Aftershock

Clenching my teeth, I walked past him, my heels clicking across the marble. I slammed my hand against the glass and it beeped three times. “Gianna Rossi recognized and saved,” a computerized female voice said as the front door swung open.

  I stalked into his apartment, tense and ready to fight. I heard him shut the door behind me.

  I waited for him to say something, but he just passed me, his stride confident and sexy as hell. He carried himself like a man who liked to fuck and knew he did it well. That subtle sexual arrogance had always turned me on. Mad as I was, I still wasn’t immune.

  Stopping at the metal-and-glass console in front of the wall of windows, he poured amber liquid from a crystal decanter into a squat tumbler. He took a drink, his back to me.

  The silence stretched, weighting the room. I dropped my purse onto one of the black leather armchairs and crossed my arms, studying him, waiting for him. Still he stood there as if he was in the room alone.

  Finally, I said, “I thought you had to work late.”

  “I need to,” he said evenly.

  “Then why are we here?”

  He exhaled harshly. “What was it you said in Atlanta? Something about what we’ve got is worth dealing with all this crap.”

  “Don’t act like I’ve got any say or control over what’s going here.” I crossed my arms. “You’re running your own show and I’m just getting dragged along for the ride.”

  Jax faced me then. “I fix problems, Gia. You know that.”

  “It’s not just that! It’s not just about Chad and my family. It’s always been this way with us. You say when and how and where and how long. I have no input. No control.”

  His face tightened. He took a step toward me. “Is that what you think? Christ, Gia, you’ve got me by the balls!”

  “If that’s true, that’s not what I want. I want us to be a team, Jax. I don’t want either of us to feel like we’re at the mercy of the other.”

  He set his glass down on the coffee table as he passed it on his way toward me. “I’m completely at your mercy,” he said softly, his eyes so dark they appeared black. “All day I’ve been feeling like every step I take to get closer to you is only pushing you back. I can feel you pulling away from me...wanting distance. I can’t stand it.”

  “And I’ve felt like I’m dealing with a stranger. I don’t know who you are when you’re like this. I can’t help wondering if I ever really knew you. And if I didn’t, who the hell am I in love with?”

  “Baby.” He cupped my face in his hands and lowered his lips to mine. He brushed his mouth across mine, from one side to the other. Once, twice. Then his tongue licked across the seam, his breath warm and moist, his taste flavored by the liquor he’d been drinking.

  I moaned and tilted my head, trying to deepen the kiss. One of his hands slid around to cup my nape, while the other moved downward to cup my hip. His touch was hot, sending goose bumps racing across my skin. He squeezed gently and my breasts swelled, growing heavy and tender.

  Inhaling deeply, I breathed him in. Felt my body stir in response, recognizing Jax as the one thing it desperately wanted and couldn’t resist. I reached up and pushed my fingers into the thick silk of his dark hair, drawing him closer.

  “You know me, Gia,” he whispered against my lips. “You love me.”

  “Jax—” I pressed against him, leaning into all that hard, flexing muscle. “Have we made too many mistakes?”

  “Probably.” His mouth moved along my jaw and down my throat, suckling softly. “But there’s something we’ve always gotten right.”

  His arm wrapped around my waist and he rolled his hips, grinding the rigid length of his erection against my belly. My sex clenched, hungry for him.

  “We can’t stay in bed all the time,” I pointed out, remembering the weekends in Vegas when we’d scarcely untangled ourselves from each other.

  Jax scooped me up, cradling me as if I weighed nothing. “Two years apart and we’re still in love. It’s got to be easier when we’re together.”

  “It’s not working that way so far.” Still, I kicked my shoes off.

  He headed toward his bedroom. “Which is why I’m moving on to the part where I remind you why it’s all worth it.”

  5

  AN HOUR BEFORE, I would’ve said the chances of Jax getting laid were nonexistent. Right at that moment, however, with his gorgeous face taut with lust and his eyes soft with something far more tender, I wanted nothing more than to forget everything but the way he could make me feel. I wanted him to remind me of what we’d once had, what I’d clung so tightly to , what I hoped to have again.

  He placed me on the bed and came over me, putting one knee on the comforter. He brushed a loose tendril of hair off my cheek, then his gaze drifted downward to where his other hand was gliding up my thigh and beneath the hem of my skirt.

  “I want you naked,” I told him.

  His mouth, that wickedly sexy mouth that could drive me insane, curved in a smug smile. “Do you, now?”

  I stretched, knowing it would entice him. When he growled low in his throat, I returned a smug smile of my own.

  Catching me behind the knee, he pushed my leg up and to the side, riding my skirt up and exposing my garters and matching panties.

  He licked his lips. “Baby...I’m going to love watching you get ready for work every morning.”

  It struck me then that we would be sharing everyday moments like that moving forward, and I wanted them. I wanted the man I’d had so briefly. “You’ve still got too many clothes on.”

  Jax straightened and shrugged out of his vest, letting it drop to the floor. He yanked at the knot of his tie, then pulled the loosened silk down one side to fall to the carpet, as well. When he went to work on the buttons of his shirt, I pushed up onto my elbows to watch.

  A low hum of pleasure escaped me.

  Jax paused, his brow lifting. There was a gleam in his eye that made my legs shift restlessly. The man knew he was hot as hell, knew how much I liked looking at him.

  “Don’t stop,” I told him.

  “I love it when you look at me like that.” He freed another button.

  I caught my lower lip between my teeth. He’d always been fit and leanly muscular, but he was harder now. More defined. Golden skin stretched over ridges and slabs of muscle. I wanted to run my fingertips over every inch of it...lick him like a favorite dessert...make him feel how much I loved him.

  He shrugged off the shirt and I moved, rising up onto my knees to reach for him. He groaned when my hands smoothed over his shoulders then down his biceps, squeezing and caressing.

  “How is it possible?” I wondered aloud. “You’re more delicious than you were before, and you were a god back then.”

  “Baby.” He sealed his mouth over mine and stole my breath, his tongue licking and gliding.

  Greedy, my hands ran all over his chest and abs, tracing every plane and groove. “You’re so hard,” I breathed, wanting to feel all that warm, silk-covered marble pressed against me.

  “The sexual-frustration workout.” He caught me by the wrist and pressed my hand against his straining erection, grinding into my palm. “Pushing my body to exhaustion because I couldn’t have you, and the wet dreams were killing me.”

  I cupped him, stroking from root to tip. “Not always frustrated,” I muttered, thinking of the women who’d had him, the women who’d had what was mine. “At least on two occasions.”

  Fisting my ponytail, he pulled my head back to look up at him. “Always,” he said fiercely. “You’ve ruined me for other women, Gia.”

  “Good.” I kissed his shoulder. “You’re still dressed.”

  “You finish it.” He tugged the band out of my hair, his fingers sifting through it. My eyelids grew heavy, my senses drugged by the sexual hunger radiating off Jax. The
feel of his fingertips kneading my scalp sent bliss radiating through me. Every word he spoke...every move he made...was designed to seduce me.

  And it was working.

  I fumbled with the hidden closure of his tailored slacks, pushing the halves aside to discover black boxer briefs. His cock was so hard and ready, the wide crown peeking above the waistband. Shiny with precum, it beckoned me, inciting me to push the underwear down below his hips.

  A soft, needy sound filled the air between us. Jax was gorgeous everywhere. Gorgeous, big, and hard. Standing there with his slacks undone, his cock shamelessly exposed and mouthwateringly erect, his body ripped and powerful, he was the most erotic thing I’d ever seen.

  I wanted him inside me.

  He lowered the zipper of my skirt, then went to work on the buttons of my blouse. All the while, his lips were at my throat, his tongue gliding along my fluttering pulse.

  “I’m going to lick you up,” he promised, his words a whisper of air against my damp skin.

  I wrapped my hands around him, finding him hot and wet. He was so aroused he was dribbling precum in a steady stream. His virility was a potent aphrodisiac, making me as hot and wet as he was. My sex was slick with wanting, tightening hungrily, aching to be filled with the thick shaft I was stroking so lovingly.

  Lifting my fingers to my mouth, I tasted him, feeling as if I became intoxicated by his rich, heady flavor.

  He watched me, cursing softly. His hands tightened on the silk of my blouse and buttons popped off and rolled onto the floor.

  “I wanted you naked,” he muttered, grabbing me by the waist and flipping me around, folding me facedown over the edge of the bed. “Next time.”

  Shoving my loosened skirt up my hips, he exposed my ass. He cupped the back of my knee in his hand and pushed my leg up onto the bed, opening me. Then his hands were on the twin curves of my buttocks, squeezing them. His breath gusted hot and quick over my sensitive skin, his teeth scraping and gently biting.

  “God, you were made for fucking,” he said gruffly. “You were built just to drive me out of my mind.”

  One finger slid beneath the lace of my thong, running below it from the small of my back to the damp flesh between my legs. His knuckle brushed against my sex, and I quivered, gasping as a tremor shook my core.

  The lace snapped in his grip, and I jolted, shocked by the sharp, quick tug against my skin and the harsh sound of the material rending. He blanketed me, his feverishly hot body covering my back, his hands pushing underneath me to cup my swollen breasts. His cock lay hot and thick between the cheeks of my ass, and he thrust, pushing the steely length between them.

  The sensation of being overpowered, helpless, had me primed to come. A man so ragingly aroused he was tearing my clothes off had me spread for the taking. Jax’s desire was dizzying and irresistible. As much as I loved his body, he loved mine. Maybe more, which seemed impossible, but he always managed to make me feel that way.

  “Don’t wait,” I begged, my hips rocking back against him.

  “What do you want, baby?” he crooned, massaging the tight points of my nipples with clever fingers. “Tell me what you need.”

  I was panting, writhing, teased by the feeling of his heavy sac resting against the wet lips of my sex. “Fuck me, Jax. Fuck me hard.”

  He nuzzled against my temple. “You want this?”

  With a shift of his hips, the broad head of his cock was notched into the clenching opening of my body. Pressure built as the crown pushed inside me, spreading me for the penetration of the hard shaft to follow.

  I moaned and squeezed my eyes shut, trembling. He was everywhere. In every breath I sucked in...over every inch of my skin....

  “Tight, baby,” he ground out between clenched teeth, withdrawing and pushing deeper. Slow, easy thrusts that worked him into me with every lunge. He groaned and gripped my desperately circling hips, holding me down as he fucked his way deeper. “Tight and creamy... Jesus, you feel amazing. I’m going to come so hard for you. I’m going to fill you up with it.”

  My fingers clawed into the comforter. My eyes opened blindly, my lips parted to suck air into burning lungs. I fought against his hold, wanting him harder, faster. I caught movement in the corner of my eye and saw us reflected in the dressing mirror affixed to the inside of his walk-in closet door.

  The clutch of my body tightened, trying to pull him in to where I needed him. Jax’s head turned to follow my gaze and he stilled, taking in the sight of him hunched over me, his slacks barely clinging to his upper thighs.

  It was a lewd and decadent picture. Me, pinned and still fully clothed, my sex opened and penetrated by his massive cock; and Jax, firm buttocks tight with the force of a thrust, his biceps thick and flexing from the kneading of my breasts, his back glistening with a fine sheen of perspiration.

  His mouth curved wickedly. “You like watching me fuck you.”

  To prove it, he withdrew and thrust again, his entire body tightening as he sank farther into me. I whimpered. My sex sucked greedily at his cock; my nipples tightened painfully against his palms.

  “Oh, yeah, you do,” he crooned in a darkly seductive voice. “I’m going to mirror the ceiling, Gia baby. You’re going to watch me worship this sexy body of yours every day and night. You’ll never forget why you’re putting up with the world outside our bed. It’s going to be seared into your brain. Every time you close your eyes, you’ll see me riding you until you can’t come any more.”

  I climaxed. I couldn’t stop it. I cried out as the tension finally broke, pleasure arching my spine into a tight bow against his chest.

  Jax growled and lost control, fucking me hard and fast, surging deep and erupting with a vicious curse. His teeth sank into my shoulder. He came inside me, chasing my orgasm with ragged groans, his body shaking violently with the force of his ejaculations.

  It was too much. I couldn’t see, couldn’t think. My nails raked across the comforter, instinctively trying to pull me away from the flood of sensation, away from the spurting cock still plunging inside me, making me take more...feel more...when I couldn’t possible withstand it.

  Jax kept me with him, trapped and possessed, a willing prisoner to the endless need between us.

  * * *

  Jax undressed me, washed his semen away with a warm washcloth, and arranged me on the bed. I was limp and breathless the whole time, and slightly irritated that he could move and think while I was a brainless mess of postorgasmic endorphins.

  “You suck,” I told him when he finally sprawled on the bed beside me, gloriously naked.

  He propped his head in his hand and grinned, his fingers running lightly down my cleavage to circle my navel. “Guess you missed the ten minutes it took for me to be able to stand up.”

  “I’m taking you down for the count next time,” I grumbled.

  “Mmm...” Leaning over me, he pressed his lips to mine. “I’m just happy there’s a next time. Lots of next times. You’ve got two years to make up for.”

  My eyes narrowed. “I’m not taking the blame. You walked. Whether or not I followed, you’re the one who bailed.”

  “So I have two years to make up for.” He slid over me, kneeing my thighs open and settling between them. “I better get started.”

  Reaching up, I brushed his hair back from his forehead. He was even more breathtaking after sex, his face softened and seemingly younger, his eyes bright and his smile boyishly charming. He looked happy and it twisted my heart to think I’d made him that way without even really trying.

  Turning his head, he pressed his lips to my palm. “I love you.”

  “Jax.” My eyes stung. “I used to dream about you saying that to me.”

  “I told you a lot,” he confessed, “while you were sleeping.”

  That hurt worse than thinking he’d never felt tha
t way about me at all. “Will I ever understand why you put us through hell?”

  The light in his eyes dimmed. His smile faded. “I’m afraid you will.”

  Tension gripped his big frame, and I regretted bringing it up. I wrapped my legs around his hips, hugging him close.

  “Let’s agree not to bring anything but us into our bed,” he murmured, running his nose along my cheek. “I want us to have someplace where it’s just you and me, a place where we can remember why nothing else really matters but what we’ve got.”

  I nodded, my hands stroking up and down his back. Burying my face in his throat, I breathed him in, letting the familiar and beloved scent of his skin ground me in the moment. “I’m game for that. But I’ll warn you right now that if you don’t start including me, we won’t make it as far as this bed to begin with.”

  His mouth curved against my skin. “You drive a hard bargain, Miss Rossi.”

  “You’re damn right.”

  His back tightened beneath my hands. He started pushing inside me with a serrated groan.

  “In all fairness,” he said gutturally, “I can, too.”

  * * *

  Drowning in one of Jax’s robes, I sipped a glass of wine and watched him slice cold cuts and cheese. His massive Sub-Zero refrigerator was bachelor barren.

  “You ever live with a woman before?” I asked him.

  “No.”

  I nodded, admiring him in loose-fitting pajama pants. “Aren’t you worried it’ll feel like an invasion of your privacy?”

  He glanced at me, his dark eyes piercing from beneath the locks of his disheveled hair. “No.”

  “This place is pretty...sterile. You don’t think it might drive you a little nuts to see my shoes kicked off here and there, or my purse on the chair, or—”

  “Your panties on the rug because I yanked them off to fuck you?” He straightened. “No, I’m not going to mind. You having second thoughts?”

  I took another sip of the crisp Riesling before answering. “I’m just worried that you’re thinking about me so much that you’re not thinking about how this is going to affect you.”