“Remember this for the future, Anita.” Jaxxon’s tone was grave now. “You’re not clever, you’re cunning – that’s a big difference, and that’s what your downfall was. Now get out of my sight.”
“Throwing me out?” She snickered then switched her focus to Connor. “Sounds to me like she’s getting a bit too comfortable, talking like this is her apartment. You might want to watch out there.”
“She’d have her own if you hadn’t trashed it.” Anita looked genuinely shocked, he thought. But then he had to remember that she didn’t get an Oscar for nothing.
Anita snorted. “Is that what she told you? Oh, Connor, she’s even better at games than me. Don’t you see? She obviously had it ransacked so that you’d have to take her in, if it was even ransacked at all. You actually fell for that?”
Jaxxon rolled her eyes. “That’s you judging people by your own standards.”
“Maybe it was the other way round: maybe he trashed the flat so you’d have nowhere to go and he get could you to move in here.”
“Divide and conquer…A very old trick.” Connor gestured toward the door with his head. “Get out of our sight.”
Sharply Anita rose to her feet and gave them both a fierce snarl. “I hope you’re very happy together, but you won’t be, will you.” Then she stormed to the door, hissing and wishing them an early death.
“Delightful woman,” said Jaxxon as Anita door slammed so hard she was surprised the plaster surrounding the frame didn’t crack.
“I always thought so.”
Cunning, devious, manipulative – Anita was all those things, but did that make her an apartment-attacker? Would those delicate little fingers have any idea how to pick a lock? Would she ever be prepared to dirty herself in corn syrup? After a minute of thinking about it she sighed. “I don’t think it was her who strafed my apartment.”
Connor twirled Jaxx on his lap to face him and positioned her so she was straddling him. “Forget about her,” he muttered against her lips before kissing her softly. “Forget about that apartment.” He reached out and did what he had been dying to do since she walked into the room. He loosened the tie of her robe and slid his hands inside, shaping her waist. Christ, she was totally naked under it. “You’re here with me now.” He slid a hand over the flat of her stomach, loving the velvety feel of her. Then he snaked his hand up and along her ribs.
“It’s a bit hard to forget the ‘Die Bitch’ part, and I’m not thrilled about the ‘slag’ or ‘slut’ -” She broke off as his teeth grazed the column of her throat and one of his hands closed around her breast.
“You are a slut, you’re my slut.” He pinched her nipple and then bit the curve of her breast.
“Bastard,” she said breathlessly.
He explored her neck with hot, open-mouthed kisses while molding and clutching each of her breasts, wringing moans from her. She was about to make a protesting sound when his lips left her neck but his tongue curled around a taut nipple and flicked it, then his mouth closed over it and sucked hard. Moaning again, she ground herself against his hard, jeans clad dick. Oddly enough, she enjoyed the friction that came from the feel of the denim against her clit. She supposed she was sort of slutty with him at times.
“You’ve had such a shit day, haven’t you, babe. Just relax for me. Let me give you something else to think about. Let me make you forget everything.”
And then he worked her body like the master he was.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Jaxxon woke up to a lash of a tongue to her clit. The tip of that same tongue flicked the bud repeatedly, teasing it and sending zinging sensations through her. Then a long, cool breath blew over her clit and between her folds. She moaned and bucked.
“Morning,” said Connor against her clit. When he suckled on it she bucked again so he pinned her hips to the bed with his arm. “I woke up starving.” As he took to swiping his tongue through the slick folds her moans grew in volume. He couldn’t help moaning along with her as the taste of her increasingly ate at his control. Then he thrust his tongue into her, getting a more thorough tasting of her. He could happily do this for hours.
After about fifteen minutes of utter torture during which she must have plucked over a dozen hairs from his head while her fingers were threaded through it, Jaxxon couldn’t take anymore. “Connor,” she rasped.
“What is it, babe?”
Instead of words a loud groan escaped her. “Connor.” Being reduced to one word sentences was pissing her off. She mentally thumped herself. “I’m going to come.”
“I don’t want you to come until I’m inside you.”
“Then you better get inside me very fast.”
“Hold on for me a little longer.”
“Can’t.” She was very close to sobbing. She hated it when that happened. “Now, Connor.” Then suddenly her hips were tilted and his cock plunged into her as he seated himself deep. Over the edge she went, crying out and shaking. What a way to wake up!
Connor held himself immobile until her little aftershocks slipped away. Then he urged her to curl her legs around his hips and began to move, keeping his thrusts leisurely and sensual. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, groaning at how hot and tight and wet she was. The feel of Jaxx’s tight muscles gripping and stretching around him was his own personal definition of heaven.
Jaxxon had been waiting for the deliciousness of having him inside her to wane with time but if anything it only got better. She loved that sensation as he first entered her. She loved how each deliberate movement was powerful and masterful and dominant no matter how gentle or rough he was. She loved how he filled her so deeply, making her feel as though she could burst. And the smoothness of his flesh against her own was amazing. Wait a minute…His flesh against her own? She knew something felt different. “Connor.”
“I know, babe, I know I’m bareback I’ll put a condom on in a minute, I swear, I just want to feel you around me. Just for a minute.” He’d never taken a woman without a condom before. Naturally he’d always wondered what it was like without them. But with Jaxx he needed to know. He would put on a condom in a minute, he really would, he just needed to know how it felt to take her skin-to-skin. The feel of her come coating his cock was amazing.
Although his movements were slow, it fired her desire having the feel of him inside her like this. She tried not to arch into him and beat at his control but while she was caught up in the thrall of the pleasure that he could give her she didn’t have a lot of control herself. His touch was rekindling the giddy tingles from her last orgasm.
“I’ll pull out in a sec, I promise I will.”
She wasn’t sure who he was trying to reassure more: her or himself. She recalled the conversation they’d had one night when she had been teasing him about the slutty life he’d led and he had sworn that he’d always worn a condom and he still got himself checked out regularly. “You don’t have to stop if you don’t want to, I’m on the pill.” She had been since she was fourteen to regulate her crazy, heavy periods. Instantly Connor stilled. “If you want to use a condom then get it on quick because I’m close and these slow thrusts of yours are -” She broke off as he abruptly slammed into her, dragging a loud groan from her which mingled with his.
“Harder?” he gritted out.
“Yes.”
This time he slammed into her so hard she hit the headboard. “Faster?”
“A lot faster.”
He smiled at the frustration in her voice. Then he firmly caught her hips, dragged her to him away from the headboard, and hammered into her the way she loved. Jesus Christ it was a million times better with nothing to keep his skin from hers. “Look at me, Jaxx.”
She opened her eyes to find his face a mask of intensity; his lips were set into a hard line, his jaw was so tense she would bet his teeth hurt, and his eyes had that merciless glint to them and had darkened to flint. He cupped her arse and shifted her slightly so that he was now hitting her G-spot with every thrust. “God, Con
nor.”
“Now, Jaxx,” he demanded in a harsh voice. “Come for me right now, come with me.” Then he slammed into her even harder than before and they both came together; her screaming, and him groaning her name.
Jaxxon closed her eyes as she waited for him to roll off her and sigh and mutter about how he shouldn’t have done that. Any other bloke would see no need to panic but this was a bloke who didn’t want kids. Instead, he did something that took her completely by surprise. He gave her a soft, lingering kiss and then took her with him as he rolled onto his side. She wondered if he had ever gone bareback with another woman. Quickly she shook off the thought of him with someone else, it wasn’t a nice visual. “What time is it?”
“Well my alarm went off at half six so it must be about seven now.”
“How is it that I didn’t hear your alarm?” She had always been a light sleeper.
“You were obviously so satiated after I fucked you to sleep that you were halfway to comatose.”
Hearing the self-satisfaction in his tone she pinched his bicep. “No one likes a smug bastard. What time are you leaving for the gym?”
“Same time you’re leaving for the studio, half seven. So I suppose we better get up.” He swatted her arse then jumped up before she could return the favour. One thing Connor adored Jaxx for was that she didn’t take ages in the bathroom. Also, she didn’t mind sharing it while she used it. This morning, though, she made him agree not to join her in the shower because they’d learned during their stay in France that there was no way they could be together in the shower without something sexual happening, and this morning they didn’t have time.
As usual, Jaxx was washed and dressed within twenty minutes. He was glad she wasn’t someone who lathered herself in make-up except when working; in his opinion she didn’t need it and looked more stunning without it. Another thing he liked was that despite the industry she worked in she didn’t skip breakfast, even if all she had time for was a slice of toast, she didn’t start her day on an empty stomach. What Connor didn’t like about this morning was that he was leaving a humungous animal in his apartment for the day. Jaxx assured him that he wouldn’t get back to find that Bronty had done a Turner and Hooch to the place, mostly because she didn’t believe he knew he was a dog which was something she was going to look into. He also didn’t like the thought of her being away from him while the person responsible for trashing her own apartment was waltzing around and so far had gone undetected. He still believed it was Anita but Jaxx still wasn’t convinced.
Hoping to avoid Anita’s watchful eye, he took Jaxx out the side door of the building, telling the guard Chino that she would be using this as an entrance and exit from now on. But Connor still couldn’t relax. “Maybe I should drive you to the studio and then pick you up once you’re done,” he said as they approached her Audi.
“You are kidding, aren’t you? No of course you’re not,” she grumbled. “I’ll be alright. It’s not like anyone has tried to hurt me, it was my apartment that they went after.”
Yeah, but they had both pissed Anita off badly last night so it wouldn’t surprise him if she took things a step further after that. He shackled Jaxx’s wrist with his hand and tugged her to him so sharply she dropped her handbag. “Look, I know that I can go over the top and be way too overprotective when it comes to you -”
“Did you honestly just admit that?”
“- but I feel uneasy and I can’t shake it off.”
“Now you’re just being paranoid.”
“It doesn’t mean Anita’s not following you. Luke said she knew what day you walked Bronty so -”
“Maybe you’re right and I’m being tailed by Anita the Vengeful but, in that case, won’t I need my car so I can ram the thing into her?” She pulled her hand free and bent to pick up the handbag. She heard him groan. “What?” she asked as she straightened.
“How great thou arse.”
“Ah, so my randy bastard’s back. I like him better than the paranoid one.” Just as she was about to unlock the car she was caged against it from behind. Yep, randy bastard was definitely back. He cupped and shaped her arse then spanked it. Of course he spanked it. Why wouldn’t he spank it? “Alright this S and M shite stops now.”
He whispered into her ear, “Deny it if you want but you like getting your arse spanked. You get wet as hell every time I do it. Oh and I haven’t even started with the S and M stuff, babe. One night I’m going to tie you to my bed and have my wicked way with you, and you know what? You’ll love every second of it. I bet you’re getting wet just thinking about it, aren’t you?”
She was. “Do you really want to get me all horny and then send me off to a studio full of male models?” She was spun around so fast she stumbled. A chuckle burst out of her. “You are so easy to wind up, McKenzie.”
“And you are such a tease, Carter.” He merged his lips with hers. The kiss was punishing and possessive. “Remember: take a different route to the studio and be alert, alright.”
“Sir, yes, sir.”
“Sir? I actually like the sound of that. Lord and Master might be better though.”
Chuckling again she shoved him away and got into her Audi. At the same time he jumped into his Aston Martin convertible and beeped at her as they went their separate ways. Jaxxon sighed as it occurred to her that when they literally went their separate ways in every sense of the phrase it wouldn’t be anything like the easy, playful manner of just now. Or, at least, it wouldn’t be for her.
First thing on her schedule was a conference call with the fashion designer and his team from Milan who were still trying to negotiate some sort of deal for Jaxxon to model a special clothes line which they wanted to brand with her name. Apparently they weren’t fazed by her decision not to go to Milan to meet with them and, after some hounding on their part, a conference call was arranged. Sadly for the designer, this kind of thing wasn’t for her and she told him as much in the most frank way possible.
Next on her schedule was the shoot for the Allure line of the new season. It didn’t escape her notice that Tony wasn’t barking at her to move this way and that way like he usually did, so she guessed he was worried about her after what happened to the apartment. She was surprised that he wasn’t sulking because she was staying with Connor rather than in his annexe, and just when she thought the bloke was being mature about it he made a snide comment. So she flipped him off. And he laughed.
When it was time for the next lot of shots, which were to mostly concentrate on the eye products, Jaxxon went to have her make-up re-done into a different look. Kieran used a lot of smoky colours this time, making her seem like some sort of dark seductress which she didn’t like, but of course he saw that as a positive because it meant that she would have on her frustrated look by the time she got back to Tony.
“Ooh, maybe this will cheer you up,” said another of the make-up artists, Lorna.
Jaxxon gaped as a vase filled with a display of burgundy-red roses and a black box with a black lacy bow – which she guessed contained chocolates – was set in front of her.
“Who’re they from?” asked Kieran.
She plucked out the envelope that sat within the bouquet and tore it open. The card read: ‘They won’t taste better than you, C’.
“C? Oh, they’re from Connor McKenzie. You know you haven’t told me much about him.”
“I can tell you that he doesn’t do flowers and chocolates.”
“Luv, they all revert to the traditions when the right girl comes along. The two of you really do suit. And I don’t just mean ’cause of how crazy you both are, I mean you look good together as well. That’s always a bonus.”
“What’s that noise?” asked Lorna, flicking aside her purple hair to cup her ear. “Sounds like bells ringing. Church bells.”
“Stop taking the piss, there will be no wedding,” said Jaxxon.
“Did someone say wedding? Who’s getting married?” Louisa strutted over to Jaxxon and examined her ringlets
. “No, they don’t need touching up.”
Lorna nodded in agreement. “We were just asking when the big date is for Jaxxon and Connor McKenzie.”
“He proposed?”
Jaxxon held the hand up that Louisa was trying to snatch. “See – no ring. They’re just trying to wind me up. And they’re succeeding.” She briefly contemplated ragging out Kieran’s spiky hair and shoving it down Lorna’s throat.
“Is that who the flowers and chocolates are from?”
“Yes,” verified Kieran. “You know what, Jaxxon, you should make sure your wedding bouquet looks something like that – it’ll be like a tribute to the first time he sent you flowers.” He knew he was pushing it but it wouldn’t be a normal day if Jaxxon didn’t tell him to sod off. It was part of his routine.
“Wedding bouquet?” echoed an extremely aggravated Ollie as he paced to Jaxxon. “McKenzie asked you to marry him? And you said yes?” Oh he’d skin the prat.
Jaxxon put her hand over her heart and said her speech in a rush. “How could I say no? You were right when you said it was about more than just sex, I love him. I don’t want to be without him.” At the sight of his blazing-red cheeks, she burst into laughter and everyone joined in, other than Ollie who looked a mixture of relieved and annoyed.
“Bloody hell, girl, you had me panicking then.”
“Don’t you like Connor?” asked Kieran.
“Oh don’t get him started on Connor,” groaned Jaxxon.
“It’s not that I don’t like him,” said Ollie.
“So am I the only one who doesn’t like him then?” Bruno winked at Jaxxon as he came to stand beside Ollie.
Kieran snorted. “Your opinion of Connor doesn’t count, it’s biased.” He gestured for Ollie to continue but the man was struggling for words. “Oh, I get it,” chortled Kieran. “Daddy doesn’t like his little girl having a sex life.”