Chapter Nine

Liliana

I finished and yanked my underwear back up again, the damp fabric clinging unpleasantly to my legs. Goddamn Jax. Seeing him step out of the shower had done nothing to soothe the ache between my legs. I felt so empty down there it was like a crater had opened up.

I stuck my head out of the bathroom and triple-checked the hallway before sprinting back to my room and slamming the door closed. My heart was hammering in my throat and a pulse pounded between my legs.

Oh my God. Oh my God oh my God oh my God.

A year ago, I was certain that eighteen-year-old Jaxson Blue was the sexiest man on the planet.

I was wrong.

Nineteen-year-old Jaxson Blue was.

While I was gone, he had worked his already perfect body into rangy perfection. The taut belly I had kissed so ardently was now sculpted into the ridges and valleys of a perfect sex pack. The shoulders I had clung to were broader, the back I had scratched my nails down was stronger. The jawline I had nibbled was more defined and the smooth skin I had worshipped was spider webbed in new ink.

His cock, though—that was exactly how I had remembered it. Heavy and long, with that wicked little curve at the end. And the little wink of metal from his Prince Albert. The way that had felt as it slipped inside of me…

The sight of it nearly brought me to my knees, making me fear that once I was down there, instinct would take over.

I groaned out loud and buried my head in my pillow. Suddenly my whole body seemed overly sensitive. The brush of my flannel pajamas against my breasts was enough to make my nipples tighten. The seam of my pants pressed achingly against my throbbing clit.

It doesn't mean anything, I told myself as my fingers wandered downward. It's just fantasy. It's not real.

But hot slickness my fingers found was all too real. With a moan, I squeezed my hand tightly in my thighs, imagining Jax’s mouth down there. He used to love eating me out, spreading me wide wherever he could pin me and making me shriek. I shivered as I remembered the way his shoulders would bulge as he pressed against the inside of my thighs, eyes closed, that little mmm-ing noise he made that made me feel utterly delicious.

I flopped over onto my back and arched upward. There was no warm chest above me, no lips against my ear, whispering filthy, wonderful promises, but I was a writer—I could imagine it. Perfect fucking recall, down to the last detail. I could indulge in a little reminiscing and it didn't need to mean a thing, right?

My orgasm came fast and breathless and aching. I gritted my teeth, panting as the tremors ricocheted through me.

And then it was gone.

And instead of sating me, it just left me frustrated and wanting the real, blue-haired thing.

I yanked my hand out of my pajama pants with disgust. Really, Liliana? Jilling off as soon as you see him? You're fucking pathetic.

I tugged on my jeans and threw on a halter top, intending to rush back to the bathroom and wash my hands, get the smell of my desperation off of me.

Instead I opened the door and nearly ran smack into the source of my desperation's now-clothed chest.

"Jax, what the hell are you doing here?" I shrieked, jumping away from him like he had electrocuted me. He may as well have.

He lowered the hand he clearly had raised to knock on my door. If I could die from blushing, I would have welcomed it. Kill me now. Just let the big California earthquake hit right at this moment so the earth swallows me up and I don't have to look him in the eye.

Jax raised an eyebrow. Fuck, he wanted to tease me. I braced myself, hiding my hands behind my back. Hiding the evidence.

But instead he sighed and straightened his shoulders. "That wasn't how that was supposed to go." Goddamn him, he actually looked sheepish. In his white button-down and low-slung jeans, he couldn't have been more delicious than if he’d tried. His lips always had the sweetest curve, an exaggerated Cupid's bow that would've looked feminine on any other face, but on his, it only made the curve of his mouth more tantalizing.

"How what was supposed to go?" I was still out of breath. And knowing Jaxson and his preternatural ability for sniffing out my weaknesses, he could probably smell my orgasm still lingering about me.

"Our first meeting."

I leaned against the doorframe and crossed my arms. "No, I'd say that was about normal."

"Why do you always assume I'm being an ass?"

"Because you usually are?

He looked wounded a second. Then I immediately recognized the twisted curl of his lip that he did whenever he was trying to hide irritation. "So, how are you?"

I clenched my fists. "How am I?"

His eyes blazed. "Yes. How are you? It's a simple fucking question, really."

I hated him. "I'm jetlagged and irritable. I don't want to be here, and my soon-to-be stepbrother won't leave me the hell alone. How do you think I am?"

He grinned. "I'd say that was about normal.”

"Real nice."

"Oh, would you stop being so damned prickly all the time?"

"Me?" I wanted to shove him, but that would mean I had to touch him, and I couldn't trust myself with that. "You're the one who's giving me shit!"

"I'm trying not to!" he exploded and for a moment there I saw genuine frustration. Then the cocky sneer returned. "Time to go to dinner. Annie commands." He turned, his eyes already on his phone.

Chapter Ten

Jax

Two for two.

Actually, if you're counting my record in fucking things up with Liliana Nesbit, those two encounters were nothing in comparison with how badly I’d fucked things up in the past. But still, twice in the same day, the first day I saw her in a year… that was pretty incredible.

So I had gone and picked a fight with her. When all I wanted to do was sweep her into my arms and cover her in kisses and promises of never letting her go.

I am an idiot.

I pounded down the grand staircase of my mom's stupid trophy house, making as much noise as I could. I wanted to smash my feet right through the floor, so something else was as fucked up as I felt.

Yeah, I never finished high school. Yeah, I wasn't much of a reader. Maybe I was pretty dumb, but in all of the weird excitement about this sham wedding, it never really occurred to me what it meant to my life. I was just happy it had forced Lily to come back home so I could see her, mess with her, have her close by to torture me, whatever the fuck I was playing at here. Pick things up where we left off, before my idiot ego ruined everything. I just wanted things to be how they were supposed to be: me and my Bit against the world.

In all of that, I never considered that our relationship would change through no fault of my own for once.

Her dad was marrying my mom.

She was going to be my sister.

I suddenly hated my mother. More than before. And fucking Nails too, the tumor that he was. Glommed on to my mom for a decade and only bothered to put a ring on her finger now, after all this time, after Bit and I… fuck.

I wanted to destroy something.

I rounded the corner into the big dining room with the table with mismatched chairs. My mother had more money than God, but she still insisted on living like a college student. Like it gave her "cred" with all these yes men and hangers on that surrounded us at all times, leaving no room for privacy.

That disgusted me too.

I grabbed the ratty wicker back chair at the head of the table and brought it smashing down to the floor. The splintery crash echoed through the big, empty house.