I didn’t think I’d ever spoken as much in my entire life as I had over the past three days. The introduction of the new line exploded with the flood of new writers in attendance. When I got behind the podium to present, the ballroom had been packed. The only reason I didn’t lose my shit on stage was Jaxxon on the side, waiting for me.

He’d been perfect. If I needed him with me for dinners, he was there. Whenever I needed him, he’d come find me wherever I was in the hotel, which made the entire conference bearable. When I met with a client, or my employers, he worked from the hotel room or by the pool.

The best part of the whole damn thing, at least for me, not so much for Jaxx, was him being propositioned everywhere he went by writers, cover artists, even agents—a drawback to being six-foot-seven and hot as hell. He was a perfect gentleman, declining their offers to model, but it became somewhat of a game to me. How many offers would he get, and how did he plan on keeping me from telling his family?

We’d just entered the hotel on our last night in town. I hadn’t wanted to go out. If I’d thought LA was bad, it was kindergarten compared to New York in the chaos department.

Jaxxon insisted since I was here, I had to see parts of the city I hadn’t on my previous two visits, so he pretty much played crazy protective tour guide, and we hit what he claimed were all the must-sees. We had dinner at a famous Italian Restaurant, walked down Times Square, through Central Park, and took the subway back.

Yes, the subway, where people were squished together like goddamn sardines. The only way I got through it was to hug him and bury my head against his chest while he held onto me, but he didn’t care as long as I agreed to go on it once.

He hit the button to the twenty-seventh floor as we got into our hotel elevator. “So, New York. What’d you think?” He leaned back against the wall and pulled me between his legs.

Resting my hands on his chest, I stared up at him before letting out a deep sigh. “Like I need a twenty-minute shower, but with you it was fun. Sometimes your bossiness is a bonus.”

“Told you you’d get used to me,” he teased, as the elevator doors opened to our floor.

I chuckled over my shoulder. “Yeah, yeah, you’re okay.”

“Okay?” he mocked, letting us into the room. “Get your ass in the shower. Okay, huh . . . ”

I showered, while he responded to some phone calls, and emerged squeaky clean a half hour later, wrapped in a gigantic, white fluffy towel.

I went to stand by the large windows looking down on the colorful city while Jaxx took a shower. From our floor, I could see the entire skyline over Times Square with all its brilliant lights, making the city seem even more alive than when I was actually on the street. I was so captivated, I didn’t realize Jaxx had come up behind me until he ran his warm lips along the slope of my neck.

My smile slipped a bit when his hands came around the front to latch onto my towel. I moved back, away from the window, but his large body was like a brick wall, stopping my retreat. “Um, what are you doing,” I laughed.

“You know one of the perks of being on the twenty-seventh floor of this hotel?”

“We get an amazing view?”

“One-way windows. We can see out, nobody can see in,” he murmured against my neck as he pulled my towel loose.

“Jaxxon! How do you know for sure?” I grabbed for the ends, but he was too fast and covered my hands with his, dropping my towel to the floor.

“Architect—I checked out the hotel. Can’t see a fuckin’ thing. Brilliant design.”

Of course he’d know . . .

“Nobody can see us, sugar.”

I had a moment of panic, jerked up and covered my breasts, but he pulled me back against him, his face in my neck.

“I’m about to show you the benefits of the twenty-seventh floor,” he rasped, running his lips over my ear and biting down on the lobe. He took both my hands in his and placed them against the window. “Keep ‘em there.”

As soon as my hands hit the glass, he grabbed my hips and pulled me back into him so I was bent over at the waist. He pressed his cock against my naked core, and even through the material of his towel, my body welcomed him. He kicked my feet farther out to the sides and ran a hand over my hip down between my legs. I closed my eyes and tuned into him.

“Eyes, baby. Open ‘em.”

When I opened my eyes and looked at the window’s reflection, I saw his huge, muscled body behind me, his wet hair hanging loose around his shoulders. “Jaxx, let’s move this—

“No. Right here.” He slipped a finger through my slit and down to my entrance. “Going off how fuckin’ wet you are, I’d say you’re okay right here.”

Well, if they really couldn’t see in . . .

He caressed my stomach and slipped his hands up to my breasts. He cupped them both and squeezed my nipples between two fingers. As my eyes began to close, he pinched harder. “Keep ‘em open.”

On a moan, I lifted my head, braced my hands on the window, and pressed back into him.

He slid his hands from my breasts down to my hips as he leaned over, resting his chest on my back. Reaching one hand between my legs, he slid two fingers down the sides of my slippery lips and glided them into me. “You’re drenched, baby.” He began to circle my clit with his thumb.

I let my mouth fall open as he worked my body into a near frenzy. I arched my back and pushed into his fingers with each penetration. “Please, Jaxx.” I needed him inside me, needed to feel myself surrounding him.

“What’s that?”

The more I moved, the more leisurely his movements in and out of my body became. My arousal coated the tops of my thighs. Slow wasn’t working. “Shit . . . babe. Please.”

He straightened up, keeping his hand where it was, and dropped his towel with the other. “Please, what?” He worked his fingers deeper, rubbing my aching clit harder.

“Please . . . ” I let my head drop down between my arms, trying to catch my breath.

He ran one hand up my back, wrapping my hair around his hand, and causing my mouth to fall open farther when he pulled just hard enough. “You need my cock, baby?”

“Yes,” I gasped and dropped my eyes to the street below, watching the people on the street who had no clue of the sex show happening twenty-seven floors above them.

“Eyes!” he demanded in a voice laced with so much authority I moaned his name hoping he’d stop with the teasing. “That’s it, sugar. Please, what?”

His fist was wrapped so tight in my hair I could only look into his hungry eyes through the window. “Please, fuck me,” I groaned as he quickly pulled his fingers out of my needy pussy.

The sexy grin had barely spread across his face when he slammed into me balls deep.

I pushed against the widow, trying to stay upright from the impact of him behind me.

“Jesus Christ,” he exploded. “So fucking tight. Always so tight.”

He drove into my body, each stroke sliding over the sensitive part inside me. My lower body tightened to the point of pain. The tension spread down my legs, up my chest, but he never moved faster, just harder. My breathing fragmented and I clawed at the window. “Jaxx,” I cried. “I can’t—I can’t . . . ” My entire body was a like an elastic band stretched so tight it was about to snap.

“You’re about to,” he said, bringing both hands to my hips and lifting so my toes barely touched the ground. “Brace yourself, sugar,” he said, as he moved faster and thrust deeper.

“Yes!” I cried out and reached a hand back, digging my nails into his hip. Every muscle tensed and spasmed around him.

“Jaxxon!” My body shattered. I clenched around his cock, sucking him in deeper and my legs gave out. Only his arm under me held me up while he drove through my orgasm, hard and deep. With a final thrust, warm jets filled my body and the spasms intensified. In and out, he slowed his movements until we both came back to coherence.

With a hard slap on my ass cheek, he pulled out, spun me around by the shoulders, and picked me up. “That ‘okay’ enough for you?”

“Smart-ass.” I giggled and turned my face into his neck.

He laid me down on the bed and disappeared into the bathroom. He came back with a warm towel for me and climbed into bed beside me, burying his face in my hair. “I fucking love when you come apart so much you scream,” he mumbled.

Lifting up, I flipped around, pulled his arms around me, and snuggled into the crook of his neck. “That’s your fault.”

“That’s my pleasure.” He chuckled and kissed my forehead. “Sleep, liebste. Early flight.” He was already half-asleep when he said the words.

“Thank you for coming with me.”

“Stop thanking me, baby. I’ll go anywhere with you.” I curled into him and let the steady rhythm of his breathing lull me into a peaceful sleep.

A loud tortured roar woke me from a dead sleep. I shot up from the bed disoriented and grabbed my chest. Not another one—not without Kyle . . . But I wasn’t sweating. I knew where I was, and I wasn’t crying. I remembered nothing.

I ran a hand over my chest, my abdomen, my thigh, examining them. I hadn’t slapped or scratched myself. My skin wasn’t red. And that was when I heard the noise that tore me out of a deep dreamless sleep.

It wasn’t me.

It was Jaxxon.

He was faced away from me, hunched over in his sleep, talking, growling out words that made no sense. I raised a hand over his shoulder to wake him, but his body began to jerk, to thrash. I’d never seen him like this. The man slept like the fucking dead. In the times we’d slept together over the past months, I’d never heard him talk in his sleep.

I moved to wake him again, but the next words out of his mouth stopped me cold. I sat there staring at his back for too long. I had to wake him up. I crawled out of bed, wrapped the discarded towel around me, and moved to kneel in front of him. This was not a just a dream . . .

From my research on night terrors, I knew better than to touch him. It’s why Kyle was the only one to bring me out. I stayed just out of reach in case he came out of it violent. “Jaxxon,” I called out in a soft tone. When soft had no impact, I said his name a little louder.

The shaking stopped, but he kept talking. More and more words spilled from his mouth sending chills down my spine.

“Jaxxon!” I nearly shouted, half in shock, half in torment for him, if there was any validity to the tragic picture his words painted.

He bolted up and turned to my side of the empty bed. “Valentina . . . ” he called groggily.

“Here, babe. I’m here.” I soothed.

He flipped around to me. “The fuck you doing on the floor, baby? Come back to bed.”

I just stared at him. “Jaxx, you—you don’t remember?”

“Remember what, sugar?” He lay back down on the pillow, a small smile on his peaceful, sleepy face, and reached out a hand to me.

I stood and carefully sat on the bed beside him, putting the hand not holding my towel on his shoulder, which he covered with his own. “Jaxxon . . . I think you had some kind of night terror, or something.”

He shook his head, and if he hadn’t been looking me dead in the eyes with such a genuine sense of cluelessness, I’d have sworn he was lying—but he wasn’t. “Don’t remember my dreams, baby. Never have.”

I squeezed his shoulder. “You don’t remember anything? You were shaking.”

He shook his head and reached for me, but I stayed where I was, my hand on his arm.

“Okay, but . . . do you know you talk in your sleep?”

If I wasn’t touching him, I still wouldn’t have missed his entire body tense up—every muscle strung tight and his eyes flew open wide. “What did I say?”

I rubbed my hand up and down his arm, but he caught my wrist, stopping me.

“Valentina.” His voice was low, but firm. “What did I say?”

I tilted my head, my heart bleeding for him, trying to stop the tears welling in my eyes. Everything started to piece together. Kyle’s strange behavior in bed when Jaxxon slept over. His mother’s hope. Julia’s death. “Jaxxon . . . ”

“Baby!” he demanded. “What’d I fucking say?!”

“You said . . . You said you killed her.”