And I did.

Sort of.

My brain sighed, literally sighed.

But then my body did a happy sigh when Jax’s hands moved up my thighs, reaching the hem of my shorts. One side of his lips quirked up in that sexy half grin.

Okay.

We could talk later.

Not giving my brain a chance to argue that that was a bad idea and I was tossing girl power or whatever crap to the side for some bow-chick-a-wow, I grabbed the sides of his shirt and tugged up. Wordlessly, Jax backed off and lifted his arms. In no time, he was shirtless and my hands were on his hard, rough chest, and once again I wondered how I’d gone so long without knowing what a man’s chest—Jax’s chest—felt like under my fingers.

I lowered my head, and Jax went the distance, meeting me before I was even halfway to him, and the kiss was sweet, it was careful and gentle. The tender sweep of his lips reached right down into my chest and squeezed my heart.

God, I was so gone for him.

His hands slid up my sides, catching my shirt and then he had it off me. I was bare from the waist up and the cool air washed over my heated skin as Jax rose, placing his hands on my shoulders. He kissed the corner of my lip softly and then his mouth trailed over the bruised skin of my jaw as he pushed me onto my back. Crisp hairs from his chest teased over my chest as his mouth glided down my throat. My hands settled on his arms, feeling the muscles flex in his biceps as he held himself up.

Then his lips closed over the tip of my breast, and my body sparked alive. My back arched and my mouth opened in a soft whimper.

“You’re so sensitive,” he said against my breast. “Makes getting you turned on and ready so easy.”

He was right. “Sorry?”

Jax chuckled. “Only you would apologize for that.” Then he flicked his tongue over the hardened nub, and my fingernails dug into his skin. He shifted his weight to one arm and then his hand got involved with my other breast, and it was Calla happy land, especially when I could feel him hard and pressing against my thigh.

Sensation trilled throughout my veins as his hand left my breast and skated down my belly. His hand flattened just below my belly and then slid under the band of my shorts. I cried out as he sucked deep and hard, as if he could draw me right out of my body.

And I really thought he could.

He nipped at the sensitive flesh and then lifted, rolling completely off me as he sat up and got a hold of my shorts and undies. Off they went and then his clothes were off. He disappeared and came back, a foil package in his hand. Once he was done getting that taken care of and his body was over mine again, he started all over, kissing the corner of my lip gently, moving across my bruised jaw and then down, to my left breast and then my right.

A moan escaped me as my back arched. “Jax . . .”

“Damn.” His voice was rough, deep as his h*ps rolled against mine, and I spread my thighs, welcoming him, wanting him.

When he started to draw away, I knew he meant to slow this down, to draw this out and drive me out of my mind, but I was having none of that.

“No way,” I breathed, panted really. “I want you. Now.”

One eyebrow rose. “Patience pays off, babe.”

“Screw patience.”

He chuckled, but his laugh ended in a groan as I reached between us, wrapping my hand around the base of his cock. “Damn, babe, you really are impatient tonight.”

My fingers curled around him as his h*ps punched again, giving me an eyeful of those sexy muscles on either side of his hips. “Maybe a little.”

One of his hands smoothed down my hip, along my thigh, and as he lifted my hip, I guided it right to where I wanted. The tip of him pressed in and everything centered into my core. I moved my hand, circling my arm around his neck

Stronger than me, Jax held back. His grin turned smug.

“Jax,” I whispered.

Positioned right there, he slid in maybe an inch as he lowered his mouth until it was mere inches above mine. “You want this?”

“That’s a dumb question.”

“Oh? Is it?” He smoothed his thumb over my breast, and he caught my nipple between his fingers, and I cried out at the exquisite feeling.

I gasped. “Not fair.”

“Not sure how I feel about you saying the question is dumb.” Lowering his head, he trailed kisses over the slope of my shoulder as he kept tugging at my nipple until my br**sts were heavy and swollen. He nipped at the skin. “Still a dumb question?”

“Yes,” I forced out as I wiggled my other leg free. I hooked it around his hip and with both of my legs, I pulled him in as I pushed my h*ps up.

Air hissed out between his teeth as he sank in, straight to the hilt. The bite of him filling me was a feeling I could never forget. “Babe,” he groaned out. “I think you’re hungry for me.”

I was.

And he wasn’t moving. Nope. The guy had self-control out the wazoo. He was completely still, buried deep, and I was completely out of patience. I rocked my h*ps and we both moaned in unison.

“God, you really do want this like right now.” He kissed where my pulse pounded. “You’re ready for it.”

I felt my cheeks heat as I said, “I am.”

Jax dipped his head, running his tongue along the center of my lips until I opened for him. He kissed me deeply, still somehow aware of the cut on my lip, and then he lifted his head. “You with me?”

Remembering him saying that before, our first time, I nodded and whispered, “Yes.”

He kissed me again. “Then stay with me.”

Before I could question that, he broke the hold of my legs and pulled out. My whimper of protest was lost when he caught my h*ps and flipped me onto my stomach.

I froze.

My hair had flipped over my shoulder and my back was completely exposed to him, the worst part of me, and he’d seen it before, but this was different, way different. I started to push up, to turn back over, but he gripped my h*ps and lifted me onto my knees. His front was against my back, and the panic mixed with the thousand other emotions I was feeling.

“Stay with me, baby,” he said to the back of my neck.

“Jax—” I lost the ability to speak as he thrust into me from behind.

The feeling of him was different, fuller and tighter. I was on my knees and hands and he was rooted to me. I couldn’t breath. The feeling was intense, overwhelming, and powerful.

“You still with me?” he asked.

I was. I couldn’t believe it. But I was. I was completely with him.

He smoothed a hand over my shoulder. “Calla?”

“Yes,” I breathed out. “I’m with you.”

“Good,” he murmured.

And then he gave it to me hard.

He moved inside me deep and fast, slowing every couple of thrusts to grind against me, and in this position, from behind me, it was nothing like the other times. A different riot of sensations lit me up. My fingers dug into the comforter as my h*ps naturally tipped back against him.

“Oh my God,” I whispered. I didn’t know a lot about sex and every time I’d done it with him, I’d been surprised by it, but I never knew it could feel like this.

The rumble of approval from him radiated through me, and he circled an arm around my waist, sealing his body to mine. Then his hand was between my legs, his thumb pressing against the center of me, and it was too much and it was everything. My body shook as sharp pleasure rose so quickly I was dizzy, and I held on as he slammed into me, and my movements became frenzied as I pushed back against him.

Against my neck, he grunted, “It’s never been like this. Not with anyone else. Only you.”

My breath caught and then I was lost in those words, in how his body moved behind mine, fast and beautiful in its wildness, and soon the room was filled with sounds of our bodies crashing together and our pants and moans. The rhythm between us was lost, as was his iron control, and the tension spiraled tight, and I could feel he was close from the way he spasmed and jerked inside me.

“Never like this,” he growled into my ear.

I spun right over the edge then. My body clamped down on him, my arms, my legs, and every part of me as I kicked my head back and cried out. The pressure inside me exploded, whipping through me as he groaned with each powerful thrust. My arms gave out. My cheek hit the bed, and he followed, his weight mind-blowing, and he continued to take me as he wrapped one arm around my leg, sliding it up and hitting every part of me.

The feeling, the sound of him, of our bodies, set me off again, and this time I screamed his name, and then he pushed in deeper than before, his groan heavy and sensual in my ear as he came.

Only then did he slow down, his body seeming to glide on its own as he worked his way through his release, and the aftershocks of my own still surprising me with each sublime jolt.

I don’t know how much time passed with him still moving in a sway inside me before he eased out, rolled off me, and left to deal with the condom. I didn’t move. I was beyond capable of moving. My muscles were mush. I was where he left me when he returned to bed and I was absolutely no help as he got my body under the covers or when he rolled me onto my side, tucking my body against his.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Mmm-hmm,” I murmured sleepily.

There was a pause. “I didn’t hurt you?”

“No. It was wonderful.”

He kissed the back of my shoulder. “You liked that.”

It wasn’t a question, not the way he said it, but I murmured again, “Mmm-hmm.”

Jax’s chuckle brushed the back of my neck as he pulled me back tighter against him so that there was no space between us at all. “You still with me?”

“I’m still with you.”

Twenty-seven

Sprawled across the bed on my belly, with one arm shoved under the pillow my cheek rested on and the other arm folded next to my side, I slowly came awake to feel a feather-light touch trailing over my hip and down the curve of my behind.

I shifted restlessly, blinked open my eyes, and was immediately blinded by the bright light streaming into the bedroom. Groaning, I closed my eyes and tried to snuggle down. My bones didn’t feel like they were attached to any muscles and that somehow was a pleasant sensation. So was the hint of pressure tracing idle designs over my skin.

I’d never slept on my stomach before and I honestly didn’t even remember falling asleep. I assumed it was some point after Jax had curved his arms around me and I’d taken my next breath.

My body still felt worked over in the best possible way. So much so that—

Then my eyes popped back open.

All I saw once my vision adjusted to the light was Jax’s closet doors, and I figured he was what was responsible for what felt like a figure eight on my right butt cheek unless some random artist had climbed into bed with me.

My back was bare.

Hell, the sheet and covers were somewhere tangled around my upper thighs and I was sure that Jax could see the mess of skin, just like last time when he’d flipped me around and taken me from behind. My back being visible last night had been . . . somewhat okay because I doubted he was really paying attention.

I tensed and let out a shaky breath, preparing to roll away from him, which would give him an eyeful of boobs. And while I wasn’t so self-conscious about my front as much as my back around him now, I was sure I had weird lines from his wrinkled sheet embedded in my skin, and that, on top of everything else, would not be sexy. Like I was pretty sure I was in the negative realm of sexy right now.

“Don’t.”

I stared at the closet, considered pretending I was still asleep, and then dismissed that idea because it was dumb, so I went with playing dumb. “Don’t what?”

Jax’s hand curved over my bare hip. “Don’t hide. I know you were getting ready to turn away. Don’t.”

My eyes fell shut and I forced myself to stay still. After a few seconds, he went back to tracing smiley faces on my ass or whatever the hell he was doing. It felt like his eyes were boring holes into the discolored and rough skin, like peeling back the layers with X-ray vision.

“You have a sweet ass.”

Uh.

“I mean, really. Your ass is f**king sweet, babe,” he went on, and my lashes lifted and my brows pinched. “You are one of those women just born with a nice ass. No amount of workouts can create this ass.”

“That’s correct,” I said after a few seconds. “I think it was Big Macs and tacos that created that ass.”

Jax’s deep laugh pulled at the corners of my lips and then I felt his leg moving over mine, followed by his hot and hard length pressed into said sweet ass. “Then don’t ever stop eating those Big Macs and tacos.”

Immediately, I was wet. Totally. I don’t know if it was the feel of him so close to the softest part of me, or the fact he’d just told me to never stop eating Big Macs and tacos. Either way, I was ready.

“I can do that,” I said, voice throaty. “Eating Big Macs and tacos.”

He dropped a kiss on my shoulder as his knee pushed my thighs apart and his hand slid between his body and mine. “We should be getting up soon.”