by Marie York
I inhaled and choked at his declaration. “Excuse you.” My eyes narrowed into an evil glare, directing my annoyance at him.
“What? It’s true.” The luggage carousel started and he moved toward the drop. He glanced over his shoulder, pinning me in place with that intense stare. “And it’s not like I said it was a bad thing.”
He stopped again and flashed me that panty-dropping smile before coming back to me. His chest touched mine just enough to feel the hardness—sense the heat radiating off of him. He dipped his head and whispered against my ear, “Might even say I’ve missed it.” His breath skated across my skin, turning my nipples into tight peaks.
The first suitcase came down the belt and Jaxon stepped back. He winked at me, then did what he did best. He walked away, leaving me wet and alone.
Chapter 11
The warm late spring air was made even more perfect by the light breeze. I followed Jaxon out of the airport and quickly checked my hair and makeup in my compact before catching up to him. His black t-shirt stretched tight across his biceps as he lifted my suitcase over a curb.
“What do you have in here?” he asked as he put my luggage back down on the pavement.
“Just the necessities.”
“Cinder blocks?”
“More like shoes, and clothes, bags and makeup. A blow dryer, a curling iron, a straightening iron…”
“What the hell do you need all that for?”
“I don’t exactly wake up like this.” I swiped a hand in the air at my face. “It takes time.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I remembered my mad dash to the airport. How I threw my hair into a sloppy ponytail and only had time to dab on a little lip-gloss. Exactly why only three seconds earlier I was checking my face to make sure I didn’t look like a total train wreck.
“And you did all of that today?” he asked with a questioning eye and damn him for not-so subtly pointing out that I looked like crap.
“Well, I didn’t exactly have time this morning so… no.”
He picked my suitcase up with ease as if it wasn’t pushing max capacity. “Then you don’t need any of this shit.”
My eyes locked with his and my lips parted, wanting to say something, but all I could focus on was the vision of his strained muscles as he held me up against his apartment door and devoured me with his lips.
As if he knew my mind was tormenting me with our one-night stand on replay, he closed the gap between us and ran a finger down the length of my jaw. “You’re beautiful just the way you are.”
He pulled his hand away, and I sucked in a jagged breath. I was completely consumed by this once quiet man who had the ability to say all the right things at just the perfect moment.
Not one to linger, Jaxon moved away from me and toward a car just as manly as he was. The black paint shined under the midday sun and I knew it was a classic, I just wasn’t sure the make or model.
Jaxon popped the trunk and tossed my bags in before unlocking the passenger door. He held the door open, and I paused inches away from the warmth of his hard chest.
“Rental cars are getting fancy these days.” I ran my hand along the door frame.
He laughed. “It’s not a rental.”
“Trying to overcompensate for something then?” I glanced down at his crotch then back to him.
“Why don’t you tell me?” He stepped closer, erasing the gap between us. His heat mixed with mine, his lips a mere breath away. “Or do you need a reminder?”
Words. I needed words, but I couldn’t think of any, not when he was standing so close and looking as good as he did. His finger brushed my chin then gave it a slight push. “Didn’t want you to embarrass yourself by drooling.”
“What? I’m not drooling.”
“If you say so.” He put space between us and it took all I had not to drag him back toward me.
“You drove here?” I asked, desperate to change the subject.
A smile tugged at the corner of his luscious lips and he arched a dark eyebrow in amusement.
“I don’t mean the airport. Michigan. You drove to Michigan?”
He ran a hand over the back of his neck then looked at me with squinted eyes. “I live here.”
Shock blasted me in the face. This had been the most information I knew about him in two freaking years and I wanted more. Needed more. He never called. Never sent an email or a text or anything to let me know he was alive.
“For how long?” I demanded.
“Almost a year.”
“A year!”
“Almost.”
“Does Dee and Cole know?”
I asked Dee about Jaxon every few weeks, hoping for an update. Some sort of insight to what he’d been doing with his life. Where he’d been. She never had anything new to share. She couldn’t know. She would have told me the minute she found out.
“Of course, they do,” Jaxon said, and if the door wasn’t there holding me up, I would’ve fallen to my ass.
My best friend had been lying to me. We told each other everything. I knew more about her sex life than her soon-to-be husband probably did. I knew she made-out with her sister’s ex-boyfriend in high school and how she cried every time she watched Cinderella because she felt bad for the evil step sisters because it wasn’t their fault they were misguided.
Yet the one thing I desperately wanted to know, she kept from me, her best friend. What the hell was that about?
“You getting in or what?” Jaxon asked.
“You’re the one still standing here,” I threw back, attempting to ignore the betrayal eating away at me.
With a smirk he went over to his side, and I slid into the black leather passenger seat. I wondered how many girls he fucked in this seat. If he thought of me while he brought them to the brink just as I thought of him every time I’d been with a guy since our night together.
“What brought you to Michigan?” I asked as Jaxon got in and put the key in the ignition. The engine roared to life and he revved it a few times before pulling out of the space.
He gave me a quick glance and then shrugged. “Cole liked it. Thought what the hell. Needed a change of scenery.”
“Just like that?” It seemed too simple. I wasn’t exactly happy where I was, but I couldn’t just up and leave. Dee had been trying to persuade me to relocate to Michigan from the day she landed here, but I didn’t want to intrude on the new life she was starting.
He nodded.
I stared at Jaxon, taking in his perfect profile and when he turned and caught my eye, I smiled and let myself be honest. “I envy you.”
He scoffed. “Me?”
“Yeah you. I would never have the balls to just change scenery.”
“It’s not about balls.”
“Then what’s it about?”
The dark pools of his eyes grew distant. “I don’t like being in the same place for too long.”
“Why not?” I asked, fully aware that there was a reason for his mystery and dying to know what it was.
His jaw tightened, the distance in his eyes turned to an obscure void, before he turned the volume of the radio up and let my question float away unanswered.
***
We drove up to my hotel, and Jaxon ignored the entrance, turning toward the parking lot instead. He hadn’t said a word since he dismissed my question, so I assumed he would dump me as quickly as possible.
I pointed back to the main entrance. “You can just pull up to the front. I don’t need you to walk me in.”
He didn’t answer.
“Fine suit yourself,” I said, but was really thinking; how much more torture I could I endure? ? It was bad enough he ignored me, but even worse was sitting in such close proximity without reaching across to feel those taut muscles. His delicious scent was making my brain fuzzy with want, making my thoughts default back to that night.
He put the shifter in park, and without hesitation I jumped out. I breathed in the fresh air devoid of Jaxon’s masculine scent.
&nb
sp; Once my head cleared, I went to the back of the car and waited for Jaxon. My eyes skimmed over the silver SS emblem. “What kind of car is this?” I asked as he approached.
“A 1969 Camaro SS.”
He popped the trunk, and I reached in for my bags. “It’s pretty.”
“Not a word I’d use to describe it.” He pressed his chest against my back as he leaned into the trunk. “I got it.” He curled his fingers around the strap of my carry-on.
My gaze lingered on his hand, wishing those long lean fingers would wrap around me instead. It was impossible to ignore how good he felt against me, but we couldn’t stay here forever..
I didn’t want him to think I couldn’t take care of myself though, or worse that I expected him to take care of me. I had put all my eggs in one basket with Kyle and ever since it blew up in my face, I made a habit of proving to myself that I was capable of handling anything on my own, including carrying my own luggage.
“I’m more than capable,” I said.
“I never said you weren’t.” He lifted the duffle bag onto his shoulder and hauled the suitcase out of the trunk with the same ease as when he carried me to his bed. “We going to stand in the parking lot all day?”
I turned on my heel and headed to the entrance. “Don’t hurt yourself,” I tossed over my shoulder, but he was already behind me keeping pace. Of course. With muscles like his, hard, taut and defined, he’d have no problems hauling my stuff up and down the parking lot a million times.
I doubt he’d even break a sweat, though he’d look good with a sheen of sweat on his skin just like that night.
I needed to get away from him. To get my mind to behave and stop ambushing me with mouthwatering, leg tingling memories. Most of all I needed to call my best friend and ask her why she’d been lying to me.
One night with Jaxon didn’t constitute a relationship, heck it was just sex. Hot, wild sex. But that didn’t mean a piece of me didn’t wonder what would have happened if I never left his place in the middle of the night.
I wondered so many times if we would have made a go at it. The past two years I couldn’t shake him—couldn’t shake the feeling that I made a big mistake that night. Jaxon was the kind of guy I could see myself falling for and I just wanted a second chance to see if my gut was right.
Dee knew this and to think for over a year she’d known where he was. Known that he was settled in Michigan and probably spending Friday nights at her place. Yet she never told me.
Then again… a year ago is when she started insisting that I think about picking up and moving here. Was that her way of telling me?
As soon as I checked in, I was getting on the phone and calling her. I approached the desk and gave all my information to the concierge. He gave me my room card, room 405, and a rundown of all the amenities. I thanked him and went to grab my bags from Jaxon, but he was already heading to the elevator.
Oh my God he was infuriating. I stormed over to him not sure why I was getting so aggravated. “I don’t need you to walk me to my room.”
“It’s on the way,” he said.
“On the way to what?”
He held up his room key, and I glanced at the number 406.
Fuck me.
Chapter 12
“Wait a minute.” I pointed my finger at his big chest. “I thought you lived in Michigan. Why do you need a hotel room?”
He cocked the corner of his lip up and that gesture alone drove me crazy with want. I flicked my eyes away from his mouth. The more I looked at it the more I remembered what it was capable of.
“Thought it was a good time to refinish my wood floors. Can’t sleep there with the fumes.”
He was having his floors refinished. Did he own a home? I couldn’t even get a job with my degree. I was living off of Ramen and store brand cereal in a studio apartment that could pass for an oversized closet and he bought a house.
Lately I had been feeling a bit unaccomplished, but this single fact made me feel like a complete and total loser. People moved at different paces, achievements weren’t on a schedule, and I knew it was only a matter of time before I was flying high in success, but it was still hard not to feel like I’d fallen behind.
“Good for you,” I said, refusing to be jealous of his success. “But I see you as someone who would be doing your own floors.”
“Who said I wasn’t?”
Of course. Why wouldn’t he finish his own floors? I’m sure he chops down trees and never needs to call a plumber or electrician. Probably can fix cars too. Images of Jaxon shirtless and hanging over his beautiful car, sweat trickling down his bare back, his biceps bulging with each turn of a wrench infiltrated my thoughts.
I licked my lips at the thought then remembered he was still standing right in front of me. What the hell brain? Get it together! Not every scenario needed to be an X-rated movie playing out in my mind.
“Thanks for your help. I got it from here.” I swiped the key and pushed the door open.
Jaxon went to walk the bags in and I stopped him at the door. “No, I got it from here.”
The last thing I needed was Jaxon in my hotel room after that hot and steamy vision. One step closer, and I’d be throwing myself at him like some deprived sex addict.
I still had another four days here, and I didn’t want to make it awkward because I couldn’t control myself.
“Thanks for everything,” I said and practically closed the door in his face.
Once safely in my room and far enough away from Jaxon, I flopped on the bed and took a deep breath. I didn’t know how much longer I’d be able to be near him without trying to recreate our kiss in the airport which I was still annoyed about.
Why did he feel the need to stake his claim on me? Was it possible that he was jealous? Did he have plans for us while I was here? Is that why he’d volunteered to pick me up at the airport? Just when I got once question answered, I now had a hundred more. Mr. Mysterious hadn’t lost his mystique.
I closed my eyes and could almost feel the lingering press of his lips on mine. I gave up fighting and allowed myself to get lost to the fantasy. I could still taste the mint on his breath and feel the hardness of his chest against me.
While the fantasy was great, it was depressing, and only reminded me of what I couldn’t have. I sat up and grabbed my cell.
Dee was supposed to pick me up at the airport, and it was so not like her to not send a warning text that she was sending Mr. One-Night Stand instead. She had a lot of explaining to do.
The phone rang four times before she finally answered. “Are you here?” she asked, followed by a curse and a bang.
“Everything okay?”
“Just trying to balance too many things. I can’t believe you’re finally in Michigan.”
“And I can’t believe you’re getting married.”
“I know,” she squealed, and I laughed.
“You know who else is also in Michigan?”
Dee went quiet on the other end then blew out a rush of air into the receiver. “Surprise?”
“You know how much I hate surprises.”
“Which is ridiculous. Besides you’ve asked about him so many times since you guys hooked up, I thought it would be your chance to finally… I don’t know. Have closure? A second chance maybe?”
“What have I told you about playing matchmaker?”
“You’re not a board game. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I know you always regretted walking out on Jax and you guys would be so good together.”
She’d never said that before. Maybe the whole getting married thing was going to her head. She thought everyone deserved to find their Mr. Right. Which was a nice thought, but after my breakup with Kyle, I stopped dreaming about finding “the one”. Granted, I did regret leaving Jaxon that night, but a part of me believed that even if I stayed, he would have left anyway.
“He told me he moved here about a year ago,” I said.
The only answer I received was silence.
“Why
didn’t you tell me, Dee?”
She let out a loud puff of air that crackled in the phone. “I wanted to. I wanted to so bad, but Cole made me swear, and I didn’t want to break the first promise he asked of me as his fiancée. It just seemed like bad karma.”
“Why would Cole make you swear?” It didn’t make any sense. Unless Jaxon didn’t want anything to do with me…
“Jax isn’t exactly open about a lot of things. He plays into that whole mysterious stereotype really well. A little too well. Like if I bring up Jax and Cole in high school, Jax gets all weird and Cole changes the subject.”
“And Cole’s never hinted as to why?”
“I asked him once, and he told me it wasn’t his story to tell. Like that line hasn’t been used a million times over. Still, he wouldn’t tell me, so I figured if he can keep Jax’s secret so tightly, especially from the woman he’s going to marry, the least I could do is respect his wishes to not tell anyone Jax moved to Michigan.”
“What the hell is he hiding?” I asked.
“I don’t know. But you’re here for another four days,” Dee said, and I could hear that conniving tone in her voice.
“So?”
“Spend time with him. Find out what it is.”
“I don’t think so.” Just because I opened my legs for him, didn’t mean he was going to open up his heart to me and bear all.
“Aren’t you curious? And don’t tell me you aren’t because you’re full of shit if you do.”
“If he wanted people to know he would tell them.” Clearly, he’d gone out of his way to stay under the radar.
“Maybe he hasn’t found the right person to tell.”
I sighed loudly. I doubted I was the right person, but Dee wouldn’t see it that way. She had hearts in her eyes and expectations on her mind. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
Before Dee could answer there was a knock at the door. My heart stopped and I jolted slightly, startled by the unexpected noise.
Maybe it was housekeeping wanting to know if I needed more towels or pillows.
What was the likelihood that on the other side of the door was Jaxon? Highly unlikely, I was letting my fantasies take over reality and blur the lines.