Page 30 of The Last Second Chance
“Geez,Mom. Calm down.” She rolled her eyes.
He grabbed her by the front of the jacket. “Don’t.” He said it quietly and with heat.
“Jesus, Jax. Knock it off,” she said shoving at his hand.
“Promise me.”
She could feel the muscle under her eye start to twitch. She hated conceding to anyone. Especially Jax. But he was more than stubborn enough to keep her out here until she agreed. It would take days for anyone to find their frozen bodies.
“Fine. I promise,” she growled through gritted teeth.
“Good girl.”
That pissed her off enough to take another dig. “Why do you even care anyway?”
He still had a good grip on her jacket. “You know why, Jojo.” He yanked her closer until she had to brace herself against his thigh.
“Why?” she challenged. Why did she so desperately want to hear those words from him again? Would she start believing them if he kept saying them?
“Because I never stopped loving you. You’re it for me.”
And there it was, that jagged rush of elation followed by the slick dive of doubt. He left her, abandoned her in a hospital bed all those years ago. Whatever love meant to Jackson Pierce, it wasn’t what it meant to her.
“Then where the hell have you been?” she snapped, trying to wrestle free from his grip. But without clocking him right in the face, he wasn’t letting go. Joey growled in frustration. “Forget it. Just forget it. I don’t know how to ask you anymore than you know how to answer me.”
A hint of a smile played over his lips. The dark stubble that covered his jaw gave him a dangerous look. “We never were very good at conversation. We communicated better in other ways.”
She didn’t fight him when he pulled her in to him. But the battle erupted when their lips met, each fighting to be the aggressor. It was a war that could leave them both as casualties.
Why did she want him? Why did she need his hands on her? Her heart would never forgive, so why did her body crave his touch? Could she be with him physically and still keep her heart safe? There was only one way to find out.
And it terrified her.
Joey steadied herself by bracing her hands on his hard thigh. His groan of approval had her fingers flexing into the denim. She let the warmth of his mouth flood her body with heat, testing, always testing how far she could go and still hold on to her heart.
She slid her hands an inch higher on his legs and was rewarded with a growl. Her tongue tangled with his, determined to take control. But his hand busied itself at the zipper of her jacket. It gave just enough for Jax to rip off his glove and shove his hand through the opening, palming her breast through the layers of thermal and flannel.
It was closer than they’d been in nearly a decade and it wasn’t close enough for either of them.
Romeo shifted nervously under her and Joey pulled back, dragged her hands down his thighs as she went. His mount pawed the ground.
“We should move before Cyrano takes a chunk out of Romeo,” she said through lips swollen from the kiss.
Jax was staring at her, his expression unreadable. There had been a time when she could read the thoughts that looped through his mind. But gone were the days she’d shared with the carefree boy and, now, in his place was a dangerous man.
He released her with what looked like reluctance and Joey wheeled her mount around to give them all a little space.
“You need to come back to the barn,” Jax told her.
She stared at him, daring him to give another order.
“Please?” he amended.
“I’m not going to have sex with you.”
“Yet,” he corrected. “You’re not going to have sex with meyet. But there’s a delivery that needs your signature.”
“More flowers? More bacon? Not another dog. Waffles and I are just starting to enjoy our life together.”
