, angry man, but it makes sense that he'd want a calming fortress when he's not fighting. A place that's the opposite of the metal cage.
I know without a doubt that I can't let him go to prison. That place will take the man I'm in love with and make him bitter, and so angry that I'll lose him forever. I'll just have to do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn't happen to him.
