Page 116 of Rogue
“Either I’m the worst sniper on the planet or you’re the luckiest woman ever.”
I bite my lip and consider the shots he’d taken. The cell phone in my hand, at the teahouse. Both perfectly precise shots. Both misses.
“You never meant to kill me?”
“I wanted answers, plain and simple. And I got them. And even if your reasons for doing what you did turned out to be one big bitch move, I would never have obeyed Hayden’s order.”
“Hayden . . .”
Jaxson shakes his head. “Believe it when I say, the hit is real.”
“Is?”
“Yeah. And there’s probably a hit out now for me as well. I haven’t called in since the church. Actions have consequences, right?”
“Jesus, Jaxson. What are you waiting for?”
“You. After you told me about your sister, the danger she was in, why you were late. I figured I’d give you a chance to take out Novák.”
“But you were following me.”
“I didn’t say I’d let you do it all by yourself. Goddamn it. I had no idea you’d pull a dumb move like that. Calling Francis and distracting them away from me. Fuck, Kylie. What were you thinking?”
Thinking? About you. It’s always been you.
Love is like a roller-coaster ride. You take off toward the unknown, full of giddy anticipation, then you hit a loop, are flipped upside down, thrust forward then into reverse until your stomach is in your throat and all you can think about is when the madness will end. And you know what, I’ll take this ride again and again so long as Jaxson is tugging me along and charming me into sitting in the front seat next to him.
“I was thinking how I love you. How I never wanted to hurt you yet did so over and over again. How I missed you, mourned you, felt like wringing your neck and wrapping my arms around your shoulders and holding you tight. I never got over you when you were dead. Then, you weren’t and . . .” His huge grin steals my words away. Still, I manage to add, “Just like with Madelyn, I’d do anything for you. I love you so bleeding much.”
Jaxson rolls to his feet and reaches his hand out to me.
I take it.
“Time for that shower.”
I open then close my mouth. Would another “I love you” back kill him?
“When I reserved this room, I decided it’d be our room. How I’d lock you inside it, tie you to the bed, kiss you until you begged me for more, then we’d work out our issues and fuck. Or visa versa.”
“The bed is that way.” I point over my shoulder as he leads me into the bathroom.
“After I used the shower, all I could imagine was fucking you inside it, the jet spray showing down on us, washing away the grime, the past, our troubles. How much I need to hold you, claim you, make you wild for my touch. Make you love me.”
“I do love you.”
He works my skinny jeans down over my legs like a professional. And I let him. Because when the love of your life—with whom you’ve just survived a rather harrowing “rough patch in your relationship”—blatantly reveals he’s been fantasizing about fucking you inside a shower, what’s a gal to do?
Especially when he’s got this naughty look in his eyes as he masterfully undresses you.
Quicker than you can sayoh la la, my panties are off, along with my ruined shirt and lovely purple bra he’s had a sneak preview of back in the hotel room. Yep, masterful. He’s just that good.
Don’t you know it.
“I’m going to do what I’ve been dying to do, even those times I let you go.”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, right. Youletme go.”
He leads me to stand before an enormous shower encased in clear glass and turns the faucet on. Three jets in the wall and one large rain-simulating jet overhead make this the most wonderful shower I’ve ever been inside. Yet I’m too distracted by him to appreciate it.
