Take Me (8 page)

“What are you, Cinderella?” Jaxon leaned back against the counter and grinned.

Anna felt her knees go weak.

“No,” she said. “I just … It’s getting late. My parents are probably wondering where I am.” She’d called them earlier, before they’d ordered the food, to tell them she was helping Katie with some things and would be home later. They’d probably gone to bed by now.

“If they were that worried, they would have called you.”

He moved toward her like a cat going for its prey, his steps long and slow, and when he got to her, kissed her hard and deep.

“Jaxon,” Anna said, pulling back. “I don’t think we should –”

“Shhh,” he said. He put his finger to her lip, trailed it down over her collarbone, burning a smoldering path on her skin. “Princess, haven’t you learned by now that sometimes you just need to be quiet?”

He picked her up and sat her down on the edge of the counter. She was wearing a pair of panties and his t-shirt, no bra, no bulky sweater or jeans to deaden her senses to his sensual assault.

Pushing her legs apart, he slid his body in between her thighs. The hardness of his cock rubbed against the thin material of her panties. She felt herself getting wet, felt her breath coming in short bursts, felt her pulse speed up at his touch. But she’d learned a thing or two, and so she stayed quiet, knowing that to protest or even worse, beg, would just make him tease her more.

“Good girl,” he said, laying his body down on top of her.

She wrapped her legs around him as they kissed, feeling the strength of his body, the narrow V of his hips, the way he hardened against her. Finally, he pulled his pants off, then slid his hands up under the shirt she was wearing.

“God, Princess,” he said. “I want you so bad.” He rubbed himself against her, on the outside of her panties, teasing her, getting her so wet that she cried out. She thought he was going to tease her some more, but before she knew what was happening, he reached up and pulled her panties down and off, then entered her in one fluid movement.

“Oh, God,” she cried. He didn’t stop this time, not even once, letting the wave of pleasure build and build, until finally, it engulfed her.

Only then did he pull out of her.

Anna sat up, then slid off the counter and got onto her knees on the floor of the kitchen. She gave him a wicked grin, then wrapped her hand around his hard shaft, running her tongue around the head of his cock.

He moaned, and she sucked him into her mouth, her hand still stroking. She loved the feel of him in her mouth, the way his hardness felt as she licked and sucked.

His eyes met hers, and she savored the way he was looking at her, the way she was affecting him.

She sucked him until he came, hot and warm down her throat.

He pulled her up to him, and kissed her softly on the lips. “God,” he said.

“You’re amazing.”

He convinced her, somehow, to spend the night. They’d only been awake for a few hours, but they were both spent from the food and the sex. Anna watched as Jaxon reached over and set the alarm for seven the next morning.

“We’ll get up early, okay?” he said. “Adam’s probably going to want to come back to the house at some point, and… ” He trailed off, but the intent of his words was clear.

Adam couldn’t find them here together, couldn’t know they’d been together.

“Okay,” Anna said simply, pretending it didn’t bother her. Her instinct was to push him away, to run, to get out of there. But when he pulled her close, tangling his legs with hers, she immediately felt her body relax. And before long, for the third time that day, she drifted off to sleep in Jaxon’s arms.

“Okay,” Katie said the next morning when Jaxon came strolling into her hospital room. “What the hell is going on?”

“Nice to see you, too,” he said. He set the basket of purple violets – Katie’s favorite – that he’d brought on the bedside table. “Where’s my nephew?”

“He’s in the nursery,” Katie said. “Adam’s down there learning how to swaddle him.”

“Swaddle him?”

“Yeah.” Katie picked up the remote and turned off the television that was bolted to the wall. She’d been watching The View, and Jaxon hadn’t been about to give her shit about it -- the woman had just had a baby, after all – but he said a tiny prayer of thanks as the screen went black. “You know, learn how to wrap him up in a blanket so that he can’t move his arms and legs.”

Jaxon looked at her in horror. “So he can’t move his arms and
legs?”

Katie rolled her eyes. “Babies like it.”

“Whatever you say.” He sat down in the corduroy chair.

“Where’s Anna?” Katie asked, peering at him suspiciously. Ever since they’d been kids, she’d had a sixth sense about when he’d been up to something. She’d look at him exactly the way she was looking at him now, her eyes narrow, her head tilted.

“She didn’t call you?” Jaxon asked innocently.

“She called me,” Katie said, the look of suspicion still not leaving her face. “She said she was going to come by, but I told her to do it this afternoon, that it would be better for her to come then, since Adam was going home for a while and we’d be able to chat.”

Jaxon nodded. “Good thinking.”

“And then you don’t call, but you suddenly show up here.”

“So?”

“So you don’t think that’s a little strange?”

“What is?”

“That you show up here right after I tell Anna to come this afternoon? Like maybe you two don’t want to be here at the same time?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jaxon leaned back in his chair and did a big fake yawn.

The truth was, he’d had coffee with Anna this morning, and then he’d dropped her off at her house. They’d decided it would be better for them not to go to the hospital together. Actually, Anna had decided that. Jaxon didn’t give a rat’s ass who knew they’d been together. But he also knew that women could get weird about these things, and he wanted to respect Anna’s privacy.

A small smile tugged at his lips as he remembered how she’d looked this morning, waking up, her hair a tangled halo, her cheeks warm with sleep. They’d stayed in bed as long as they possibly could, but now he wished he’d convinced her to stay a few more minutes.

“You slept with her.” Katie’s mouth dropped open and she looked at him in dismay. “Oh, Jaxon, I can’t believe you slept with her.”

“Who’d you sleep with?” Adam asked, walking into the room. He was holding a bundle that Jaxon could only assume was Tyler. As promised, the baby’s arms and legs were invisible, held tight to his body with a blue blanket.

“Anna!” Katie said. She threw her hands up in the air. “Why the hell would you do that? You know the doctor said I’m not supposed to have any undue stress!”

Jaxon rolled his eyes. “Stop being dramatic.”

“You slept with Anna? Nice!” Adam held his hand out for a fist bump, but Jaxon shook his head slightly. Even he knew that was completely inappropriate.

“No, it’s not nice!” Katie said. “Jaxon, Anna’s a good girl. You already broke her heart once, you can’t do it again.”

“I didn’t break her heart,” Jaxon said.

“How do you know?”

“She told me.”

“And you believed her?” Katie snorted. “Of course you broke her heart!”

“She told you that?”

“No.” Katie shook her head and took the baby from Adam, holding her new son in her arms and smiling down at him. “But it was pretty damn obvious. The poor girl didn’t even date anyone for two years after you left!”

“Anna’s a big girl,” Jaxon said. “She can take care of herself. Now let me hold my nephew.”

Jaxon spent the next hour holding Tyler. The baby slept most of the time, only stopping to open his dark eyes and blink a few times, or to give a big yawn, like he was already exhausted from the wonders of the world.

Jaxon chatted with Katie and Adam, talking about when Katie and the baby would be coming home, and about how exciting it was that Tyler was finally here.

But the whole time, Jaxon’s mind was somewhere else. He was thinking of Anna, and what Katie had said about her heart being broken. Was there any chance it could be true? He thought back to last night, to the two of them sitting at the table over Thai food, when he’d apologized for standing her up that summer.

There’d been a moment where he’d been sure she was going to tell him that her feelings were still there, that she loved him now just as much as she’d loved him all those years ago. He’d waited, holding his breath, not saying anything. Anna had been quiet for a moment, and in that second it had suddenly occurred to him that maybe he’d read the situation wrong. That Anna hadn’t cared. The thought had sent a shard of fear through him, cutting into his soul sharp and deep.

And then a second later his fear had been confirmed, as Anna told him that he didn’t have to apologize, that they’d just been kids.

He’d pushed down his true feelings, had pushed down the fact that now that she’d come back into his life, he couldn’t imagine ever letting her go.

Stop thinking about her,
Jaxon told himself.
You’re flying to California tomorrow
for your meeting with Cuban. And by the time you get back, Anna will be gone. And
you’ll never have to see her again.

The minutes turned into hours, and before long, Jaxon realized it was noon.

“I should go,” he said, standing up. He handed the baby back to Adam, who took Tyler and stared down at him like the proud papa that he was.

“Will we see you again before you leave?” Katie asked.

“Of course,” he said. “I’ll stop by tomorrow morning on my way to the airport.”

“Oh,” a nervous voice said from the doorway. “Sorry, the nurse said I could come in, she didn’t… I mean, she didn’t tell me you already had a visitor.”

Jaxon turned. Anna was standing there, her face flushed. She was wearing a navy blue halter top that showed off her toned shoulders, and a tight jean skirt that ended just above her knees.

If she’d wanted to keep it a secret, what had happened between them, it wasn’t going to work. The way she was looking at him, her face a mix of embarrassment and feigned nonchalance, made it clear to everyone in the room that she and Jaxon had slept together.

I’ve had you
, Jaxon thought, his resolve to stay away from her crumbling.
And
before I go, I’m going to have you again.

***

Anna hadn’t expected Jaxon to be at the hospital. She’d thought that by the time she got there, he’d be gone.

She didn’t want to see him, didn’t want to have to be in the same room with him and Katie and Adam, pretending everything was okay, when all she wanted to do was go home and curl up under the covers and cry herself to sleep, the same way she’d done when she was a teenager.

“Hey, Anna,” Jaxon said. He was looking at her like the cat that ate the canary.

She took a deep breath and tried to calm her beating heart. She knew she looked guilty – the way she’d come in here and said she was sorry, that the nurse had told her there hadn’t been any visitors. Could she have made it any more obvious? The nurse had told her there were no visitors in Katie’s room, which was obviously a lie. She made a mental note to yell at a supervisor or something later.

“Hi, Jaxon,” Anna said curtly Then she realized that was the wrong tact to take.

Act normal. Be friendly.
“How are you?”

“I’m good.”

Katie looked between the two of them and sighed. She opened her mouth like maybe she was about to say something, then changed her mind. “Whatever,” she said.

“Jaxon was just leaving.”

Jaxon nodded and stood up.

“I’m going back to Los Angeles tomorrow,” he said. “So I thought I’d better make my visit last.”

Anna nodded, trying not to show her disappointment. Why was he leaving tomorrow? She thought he had planned to stay for the rest of the week. She realized she’d been hoping that they would have more time together.
To what?
she asked herself.

Make him fall in love with you?
The thought was laughable, the kind of thing that only happened in sappy romantic comedies.

“You want to walk me out?” Jaxon asked.

Anna knew she should say no. But she couldn’t. This might be the last time she saw him, the last time she was around him. His presence was a need that was built into her, a pulsing desire that was taking over her body and affecting her mind, making it impossible to think clearly. And damn it, she wanted it to last.

“Sure,” she said.

They ignored the knowing looks Katie was giving them, and walked down the hallway and into the elevator.

“So,” he said, as he reached over and pushed the button.

“So,” she said.

“I thought we should have a chance to say goodbye,” he said. “You know, since I’m leaving tomorrow.”

“Okay.” She wanted to ask him why he hadn’t told her before that he was leaving, but she didn’t want to sound like a nagging girlfriend, or like she thought he owed her anything. Because he didn’t.

The elevator dinged open at the parking garage, and they stepped off and began walking to his car. As soon as they got there, he grabbed her shoulders and pushed her up against the driver’s side door.

Anna’s body tensed. She knew it was wrong, letting him kiss her like this. She shouldn’t be doing this, shouldn’t be letting him have her whenever he demanded it. But she was powerless. It was a force as great as a tidal wave, a force like nothing she’d ever experienced before. She was like putty in his hands, and as he continued to kiss her, her heart sped up and her resistance crumbled.

He stroked her bare shoulders, sending delicious shivers through her body, causing her to lean back against the car, giving him better access to her neck, her breasts, her soul.

He slid his hands up the back of her shirt, pulling her close, his hands holding her firmly against him. He stroked her bare skin, and Anna sighed in pleasure.

When he opened the car door and slid into the backseat, she didn’t hesitate before following him. He pulled her down on top of him, their bodies fusing together with the heat of the moment.