From Rags

  Jaxxon was totally dignified in her movements as she removed the buttery grease and breadcrumbs from her face and hair. Then, moving too abruptly for him to have prepared himself, Jaxxon snatched her dessert spoon and launched it at Connor. It hit his forehead with a thunk, which only made her chuckle again. Then he sloshed his glass of white wine all over her favourite cashmere sweater, hence Anna’s horrified gasp, and he had more or less signed his death warrant. She booted him hard in the shin and simultaneously flicked vinegar and salt at him. Pre-empting what she going to do next, Connor seized the opened bottle of wine and placed it on the neighbouring table. That just pissed her off even more. She reached onto the table behind theirs and grabbed their bottle of – ah ha – red wine. Connor warned her with a look but she just smiled as she splashed as much of the contents of it on him as she could. Then she slammed the bottle down onto the table and glared at him.

  “You drowned me in red wine,” he said disbelievingly.

  “That’s right, prick.”

  “And I reek of vinegar.”

  “You ruined my favourite top.” She turned to Anna then. “Toilets?”

  Although Anna was terribly conscious of the deathly silence and the amount of eyes on them, she didn’t feel the need to shrink in her seat as she normally would have. No, it was the boys’ fault and, besides that, she was drunk so for now it didn’t matter. As if what was happening was perfectly normal, she casually gestured to the ladies’ restrooms as she sipped more wine from her glass. Jaxxon, of course, stomped off.

  As she stood examining the stains on her sweater, debating whether it could be saved or not, a string profanities flew from Jaxxon’s mouth. God she wanted to kill that bloke! It wasn’t enough for him to turn up out the blue and interrupt her holiday, oh no he had to go and ruin her favourite top as well! Sure, it was only a sweater but it was the first thing item of clothing she bought with her first wage from Ollie. It had sentimental value. She didn’t have many things that could be considered sentimental to her. She had always made a point not to have any such things having grown up in a place where things generally weren’t yours for long. Just when she tried snapping out of the mind state of not relaxing or treasuring anything…Urgh! If he had any sense of self-preservation the miserable little arsehole would be scarpering out of here! At that very second, the door slammed open, arsehole barged in and locked it behind him. So he didn’t have any sense of self-preservation.

  Connor had entered the restroom with every intention of giving her an intense verbal rollicking, but then he found her stood in only her bra and pants and his intentions quickly changed. He slowly advanced on her.

  She shook her head wildly, gasping at the barefaced cheek of him. “Do not think you’re having your way with me, McKenzie.” Her eyes helplessly dropped to his muscled chest as he removed his soup/vinegar/wine-soaked shirt. She forced them back to his face. His own eyes contained lust and heat and desperation and…something else, something she didn’t recognise. “Look, you’ve had your fun: you’ve ruined my holiday, you’ve ruined my evening, you’ve ruined my favourite sweater! Just go, and don’t ever come near me again.”

  He halted. “You think I came here to mess up your holiday? You think I would do that? That I would ever want to do that?”

  “Yeah, to punish me for daring to go somewhere without asking you first.”

  “This isn’t me punishing you or playing some game.” Dane had been right, he was going to need to tell her the truth if he had any hope of stopping her from finishing this.

  “You expect me to believe that you got on a plane and came all the way here just because you felt like a shag?”

  “I came here because I missed you.”

  That shocked her to silence. She might have laughed if he didn’t look so serious. He must have meant he missed being inside her, it had simply come out wrong. “And you couldn’t wait until Monday?”

  “No, I couldn’t. As much as you drive me bloody mental and make me want to spank your arse, I missed you.”

  There it was again. “Your dick missed me, you mean.”

  “My dick as well, yeah.” He began advancing on her again.

  Completely knocked by the things he was saying, she found herself suddenly mentally off-balance and was backing away rather than standing her ground. She hadn’t even taken four steps before her back met a wall. She should have been fighting him, condemning him, cursing him. But those three words had totally thrown her, especially when the desperation in his eyes gave emphasis to that claim; desperation that she could also feel sizzling in the air. He had never looked at her like that before. And so, instead of denying him, her body reacted by sending tingling sensations to her clit and releasing a rush of moisture from her core.

  Connor snatched the sweater from her grip and flung it aside then crammed her against the wall; his forearms resting either side of her. “And you missed me,” he whispered against her neck, enjoying the feeling of her skin against his.

  She snorted, hoping her voice wouldn’t come out shaky with her desire. “Do you think I consider a food fight to be a mating ritual?”

  His voice was low, velvety and seductive. “If I put my finger inside you right now, it would come out wet, wouldn’t it?” She swallowed hard and he smiled internally as he spoke into her ear, “I need you just as much, Jaxx.” To prove his point he grinded his rock-hard erection against her. “I’m obsessed with you. Addicted to you. You’re a blow to my self-control, do you know that?”

  Now Jaxxon was even more thrown. His iron control was what gave him his strength against everything he had been through and protected him from more hurt. What he was basically saying was that she had a power over him that made him vulnerable. She made him vulnerable and yet he’d come to her.

  He brushed his lips against hers. “I know you’re pissed with me, Jaxx. But you don’t really want me to go. What you want is for me to drive as deep inside you as I can and fuck you.” He tugged on her bottom lip with his teeth. “Don’t you? Here. Now. Right up against this wall.” Ever since she had told him she loved a good shag against a wall he hadn’t been able to get the image out of his head. As he felt a shiver ripple through her he raked his fingers through her hair and devoured her mouth with his.

  Jaxxon felt another shiver run through her; his kiss was coated with all his pent-up arousal but it was also a drugging kiss, something that wrenched at her soul. And she didn’t have a hope in hell of fighting him. Not after his admission. But then why fight it when she needed this too? Giving herself over to the sensations, she locked her arms around his neck and pulled him closer as she opened up fully to his kiss.

  Relief surged through Connor. She wasn’t pushing him away, she was being as gorgeously responsive as always. Then lust fogged his mind and all he wanted to do was lose himself in her. But not before getting reacquainted with this delectable body that was his. He roughly cupped a breast and she groaned into his mouth. He loved that she liked things intense just as he did. His mouth then landed on her nipple as he sucked and bit it through the black lace, making her arch her back so that she was curving her body into his. Wanting to give her some of the relief her body was begging for, he quickly and nimbly dealt with the buttons and zipper of her pants and then slid his hand inside her thong, cupping her.

  Jaxxon groaned again. How did he always manage to do this to her? One touch and she was primed for him. Sometimes he didn’t even need to touch her. The sensations that he ignited were as agonising as they were pleasurable, as unbearable as they were addictive. Only he could ever do this to her. She knew that just as surely as she knew that she had missed him.

  He burrowed a finger inside her. “So wet,” Connor murmured against the lace of her bra as he added another finger. He lifted his head to watch the pleasure flit across her face as he fucked her with his fingers. Then she was practically riding his hand, frantically seeking relief. As much as he loved the sight of her like this, it wasn’t enough, he needed to taste her. Ab
ruptly he sank to his knees and yanked down her pants and thong. She stepped out of them and her shoes. Then he lifted one shapely leg and hung it over his shoulder. He swiped his tongue between her folds and groaned. Her taste was like…There wasn’t a word good enough to describe it. It had all his senses exploding. He’d missed it.

  “Oh God,” she rasped as he tortured her with sensual licks.

  “Not God, Connor,” he said, now flicking her clit with his tongue and then swirling around it as he dug into his back pocket for a condom. “Say it.”

  Why was it that he always seemed to want her to say his name?

  “Say it.”

  She might not have if she hadn’t heard the tearing of a wrapper and then the lowering of a zipper. Thank God! She needed him inside her quickly. “Connor.” Then he was stood before her, the leg that was hung over his shoulder now resting in the crook of his arm. Holding her eyes, he plunged into her. A noise that was something between a moan and a sob tore out of her. For once he wasn’t treating her like she was fragile, and she delighted in the burning sensation of him stretching her. “Deeper.”

  “Oh I’ll fuck you deeper,” he assured her in a harsh tone as he palmed her arse and lifted her, rearranging her position so she could lock both of those luscious legs around his waist. “But first…” He brought a hand down hard on that perfect arse.

  Jaxxon jerked in shock. Did he just spank her?

  “Yeah, I did. That was for just drenching me in wine and vinegar and soup.” He did it again, wrenching a gasp from her. “That was for jetting off without a word and not even answering my calls.” This next spank was harder, causing her to gasp loudly. Moisture flooded his dick – so it turned out that she liked being spanked. “And that was for even thinking that I never cared about you.”

  Just as she was about to curse the bastard, he plunged into her again, going even deeper this time. The pain was as sweet as always, making her groan and shudder. She felt his tongue lick over her pulse and then he was sucking on the patch of skin there. She had missed his hot tongue tasting her body like this, had even missed his bites. Almost as if he read her thoughts he bit down on her neck.

  “Ready to take all of me?” When she nodded he gripped her hips and withdrew, then he slammed into her seating himself to the balls. Her muscles clamped around him like a tight fist. “Jesus, babe.” He had needed this, her, so badly. He sought out those brown eyes that he knew would have that wild, stormy look in them. “Jaxx, I need to fuck you hard.” His tone made it clear it would be rough and fierce.

  “Good.” His nostrils flared, his eyes darkened and then he was pounding into her with jackhammer thrusts. She had to bury her face into the crook of his neck to try to muffle the endless stream of moans and groans and gasps and sobs that were literally erupting from her throat. Minutes later a huge, lingering orgasm washed over her but he didn’t stop. He continued to surge into her in that masterful way of his, building the friction within her again.

  Connor knew that the press of her nails into the flesh of his back was drawing blood but if anything, it only spurred him on. Like he needed spurring on! He was hanging by the thinnest thread but he didn’t want it to end. It had scared him that she had seemed to want time away from him. He needed this; needed to be inside her, needed to hear her moaning his name, clinging to him, coming apart around him.

  “Connor, I’m going to come again.”

  He pounded even harder, clutching her arse even tighter as he did. “Now, Jaxx.”

  Her release ripped through her entire body, shattering her. She sank her teeth into the juncture between his neck and shoulder to muffle her scream.

  “Christ, babe,” he growled as her muscles clenched around him and triggered his own forceful climax. When his brain eventually switched back on and he was finished gasping for breath and being rocked by reverberations, he kissed her gently. “Admit it, you missed me.”

  She tried to hold back a smile but half of it surfaced. “Maybe a bit.” Though he’d confessed his weakness for her, Jaxxon couldn’t bring herself to do the same. It was worth noting that if she did he’d poop his pants thinking she wanted more. But that wasn’t her reason: she couldn’t do the same because whereas he’d walk away from this okay, she wouldn’t. He missed her because she was his addiction – addictions can be cured. He’d walked away from her once before and been just fine. She missed him because she cared about him too much for her liking. That wouldn’t go away. She knew that because she’d cared for him this much since she was twelve, even when he’d left. Still she was resolute that if her feelings ever evolved into something stronger she’d be gone faster than Houdini out of a knot.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  After a shower to wash away the after-effects of their food fight – a shower during which they savoured the joys of oral sex before having another shag for good measure – Jaxxon and Connor collapsed onto the luxurious bed in the challet. Jaxxon could only assume that they had been a little noisy because Anna was blasting one of her C.D.s ridiculously loud. Either that or she and Warren were using the music to disguise the sounds of their own fun.

  She was glad that the couple was no longer in danger of arguing. After all, it wasn’t Warren’s fault that Connor was a lunatic. A lunatic who had gone striding from the restrooms with Jaxxon slung over his shoulder; he’d been too impatient to get her out of the restaurant and her legs had been too unsteady after their reunion in the ladies’ to match his pace. They had tried making a massive apology to the maître d' for the food fight but he actually thanked them for their dispute, suspecting it would get his restaurant new publicity.

  “Ow,” whined Jaxxon as Connor sharply tugged her to him, snuggling her naked body into his. She was surprised when he did nothing more than hold her comfortably close and play with her wet ringlets. “How long are you staying?”

  “I was thinking of leaving Monday, same as you.”

  So this really isn’t just a stop off to get his jollies. Jaxxon couldn’t decide if that was a good or bad thing. The fourteen year old girl in her was absolutely thrilled and reading all kinds of crap into it. But twenty-two year old Jaxxon knew better: it was likely that even if he had missed her, something she wouldn’t have believed if she hadn’t seen it in his eyes, his main reason for coming was because he was too possessive to cope with the idea of other blokes being around her without him being there. And there was the fact that he was insatiable.

  “How’s the holiday been going?”

  “Me and Anna have had a right laugh. We’ve moved onto the intermediate slopes now.”

  “Yeah? Do me a favour: don’t take it too hard when I beat your arse on those slopes tomorrow. You were always a bad loser.”

  “You were the bad loser. I remember you swiped the board when I was winning at Monopoly. That time when I beat you on the go-karts you didn’t speak to me for about an hour.”

  He chuckled, idly drawing circles on her back with his index finger and marveling at how soft her skin was. “You must be thinking of Roland.”

  “I take it you’ve been skiing before.”

  “Not in France, but yeah. I went with Dane and Warren a few times before Dane married Niki. I’ll begrudgingly admit that Warren’s the better skier. You ever been abroad before?”

  “No. You know, I never pictured myself going skiing.”

  A lot of things Jaxx said made Connor feel like he’d had a punch to the gut. He’d been abroad more times than he could count. To think that each time he’d been away having a ball with his mates Jaxx had been all alone, concentrating on nothing more than getting by. “I did very nearly come to see you once, you know.” His voice was low, full of regret. “It was your fifteenth – the first birthday I’d missed since meeting you.”

  At the very mention of that birthday she stiffened. “It doesn’t matter.” She tried to think of a subject change but the memories of that day hit her too hard.

  He felt her tense. Had he really hurt her that much? He hated him
self right now. “I didn’t stay away because I didn’t care, Jaxx. It was just…I had this vision of going to see you and” – subconsciously he held her tighter – “you either laughing at the fact that I’d even turned up, or seeing you with someone. I’d have beaten them to a pulp, Jaxx, I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself. I figured you were better off without a person like me in your life.”

  She was glad he hadn’t turned up that day. Even though she had come to terms with what had happened, it wasn’t something she enjoyed sharing, and there would have been no way of keeping it from him if he had come. But if he had just turned up even once before that day then so much may not have happened. She had never truly put any blame on Connor, especially because that would mean absolving others to some extent of their actions. But if he hadn’t done what he did to those blokes before leaving, if he hadn’t made them want revenge so badly then maybe…No. She wouldn’t dwell on the ‘what ifs’. Pain was just part of life.

  “You’re miles away, Jaxx.” She tensed again, and he noticed that she was still keeping her eyes tightly shut as if afraid her secrets might shine from them. “Look, I was wrong to expect you to tell me the ins and outs of everything. I just hated that you didn’t feel like you could confide in me the way you used to. But I see that’s my own fault. What I’m trying to say is that I’m not going to pressure you to tell me anything again, but if you ever want to…”

  That stunned her. It didn’t sound like Connor. Warily she opened her eyes…and saw only sincerity in his. As if to assure her it was the truth, he brought his lips to hers. It wasn’t one of his demanding, dominating kisses. It was soft and drugging and she felt herself de-tensing.