The Last Second Chance: A Small Town Love Story (Blue Moon Book 3) (20 page)

Drawn to her—and the kitchen scents—Jax followed his heart and stomach into the kitchen so he could crowd her.

She topped each bowl with a dollop of sour cream and cut thick slices of cornbread to float on top.

“Drinks?”

Joey nodded toward the fridge. “How does dinner on the couch sound?”

“Almost as good as what we did on the couch the other night,” he quipped, holding up two beers. “Did the dogs eat?”

“I fed them all while you were in the shower. That’s some detailed list of instructions Summer left.”

Jax laughed. His brother and sister-in-law had left a long, step-by-step thesis detailing the dogs’ daily routines and medications and the timing thereof. “Yeah, we have to give Meatball his thyroid meds tonight.”

“Already done. I think he’ll eat anything that’s wrapped in cheese,” Joey said, leading the way into the living room.

He followed her to the couch where he stepped in to coax Valentina off of it so he and Joey could claim it for their dining pleasure.

Valentina looked devastated for half a second before climbing onto an armchair and attempting to curl up on the seat.

Jax and Joey settled side-by-side on the leather couch, both propping their bare feet on the coffee table.

“She does realize she’s one hundred and twenty pounds of hugeness, right?” Joey asked, eyeing the dog.

“She’s a delicate one hundred and twenty pound Great Dane flower,” Jax said. All coherent thoughts immediately left his brain with the first bite of chili. “Sweet Jesus, woman. This is the best chili I’ve ever had in my life.”

Joey laughed and blew on her spoon. “I’m surprised you didn’t scald the taste buds off your tongue. Didn’t your mother teach you not to inhale hot food?”

“Caution must be thrown to the wind when something that tastes like this is in front of me.”

“I feel you reaching for a euphemism here,” Joey told him.

“You know me well.”

Joey frowned over her bowl. “Actually, no I don’t.”

“Jojo, you’ve known me since kindergarten.”

“I knew you until senior year. After that you’re a mystery,” she countered.

He wished more than anything that she could just forget. Forgive and forget without an explanation. Because that explanation, that why, would result in someone being cut out of her life forever, and Jax was no longer sure it would be just him. He couldn’t tell her. He couldn’t take that risk, not yet.

“What do you want to know?”

She arched an eyebrow at him. He knew she wanted the “why.”

“Besides that. Ask me anything and I’ll tell you.”

“Anything? I like the sound of that.”

His stomach unclenched when she shifted her focus to lighter things.

“How many women did you sleep with after me?”

Jax choked on a piece of cornbread and guzzled down some beer to unblock his throat. “Jesus, Joey.”

She threw her head back against the cushion of the couch and laughed. “Your face was priceless. Do
not
answer that by the way. I don’t want any numbers, just like you probably don’t want mine.”

Jax was back to queasy at the thought. And, of course, now he could think of nothing else but the guys who’d...Was he having an aneurysm?

“What was your house in L.A. like?” Joey’s question ripped him out of a waking nightmare imagining Joey screaming someone else’s name in the throes of passion.
“Oh, Lester. Yes, Lester.” Where the hell did Lester come from?

“Sorry, what?”

“What was your house like?”

“My house? Uh. I don’t know. Hollywood-ish I guess. Everything out there that hasn’t been bulldozed and rebuilt by incredibly rich, fickle people hasn’t seen a facelift since the seventies.”

“Unlike the incredibly rich, fickle people,” Joey quipped.

Jax grinned. “Exactly. My place was built by some semi-famous architect in the late sixties. Huge windows with a hilltop view, sunken living room. The front yard was a cliff face. I bought it furnished with this very artsy, very uncomfortable furniture.”

“So is that the new Jackson Pierce? Artsy, uncomfortable, rich, and fickle?”

Jax shook his head. “That was a waypoint. I bought it mainly as an investment, which will have done quite nicely if the closing happens next month.”

“You’re going back?” Joey asked.

She’d kept her voice neutral, but Jax saw the way the spoon paused halfway to her mouth.

“Actually that’s something I wanted to talk to you about,” he began, his tone serious.

She set her bowl down with a hard clank on the coffee table. “You’re moving back to L.A.?”

Jax was about to point out that she was shouting, but he didn’t have to as three dog heads all lifted from various positions of slumber to investigate.

“What about the brewery and the breeding program?” she demanded.

“You do care,” he grinned depositing his bowl next to hers. “You like me!”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You should see your face.”

“I’m about to punch a hole in yours,” she said, anger shimmering off of her. Waffles stretched lazily and wandered over to sit at her feet.

“I’m not moving back. I’m flying back for a weekend to settle on the house and to go to a lame premiere.”

“And then you’re coming back to Blue Moon?”

Jax nodded and grabbed her hand. “I want you to come with me.”

She still looked pissed. “What the hell would I do in California?”

“Me, for one. And you could put on a long, sexy dress and go to a party with me. Not to mention visiting any of the several racing stables and riding academies in the state. Plus, there’s Disneyland, the Getty Center if you’re into art, hiking in the canyons...”

She was staring at him like he was a lunatic.

“It’s sunny there. And warm.”

“Tell me more about this strange place that isn’t under nearly a foot of snow already,” Joey demanded, her lips twitching.

Relieved, he told her about some of his favorite things to see and do.

She shook her head. “It’s just so crazy to me. None of this sounds like the Jax that left all those years ago. You have a
tailor
.”

“Lots of people have tailors.”

“I bet you own a tux, don’t you? Normal people just rent them, you know. But I bet you had your fancy tailor make you a fancy tux.”

Two actually, but he wasn’t about to admit to that.

“I’m still the same guy you loved in high school, Joey.” And maybe that was the problem. “Look, just say yes. Come with me. We’ll go out, have a great time, laugh about how weird Hollywood is, and then we’ll come home.”

She was considering it. He could tell. “I don’t know if I can get away from the farm,” she said slowly.

“Joey.”

She looked at him, cocking her head to the side.

“What do you think all this is?” he asked, circling a finger in the air. “We’re babysitting the farm during a Mach seven blizzard while Carter, Summer, Beckett, and Gia gallivant around and have sex. We have a free pass.”

She bit her lip in a way that he found so sexy, Jax had to stop himself from leaning over and dragging her to the ground.

“A free pass, huh?”

He nodded.

“And we’d only be gone a couple of days?”

“Three. Four tops.”

She bit again. “Okay, let’s go to L.A.”

“Seriously?”

She shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

She didn’t even see the hug tackle coming.

J
oey wasn’t
sure how they made it up the stairs, but she did know there was a trail of clothing marking the path and a pile of disappointed dogs on the other side of the bedroom door that Jax had kicked closed. He backed her up against the bed and her fingers flew to the fly of his pants.

“Wait,” he whispered against her lips.

But she wasn’t interested in waiting. She tugged his drawstring free and shoved her hand inside, wrapping her fingers around his straining shaft. His groan of surrender brought flutters of excitement to her stomach. She loved the power she had over his body.

His hands slid up to cup her already bare breasts and she lost her breath.

“God, yes,” he murmured, his lips moving over her hair and forehead. She shoved his pants down his legs until he was completely naked, bared to her.

“You ever think about becoming a model?” she teased breathlessly.

He tossed her down on the bed on her back. “Funny.” His fingers dipped into the waistband of her underwear and with a swift pull, they slid down her thighs. “Mmm.”

Jax’s approval drove her even closer to crazy. His long fingers skimmed over the curve of her hips and around to the backs of her thighs. He knelt between her legs, her heat seeking the fulfillment only he could offer her.

When he leaned over her, Joey let her knees fall open, welcoming him to her. He adjusted his hard-on so the smooth crown coasted over her slick folds. She gasped when the hot, smooth head teased her.

She could see his pulse in his neck as he leaned closer, his mouth nibbling at her lower lip. She bridged her hips, welcoming another teasing thrust over her growing wetness. He moved his hands to her shoulders and she accepted his weight as he changed the angle and skimmed his mouth down to take a nipple between his lips.

His tongue darted out and stroked the straining tip until it budded in his mouth. He closed over it and began to suck. Joey’s hips reflexively shot off of the mattress just as his cock parted her folds and slicked over her sensitive nub.

“Jax!” The contact at her breast and between her legs was enough to shove her into a fast, edgy orgasm.

“My God. I love how you respond to me,” Jax groaned. He switched to her other breast and replaced his erection with his fingers. He slid two of them inside her to catch the last tremors of her release.

Everything he did to her felt even better than the last touch, the last stroke. With his fingers inside her, Joey felt her orgasm spiral on and on. She lay rag-doll limp on the bed basking in the pleasure. But when his mouth released her breast and coasted lower she found her bones again.

“Uh-uh. It’s my turn,” she said, shoving him over and onto his side with her leg.

She reversed their position, pushing him down on his back and kneeling between his thighs. She lightly kissed and bit her way up the inside of his thigh toward her target and delighted at the tensing of his muscles.

He let her play, but she could tell from his tense muscles that he wouldn’t let it go on too long. She lowered her lips to the base of his shaft and pressed a soft kiss there on the hot, smooth skin stretched tight with desire.

His breath came out in a whoosh when she let her tongue dart out between her lips, forging a trail from base to crown.

Jax muttered something unintelligible and violent. Joey responded by taking him into her mouth with no preamble.

She could have sworn that he levitated right off the bed. His hands fisted on the comforter under them. Joey felt strength and restraint coiled in his body, muscles and energy begging for release. Still, he let her play and taste and stroke.

She gripped the base of his shaft and, on the next slide of her mouth, used her hand to stroke. Over and over again, her lips parted to take him to the back of her throat.

Having Jax helpless beneath her was thrilling. It made her feel powerful, strong, alive. Having him at her mercy was intoxicating.

He was fighting the pleasure so hard, she wasn’t surprised when he sat bolt upright and yanked her up his body. They rolled, tangled in bedding and each other, the urgency coursing through both of them like a drum beat. She needed him inside her more than she needed oxygen.

Their mouths met in a desperate collision of heat and need. Joey’s foot caught on one of the nightstands and she heard the heavy thump of something tumbling to the floor. She shoved Jax toward the middle of the bed to save other poor defenseless home décor from a similar fate.

They met in the center of the bed on their knees where Jax used her ponytail to gain leverage, tugging her head back. He trailed greedy kisses down her neck, teeth scraping skin. Her nails raked over Jax’s strong shoulders.

“I can’t wait anymore,” she whispered to him.

Jax spun her around to face the headboard and she sensed danger. He pressed against her back, hot skin, sinewy muscle holding her in place. “Are you okay like this?” he asked, brushing his lips gently against the nape of her neck.

Joey shivered and nodded. She was okay with whatever as long as the pace was fast and furious. As long as he was inside her and she was no longer aching.

“Sure?”

“Jax, stop stalling!”

She heard his husky laugh behind her and then his hands were closing her fingers around the iron bars of her headboard. “You’re gonna need to hang on.” His voice was gravelly and strained in her ear. Every nerve in her body was on high alert so that even his breath against her earlobe had her shaking with anticipation.

God, yes.

He forced her legs a little wider with his knee and she barely managed to stifle a gasp when she felt him against her. The smooth head of his cock probed with the lightest pressure against her primed center. His hands closed over hers again and in one sure thrust he was sheathed inside her.

Joey did moan now. This was what she wanted, this feeling of fullness that chased all other thoughts out of her head. There was room for nothing but pleasure and the craving for more.

He was moving now, an achingly slow rhythm that had her head falling back against his shoulder.

“You’re everything to me,” he gritted the words out against her throat, sliding into her until every inch of him was buried in her heat.

She taunted him with her hips, swiveling them and pressing back against him. She wanted him fast and a little rough. Not whispering sweet nothings in her ear, sweet nothings that shot straight to her bruised heart.

His hands abandoned hers for her breasts, cupping them in his calloused palms. The speed she was so desperate for came now. A fast thrill raced through her as she felt Jax’s control slip just a little more.

She bent at the waist, her head dipping between her outstretched arms and hips driving back against him as he thrust harder. The snow outside her windows was forgotten as the heat rose degree by scorching degree.

Exhilaration and anticipation spiked in her. This was what she’d silently mourned deep in her soul all those years. This need tangled with an intimacy so raw she couldn’t tell whether they were two or one. She’d never had this with another man, had feared she would never find it again.

And what exactly did that mean that she had found it again with Jax?
But the thought tumbled out of her head when he skimmed a palm over her stomach and then lower to stroke her.

His thrusts were becoming wilder, more erratic. Her fingers cramped on the thin bars that she gripped like lifelines. Sounds of desire—the slap of flesh to flesh, the short gasps of breath—filled the room.

“I need you to come, Joey,” he ordered.

“Come with me,” she gritted the words out. She selfishly wanted to feel it again, that second when two people couldn’t be any closer. She wanted her release to drag him with her, to share the fall and spiral down, down, down together.

The pads of his fingers worked her sensitive nub, swamping her system with a pleasure there was no defense against.

“Jax.” His name was a gasp, a prayer.

“I’m with you. I’m with you.”

And he was. As she felt the first tremors of her release, Jax gave a triumphant shout behind her. He poured himself into her matching tremor for tremor as she dissolved around him. Joey didn’t see snowflakes, she saw fireworks. Bright and bold in the night as she surrendered everything.

“
J
ax
?”

“Huh?”

“Are you alive?”

Jax took an inventory of his body. It was still there, sprawled over Joey’s bed and part of Joey. His heart still beat. His breath still moved. But he couldn’t seem to find the will to move.

“I think so.”

“Good.” Joey’s voice was muffled by the pillow her face was in. “Am I alive?”

“More or less.” He mustered the energy and rolled over, pulling her with him so she could breath.

“So that’s what it feels like,” she said, stretching lazily.

“That’s what what feels like?”

“The earth moving.” She gave him a sleepy smile.

Jax laughed. “Angels singing.”

“Fireworks. There were definitely fireworks.”

“Fireworks in a blizzard. I like that we can do that,” Jax sighed, wishing she would roll again and nestle into him.

But Joey liked space for her long limbs.

“You know what would make this even better?” Joey asked wistfully.

“What’s that?”

“Another bowl of chili.”

Downstairs they found their bowls licked clean under the coffee table. Waffles wouldn’t meet Joey’s gaze and Valentina looked guilty. Meatball was still licking his chops by the fire.

“I’ll get clean bowls,” Jax volunteered.

Joey went to the back door and opened it. “We’re up to a foot already,” she said, gauging the depth of the snow. The dogs roused themselves to trot through the door for an impromptu potty break. Jax watched as Joey tugged on a pair of snow boots and stomped her way to the edge of the deck to watch the dogs tear around the backyard.

He ladled chili into both bowls and popped them in the microwave.

“Jax, come see,” Joey called from the deck.

Every time Jax thought he couldn’t love her more, he fell just a little bit further. This was no different. She stood bathed in the spotlight mounted on the back of the house. Fat flakes floated down to land in hair the color of chestnuts. The dogs raced a zigzag pattern in the yard in front of her, barking and yipping, sending clouds of snow up to mingle with the falling flakes.

Behind him, the warmth of fire and home. He’d never wanted anything more than this. This was where he belonged. Her world was his and he needed her to understand that, to believe that. But now was not the time for declarations or ultimatums. Joey didn’t respond to either of those. He would find a way to make her see, that he belonged here with her.

Joey laughed as Meatball took a turn too tight and tumbled, sending snow in all directions. She looked back at Jax, her hair tousled from his hands, her color high. Her legs bare between the hem of his shirt that she’d pulled on and the tops of her boots.

“I think we’re going to need some towels for these idiots,” she said jerking a thumb at the dog action behind her.

“I’ll grab some as soon as I do this,” Jax said, crossing the deck to her. One hand wound around the back of her neck. The other gripped her hip. Her lips parted as if she was going to ask a question, but he silenced her with his mouth.

He kissed her under the porch light, under the sky of snow. He moved both hands to cup her jaw, gentling the pressure. He poured his love for her into the kiss so there could be no doubt in her mind. Flakes fell silently, landing in their hair and on their shoulders, and still he kissed her, claiming her mouth in a gentle prison of breath and taste.

When he felt her knees buckle, he steadied her and broke contact with her mouth.

She laughed nervously. “What the hell was that?” Her voice was a whisper.

Jax grinned and tapped her nose with his finger. “I’ll go get some towels. Come inside before you get frostbite on that perfect ass of yours.”

When she only nodded, he felt he’d won a victory of sorts.

He went back inside and found some rough looking towels in the bottom of her linen closet.

“Are you ready for us?” Joey called from the backdoor when Jax came down the stairs.

They let one dog in at a time and scrubbed them down with towels until they were dry enough to turn loose on the house. Meatball repeatedly licked Joey in the face while she tried to dry his paws.

“He really grows on you, doesn’t he?” she asked as the beagle scampered off to check his food dish.

“Even his farts have a certain charm about them,” Jax admitted.

“Well I wouldn’t go that far.”

They reconvened to the couch with loose muscles and second supper. Jax put his feet up on the coffee table and Joey tucked hers into his lap.

They ate in companionable silence, ignoring three pairs of brown beggy eyes. And when the dishes were done and the leftovers tucked away, they returned to the couch, Jax with his laptop and papers and Joey with her romance novel.

His phone signaled from the coffee table. He glanced at the screen and snorted.

“What?” Joey asked, stretching lazily.

“Carter wants to know how many inches we have here. They’ve got six inches in the hotel parking lot.”

“Tell him that’s what we have here. Otherwise he’s going to text us both incessantly.”

“Lie to my brother?” Jax gasped in feigned horror.

Joey eyed him over her book.

“You’re right. Good call. Lying to my brother,” he said, as he fired off a quick text.

She looked restlessly out the back window at the falling snow.

“What’s wrong?” Jax asked.

She shrugged her slim shoulders. “I just wish I could do one more check on the horses, but I really don’t feel like wading through a foot of snow between here and the stables.”

“Then allow me to direct your attention here…” Jax said, swiveling his laptop around to face her with a flourish. He opened a browser window and keyed in a URL and then handed the computer over to her.