Persuasion Skills (7 page)

It was before he had all of a sudden decided
that sex and marriage would be a good addition to their friendship.

One week alone with a determined and
horny Jax was not something her defenses could handle.

Her guard had weakened ever since she
realized she was in love with him. The opportunity to spend time with him on a
romantic level was too tempting. But she would have to resist the lure of the
situation and protect her heart.

She wanted to be with him, but she didn’t
want a Jax who wasn’t thinking clearly. Especially not a Jax who seemed set on
a marriage of convenience rather than love. She rubbed at her chest, trying to
massage away the spike of pain that knowledge gave her.

It had taken her years to realize she
loved him as more than a friend, and now, instead of keeping her love a secret
and saving their friendship, she risked losing him altogether.

As much as she wanted to give into
temptation and accept his crazy proposal, her heart would never survive him
realizing he’d made a terrible mistake. She knew him and knew without a doubt
that he would never deliberately hurt her.

When the day came when he realized
marriage wasn’t for him, he would grin and bear it just for her. There was no
way she’d be able to stand that.

She shook her head at the lengths he had
obviously gone through to get her to
Colorado
and keep her there. At least now, she had her answer as to why he had been so
elusive and evasive lately.

He knew how important the Lubtech deal
was to her and that she wouldn’t let the contract fall through. The
determination she found so attractive and sexy only a few weeks ago had quickly
turned into his worst trait.

She marched over to the closet door next
to the bed and threw it open. Its contents confirmed her suspicions. Along one
side of the deep walk-in closet hung men’s clothing and men’s sized boots along
the floor.

She recognized a few of Jax’s favorite
sweaters and shirts. It was what hung opposite his clothing that had her eyes
rolling in derision.

Hanging neatly along the other wall were
jeans and sweaters in different shades of pink and green. Her two favorite
colors.

A tall dresser took up the back wall of
the closet, and when she pulled open the top drawer, she found it filled with
frilly lingerie.

He’s gone off
the deep end.

She hurried from the closet and checked
the bathroom. Two toothbrushes were nestled together on the vanity, as well as
jars of her favorite lotions and creams on the surface. Turning to the shower,
bottles of her favorite shampoo and conditioner sat primly on the ledge.

The sneaky loon had thought of everything.

She stared at the bottles for several
seconds, before the sound of the front door slamming open snapped her back to
attention.

Marching into the main room, she
confronted her friend-cum-raving-lunatic.

“Forget
Misery
. You’re in definite
Psycho
territory here!”

A tint of red darkened his cheeks. At
least he had the decency to blush. His show of embarrassment gave her hope that
there was still a chance to reason with him.

“I know it looks bad—”

“Looks bad? Looks
bad
? Jesus, Jax, you bought a closet full of clothes!”

“I didn’t want you to get cold. You’re
such a
Miami
girl.”

“And my shampoo?”

“I wanted you to feel at home.”

“And the drawer filled with lingerie?”

He grinned at her.
Stupid, sexy dimples.

“Okay, that one was more for me than you,
but you can’t blame a guy for being hopeful.”

She stared at him and tried to take deep,
calming breaths.

Inhale. Exhale.
Inhale. Exhale.

“What exactly is your grand plan here?
What are we supposed to accomplish trapped up on this mountain?”

He planted his arms across his chest and
gave her a long, unreadable look.

“We live here for one week, like a real
married couple,” he said finally.

She opened her mouth to retort, but he
cut her off.

“Consider this a trial run. If at the end
of the seven days, you’re not convinced we’ll be amazing together, I’ll let you
walk away, and I’ll drop the whole thing.”

“I can’t just not go back to
Miami
, I have work—”

“I called your assistant this morning.
She’s cleared your schedule for the next week.”

“My family—”

“All think you’re on a much-needed and overdue
vacation. They say ‘Hi,’ by the way.”

Her left eyelid trembled. Was it possible
to develop a chronic tick in a matter of minutes?

Inhale. Exhale.
Inhale. Exhale.

“And how exactly is a real couple
supposed to live?”

“We do the things any other vacationing
couple would do. We spend time with each other, go on walks, have romantic
dinners.” He sent her a heavy lidded gaze. “We sleep together,” he said huskily.

Her body heated at his words, and her
mouth went dry at the thought of being in a bed with him again. She let her
gaze drift to his crotch and bit back a moan. He was most definitely aroused.

As if sensing her gaze, she could swear
she saw his cock thump against his zipper.

She drew her gaze away from the hypnotic
view as he made his way towards her with long, smooth steps.

“I’m not having sex with you again,” she
said shakily. “That’s what got us into this mess to begin with. If we hadn’t
slept together in the first place, you wouldn’t be proposing marriage right
now.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” He placed a
hand on her lower back and drew her into his warmth.

The look in his eyes had her catching her
breath. Crazy Jax she could handle. Aroused Jax was a whole other story.

He leaned down and nuzzled her throat
with his nose before whispering in her ear.

“The sex only helps prove my point, but
I’ll make you a deal.”

Her stomach quivered at the feel of his
lips at the flesh of her ear. She cleared her throat before responding.

“Does it involve you coming to your
senses?”

 
The
rumble of his chuckle vibrated up his chest and against her sensitive nipples
as one of his hands smoothed down her back and squeezed her ass.

“No, but it should put you at ease.”

His meandering hand was making it hard
for her to concentrate. All she could do was snort in reply, silently begging
her hips not to give in and rub against him.

 
“For the next seven days, we get to pet each
other as much as we want, fondle and taste to our heart’s content, but I won’t
fuck you, Pep,” he said while nibbling at the soft skin of her throat.

It took a minute for her lust-addled
brain to process his statement.

“But you said—”

He lifted his head and placed a soft, too-short
kiss on her lips before stepping away.

“I said we’ll
sleep
together. Before we have sex again, I want you fully willing
to be my wife and nothing less,” he said, a serious expression flattening his
lips.

She searched his eyes, but his gaze
didn’t waver. She grasped at the last life-line she could find.

“I don’t think I can be what you need,
Jax.”

“And what exactly do you think I need?”

“I’m not exactly a submissive kind of
woman,” she said.

She frowned as he snorted at her
statement.

“No shit.”

“I’m serious, Jax. I don’t think I can be
the type of woman you seem to want. Our night together was good—”

“Amazing,” he said firmly. “It was
amazing.”

“Whatever, fine amazing,” she said, not
wanting to go down that road at the moment. “But I’m not wired to be bossed
around and told what to do. You want a submissive woman, and I’m just not
that.”

He shook his head sadly at her. It hurt
to see his look of disappointment, but it was what she expected. She wouldn’t
take her words back because they were the truth. As much as she enjoyed him
dominating her in bed she knew that the bedroom was as far as she would allow
it.

“Pep, if I wanted a submissive woman, we
wouldn’t even be here right now.”

“But—”

“Do I want to tie you down and fuck you
senseless? Hell yeah. I can’t wait to see you bound and spread-eagled for me
again.”

He reached up and cupped her heated cheeks,
tilting her face up to meet his gaze.

“And I can’t wait to see your nipples in
pretty little clamps, tight and hard just begging to be sucked.”

Her breathing was way past erratic, but
she couldn’t look away from his heated gaze.

“But that’s where it ends. It stays with
sex. I like your kick-ass attitude, Pep. I don’t want a woman who isn’t willing
to argue and fight. What I prefer in the bedroom doesn’t extend to the rest of
our relationship.”

Her heart sank as she saw her chances of
surviving the next week with her heart unscathed deteriorate in a pile of ash.

“I don’t want to change who you are, Pep.
I just want to prove that we work together. Give this week a chance,” he said.

A heavy sigh worked its way past the lump
in her throat.

“You’ve got yourself a deal, Mr. Grey,”
she told him.

It almost hurt to see his answering smile
of relief.

“Well,
Mrs. Grey
, I think it’s time for lunch. How ’bout I fix you a
grilled cheese sandwich and then we head out for a walk?” He pulled her back in
for a hug.

She laid her head on his chest and
breathed in his scent. She had a fleeting thought that traipsing around in the
woods with him sounded like fun. Apparently, insanity was contagious.

“Yeah, sure. Why the hell not?”

Chapter Seven

An hour later, Pepper strolled along a
narrow trail trying to remind herself that she was only playing a game.

Her hand lay clasped firmly in Jax’s warm
grip as they walked in companionable silence through the surprisingly beautiful
wooded area surrounding the cabin.
This
is not real; it’s only make-believe
.

 
She stole a glance at him as they walked along
and bit back a sigh.

It wasn’t as if they were doing anything
particularly out of the ordinary. The events were quite mundane. It was the
actions involved that had her heart thumping wildly in her chest.

Their lunch had consisted of a simple
bowl of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, but it was the way he
behaved that had her emotions twisting.

He was very ... touchy.

Jax’s affectionate nature wasn’t a
surprise. She’d seen him through the years with his family, and even with the
women he dated, how he was always quick to give a hug, a kiss, or a slap on the
back. But despite their close friendship, they had only shared a few hugs and
platonic kisses on the cheeks.

In hindsight, she recognized that her
attraction to him had always caused her to behave a little more stiffly towards
him than she would have otherwise. Perhaps he picked up on those signals and
consciously toned down his touchy nature. But not anymore. During lunch, he had
kicked down whatever barrier he had been respecting since she’d known him.

If she were honest with herself, she’d
started the process with a bulldozer the night she slept with him.

He’d sat close to her, never going more
than a few moments without touching her in some way. His touches weren’t
overtly sexual, they were sweet. Soft fingertips rubbing at her neck as she
ate, a hold of her hand as they talked about work, a squeeze of her shoulder as
he got up from his chair—it was all so disconcerting.

What disturbed her more than his touches
was the fact that they were able to have lunch and she actually became
comfortable.

It was almost as if nothing had changed.
They hadn’t just spoken about work, either. He’d asked her about the book fair
she’d attended a few weeks prior, and they’d had a lengthy discussion involving
her current obsession with the True Crime genre.

If it weren’t for the sultry glances and
lingering caresses, she would have breathed a sigh of relief thinking that Jax
had dropped his silly proposal. But it all felt too right to her.

Her heart and body were feeling too at
ease by his affectionate demeanor, and it was chipping away at her already thin
defenses.

Love is so
stupid.

She gave a mental snort and focused her
attention back on the snow-trimmed trees and glistening rocks surrounding her.
There were actual woodland creatures hopping around the shrubbery. Downright
beautiful and romantic, almost as if Jax had hired a team of Disney and Pixar
creators to set the scene for him.