Most Wanted - A Fantasy Romance Novel (The Shadow Blade Series) (16 page)

Jax let out a
yell at the same time, his cock ramming into her one final time. She felt him
spurt, his come flooding out of him and her pussy clenched furiously around
him, wanting more, wanting every last droplet of him to be spent inside of her.

Jax had tried to
be as gentle as he could but her screams had urged him on, her tight shaft
drawing him in, her gyrating hips encouraging him to take her with more and
more force. Her pussy was so sweet and so heavenly he couldn’t stop himself
from wanting her, from wanting more of her.

When he felt her
reach the edge, gasp his name and tell him she was about to come he had rubbed
his finger over every nerve ending, thrust the end of his cock against her
G-spot and crashed over the cliff edge of oblivion with her.

Now panting and
shaking, he could still feel his cock jerking inside of her. Ariel gasped at
every contraction he made. His seed poured into her as though it would never
stop. Jax shifted and she let out another moan. He kissed her shoulder and felt
her shiver and the spasm of muscles ride up her thighs and through her core,
squeezing him tight. Fuck. He was still hard.

He thrust
automatically against her G-spot. Still riding the end of her orgasm, Ariel
cried out and bucked against him. Jax thrust again, gently.

She couldn’t
believe he was going to bring her to orgasm again. It wasn’t possible. She was
aching and spent and raw from all the friction. Her womb felt bruised and her
opening tender, but with each new thrust, with each stroke, Jax was stoking the
embers of the last orgasm and fanning it back to life.

Ariel sucked in
a breath, her legs were going to give out but Jax’s strong arms held her around
the waist. She pressed her cheek against the tile and felt him gently push
against her G-spot. Thoughts turned to nothing as his still pulsing cock teased
and pushed and rubbed. His fingers linked through hers and he kissed her neck
as he circled his hips and Ariel let herself be drawn over the edge once more.
This time she could barely summon the energy to cry out. A gentle moan fell
from her lips. That was all.

And then there
was just blackness and softness and total surrender to bliss.

She woke to
darkness and a warm feeling of contentment. She was warm and safe and her limbs
felt like they were made of cotton wool. She opened her eyes. The room was
dark. She was lying in Jax’s bed, wrapped in his arms. How had they ended up
here? She could remember nothing past him taking her in the shower, that last
blissful orgasm that had pushed her over into total oblivion. The room was
dark. Had they slept all day? That probably accounted for how rested she felt.
But she was annoyed with herself. She should have been on a plane by now.

She lay there
for a few minutes trying to gather her thoughts. She was naked. Jax’s breath
was coming even and warm on the back of her neck. He was still asleep. Even as
she breathed him in, and felt the warmth of his broad chest against her back
that tugging ache began to start up between her legs, but this time there was a
sharp pang accompanying it.

She grimaced to
herself. She had been well and truly fucked senseless. She had to hand it to
him. With a monumental effort Ariel eased herself out of his arms and then out
of the bed. She needed to move fast, get the hell out of there before he woke.
If she had to look into his eyes, if he had a chance to pin her against a wall
again, if he spoke her name, she would be lost. She would never leave his bed.

Wincing at the
throbbing pain between her legs Ariel glanced frantically around the room for
her clothes. Where were they? The dressing room! She tiptoed towards it and
pulled open the door. There they were. She grabbed for them and as she did she
noticed a pile of shopping bags hidden beneath a rail of Jax’s clothes.

Curiosity
aroused she peeked inside one of them. The name on the bag was from a very
exclusive lingerie shop on Rodeo Drive. Ariel pulled out a few boxes and,
darting a glance back to the bedroom to check Jax was still sleeping, she
lifted the lid on the first one and pulled out a black lace bra and matching
panties.

She held them up
between her thumb and forefinger, frowning.

In another box
was another matching underwear set in white. In yet another was a dangerously
provocative black negligee, which would leave precisely nothing to the imagination.

Ariel shoved all
of it back into the bags. What was Jax Sayer doing with women’s underwear in
his closet? A thought sprung into her mind that maybe he liked to cross dress,
but she shook it instantly away. For a start he clearly wouldn’t fit into panties
that small. Which had to mean they were for a woman. She stood up and yanked
open the closet on the left and was stunned to see rails of women’s clothing,
shoes lined up beneath.

Burning with
shame and equal parts anger, thoughts swarming like angry hornets in her head,
Ariel pulled on her clothes. Her hands were shaking. The bastard. Had she been
duped this whole time? Another part of her brain reasoned it wasn’t important
even if she had been. This thing, whatever it was, that she’d had with Jax was
over. And it had meant nothing. So what if he’d said he wanted to make love to
her and not just fuck her. He was nothing to her. She was out of there. Give
her two minutes and she’d be gone, never to see him again.

She walked out
the dressing room and headed towards the door, stopping just before she reached
it and stooping to sweep up Jax’s wallet from where it had dropped beside his
discarded pants.

Knowing she was
likely going to regret her next move, Ariel flipped open the wallet and
instantly sucked in a breath, her lungs burning as though she was drowning.
There, staring right up at her, was a photograph of Jax with his arms around a
woman. Not just any woman either. A woman dressed in white. In a wedding dress
to be precise. And he was wearing black tie. The two of them were gazing at
each other with a look she’d only ever seen in stupid romance movies.

Ariel felt as if
she’d been punched in the stomach. She stared at the photograph, tears burning
like acid behind her eyes. He was married? The bastard.

From behind her
she heard Jax murmur in his sleep. She paused, torn between wanting to wake him
up, demand an explanation and wanting to escape. She didn’t need to hear his
excuses or his explanations. And she didn’t want him to see her this upset. She
refused to give him that.

 
Jax heard the door slam and jerked
awake. His first thought was Ariel. The bed was still warm where she had been
laying. He threw off the cover and walked naked to the window, pulling aside
the drapes. It was dark outside. Had they slept all day? He rubbed a hand over
his eyes, feeling his muscles ache in protest. His arm fell to his side when he
saw Ariel storming down the driveway, her bag thrown over her shoulder.

Where was she
going? What was wrong? She’d fallen asleep in his arms placid as a lamb,
nestling against him, even twining her fingers through his own, and smiling
when he kissed her goodnight. He’d planned on waking her up with breakfast, or
dinner in bed, and then running her a soothing bath.

So why was she
leaving? And without even saying goodbye?

He ran to his
dressing room to grab a clean pair of pants and saw that the bags of underwear
he’d bought the other day were lying in disarray on the ground. He paused,
wondering what had happened and starting to piece things together. Maybe Ariel
had seen this stuff and not realized it was for her. Maybe she had thought he
had a girlfriend. Stupid. He cursed himself. He should have just given it to
her the other night. It was a small gesture, to make up for ripping her underwear.
And he’d wanted to buy her something. But then he’d not known how or when to
present it to her.

He turned and
saw the closet doors were hanging open. Swearing under his breath he grabbed
for a pair of jeans. Damn it. Damn it to hell. He pulled on the jeans and
jogged to the bedroom door, tripping over his wallet. He picked it up and it
fell open to the photograph of Neve and him on their wedding day. His heart
smashed into his ribcage. Shit. He glanced at the door and then back at the
photograph. Had Ariel seen this too?

He threw the
wallet to the floor and raced towards the stairs, taking them three at a time
until he hit the bottom and flung open the front door. He sprinted down the
driveway, but by the time he got there, Ariel was gone.

Ariel flung her
bag onto her unmade bed and stood there, breathing hard, looking around. She
needed to get her head together and focus but she couldn’t stop thinking about
Jax and about what an idiot she had been to ever trust him. He was a Blade for
god’s sake. He’d probably had an ulterior motive this whole time. And where was
his wife? Away on a business trip? On holiday somewhere? Unaware her shithead
husband was cheating on her? She was tempted to write her a letter.

Forget it,
forget it, she told herself, chanting it like a mantra. Only one thing mattered
now; getting the hell out of LA. She started throwing clothes onto the bed,
scanning the room frantically, trying to focus. She couldn’t take weapons. She
wouldn’t get through airport security. But that was OK. She could buy new ones
when she got to where she was going. The only problem was her Shadow blade. She
needed to leave it somewhere safe. Maybe she would give it to Felix to take
care of while she was gone. Or have him ship it to her when she had a new
address.

Once she’d
packed a handful of clothes and her unused but every-ready passport, Ariel
surveyed her crummy apartment and realized with a pang of regret that there was
nothing else left to pack, not a single possession other than the photograph of
Saul tacked to the refrigerator. Her whole life could be boiled down to a
handful of clothes, a blade and a photograph. What the hell did that say? She
didn’t know, but she swept the sadness aside. What did it matter? Things were
just things. She had a lifetime of memories, most of them bad, but some of them
good, some of them better than good. That would have to suffice.

Urgh. Why did
Jax have to appear in her mind’s eye? Why did she have to remember him? Because
every time she moved she was given a sharp reminder of him, that was why. She’d
take some painkillers, sleep on the plane, and hopefully when she woke up she’d
have forgotten all about him.

As she swung her
bag onto her shoulder and picked up her passport someone hammered on the door.
Ariel froze, her senses going into overdrive. Who was it? Was it Jax? Her heart
beating wildly. But no, she couldn’t sense him. If it was Jax she would have
known. It was a demon. She edged to the door.

‘Ariel?’

It was Felix.
Ariel yanked open the door. ‘Felix!’ she said, surprised to see him on her
doorstep. ‘What’s up? What are you doing here?’

He was buzzing
with excitement, out of breath. ‘I came to show you this,’ he panted, thrusting
something at her.

Ariel took it.
It was a piece of paper, ragged and torn from having been stuffed in Felix’s
pants. She unfolded it and felt her heart skip several beats. Air exploded from
her lungs. ‘What is this?’ she demanded.

‘It’s him. It’s
that guy. The one you were with the other night.’

‘I know who it
is,’ Ariel hissed, staring at the photograph of Jax on the front of the bounty
flyer. ‘But why is there a bounty on him?’

Felix caught the
aggression in her tone, which wasn’t hard to miss, and took a scared step
backwards. He shook his head at her confused. ‘I, er, he’s a Blade?’ he said,
as though that was explanation enough.

The room started
to spin, she couldn’t seem to get enough oxygen. Ariel forced herself to read
the flyer. The Brothers had put a bounty out on Jax. They were offering a
million dollars for him alive. Half a million dead.

‘A million
dollars?’ Ariel heard herself say out loud.

Felix grinned
ear to ear. ‘A-ha.’

Ariel pressed a
hand to her stomach, which had tied itself into a knot. A million dollars? That
was more than they’d ever paid for anyone. They rarely went after Blades
because they saw the Blades as basically doing the same job as the bounty
hunters did, but for free. So why were they going after Jax? And how did they
even know who he was?

She squinted at
the photograph and realized with a shock it had been taken from the CCTV
outside Jimmy’s. Jax was leaning against his bike wearing his leather jacket.
Shit. She should never have taken him there. This was her fault. But something
nagged at her. She didn’t understand why they’d put such a big hit on him. It
made no sense.

‘How did they
know?’ she demanded. ‘How did they know he was a Blade?’ she asked, starting to
pace like a caged animal.

Felix took a
backwards step, his eyes darting to the door. ‘Aaron told Jimmy,’ he mumbled.
‘Said you were getting help from a Blade.’

Ariel came to a
sudden standstill. ‘But why?’ she asked. ‘Why do they want him so badly?’ The
flyer was scrunched up in her fist and she was thrusting it in Felix’s face.

Felix shook his
head, his face a mixture of confusion and fear. ‘I thought maybe you’d be
happy,’ he said softly.

‘Happy?’ Ariel
asked, shaking her head, not understanding.

‘You could make a
million!’

‘What?’ she
asked, her head still trying to compute, rapidly trying to calculate her
options.

‘You could hand
him in. Get the money!’ Felix said. ‘You’d be rich. You’d have over a million
five if you counted all your other winnings.’

Ariel felt
suddenly sick. She put a hand over her mouth and swallowed the nausea down. The
room was spinning like a top, making it hard to think straight.

Five hundred
thousand. That was all she had. If she offered it to Jimmy in lieu of Jax’s
life, it would leave her with small change. Not even enough for a coffee and a
donut. Nowhere near enough for a flight to Europe. Damn. Tears of anger welled
in her eyes. She clamped her jaw shut to stop from crying. She had been so
close.

‘You could bring
him in Ariel!’ Felix said, ‘Think about it.’

She blinked at
him. Then shook her head. No. Even after everything, even after his betrayal,
she would never hand Jax over to the Brothers. They would torture him to get
him to reveal more about the Blades; who they were, where they lived, how they
trained. She couldn’t do that to him.

She could warn
him. Maybe that would be enough. She could head to LAX, book a flight and then call
him on the way to warn him to watch his back. She glanced at the bag of money
sitting by the door and then at Felix, looking at her expectantly and her heart
sank to the depths of her chest. Her ribs felt crushed, as if banded by a metal
vice. She couldn’t just leave. She’d spend the rest of her life wondering,
worrying, regretting…blaming herself.

‘No,’ she said
in a hoarse voice to Felix. ‘I’m going to speak to Jimmy.’

‘What?’ Felix
asked, his head shooting up.

She crossed to
the door, grabbing her bag of money as she went. She would go and see Jimmy and
plead for Jax’s life. She would offer him every cent she had, give it back to
him, and hope she could get the bounty voided. Did they even do that? She
didn’t know. She would just have to make them.

She didn’t stop
to think about how it would look, her pleading on behalf of a human and a Blade
at that. She couldn’t. Because it was her only shot at this. If she warned Jax
it wouldn’t matter in the long run. They had his photograph. And his name. They
had the registration plate of his bike, it was just visible in the corner frame
of the shot. It wouldn’t take long to run it and find his address. She needed
to move fast before another bounty hunter got to him.

Jax parked his
bike outside Ariel’s apartment building, and not even bothering to pay someone
to guard it, sprinted towards the entrance. A bearded homeless guy muttered as
he ran past and raced up the stairs. He pounded on her door. There was no
answer. Shit. He tried the handle. The door fell open. He scanned the space. She
wasn’t there. She was gone. The apartment looked like a tornado had hit it, but
that was no indication of anything. It had looked the same the other day. He
glanced over at the refrigerator then and saw with a sinking feeling that the
photograph of her ex, Saul, was gone.

Shit. Jax hung
his head. He was too late. His gut was telling him she was gone for good, that
he had lost her. Biting back a frustrated howl Jax sloped back down the stairs.
He had to find her. But he had no idea where to even start. He stopped halfway
down the stairs. That wasn’t exactly true. He knew she wanted to find this guy
Rikon Fayette. So if he could find out where Rikon Fayette was he could find
her. Jax considered his options and finally realized there was only one.

He would have to
pay a visit to Jimmy.