“It’s hard to think straight around you, Sky. Not much has made sense about the way I feel about you, not from the start.”
I inched closer, needing to tell him. “I used to look forward to Monday when I’d see you. It was my favorite day of the week, knowing you’d come into see Ace.”
“I started coming in more than that,” he recalled. “It was hard to stay away from y
ou.”
“I thought about you all the time. Your texts made me so freaking happy. It was ridiculous.”
“I tried not to.” He reached out, stroking my hair, holding it between his fingers. “I tried to stay away, do the right thing.” I didn’t realize I was crying until he brushed the tear from my cheek. “Hey, don’t cry.” He tipped my chin up, looking into my eyes.
“I just…” I swallowed, feeling overwhelmed with emotion. I’d fought against loving him so much. I almost couldn’t wrap my mind around letting it go. Almost. But I got there. Sliding my arms around him, I leaned up to kiss.
We sank into each other and Jax brought me onto his lap, against his chest. I kissed him with everything I’d felt for so long, kissed him like I never wanted to stop. I reached down along his arms, feeling the strength in him, more than just muscle. He was a strong person, caring for and protecting me.
I wanted his shirt off. I’d seen his back in the shower that night, but I had yet to get to touch his bare chest. I wanted to lick every one of his tattoos, kiss my way down every line.
“Hey, you two love birds.” A knock at the door sounded along with Zeke’s voice.
“Fuck,” Jax groaned, leaning back. “I forgot. We’ve got someone coming by. They’ve got a car for us. Want to talk through the plans.”
Reluctantly, we pulled apart and headed out to the front of the house. I let Jax do most of the talking. I knew I was a key part of the plan, the lynchpin, the bait, but the Reaper guys honestly gave me the creeps. I didn’t like how they looked at me, or how twitchy one of them seemed, a guy named Cotton.
But it didn’t take long. And they loaned us an SUV, black with tinted windows. For spying, I realized. We’d stakeout Mike in that car, watching his moves, plotting to lure him into a trap. Good thing I didn’t have much time to think or I might have gotten nervous. We packed up, a process that took me all of ten seconds, since I had nothing.
“Good luck, man.” Zeke and Jax hugged. “Glad he has you,” Zeke said to me, giving me a brotherly hug.
“Thanks for putting us up.” He seemed like a good guy. He’d come through, exactly like Jax said he would.
“Anytime.”
We climbed into the SUV, got ourselves some more coffee at a drive-thru, and started on our way. It was hard to keep my hands off of him in the car. Every shift he made in his seat, no matter how minor, caught my attention. I kept finding myself gazing over at him, his thick biceps, his corded forearms as he gripped the wheel. Remembering last night, I practically had to force my head to turn away, not stare at the bulge in his crotch. It had felt so good sitting on his lap, grinding on him. I’d loved taking him in my mouth, sucking and licking, drinking down his cum.
But he didn’t say much on the drive and neither did I, both of us lost to our thoughts, a hell of a dangerous situation waiting ahead of us. About twenty minutes outside of town, he pulled off into a nondescript hotel. It hit the middle between seedy and luxury, the kind of place business people might stay in for a conference. It was a smart choice. I was sure Mike and his buddies had never set foot in it.
“This OK?” he asked before getting out of the car. “I’d take you somewhere nicer, but I want to stay off the radar.”
“It’s perfect,” I assured him. “I know this isn’t a vacation.”
“But, maybe someday.” I nodded, knowing there was a lot to that statement. And a lot we had to navigate between where we were at the moment and some potential future together.
Jax checked us in while I stayed out of sight in the car. He used cash, keeping us off the grid. We only had his duffel, which he shouldered up to our room. It was non-descript, with a small sofa, a desk, and a large bed. I pulled apart the outer layer of curtains, keeping the thin, filmy ones shut for privacy.
“I’ve got to make a couple calls. You OK for a bit?” I nodded, and bided my time while he stepped out, flipping through TV channels while my tension built. We were going to spend the whole night together in a hotel room. Just him and me. We were about to start a stakeout and launch a highly risky attempt to lure a killer into the hands of other killers.
There were times in life to play it safe. I’d kept my hands to myself—mostly—for months and months. But Jax and I had opened Pandora’s box the night before. I had no interest in closing it. I didn’t even think we could if we tried.
Finally, the door opened and Jax returned to me, so big and tall in his fitted black t-shirt, a hint of a tattoo making its way past the sleeve. I rose, walking toward him. He looked at me with exactly the same heated intensity burning up his gaze.
“You hungry?” he asked, gruff and low.
“Yes.” But it wasn’t for food. We fell into each other, passion erupting as he captured my mouth with his. A deep groan from his throat, a moan from mine, I couldn’t get close enough, couldn’t touch enough of his body, his skin. Panting, I pulled at his shirt. I needed it off. He broke away, but only to lift up my top, then his. Something ripped, I didn’t know what it was or how it had happened.
All I knew was his chest was bare and I licked it, kissing and savoring his muscles, running my fingers along his tattoos. My mind wasn’t working right, too fevered to process what I saw, I just knew it was ink on his skin and it drove me crazy. I’d only seen hints of his tattoos, past the sleeve of his shirt, in the shower through the steam. Now he was mine to devour. Fingernails digging into his shoulders, I couldn’t help using my teeth, my tongue, pulling at him, wanting more.
His chest should be illegal, a rippled wall of muscle, so hot and hard. I pressed my stomach to his, the feel of our bare skin touching for the first time nearly sizzling my mind. My skin felt like it was burning, his touch, his tongue fanning the flames as he devoured me, caressing my throat, my stomach, my breasts.
Somehow trying to pull at the waistband of his jeans, only on one foot as I wrapped a leg around his thigh, we lost our balance, stumbling backward. Crash, down went a lamp off a table. I glanced at it, not moving away from him for even an inch. No pieces of glass, nothing looked broken.
“It’s fine, fine,” Jax panted, his hand cupping my chin, bringing my mouth back to his as he drank me in, tipping my head back, walking me over against the window. Pressing me against the curtains and glass, he ground against me, his fingers pulling at my bra. Even that was too much between us, and I moaned with delight when he snapped it off, threw it to the ground and palmed my breasts in his hands.
“I’ve wanted to do this for so long.” He groaned, pulling at my hair, making me gasp as he licked my throat.
“I’ve wanted you even longer.” There was no way he’d yearned for me the way I had for him. It felt like I’d wanted him, wanted this forever. Clumsy with lust, I struggled to unbutton his jeans, unzip his fly and slide them down his hips. That bulge in his boxer briefs, so tantalizing, so huge, I reached down and stroked. His body tensed, clutching my breast with an animalistic sound from deep in his throat.
“In that supply room,” he panted, “when we were folding sheets. I wanted to do this.” Mouth down to my nipple, he enclosed it in his wet, hot heat. I cried out it felt so good, the way he sucked and licked, a slight bite to my tender tip. He gripped my ass, grinding into me, searing my skin with his kisses.
“I wanted to go down on you.” I licked his massive shoulder, swirling my tongue along his tattoo the way I’d wanted to do to his cock.
“I wanted you the first time we met.” He undid my jeans, slipping them off me as he placed a trail of kisses down my stomach, along my hips, down my thighs. I knew he probably meant when Ace moved into the home. But I’d wanted him even before then, the first time we’d ever met. I was about to say so when he said it instead. “When you came by Ace bar.”
Kneeling down, he slid his palms between my thighs, opening me, kissing and stroking my skin until he drew a finger along my panties, right where I’d soaked through. I cried out, quivering, not sure my legs could hold me up through what it looked like he was about to do.
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He kissed me through the wet silk, eyes closed, licking, savoring me. “Sky,” he groaned, pulling my panties to the side, then ripping them off. “So sweet,” he whispered, gazing at my slick pussy like he’d never seen anything more luscious. Tongue out, he gave me a lick, growling with satisfaction at my taste. Like a tiger with a meal, he sucked at me, licking, pushing my thighs apart so he could get at me more. Eyes rolling back in my head, I grabbed onto his shoulder, up at the curtains, something, anything to help me stay standing it felt so fucking good.
With a rip and a crash, the rod came out of the wall, the gauzy curtains billowing down around us. Disoriented, I pushed at it. He stood up, laughing. “Come here.” He wrapped his hand around my waist, pulling me out of the mess while he closed the outer shades. We might be trashing the room, but we still needed our privacy. We weren’t done yet.
I wrapped my hands around his biceps, kissing his pecs, his abs. He was like an anatomy lesson I’d have no problem studying for hours on end. Hands down to my hips, he drew me to him and together we tumbled to the floor, his body catching my fall as I splayed across him. Squirming on top, straddling his thigh, I bucked against him. Rolling my hips, I licked his nipple, bit his throat. He gripped my ass, moving me against him, thrusting back. His cock pushed into my lower stomach, so close, and I was so dripping wet I knew he’d slip right in. Trembling all over, I slid down, grinding my clit along his shaft, wanting him inside me, knowing it was going to feel so good.
“No,” he groaned, “bed. Should be bed.” He pushed himself up on his elbows. All I knew was his cock was no longer where I wanted it and I whimpered in protest. But he scooped me up and brought me over, laying me out gently on the mattress. “It’s our first time.”
He stood gazing at me, stripped down to his boxers. They rode so low his tip was coming out the top, glistening with precum and some of my own arousal. “Sky.” Hand up to his head, he stared at me like I was a work of art. “You’re so beautiful. All that time I was picturing you, I was wrong. You’re even more gorgeous than I ever—”