by Kahlen Aymes
I huffed. “I don’t. No running water, heat or lights? No computers? Kill me.”
“Come on, where’s your sense of adventure, Professor Panty-Melter? I’d love to have you serving me.”
My eyebrows shot up at the name. “What?”
“You heard me.” She was flirting and I loved it. Clearly the drinks left her a little tipsy. “All the girls call you that. Hell, you’re known for it, campus-wide.”
I knew it, but I was delighted to hear it from the woman in front of me. I offered a lazy smile. “It’s not my fault, you know.”
“Uh huh,” Addison answered, reaching for the fresh beer in front of her, her eyes trained on mine. “You live up to it, that’s for sure.”
My cock instantly rose to the occasion, making the denim in my lap pull and pinch uncomfortably. I tugged at the crotch under the cover of the table.
“Oh, I’m the servant in that scenario?”
“Yep!” She licked a crumb from her lip. “Sure are.”
Happiness filled my heart, and desire still made my blood race. “I think I can live with that, Addison.”
“Isn’t it too bad they don’t have this going on all year? It’s so much fun.”
“We’ll come again next year.” And every year after that, I added mentally. An image hit me of the young family earlier… only in my imagination, it was us I saw, and maybe not six kids, but definitely one or two. “Deal?”
Her beautiful dark eyes rose to mine. She didn’t question what I meant because she knew. “Deal.”
“I don’t want to leave.”
“Who said we have to. We can get a room in town and spend the day here tomorrow. Would you like that?”
“Yes. Will you be at my service?” One eyebrow shot up suggestively.
“If that’s what milady desires,” I said. My phone was turned to vibrate, and suddenly went off in my pocket. I pulled it out just enough to glance at it. It was Gloria, but she could wait until the weekend was over. I didn’t want to ruin the moment or the next day, so I vowed to turn the damn thing off the second Addison was distracted and leave it off until we got back to the city…. My priority was to find a room so I could make love to her all night.
“It is. Thank you for bringing me here, Jax.” She reached for my hand, and I gave it willingly. Her touch sent a familiar yet, thrilling jolt of electricity through me.
“It’s been my pleasure.” Nothing could have been closer to the truth. I’d truly enjoyed every second of the day… besides the fight at the start, but even that turned out well. A secret smile lifted my lips.
This was my idea of heaven. Just being with her out in the open, knowing I’d be able to melt into her for hours to come, making love to her and worshiping her body until the sun came up.
19
Jax’s phone would not stop buzzing. “Bzzzzz. Bzzzzz. Bzzzz.”
The weekend had been the best of my life. As we drove back into the city on Sunday night, I spent the entire hour staring at his profile. I studied his every movement and committed it to memory. The way he glanced at me, the glimmer of what seemed like love and certainly desire I found there, the confident way he moved, and deftly handled the agile sports car. His strength, his amazing mind… the way he touched me and made me his every time… how beautiful he was, how sincere. I loved this man. Everything about him slayed me. Every cell of my body overflowed with emotion.
He was obviously annoyed by the phone, but I’d been wondering why he just didn’t answer it. “Why not just pick it up?” I asked softly. I was tired from the weekend, from staying up all night making love in the quaint B & B he’d found.
“It’s just Gloria,” he answered easily, reaching for my hand with his larger one. “She can wait.”
“No doubt she wants your book. I feel guilty that you helped me with mine and let your own go unfinished.”
The passing lights on the side of the road flashed through the car and on his face as we raced back to Manhattan. “Don’t be. I wouldn’t have it finished anyway. I’ve felt disingenuous about my last book. I need a break. I’ve told her over and over again. She just won’t listen.”
“What about the contract with S & S?” I was worried he’d face repercussions.
“It’s ongoing. It’s just a fact that authors get writer’s block sometimes. What are we supposed to do, pull books out of our asses? If I tried to do that it would be dishonest, and my readers would hate it. If they have any brains at the top of the publishing house, they wouldn’t want that. And, Gloria should be on my side. It could hurt us all in the long run.”
I reached out and ran my free hand down his arm. “Okay. I guess it is like a money machine, and they all depend on you to get paid.”
“We depend on each other. It’s a team effort,” Jax dismissed. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll handle Gloria.”
“What about Luke?” I’d hesitated to bring the subject up since our little spat Saturday morning, but Luke would be after me about it.
Jax sighed. “Tell him you spoke to me about the TA position, and I said what I said: that I can’t add you as my TA in a class you haven’t completed. Also, I regret you didn’t take the class a year ago, so I could have. Now, my hands are tied.”
I nodded in the dark car. The weather forecast said we were going to get the first snowfall of the season this coming week. The temperature outside was dropping rapidly as a cold front moved through ahead of the storm, but it was cozy in the car, and I found myself reluctant to get back to the city, and have Jax drop me off at my little apartment. Mostly, I didn’t want to leave him, even for a minute. “Okay. What about helping him with his book?”
His jaw hardened and jutted out slightly. “I’d rather have him ask me to help than you, though.”
“But would you have?” I already knew the answer.
“Probably not. I’m awfully busy with my new protégé.” He smiled, still watching the road.
“Exactly, so I’d like to help.”
Jax’s phone became irritatingly intrusive again. “Fucking thing,” he muttered. “I should have left it off until I got back into the city.” He turned his focus back on me after he’d pulled it out and silenced it once and for all. “Okay, but promise you’ll put it on hold if it interferes with rewrites for your book, or your classes.”
He was concerned for me, I knew, but he sounded more like my professor than my lover right then. “I promise.”
Jax turned his face toward me and smiled. “And if he tries to fuck you, I’ll have to kill him.”
When he was being possessive, I found it so endearing. I was already so full of him, and if he’d asked me to walk off the edge of the earth, I would have, but when he was this protective, I could almost feel my ovaries explode. So much for modern-day feminism. It was like he taught in class; love and sex were biological functions of being human. Twelve steps of desire, and there was no denying the pull if the connection was real.
My thoughts were interrupted as my own phone pinged. My purse was on the floor at my feet, and I could reach it with my free hand. Jax was concentrating on the traffic as we hit the north side of the city, so I reached in and pulled it out. It was also from Gloria.
I frowned as I touched the screen to open the text.
I need to speak with you, Addison.
Please call my office and set up an appointment. The sooner, the better. If you can get away from Jax, perhaps we can meet for drinks tonight?
My stomach clenched in trepidation. If it was good news, why would she want to keep it from Jax?
“Are you tired, babe?” Jax’s smooth tone brought me back to the present.
“I am. Someone kept me up all night.” I squeezed his hand, reluctant for our time together to end, but knowing it would in just a few minutes. “I know I have to sleep tonight, but I’ll miss you.”
“You could come home with me.” His fingers laced through mine. “I promise to let you sleep. I’d just like to have you near.”
“I woul
d, too, but I have a paper for another class to finish tonight.”
“Oh, shit! Why didn’t you tell me? We should have come back sooner.”
“I didn’t want to. The weekend was perfect.”
He lifted my hand with his and kissed the top of it. I laid my head on his shoulder, trying to enjoy his scent, and the feel of him next to me for as long as I could.
Ping!
My phone interrupted again. It was less than a minute from the first time, so it was the same message, and I didn’t need to look. I closed my eyes.
“It was. Why don’t you move in with me?” Jax said softly amid the low notes of the soft rock playing from the stereo.
I wasn’t even surprised by the offer. I could feel the love between us, and I felt safe in it. “I will. After I graduate.”
“Ugh,” he groaned. “I don’t think I can stand waiting that long.”
“It’s what we need to do. If I can’t be your TA, then I can’t be your live-in lover. The end.”
“What is it with you writers? Always putting a fucking exclamation point on everything?” He was pretending to be exasperated, but I could hear the humor behind the words.
I laughed softly, and he joined in.
I felt the warmth of his breath on my temple, then his lips pressed to my forehead and all was right with the world. Each precious second with him was worth every minute of lost sleep I’d have later finishing my other work.
I was floating on air as I entered my building, walked up the three floors and put the key in the lock. I was humming the song that had been playing on the radio, content in the love washing over me, my body and heart sated.
It was hard to leave Jax, but we both knew we needed to get some sleep tonight. He was going to try to work on his book, and I needed to get some homework done.
I turned the key with one hand and the knob with the other. The apartment was lit only by the small lamp on the bedside table next to Michelle’s bed. She had attempted a FaceTime earlier; inquiring where the hell I’d been for two days, but when I didn’t answer she sent a text, instead.
I’d been able to give her the briefest of explanations; responding with three words.
I’m with Jax.
Still? Thank God you’re not dead. LOL
I’ll be at Mark’s if you want to pull an all-nighter with the hottie prof.
I’m doing homework. See you tomorrow.
I was torn between being glad of the privacy and being able to keep what happened to myself and the innate need to let it out and tell my best friend everything in unabashed exuberance and excitement.
My heart was still singing because Jax had asked me to move in with him even if it was too soon, and I couldn’t for another six months. It seemed incredible that I’d only known him two months; he was part of me, and I had a grounded sense about us. He hadn’t said he loved me, but then, I hadn’t either.
I dropped my backpack on my bed, sank down beside it and bent to remove my black boots. I wasn’t hungry and was torn between taking a long shower or getting right to work. I wasn’t motivated. I wanted to marinate in thoughts of the weekend and relive every second. It has been so glorious.
I sank back on my twin bed and rolled onto my side, gathering my backpack up and hugging it for a moment. I closed my eyes, missing Jax.
The iPhone, that had dropped unheeded beside me on the bed began to ring and I reached for it without looking to see who it was. I was expecting to hear Jax’s smooth voice telling me how much he missed me but was instead assaulted with Gloria’s brittle tones.
“Good God, you’re difficult to get a hold of,” she said flatly. “I’ve been trying to reach you for two days!”
I rolled onto my back and pulled my knees up so my feet were flat on the mattress. Any excitement that I should have felt dissipated into thin air, because of her shrill harping, and my need to talk to her. “I was out of pocket.”
“Mmm, yes, well, I assume it was with Jaxon, since I couldn’t reach him either.”
So, that was why his phone was going crazy on Saturday. Thankfully, it was silent on Sunday, no doubt because he’d turned it off. I inhaled a deep breath. My brain told me to keep who I was with to myself. I didn’t say anything, and she barely noticed, but her tone turned pseudo sweet. “You know, he’s only using you, Addy. I hate to see it happen again.” She sighed heavily.
My heart constricted slightly, though I told myself she was just being a snarky bitch.
“Did you have news about the manuscript?” I asked hopefully, ignoring her comment. After the weekend I’d shared with Jax, nothing was going to deflate the love I felt for him.
“Yeah, I’m really sorry, sweetie. It’s nothing that I can take on right now.”
My heart fell. “Really,” I said.
“Yes, I just have too much romance on my plate that I’m shopping, and half of my time is chasing after Jaxon to get his book. At least a few chapters. If you could help with that, maybe I could spend some time on your novel, give you some pointers to polish it, etcetera.”
Her haughty tone made me bristle. I sat up and scooted to the edge of the bed. “I’m not sure why you think I have any influence over him. He has his own mind.”
“He does, but I saw the way he looks at you, and as I’ve said, I’ve seen it before. Every semester,” Gloria lamented. I could almost feel her roll her eyes through the phone. “He’s always got some little hottie on the hook, promising her the moon, and then he dumps all that extra work in my lap just so he can get laid.” She sounded disgusted. “Ugh. Maybe if he were meeting his own deadlines, I wouldn’t mind so much, but… well, you get the picture. How can you blame him, really? He’s incredibly gorgeous, after all. It’s not his fault women fall at his feet in heaps.”
I could feel my heart beating faster and faster as her words sank in, it pounded inside my chest like it would fly from it. My eyelids slammed shut as my eyes started to sting with tears. I felt my throat begin to tighten up. It didn’t matter that my heart knew it was total bullshit, the possibility still stung. I tried and tried not to believe her words and remember how it felt to be in his arms. He was totally focused on me when he was with me.
Don’t fall for it, Addy, my mind screamed. She’s just jealous she doesn’t have him anymore. I couldn’t stand thinking of him with this cold woman. Thinking of him touching her, kissing her, loving her… hurt like hell. Worse than her words.
“You two dated, didn’t you?” I asked bravely.
She huffed in irritation. “We did way back when, but he’s too self-centered and pompous for me. Oh my God… if you ever make it big, just try to keep your head on straight and be humble. He’s so boorish and hard to deal with these days,” Gloria responded coolly.
It was probably more like hard to control, I thought. Jax did have an air of confidence about him, but it suited him, and he’d earned it. “I just think he’s so talented.” I tried to cover the truth.
“Eh… I think he may have lost his edge.”
“Maybe he’s just distracted.”
“Thanks to you. He has a signed contract to write at least one book a year, so he’d better get his shit together. He doesn’t have the luxury of being distracted, and I told the publisher he’d have pages to them by Christmas. You’d be doing his career a favor if you’d keep your distance,” she said, then quickly changed the subject. “Maybe I can get a publisher to sign you as a ghost writer. You know, it will help you get your foot in the door and you’d be working with some of the top editors. It would really hone your craft.”
“So, you’re not saying that my book is bad, just that you don’t have time to sell it right now?”
Her explanation sounded plausible, given how lackadaisical Jax had been about his book and what I’d heard about the evolution of the industry. Both obviously put her in a tight position.
“Oh, no, honey, but it’s a bit raw.”
I bristled. Why hadn’t Jax told me this if it were true?
“
There are things you could learn and ways to polish it up. I’ve only read a couple of chapters, and I’d say it has real potential, but if you want to get in with some of the big publishing houses, they’re always looking for ghostwriters for some of their bigger names who have lost interest or can’t write as fast as they want to. Sometimes it’s a celebrity who wants to write a book but don’t have the skills.” She laughed. “There are a lot of reasons for it, but I do think it’s a very viable option for you. What do you say?”
“Um…” What Gloria was suggesting did sound like a reasonable path, and if Jax trusted her, then maybe I could, too. “If it won’t interfere with my last semester of college, and depending on what I’d be working on, it sounds pretty good.”
“Pretty good?” She sounded aghast. “You’ll earn thousands of dollars while you are taken under the wings of the best in the business! Trust me, this will be very good for you. I’ll try to keep you in the romance genre, if that’s where you want to take your career, but a good writer should be able to write anything. I mean, every class you took in school wasn’t about writing romance, was it? You had to write other stuff as assignments, so just think of this as a series of assignments! Except you get paid! We’ll have several publishers clamoring for your novels, soon enough.”
I cocked my head to one side. She had a point. I couldn’t earn a degree in creative writing without a plethora of classes in multiple genres and at least I’d be making a living doing what I loved. “Where do we go from here, then?”
“Come by the office next week and I’ll have a contract ready for your signature! This will be great, Addy! I promise, I’ll get top dollar for your work, and soon you’ll be writing your own books.”
“How long do you think I’ll have to do that until I get picked up?”
“That depends on you, sugar! Just learn everything you can, do you best work, and make a lot of friends in the industry!”
“I will. Thank you for the opportunity, Gloria.”