Stay with Me

by Jules Bennett

  “Come to my bedroom.”

  “We don’t have time for another quickie,” Livie grumbled as she shook her head.

  Jax snaked an arm around her waist and jerked her against his chest. “When I get you in my bed again, it sure as hell won’t be quick.”

  He smacked a quick kiss on her lips before releasing her. “We’re getting clothes before my daughter arrives and wonders what the hell kind of sleepover I was having.”

  As he circled around her to head out of the room, he gave her a swat on her butt. She yelped, then laughed.

  “Go get me a shirt and pants,” she scolded, following him. “I’m drawing the line at wearing your underwear.”

  A visual of her wearing nothing but his clothes against her skin had his body stirring to life all over again. He stopped at the base of the steps and turned to face her.

  Without any warning, he bent and put his shoulder into her midsection to lift her into a fireman’s hold. “If you keep talking dirty to me, your friends and my daughter are going to have to wait for us to finish.”

  The electricity flashed as she smacked him. “Put me down before you drop me. If the lights go off, I don’t want to tumble naked down these steps.”

  Jax tightened his hold. “I’d never let you get hurt, Livie.”

  There was so much more to that statement, so much he could continue on about, but right now they had to get dressed because the storm was raging and he knew Piper was going to be scared when she got here. His night had been cut short with Livie, but he knew for certain that her feelings were just as strong as his. The question was, who was going to cave first and admit it?

  * * *

  “I can give you a ride back home.”

  Olivia glanced from a trembling Piper being held in her father’s arms back to Jade, who stood in the doorway. “I think I’ll stay.”

  Jade raised her brows. “You know what you’re doing?”

  “Not at all.” And that’s what terrified her the most, but she had to figure it out. “You okay to drive in this?”

  Jade nodded. “It’s not that far. Melanie is pulling out all the candles and flashlights. She already made snacks in case we lose power.”

  Olivia laughed. “Food is important. I’ll see you guys in the morning.”

  Jade looked as if she wanted to say something else, but she merely nodded and stepped out into the storm. Olivia watched as her friend pulled her hood up over her head and took off running toward her car.

  Olivia carefully closed the door and flicked the lock. When she turned, she met Jax’s questioning gaze and instantly felt like a fool. She hadn’t once asked if she could stay. Maybe now that they’d had sex he didn’t want her here—not that she got that vibe from him, but it was rude of her to just assume.

  “I hope this is okay?” she asked, her hand still on the door.

  “More than okay.” His smile instantly relaxed her. “When it storms we make a blanket fort in the living room. You up for it?”

  “I’ve never made a blanket fort.”

  Piper jerked her head from her father’s chest. “Never? That’s sad. Daddy gets all the blankets and cushions. It’s a mess.”

  Jax laughed and hugged Piper tighter. “Why don’t you start taking the cushions off and I’ll grab blankets. Olivia will stay in the room with you in case the lights go off. Okay?”

  Piper nodded and jumped to start her job. Jax crossed the room and stood directly in front of her.

  “You look like you’re about ready to run out that door.” He pried her hand away and gripped both of hers between his own. “What are you afraid of?”

  The truth slammed into her. She’d seen it dangling in the back of her mind before, but right now it was front and center. They’d just been intimate—for a second time—and now she was going to stay over and have a slumber party with the man she was falling for and his daughter. Things didn’t get much more serious than that . . . at least not for her.

  “This all seems so . . .” She couldn’t say the words. Didn’t know how to verbalize her thoughts without sounding utterly terrified. “I don’t know how to do the family thing.”

  Jax lifted her hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Right now we’re going to build a fort and have shadow puppets on the wall because I can just about bet the electric will go. We’re going to comfort Piper and laugh and tell stupid jokes until she falls asleep. That’s all you need to focus on.”

  But when he touched her like that, so caring and so gentle, and when he looked into her eyes like she was special, precious, she had to worry about so much more. Like her heart, her mind . . . her life. She was getting too cozy here, she saw it happening. Little by little each day something happened that made her fall more for her hometown, for the people in it. For Jax.

  “Daddy,” Piper cried. “Hurry.”

  He shot Olivia a wink and darted up the stairs to retrieve blankets. Piper had all the pillows spread all over the floor. Throw pillows, sofa pillows, the pillows from the oversize chair.

  “Can you move the foot thing?” Piper asked.

  Olivia glanced around the room. “Foot thing?”

  Piper pointed to the ottoman. “Daddy puts that here.” She pointed to the open area in front of the fireplace. “Then we put blankets over that and he sets the big pillows up. I crawl in the fort first.”

  Olivia bent down to slide the ottoman across the hardwood floor. Conscience of the fact Jax’s shirt was huge on her, she didn’t bend at the waist because she would totally flash a toddler.

  Trying to keep her breasts concealed by the shirt, Olivia carefully scooted it to the spot Piper still pointed to. Apparently, there was a system she and her father had down pat and Olivia didn’t want to screw it up.

  “Why are you wearing my daddy’s shirt?”

  Piper glanced down to the oversize tee that he’d apparently had from his air force days. “We were outside roasting marshmallows when it started storming and we got soaked. My clothes are in the dryer.”

  There, that was vague, but honest.

  “Okay. I have all the usual blankets.” Jax came down the stairs carrying an armload of comforters and blankets. “We’ll have to see about making this a bit larger since we have a guest tonight.”

  Piper slid her hand in Olivia’s. “I’m glad you stayed so I can still have my first sleepover.”

  Olivia couldn’t pull her eyes away from the delicate hand inside of hers. There was such innocence with Piper. She was sweet and honest and everything about her was Jax’s doing. He’d raised this precious girl from just a few weeks old and he’d done so single-handedly. Well, she was sure he had help from Tanner and Cash.

  Everything about Jax was becoming more and more difficult to resist.

  Jax dropped the blankets in front of her, pulling her from the moment. When she looked over and met his eyes, she saw that same look she’d seen earlier. It went beyond desire, beyond lust . . . and it ventured into a territory she wasn’t sure she could accept. Because if she let these emotions in, if she let them overtake her, someone was going to get hurt.

  “I’m glad I could stay for your first sleepover too,” she told Piper as she turned her attention back down to the smiling toddler.

  The lights flickered once again as a rumble of thunder boomed. Piper’s hand tightened around Olivia’s.

  “It’s all right,” Olivia assured her. “You’ve got two adults here now and we won’t let anything happen to you. I’m excited to see shadow puppets. I don’t know that I’ve done that since I was a little girl.”

  Jax worked on shifting pillows and spreading out the blankets. Olivia picked up Piper and held on to her as the lights flickered once more.

  “Let’s get that flashlight and you can show me your best shadow puppet.”

  Piper nodded. “But hold me until Daddy gets the fort ready.”

  Her little arms wrapped around Olivia’s neck and something in her heart turned over—almost as if something clicked into place.
Never once had she thought about a family of her own. Never once did she dream of having children or a husband. No, Olivia had been too busy building her corporate world exactly the way she’d envisioned. She’d had a plan and she was well on track to the biggest success she’d ever known.

  Getting sidetracked by her hometown and diving into renovations at her father’s airport was one thing, but falling headfirst in love with Jax—

  Damn it. She’d let that word slip into her mind. She’d tried so hard to avoid it. She knew once that dreaded “L” word entered the scene, she would be screwed.

  “The flashlight is over there,” Piper said, pointing to the end table.

  Olivia turned her head and Piper ran her little fingertip over the side of Olivia’s neck.

  “You have a birthmark?”

  Confused, Olivia glanced back to Piper, whose eyes were still focused on her neck. “Birthmark?”

  “This red mark. I have a birthmark, too. It’s on my shoulder, but Daddy says it’s shaped like a strawberry.”

  Red? On her neck?

  Olivia jerked her attention to Jax, who had the nerve to start whistling. As if that weren’t frustrating enough, he shot her a quick glance and winked. If Piper weren’t in her arms, Olivia would be all too happy to explain to him she’d never had a hickey and at the age of thirty-four she sure as hell didn’t intend to start getting them now.

  “I must’ve burned myself with the curling iron and not realized it.” The excuse was lame, but it was all she could think of on the spur of the moment.

  The electric flashed once, twice, and finally went. Tiny arms tightened around Olivia’s neck.

  “It’s all good,” Olivia assured Piper. “I’ve got the flashlight.”

  She clicked it on and shone it against the far wall. Piper lifted her head. Instantly she started with her puppets and before long she was giggling.

  “Let me see yours,” Piper exclaimed, clearly having more faith in Olivia’s talents than she should.

  “I can’t hold the flashlight and you and do a puppet.”

  Piper took the flashlight. “Now.”

  Jax’s soft chuckle from the other side of the room mocked her. Oh, so he thought she couldn’t do them?

  Olivia held up her hand in some obscure angle and watched on the far wall. Yeah, she was terrible at this. But there hadn’t been a need to learn such social skills. Drawing up spreadsheets and attending forced cocktail parties for clients was pretty much as social as she got.

  “What animal is that?” Piper asked.

  Olivia put one of her fingers down until it looked somewhat like . . . a dog?

  “Dog,” she quickly said. “Roof, roof, roof.”

  She bounced her hand around in the circle of light and kept barking.

  “That’s not a dog,” Jax stated, coming to stand beside her. “This is a dog.”

  He was all too eager to show her, not with his own hand, but he reached around her from behind and adjusted her fingers. The warmth from his back, the weight of his daughter, it was all so much. Too much. Was he doing this to torture her? Did he want to shove her deeper into this rabbit hole? Because at this point she was having a difficult time recalling why she wanted in and out of Haven so fast.

  Yes, she had to get back to her job, to the potential promotion, but part of her was growing more and more content here. When did that happen? How did that happen?

  “That’s a dog,” Jax stated once he got her hand in position.

  Light briefly flashed in the room as the thunder boomed and lightning streaked across the sky.

  “Okay, squirt. You climb into the fort first.” Jax lifted Piper from Olivia’s arms. “Keep the flashlight you have with you. We have others.”

  Piper crawled into the mound of pillows and blankets. “This is huge. We need this size all the time.”

  “What were you thinking giving me a hickey?” Olivia gritted between her teeth in a low whisper. “Do I look like someone who wants to be marked?”

  Jax curled his fingers around her neck and stroked his thumb over where the mark was. “You didn’t seem to mind anything I did earlier. In fact, you were beg—”

  “All right.” She batted his hand away. “Let’s get in the fort where I know you’ll be on your best behavior.”

  He aligned their torsos and nipped at her lips. “You’ve already seen my best behavior.”

  The next second he released her and disappeared inside the fort. Piper’s giggles started instantly while Olivia remained standing in the dark trying to figure out how her life had gone from trying to dodge this small town to suddenly finding herself falling for it.

  But it wasn’t Haven she worried about missing when she left.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Dude, that was so awesome. When can we go again?”

  Jax rounded the Cessna and met Brock’s wide grin. “I’m here every day. You tell me what your schedule is.”

  “I’m free Thursday,” he replied.

  With a nod, Jax started heading from the hangar toward his office in the main building next door. “Follow me and let me look over my flight schedule.”

  After the storm last night, Jax had barely gotten up in enough time to fix Piper breakfast and run her over to the sitter. Thankfully, the sitter was just next door to their house, which was handy on days he had to come in and she couldn’t fly with him. There was no school for her today and he was going to be here until at least six.

  Jax wasn’t even going to entertain the flashbacks of this morning and when Olivia hurried out the door like she was being chased.

  Because that’s what she did. She ran, and he wasn’t going to be the one chasing her anymore. Her own insecurities and demons did that. But, damn it, he thought they were getting somewhere last night. He thought when she’d opted to stay after they’d been intimate that she was finally coming to the realization they were so much more.

  Apparently not, because she’d freaked out this morning and left wearing his clothes with an awkward wave and quick smile . . . all directed to Piper. She’d completely ignored him.

  The wind kicked up just a little and the sound of metal scraping against metal had Jax stopping between buildings. Both he and Brock turned toward the clanging.

  “Up there,” Brock pointed.

  Sure enough on top of the hangar was a piece of the metal roofing blowing in the breeze. The wind wasn’t even strong, or he never would’ve taken Brock up in the sky, but obviously, the storm last night had done something to the hangar. Of course it did. Because they needed more issues with this place.

  “I’ll look at it in a bit,” Jax stated. “Let’s get you on the schedule so you can get those hours in.”

  “Macy said she would work around my schedule for this and school.” Brock stepped into the office behind Jax. “My family has been pretty awesome in their support. I think they just want me to fly in guests for the resort.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Jax agreed. “Especially if this renovation goes through.”

  Brock rested his knuckles on the edge of the scarred wood desk. “You think you’re going to renovate this whole place?”

  Jax stared down at his schedule for the next few weeks and mentally calculated how to get in more hours.

  “I think it’s going to take quite a bit of work before we could actually begin the labor part,” he replied honestly as he glanced up. “But Livie is confident it will happen and she and her friends know more about these dealings than I do.”

  “Do you want the expansion?”

  Jax considered Brock’s genuine question. Did he actually want to grow the airport? Whenever the thought or question crossed his mind, Jax immediately considered what Paul would’ve wanted. Ultimately, as long as the doors were open, they had paying customers, and Livie wasn’t gearing up to sell the property, Jax figured this was the most logical step.

  “I want this airport to stay open and I want to serve the needs of this town. So, yeah. I want it to grow.”
/>   Brock stood straight up and crossed his arms over his chest. “You think there’s something to all those shows and movies being filmed down here?”

  “I sure as hell hope so,” Jax laughed. “If this expansion goes off as planned, we’ll be able to add another plane to the fleet in order to bring in some elite clientele.”

  “Zach mentioned something about the runway may need to be lengthened.”

  Jax nodded. “If we’re going to grow and allow certain size planes to land here, we need to expand the runway to accommodate that.”

  He glanced back down to the schedule and rattled off various days and times. Once they had the next few sessions in, Jax closed his book and took a seat.

  “If you have free time any other days, just text me. We’ll get those hours in before you know it.”

  Brock’s grin widened. “I think I like being in the sky more than I like being on land.”

  Jax rocked back in the creaky old chair. “You’ve got all the makings of a good pilot.”

  The cell on his desk vibrated and an unknown number lit up the text. He glanced to it and quickly saw it was Jade with some information on the grants.

  Anger and a sense of emptiness filled him. Jade would’ve had to have gotten his number from Livie, who obviously had reached a new level of running away.

  “I’ll let you get back to work,” Brock stated. “Thanks for everything, man.”

  Jax gave a clipped nod. “No problem. I’ll see you Thursday.”

  Once Brock left, Jax grabbed his phone and read the text. Apparently, Zach had given them the final costs and she had passed that on to the committee to review for the grants. At least they were keeping him in the loop, but he’d rather hear from the woman he’d spent the night with. He’d rather be in contact with his legal partner in this entire process.

  Jax shot off a quick thanks and pulled in a deep breath. Gritting his teeth, he pulled up Livie’s name and sent her a message as well.

  Wear old clothes and come to the airport.