“Before I leave here, Ivory, you’re going to be so wild, so wet that you’re going to ask for it, anywhere, anytime.”
They headed for his truck, and he drove out of the city toward the boonies. He pulled into a wooded area and shut off the truck. She could hear waves crashing nearby, the sound of a winter owl. He released her seatbelt and pulled her toward him across his lap. She straddled him.
“I thought we were going to talk,” she breathed out when he lifted his jacket from her shoulders.
“Not now. Later,” he grumbled. He pulled her top down, spilling her breasts free. “Fuck, I’ve wanted this since I saw your pretty little ass swaying on the dance floor and when you dipped, I saw that little black thong.”
Inner muscles clenched in need. He took one ripened nipple between his teeth and suckled. “You’re beautiful,” he mumbled around her breast. He gave the same attention to the other peak, cupped them, molding them to his palms. Ivory watched his face relax.
“I promised myself I wouldn’t do this again with you.” She lay back against the steering wheel, let him have his way with her. “Oh, God, I was so wrong.”
He pushed up the slip of the dress, dragged his hand down her stomach, then molded his hands to her hips, and lifted her slightly. “You’re mine,” he said, his voice dark, sensual. “No one else’s.”
She dug her nails into his forearms. “I’m my own person, Jax, not yours.”
He snapped her panties in effort to maneuver closer to her. His palm fitted to her mound, and his calluses nudged the swollen flesh, rasped over tight nerve endings. He pushed two fingers inside her channel, and her mind fractured. She cried out when he worked the spot just behind her clit. She tightened her thighs and squeezed. “Jax.”
“Say you’re mine.”
His demand created a web of lust, longing so intense she cried out as her pussy clenched. She panted for air, oxygen starved. He withdrew his hand just as she was about to come. “Jax,” she pleaded.
“Say it now, or I won’t let you come.”
He teased her entrance, circled the aching center with his fingers, not quite enough for her to find release. When she tried to bare down on him, he took his hand away altogether. She glared at him. “No.”
“Yes,” he ground out between gritted teeth, his green gaze sizzling, frying her thoughts until she went mindless. “Say it and I’ll give you what you want. No one else, Ivory. You’re mine.”
“Fine,” she groaned. “Just do it already.”
He still withheld his touch from her. “Say the words.”
“All you want is my body,” she accused him.
Jax flipped her over and pressed her down against the seat, and then lay between her thighs. He discarded her underwear, unbuckled his leather pants. “I want more than your body, Ivory. I want your warmth.”
“You’ve only known me for a full forty-eight hours,” she said, arching up into him.
“Long enough to know you’re different,” he growled, his fingers slid back through her slick juices, pressing into her. It wasn’t enough. She reached, bucked to no avail. He was in control.
“Don’t play games with me, Jax,” she said. “I don’t want to be jerked around.”
“I already told you I’m not staying here.” He freed himself, and in the glow of the dashboard, she could see his member, the flared head engorged, clear fluid leaking from the slit. She bit down on her lip, her loins on fire.
“I don’t need you to stay,” she said. “I don’t need promises. I just don’t want to be jerked around. Do it. Now.”
He poised at her entrance, the lack of a condom not lost on her. She was protected with birth control, and somehow, she didn’t think he had any health problems. He was too rigid for carelessness. Too in control. He knew exactly what he was doing. Branding her. Making her his. She stared up into his eyes, gripped his neck, then pulled him down to her lips. “I’m yours,” she whispered. “Until you leave.”
“We don’t have a condom.”
She groaned. “I don’t care. Just fuck me already.”
He rammed into her, his hardness filled her, and she cried out as the wave of ecstasy crashed over her and dragged her down in the undertow. He ground against her. She dragged his T-shirt over his head, raked her nails down his back. She arched against him, meeting him thrust for thrust.
She lost herself in the sensations, the second orgasm rising swiftly as he pushed into her, higher and higher. Her body took on new heights of acceptance, the way he pounded against her flesh, welcomed the harder, darker pulse of arousal building inside of her. Jax awakened the sexual creature writhing inside of her, and she took every inch of it, marking him right back with her teeth on his shoulder, the taste of blood exploding against her tongue.
“Ivory,” he groaned as she felt him go rigid. He impaled her one last time, triggered another onslaught of furious seventh heaven to pour through her. Her inner muscles milked him, pulling him deeper inside of her. She wanted to cry out, but the breath her words would have been whispered with was swallowed by the intense pleasure sweeping her body.
They lay there in the aftermath of the explosion, panting. When her head finally cleared, and he levered off her, he rubbed his short hair. “I’m sorry about not having a condom,” he said, a half smile on his face.
“It’s fine.” She lazily stretched her limbs and untangled her legs from his. She sat up while he tucked himself inside of his pants, zipping them up.
“Now will you go out on a date with me?”
Ivory bit down on her lip, tried to hide the silly smile that ravaged her face. “Sure. I’ll go on a date with you, if you tell me what you were doing at my house tonight.”
Jax settled back into the driver’s seat and turned the ignition while she straightened herself. Despite the cool temperature outside, she burned and she switched on the air conditioner. He backed out of the wooded area.
“I wanted to meet your nana.”
“Why?”
“Nathan.”
So, now they were back to Nathan. “Oh?”
Jax pulled onto the main road and angled the vehicle toward her home. “Yes. He said some things today that made me wonder more about you, so, I decided to go straight to the source.”
“That would have been me,” she pointed out.
He shook his head. “No, your grandmother would know far more, seeing what you can’t and all that.”
Ivory contemplated his statement. Jax definitely had a way with women, all right. “So, find out anything interesting?”
He smiled, a slow, lazy smile. “I already know everything I need to, and the rest you’ll tell me.”
Jenny had been right. She’d developed a crush on the man. Opposites attract. She still needed him to make a decision about Ashley. “And Ashley?”
“I already know the answer to that question,” he said, his voice suddenly grim. “I’ll tell you at the end of the month.”
An air of mystery about his plans disappointed Ivory. “If you’re not going to take her, then I would like to know so we can begin the process of adopting her out.”
“I’m going to keep custody of her, but I’ll be giving guardianship over to someone else,” he said. “I can’t quit my job like other people can. It’s who I am.”
Ivory felt unsettled by the bit of news. He would take custody of the child, but appoint guardianship to someone else? Because of his job? “That sounds like you’re giving up on her.”
“It’s what you wanted, right? To be placed within the family? Well, Mickey told me finding the father in a month is impossible, as did Nathan. I’m going to take custody of her temporarily, appoint a guardian while I’m on missions, and, then when I do find the father, decide what to do from there.”
It was logical and exactly what she would expect of someone like him. He didn’t want the responsibility of a child no more than he actually wanted Ivory in his life. She was just a fuck buddy. “Fine. I’ll start the paperwork tomorrow. Whe
n can I bring her to your house?”
Jax pulled into her driveway. When had they arrived at her house?
“That’s the other part. I’m going to need help taking care of a child, so, I figured you could help me out.”
So he was using her as a nanny, now, too. Just great, but having the chance to take care of Ashley planted a seed in her heart, and it was growing. The little girl had stolen her resolve the first time she saw her. Her uncle, not so much. “Fine. For Ashley, I’ll help you out.”
“Then you can bring her by tomorrow.”
Ivory rejected the idea. “Too soon. You don’t’ have anything for a baby, no diapers, no crib, no playpen, no clothes. She needs food, bottles, a diaper bag, a stroller.”
“Done. We can go tomorrow, and you can help me pick the stuff out. And then you can bring her by.”
Ivory stared at Jax. “Who are you?”
He grinned, the charming Jax back, able to convince a woman to do his bidding. “A chameleon.”
She jumped out of the truck without saying good-bye and raced for the safety of her home, away from his penetrating stare and disarming smile.
* * * *
The next morning, Nana stood at the stove frying eggs in a cast-iron skillet. “Good morning, Cha-Cha.”
Ivory settled into the seat Jax occupied the night before. “Morning, Nana.”
“What are you going to do on your day off?”
Ivory carefully crossed her legs Indian style. The muscles seemed to have been torn from her acrobatics in Jax’s truck the night before. She would have to admit her crush on Jax was in full swing, the excitement bubbling inside of her until she couldn’t wait to spill the details to her grandmother.
“I’m going into lower Boston to do some shopping with Jax,” she said. She rose, carefully, to avoid injuring her tender muscles. “He’s decided to take in Ashley for a time.”
Nana pointed to the coffee pot, the freshly made black brew signaling her empty stomach’s hunger, a loud growl emanating from the depths. Nana flipped an egg onto a waiting china plate, handing it to Ivory. “That man will break your heart. Even worse than Nathan.”
Ivory kissed her nana’s powdery cheek. “I don’t intend to get that involved with him, Nana.”
Her grandmother took a seat at the table, stared at the gold band on her right ring finger, the custom telling the world the man she loved died, but she still committed her heart to him. “We never plan to fall in love.”
Ivory sat on the counter with her egg and fresh cup of coffee, chopping it into pieces as the yellow goo oozed out. She swiped at it with her finger. “I’m not going to fall in love with him. Maybe lust, but not love.”
Nana smiled, her false teeth pristine. “That’s what I said when I met your grandfather,” she said. “But that man, Jax, is lost, Cha-Cha. You can see it in his eyes.”
Shifting her weight off her butt cheeks onto her thighs, she scooted back farther on the counter to rest her head against the glass cabinets. “He’s in the Army, Nana. All of those guys have funny-looking eyes.”
“Nathan called this morning, while you were asleep. First time in a year,” she said. “I guess he’s got a feeling you’re falling in love with someone else.”
Ivory rolled her eyes. “I’m not falling in love. The man is just really good in bed,” she said, winked at Nana.
True to her nature, Nana did not blush, only grinned. “So, he’s good, huh? I knew he would be. Could tell by the way he cradled that china cup in his hands last night, cherished it.”
Ivory put her empty plate in the sink and turned the water on to wash away the goo. She sipped her coffee while swinging her feet against the lower cabinets. “I went to see Nathan yesterday about Ashley,” she said. “He broke up with Emma.”
Nana nodded, set her cup down, and folded her gnarled hands across the wood top. “Nathan is the kind of man who will spend his life loving you, giving you what you need, including babies,” she said. “But Jax, that man will never let you close your eyes.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, Cha-Cha, Nathan will be a good man for you, but you may never live with him. And Jackson, he will make you live so much you wish you could just lie down to close your eyes and find yourself in death.”
Ivory contemplated her nana’s words. “And you got all that from an hourlong conversation?”
Nana stood, gathered her robes close to her body. She kissed Ivory’s forehead. “Yes. You’ll know what to do, honey. I’ve got to get dressed. Me and May Beth are going to see if we can catch ourselves a date for tonight.”
Ivory’s laughter spilled over, and coffee spurted from her nose. “Any man would be lucky to have you Nana, including Jackson.”
She heard Nana’s laughter all the way up the stairs. Ivory studied the grounds of coffee at the bottom of her cup. They needed a new coffeemaker. She hopped down from her perch, picked up the cordless phone to dial Jax, but she found herself calling Nathan instead.
“Ivory?”
She couldn’t put her finger on what the sound in his voice was, but she thought it might be panic, or worry. “Yes, Nathan. It’s Ivory.”
“Oh, good. I got worried about you when you didn’t call me back last night,” he said.
“Did you need something?”
She waited to hear his answer, her heart dancing a tattoo as she tapped her foot in impatience. Finally, he said, “I’d like to take you out.”
“Out where?”
A chuckle filled the line, his soft laughter music to her ears. His laughter usually triggered any number of memories or responses in her body, but at that moment, her mind remained silent, the memories forgotten.
“I thought maybe we could go to the Boston Commons,” he said.
Ivory remember many days when they’d spent time at the Boston Commons, walking, kissing. “I don’t know. I’m going with Jax to pick up a few items today, and then I’ve got to make sure he and Ashley get along without any help.”
“You’re seeing Jax.”
His words cut through her like steel through ice-cream. “Yes. Ashley is going home with him today.”
“Ivory, the man only wants to use you,” he said. “I know Jax. I’ve known him a long time.”
Her mood disintegrated. “Nathan, you can’t tell me what to do. You gave me up, remember?”
“Just be safe, Ivory. The man will toss you aside once he’s tired of your body.”
“Like you did?”
Ivory hung up before Nathan could answer. What right did he have to say things like that to her? She knew Jax only used her, but her choice was hers alone. If she wanted to let Jax do it, then so be it.
Chapter Six
At eleven, Jax promptly showed up on her doorstep, two coffees in hand. He held one out to her. Ivory drank in the sight of him, the clean-shaven jaw threatening to dissolve her right there on the spot. He looked like the soldier he was with the jaw exposed, hardened.
“Ready?” he asked.
She nodded and grabbed her purse. Nathan’s words still echoed in her mind, and she realized how right he’d been. It didn’t matter, though. Ashley would get a home, and it mattered to her that the child get the home she deserved. “Let’s go.”
Jax didn’t bother helping her get into his truck. He simply waited for her to struggle in, belt herself, and then he pulled out. They headed toward the shopping district. She stared at him, his sunglasses shading his cool green from her.
“Something’s wrong,” he said, a muscle jerking on his clean-shaven cheek.
Ivory stared out the window, cupping the coffee to her lips. She sipped the fortifying drink. “I talked to Nathan this morning.”
Jax cut a hard look at her, his lips bled of any color. “And?”
“He asked me out on a date.”
She held her breath and wondered what he would say, or do. Jax merely flipped the radio station and merged with traffic. “I’ve got a list of things I need to pick up for the hou
se, but I’ll need your help with the less obvious stuff.”
Avoidance. Great. Now they were avoiding talking about Nathan altogether. “I said I couldn’t go.”
Jax remained silent until he parked in the mall parking lot. “Do you expect me to reward you, Ivory?”
She had half a mind to toss the steaming hot coffee in his face and be done with him. “I expect you to acknowledge my promise to you.”
“I shouldn’t have to,” he said, then got out, leaving her sitting in the truck. He came around to her side, opened the door, calmly removed the cup from her hands, and set it on the floor. He turned her to him, spread her legs, and stepped between them. She felt slick juice coat her jeans. She hadn’t worn underwear, and the act of his hands opening her made her pussy ache. He lifted her by the waist, slowly sliding her down his body until her feet touched the ground. “You should know I believe you unless you prove otherwise.”
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