“I’m sure you can, but I’m here and so can I,” he said, firm. “Let me help you.”
Well…
Jaxson hoisted me into a sitting position and when I was steady, he took my foot into his hand and grabbed one of my stilettos.
Thank God I got a paraffin pedicure before the signing.
When his fingers trailed over the soles of my feet, I did all I could to bite back a moan, but it slipped between my lips anyway.
Jaxson grinned, but didn’t look at me. “Ticklish?”
“Maybe,” I snapped at him playfully and he laughed. It took one agonizing minute for the exercise to be over, and when it was, I let out a long breath. Jesus, this man was titillating every sense I owned. His light strokes had me on the verge of internal combustion. Dinah had been telling me I needed a man, and as far as I could tell, there was a suitable candidate taking my hand into his and pulling me off the bed.
Shoes securely on my feet, I slid off, but stumbled forward and crashed into Jaxson’s hard chest. His arms tightened around me.
“Easy there, Simmy. You keep at it, and I may have to carry you to my car,” he muttered, voice low.
Too damn low.
Damn…
I pursed my lips and my neck fell back as I gazed into his face. “With arms like these, I bet it wouldn’t be much of a problem for you, either.”
“Are… you flirting with me, Simone Storm?”
“You thought you had the monopoly on flirting?” I toyed with him some more, letting my eyes drop to his mouth. His lips were framed by a goatee made of golden hairs. “I’m a New York Times, bestselling erotic romance author, remember? This is what I do for a living.”
Jaxson hummed and dipped his mouth close to mine. The minty freshness of his breath swept across my skin, but I eased out of his arms and walked away, making sure that the sway of my hips was just enough to garner his attention, even if it was rigid.
I grabbed my purse from the table next to the bed, but the minute I caught sight of the mirror on the wall and saw just how jacked-up my hair was, I jerked to attention. The purse dropped from my hands. I hurried to rearrange it, mortified by the reality of my appearance.
Jaxson laughed, watching me from the sidelines. “You’re overthinking it,” he suggested.
“How could I be overthinking it?” I challenged him. “Do you see what I look like?”
“I see exactly what you look like.”
My cheeks flushed with heat.
“You’re an almost-accident victim,” he reminded me. “If you look a little disheveled, you have every right to. But trust me, you look perfect.”
So smooth. He must’ve had a book of lines in his back pocket, because the way he was pulling them out and dropping them on me had me impressed, and that was a hard thing to do.
I continued the task of doing something to my tresses, even though his comments warmed my heart. “Thank you,” I purred, “but clearly, you don’t know much about black girls.”
“Pardon?”
“If you did, you’d know that for us, having our hair in tip-top order is a high priority, almost-accident or not. Do you know what my mama used to tell me? She used to say that no matter what, I always had to make sure I had on matching panties and bra so that if I was ever in an accident and they had to cut my clothes off, at least I’d look presentable.”
Jaxson burst into laughter and I joined in, glad that, even if I couldn’t remember some things, I could remember that.
Jaxson pulling up behind me diverted my thoughts. When his midsection pressed into my lower back, thick and rock-solid, it left no room to question how… strong he really was. My back arched in surprise as he branded me with his hands on my waist and turned me around until we were face to face.
Our eyes locked. No key in sight.
“Let me have that,” he requested.
“Have what?”
“The elastic,” he clarified. He wiggled his fingers and took it out of my hand. My hair slipped past my shoulders.
Suddenly, Jaxson’s fingers were in my tresses.
“What in the world are you doing?” I whispered smiling, but he didn’t answer.
He twirled my hair round his hand and lifted it, until it sat on top of my head in a messy, but chic, top knot. He secured it with the elastic. As if I wasn’t stunned enough, to finish the look, he dragged a few strands from the sides and twirled them around his finger until they dropped into perfect ringlets.
Flawless.
Jaxson dropped his hands back to my waist and twisted me around until I was peering at myself in the mirror again.
My eyes fluttered. “How… do you know how to do that?” I questioned in a flabbergasted whisper.
“It looks like somebody is eating her words,” he teased, squeezing me in one of my most tender spots. “For your information, I’ve been with a few black women.”
“A few?”
“One,” he said running his hand over the back of his neck. “Doesn’t matter though. All a white boy needs is one black woman before he’s an expert in flat irons, Eco Gel and silk bonnets.”
I hollered at his raw transparency. He hadn’t lied one time though. I’d bet my bottom dollar Robert DeNiro and Gary Owen knew all there was to know about the tedious nighttime regime of a black woman.
“This is impressive,” I said touching the elegant updo. “But that’s not what I meant. This hairstyle…” I pulled the hanging curl. “It’s one of my favorites. I do my hair like this all the time.”
I stared at Jaxson through the mirror.
He stared back, never flinching.
My cell phone buzzed somewhere in my purse and I spun around as Jaxson took it from the floor and passed it to me. When I saw the message from Dinah on the screen, I groaned.
“What is it?”
“Do you really need to ask?” I questioned huffing. “It’s Dinah. You’re not gonna’ believe this, but she’s still in her meeting.”
“So much for ‘I’ll be back soon’,” he grinned.
“Exactly! She’s asking if I really need her to cut it short and if I feel comfortable asking you to take me home.” I shook my head in partial disbelief.
“Do you?” Jaxson’s question was pointed. “You already know it won’t be a problem,” he said. “I won’t leave, if you don’t want me to.”
I sighed and tucked one of the curls he’d made behind my ear. “Are you sure Jaxson?” I sighed. “We’ve been together all night. I can’t help but think I’ve been a huge inconvenience to you.”
He rolled his eyes and groaned, and I giggled in response.
“All right, fine,” I conceded, tapping my fingers on the phone screen, “but I’m definitely gonna’ let Dinah know what I think about her and her meetings. I’m not your responsibility. She’s the one who should’ve been here, keeping me company in, what could have been, my final moments.” I tried to say it like I was agitated, but excitement flooded my veins at the thought that he’d been the one here, and even more at the thought that our time together would be extended, even if only for a little while.
I finished typing the stark message and dropped the phone back into the purse, then I looked at Jaxson, trying to figure him out.