He pulled her dress up around her waist, breaking the kiss to bury his face in the sweet-smelling cloud of her hair. He kissed her ear, then licked the shell. When she moaned and writhed against him, his cock got even harder.
“Kassie,” he whispered her name, loving the way it felt on his lips, loving every exhilarating second of being with her. His reservations fell to the wayside, at least until he’d had his fill of her. If he ever could. “I want you.”
“Yes,” she murmured, her voice sounding as desperate as he felt. “Fuck me, Jax. Fuck me now.”
It was all he needed to hear. His fingers snagged her panties again. They had to go. He sank to his knees, not giving a shit about the sand beneath him or how long it would take to vacuum it out of his Jeep later on. Jax tugged her panties down over her hips, all the way down to her ankles. She stepped out of them, and he didn’t think twice about stuffing them into his pocket. He was going to give her exactly what she wanted. But first, he was going to take what he wanted.
He hooked one of her legs over his shoulder, opening her to him, and then he buried his face between her legs. He found her clit, teasing it with his tongue before sucking it into his mouth. She cried out, her fingers tangling in his hair. Jax smiled against her scorching folds. He loved making her wild. He flicked his tongue over her again and moved lower, sinking his tongue into her pussy.
She bucked into him, coming almost violently. He tasted the sweetness of her juices and thought he’d never had anything more delicious in his life. Sweet Jesus, if he didn’t get back on his feet, he was going to lose the last little grip he had on his control. He stood, ripping his wallet from his pocket and extracting a condom with lightning speed. She opened his fly and took his cock into her hand, stroking him.
Fuck. He tore open the foil packet, halfway convinced that he wasn’t going to make it, that he was going to come in her hand faster than a horny teenager. She took the condom from him.
“Let me,” she said, leaning into him for a heady kiss.
He allowed her to sheath him, his fingers going back to her pussy. She was soaking wet, hot and heavenly. He gripped her hips and slammed inside her in one long thrust. She was so tight, and it felt so good. Too good. He pumped into her, unable to go slowly as he’d wanted. He’d come undone, but that didn’t matter because so had she. She tightened on him again, coming violently. He pushed into her, wanting to go so deep he’d never come back out again. She nipped at his lower lip, moaning his name, and that was it. He couldn’t hold on for another second. He came, rocking against Kassie, his forehead pressed to hers.
“Oh,” she said on a sigh.
He knew the feeling. He was pretty damn speechless himself. Fucking her had knocked the wind right out of him. He couldn’t resist taking her lips again in another lingering kiss. And he knew right then and there that he had to see her again. It didn’t matter that she’d dismissed him as a brainless regular Joe. The fire between them was undeniable. She was everything he shouldn’t want, a prissy New Yorker who wore the most ridiculously high heels he’d ever seen and drove her piece of shit clunker into the back of his brand-new truck. But damn if he didn’t want her anyway.
Ah, fuck it all.
Chapter Three
Kassie was having difficulty concentrating.
She checked her email for what had to be the fifteenth time, then clicked back to the manuscript she’d been attempting to edit. It was a great story, written by one of the veteran authors who had been assigned to her when she’d first taken on the job, and the manuscript was solid. Kassie had actually read the woman’s books long before becoming her editor, and she loved her novels. They were scorchers, page-turners, the kind of romance she loved and craved in her own life. But today was different.
Because it was the third day that had passed since she’d last seen Jax. The third day of complete silence. And as much as she was telling herself that she didn’t care, that she hadn’t wanted to start up anything she wasn’t in a place to finish, his sudden lack of interest was really getting to her.
Their night on the beach had been perfect. After he’d melted her into a quivering puddle of lust, he’d laid a blanket on the sand and built a little fire. They’d spread out together, listening to the waves crash on the beach, twisted up in each other’s arms. They’d even seen a falling star.
Kassie, immature, desperate moron that she was, had made a wish. To see him again. That was it. Simple. But it seemed that the fickle fates that had brought her crashing into the back of his truck weren’t interested in cooperating any longer. And Jax had given her the best sex of her life only to never call her again.
She’d given him her number. He’d given her his. Then, nothing.
She guessed she could be a big girl and at least send him a text. But the last thing she wanted was to seem desperate. No man liked a clingy woman. She was a grownup. She’d known what she was getting into the moment she’d unzipped his fly, and she’d gone for it anyway.
She tapped her nails on her desk and blew out a gusty sigh. Crap. How was she going to wade through all the work that needed to be accomplished today while she was mooning over a man who had taken what she’d so willingly offered and then thought better by the light of day?
“You’re pathetic,” she told herself. Maybe even more pathetic than she’d been during her relationship with Adam. To make matters worse, she hadn’t received a quote for her renovations yet, either. Maybe he’d decided he’d do best to erase all connections to her entirely. It would have been awkward having him here doing work on her house if he had no interest in buying the cow now that he’d sampled the milk for free.
Yeah, her life was pretty damn depressing. She forced her attention back to the Word document open on her screen. The heroine was playing hard-to-get and the hero had just showed up at her door, determined to win her back into his bed. Still distracted despite the tension building in the scene, Kassie corrected a comma splice and then a dangling modifier. Even at her worst, she could spot a grammatical error in her sleep. She supposed that was a positive attribute.
It took some effort, but about ten pages later, it seemed like Kassie was back on a roll. Until her cell vibrated and her screen lit up. Trying not to feel like a teenager waiting to hear back from her first boyfriend, she casually picked up her phone to see who the text was from.
Jax.
Her ridiculous heart did a somersault. Ever a man of spare words, the text was short and sweet.
How about boating?
She bit her lip, considering how promptly she should respond. On one hand, she didn’t want him to think she’d been carrying around her phone for the past three days, just waiting for him to deign to contact her. Which she totally had. But on the other hand, she didn’t want him to think she wasn’t interested either. Which she totally was.
But what exactly did his cryptic text mean, anyway? Was he inviting her to go boating with him? Asking her opinion on boating in general? Then something else occurred to her. Maybe she should leave him dangling for a change. Make him wonder.
Before she could rethink her strategy, she typed back and hit send.
Who is this?
Ha. As if she didn’t have him as a contact on her phone. She’d pressed his name at least half a dozen times over the past few days, her finger hesitating over the screen as she contemplated whether or not she should be the first one to make the next move. Wondering if she should even want to make the next move. Hadn’t she decided she had no business dating anyone? And that casual sex with any man—even a man as undeniably beautiful as Jax—was off her radar? So the argument had gone until she’d eventually hit the kill switch on her phone and forgotten about it.
She stared at the phone now, waiting for his reply, unaware she was holding her breath until she finally had to release it. And admit that maybe her plan had backfired. Maybe she’d insulted him by acting as if she didn’t know which man in her many, completely imagined leagues of admirers, could possibly be texti
ng her.
Her doorbell rang, making her jump.
Her first foolish thought was that it was Jax, having been conjured by her lust-filled musings. She rolled her eyes at herself as she pushed away from her desk and stood. She’d always been the kind of person who had an imagination that was far too big for her own good. With a quick glance down at her outfit to ascertain if she was presentable—blue jeans and a white tank top, not bad—she headed for the door.
It was probably someone who was lost, she reasoned. Maybe even a neighbor come by to say hello. The friendly woman across the street, Janice, had stopped in the evening before to welcome her to the neighborhood. Kassie pulled open the door and did a double take.
Jax.
There he stood, grinning at her with his dimples on full display. In his tight jeans, dove-gray shirt and cowboy boots, he looked like something straight out of her fantasies. That super sexy tattoo of his curled over his forearm, and she followed its path of dark curves all the way up to his strong biceps. Yum. His blue eyes crinkled at the corners, shining with a blatant sexual warmth that threatened to melt her panties.
“It’s me,” he drawled.
She tried to stanch the instant stab of lust the mere sound of his voice sent slamming into her. Her eyes greedily took him in, noticing that his stubble was back, this time more pronounced than before. Good God, he was sex in a gorgeous, man-shaped package. And she was staring at him.
“Hi, Jax,” she forced herself to say.
“Hi, Kassie.” He stepped closer, invading her personal space in the most delicious way. “Are you going to let me in, or are we going to give your new neighbors a show?”
She stepped back instinctively, even though she knew she shouldn’t. The expression on his face had gone from charming to predatory in under thirty seconds. “What brings you here?” she asked tentatively, even though she was reasonably sure she could tell by the bulge in his jeans. An answering ache blossomed in her pussy.
Pathetic didn’t even begin to describe her. He’d dropped off the grid for three entire days, and the minute he showed up on her doorstep she was ready to open his fly and let him fuck her up against the wall. Her heart beat in double time. She was already wet for him. The idea held increasing appeal.
He closed the door behind him and had her up against the wall in the next breath, almost as if he’d read her mind. His hands framed her hips. “This,” he said before his lips claimed hers.
He kissed her as if he were starved for her and she kissed him back, equally starved for him. She had missed Jax, she realized as she wound her arms around his neck and shamelessly pressed herself against him. His cock was a hard temptation pressing into her thigh. She hooked a leg around his, pulling him closer as his tongue sank into her mouth in a seductive imitation of what she hoped was to come. His scruff was a sexy abrasion on her cheek. She wanted more.
“Kassie,” he whispered against her mouth. His fingers slid down the fly of her jeans, using just enough pressure to make her moan. “I missed you.”
Her pride chose that moment to return, reminding her that he had disappeared from her life after turning it upside down. She pressed her palms against his chest, summoning the ever-waning ability to resist him. “Jax.”
He stilled, the tantalizing motions over her pussy coming to an abrupt halt. No, her body cried. His piercing blue gaze went from her lips to her eyes. “What’s wrong?”
Absolutely nothing other than she was trying to maintain her self-respect. But every inch of her objected to his withdrawal. “You can’t just show up here like this.”
He stared at her, his thoughts impenetrable. “Are you saying you don’t want me here?” As he asked her the question, he traced her lower lip with his thumb.
A tingle of pleasure shot through her before she could quell it. She swallowed. “Not exactly.”
He grazed the sensitive column of her throat next, leaving a path of fire in his wake. Somehow, his gentle, barely there touch was making her even more inflamed than his earlier ministrations had. It would seem she couldn’t win with this man. He had a power over her that couldn’t be shaken. And it scared her.
“What are you saying, then?” he asked, his touch feathering over her collarbone next.
“I haven’t heard from you in three days,” she blurted and then inwardly cursed herself for blowing any attempts she’d been making to act as if she didn’t care.
His head lowered toward hers, his breath warm on her lips. His eyes were intense, stormy, filled with a passion she knew was reflected in hers. “Did you miss me?”
The nerve of the man. If only he didn’t reduce her into a puddle of lust every time he so much as looked at her. “You wish,” she forced herself to say, not willing to allow him to know just how much he affected her.
He shook his head slowly, cupping her breast through her cotton tank top. Her nipple hardened instantly, even with two barriers between his skin and hers. “You know what I think, Kassie?”
She loved the sweet way her name rolled off his tongue. He pinched her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, giving it a tug. Not fair. Her mouth went dry. “What?”
“I think you’re lying.” His wicked fingers trailed down over her stomach, catching the hem of her shirt.
So much for denying him. Her traitorous body was clamoring for his every touch. All she could think about was dragging him upstairs to her bed and having her way with him. Again and again. But she still had some pride after all, so she kept her lips pressed tightly together, not ready to admit he was right.
He pulled her shirt up over her breasts, then caught her lacy bra cup and dragged it down. Her breast sprang free into his waiting hand. He made a low sound of approval in his throat and lowered his head. When he caught her nipple in his mouth and sucked, she moaned, arching into him. Damn him. How could he make her such a willing participant in something she knew was so dangerous?
She couldn’t afford to develop feelings for him. Her heart and her mind weren’t in a place to be ready for something new, especially not something so all-consuming. Something as frighteningly deep as what was happening with Jax.
He blew on her nipple, driving her closer to the edge of sanity than she already was. “Will you admit it now?”
“Fine,” she gritted, knowing she fought a losing battle. “I may have missed you a tiny…ah, bit.” She lost her breath as he caught her nipple between his teeth and pulled gently.
He released her then, pressing a kiss to the side of her breast before sliding her bra back into place and rolling her shirt down so that she was covered once more. “You’re a stubborn thing, aren’t you?”
Had he only been plying her with sensual torture to get her to say what he wanted to hear? There was a smug cast to his expression, a pleased smile flirting with his lips. She would have frowned at him, but he was so damn sexy that she couldn’t be angry no matter how much she wanted to be. “I’ve been told that a time or two.”
“It’s sexy as hell,” he said, giving her another swift, possessive kiss. “I like it almost as much as I like being deep inside your tight, wet pussy.”
His words sent a fresh surge of moisture between her legs. Oh dear God. What was wrong with her? She had no willpower when it came to this man. None. Nil. Nada.
“Is that what you came here for?” she asked him, wondering aloud. As sad as it was, at this point, she didn’t even mind if sex was his sole reason for dropping by. She’d take it, because Lord knew she wanted it every bit as much as he did.
“No.” He grinned, his dimples back. “I was in the neighborhood on a job, and I thought I’d swing by since you apparently had already forgotten who I was.”
So her tactic had worked after all. But he still hadn’t given her a reason for his silence for the last few days. “I thought you’d done the same.”
“Trust me, there’s no forgetting you.” He leaned into her, giving her another long, slow kiss that all but curled her toes. “A few things shook loose that I
had to take care of. Do you have any siblings?”
She tried to focus on the conversation and not on his hands on her ass. “A stepsister, but we’re not close.”
“Consider yourself lucky. After you meet my brothers, you’ll understand.”
He wanted her to meet his brothers? A different kind of warmth swept over her. He’d been busy with his brothers, brothers he wanted her to meet. The revelation made her feel relieved and nervous all at once. Meeting family meant she wasn’t just fling material. But it also meant she could be wading into much deeper waters than she was prepared to swim.
His cell phone went off, interrupting the moment. He stepped back from her and took it from a clip on his belt, glancing down at it. “Damn. I’ve got to take it.”
“Of course.” She wrapped her arms around herself, feeling suddenly bereft.
“Are you free this weekend?”
“Yes,” she said, even though she wasn’t sure she should.
“Great.” He flashed her another grin. “I’m going to take you out on the bay. I’ll give you a call.”
She nodded. He answered his cell and turned on his heel, leaving her house without a backward glance. Kassie watched him go, wondering precisely what she was getting herself into. Very likely, she should be running as fast as she could in the opposite direction. She’d done it once before. She could do it again.
But the trouble with running was that every once in a while, you had to stop to catch your breath.
Jax walked out of Kassie’s with the biggest hard-on of his life. Damn. He hadn’t meant to touch her, kiss her, say dirty things to her until she was writhing against him cat-in-heat style. Until he’d give his left nut just to sink inside her sweet, wet pussy again. He walked to his Jeep, which he’d been driving since his truck was in Slade’s shop, and hopped in before he did something really stupid, like turn back around and go back to Kassie’s for seconds.
He tried to focus on his brother, who pretty much took the prize for having the worst timing in the world when it came to interruptions.
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