The familiar smell drew me in, and his smile split across his face, a dimple popping in his cheek as he spoke. “Hey.”
Jax had cut his hair, the blond waves trimmed, and less unruly, fell over his forehead. He had on a nice pair of jeans and a long sleeve, fitted navy blue t-shirt that looked like it had never been worn. It hugged his chest in all the right places, and if I wasn’t starving, I might’ve let him fuck me before we left. The possibility wasn’t totally off the table. Stunned by how absolutely beautiful he was, and with the dirty thoughts running around my head, I hadn’t noticed his duffel bag and the medium-sized dog crate sitting on the porch next to him.
“Is that Rosie?” I asked, excited, my voice an octave higher than I would have preferred.
“It is.” His laugh was warm. “Is it okay if I bring her inside?”
“Of course.” I stepped to the side, opening the door wide for him.
“Is Gandalf gonna freak out?”
“Probably.” I shrugged as he set the crate and his bag down in the middle of my living room. “He has no right to bitch, though, since he commandeered my condo without my permission.”
As he turned to look at me, I wrapped my arms around his waist. “Hey.”
He ran his hands up my arms, pressing into the skin with his fingertips. The heat of his body covered me as he leaned down to kiss me. Soft at first, Jax took his time. His lips explored mine, tasting, until his tongue dipped into my mouth, and his hands pushed into my hair. I hooked my fingers into the belt loops of his jeans, pulling his hips against me. With rough hands, he tipped my head back, his kiss greedy and deep. He was hard for me, and when I palmed the bulge in his jeans, he groaned.
“We have an hour before we have to leave,” I whispered.
He reached for my belt, his fingers working open the buckle, he said, “I can make an hour work.” Jax flipped the button on my jeans as he bit my bottom lip. His hand slipped into my briefs and I hissed as his hot fingers grasped my cock with a firm grip. “All damn week, Wild. I couldn’t get your taste out of my head.”
I gripped his chin and kissed him with aggressive lips. But as my fingers fumbled with his belt, the dog whimpered and barked, sending Gandalf into a fit. He jumped off the kitchen counter with a high-pitched cry that killed the mood and my hard-on, running faster than I’d ever seen a cat move.
Laughing into my neck, Jax released me and pressed his lips to my heated skin. “Shit, I’m sorry.”
Aching and breathless, I laughed too. “It’s okay… we have all weekend, right?”
“Rosie probably needs to pee.”
“She can go out back.” I offered. “It’s fenced.”
He leaned back, his green eyes assessing me. “I was hoping Hudson would watch her. But he went home for the weekend.”
“I told you on the phone it was okay.”
“I think you’ll love her,” Jax said. “She’s so damn cute.”
When he pulled away, I reluctantly put myself back together. It was actually painful to watch him turn away. Each minute we had together was weighted. I had to fill every second I had with Jax, with us, and I hoped when I told him about Miami, it didn’t ruin our entire weekend together.
“Hey, girl… it’s okay.” He bent down and unlocked the crate. “Come on, Rosie.”
He stood and took a step back as Rosie peeked her head out of the cage. She was all golden and white curls, with one dark spot that covered her right eye. She tripped over her paws as she made her way out of the crate.
“She’s big for a puppy,” I said.
“They told me she was about a year old. Not sure what kind of dog she is either.” Jax scratched behind her floppy ears and grinned like a little kid when she licked his cheek. “She’s sweet as hell. Come say hi.”
I kneeled down onto the carpet, and she warily made her way over to my lap. Her fur was soft and wiry at the same time. I thought she might have been a mix of some type of doodle.
She sniffed my hand as I held it out. “I bet she smells the cat.”
“I better take her outside before she meets him, I don’t wanna her to piss on your carpet when he scares the daylights out of her.”
I laughed. “Thanks for that.”
Rosie followed after Jax to my patio door, and when he opened it, she trotted outside with her shaggy tail wagging.
He slid the door shut. “She can stay out there if you want, but the shelter told me she was crate trained too. She’s been good at our place. Hasn’t had more than one accident, and that was the first day we brought her home.”
“She doesn’t have to stay outside.” I slid my hands up his chest. “It will be fine. Stop worrying.” I ran my fingers through his hair. “You look nice.”
“I got it cut yesterday after work,” he said, his cheeks tinged with pink. “Got some clothes for this weekend, too. Figured you wouldn’t want to go to dinner with a guy in Carhartts and sleeveless t-shirts.”
“I don’t know what a Carhartt is, but it sounds sexy.”
“Maybe I’ll wear it next time.”
Next time.
“I have to tell you something,” I said, and his smile fell. “I don’t want to ruin our night, okay?”
“Alright.” He was tentative. “What’s going on?”
I exhaled, tightening the grip I had on his waist. “They bumped up my book tour. I leave the first week of October.”
“That’s only a month away.”
“I know.” I lifted my eyes to his, holding his stare. “I just got you back.”
“When is it over?”
“Late November. After Thanksgiving, the publishing world sort of shuts down until after the holidays. But if the tickets sell, I could be out until the first week in December.”
“I told Jay I would only be gone for two months.” He tried to hide it, but the panic in his voice mirrored mine. “We’ll make it work.”
“How?”
“I have no clue, but what’s a few months compared to nine years. I’ll wait forever for you, Wild.”
“But your life is in Bell River, Jax. We jumped into this… we didn’t think—”
“We’ll figure it out.”
He cradled the back of my head with his big hands, dropping his lips to mine. In less than a minute he had me worked up again. His lips made it impossible for me to think straight as blood rushed to my groin.
“I don’t want to leave this condo,” I said, Jax’s gaze lingering on my mouth. “I only get one month, and I want to be naked the entire time.”
His lips broke into a wide smile, stealing away the sad edge that had been there a second before.
“I wanna go out… hold your hand in a room full of people.” He brushed his thumb over my bottom lip. “You deserve to be loved out loud, in the open, in front of the world. Let me give that to you.”
Warmth radiated through my body, gathering inside my chest as my pulse quickened. I nodded, all the words I had stuck in my throat. Jax was purposefully making himself vulnerable for me. Laying himself bare for me. Exposing everything he’d always feared about himself for me.
Nine years or one month, time didn’t matter.