Chapter Twenty-Eight
Payton
I knew it was risky telling Dax what my plan was, but during the weeks we’d been dancing around each other trying to figure out how to manage our relationship, I’d learned a lot about him, and I knew that above all, he was someone who believed in family loyalty. I’d also come to understand that he carried a lot of pain of his own, and that if I let mine out, he’d listen before making a judgment. At the very least, I knew he disliked my mother and the way she’d treated him after he’d been awarded the team, so I felt fairly confident that he’d take my side.
“You are going to get even with your mother?” he said looking confused as he ran one hand through his dark curls and then sighed heavily. “I don’t understand.”
“My mother is responsible for my brother’s death,” I said. “She killed him.”
“I thought your brother died in a car accident,” he said. “I remember reading about it when I was in high school. Some trucker made a wrong turn and t-boned the car he was in, right?”
“That’s the official story,” I said, rolling my eyes at the tired, old tale my family had been telling since the night Jonathan had died. “But it’s not the truth.”
“So, what happened?” he asked as he pushed himself up off the floor and offered me a hand. “Do you want a drink? ‘Cause I need one right now.”
I took his hand and as he pulled me up off the floor I became very aware of the fact that I was wearing what amounted to nothing more than several small scraps of fabric. Dax tried not to look, but his eyes swept over my near naked body before he looked away and cleared his throat. I could feel the heat between my legs as I remembered what his tongue had felt like as he’d spread me open and teased me until I couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Yeah, a drink would be good,” I said, shaking my head to clear it of the image. “I’m going to put something on over this bathing suit.”
“Good idea,” Dax muttered as he walked toward the bar in the living room. I grabbed one of the thick, terrycloth robes hanging on a hook in the bathroom, wrapped it around myself, and tied the belt tightly so that nothing more than my calves were showing and then rejoined Dax in the living room.
Compared to the penthouse, the hotel was dingy and small, but somehow the interior designer had managed to install a large, comfortable couch that stretched along a far set of windows. I sank down on the far end, tucking my feet underneath me as I sipped the liquid fire. It felt good as it burned its way down my throat and then exploded in warmth in my stomach. As I waited for the familiar, warm, fuzzy feeling to take over, Dax restarted the conversation.
“So, your mother killed your brother and now you’re going to exact revenge,” he said as he settled down next to me, resting one arm across the back of the couch in a way that made it impossible to ignore his broad, muscled chest. “Sounds very Shakespearean.”
“It’s not that dramatic,” I said, realizing that to anyone outside the family, this would sound utterly unreasonable. “My mother took my brother with her to Soldier Field the night after the Bears NFC Championship win. She wasn’t paying attention when she made the turn off of Lower Wacker Drive and didn’t see a pickup truck come barreling through the light.”
“That doesn’t sound like it’s all her fault,” he said skeptically.
“She’d forgotten that my brother was in the back seat and hadn’t put a seat belt on him,” I said without emotion. “The force of the collision threw him through the side window and he landed on his head on the pavement.”
“Oh man,” Dax muttered as he took a big gulp from his glass. “That doesn’t prove she killed him, though. You know that, right? I mean, accidents happen.”
“Dax, my mother was a terrible driver, and as a result, my grandfather had arranged for her to always have a driver,” I said. “She had told the driver to go home that night, and then she decided she’d go see my grandfather at the stadium, so she took my father’s keys and his car. I didn’t know my brother had gone with her until my father told me that he and my mother had been taken to the hospital.”
“Still, it sounds like an accident to me,” he said. I recognized the tone. I’d heard it many times throughout my life. It was the voice of someone who was trying to reason with me to try and let my mother off the hook, and when I heard that tone in Dax’s voice, I shut down.
“I guess,” I shrugged, turning my attention to my whiskey glass. I dumped the remaining half inch into my mouth and swallowed hard. The amber liquid burned a path of fire down my throat and quickly spread from my stomach to the rest of my body, leaving me feeling warm and relaxed. I held out my glass, “More, please.”
“Are you—” Dax began.
“More please,” I said in a steely voice. He took my glass and got up to pour me another.
When he returned, he held the glass just out of reach, searching my face for something I knew wasn’t there. He sighed, and then leaned forward, placing the glass in my hand. I nodded and raised the cut crystal tumbler to my lips and drank half of what he’d poured in it.
“Payton, I’m not sure getting drunk is the answer,” he warned.
“Don’t be a buzz-kill, Connor,” I said, looking into the bottom of my glass for answers that were never there.
“Then tell me what you want,” he said sitting down next to me with his arm around the back of my side of the couch.
“Honestly?” I asked hopefully.
“No, lie. You know how much I love that,” he said, impatiently drumming his fingers on the couch.
“The truth is…” I began as I looked over at him and thought about how what I wanted most was so very far out of my reach. I held his gaze as I tipped the glass up and drank the last of the whiskey before leaning forward and letting the glass roll off my fingertips onto the thick carpet. Dax watched as the glass hit the floor and then looked back at me.
“The truth is what, lady?” he murmured as I rose up onto my knees and slowly untied the knot holding the robe together. Our eyes were locked as I pulled the robe open and exposed the fact that I’d taken off the bikini in the bathroom. Without breaking my gaze, Dax set his glass on the coffee table and leaned forward to lightly run his fingers down the length of my naked body before grabbing my waist and pulling me toward him. I lost my balance and fell forward, pushing him onto his back.
“The truth is…I need this,” I whispered softly into his lips before I kissed him hard and deep. Underneath me, I could feel him already responding as I gripped his shoulders and slowly gyrated my hips. He groaned as I pushed myself up into a sitting position as I straddled his hips. As I slid the robe off of my shoulders and down my arms, his fingers pinched my nipples, drawing a long, low moan from deep inside me.
I bent forward and pushing against his chest, I slid myself far enough down his body so that I could unzip his pants, freeing him from the confines of his clothing before I pulled myself back up and began grinding against him, feeling his hardness rubbing against my most sensitive spots.
“Jesus Christ, lady,” Dax groaned as I coated his shaft with my wetness as kissed and teased his lips.
“Mmmm, you feel incredible,” I whispered into his lips as I reached down and began to rub the tip of his shaft against my aching opening. I pushed down a little, sliding only the tip inside me and then gyrated my hips before pulling him out again. Dax’s groans took on a new urgency as I teased myself, and him.
“You like it?” I asked as I slid him just inside my tight, wet opening. He swallowed hard and nodded as I smiled, bent over, and kissed his lips, and then in one swift movement, slammed him all the way inside me.
“Oh fuck!” he cried as I began a slow, steady rhythm, moving my body up and down just the way I liked it. Dax let go of my breasts and grabbed a hold of my hips as I increased the tempo. Soon he was thrusting his hips up to meet me as I moved my body faster and faster, chasing the sensation I’d been dreaming of since the first night he touched me.
“Right there, right there!” I cried as he found my sweet spot and rubbed against it over and over. I moaned as I felt myself hanging on the edge of climax, and then in an instant, I felt it all come crashing down as the waves of my orgasm washed over me and took me far, far away. Dax wasn’t far behind, and as I continued moving my hips as I pulsed around his throbbing shaft, I felt him release and join me out on the sea of our shared pleasure.
I collapsed on top of him, panting and feeling like my heart would beat out of my chest. Dax wrapped his arms around me and slowly stroked my back. Neither one of us said a word. We lay there for a long time, listening to each other breathe and feeling the warmth passing between our skin. I felt him slip out as we both basked in the glow of our first mutually satisfying sexual encounter.
“You okay?” Dax croaked, then cleared his throat and asked again, “You okay?”
“Oh, I’m good,” I whispered, running my fingers up his sides and realizing that he was still wearing his shirt. “You okay?”
“Mmm hmm,” he nodded. I tipped my head to look at his face at the exact moment he opened his eyes. “Never been better.”
I smiled as I lay my head back on his chest and basked in the warmth of his strong, warm body, and told myself that we had just begun.