by Lisa Cardiff
“Are you okay? You aren’t making sense.” Cam’s light eyebrows drew together in a frown as he studied her face.
Standing upright, she smiled. “Cam, I’m better than I have been in a long time. Have a nice life.”
When she climbed into the back of the taxi, her whole body shook with the knowledge that by leaving Cam’s house tonight, she likely closed the door on their relationship, both literally and symbolically. Rather than being upset, she felt empowered and hopeful. She and Cam might be over and Jax might truly hate her, but she still had the gallery and her friends, and that was enough for now.
Chapter Twenty-Six
After taking the taxi to a hotel only to realize that she’d left her wallet on Cam’s bed when she switched her personal items from her clutch into her daily purse, she knew she only had two options—go back to Cam’s house or call Jax. Exhausted, she ran her hands through her hair and chewed her nails in agitation. Given everything that happened, both options were less than ideal.
“Shit! Shit! Shit!” she cried, tears of frustration pouring from her eyes. She punched her hand into the vinyl seat, half wishing it was Cam’s smug face when he said she was his. What a joke, she thought. She couldn’t believe she had wasted so much of her life absolutely devoted to Cam. He may have been her protector when they were children and she was grateful for that, but she should have opened her eyes earlier and listened to her doubts about their relationship.
“Miss, I need you to pay for the fare,” the driver said, turning toward the back seat of the taxi.
“I left my wallet at my boyfriend’s—no I mean ex-boyfriend’s house.”
“I can take you back there.”
Feeling the driver’s exasperated heated glare boring into her, she decided Jax was the better option. She just prayed he answered his phone. “No, let me call a friend first.”
After three rings and no answer, her stomach rolled. She couldn’t imagine crawling back to Cam’s house. If she spent one more minute with him, she would probably scratch his eyes out.
“Bre?” Jax’s sultry voice tickled her senses. She loved listening to his voice. Even with her insides ripped to shreds, she felt comforted by the sound.
“Jax. Can I come over?” The words came out so fast they blurred into each other.
“What? Why?”
She didn’t want to revisit the entire fight with Cam, but she knew she owed him an explanation after the way they parted earlier. “I… I broke up with Cam again, for good this time. Can I stay with you tonight?”
“Bre,” her name came out long and exaggerated. “I don’t want to be in the middle of the drama between you and Cam anymore. I can’t take it. The back and forth is too hard. Can you get a hotel?”
She let out a shaky, incoherent sob. “Jax, I don’t have any money. I left my wallet at Cam’s house, and I… I can’t go back there. I can’t pay the taxi fare. I don’t have anyone else.” She shut her eyes in a wave of pain. “Please, let me come to your place. You don’t even have to talk to me if you don’t want to. I can sleep on the couch and I’ll leave in the morning. I know you hate me now…” Just saying those last words made her cry harder.
“Relax, Bre,” he said in a ragged whisper. “Of course, you can come here. I don’t hate you. I could never hate you.”
“Okay,” she choked out, staring out the window into the hazy night.
“Are you in the taxi now?”
“Yes,” she mumbled.
“Okay. Give your phone to the driver and I’ll give him directions. I’ll meet you out front—and Bre?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t worry. Everything will be fine. Love you, sweetie.”
“Thanks, Jax. Love you, too.”
When the taxi started driving again, she breathed a sigh of relief.
“We’ll be at your friend’s house in twenty minutes.”
Bre nodded her head, and when she realized the driver probably couldn’t see her, she mumbled thanks.
The idea of seeing Jax calmed her. Weariness from everything that had happened that night settled into her body, making her eyes heavy and before she knew it, she fell asleep.
Earlier, Jax had cursed Cam for interrupting his descent into drunkenness, but now that Bre had called, he was happy that he was too angry to keep drinking after Cam left.
He had been standing outside the front of his building since the minute he hung up the phone with the taxi driver. When he spotted two headlights turning into the parking lot, he ran toward the car.
The taxi stopped and the driver stepped out of his car door. “She’s asleep.”
“I’ll grab her,” Jax replied, handing the driver a hundred dollar bill. “Keep the change. Can you carry her luggage?”
“No problem. It seems like she had a rough night.”
Jax opened the back door of the car. Bre was stretched out across the back seat. The street lamps spilled into of the car, highlighting her features. His breath caught when he saw how beautiful and fragile she looked. Her thick lashes dusted her cheekbones and her long chestnut hair draped over the side of the backseat. Every time he saw her, he loved her more.
“Bre?” Jax whispered into her ear as he bent to pick her up.
“Mm… Jax?” she questioned with confused eyes.
“You were asleep. I’ll carry you into my house. Close your eyes.”
She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck. Then, she tensed and her eyes flew open. “Did you pay the driver?”
He smiled. “I did. Now go to sleep.”
“I need my things.”
“It’s taken care of.”
She placed her hand on the side of his face. “We need to talk, Jax, I’m so sorry for what happened tonight at the hotel. I didn’t mean to push you away. I was scared.”
“Shh. We can talk in the morning,” Jax replied as he balanced her with one hand and opened and then closed his front door with the other after the driver dropped Bre’s luggage in the entryway.
“No. I broke up with Cam for good. I told him about us.”
Jax tensed at her words. If Cam knew about them, it wouldn’t be long before Cam barged into his house. He wanted time alone with Bre before he crossed that bridge. “You told him about me?”
“Yes. I mean no. I told him that I had been with someone else. I didn’t tell him it was you. I didn’t think I owed him that information after everything that he’s done.”
“What do you mean?” Jax questioned as he laid her down gently on his bed. He pulled off her shoes, sat down on the bed next to her, and soothingly stroked her hair.
“Jax, why didn’t you tell me?”
His hand stilled momentarily and then he threaded his fingers with hers. “Tell you what?”
“You know what I’m talking about. Why didn’t you tell me about all the women? About Cam cheating on me? I know you knew.” Bre hiccupped.
“Oh, Bre,” he said, shaking his head. “It wasn’t my story to tell.”
“But all this time I’ve been wallowing in guilt, and you could have prevented it.”
Jax looked away for a few seconds. “Bre, you don’t know how many times it was on the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t want to you to be with me out of revenge or even worse, be your second choice. I knew you would figure it out eventually if you opened you eyes and evaluated the relationship now rather than through the lens of your childhood.”
“Everyone knew except me. Oh God, I’m so pathetic,” she whispered, covering her face with her hands in abject embarrassment.”
He pulled her hands away from her face. “No. Trusting Cam doesn’t make you pathetic. It makes you kind and loyal. It’s Cam who looks pathetic. You gave him the gift of trust, which is one of the greatest gifts you can give someone. It shows a person that you believe they’re worth the risk to your heart and he threw it away for a bunch of meaningless one night stands.”
Bre sat up on the bed, placed her hand on Jax’s cheek, and kissed him lightly on
the lips. “Thanks, Jax. I’m so lucky to have you in my life.”
Jax smiled solemnly as his hand reached for the side of her head, then curved around to the base of her neck. “And I’m lucky to have you.” In the lengthening quiet of the dimly lit room, they both remained completely frozen with the exception of Jax’s thumb, that brushed up and down her neck in light, sensual strokes. Both of them clearly recognized that the next few minutes would define the rest of their relationship. Jax knew with complete clarity that this was the first moment that belonged to them alone. It wasn’t stolen or rushed, and she was no longer Cam’s girl. She was Bre—the one woman he had wanted to possess from the first moment she walked into that bar months ago, and she was looking at him with absolute devotion.
When he leaned in to kiss her, his eyes hooded with longing, she turned her head to the side, and he tenderly grabbed her chin, forcing her look at him. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t understand it, but for some reason I’m more nervous about being with you now than ever before.” Her voice was unsteady and her eyes were wide with something that resembled panic.
“I won’t force you. This decision needs to be yours. I think you know what I want, what I have wanted for a long time.”
“I’m still afraid,” she stammered, trying to look away again, but he wouldn’t let her.
“Of what?”
Sighing, she looked into his sincere gray eyes. “That you won’t want me when you have me or that you’ll realize that I’m nothing special and you could find someone better. I mean, look at you! You have women throwing themselves at you all the time, and it’s only going to get worse, because everyone knows that Chasing Ruin is going to be signed to a record label any day now. When that happens, I would be holding you back. I’m just a girl from a small town. You’ll need someone who can be that special person for you.”
“Don’t you get it? You are that special person for me. Every time I came to visit you or spent time with you, it wasn’t for Cam. It was an excuse to be with you, to have you in my life. You could never hold me back. Having you by my side would be an honor and don’t ever tell yourself otherwise. I wanted you from the moment I saw you.” Jax leaned in and brushed a kiss across her lips, then pulled back to study her reaction.
“I wanted you, too. You know that, right?”
Jax nodded. “You have me,” he murmured huskily.
“What am I going to tell Cam?”
“Whatever we decide to tell him, we’ll tell him together when we think the time is right,” Jax responded calmly.
“What if we don’t work out?” she asked hesitantly while playing with the lace on the edge of her dress.
“Look at me, Bre,” he murmured hoarsely. “I can’t fathom a day when I wouldn’t want to be with you. If you feel half as much for me as I do for you, I think we’ll be just fine.”
A wide smile split across her face, and Jax watched her concerns melt away. Pulling his face toward her, she crushed her mouth to his. He slid his arms around her and moved his lips against hers tenderly at first and then shaken by his need to be with her, his lips became more insistent.
Jax coaxed her onto her back, kissing her with a raw, desperate desire that partially scared him with its sheer intensity. He claimed her body with every stroke of his hand and caress of his lips so she wouldn’t have any doubt of his intentions.
He tore his mouth away from her so he could unzip her dress. Bre whimpered. Watching her amber eyes flicker in the dim light, he nipped her lower lip lightly, and then buried his head in her neck, breathing in her light lavender scent. “I have to tell you again that I really love this dress. Great choice.” Slowly, he slid his hands down her neck and pushed the dress off her shoulders and down her hips. What he saw pulled him over the edge even more. Her flawless, olive skin was completely bare except for her lacy nude colored underwear and a strapless bra, and he could have sworn her skin shimmered as though she were covered in gold dust.
Leaning forward, he unhooked the clasp and let the bra fall on his crisp white sheets. Mesmerized by her pink nipples, he brushed the tips of his fingers across her breasts, watching them pebble under his attentions. Unable to resist, he bent his head to pull one of her nipples into his mouth, and then the other. Breathless, she arched under his ministrations and a small moan escaped her lips, feeding his addiction. He didn’t think he could want her anymore than he did right then.
He was wrong.
Her hands started gliding up and down his bare chest, taking the time to explore every last inch of his body. Raw, naked desire pulsed through his veins like nothing he’d ever experienced. Slowly she trailed her hands down his stomach, and when she reached his pants, she unbuttoned them and slid them down his hips. Gazing into her eyes so he could see every emotion that floated across her eyes, he lifted her up and pressed his body between her thighs, torturing her still covered center with his erection, wanting her to feel every inch of him throbbing against her.
She fixed her eyes on him, a faint smile turning her lips upward and he couldn’t believe how much love he felt just looking at her. Sliding her panties down her legs, he glided a finger inside of her, teasing her until she hissed with need as her hands fisted in his bedding. He traced her collarbone and breasts with his mouth, worshiping her and teasing himself to the brink of madness. Overcome by the realization that Bre was his, not Cam’s, Jax wanted to draw out their union as long as possible this time.
Leaning back onto his knees, he spread her legs wider so he could see all of her. She looked so fucking beautiful spread open for him. Positioning his body between her thighs, he ran his mouth along the insides of her legs inhaling her sexy scent; she trembled. Needing to taste her, he pressed he mouth against her center, teasing and nibbling her with soft kisses and small flicks of his tongue.
Then he dove in, thrusting his tongue in and out of her core until her hips started writhing involuntarily. He plunged his finger into her, circling and probing until she was panting.
“Oh, God. I can’t take it,” she said in a breathy whisper as she bit her bottom lip. She tried to move away from him and he knew she was so close.
Holding her thighs, he pulled her back to his mouth, even closer than before. “Shh … relax. Let me make you feel good,” he growled, stopping to look at her face for a moment, loving the glazed, sex drunk look in her eyes. Then he thrust his tongue back into her hot, wet center, tasting her, savoring her as she melted against him. Her hands tangled tightly into his hair as she moved her hips frantically against his mouth. He wanted this to be perfect, better than anything she’d ever experienced before. Something they both would remember, not a frenzied encounter like what happened at the hotel earlier. He buried two fingers inside her and less than a minute later, she tensed, then jerked her hips, and released a strangled scream.
He glanced up at her beautiful face, her eyes still unfocused, and he pressed a hard kiss against her hip. Not wanting to wait one more second to be inside her, he grabbed a condom from the nightstand drawer, placing it next to them on the bed and then he slowly bent his head toward her breasts needing to taste them one more time.
She placed one hand on his chest, smiling unapologetically, and reached for the condom with the other. “I don’t want to wait.”
Jax gazed into her eyes, brushing the hair away from her face. “Put it on me then,” he responded with a wicked smile.
She nodded, returning his smile. By the time she finished rolling the condom to the base of his shaft, fiery hot lust whipped through his body and he felt like a sixteen-year-old boy on the brink of his first orgasm.
Aligning their naked bodies, he slid into her hot, tight body inch by inch, tormenting her until she was begging him to go faster, harder. He chuckled quietly and pinned her arms above her head, forcing her to succumb to his pace as his mouth explored her neck and the top of her breasts. Moaning, she arched into him, digging her legs into his back, and his smile vanished. He was so damn close. He didn’t
know how much longer he could last. Grabbing her thighs, he drove deeper, harder, claiming her with an urgent rhythm that mocked his earlier performance.
“Don’t stop,” she moaned incoherently.
Nothing could make him stop. He’d do this all night if she’d let him. Buried deep inside her, he looked into her amber eyes burning with desire as he pulled out and plunged in even deeper, quickening his pace.
After a few short thrusts, her body began to convulse around his, milking him as her thighs closed even tighter around his waist. Fuck, he’d never get enough of her. He gritted his teeth to hold back the hard pleasure starting to race down his spine. Then, she dug her nails into his back, crying out his name as an intense spasm racked her body, squeezing him tighter than he could withstand and he exploded with a reverent groan as his own orgasm ripped through him.
Overwhelmed, Jax collapsed on top of her and rolled them onto their sides, facing each other, both of them panting and completely exhausted. With her silky brown hair spread out on the pillow, basking in the afterglow, she looked so beautiful his chest ached. He’d had plenty of sex in his life, but nothing compared to what he’d just experienced with Bre. It was more intense, more primal, and he felt more connected to her than ever before. He lazily stroked up and down her back, watching her golden eyes droop heavily.
“Rest,” he whispered.
“I don’t want to sleep. We need to talk about what we’re going to say to Cam. I don’t want to hide this from him any longer.”
Propping himself up on one elbow, he looked down at her with sham indignity. “I think I read somewhere that talking about one man while you’re in bed with another is bad form.”
Grinning at him, she said, “You’re right. That was very bad form. Forgive me?” She smiled infectiously.
“Given the circumstances and your quick repentance, I agree to overlook it.”
“Thanks.” She trailed her fingers down his arm, her eyes shining with love. “It’s just… I don’t know. I don’t want to waste time hiding that we’re together and risk that he’ll find out from someone else.”
