Bottomed Out

by Brooke May

  Wow.

  Just … wow.

  “I’m so sorry to hear that. Couldn’t he join a disabled league?”

  Len opens her mouth to respond but doesn’t get a chance to.

  “There you are!” Paige appears from where Len came. Grabbing ahold of Len, she removes her from my lap. I feel the loss instantly. “I’m ready to get going.” A grin doesn’t look right on Paige’s usually stoic face. In the few times I’ve met with her, it’s safe to say that resting bitch face is her norm. This nearly happy expression makes my skin crawl.

  “Len?”

  “Sorry, Jax. She’s already had some to drink, and I’m always her driver.” Well, there is something we have in common. “Meet me at Clutch?”

  “Maybe.” Following her departure, I feel a yearning grab hold of me. I had her for a few minutes, and it wasn’t nearly enough. Turning back to my friend, I discover we have someone new sitting with us.

  “Hey, Parker.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Music thumping from one end of the club to the other is almost too much for my head to take. The ride back to the city was filled with excitement by my two counterparts. I won’t lie, I was and still am pretty thrilled about it as well because I get to see Len.

  Clutch is a relatively new club in town. Only Levi seems to have experienced it so far. By the time we got back to town, it was well after dark and the nightlife was just beginning to come to life. Clutch was easy enough to find, but parking proved to be a bitch.

  I was just about to give up when I found a lone handicap spot along the abandoned corner of the building. The club isn’t very wheelchair accessible either. I doubt they have anyone in mind when they started this place up.

  Thankfully, my two friends flank me and help pave the way into the club until we found Parker.

  He is most definitely as interesting of a person as I thought he would be. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the man being serious about anything. I think that’s why I found it shocking that he and Paige were opening up their own motor sports company. He is the complete opposite of his stern sister, who never seems to be out of control.

  Even in the magazine Axle left open on our coffee table turned to Paige’s spread, she seemed like nothing was happening during the shooting that wasn’t warranted. Sexy as those images were, I couldn’t imagine her letting loose enough to have fun with a shoot like that.

  And then my mind instantly drifts to Lennox. Paige may be the one who graces magazine covers in something that leaves nothing to the imagination, but Len is the one I think of wearing something similar but in lighter colors.

  Grabbing my glass of water, I chug half of it before I continue my search for the mysterious woman.

  While Axle and Levi are living up the fun Parker has promised them, I’m completely content sitting in the VIP area, sipping on my water, and patiently waiting.

  Like all the times we go out, girls bypass me for my friends, but tonight is different. They are flocking to Parker’s side as well, and I have someone I’m happily waiting for.

  “You look kind of lonely sitting here by yourself.”

  “Shit!” My body jerks. Lips brush across the shell of my exposed ear and warmth floods me.

  “I think your friend likes Paige.” Fingers tickle my neck once more and work down to my shoulder before dropping to my chair as Len walks around and settles on my lap once more. The parts of me that I can feel tenses with delight, making me feel like it has been forever since I’ve had a girl on top of me instead of my hand bringing me some sort of relief.

  “You’re forming a habit,” I tease, not stopping myself from tapping her on the nose.

  “You don’t seem to mind.” Wriggling on my lap, I bite back a groan as her firm ass rubs against my steadily stiffening dick.

  “Well, it is the best seat in the house.”

  “Feeling pretty self-assured, aren’t we?” Bringing her own glass to her lips, I watch them part to allow the clear liquid to slip into her mouth and slide down her throat. I’m suddenly incredibly thirsty.

  “I’m more than a broken man most see.” The words crack as I force them out. I should reach around her and reclaim my drink, but I can’t pull my gaze away from her.

  Finally, the strangely exotic show is over, and she places her drink next to mine. It is thoroughly refreshing to see someone else staying sober on a night of debauchery.

  “I see so much more than what everyone else can, Jax.” The tips of her fingers dig slightly into my cheeks, drawing my gaze back up to her mismatched one. “I see you, Jax Hunt.”

  “Y-You do?” I don’t know if I have ever heard sweeter words. I know Levi, Axle, and the majority of my family see me, but as for a woman I’m interested in, I never thought it would be possible again.

  “Come on, let’s go dance.” Sliding off my lap, she pauses as she brushes over my erection before getting up and coming around behind me to push me out to the dance floor.

  “What are you doing?”

  “We are going to dance,” she offers sweetly.

  “If you haven’t noticed, I can’t dance.” Which is a real shame. I used to love to swing a woman around.

  “Then I’ll dance for you.” With the ease of a seasoned dancer, Len quickly falls into sync with the music pulsating around us. The beat doesn’t hurt my head anymore as it falls away from me, and Len comes into view.

  Her body waves and sways to the beat I can no longer hear. I’m hypnotized by her movements. Her dance entices me; my fingers throb with the desire to grab her, pull her down onto my lap once more, and consume her as much as she has done to me.

  The look she gives me, the completely compelling concentration on me as she dances only for me, make me feel like a whole man again. She isn’t dancing for Levi or Axle or even Parker, but for me.

  This is far better than I thought possible.

  The music must change because her motions do. Something faster that is more movement of her body rather than the sultry way she was delighting me with the sway of her hips. This is just as alluring, causing my heart rate to pick up.

  Song after song, she gyrates for me until she is moving between my two motionless legs, and her supple ass grinds against my lap.

  Biting my lip, I don’t know how much more I can take of this.

  Music streams back to my ears as I pull her down on my lap. Before she can say anything, I’m pushing my chair back to the VIP area where it is slightly masked in darkness and away from the strobe lights.

  “Jax?” Turning in my lap, Len’s arms wrap around my neck, bringing her face a hairsbreadth away from mine.

  The heat flowing between us has nothing to do with the sweat she worked up while dancing. Glancing down at her lips, I drag my eyes up to hers once more and seal our lips together.

  A gasp has her mouth parting, but I don’t push to feel her tongue against mine. Her slightly chapped lips feel perfect against mine. Sparks fly behind my closed eyes.

  My hands abandon their hold on my chair to wrap around her back, granting me the privilege of feeling her heated bare flesh as they reach under her shirt.

  Her own hands work their way up into my hair, tilting my head enough to give her better access. The tips of her blunt fingernails massage my scalp, making this so much more desirable.

  We grow urgent, heavier, hungrier.

  And then her lips are gone.

  She abandons my lap, and I’m left dazed as I watch her run off.

  What the hell is happening?

  Shaking my head clear, I open my eyes wide, and my ears finally pick up on what is going on in the club. A fight has broken out, but I can’t see anything. I can certainly hear it, though.

  In the few moments it takes me to get close enough, I discover Axle staggering back over to the VIP booth. He’s ready to go home and is strangely not grumpy.

  “Paige, huh?”

  “I guess.” He sighs as he continues to stare out the window on our way back to the apartment. “Y
ou and the pixie?”

  “Pixie?”

  “That’s what I call the little spitfire.”

  “Pixie.” I test out the nickname and find it suits her. “How the hell do you know Len?”

  Chapter Seventeen

  She vanished.

  After the admission of seeing me, the dancing I felt in my bones that was just for my viewing privilege, and the steamy yet short make-out session, I thought Len would have facilitated my number once more.

  But I got nothing.

  A call never came in where she apologized for her sudden vanishing act. A text didn’t arrive in either, yet I can’t bring myself to fire off a message to her or call her in fear of rejection.

  Once more, I feel jilted.

  On Sunday morning, I felt like shit from my lack of sleep and almost rolled over in bed to go back to sleep when I heard my mom’s voice in my pounding head over the sound of my normal beeping alarm.

  “Jaxson, get your butt out of bed and to church. God asks for one day. You better well give it to him.”

  I pulled myself upright and proceeded to get ready even if it felt like I have been plowed over by a truck in the middle of the night. Church was the same it has always been. Mom ignored me, Dad pacified me with small talk, and Josie and Nolan did their best to entertain me while Ruby bounced happily on my lap. I couldn’t focus on the sermon. My head was too wrapped up in the night before and a certain woman who keeps eluding me.

  She really is the pixie Axle has so promptly nicknamed her. Pixies vanish and can remain hidden until they want to be found, just like Len.

  I’m kicking myself–figuratively–for not going after her.

  Distraction is an understatement for the day. While everyone else who made the event possible is glowing with happiness over how well it turned out, I’m miserable, distant, and have locked myself away in my office to try to turn all of my focus onto the bonfire.

  It isn’t fucking working.

  Every time I pull up an email, the image of Len on my lap—lips swollen and eyes hooded—flashes in my mind.

  I’m starved for more, and I have no clue how to locate her besides going out to the Piston Motor Sports complex. Then I would look like a stalker.

  Yeah, that isn’t going to happen.

  Snarling to myself, I blink several times to try to form a reply for the message on the screen. I can’t keep the self-doubt from seeping into the fibers of my mind while I type out a response. I thought we had hit it off, but did I read all of it wrong? Was she just like every other woman who took pity on the poor cripple guy?

  Fuck that noise.

  Slamming my fists down on the desk causes an echo to bounce off every hard surface, even the music I have playing in the background is nothing but noise.

  “What the hell is going on in here?”

  I know my hair looks crazed, matching how I feel inside. Michelle bursts in the door, eyes wide as she scans my office before settling on me.

  “What the …?” Trailing off, she stands up straight and quickly closes the door behind her to keep the rest of the office from seeing or hearing my freak out. “Are you okay?” She takes a tentative step toward me. She is acting like a frightened animal. “I thought you would be on cloud nine because of how well the event went.”

  “I thought I would be too,” I grumble, trying to turn back to my computer and put my keyboard back in its rightful position.

  “You’re hung up on that girl, aren’t you?”

  “What?” My head jerks up once more, so quickly that I nearly give myself whiplash. “What are you talking about?”

  “That girl … er … woman, the first one who came from Piston Motor Sports. You’re hung up on her.”

  “I’m … not.” I feel a blush creep up my face.

  “Oh, hell no.” She isn’t a timid animal now as she stomps up to me. “I saw the way you were enraptured with her.”

  “Her eyes.” I point at my own. “They were unique. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone with two different colors be–”

  “Bullshit.” Her single reply rips out of her mouth before I can even finish my excuse. As true as it may be, it’s the first thing to pop into my mind. “You were smitten and so was she.”

  “I don’t’ know what you’re talking about.” I’m not going to get any work done until I can get Michelle to leave. But who am I kidding? My focus is shit.

  “I was standing right there.” She points over at my table. “And I watched the two of you focus entirely on one another that time fell away and I had to answer your phone several times to take messages for you. I saw the way you were acting and I saw the delight in her eyes whenever you spoke. I saw it, Mr. Hunt.” She ends by crossing her arms and twitching an eyebrow at me.

  “Wh—” I start but halt because I really don’t know what to say. Len was as smitten with me as I was with her? How would Michelle know? Instead of thinking about it, I just ask her. “What makes you the expert?”

  “Ten years of marriage and witnessing my own siblings fall in love with their spouses.”

  I didn’t see that as evidence enough to call her an expert. I’m not given the chance to object to her statement because my office phone rings.

  “Duty calls.”

  Her eyes narrow. “Lunchtime. We are talking, Mr. Hunt.”

  “Right.” Picking up my phone, I wave her away. “Jax Hunt—”

  “My boy!” Mr. Landon’s voice booms happily against my ear. “I wish I could come in and give you a hug for your work this weekend. The turnout was far better than I ever thought possible. We have had more calls today than any other event we have had thus far.”

  “It was all in a day’s work.” Talking to my boss may be just what I need to get my mind away from Lennox Austin for a while.

  “Nonsense.” He snorts. “You went above and beyond, Jax. I am very pleased, and I look forward to see what you’re going to pull together with the bonfire. How are the arrangements coming with that?”

  I dive into what Michelle and I have accomplished thus far, and for the next several minutes, I lose myself in it. But I’m reminded of my woes with Len the moment I’m off the phone and find Michelle once more standing in the doorway.

  “Yes?”

  “Go after her.” With that, she slams my door shut.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Scrubbing my sweat-soaked hand up and down my face does not help improve anything.

  Hours of work steadily distracted my mind. As soon as I got off the phone with Mr. Landon, I was able to get back to work. My focus was sharpened once more. Efficiently working, I got everything done that was asked of me for the day.

  Emails were answered, calls were made and received, and somehow, I managed to weasel my way out of an interrogating lunch with Michelle when Levi called and asked me to meet him.

  After lunch, Michelle gave me the cold shoulder. So much so that when it was time to close up shop for the day, she was already gone for the evening, and I left on my own. It felt odd not going down to the garage with her, but I’ve done it before when she was gone for personal days.

  The apartment was deserted when I got there. I changed quickly and then wheeled my way over to the gym.

  To my utter delight, Owen was here, and the moment I wheeled in, the staff who had been helping several people stopped what they were doing to watch any and all exchanges that may occur between the two of us.

  It kind of surprised me that Owen left me the hell alone as I went over to the free weights and began to lift for the next hour.

  And that’s about all the peace the man was willing to give me.

  Staring at my hands, I debate picking up a towel and wiping them and my face off before I move myself over to the hanging equipment. Only, I’m not given a chance to truly come to a decision because my chair is jerked backwards and I’m turned at an angle that nearly wedges me between two benches.

  “You need to stay the hell away from my sister.” His breath beats against my face
even though there is still a great deal of distance between us. Wheelchairs do not make it easy for one man to get into another’s face.

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “I know you were with my sister this weekend, asshole.” His nostrils flare with every word.

  A frown wrinkles my brow. “And if I was with your sister this weekend, strictly business, why is it any concern of yours?” Okay, part of that is a lie. Sure, she was at the event to work and so was I, for the most part, so can I really classify that as a lie?

  “Bull-fucking-shit!” he screams. “I know you were with her at Clutch!”

  “Are you seriously that possessive of your sister that she can’t have her own goddamn life without you knowing about it?” I thought I could try to overlook how protective he is of Len from what she told me this weekend, but I’m not sure I can with how much of a controlling asshole he is being right now. “Len is a full-grown woman who can do what she wants and be around who she likes. Back the fuck off me because I’m not someone you can control.” Jerking my chair out of the wedge it was forced into, I hit the side of his.

  Silence.

  Pure, fucking silence fills the room before he unleashes hell.

  “Fuck off!” He turns his chair sharply only to slam it into my side.

  “Seriously?” I don’t even give myself a moment to think about it before I’m slamming my chair into his once more. On purpose this time. I really want to slam my fist into his face instead. If I really wanted to take a minute and open my defenses for him to attack me, I would find this entire fight stupid.

  And man, do I hope no one has a phone out recording this.

  “Hey! Hey! Hey!” Two of the larger male physical therapists are behind each of us, pulling me back far enough away from Owen who is struggling against the other man holding him back. “That is enough fighting, Owen.”