Chapter 20

Holly

Kim had her back to me as she peered into the depths of her closet while I sat on her bed. She began sorting through all her shirts, pushing them deep into the left side of the closet as she sorted through them.

“You need something just right.” Kim paused and pulled out a silk turquoise top with thin straps. “I bet this would look hot as hell on you.” She spun around and held it out to me.

“I don’t know,” I said, getting to my feet and reaching out to pinch the silk between my thumb and forefinger. “This feels expensive.”

Kim arched an eyebrow. “Are you worried you might destroy one of my expensive pieces, or are you concerned that Jax might?”

I fell back on to the edge of the bed and looked at my hands in my lap to try to disguise how fiercely I was blushing. “I would be more comfortable in something less flashy is all.”

Kim snorted. “Oh, please. You’re wearing it, and that’s final. Now we just need something for your bottom half, not that I expect it to stay on very long.” She winked at me over her shoulder as she returned to the closet and began sorting through her skirts and pants.

“No skirts,” I said, “I wore a skirt last time.”

“Yeah, and if I recall correctly, you liked the easy access. I bet Jax did too.”

I tried to stop myself from smiling but failed.

Kim giggled. “No need to be modest. You and I both know what tonight is all about. I also know how impossible it’s going to be for you to keep your hands to yourself.”

Her words couldn’t have been more true. My body was already pulsing with excitement at the thought of having the whole night alone with Jax.

Not only that, but I was eager to see more of who he was now. He was going to take me back to his place after dinner, and I would be privy to how he lived. I would be exposed to all the things he had fought for so long to keep me away from.

Now that wall between us felt like it was gone.

At least, I hoped it was.

“Perfect,” I heard Kim mutter as she pulled something from the very back of her closet. She twisted back around to face me and threw the dark bundle in her hands into my lap.

I stared down at a pair of black denim pants with gold zippers at the ankles. They still had the tag on them, and the price was obscene. “Kim, you can’t be serious. These pants were three hundred dollars, and you haven’t even worn them yet. I can’t—”

“Yes, you can, and you will. They’ve been sitting in my closet for months waiting for the right occasion, and this is definitely it. Here, pair this belt with it. And these shoes.”

Soon, I had all the workings of a perfect outfit sitting in my lap, and Kim was slipping out of the bedroom to give me privacy while I got ready.

She had already done my hair and makeup for me, and I felt like we were back in high school prepping for prom night.

I sighed as I stood in front of her floor-length mirror and stripped out of my sweatpants and tank top. I traded in my scrubs for Kim’s lavish clothes and found myself staring at a girl I hardly recognized but liked.

The heels made my legs look longer, and the way the dark denim hugged my curves had me admiring my shape for the first time in a long time. Kim had dusted bronze powder over my collarbones and shoulders so I looked sun-kissed, and I made a mental note to purchase some for myself when I was making more money.

I tied the strings of the black strappy heels on my feet and straightened to finish tucking in the green blouse. I turned around, checking out my own perky butt in the new jeans. Jax would most definitely approve.

I emerged from the bedroom, and Luke looked up at me from where he sat on the couch, his mouth full of his last bite of the grilled cheese sandwich I had whipped up fifteen minutes earlier.

“You look pretty, Momma.” He smiled.

Kim swung around the doorway to the kitchen and let out a slow wolf whistle.

I waved both of them away and giggled. There was no denying how good I felt.

There was a knock at the front door. My stomach fluttered with nerves as Kim rushed down the hall to answer it. She hollered at me that Jax was here like I didn’t know that already, and then I listened to her invite him in and tell him I was almost ready.

I went over to Luke and ruffled his hair. “You going to have fun tonight with Auntie Kim?”

Luke nodded, and I wiped crumbs out of the corners of his mouth.

“You be good. I’ll be home tomorrow morning, okay? And we’ll make pancakes.”

“Animal pancakes?”

“Are there any other kind?” I asked.

I kissed the top of my son’s head and turned to find Jax standing beside Kim in the hallway next to the kitchen. I swallowed.

He had shaved—well, sort of shaved. His stubble was tame and controlled now, shaped in sharp angles along his jaw that made him look more like a wealthy businessman than a member of a biker gang. His hair was slicked back, but the odd strand still managed to escape the confines of the hair product and hung over his forehead. The sheepish smile on his perfect lips was contagious.

“You ready to go?” he asked.

I could almost feel the rumble of his voice inside me. He looked like sex as he stood beside Kim, who made his size look rather daunting.

Kim looked back and forth between us before widening her eyes at me. “Get out of here, you two. Luke and I can’t start having fun until you leave.”

“Shall we?” Jax offered, taking a step forward and offering me his elbow.

I nodded. I was incapable of speech. My nerves had rendered me mute, and so had Jax, coming in here looking fine as hell in his dark suit.

I took his elbow, and he guided me down the hall. Kim hollered goodbye to us as we closed the door behind us, but I was too engrossed in Jax to answer her.

We stepped onto the elevator, and as soon as the doors closed behind us, Jax grabbed my wrist and pulled me to him. His kiss was aggressive, and I sensed he had been struggling to keep his act together while in front of my son and sister.

I kissed him back, hungrier for him than I’d ever been, and wondered if I would even be able to make it to dinner without needing to fuck him.

I doubted it.

We stopped for cocktails at a new bar down the street from Jax’s place. He claimed that he had been meaning to try it out for the last two months but hadn’t found the time or the company worth sharing it with.

It was a trendy place with brick walls and an industrial ceiling hosting hanging Mason jar lamps. We were sitting beside each other at the bar, and as I crossed my legs, I rested my foot against Jax’s shin. His hand wandered down to my knee, where he began tracing slow circles as we chatted. I suspected he didn’t realize he was doing it, which, for some reason, turned me on even more.

“Where are you planning on taking me next?” I asked as I sipped my fruity cocktail through a straw.

“Well, I hadn’t decided yet. I figured maybe we could walk down the street and pick a place that catches our eye.”

“Sounds fun,” I mused, unable to stop myself from picturing him naked.

I wasn’t blind to the stares other women in the bar were casting our way. Jax was not the kind of man who could go into a place like this and not draw attention. Their gazes were drawn to him with inevitability, but he didn’t seem aware of the attention. Two women at the other end of the corner had their heads bowed together and were deep in discussion, and their eyes kept flicking upward to fall on him.

It didn’t bother me. He was sitting with me, and if I had been in their shoes, I would have been checking him out too. It was impossible not to.

“How’s Luke after yesterday’s shit storm?” Jax asked, pulling my thoughts from the envious women around.

“He seems fine. It’s all mostly just confusing to him. He doesn’t understand why his dad was so angry or why he wanted to scare us. It sucks trying to explain it to him without totally destroying the image he has of Kent in his head. When he gets older, he’ll figure it out for himself.”

“It goes without saying that if he ever needs anything, I’ll be there for him, right?”

I stared into Jax’s bright green eyes.

“I mean it, Holly.”

“I know,” I whispered.

He gave me a warm smile that relieved the tight knot of emotion that had gathered in my throat. What had I done to ever deserve him?

I finished the rest of my cocktail in three big gulps and set my glass down. “Can we get out of here?”

“Hungry already?”

“No,” I said, “I just want to be alone with you.”

Jax’s smile morphed into a full-blown cocky grin, and he grabbed my hand as I slid off the barstool. “I don’t need to be asked twice,” he said, and we hurried through the bar, shimmying behind people’s chairs and weaving through tables until we tumbled out onto the sidewalk to breathe in the summer air.

Jax still had my hand in his, and he pulled me along down the sidewalk beside him, leaving his truck parked at the curb.

“I’ve had a couple too many,” he admitted, “I’ll come back for it in the morning. My place isn’t far. Five-minute walk, tops. You gonna make it in those ridiculous shoes?”

“Ridiculous?” I exclaimed. “I love these shoes.”

“I never said I didn’t like them. They just can’t be comfortable.”

I frowned down at my feet. “Sometimes comfortable isn’t what a girl wants to be.”

He shot me another wicked grin. “Oh?”

“Don’t get any ideas, now, I was just—”

He chuckled deep in his chest, and before I knew what was happening, he had stooped down and gathered me in his arms. I yelped as he literally swept me off my feet, and I lay in his grasp, paralyzed by embarrassment as other people on the sidewalk giggled as they passed us.

“Put me down,” I pleaded.

“Nah.”

“Oh come on, Jax. I can walk perfectly fine in these shoes. Five minutes isn’t going to kill me.”

“Maybe I just wanted an excuse to carry you.”

I scowled at him, but couldn’t hold my features together long enough for it to have any effect. Instead, he laughed at me some more, and when I broke out into a smile of my own, he kissed me. His lips tasted like whiskey, and his cologne smelled of pine trees after a healthy rainfall.

Without even trying, he was making me unravel.

“Can’t you walk any faster?” I asked, running my tongue along my upper lip.

“Woman, keep that tongue of yours in your mouth, or I’ll put you down and lay you out right here and now. Is that what you want?”

I locked my hands behind his head and shrugged coyly. “I want a lot of things right now.”

“Tell me.”

I leaned in close, pressing my cheek to his, and whispered seductively in his ear. “I want to be on my knees in front of you. I want to taste you. I want you to fuck me until I forget my own name.”

Jax let out a husky laugh that danced along my cheek. “And all this time I thought you were a good girl.”

“Oh, please,” I said, “You never believed that.”

Jax didn’t put me down until we were on the front steps of his house. I hovered around him, running my hands over his shoulders and down his back as he shoved the key in the deadlock and pushed the door open. My touch made him flustered, and I liked watching him struggle to control himself as he held the door open for me, and I stepped over the threshold.

He didn’t give me time to take my shoes off or to look around his place.

All I knew was that the walls were a pale gray. Every other one of my senses was consumed by the man who was pulling my shirt free from my pants and undoing my belt.

I held my arms over my head as he pulled the blouse off. He tossed it over his shoulder before he worked at undoing my jeans. Once the fly was down, he slid his hands down my back and under the waistband to cup my ass beneath the denim.

All the while, his tongue was exploring my mouth, and I was fighting to catch my breath.

He walked me backward until I was wedged between his body and the back of what I assumed was a sofa. Our kiss was interrupted as he stripped me out of my jeans and then effortlessly lifted me up and placed me on the back of the couch. He pushed my knees apart and stood between my legs to kiss me once more before descending to his knees in front of me.

He pulled my panties to the side.

I moaned before his tongue even touched my clit. I couldn’t help myself. My whole body quivered as he licked me up and down, pausing to swirl his tongue around my clit and then draw it between his lips to suckle it gently.

I gripped the back of the sofa as my breathing quickened.

As Jax rolled his tongue over my clit, he slipped a finger inside me and then another and began thrusting them in and out in a delicious rhythm that made me scream his name when I came. He watched me as my body gave in to the pleasure, and I knew he was smiling against my pussy.

Before I knew what was happening, I was being carried deeper into the house. My bare ass was placed on a cool countertop in the kitchen, and Jax pulled me to the edge. I leaned back on my elbows as he dropped his pants and stroked himself before pressing into me.

“Fuck,” I breathed, turning my face to the ceiling and closing my eyes.

Jax rocked against me, his hips grinding in circular motions as he thrust himself deep inside my pussy. I gripped his forearms as another orgasm rolled through me, and again, his name fell from my lips.