She made a sound of protest, but he pressed a finger to her lips. “Hush, darlin’. I need to get you out of this hideous sweater.”
Her eyes widened, slightly glazed by lust. “Hey. This sweater is not ugly.”
One of the things he’d come to realize about Kassie, and yeah love about her too, was that she was herself. She wore pajamas in public. She drove a piece-of-shit car. She wore ridiculous shoes and sexy lingerie and sometimes frumpy sweaters and shirts with what appeared to be ketchup stains. But when it came down to it, she was just Kassie, the woman he loved. If he wasn’t looking at the sweetest kind of perfection before him, he didn’t know what perfection was.
And she’d come back to him. She loved him back, rough hands, tattoo and all. Loved him for the man he was, in a way he’d never even dared to hope to be loved. In a way he’d never imagined was possible. Her running days were definitely over. The last place she’d run was straight into his arms. Where she belonged.
Forever.
The word sent a new sense of awareness and urgency rocketing through him. He grabbed her sweater and hauled it over her shoulders and down her arms. When it was gone, he made short work of the three remaining buttons holding her shirt together. “I like it better on the floor,” he told her without a hint of conscience.
She shrugged out of her shirt, standing before him in her jeans and a bra. God, she was sexy, her ripe breasts on display, her pink nipples teasing him from behind lace, her chocolate-brown hair hanging loose around her shoulders in soft waves, her kiss-swollen lips parted, her eyes burning into his.
“I love you, Jax,” she said.
Hearing her say it full-on that way made his cock harden into an almost painful state. Every part of him ached to take her, to surge inside her, to show her the way he felt for her beyond mere words. “I love you,” he told her right back, unafraid to say it. And then he caught her against him, bare skin to bare skin, her full breasts pressed against his chest, his cock surging into her softness. Jesus, if he didn’t soon get them both upstairs to his bed, they’d be having reunion sex right here on his couch. As appealing as bending Kassie over the loveseat was, he wanted to do it the right way.
He bent and scooped her up into his arms. She linked her wrists around his neck, laughing up at him. Her eyes glowed. She’d never been more beautiful to him. “I’m starting to think you have an inner caveman complex.”
He grinned at her as he stalked from the living room and started up the stairs. “I figure this is preferable to me dragging you by the hair.”
“Very funny.” Kassie smiled, reaching up to caress his cheek. Her fingers slid to the groove of one of his dimples. “God, I love these.”
He couldn’t resist dropping a kiss on her sweet lips as he made his way to his bedroom and set her back on her feet. “Then we’re even,” he told her, his gaze dipping to the creamy swells calling to him from above that white lace. He cupped her breasts, his thumbs finding her already pebbled nipples. “Because I love these.”
He pinched the sensitive buds, winning a moan from her. She caught her lower lip between her teeth in that way she had that he couldn’t resist. Jax stepped closer to her, lowering his mouth to hers for another deep, tongue-tangling kiss. He reached behind her, locating the clasp of her bra and pulling it open. Skimming his palms up over her shoulders, he hooked his fingers in the straps, tugging them down.
When the bra was officially no longer in his way, he moved to her jeans, flicking open the button at her fly without breaking their kiss. Her zipper was next. He couldn’t keep himself from touching her then. Her panties were hot and wet. He rubbed over her clit, gratified when she groaned and jerked her hips against his. She was every bit as wild for him as he was for her.
Good.
He tore his lips from hers, his heart beating as if he’d just come back from one of his morning jogs. Her breasts rose and fell with her harsh breaths. Kassie naked from the waist up, wearing nothing but a pair of blue jeans, with the flats she’d had on earlier kicked away to reveal her bare feet and red-painted toes, was the best sight he’d ever laid eyes on. Damn it, he loved this woman.
“I want you so damn much,” he told her, his voice low and gruff with the insane surge of need pulsing through his body.
Holding his gaze, she shimmied out of first her jeans, then her panties until she stood completely nude before him. He’d seen Kassie naked many times before, but he knew he’d never become immune to her. He reached for her, but she surprised him by sidestepping him.
“No. Not yet.” Her gaze raked down over his body, lingering on the rigid line of his dick, easily visible at his gaping fly. “Take off your pants.”
No problems there. Jax whipped them off, standing before her equally naked. His cock was standing at attention. So she wanted to take charge. He found that incredibly erotic. “What do you want me to do next, darlin’?”
“Get on the bed,” she ordered him.
Damn, if he got any stiffer, he’d turn to stone. Keeping his eyes on her, he backed up to the bed. Slowly, he sat down on the edge, planting his hands on the mattress to leverage himself into the center of the king size. He watched Kassie, who was suddenly turning into a siren before him.
She approached the bed, her hips swaying. “I want to suck your cock.” Pressing a knee on the bed, she crawled up and across the mattress, looking like a sexy tiger about to fuck his brains out. And he couldn’t wait. “Would you like that, baby?”
The breath fled from his lungs. “You know I would.”
Kassie knelt before him and lowered her head, taking his cock into her mouth. The whole way. His hips jerked off the bed. She glanced up at him with a wicked expression on her face, withdrawing until only the tip of him was between her lips. And then she slid back down, taking him into the back of her throat.
“Jesus, Kassie. You’re going to kill me if you keep that up.” His fingers went to the silky waves of her hair, sifting through them as she tortured him.
She sucked him, then deep-throated him, alternating between the two, stopping to lick a path around the head of his dick. When she licked a bead of pre-cum from him, he almost lost all control. Holy shit. He was about to come.
Not yet, damn it.
Jax grabbed her arms and hauled her over his body. Kassie straddled him, her soaked pussy riding his cock, her breasts spilling onto his chest. Her hair fell across her face and she flipped it back, bracing herself with her free arm. “Hey,” she protested, her lips close enough to his to kiss. “I wasn’t finished yet.”
“That’s the problem.” He caressed her hips. “I almost was.”
She leaned closer to him and ran her tongue over his lower lip. “So?”
When she would have withdrawn, he caught the back of her head and held her where he wanted her. He sank his tongue into her mouth, showing her what he wanted to do with his cock. Take her. Claim her. Make her his. The thoughts in his brain crashed together in a frenzied jumble of words. More. Now. Yes.
He reached between them, his fingers slipping easily between her molten, slick folds. She was more than ready for him. He worked her clit, exerting enough pressure to make her moan and arch into him. He broke the kiss, dragging his open mouth over her chin, her throat. He’d never been this turned on in his entire life. His every sense was heightened, all-consuming.
“I need to be inside you,” he said against her neck, half beg, half demand. “Now.”
“Yes.” She rose on her knees, her fingers circling his cock and bringing him to her pussy.
In one swift move, she lowered herself on him, taking him right where he wanted her to be. Deep inside her. He flicked her clit one more time before moving to her breasts. He cupped them, leaning up to take first one hungry nipple in his mouth and then another. All the while, Kassie fucked him, her rhythm taking him to the edge fast.
Jax’s head dropped back to the pillow. He rolled her nipples between his thumb and forefinger, tugging. She lost herself, rocking into him a
gain and again as she tightened on his cock in a series of spasms that had him about to come too. He thrust up into her as she met him halfway, their bodies grinding together. She framed his face with her hands, kissing him deeply. He lost the final shred of his control, coming inside her with such amazing force that it knocked the breath right out of his lungs.
Kassie collapsed against him, her breathing every bit as unsteady as his. He held her against him, stroking her back, thinking he was the luckiest damn bastard in the world.
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, gazing down at their entwined bodies with more happiness than he ever thought he’d experience in his life. “Thank you for coming back to me, darlin’. I was lost without you.”
She gave him a lingering kiss. “I had no choice. I was lost without you too.”
“Good.” He grinned, unable to resist smoothing his hand down over her back to the curve of her ass. “You know what this means though, don’t you?”
She gave him a questioning look. “What?”
“It means that you’re going to have to forfeit your running shoes,” he told her. “Hand them over to me.”
Kassie laughed. “You got it, babe.”
They kissed again, and damn it if Jax wasn’t starting to get hard all over again. He was still inside her. Looked as if they had a lot of catching up to do. “I love you, Kassie Ryan.”
She smiled back at him, and it was the look of a woman well-loved. “And I love you, Jax Taylor. You’re stuck with me now.”
“Damn straight I am,” he said, rolling her onto her back for round two. “And nothing in the world could make me a happier man.”
Epilogue
Kassie smiled to herself as she rinsed off the plates from dinner and stacked them in the dishwasher. She and Jax had invited his entire family over for a barbecue. It was July, and the summer was sweltering, but aside from everyone sweating their buns off until the sun had finally gone down, the evening had been a complete success. Connor was warming to her, she swore it. Even Levi, Jax’s wayward youngest brother, had joined them. Of course, he’d had his girlfriend of the moment by his side, but the girl had been sweet. A little dim, maybe, but sweet nonetheless.
After almost a year of being with Jax, Kassie truly felt at home. It was a good feeling, the sense of belonging somewhere, really belonging. She’d taken Jax back to her hometown to meet her mom and stepdad and to New York to meet Elle. He had everyone’s seal of approval. Yeah, life was very, very good.
“You’re looking awfully happy for a woman who’s dealing with the dirty dishes,” Jax observed, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist. He nuzzled her neck. “What’s got you smiling?”
Kassie leaned into him, reveling in the feeling of his large, strong body against hers. “Everything.”
“Damn.” He kissed her ear, catching the lobe between his teeth. “And here I thought it was me.”
She placed the last dirty plate inside the bottom rack and turned to face him. “You’re part of everything, so that counts.”
“It better.” He cupped her face and gave her a long, thorough kiss. “I have something I want to show you.”
Kassie cupped his cock through his jeans. “I think I’ve already seen it before,” she teased.
He kissed her again. “Not that. I’ll show you that later. There’s something else I need to show you first.”
She searched his gaze, trying to guess what on earth he needed to show her at ten o’clock in the evening in the middle of July. “What is it?”
He shook his head. “No can do. It’s not a telling kind of thing. It’s a showing kind of thing.”
“You got another tattoo,” she speculated. “My name with a big old heart around it.”
Jax grinned, his dimples on full display. “Nope. Sorry to disappoint, darlin’. But I can do that if you’d like me to.”
“No.” She couldn’t resist reaching up to caress his face. His stubble was a delicious abrasion on her fingers. “I love you just the way you are.”
He caught her hand, kissing it before taking it in his. “Glad to hear it. Now come with me.”
“But I’m not done with the dishes yet,” she protested as he pulled her from the kitchen. She still had to put away all the glasses and silverware he’d brought inside for her.
“The dishes can wait,” he told her, leading her down the hall to the closed door of his office. He stopped and turned to her. “Close your eyes.”
“Jax,” she said in a tone of objection. Why on earth was he being so melodramatic?
“Just humor me, darlin’.”
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes before closing them as he’d asked. She heard the door open and a light switch being turned on.
“Okay, baby. You can open them now,” Jax said.
Kassie opened her eyes and then blinked, doing a double take. The room she was looking at wasn’t Jax’s sparse, masculine office with the giant Mac on a glass desk and the black-and-white beach prints hanging on the wall. No, this was…this was her office. Her computer hummed away on her desk. Her prints hung on the walls. A bouquet of fresh wildflowers sat on the desk. A wall of custom bookshelves was filled with the reference books and romance novels she’d been keeping in boxes in her basement. The prints she’d had on her walls, New York cityscapes she’d taken herself, were all artfully hung.
“What do you think?” he asked, sounding nervous.
Kassie’s eyes swung to him. He was adorably sexy, watching her with an expectant expression, almost as if he wasn’t sure if she would love what he’d done or hate it. She was touched. He’d done this for her, had given up his space, transforming it better than she could have even imagined for herself.
“I love it,” she told him. “How on earth did you get everything here without me knowing it?”
He grinned. “With a lot of help from my pain-in-the-ass brothers and with my mama distracting you.”
She’d taken the day off work the previous day to have some quality girl time with Jax’s mother. And then she’d spent the night at Jax’s house because they were planning on having company the next day. She had enough clothing and toiletries there on a permanent basis that it hadn’t made sense for her to bother going back home.
The clever man. He’d planned the whole thing from start to finish, and she hadn’t even had a clue. But there was still one important question that needed asking, even if she was totally in love with what he’d done with her books and how he’d redesigned the space to suit her.
“But why is my office here in your house?” After all, from a practical standpoint, she did work out of her office every day. And she didn’t live with Jax, even if she spent enough time with him that she nearly did anyway.
“You work out of your office,” he said, raking a hand through his hair. Yeah, he was definitely nervous, all right.
“Yes I do,” she agreed, starting to wonder if she was missing something. “But how am I supposed to work out of it when it isn’t in my house anymore?”
“I was hoping that maybe you wouldn’t want to work out of your house.” Jax paused, looking more vulnerable than she’d ever seen him. “Because I was hoping that maybe you’d want to move in here. With me.”
Wow. She certainly hadn’t expected that. Warmth hit her right in the vicinity of her heart. “You want me to move in with you?”
“Move in with me,” he repeated, reaching into his back pocket and extracting a velvet box. He flipped the lid open and sank down on one knee, gazing up at her with all the love he felt for her reflected in his brilliant-blue eyes. “And marry me?”
Kassie almost couldn’t believe what she was seeing. It was so much, so perfect. The office, the man. Her eyes finally focused on the box. Good God, the ring. It was huge and sparkly. She swayed on her feet, emotion coursing through her. Happiness. Pure joy. Love.
“What do you say, darlin’?” he asked, still on his knee.
“I say yes,” she told him without hesitation.
“Yes. I’ll marry you.”
“Thank the good Lord.” Grinning with relief, he stood, sweeping her into a crushing hug. “For a minute there, I thought you were going to say no.”
“Never,” she said, hugging him to her. “I told you that you’re stuck with me, and I meant it.”
He kissed her swiftly, his tongue sinking into her mouth to play with hers. When he pulled his lips away at last, he smiled down at her, grabbing her hand to slide the ring onto her finger. It twinkled up at her, a symbol of the unexpected love she’d found in a sleepy beach town hundreds of miles away from where she’d always thought she’d end up.
“And I told you that makes me the happiest man in the world.” He brought her hand to his lips for another kiss. “Now what do you say I show you that other thing we were talking about?”
Kassie laughed. “I wouldn’t dream of anything else.”
About Scarlett Scott
Scarlett Scott has loved romance novels ever since she was eleven and swiped her older sister’s books to read by flashlight in her closet. Her mother caught her, but she remained undeterred. A self-described promiscuous writer, she dabbles in all sorts of genres but loves erotic romance best. She lives with her hero and their adorable but occasionally evil puppy and spends too much time lurking on her blog.
Scarlett welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
Tell Us What You Think
We appreciate hearing reader opinions about our books. You can email the author directly or you can email us at [email protected] (when contacting Customer Service, be sure to state the book title and author).
Also by Scarlett Scott
A Mad Passion
LovedUp Page 19
