Persuasion Skills (12 page)

“Not if the giver is shy.”

Her breaths became choppy as his hips
began a slow grind against her center and his lips made their way up her neck.

“I doubt that I’ve ever been described as
shy.” She breathed out the words as her hips began to match his rhythm.

A sound resembling a growl rumbled up his
chest. Who knew? She could make Jaxon Grey growl.

“Prove it.”

He crushed his lips to hers before
licking into her mouth in a sweet sensual kiss that had her legs locking harder
around his waist and her hands curling into his hair. In a matter of seconds,
he had her lost in a long lazy kiss, a hot entanglement of stoking tongues and
sensuous nips.

If she didn’t know any better, she would
say the kiss lay filled with promise. But she did know better, didn’t she? She
pushed the wayward thought aside and pulled Jaxon closer, her hips jerking in
tune with his languid thrusts of tongue.

No man had ever been able to make her as
hot as Jax did. No one had even been able to douse her body in heat so quickly
she felt like she was on fire with only a kiss. One wickedly, luscious, searing
kiss.

She inhaled deep, wanting to stamp his
scent in her memory forever, breathing in the clean woodsy smell of his skin
and the acrid smell of smoke.

Her butt reconnected with the island
surface just seconds before Jax wrenched his lips away from hers and raced to
the stove.

It took her several seconds to realize
the pungent smell was coming from the burning pile of sausage smoking sadly
away into a charred mess.

Jax quickly turned off the stove and
pushed the smoldering lumps onto a back-burner. He stood looking down at the
smoking pan, waving a dishtowel over it. He still sported an impressive
erection and wore such a forlorn look on his face that Pepper couldn’t hold
back a giggle.

The scowl was back on his face as he
peered at her through the haze of smoke.

“What’s so funny?”

 
She hopped off the island, struggling to
control her snickers.

“You burned your sausage.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty evident.”

“You kissed me and burned your sausage.”
She was laughing full out now, the humor in the situation bringing tears to her
eyes.

His lips twitched slightly at the corners
before firming into a hard line. “I fail to see what’s so funny about that.”

“Oh, you see,” she said, turning away
from him and holding her sides in laughter. “You definitely see.”

“It’s not funny,” he yelled as she made
her way to the bathroom.

She pumped her fist into the air before
slamming the door shut behind her.

Feminists, unite!

Chapter Twelve

Pepper had seen a lot of cute things in
her life. She’d caught glimpses of baby screech owls all lined in a row on
willow branches. She’d observed newly-born kittens mewling awake and cuddling
together. She’d even had the pleasure of witnessing her niece’s first steps.
But nothing she had ever seen was as cute as Jaxon Grey in a full-on pout.

When she’d returned from the bathroom to
get dressed, she’d found him sitting on the bed huddled over one of his worn
black and red notebooks. Over the years, she’d gotten used to seeing him like
that. Despite his love of all things electronic, he never seemed able to really
focus on a problem unless he could brainstorm it out on paper. It wasn’t
unusual to find him at his desk or in the computer lab with his shoulders
hunched over one of his journals in concentration.

She’d also learned through the years that
he tended to use his notes as a way of escaping other issues he didn’t feel
like solving at the moment.

When she entered the room, he’d quickly
shut the book and shoved it into one of the nightstand drawers, hurriedly
stating that he’d finally thought of a solution to a problem he’d been working
on in the lab and wanted to jot down a few notes before he forgot.

Considering his silence since then, she
suspected he was most likely trying to avoid dealing with her, not solving some
logic problem.

Now she sat on the couch feigning reading
a book, with her feet plopped on his lap while he absently rubbed at them, a
small furrow digging between his brows. He’d been deep in thought for the last
hour, and since their kiss that morning he’d all but stuck out his bottom lip
and thrown himself in a tantrum on the floor.

He was obviously distracted, and whatever
conclusions he had drawn from their make-out session earlier were whirling
around in that sexy brain of his, affecting his mood. She was tempted to try to
ferret the information out of him, but decided to enjoy her reprieve while it
lasted.

For the first time since she’d arrived at
the cabin, she didn’t feel overwhelmed by Jax and the attraction she had for
him. She finally had some breathing room, and yet, still she couldn’t keep her
heart from thinking what ifs.

What if she gave in to the wild idea of
marrying Jax? Could she really stay in a marriage when she knew the love didn’t
flow both ways? What if no matter what her choice happened to be, they lost
their friendship in the end? What would happen to them? What would happen to
eTheorial? What if—
Argh!

She sounded like a sappy heroine from
some angst-filled teen drama. She was a grown woman, so why was it so hard for
her to make a decision?

Glancing across at Jax, her pulse leaped.
The answer was quite simple, really. Either choice she made didn’t change the
fact that she loved him, and it wouldn’t change the fact that he didn’t. At
least, not in the way she craved.

He can learn to
love me.

She shook her head at the sad thought.
Now she sounded like some delusional woman who thought she could change a man.
She was shaking her head, ready to dismiss the sorry thought, when she stopped.
Why
wouldn’t
he fall in love with
her?

It had taken her years to truly see where
her heart lay, so why couldn’t it be the same for him? The chemistry between
the two of them was undeniable. They’d been close friends for years and knew
all of each other’s faults.

She was intelligent, accomplished, had a
decent sense of humor, and had been told by more than a few men that she was
attractive. She straightened her shoulders and stiffened her spine. Why
wouldn’t he love her? She was freaking awesome. What was wrong with Jax?

She scowled at his bowed head.

For such a smart man, he obviously had
difficulty making simple decisions. He’d figured out he was ready to get
married, but couldn’t see that she was more than just the perfect wife for him,
but that she was the perfect woman for him, period. Maybe she should reconsider
loving
him
since she’d apparently
grossly misjudged his IQ score. Her temper rose the longer she stared at him.

She yanked her feet from his lap, and
stood standing over him with her fists planted on her hips.

“I’m going for a walk!”

A look of confusion flicked across his
face before his expression cleared.

“I’ll go with you. I could use some air.”

“No, thanks. I’d rather be alone.”

She turned and marched to the front door.
She’d slipped on her boots and was already out of the door and shrugging into
her coat by the time he reached for her.

“Pep, what the hell—”

“Stuff it,” she yelled as she stomped
down the porch steps. He shouted something about a Plan B, but his words were
cut satisfyingly short by the sound of the door slamming as she headed down the
back trail.

“Screw you and all of your stupid plans,”
she mumbled the words under her breath, letting her anger seep into her skin.

She trekked for several minutes before
she realized she had no idea where she was going.

Pausing, she took a look around her,
letting her gaze shift from the snow-tipped evergreens and to the moss and
ice-slicked boulders around her. She was in the middle of a clearing, higher up
the mountain than she had gone yesterday. She could see the cabin below her
down a little ways. Fortunately, she could also see her footsteps tracked in
the snow.

She shrugged her shoulders. At least, she
wouldn’t have to worry about finding her way back. Not that she wanted to go
back. She didn’t want to spend another minute with the man who was too dumb to
realize he should be in love with her … which was a complete lie, of course.

She breathed a heavy sigh into the cold
air, her breath making puffs of smoke.

Jax was too heavily ingrained in her life
and heart for her to ever really walk away from him. Spotting a nearby boulder,
she slumped down onto the frozen rock, trying to get her racing thoughts and
temper under control.

She hated feeling like some lovelorn
loser who couldn’t get her stuff together. The only thing she was sure of was
that she wanted Jax, more than her next breath. The thought alone had her
groaning in derision. It was official. She
was
a lovelorn loser.

For goodness’ sake, where had she left
her pride? She kicked at the snow on the ground. So what if Jax hadn’t said he
loved her?

She’d worked her ass off and earned her
MBA by the time she was twenty-two. She’d helped build their business from the
ground up and had head-hunters constantly trying to steal her away to run
billion-dollar companies. She could make CEOs quake in their boots. She was
known as the corporate dragon slayer and here she sat moping about like a
sniveling—a sniveling
coward
.

She let that absolute truth set in.

From the moment she’d woken up in bed
with him a few months ago, she’d been a coward. Instead of honestly putting her
feelings on the table, she’d run away from the whole situation like some little
girl who was afraid her crush would laugh at her. She wasn’t mad at Jax. She
was angry with herself.

Despite his wild proposal, he had at
least taken a chance. What had she done? When she’d woken in his arms after
their first night together, instead of having courage and telling him how she
felt, she’d rushed him out of her home and tried to pretend their friendship
was salvageable.

It wasn’t.

She tilted her head back and blinked up
into the smoke-grey sky. The truth was that the moment she’d kissed him, the
moment she’d begged for his touch, was the moment their friendship warped and
changed. Tears filled her eyes as she finally admitted that it was also the
moment their friendship had ended. At least, that era of their friendship—and
it was all her fault. There had been a brief moment when it could have been
something more, but she’d run scared.

Jax may not have said he loved her, but
neither had she let him know her true feelings. For the first time, she let
herself imagine what would have happened if she had. Would he have returned the
same feelings? Was it possible that he could have felt the same sense of
rightness she had that night?

 
She thought back to the expression that
crossed his face that morning. Could she have been wrong? She’d assumed it was
a look of regret, but what if it was something else? She had barely let him
speak before kicking him out, but what would have happened if she had let him
stay? If she had woken in his arms and pulled him in close instead of pushing
him away?

A strong gust of wind blew across the
clearing. She tucked her chin down to her chest and crossed her arms, huddling
against both the cutting cold and biting truth.

Admitting that she was being a hypocrite
wasn’t exactly a warming experience. She’d stomped out of the cabin angry with
him for proposing a marriage with no love—for not seeing how perfect they could
be together, but she’d never given him any indication that love was what she
wanted.

If ever there was a moment to pull on her
big girl panties, this was it. It was time for her to stop running and tell Jax
how she really felt.

She planted her feet firmly on the ground
and stood ready to make her way back down to the cabin.

Lord help the man if he didn’t realize
they were meant to be together, because she was more than ready to fight for
what she wanted.

Get ready to be slain,
He-Man.

Chapter Thirteen

Jax stood at the window and breathed a
sigh of relief as he watched Pepper make her way back down through the woods.
From his vantage point, he’d been able to just make out her slouched form
sitting on a boulder not far from the house. He’d wanted to go to her and haul
her sexy butt back inside but had stayed still, watching her instead.

He’d spent all day deliberating about his
next step and come to the conclusion that he’d made a huge miscalculation in
his plans. His entire strategy had been based on the fact that Pepper always
needed tangible proof of theory before she proceeded with anything. That was
his big mistake. He should have remembered that although she preferred to know
all angles of a situation before she walked into a board-room, her final
decision was always based on pure gut instinct.