She sat up slowly, and grinned. “Maybe I’ll pop your tire so it happens sooner than later.”
I narrowed my eyes. She better not, but I wouldn’t put it past her. Brynn usually got what she wanted—one way or another.
Brynn was doing her weekly version of dance party at the apartment. It involved a lot of jumping around and singing at the top of her lungs while she cleaned like a maniac. She loved doing it. The domesticity of the action seemed so strange in relation to Brynn’s other activities, but I was happy to let her clean if she wanted to. It meant I didn’t have to do it. I couldn’t study with that commotion going on, though, so I took my books and went to the Soup and Spoon to do some work, and get lunch.
I was reading my textbook and taking notes between bites of my grilled cheese sandwich—which I was holding with a napkin to prevent grease prints—and tomato basil soup.
“A tornado could go through here and you wouldn’t even notice.”
My head shot up at the sound of Jax’s voice. His jeans were tight around his hips and ass, and his dark blue tee shirt was straining to contain him. He looked good enough to suck. I inwardly shook my head, shocked at myself. Good enough to suck? Where had that come from? I couldn’t just go around sucking people! Or biting and licking them!
“I was watching you while I got my food. You didn’t look up once. You get seriously caught up in your study time.” He put his tray—holding a sandwich, chips, soup, and soda—down on my round table, and pulled his chair around closer to mine before sitting.
“I was seriously caught up in it until you got here. And yes, you can sit at my table.”
He raised a brow like he was amused I was giving him permission when he clearly just did whatever he wanted. I watched him back, neither of us saying a word. I expected a lot of things at this point. Like a ninja kisser confession, or at least a reference to the haunted house to get things started. What I didn’t expect was Jax to kick his leg out, lean back in his chair, open his sandwich and chips, and start eating without another word. I stared at him, totally dumbfounded. He was completely comfortable with the awkwardness, and not the least bit phased. I was pinging. He needed some of my neuroses, and I needed some of his zen.
I tried to go back to studying, but the visual orgasm sitting next to me made that pretty damn difficult. Not to mention that I couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss. Finally, half a sandwich, full bag of chips, and most of his soda later, I blurted, “So, what did you do this weekend?”
He lifted his soda and took a long drink. When he finished, he slowly ran his tongue over his lips. I couldn’t look away. His bottom lip was so full, with moisture clinging to it. I wanted to take his lip in my mouth and suck it. Hard. I shook myself out of the thought as Jax’s gaze latched onto mine. One corner of his lips tilted up. He’d noticed me having eye-sex with his mouth. Dammit! His lips slid into that slow, sexy grin that promised everything from dark kisses to werewolf sex. “My weekend was—” he paused, searching for a word, “enlightening.” His brows went up, almost in challenge. “How was yours?”
I narrowed my eyes. He still wasn’t owning up to the kiss! He wasn’t even admitting to being at the haunted house…yet. But he would. “Fantastic. I had a date.”
He widened his eyes. “Did you? And how did that go?”
“Great. It was a blind date. Brynn set me up. But he was hot, and nice. I’m sure I’ll see him again.”
Jax lazily scooped some soup onto his spoon and took a bite. “That’s all it takes? Hot and nice? Do you have a future mate characteristics list somewhere with ‘hot’ and ‘nice’ written at the top?”
It was all I could do to keep from sticking my tongue out at him. So what if I really did have a list? That was none of his business. And hot and nice weren’t at the very top, so there. “I’m sure hot is at the top of your list,” I said. “That and ‘willing to put up with my shit’.”
He laughed outright. “Good to know what you really think of me.”
“I don’t know what I really think of you…yet.”
He ate some more of his soup before responding, “Why is that? Last week you seemed to think I was a pretty good guy.”
I scrunched my brows and watched him. “I still do, most of the time.” Thoughts of the ninja kiss he wasn’t admitting to ran through my head. “But you’re a hard guy to read, and an even harder guy to get to know.”
“You want to know me?”
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
His lips formed a half smile as he looked down into his bowl and got another spoonful of soup. “You think you could handle it?”
I lifted my brow. “Are you harboring secrets that would be difficult to handle?”
His face shuttered to a blank slate again. That made me think he really did have some serious secrets he didn’t want me to know. I was suddenly uncomfortable with the prospect.
“Ask.”
I was taken aback. Considering the way his face had closed up like a prison, I didn’t expect him to volunteer any information. “Ask what?”
“Whatever it is you want to know.”
Well, I wasn’t prepared for this. I had a list of questions at home—typed up and everything—that I was dying to ask him, but I was so off-balance from his willingness to chat that I couldn’t remember most of them. I did remember the kiss, however. And I wanted to know if it had been him. But I didn’t want to ask him outright; I wanted him to admit to it. “I went to a haunted house this past weekend.”
“Did you?” he asked, sounding intrigued. “How was it?”
“It had some scary parts,” I answered. “Some more scary than others. The costumes and actors were pretty convincing.”
He quirked one brow, and looked like he was absolutely enjoying himself, and our conversation. “That’s surprising. Maybe I’ll have to check this place out. What was your favorite part…would you say?”
I narrowed my eyes. He knew that I knew, but he still wasn’t admitting it. Crafty ninja. “Probably the part where my date kissed me,” I said.
A muscle ticked at his jaw.
I looked down, hiding my smile. I’d purposely not given him more info. I wanted him to wonder whether I’d really kissed Drew, or if I was just attributing Jax’s ninja kiss to someone else. It seemed to be working.
“So,” I said, changing the subject. “What’s your favorite holiday?” I took a gamble that it might be Halloween since he’d been acting in a haunted house.
“Halloween.”
I took a drink of my chocolate iced coffee. “Do you dress up?”
The annoyed lines on his face smoothed. “Mmmm, yes.” His eyes glinted with amusement. “For a lot of reasons.”
My brow lifted. “What reasons?”
His lips slid into a slow, sexy grin. “Certain things require costumes.”
I caught the insinuation, but chose to press on with my questioning. “Like, say, a theater production of some sort,” I offered.
He watched me closely. “I imagine that’s one of them.”
He wasn’t going to give. And I wasn’t going to flat-out ask. “What are the other situations that require dressing up, Jackson?”
He dropped his soup spoon in the container, then folded his arms on the table and leaned in toward me. His scent hit me like a fifty pound weight. He smelled like the mountains after a rainstorm, clean and earthy. He had invaded my space an entire lean ago. If I leaned just a little forward, we’d be nose-to-nose. The realization that our lips would be that close and suckable—again—made my breath short. He held my eyes the entire time before saying, “Maybe I’ll show you sometime, Sydney.”
With that, he moved back, and stood. I realized my mouth was hanging open and picked it up.
He noticed, too, his lips lifting at the corner in a cocky smirk. He gathered all of his trash on the tray and looked like he was going to leave without another word, but stopped, locked eyes with me, and said, “Go out with me.”
I couldn’t have been mor
e stunned if he’d just told me he was raised by howler monkeys. “What?”
“On a date. Go out with me.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think that’s wise.”
“Why? You can’t tell me that you don’t date, because obviously you do.” His lips quirked up slyly. “I’ll pick you up on Saturday. Does noon work?”
“I’m volunteering at CARE this weekend. I won’t be off until two.”
Surprise flashed across his face before he continued, “CARE is downtown, so I’ll pick you up there.”
I nodded without even realizing I’d done it.
“See you soon.” He grabbed his tray and as he brushed by me, he leaned down and whispered, “Sweetheart.”
Saturday. That meant I had six days to get my heart back to a normal rhythm.
The week flew by, mostly because I spent every spare moment analyzing Jackson West. When I told Brynn about Jax’s reaction to my questions at the Soup and Spoon, she’d also been convinced that Jax was the ninja. She said I needed to call him on it. Maybe I was just stubborn, but I wanted him to admit it on his own.
I was at CARE, sitting on a bean bag in the corner, reading a Dr. Seuss story to Macy. She giggled every time I used the word “sneetch.” “That’s a funny word,” she said, laughing some more, and pointing at the star-bellied sneetch picture.
“And they have stars on their tummies,” I said, pointing to another star-bellied sneetch.
She nodded, and leaned her head against my shoulder as I read the last few pages. “All done.” I closed the book, and put it back on the shelf.
Her bottom lip pouted out. “Don’t worry, we can read it again next time I come over,” I reassured her.
She smiled, and jumped up out of my lap. I noticed Jax leaning against the doorway, watching me steadily, his eyes soft. Charlie was standing next to him. I waved at them both and started to stand, but Macy came rushing over and wrapped my thighs in a bear hug. “Thanks for coming, Syd. I love you.”
My heart constricted at her tiny arms squeezing me, and I felt lucky to be involved with an organization that was so good about helping families make a difficult time a little easier. Memories floated back to me of a time when I’d been the one looking for a distraction as I waited to hear the latest news from the hospital. I knew first-hand what it meant to have a home away from home during a family member’s health crisis. Nothing buoyed a spirit like feeling the comfort of a familiar place to go, and people who care. “I love you too, sweetie.” I leaned down, whispering in her ear, “I left some peanut butter cookies on the counter.”
Her eyes lit up and she made a beeline for the kitchen.
I smoothed my hair, taking the time to really look at Jax and caught my breath. Jeans and a dark blue crew neck sweater never looked so good. His shirt was tucked into the front of his pants, a square, metal belt buckle holding up his jeans. I kind of hated that buckle. His eyes met mine, and held. I smiled. His lips lifted in return as I made my way across the room.
“Hey,” I said, moving my hand in the direction of both men. “Charlie, this is my friend, Jax. Jax, this is my friend and the executive director of CARE, Charlie.”
Jax nodded, and tilted his head toward Charlie in acknowledgment. “He introduced himself when I got here.”
“How did you two meet each other?” Charlie asked, looking from Jax to me.
“He rescued me one night when She-Ra died. He works at Red’s.”
Charlie eyed him with interest. “I bet it’s nice for Syd to have a mechanic around.”
Jax lifted his shoulders slightly, almost uncomfortably, and changed the subject. “Ready to go?”
“Yep.” I grabbed my coat and purse. “I’ll pick She-Ra up later tonight if that’s okay, Charlie?”
“No problem,” he answered. “Have fun.”
I followed Jax outside to his truck. This was the first time I’d gotten a look at it when I wasn’t drugged. It was a metallic grey Ford with chrome accents.
He opened the door for me and pointed to the running board that I could use as a step. Once we were both settled, he turned out of the CARE parking lot and started driving.
“So, where are we going?” I was so curious about the date and what he had planned. I’d spent far too much time the previous week marinating over it, and my homework had suffered as a result. I just couldn’t decide where a man like Jax would take a woman on a date. He was a mystery.
Jax grinned in response.
“Seriously? You’re not going to tell me? Not even a hint?”
The corner of his lip ticked up even more. He shifted in his seat, his left leg falling open, relaxed, his body angled toward mine. “You lied to Charlie.”
“What?” My brow pinched in confusion as I noted that we were now headed up into the mountains.
“About how we met. Your car was the second time I saw you. The first time was at the Soup and Spoon.” He draped his arm over the steering wheel and glanced at me, eyes alight. “I guess you forgot.”
Oh, I was well aware of that particular memory. The smirk Jax was sporting indicated he knew I hadn’t forgotten, either. “It doesn’t count as meeting when we didn’t even speak.”
One eyebrow went up at that. “Communication is more than just words. I thought we said plenty.”
So had I. My heart sped up as I remembered it in detail: his eyes, his biceps, his dare to approach him. “Why didn’t you come over and talk to me that day?” I asked.
“Why didn’t you talk to me?” he countered. “I extended the invitation.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “With your eyes. Eye invitations are hard to read.” Really, it hadn’t been. I knew exactly what he was saying, and it involved a lot less clothing than either of us had been wearing at the time.
“You missed out.”
Arrogant. “So did you!” I argued back. “What if you’d never seen me again?”
“That wouldn’t have happened.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I would have found you.”
That was a little creepy. “Like a serial killer, huh? That’s your get-laid strategy?”
“No, like the guy who protects the girl from the serial killer.”
I nodded, wondering if he thought that kind of alpha-male assholery was attractive.
Okay.
So it was.
It really, really was.
Some primitive part of my psyche found the protectiveness insanely appealing. It was probably also the part of my psyche that thought Ragnar Lothbrok from Vikings was the sexiest man on the planet, and made me wish I’d been a hot Viking’s wife.
“How did you get involved with CARE?” Jax asked.
I relaxed against the seat. “My mom was sick for a while. Cancer. We stayed at CARE while she was being treated. I loved the staff, and everything they did meant so much to me and my dad.” I paused, remembering how hard it was to see my mom so helpless. Even now, just the thought of going to the doctor gave me a mini panic attack. But things would have been a lot worse if we hadn’t had the support of the CARE staff to help us through it all. Having other people who were going through similar problems really helped us deal with everything that was going on. And I think it helped my mom to know we had that kind of support network, too. “I wanted to be able to help people, like my family had been helped, so I decided to volunteer.”
Jax was quiet for a minute. “How old were you?”
“She was diagnosed when I was nine.”
“And now?”
“She’s fine. I mean, she still goes in for check-ups, but they caught it early enough that she was okay. She got treatment and then things went back to normal, and we went back to moving around. I grew to love Winchester while we were here, though, and decided to come back for college.”
He nodded, taking it all in. I always felt weird telling people about my mom; it felt like they didn’t know how to react. Jax didn’t seem uncomfortable with the information, he was
just quiet. “Where do your parents live now?” he asked.
“Southern Florida. My dad’s retired, but you won’t convince him of that. He keeps taking on work here and there. He gets bored easily. My mom used to be a project manager at an insurance company, but she’s retired, too.”
That was more personal information than I’d ever given Jax…and the first time he’d ever asked. I took it as a good sign that he wanted to know more about me.
I looked out the windows and noticed the brilliantly colored leaves. Vibrant shades of crimson, gold, orange, and pink blanketed the landscape. I loved this time of year. A memory clicked in my head as I thought it. I remembered saying something along those same lines to Jax a few weeks ago when he’d been helping me clean gas off my car—before the bottle ejaculated on him. Did he remember me telling him that? Naw, guys weren’t that perceptive, at least not the ones I’d been with in the past. Jax was different than other guys in a lot of ways, though, so maybe he was different when it came to being attentive, too? “Did you bring me up here to see the leaves?” I practically blurted it out, and felt like a complete fool for it.
He looked over at me, his eyes bright. “Maybe.”
I stared at him. He shifted his eyes back to the winding mountain road, so I had time to study him. I couldn’t figure him out. At all. “What’s your deal?” I finally asked.
“What do you mean?”
We really hadn’t spent that much time together, and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what his interest in me was, or why he’d asked me out on a date. I mean, my interest in him involved a vision of him mostly naked in his apartment, and a lot of muscles I couldn’t pronounce correctly, but why would he want me when he could walk into a room and pretty much hand-pick any girl there? And it wasn’t like that information was a secret. He was absolutely aware of his effect on women. “You’re spending a lot of your free time with me, and now you’re doing thoughtful things like taking me on a drive in the canyon because I mentioned I like the fall colors. Plus, you asked me out. With anyone else, I’d say they were interested in something more—like a relationship. But you don’t do relationships.”
Tempting Sydney Page 9