She would stop in a few seconds. No sense in being abrupt about the matter.
When his lips began to trail down her face and suck at the sensitive juncture between her neck and collarbone, she figured it made more sense for her to catch her breath before interrupting him. Yeah, that would just be rude. She whimpered at the tug of his mouth.
His hands traced a hot path beneath her sweater, scorching her skin with every caress. She assumed he would stick to only soft strokes, so when he quickly withdrew his hands, she let out a whimper in protest.
He only grunted in response as he gripped the edge of her top, drew it above her head, and threw it across the room.
The touch of cool air on her skin gave her enough pause to make a weak protest.
“We should stop. This is a big mistake.”
Ughhh. The words sounded weak and unconvincing even to her ears. She cleared her throat and tried to wrap her arms back around her bra-covered chest, but he stopped her with a sharp shake of his head.
“Not yet, honey. I’m not done looking.”
He pulled her arms behind her back and held her wrists in a tight grip with one hand.
The position forced her chest up and forward, leaving her completely open to his gaze.
Her breath caught in her throat, and all thoughts of stopping fled at the hot look of hunger on his face.
“Fucking beautiful,” he muttered gruffly, before he bent his head forward, nuzzling his nose between her breasts.
She usually hated when men paid too much attention to her chest. Its size had always been a source of embarrassment for her. She’d developed quite early as a teenager, and not having a mother around to talk to about the teasing she received had been hard. Having boys always assume she was easy or dumb because of her cup size didn’t help any, either.
When Jax looked at her, all of her old insecurities disappeared. She felt like a sex kitten just waiting for more praise.
She arched her back further, silently begging him for more, and she wasn’t disappointed.
“I’ve had fantasies about these,” he said, raising his head back to watch her. His gaze held hers as he traced a free hand up her ribs and cupped a lace-clad breast in his palm.
“All sorts of dirty little thoughts,” he said just before pulling her nipple into a quick hard pinch.
A soft hiss left her mouth at the exquisite pain, and her hips gave a reflexive jerk.
He threw her a wicked smile before dipping his head to her throbbing nipple, smoothing it with his tongue and causing the lace of her bra to scrape against her straining bud. The rough sensation sent a jolt of heat prickling through her.
Her whole body trembled, wanting so much more than he was already giving her.
As if hearing her thoughts, his mouth engulfed her, sucking on her begging flesh and pulling a long moan from her lips.
He sucked and nipped at her, moving from one breast to the other, squeezing and teasing one with his hand while his wicked mouth worked on the other.
The dueling sensations were driving her quickly to the edge. She rocked her hips against him in earnest, loving the delicious friction of rubbing against his hard length.
She was swamped by the feel of him, overwhelmed by the searing heat that he’d produced, but her body was straining towards an orgasm that felt just out of reach. She moaned out in frustration, wishing there was no material between them, wanting to rub against his naked cock and feel him swell inside her.
He freed her wrists and pulled both breasts into his palms. Eager for more, she leaned back and placed her hands on his knees, straining her chest forward, never ceasing her grinding hips.
“Please,” she whispered.
He squeezed her breasts together, forcing the nipples to touch and rub against each other. He plucked at them before clamping them together and holding them still, tightening his hold ever so slowly into a firm pinch.
His ministrations were almost painful, but caused a delectable throbbing in her clit. Her breasts felt swollen and her skin too sensitive.
“Don’t worry, Pep,” he whispered against her chest. “I’ve got you,” he said before clamping his lips down on her nipples.
He released the swollen tips, and the rush of blood flooding back to her flesh combined with the feel of his suckling wet mouth sent her over the edge.
She screamed out her orgasm, her body arching stiffly against him, lost in the wave of release raging through her.
He continued to suck at her flesh, prolonging her quaking response, wringing every drop of release from her, softening his movements and lightly licking at her as her body slowly relaxed from its tight form.
Gathering her in his arms, he nuzzled her chest with his nose before pulling back. He caught her gaze and raised his hands to cup both her cheeks.
“God, you’re so fucking sweet,” he said, his breath coming out in panted bursts. “You can’t deny we’re good together, Pep. What makes more sense than marrying your best friend?”
And just like that, the fog of desire his kisses had dragged her under cleared.
She hissed in a breath and pushed herself away from him. The drag of her clit against his hard length had her pussy clenching in dissent, but Pepper didn’t care.
“Hey—”
She ignored his protest at the loss of contact and began scrounging around the room in search of her sweater.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!” She growled the words to herself.
Finding the wayward garment clinging to a lamp across the room, she quickly shrugged into it before doing the same with her coat and hat.
Feeling a little better-equipped with wearing an armor of thick wool, she marched back to the kitchen island and began packing up her the laptop and files.
“Do you want to clue me in on something here?”
She glanced up to see him leaning back in his chair, clasping his hands behind his back. Despite the hard bulge in his pants being still very visible and apparent, he had a disgustingly smug smile on his face.
Arrogant, clueless jerk.
She took a deep breath and counted to ten.
“You don’t want to get married,” she told him slowly in the most patient voice she could muster. “This is just some of kind of delayed grief reaction to your mom’s death.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I’ve examined the situation from all angles, and she was right. I can’t just spend my life wrapped up in some project. I want to come home at night to a warm body in my bed. Maybe even produce a few kids, show ’em how to play basketball, and teach ’em how to build their first computer application.”
Horror filled her as his face took on an almost dreamy expression. She was going to throw up. She just knew it. Her only recourse to salvage what was left of their friendship was to leave. As quickly as humanly possible. She turned back to her rolling case and snapped the flap shut.
“You don’t just decide you’re going to get married, like you decide it’s time to buy a new car.”
“Why not? Why shouldn’t I weigh the pros and cons of marriage just as I would a car? You have to admit, Pep. We’re good together. I know you, and you know me. We’ve already proved that we’re sexually compatible. Sleeping together proved that.”
“That was a mistake.”
“You can’t really deny we have chemistry, not after that kiss.”
“Chemistry doesn’t make a marriage,” she said as she made her way to the front door.
She heard his chair scrape back and his footsteps as she sprinted out of the cabin.
“Maybe not, but friendship and history do,” he said, grabbing her arm and stopping her progress down the steps.
She turned to him and smiled sadly.
“And so does love, Jax. You can’t just decide on wedded bliss and leave out love.”
“I already love you, Pep. You know that,” he said.
His earnest reply pierced her heart. Knowing he loved her as a friend just wasn’t enough, not anymo
re.
“Not the way you need to. Not the way it’s supposed to be for people to actually be married to each other.”
His lips hardened into a sharp line.
“I knew you were going to be difficult,” he said.
“Excuse me?”
She felt a spark of anger work its way up her spine. If anyone should be angry it should be her. She was the one getting the worst marriage proposal ever spoken.
“I knew it was going to take a lot to convince you that this would work. You just need some time to see reason. Stay with me for the next week. Let me prove to you that we have what it takes.”
She just shook her head at him and shrugged out of his grasp, marching towards the rental car.
“Listen, Jax. Trust me when I say in a few days you’ll see this is just the early signs of a mid-life crisis and residual grief. We can laugh about it over mojitos on your birthday,” she called out over her shoulder as she threw her case in the cab and climbed into the driver’s seat.
She reached down to turn the key and grasped at air. Her brows furrowed as she leaned back to check the floor of the car. Perhaps she had dropped them when she first arrived.
The jingling sound of metal clinking against metal stopped her search. She looked up to find Jax standing near the front of the car, holding up her keys and quirking an eyebrow at her.
She merely smiled back and began digging through her purse. She always asked for an extra set of keys with rentals. She pulled the spare set out and waved them triumphantly at him. The sneak.
Grinning, she pushed the key in and turned the ignition and … nothing. Silence greeted her as the engine refused to turn over. The damn thing didn’t sputter. It didn’t cough. It just sat there silent and unmoving.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she yelled as she dropped her head to the steering wheel.
What were the odds that the stupid car would break? She inhaled a sharp breath. He wouldn’t. She lifted her head slowly to peer out of the windshield.
Jax was still there waiting, still smiling, but this time dangling a mesh of wires in the air, a look of pure mischief on his face.
She plopped her head back down to the wheel. Sometimes, it just didn’t pay to have a sadistic genius as a best friend.
Chapter Five
Jax couldn’t hold back his grin at Pepper’s form slumped over the car steering wheel. Admittedly, he’d veered a little from his initial plan back in the cabin, but he was gradually getting back on track. His current objective was to get Pepper to stay.
He had the good grace to flinch at his maniacal thoughts, but he was still going to follow through on his plan. Pepper had already proven that even if he told her the truth, she wouldn’t believe him.
She always preferred to analyze her decisions from different angles; it was one of the things they had in common. So the best way to convince her he really did love her was to show her how good they could be together and that his emotions weren’t brought on by some misplaced sense of grief or guilt.
She finally straightened from the wheel. Knowing how prepared she always was for any eventuality, he dug into his back pocket and pulled out a small digital device that fit into the center of his palm. He pressed a few buttons, entering his password and watched the screen on the gadget register his commands.
He looked up to see her step out of the car with her cell phone held out in front of her, obviously searching for a signal.
He cleared his throat loudly.
“You won’t get cell service here,” he called out.
She turned toward him and gave him a gleefully evil grin as she waved the phone in front of him.
“Satellite phone, asshole! I’m calling a car service, and when you eventually get off your Crazytown mountain of a breakdown, I might consider forgiving you and letting you live,” she said angrily before turning back to concentrate on her phone.
Damn, she was hot when she got angry.
“Your phone isn’t going to work up here.”
She stiffened and turned back to face him.
“Why wouldn’t it work? The laptop worked just fine, and we had no problem with a connection,” she said, taking slow and deliberate steps toward him.
Jax held his ground, not retreating from her approaching form, despite the angry flames flicking out from her gaze.
He waved the small digital remote in the air, before placing it back in his pocket.
“Because I’m jamming the frequency,” he said simply.
The look of disbelief coupled with her slackened jaw almost caused him to laugh out loud. She would most probably not want him to laugh at her predicament, and the chances of not receiving another well-placed punch were slim.
Wait for it, he thought as she snapped her mouth shut and her face flushed with fury.
“Have you lost your mind?” she whispered. “Of course you have.” She began to step around, pacing in front of him. “No sane person decides to get married on a whim!”
“Just hear me out—”
“No sane person decides it’s perfectly acceptable to trap their friend on top of a freaking mountain!”
“All I’m asking for is one week—”
She paused in her plodding trek and gave him a baleful stare.
“No sane, logical person is crazy enough to think if he traps me here that when he falls asleep tonight I won’t rip him a new one and leave his rotting carcass for the damn bears!”
He didn’t back down from her tirade. Admittedly, he was most likely—probably—breaking a few laws, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
“Well, this totally sane and logical person knows you well enough to understand that you’re so stubborn, I’d have no other choice but to force you to stay and listen to reason,” he said calmly.
She ignored him and continued on with her rant, pacing away from him again. The diatribe consisted of some pretty interesting assumptions she had about his mental state as well as a few descriptions of what she would do to him if murder weren’t a federal offense.
He winced at a few of her more graphic and violent depictions of revenge to come. She always did have a somewhat sadistic streak.
His balls should be shrunken in fear, but the sight of Pepper in a full-on snit had his cock at full attention.
Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes bright with anger, and the air around her practically hissed like a whip.
Any sane man would want to stay far, far away, but all he could think of was pressing her down into the snow and channeling all of that crackling energy into more pleasurable pursuits.
“You know that you’re officially only one step away from re-enacting Misery, don’t you?” She flicked the question out at him, standing before him once again.
He let a full grin spread across his face.
“Oh, but I have every intention of tying you down to my bed, Pep, and I seriously doubt you’ll be begging me to let you go.”
His comment landed like a gauntlet between them, and the resulting silence pulsed as her eyes grew wide, her pouty mouth falling open in a look of shock, her breaths panting roughly into the void.
If she was a sadist, then he was most definitely a masochist because his dick swelled and throbbed in the resonating hush. She was the only woman who could get him this hard no matter the situation or consequences.
He bit back a groan just as her war cry filled the air, and he barely had time to squint before she hurtled herself at him.
This time, he had the presence of mind to duck, sure that she would attempt another blow.
He remembered too late that Pepper was ever the strategist, and before he could adjust his stance, his knees buckled from her sweeping leg.
He landed flat on his back, blinking up into the clear Colorado sky. Her booted foot pressed onto his torso before her face leaned into view.
She looked like an avenging Valkyrie, ready to split him in two.
God, he couldn’t wait to fuck her again.
“One week.”
She spit out the words, while grinding her heel into his chest.
“I’ll give you one week to come to your senses. One week, and you better hope our friendship survives this, or I’ll kick your ass all the way back to Miami,” she said before lifting her foot and stomping away, her declaration lingering in her wake.
He stayed down in the snow, grinning up to the sky as he heard the cabin door bang open and slam shut.
Things were going even smoother than he planned.
Chapter Six
Pepper trod back and forth in the cabin, making her way from one end to the other and back again in an effort to rein in her panic.
One week alone with Jax.
This can’t be happening.
It wasn’t as if they hadn’t spent time together before. They were regular fixtures in each other’s homes, but that was before she had seen him naked, before she had felt him grinding away inside her, before she knew just how deliciously commanding he was in bed.
It was before he had all of a sudden decided that sex and marriage would be a good addition to their friendship.
One week alone with a determined and horny Jax was not something her defenses could handle.
Her guard had weakened ever since she realized she was in love with him. The opportunity to spend time with him on a romantic level was too tempting. But she would have to resist the lure of the situation and protect her heart.
She wanted to be with him, but she didn’t want a Jax who wasn’t thinking clearly. Especially not a Jax who seemed set on a marriage of convenience rather than love. She rubbed at her chest, trying to massage away the spike of pain that knowledge gave her.
It had taken her years to realize she loved him as more than a friend, and now, instead of keeping her love a secret and saving their friendship, she risked losing him altogether.
As much as she wanted to give into temptation and accept his crazy proposal, her heart would never survive him realizing he’d made a terrible mistake. She knew him and knew without a doubt that he would never deliberately hurt her.
When the day came when he realized marriage wasn’t for him, he would grin and bear it just for her. There was no way she’d be able to stand that.
Persuasion Skills Page 4
