Travis, Jax and I hang out the next day, drinking beer and watching football as I start sorting though some of my mom’s stuff. Travis flies home on New Year’s Eve so he can see his family. Jax gets him a first-class ticket.

Aside from the big boner he pressed into me the other day, Jax keeps a certain distance. I get the feeling he senses I’m too fragile right now, which is probably true.

While we have a good time hanging out, the elephant in the room gets too big to ignore, especially after he sends Travis home.

“When are you going back?” I ask, unable to avoid it any longer. He does live in Boston after all, a fact I was too willing to ignore on the day of my mother’s funeral.

He twists on the couch so he can face me. “The same day you go back.”

On the TV, the announcer says it’s ten minutes until New Year’s.

“What do you mean?”

He rubs his palm over his jaw. “I brought my SUV to drive you back East, so we could move whatever you wanted. I can store furniture or any other belongings if they don’t fit in your dorm room.”

What? I stiffen in my seat. “I told you I don’t have the money.”

The left corner of his mouth tilts up. “Yeah, you do. The rest of the semester is covered. You’re coming back to Boston when I do.”

My face burns from embarrassment. Does he really want me to say this again? “Jax, I don’t have the money to pay for my second semester.”

“You don’t need money. I covered it.”

My eyes narrow. “You can’t go around paying for everything, Jackson.” I gear up, ready for a fight.

He grins. Why the hell is he smiling? “Fine. Then pay me back when you get the insurance money.”

Huh. The anger starts to deflate in my chest. “So this is a loan?” If I borrow the money, I can keep my promise to my mom and go back to BU.

“If that’s what you want, sure.”

I chew on my lip, trying to keep my emotions in check, and his grin widens. “Why are you smiling?”

“You.”

I quirk up my eyebrow. “What does that mean?” Is he laughing at me?

“It means you’re fucking adorable.”

Ignoring him, I huff. “This has to be a loan, Jax. I’m serious.”

He smirks, and I squeak when he reaches across the couch, dragging me to him. He lies back and pulls me on top of him. “Fine.”

I stare down at him. My hair falls around us as he nudges my knees open with his leg until I’m straddling his thigh.

Jax’s expression burns my cheeks for an entirely different reason. Forgetting my anger, I look down at this gorgeous guy who helped me with my mom’s funeral and is loaning me a buttload of cash so I can go back to school. And he’s lying underneath me, hard as a rock and sexy as sin.

Sweet Jesus, I want him. Remembering the other times we’ve been together only fuels my desire.

In the background, the crowds cheer for the countdown to begin.

“What do you say we ring in the new year together, Dandelion?”

He doesn’t wait for me to respond. Instead, he grabs a fistful of my hair and pulls me closer until I’m pressed against him, belly to belly. Instantly, heat roars between my legs. He rolls his hips until there’s no doubt what’s nestled against my hip.

“I… I thought we were going to go slow.” I can barely speak.

“Ten, nine, eight…”

“We can go as slow and soft as you want, babe.” His lips brush against mine in a feather-light touch. “Or we can go hard and fast,” he says against my mouth as he deepens the kiss.

Oh God. Hard. I’m definitely thinking hard.

“Three, two, one.”

My brain shuts down as my body takes over.

I moan into his mouth and grip his shoulders as his hands run down my back and over my rear. I lift my leg up over his so he’s planted firmly between my thighs, and then I disentangle myself from his arms and sit up.

I don’t know what possesses me, but I want to make him as crazy about me as I am about him. I stare down at him as I slowly rotate my hips, pressing our needy parts together.

“Is this what you want?”

He sucks in a breath. “Fuck, yes, Dani.”

He feels huge and thick against me. I give him a wicked smile as I say, “Happy New Year, Jax,” and climb off him. He looks confused, but then I lean over and whisper in his ear, “I choose hard and fast,” before I race to my room.

His footsteps behind me make me giggle as I run up the stairs. I barely make it through my door when I’m jerked backwards. Laughing, I fall into Jax’s arms as he slams us both up against the wall.

He lifts me up and my legs wrap around his hips. He pushes hard against me and we both gasp as our bodies align.

We kiss, desperate and hungry. His tongue stroking against mine sends pulsing need to my core. His hands are everywhere—my back, my breasts, my thighs—and just when I think I’m going to implode from lust, he stops.

It takes me a second to catch my breath.

“What’s wrong? Why did you stop?”

He swallows. “I want you to know you mean more to me than just sex. I can’t get enough of you, Dani. I’ve… I’ve never felt this way. Even with Giselle.”

Before I can process what he just said, his mouth is on mine, and all I know is I’m on fire. He sets me down on the floor one second before he rips off my sweater. I shimmy out of my jeans until I’m standing in a hot pink bra and boy shorts.

I’m ready to collide with him again, but he takes a step back, his eyes traveling slowly over my exposed skin. He looks like he wants to devour me. I give him a coy smile, grab the clasp on my bra and let it tumble off my shoulders.

He groans. “Goddamn. Danielle, you’re gorgeous.”

I shake my hair forward, so it covers my chest, and then I cock my hip and stare back. “Get naked, Jax. Now.”

His clothes are off in a nanosecond so we’re both standing in underwear. His erection is about to poke a hole in his boxers. I reach out and grab him firmly, stroking until he collapses against me with my back to the wall.

I’m contemplating going down on him when he moves my hand away and drops to his knees. He stares up, eyes heavy with desire, his hands tracing invisible patterns on my thighs. And right now, with one of the most beautiful men I’ve ever seen kneeling before me, looking at me like he wants to eat me whole, I feel totally and utterly worshipped.

I thread my fingers through his hair as he plants his mouth on my breast. He sucks hard, and a desperate gasp leaves my mouth. He tongues my piercing, and I arch my back, reveling in the sensation.

He breaks away briefly to grab hold of my other ring between his teeth. As he stares up at me, I pull him to me, tighter, wanting more.

When I think I might collapse on the floor from the attention he gives my piercings, he dips his finger into the waist of my underwear and tugs them down. We stare at each other, my heart in my throat as my girl parts have a nuclear meltdown.

Then his mouth is on me, pressing a gentle kiss on my thigh. He grabs my ankle and wraps it over his shoulder, completely exposing me. Of course, he takes a long heated look between my legs before his eyes travel up my body. His expression alone threatens to melt me.

When our eyes meet, he growls as he opens his mouth and nips my thigh. Holy shit. I decide right then and there he can bite me any time he wants.

His lips mark a trail of fire as he teases closer and closer until his tongue dips into me. Neither of us look away. And I see it in his eyes. How I mean more. And I hope he sees the same in mine.

I moan loudly, unable to contain it any longer. Gripping his hair, I tilt my head and arch my back, trying to get closer.

Around and around he goes, massaging the most delicate part of me. But then he stops, sinks down lower and presses two fingers into me, and I fall apart, the rush of blood and all sensation to my core unhinging me.

I pulse around him, and I can see him grinning against my skin.

When I finally stop shuddering, he sets my leg down. He must sense my inability to function because he grabs my hips and pulls me to him. Welcoming the warmth of his naked torso, I press a kiss against his muscular chest and breathe him in.

Jax holds me tightly and kisses me on the top of my head. I feel him hard against my belly, and I whisper that it’s his turn.

“Babe, are you sure?” His throat is raspy and deep.

I close my eyes and nod against him. “Yes, I’m sure. I’m so sure.”

He moans his approval as he squeezes me tighter. “Can I tell you I’ve been dying to fuck you senseless for the last four months?”

Laughing, I stand on my tiptoes and let my lips linger against his. “Can I tell you I’ve been dying for you to fuck me senseless for the last four months?”

Grinning, he lifts me up and the next thing I know, I’m on my bed and a very naked Jax is crawling toward me like a predator, all hard muscle and chiseled sexiness. He tears open a condom and suits up.

I drop my legs open for him and feel the length of him drag against my sensitive skin. I close my eyes, shivering.

“You feel so good, babe,” he murmurs against my neck.

Up, down, up, down he goes, teasing me with his erection until I’m so racked with lust I could scream.

“Jesus, Jax,” I breathe, dying to feel his full weight pressed against me.

My blood hums in my veins, desperation clawing its way to the surface. He presses gently at my entrance, and I feel like I’ve been waiting for years to be this close to someone I really want, someone I lust for, someone I love.

And just like that I realize it. I love him. Deep down, from the bottom of my soul, love. My other boyfriends were like warm blankets on a cool day. Jax is fire, an inferno that burns me inside and out.

My other lovers fade away as Jax’s eyes pin me.

Linking my legs behind him, I press my heels into his back and bring him closer, his crowned tip surging just a little deeper.

I moan and wiggle beneath him, but he stills. Narrowing my eyes, I huff out a breath. “Are you deliberately trying to torture me?”

He laughs against my neck and then pulls out. Pulls out! I groan, and I sound loud and needy, but I don’t care. I’m about to toss him out of my bed when he rubs himself all along my wetness again, and I nearly lose my mind.

Finally, finally, he sinks into me.

I gasp, barely able to think as he stretches me to the brink.

“Oh, fuck,” he groans. “So tight. So good, babe.”

When our thighs meet and he’s fully seated and I think my eyes are going to roll back in my head, he stills, and I’m guessing it’s because he’s as turned on as I am. I’ve never come before from rocking out the missionary position, but holy hell, he feels amazing.

Sighing, he pulls back and gently returns, slow and steady, soft and gentle. It’s sweet for our first time together, but remembering his words downstairs, I pull his earlobe between my teeth and tug before I remind him, “Hard and fast.”

Jax gives me a devilish grin. “You are the perfect fucking girl.”

He pulls out languidly, dragging against my skin, and I’m about to beg for more, but then he slams into me. Both of us groan, and the room is awash in moans and grunts and the slapping of naked skin as he keeps a steady rhythm. I open my legs wider and tilt my hips to take him deeper. He nips my shoulder, and I press my mouth to his neck and taste his sweaty skin.

Rearing up on his knees, he yanks my legs toward him so my ass rests on his thighs. Looking down at where we join, he resumes the pace, and I feel myself chasing the high, reaching for the light at the end of the tunnel, the one I’ve never achieved with any man other than Jax.

Just when I think I can’t take it any more, the intensity of him filling me, he brings my legs up in front of me, folding me in half so that my thighs rest on his chest.

“Jax!” I scream at the new depth, my nails raking down his arms. He whispers into my ear, deliciously naughty words that make me shudder, setting fire to my skin.

My heart thrums wildly in my chest as our naked bodies meld together. I can feel myself coming apart, disintegrating underneath him, but then his hand trails slowly between my breasts, down my belly, across my hip, reaching down between us, brushing ever so gently on the only part of my body that now seems to exist.

Another soft brush of his finger, and I scream as I come. I writhe beneath him as he throbs inside of me, hot and thick, stretching into me as he finds his release.

He groans my name as we rock together. And nothing has ever felt as right as the two of us locked together like this.

For a while, we lie there, connected and panting and sweaty. When we can finally breathe again, he presses his forehead to mine and smiles.

“There’s one more thing you should know.” His voice is scratchy and deep. Post-sex Jax is even sexier with hair that goes every which way and skin that glistens along the ridges of his hard muscles. But really, that adorable smile on his face and the way he looks at me like I’m the center of his universe are what do me in.

I lick my lips, trying to focus on what he’s saying. “What’s that?”

“I think I’m in love with you.”

I arch up and kiss him, stopping to nibble on his lip. Then it’s my turn to smile. “It’s about time.”