Walk, Lex. One foot in front of the other.

Eight

Lexi’s mind blurred between the moment she took the first step and the moment she stood in front of Jax’s door. She focused on the numbers—seven-one-four—pulled air through her lips, and pressed her hand to the cool, painted metal.

As the door opened, light from the hall cast a wedge of soft yellow on the deep blue carpet in the entry.

Lexi swept her gaze over the dim interior setting and found Jax’s shadowed form where he sat on the arm of the sofa deeper in the suite’s living room. Hands lazily clasped in front of him. Jeans, bare feet, white T-shirt…maybe. Too many shadows to tell for sure. Which was good. If she thought she was nervous in the hall, her heart was about to jump from her chest now. The darkness helped.

She stepped into the room, closed the door, and pressed her back against it, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness. Silence seemed to swamp the space, the quiet so complete Lexi swore it compressed her lungs.

“You lied, sugar.” His first words startled her, like a touch from the dark, but the distant bathroom light showed he hadn’t moved. His voice, low and languid, created a sultry, sensual sensation all through her body, as delicious as the thought of melted chocolate on salty, warm skin.

“Lied?” She sounded like she’d run the stairs to his room. “About what?”

She glanced to her left, through a doorway that must have led to the bedroom. Another door that could only be for a bathroom stood open a few inches, just as he’d promised.

“You’ve got a sweet voice.”

She jerked her attention back to him as he stood from the sofa. Taller than she’d expected. Broader than she’d expected.

A different kind of nervousness squirmed through her chest. Her hands clenched, the palm of one hand digging into the edges of her phone. “W…what did I lie about?”

“Your body.”

He stepped closer, and the first cut of unease shot crackling heat through her chest. Had she misread him? Was she misreading herself? If this was passion, it was more intense than anything she’d ever felt. Overwhelming. Obsessive. Dark.

She found the door handle at her back with her free hand. Curled her fingers around it. “Is…is that a problem?”

“Why?” he asked.

Her brow pulled. Why what? She couldn’t remember what they’d been talking about. This was so out of her scope. She should never have tried to play in Rubi’s league.

“I’m not sure…” she started.

He closed in. His scent drifted to her—fresh, spicy.

Real. So in-her-face real.

This was no fantasy. Two hundred pounds of stranger stood less than two feet away. Her throat closed. She turned, pressed the lever, and pulled the door open. “I’m sorry, I don’t think this…”

The door shut. Lexi gasped, her gaze darting up. The shadow of Jax’s hand lay against the white door. Her mind froze. The sound of her own heartbeat filled her ears as his heat washed the length of her body.

Don’t panic. Don’t panic.

“Hold on, baby. Hold on.” His voice, soft and apologetic, took some of the sting out of the fear.

She kept one hand gripping the door handle, the other flat on the door, and tried to slow her breathing.

“You’re okay. We’re okay.” His hand disappeared from the door. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. You can leave, Lexi, honey, anytime you want. I just… Talk to me, Lex. Then if you still want to go, open the door and go.”

The regret in his voice felt like a rock in her gut. Mortification made her stomach ball into a fist. “I’m sorry too. I don’t know what I was thinking coming here…”

One of his hands lay gently on the top of her head, then slid all the way down her hair where it ended past the middle of her back. The touch felt good. Sweet. A few nerves released their tension.

“Wow,” he murmured, “I should have added extra long to the possibilities. I love it.”

A smile turned her mouth. His fingers slid past the ends of her hair, brushed the bare skin of her back in the open halter, featherlight, tentative.

“Can I touch you?” he asked, his voice softer than a whisper but so much deeper.

She nodded, unable to speak. His hand slipped beneath her hair and pressed against her back, between her shoulder blades. His hand was big, his skin rough. Heat sank into her body in the shape of his handprint, loosening her muscles. Lexi sighed and closed her eyes.

“I think,” he murmured, “you were thinking the same thing I’ve been thinking for the last ten hours. How badly we want the other to ease this need that’s grown between us.”

“God, yes,” she whispered. Once the words were out there, the fire that had been smothered by fear burned through and engulfed her body. “I’m just not used to… I mean, I’ve never done this.”

He moved closer but didn’t press against her. His heat and scent grew stronger. His hand made another pass over her hair, this time pushing his fingers in and combing it. Her scalp tingled. The sensation traveled down her neck and spine. Tightened the skin of her chest and puckered her nipples. She’d never known such a simple touch could feel so sexual.

His head lowered, and his smooth, freshly shaven chin rubbed her temple as he murmured, “I’m just figuring that out. I’m sorry I didn’t catch on sooner. I was focused on the identity thing when I should have been focused on—”

“It’s not you,” she said. “You’re perfect.”

He laughed softly, the sound filled with yeah-right attitude, and trickled over her skin, prickling like warm water on cold flesh. His breath was warm and minty, making her want to taste him.

His hand paused in her hair, and she tilted her head back, her temple touching his. “Don’t stop. That feels amazing.”

His hand immediately started moving again, and Lexi moaned soft and low. “Thank you.”

“Oh, little Lexi,” he said on a long exhale and turned his face toward hers, nuzzling her hair away from the side of her face. “I think I know why you’re so skittish.”

She stiffened. Forced her eyes open. “What?”

“You’re…sweet.” He said it like it was a tender surprise, like she was precious.

“Sweet? I should be offended, shouldn’t I? But I…kind of can’t think when you’re…touching me.”

He brushed his closed lips along a path from the spot behind her ear to the strap of her halter on her neck and back again. No kissing. No tongue. Just rubbing. And heating her skin. And making her sex grow damp and swollen and hot.

“Why would that offend you?” On the last word, his open mouth pressed against the curve of her shoulder.

“Because sweet isn’t exactly…” Wasn’t exactly what? God, she really couldn’t think. She released the door handle and reached up, hooking her hand behind his head. His hair was soft. His skin smelled spicy and sexy. “Jax.”

He groaned. The sound lit a match between her legs. He fisted the hand in her hair and moved his mouth to her neck, suckling. She echoed his moan.

“You taste even better than I imagined. Can I feel you, Lexi? Can I feel you everywhere so I can create you in my mind?”

“Yes.”

His hands closed on her waist. Heat shot both directions, into her sex and her breasts. His hands slid up her sides, creeping under her halter, and the rough skin on his fingertips scraped gently. Gooseflesh rose beneath his hands. His hands slid around front, covering her entire belly, long fingers stretching low between her hipbones.

“Mmmm,” he hummed in approval.

Lexi started to turn, ravenous for his mouth. For his body to be pressed fully up against hers. But Jax had a firm hold on her. “I’m still checking you out, sweetheart. It takes longer without light.”

His hands moved over her hipbones and down the front of her thighs, avoiding her throbbing sex but bringing his chest low and against her back. She turned her head, kissed his cheek. His temple.

“Jax…” Then he found the hem of her skirt; his hands slid over the skin of her thighs. “Yes…”

But, again, his hands traveled around to her hips, then back to her thighs, and higher, grasping the cheeks of her ass firmly enough to make Lexi gasp.

“Goddamn, Lexi,” he growled as his forehead pressed against her temple. “It’s a good thing I didn’t see you in the airport. We might have missed the plane.”

She laughed, hardly more than a soft puff of air. Then he leaned in until his body pressed the length of hers. One long, lean wall of muscle and heat. Finally.

Her fingers curled into her palms, and she groaned, the pleasure rocketing through every part of her body. “Oh, so perfect.”

But it got better. He added pressure with his hips and a thick, hard rod of heat sank into the low curve of her spine. Lexi groaned. He bent his knees until he’d wedged the line of his erection snugly between the cheeks of her ass and released a long, deep growl Lexi felt all the way to her core.

“Now that is perfection,” he said, his voice husky. “I’ve got one more measurement to check…”

His hands slipped up her sides, around her ribs and, with the confidence of a man who’d handled a lot of women in his life, took her breasts in his palms. Her skin tightened as Jax cupped and squeezed and molded. His hips matched the nearly unconscious movements Lexi made to rub her ass against his cock. And when his fingers closed on her nipples, Lexi whimpered.

Her hand fisted his hair. Her head dropped forward, eyes closed, lips parted. A noise came from her throat, but she couldn’t describe it. She was too dizzy with lust. She was glad the lights were off. She didn’t have to blush with mortification at her intense need.

He lowered his mouth to her ear. “Not one of your measurements was true.”

She tightened the hand around her phone. “You sure didn’t fudge on yours.” God, she needed him inside her so badly she was trembling. “But I still feel the need to…verify.”

“You’ll get your chance, baby, no worries there. But I don’t have time to fuck you properly right now, and there is no way in the fiery pits of hell I’m going to rush a goddamned thing with a catch like you.”

He had to be joking. His cock was a damn rod of burning steel. “Jax—”

“Tell me why you lied, Lexi.”

He released one of her breasts, his hand sliding down her abdomen. The touch of his fingers on her skin was electric. They slipped beneath the band of her skirt, and Lexi’s breath caught. Muscles tightened with nerves and need. But he didn’t touch her where she wanted him to touch her. He took the edge of her panties between two fingers and just slid the satin back and forth. Back and forth. Until she thought she’d go mad…waiting, wanting.

She turned her head, her lips brushing the rough stubble on his jaw, and whispered, “Touch me.”

“I wouldn’t want to distract you from your answer. Truth, Lexi.”

She groaned. “The truth is that men are attracted to me for my…body.”