Christmas in Lucky Harbor

by Jill Shalvis

  “Good.” He entwined their fingers and didn’t speak again.

  That worked for her. She couldn’t have kept up her end of a conversation to save her life. Not as revved up as she was. Nope, the only thing going to fix this was a man-made orgasm.

  A Jax-made orgasm.

  Driving faster than the speed limit, he turned into a quiet neighborhood on the bluffs three hundred feet above the ocean. His house was the last on the street and the closest to the cliff.

  Jumping out, she glanced at his view and stopped in shock. Deep blue ocean as far as she could see, sparkling from the sun’s glow. “It’s breathtaking,” she whispered, taking a step toward it.

  “Later. Much later,” he said and dragged her inside, giving her nothing but a quick peekaboo hint of wide-open rooms, high wood-beamed ceilings, and gorgeous wood trim and floors before he had her in his bedroom. “I’m going to toss you onto the bed now and have my merry way with you,” he said against her lips.

  “Oh,” she whispered, trembling in anticipation, already wet for him.

  “Yes or no, Maddie.”

  “Yes. God, yes.”

  Before she’d even gotten the words out, he’d done just as he’d promised. He’d picked her up and tossed her to the bed. Before she bounced, he was on her, the fire he’d ignited in the attic flaming back to life. Mouth on hers, he slid his hands beneath her shirt, his fingers teasing her nipples. She gasped, and he pulled back only long enough to peel her shirt over her head, and then his own.

  She couldn’t take her eyes off him.

  He bent and kissed the curve of her breast that spilled out of her bra, and then suddenly even that barrier was gone. “Love your skin,” he whispered against her nipple, flicking the pebbled peak with his hot tongue before sucking it hard into his mouth until she was writhing beneath him. “You’re so soft.”

  “It’s Chloe’s lotions,” she said inanely, and he huffed out a rough laugh against her.

  “I’m pretty sure it’s all you.”

  His voice couldn’t get any lower or any sexier, and she felt like she could come from the sound of him alone. Then he upped the tension by sliding the tips of his fingers into her hip-hugging jeans. “Oh, my God,” she whispered.

  “I know.”

  She laughed breathlessly. “No, you don’t understand—” She pushed at his chest until he lifted his head. “You got your hand in my pants!”

  “Uh-huh.” His expression was a mix of lust and amusement. “I was hoping to get even more than that.”

  Giddy, she grinned. “No, you did it without unbuttoning them. I think it’s all that hauling of debris and chopping wood. I’m toning up!”

  His eyes were dark and very, very hot. “And that turns you on?”

  “Yes.” She cupped his face and smiled. “But you turn me on more.”

  “Good. You turn me on, too.” Taking her hand, he placed it over his erection to show her just how much. “We’re done talking now. I have other plans for our mouths.” To prove it, he tugged her jeans off and then rose off the bed to do the same with his.

  Her breath caught at the sight of him in silhouette. Gorgeous. That went without saying. The air shuddered out of her when he bent and kissed her, low on her stomach as he hooked his thumbs in her panties and slowly tugged them down. “You’re beautiful, Maddie.”

  While she melted, he made himself at home between her thighs, taking so long to look at the view in front of him, she squirmed. “Jax.”

  “If you could see from my point of view…” His broad shoulders nudging her legs wide, he bent and kissed an inner thigh, and she had one thought; Please be as good at this as you are at everything else.

  Then he gently stroked her with his thumb and she had no more thoughts. With a groan, he ran his tongue over her wet, throbbing skin. She bit her lip and fisted her hands in his sheets, unable to stop from writhing beneath him.

  Newsflash—he was indeed as good at this as he was at everything else.

  “I love how you taste,” he murmured, and when her hips rocked against him, he slid both hands beneath her bottom, holding her still for his ministrations. Quicker than she could have believed possible, she was quivering, on the very edge of an explosive orgasm, and—

  And he paused.

  “What?” she gasped.

  Lifting his head, he met her gaze, his own glittering. “The last two times we even got to this spot, we were interrupted. I’m just waiting for it.”

  She gaped at him in disbelief, panting for breath as she sat up. “You want to be interrupted? Because I have to tell you, if we are, I’m going to scream at someone.”

  He flashed her a devastatingly wicked grin. “Better idea. I’m going to make you scream.” With that outrageously confident statement, he leaned over her, using the fact that she’d sat up to his advantage. “Soon as I find all your sweet spots.” He laved his tongue over a nipple, pressing her back down to the bed. “What you like…” He dipped his tongue into her belly button, then nipped at her hip, taking his cues from her reactions, which she couldn’t seem to help.

  “How about this?” he murmured, licking the spot where her leg met her body, lingering, taking his time while she shifted restlessly beneath him, trying to get him where she wanted him to go. “Maddie?”

  “Y—yes, I like that.”

  “Good.” He kissed her there, then brushed his lips over her mound. “This?” When she didn’t answer, he lifted his head.

  “Yes!”

  Doing it again, he slid first one finger into her, and then another, stroking slowly.

  She gasped his name.

  “Good?”

  “Ohmigod,” was all she could manage.

  “Good,” he decided and gently closed his teeth on her center.

  She just about lifted off the bed, would have if he wasn’t anchoring her with his body. “Jax. Jax, please…”

  “Anything,” he promised and sucked her into his mouth.

  “Don’t stop.”

  He didn’t, not when her hands came up to tangle in his hair, not when she cried out and came, shuddering endlessly beneath him. When she was limp, he kissed his way up her still-quivering body.

  She tightened her grip on him and kissed him back, feeling him hard and throbbing at her hip. “I need you inside me.”

  Reaching over her, he took a condom from his nightstand, groaning when she helped him roll it down his length. Then he entwined their fingers and brought their joined hands up to rest on either side of her face. Already cradled by her open thighs, he slid into her. She gasped, rocked to her very core by how good he felt filling her, and he went still. “No, don’t stop,” she whispered, barely recognizing her soft and throaty voice.

  He dropped his forehead to hers, his eyes closing, clearly trying to give her a minute to adjust to him. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she arched up and felt herself soften for him.

  “God, look at you,” he whispered hoarsely. Squeezing their entwined fingers, he touched his lips to hers. “I love your smile.”

  She hadn’t even been aware that she was smiling. But when she was with him like this, she felt sexy and wanted and beautiful, and on top of her world. And then he was moving with her, setting a pace that stole her breath and captured her heart. Freeing her hands from his, she threaded her fingers into his hair, holding his gaze, knowing her own was filled with shock and wonder.

  This. This was what it felt like when it was right.

  Jax banded his arms around her, sliding them beneath her, up her back to grip her shoulders. The movement pulled them closer, allowing him even deeper inside her, and she cried out, shuddering in pleasure. Her eyes started to drift closed, but he tangled a hand in her hair, tugging gently until she opened them again, allowing him to see everything, allowing her the same as she quivered and trembled against him.

  He seemed to lose himself in her eyes. God knew she’d lost herself in his, and as she came, she took him with her for the free fall.

  B
ut in his arms, the landing was safe. She had a feeling that with him she’d always be safe.

  Chapter 19

  “Since it’s the early worm that gets

  eaten by the bird, sleep late.”

  PHOEBE TRAEGER

  The sun was slanting much lower in the sky out Jax’s bedroom window when Maddie opened her eyes and blinked into focus a well-defined, muscular chest. Tipping her head back, she met a pair of warm golden eyes that were looking pretty damn alert for a man who should have nothing left in the tank.

  “I fell asleep,” she said in surprise.

  “Just for a little while.” He was playing with a strand of her hair, wrapping the curl around and around his finger. “You okay?”

  She knew why he asked. He’d seen her face that exact moment he’d pushed inside of her, the single sole heartbeat when her world had slammed to a halt on its axis.

  Fear.

  Not that he’d hurt her, never that. No, this fear hadn’t been physical. Instead, she was afraid of the emotions he had awakened in her. Of what she could feel for him if she let herself.

  Jax was on his side, holding her snugged up against him, one hand propping up his head, the other stroking her under the blanket he must have pulled up over them.

  “I’m more than okay,” she said.

  “Then what was the look?”

  Trust him to ask bluntly, to put it all out there. She dropped her gaze from his and stared at his throat. “It was good, so very, very good.”

  “And this surprises you?”

  “No. It scares me.” She met his gaze. “You’ve made sure to touch me, to try to put me at ease, as often as possible, and yet you’ve never asked me about it. About my past. My relationships.”

  “I figured you’d tell me when you were ready.”

  And she finally was. “I dated a guy that… well, he wasn’t good for me.”

  Something flickered in his eyes. Something hard. But when he spoke, his voice was as calm and gentle as his hand still whispering over her. “Figured that.”

  “Until I met you, I’d talked myself into believing all guys were assholes.” She chewed on her lower lip, closing her eyes when he lifted his hand to stroke the hair from her forehead, brushing his fingers across her scar.

  “Maddie, look at me.”

  She opened her eyes and found his eyes warm and waiting. “We can all be assholes. I want five minutes alone with your ex to prove it, and I want that badly, but I’d never hurt you. Never.”

  “Only five minutes?” she asked, trying to lighten the mood.

  He wasn’t feeling playful. “Violence should never happen in a relationship.”

  She listened to the vehemence in his voice and took strength from it. “Alex was quiet. Controlled. And when he got pissed, he got more quiet and more controlled, until he wasn’t either of those things.” She drew a deep, shuddery breath, remembering how awful it’d been. “The first time he hit me, he seemed so horrified. I can’t even explain to myself how I forgave him. He was so sorry and promised it’d never happen again. Then it did. It was…” She swallowed hard, knowing this all played into her fears, how she had no idea what people were really capable of, and how frightening that was. “It escalated, and I left. But I still hate that it happened more than once.” She shut her eyes and admitted her secret shame. “It’s humiliating that I didn’t see him for what he was. That I’d be with a guy like that—”

  “You got out,” he said quietly, firmly. “You managed a difficult situation, and you got out. That’s all that matters now. You have nothing to be ashamed of.” He waited until she met his gaze again and softly repeated it. “Nothing.”

  She nodded, and he kissed her softly. “You’re one of the bravest women I know.”

  That made her laugh.

  “You are.”

  Looking deep into his eyes, her amusement faded, replaced by awe. He meant it. And suddenly, she didn’t have to fake the strength. The bravado. It was real. “Did you build this house?”

  “Yes. And time for a subject change, I take it.”

  She smiled at him. “You’re a smart man. And I think the house is beautiful.”

  “You haven’t seen much of it.”

  “That’s because you practically shoved me straight to your bed.” She looked around at his large bedroom, sparsely filled with big pieces of dark oak furniture that were both masculine and inviting. His sheets were earth tones and luxurious. There were a couple of towels tossed onto a chair in a corner and running shoes lying beneath it. A forgotten pair of jeans was discarded on the floor.

  Izzy was snoozing on top of them.

  The room was clean but not necessarily neat. Good to know he wasn’t a perfect superhero. “I like your furniture.”

  “I built that, too.”

  “So you’re multitalented.”

  He smiled wickedly, making her laugh.

  “And full of secrets,” she added.

  His smile faded some. “Yes.”

  She felt her heart catch at the way he looked at her as he ran the pad of a finger over her lower lip. “You going to share them?” she asked.

  He just rolled her over the top of him and ran his hands down her body. “Yes. Secret number one. I’m not finished with you.”

  “You’re right,” she said, feeling him hard beneath her. “One of us definitely isn’t finished.”

  With a grin, he pulled her thigh over his hips so that she straddled him, opening her to his touch. “Only one of us?” he murmured and stroked her with his thumb.

  It came away drenched.

  “Okay, as it turns out, I might not be finished with you, either.”

  “Feel free to take your time.”

  She set her hands on his pecs and stared down at him, feeling shockingly at ease given how naked she was. His hands were everywhere on her body, rough and strong and gentle all at the same time. Then he produced another condom and guided her down on him.

  It was a deliciously tight fit, and her hands clung to his biceps as she rocked. This wrenched a hungry groan from him, but he gripped her hips. “Slow this time,” he demanded, lazily stroking her where they were joined, making her crazy. “Real slow, Maddie.”

  And he meant it. For torturously long minutes, he languidly stroked, teased, and drew her nearly out of her mind, until she was panting out his name like a mantra, desperate for release. When he finally moved, it was in fluid, rhythmic motions that had her crying out, arching into him, clinging to him as if he was her own personal life support. He was everything.

  Simple and terrifying as that.

  Eventually they staggered into the kitchen for provisions. Jax made grilled cheese and soup, and then they somehow ended up naked on his big leather couch in the living room. Maddie was currently lying there, gasping for breath, thinking that at this rate, they’d kill each other by Christmas. Damp with perspiration, she shifted, and the friction of her moist skin on the soft leather made a sound that had her going utterly still in horror. Then she became a flurry of motion trying to re-create the sound so Jax would know it was the couch and that she hadn’t—

  They both clapped their hands to their noses at the same time as the odor hit them, hard and merciless.

  “Christ,” Jax said, sitting straight up.

  “It wasn’t me, it wasn’t!” Maddie shook her head wildly. “It was my skin against the leather, and—” She broke off because Jax was doubled over, gasping for breath. God. He was dying, he was—

  Laughing his butt off, she realized. “It wasn’t me,” she repeated, beginning to feel insulted.

  Jax managed to regain control of himself and then turned to the dog lying at their feet. “Iz, we’ve been over this—not in front of guests. You have to go out?”

  The dog leapt to her feet and barked joyously, and—

  Let out an audible fart.

  Grinning, Jax got up to open the door for her.

  “You knew it wasn’t me,” Maddie accused when he came back, cros
sing her arms over her chest.

  Still grinning, he sank back down and hauled her into his lap. Pressing his face into her hair, he kissed her behind her ear.

  Her sweet spot, and he knew it. “Let me make it up to you,” he said with a low, masculine laugh.

  She lifted her chin softly. “I can’t think of anything good enough.”

  “I can.” His eyes were lit with the challenge. “And it’s going to be good, Maddie. Very good.”

  Not going to cave, she told herself, holding her body rigid. Not going to—

  Taking her earlobe gently between his teeth, he tugged lightly. An answering tug occurred between her legs. Cause and effect…

  She caved like a cheap suitcase.

  Chapter 20

  “If you’re going to walk on thin ice,

  you might as well dance.”

  PHOEBE TRAEGER

  Much later, Maddie put a hand to her heart to keep it in her chest. She was trying to think of something to say, but the only thing that came to her mind was “WOW.” So she murmured it softly and then again, because frankly, it bore repeating.

  Next to her, Jax let out a very male sound of agreement and reached for her hand. Entwining their fingers, he brought her palm up to his mouth and brushed his lips across it. “It’s dark out,” he noted. “When did that happen?”

  She had no idea.

  “Thirsty? Hungry?”

  In response, her stomach rumbled loud enough to echo off the walls, and she closed her eyes in answer to his laugh. The couch dipped as he rolled over her and placed his forearms on either side of her face, his body lowering to hers. “My plan was to keep you naked until one of us begged for mercy. We’ll circle back to that.”

  They showered, dressed, and made it to the Jeep just as a sleek Mercedes pulled up the driveway. Beside her, Jax stiffened. Glancing into his face, she was surprised to see that his look of satisfaction had vanished. “What is it?”

  Before he answered, a man stepped out of the car wearing a well-cut suit and a flash of sophistication. His eyes went straight to Maddie.