“WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE going?” Jaxson clips, laying in bed bare-chested, red-faced, and no longer content, which is what he’d been five minutes ago.
I’m sitting on my side of the bed, wearing my dress and sliding on my shoes.
Turning only my head, I pause to appreciate the beautiful view of him before answering, “I need to get back to my room.”
Jaxson’s jaw tenses. He grinds his teeth; his temple protrudes to every pulse.
“Never slapped the ass of a grown woman,” he tells me, and my eyes widen, my breath hitches. “But swear to God, if you’re thinking about running from me, Averie Marie Dyer, I’ll make yours the first.”
Oh.
I bite my bottom lip to keep from lashing out. A grown man spanking an adult woman isn’t entirely uninviting. Say, if I were watching the scene play out in a movie or a lazy, sunny Sunday afternoon read.
But Jaxson spanking me like a child? No.
“Lay a hand on my ass, Jaxson Joseph Cole…” I return the full name call. “And Mason will make you regret the day you were born.”
A dark flash of realization slices through his gaze. He knows I’m right. Mason may be his uncle in blood, but he’s my best friend in loyalty.
Mason would die before letting anyone hurt me. Physically or emotionally. Not that Jaxson would physically hurt me. He’d never.
Emotionally, though, our times together lately have been like playing round after brutal round of Russian roulette.
Before I can turn for escape, Jaxson’s arms are around my waist, and I’m thrown back to the bed. I land with an unceremonious oomph and am too shocked to make a break.
Crawling up my body, he grabs my wrists and pins both hands above my head. He looks down. His eyes are sleepy and his body still sweaty and hot to the touch.
“I don’t think so,” he asserts.
Hopelessly, I redirect, “I need to get back to my room.”
“For what?” he questions, adjusting to hold both my wrists with one hand. “What’s in your room that’s not in here?”
I’d fight his grasp but it’d be useless. Jaxson nearly doubles me in size.
“Eventually, Amelia will come looking for me,” I plead the lie as if true.
The last I saw of Amelia, she was being held tightly in Brayden’s arms. She was staring up at him as they both stood amidst a massive crowd. He was looking down on her, smiling as if trying to ease her tension. Amelia hates attention, and being the partygoers were getting louder with each drink served, I recognized she was beginning to struggle.
I had intended to help her through this evening, however after my run-in with the Barbie tribe, I got sidetracked. And here I am.
It’s after midnight. My sister is either holed up in her room alone, or she’s spending time with Brayden before the wedding tomorrow.
“The fuck she’ll come looking,” Jaxson calls my bluff, settling his hips between my legs and using his finger to slide my panties to the side. The tight fit of the material stings, but in a deliciously naughty way. “If you leave this before we’ve finished, I’ll come looking for you.”
“Jaxson,” I gasp when his fingertip glides over my clit.
“And if I have to come find you, I’ll make sure everyone in this fucking place knows exactly why.”
“You wouldn’t,” I seethe.
My mom would croak from embarrassment, should he make good on his word. Mason, Oh God. I have no idea his reaction, but I can’t imagine he’d take lightly to hearing his nephew’s intent to give me more orgasms than he already has.
“I’ll scream this entire house down,” Jaxson venomously spites. “I’ll tell everyone who’s cock was in your mouth tonight.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” I deny again, but examining his face, it’s evident he would.
“I’ll share details, Averie. Your hands, your mouth, your greedy little—“
“You would not!”
“Run from me right now and find out,” he threatens.
Jaxson seats himself inside and my back bows from the bed.
Alone, Jaxson is gorgeous. All of him. But us coming together as one is remarkable.
As he withdraws, he buries his face in my neck, sucking the flesh with determination. I fight the urge to cry out for more.
“Then are you going to do what I asked?” I question. “If you’re not, I need to go and find someone who will.”
After we’d gotten back to Jaxson’s actual room and finished our second, more attentive round of sex, I’d shared my plan to get back at those stabby bitches I heard in the bathroom. To his credit, he listened attentively. I was certain he understood my plan. He was also reluctant to share in its glory.
“I’m not agreeing to a plan that’s set to ruin Amelia’s wedding,” he tells me. “Aside from the fact that Mason would skin me alive, but because Amelia gets this one day to remember for a lifetime.”
“I’m not plotting to ruin her wedding,” I bite off.
I’m really not. I am going to ruin little Miss Husky’s wedding, though. At least I’m going to try. People, women especially, who talk shit without caring about consequences deserve what’s coming.
However, I can’t do any of this without backup and the only person here loyal or crazy enough to help is resisting.
“Your plan is ridiculous,” he decides, slamming inside again. “There’s so much fucked up about what you’re planning, I don’t know where to start.”
Jaxson’s teeth scathe my skin and my thighs attempt to come together. I need him to commit before I’m distracted. And my ability to think clearly is waning with every swipe of his tongue and thrust of him inside me.
“My plan is badass,” I brag. Tilting my hips back so he can’t invade until I’m ready, I ask again, “Are you going to help me?”
“Are you really using sex as blackmail?”
I am. I’m not against sinking to the depth of such welcome depravity for my sister—or any one person in my family.
“I am if I have to.”
Roughly pulling down on my hips and poising himself at my entrance, he gloats, “I already have you where I want you.”
As I lie beneath him, offering little resistance, Jaxson seizes opportunity and slides in again, this time hissing through clenched teeth.
“Agree,” I broach. “Agree to help me.”
“Fuck you, Averie,” he seethes, pulling out and driving back. “Fuck you,” he says, this time closing his eyes.
“Back at you, Jax.”
“Tell me you’re not leaving,” he orders.
“Tell me you’ll do what I asked,” I stress, locking my ankles around his waist. “I can’t pull this off alone.”
“You’re goddamn crazy,” he breathes.
Taking this as his agreement, I lean in and sink my teeth into the warm, hard flesh of his chest.
Jaxson reaches down, giving me his weight and hooking his hands under each knee. He brings them to his side, offering more room for his determined drives. One of my high heels fall to the floor. Jaxson uses his finger to drop the other one over.
“Do you know how long I’ve waited to have you here?” he asks.
“Maybe,” I test, teasing by half.
“To have you stay still long enough to fuck you,” he goes on, breathing warmth on my skin as his lips work my neck.
“Now that I’m here…” I utter on a gasp as soon as he finds where I need him.
Jaxson slows, his efforts less hurried.
Then he’s gone.
My mouth falls open as Jaxson sits up, looks down, and pins me to the bed not with his body, but with an expression of confirmation.
“I do this shit for you, you don’t leave this room until morning.”
Looking out the window and attempting to call a lie, I signal, “Sun’ll be up soon.”
“I’m up now,” he tells me, stripping my panties and dress down my legs. “So, what’ll it be?”
This is not an agonizing decision. I could leave now, ignore my body’s demand, or stay and relish in every piece of himself Jaxson’s willing to give me.
“I won’t leave until morning,” I comply.
“Breakfast morning,” he says. “We’ll eat and talk about what all this means,” he adds.
He’s changing the terms after they’ve already been negotiated. Not good.
“Jaxson, are we—”
Coming back over me, he pushes his hips into mine. Once satisfied he’s settled he also includes, “And we’ll shower. After I get you to admit how you feel about me, and I explain how I feel about you, we’ll start Amelia’s wedding day as we should.”
“You’re confident.”
Leveling me with a steady gaze, Jaxson remains resolute.
“I’m confident,” he tells me. “I don’t need any more convincing, Averie. I’ve had years to think about this. But you still don’t get it.”
“Get what?”
“Us. And how it’s always been us. It’ll always be us.”
Clearing my throat, I turn my head as my eyes begin to burn. Of course I’ve always known how he feels about me. How he’s always treated me with kid gloves, unlike every other person in my life. How he’s always around, my best friend: patient and sweet.
But he’s asking for more than what I think he’s ready for. What I know I’m not remotely close to being ready for.
“I’ll stay for breakfast,” I promise.
Two hours later, the room is still dark, sans a small corner lamp, and Jaxson’s eyes are closed. One arm rests over his head, cradling the pillow. The other across his stomach. One leg is straight, the other cocked as he lies on his back, dreaming in peace.
After we’d gone another round, we fell into exhaustive silence. Breathless and sweaty, Jaxson pulled me to him, where I stayed with his arm locked around my waist, my cheek to his chest, our legs tangled together.
Not long after, his fingers began to caress my skin. Slowly. Possessively. Reverently. The gesture felt more intimate than anything we’d ever done.
Jaxson’s life is demanding. His career, the life he’s built in California, is so much bigger than us both. He can’t give me all of him and God knows I certainly can’t be everything he needs.
A lump forms in the back of my throat, and I say a private prayer that he’ll eventually see what I do. He’ll forgive me. He must.
I need to get out of here.
Checking the alarm clock at my side, I note the time. Three thirty four. Amelia is getting married today.
Jaxson will be angry when he wakes to find me gone. But I held up my end of the agreement. Kind of.
Now I need him to hold up his.