“I didn’t know anyone was there. You actually believe I could use you like this?”
“Yes. Absolutely. Because you’ve been playing these games ever since you got here. Trying to squeeze your way into my life. Coming to the bakery, coming to my house to fix my window. Sleeping over! My god, sleeping in my house, pretending to care.”
“Stop it.” He clutched my shoulders. “I hate to say it, but this is crazy talk. I did all that because I care about you. You can’t believe this bullshit.”
I shrugged him off, his touch scalding me. I hated that I loved his face. I hated that I wanted to melt into his arms. I hated that I felt like crying in frustrated want for him whenever I stood in front of him.
“I don’t need this disruption in my life. I’ve spent the last eleven years sticking to a routine. That routine allows me to take one day at a time. It’s not easy being a single mom and running a business. I can’t manage these disruptions. You’re playing me, toying with me. Hell, you turned off the shower, didn’t you? So you could lure me into it.”
“That’s the most fucking ridiculous accusation you could’ve come up with. Stop blaming me for everything that went wrong with your routine. I’m sorry I came to visit the place where I was born. I didn’t know you owned the place now and I wasn’t allowed back.”
“You didn’t even want to be back.”
“I didn’t. But that doesn’t mean I could magically foresee you barging into my shower and fucking me in it.”
I scoffed. “Barging? You turned off the shower. I couldn’t hear the water. How was I supposed to know you would be standing in there naked, and turned-on!”
“Who the fuck barges into another person’s bathroom looking for them? Are you taking no responsibility for this at all? Is that how’re playing this?”
I didn’t have the answer to that. I had no idea why I’d gone in the bathroom. In hindsight, it was rude. And stupid. I wasn’t thinking straight. “You always do this. This is all a game. This is why you fixed my window, to get brownie points so I’d invite you in.”
“And then you kissed me.”
“Because you put me in that position!”
“You have got to be kidding me right now, Liv.”
“No.” I was so frustrated with him. “I need you to fix this.” I pointed to the newspaper in the dirt. “You will fix this. Tell them I’m not your girlfriend.”
“It doesn’t matter what they say. I’ll go back to Seattle, and get out of your life. Your precious town will be all yours again.”
“Until you decide to jump right back here and fuck with my life again.”
He pushed both hands through his hair, shaking his head. “I don’t believe this conversation.”
“Just go! Go and don’t come back.” I hated that I sounded sad.
“I’ll come back whenever I want to come back.”
“You hate this place!”
“I hated prom too. But I went with you, didn’t I?”
“Oh.” I laughed. “We’re going there.”
“Of course we’re going there. It’s perfectly acceptable for you to make me go places I hate if it suits you. It’s all about what you want and when you want it.”
“You promised me. You said you’d never use this against me. The one time I asked you to do something for me.”
He didn’t say anything. I was glad for the break. I was out of breath from chasing him into the woods and the arguing. My toes were gritty with dirt in my flip-flops. I felt completely alone with the man who had fucked up my sanity ever since I’d met him at sixteen years old.
“What are we even arguing about?” Jax sighed, looking beaten up.
“You’re the one who brought up prom. I had to beg you for days to take me. And now you’re throwing it back in my face.”
“You promised we’d never argue about the past.”
“Jesus, I was a kid. It was a stupid promise. And you were an asshole!”
He pursed his lips as if swallowing a retort. “You know what, it doesn’t matter.”
“Sorry, dude! It does matter. I’m sick of you. I hate you. I wish I’d never met you.”
His mouth shut me up. I froze as his lips immobilized mine. Stealing my words and my breath. His hand clutched the back of my head. His free arm wound quickly around my waist, and he drew me into his hard, strong body.
18
Jax
I knew I would do this.
I’d tried to convince myself to keep my hands off her.
But it was impossible. I knew it now as I led her off the trail and into the dense trees. She didn’t fight me as she had before. She didn’t push me away. Her elbows didn’t poke holes into my chest.
She wanted me just as badly as I wanted her.
She was furious about the crazy-ass headline in the paper. I was fuming at her cowardice in accepting that what we had between us wasn’t long dead and rotted.
I tasted her skin as I kissed her neck. My hands guided her shoulders back against a tree trunk.
Her fingers dug into my back, tugging me closer. I was momentarily concerned about the bark cutting into her skin, but she didn’t seem to mind. She clawed at my back in an attempt to get my shirt off.
Something snapped inside me. I didn’t want to be sensible. I didn’t want to think about the fact that we were on a hiking trail, feet away from homes. What if someone walked past—or kids walked past—and spotted us necking in the woods like teenagers?
My dick was hard as fuck. I’d never known this kind of utter and complete lack of restraint.
“You’re going to be the death of me.” I cupped her face between my hands and kissed her. She met the movement of my mouth, her tongue foraging for mine.
When I flicked my tongue against her lower lip, her gasp almost made me burst in my shorts. Her tongue flicked out, so fucking sure of itself and its effect on me. I groaned as she tugged at the white string on my shorts. It snapped against my waist. “Fuck.”
She meant business.
The elastic waistband of my shorts kept them up. She grated her teeth in frustration and yanked them down at the front. Cool, fresh air hit my balls and dick.
“This isn’t what I expected.” I clutched her hair as I nibbled at her mouth. “But I’m not complaining.”
Her fingers wrapped tightly around my cock, gliding up and down the length. She pulled her lips an inch away from mine, and her thumb pressed to the tiny hole in the center of the head of my cock. There was no mistaking the sticky droplet of my precum that she spread all over it.
“Shit. I hate when you do that.”
She panted hard, licking her lips. “Is that why your cock hardens when I do it?”
I kissed her to shut her up. “I’ll burst in your hand if you keep using that smart mouth of yours.”
“Yeah, I’d hate that. I’m counting on you to come inside me.”
I chuckled, sliding my hands up her waist to stroke her smooth skin.
She was enough of a sexual torment without opening her sexy little mouth to talk dirty to me. “Just shut up and keep doing what you’re doing.”
I jolted as she shoved at my shoulder with her free hand. My mouth slipped off hers and I glared at her. Dammit. She wanted to bail. But why the fuck was she still clutching my cock in her warm hand?
“You shut up!” she snapped, her cheeks blushing crimson. “And do something other than what you’re doing, for Christ’s sake.”
That was encouragement enough. I yanked her blue cotton shorts off her legs. When I reached for her panties, my hands found none. So I pushed my hand between her legs and she jerked backward against the bark of the tree.
“Ow.” Her hips squeezed onto my hand, riding it as I caught her lower lip between my teeth and grunted in her mouth. On impulse, I half slapped her hand off my dick and fell to my knees on the dry grass.
Her gasp resounded in the woods. So out of place in the silence. I hooked her right leg over my shoulder and sucked on the moist spac
e between her legs.
“Oh.” The undulation of her hips slowed.
Her hand rested on top of my head. I slid my tongue inside her. She tasted sweet. She smelled even better.
Her fingers slipped through my hair in a tender caress right before she clutched a handful and tugged at my scalp. The need. It burst inside me. My balls heaved as I opened my mouth wide, taking her pussy between my lips.
I wished I could take her back to my place, throw her on my bed and take it from there. But it felt good to be out here. Wild in this wilderness.
This was the perfect backdrop to her need for me. It was untamed and out of control. That’s the way it had always been. She knew it, she’d failed to kill it, and that’s why she lashed out.
I was suddenly open to all her accusations and the lashing out, if she’d just grab my cock at the end of it and fist me hard
Damn you, Liv.
She held the power to completely unravel me. Turn me into a hungry beast. All I wanted, every single morning, was to see her face and talk to her. Even if we just ended up fighting.
She wasn’t the only one who was upset. I was furious with her. But damn, I wanted her like a man starving.
So I licked her pussy clean. My thumb moved to flick her clit. She yanked my hair in her urgency. The pain only made me work her pussy faster. She jolted against my mouth as she burst in orgasm.
I was on my feet before she could surface from her euphoric sea of pleasure. Her eyes fluttered open. I was about to burst. I wanted to come inside the wet, moist place between her legs. Not in her hand.
I let her taste herself on my lips as I kissed her. She moaned, hungrily biting my lips for more before I flipped her around. I placed her hands on the tree trunk. Then I curled an arm around her lower belly.
“I can’t stop,” I hissed at her, almost wishing she’d help cure me of this insatiable want.
“Then don’t.” She pushed her hips out for me. I grabbed the root of my cock, positioning the head at her entrance. I slammed my dick into her just as I pulled her down by the waist. Her cry rang through the woods. It probably scared all the wildlife away from the mating humans. She was making me lose my mind.
My dick wrapped tight and snug in her pussy, and I pulled her into me. My tongue traced the curve of her ear as her hand reached up to clutch the nape of my neck. She turned her head sideways to offer me her sweet mouth.
I let her sweat. I didn’t kiss her. I let her offer it to me, pining for it, while I relished the sight of her moaning, her lips parted.
I clutched the hem of her tank top, yanking it up to her chest. Then I tugged her bra and let it hook over her tits. Her full breasts were beautiful beneath the too-tight strap. I cupped them in my hands, letting her nipples grate against my palms.
I twisted her nipples, rolling them between my fingers. Her quickened breathing told me she was about to come, her orgasm rolling quickly to the finish line. Her abundant juices spilled over my balls as they slapped loudly against her.
“I can’t stop wanting you,” I hissed against her ear. But why? Why couldn’t I stop? Why couldn’t I let go?
“You feel like home,” I whispered in her ear, slowing down. Grinding in, then pulling out all the way. I left just the tip of my dick inside her slick opening before lunging in again. The friction was too snug and slick for my sanity.
I looked at her profile—her eyes closed, her face tormented in the need to orgasm again.
“You feel so good. You’re so fucking tight for me.”
“Don’t stop.”
“How the fuck can I,” I growled in her ear. “I want you first thing in the morning. I want you while I sleep. Goddammit, I want your mouth right next to me so I can kiss you whenever the fuck I want.”
“Harder.” Her nails dug into my ass.
“I want to watch you ride me again. Like that night. Just faster. So I can see your tits go up and down inches from my face.”
“Jax!”
She was growing agitated, and I knew why. I’d slowed my dick to keep from coming too quick. She hated it. She wanted hard.
I pulled out of her, flipping her around to face me. She gaped at me like an enraged angel. She probably thought I was stopping. That this was over. Far from it.
“I’m fucking you, baby.”
I encircled her waist with my arm and yanked her up. Her legs wrapped around my waist, and I pushed her against the tree trunk. Her pussy was eager and wet when I buried my cock in her. I was balls-deep every time.
Her hands cupped my face, her soft palms at odds with the ruthless way our bodies pounded together as one.
I held her gaze, erupting forcefully inside her. My groan erupted in the woods, the hot bursts of my lust filling her. Her pussy spasmed around my dick, kneading it so hard I jerked in her again. Her head fell onto my shoulder, her body shivering as she clung to me as I held her up against the trunk.
Silence.
It was suddenly way too silent.
Except for the crickets. And our heavy breaths. And the sound of my heart beating in my ringing ears.
I lowered her to the ground, and my cock slipped wetly out of her.
Instantly, the wondrous moment shattered.
Liv was a flurry of activity. Yanking her bra down over her tits, then her tank top. Yanking her shorts off the ground and thrusting her legs into them one after the other.
All I had to do was snap the waistband of my shorts up above my cock, and I was good to go. But Liv rushed to where her flip flops lay wrong-side up. She kicked them, then put them on them fast. Without meeting my eye, she took off toward the trail.
I couldn’t believe it. “Stop!” I called before I could reconsider.
But the frustration boiling inside me way worse than the lust that had preceded it.
Two long strides and I caught her forearm. I pulled her into my chest and stroked the side of her face. “Stop fucking running from me! Please.”
She pushed my chest and drew back. “I need to get back.”
I released her, but I was desperate to make her stay. “Come on. When you leave like this, I feel like you use me for sex and then throw me away.”
She halted midstep and whirled around. Her cheeks turned red. “Me?”
“Yes. Enough running away. Just talk to me!”
She looked like she wanted to hurl something big and heavy at my head.
I threw my hands up in surrender. “I don’t want to fight you. But we need to sort this out.”
I let her take her time to process it. She was an intelligent woman. She’d find a way to deal with the truth.
She shook her head, stepping backward. “When it concerns you, I’ve never been able to sort anything out. I’m a mess.”
I stiffened at her sweet admission. That was unexpected.
I didn’t want any more answers. I didn’t need any more.
She made her way to the trail to head home. I didn’t stop her. But I watched her until she disappeared from sight.
19
Liv
The theater was packed. I’d always hated missing the first few minutes of the movie. Like me, Anna thought her whole movie was ruined if we didn’t sit down with our popcorn ten minutes before it began. So we always ended up finishing half our popcorn watching ads and trailers.
I bit into a nacho and grimaced. I was sandwiched between Anna and Clara, waiting woodenly for the movie to begin.
“How’s your boyfriend?” Clara whispered from my right.
I almost burst out laughing. “Stop calling him that.”
“I know you, and I know when things are brewing in that pretty little head of yours. You want to fuck him so bad you’re a ball of tension.”
“Stop it.” Telltale heat slithered up my neck to burn my cheeks.
Clara leaned forward to take a closer look at my face. “I’m ninety-nine percent sure it’s going to happen. If it hasn’t already.”
I glanced down into my tray of stale nachos.
“Oh my god!” Clara cried then slapped me on the arm.
I jumped. “Stop it. Grow up! Don’t hit me.”
“Grow up? You said you didn’t want anything to do with him. You wanted him go to back to Seattle.”
“You okay, Mom?”
I was stuck between a rock and a hard place named Clara and Anna.
“Yes.” I smiled at Anna. “I’m good. Aunt Clara is just intolerable sometimes.”
Clara pinched my arm, and I winced, slapping her hand away. “Will you stop? We’re adults. We don’t pinch people.”
“Adults don’t go around doing what you’re doing. I don’t even know what to say. You already did it. What happened, happened.”
“Nothing happened,” I said without conviction.
“It did. And you’re just hiding from the obvious. Sorry to break it to you, but it won’t help you.”
“Why does everyone think I’m hiding? “
Clara glared at me. “Does Jax thing you’re hiding?”
“Yes.”
“Are you?”
“Well, he didn’t exactly say hiding. He said I had my head buried in the sand.”
“Same thing. And?”
I pushed a nacho around in the tray and stole a peek at Anna, then turned to Clara to whisper. “He said I’m running away from my feelings. For him.”
“That ass!” Clara burst out, before getting control of herself. “Are you, though?”
I didn’t even want to look at Clara. She knew me too well. I couldn’t fool her. “You’re destroying my mood,” I said as the trailers started.
“What do you want from him?”
I lowered my voice to avoid Anna overhearing us, not that she could over the trailers anyway. “Nothing. I have zero expectations. If anything, I expect him to ditch Anna and go. And not come back.”
“You don’t want to risk disappointment.”
“Maybe. But,” I started.
“But what?”
“I don’t know. A part of me keeps thinking, what if he wants to stay in our lives?”
“And how does that make you feel?”
Baby's Daddy: An Enemies to Lovers Romance Page 12