Page 31 of Jealous God
“Then go back to your room, Jax. Go back and—”
“No.” His voice was sharp. “I’m sleeping with you tonight.”
“Maybe I don’t want you in my bed. Have you even thought about that?” I glared down at his closed eyes and teasing smile. I was getting myself all worked up again, but it didn’t seem to bother him at all. If anything, he seemed to be enjoying my bluster. It just went to prove what I had been thinking earlier. This was all one big game to him.
“Don’t really care, Elodie. This is where I’m staying. You can either go and sleep on the couch or lay down and close your eyes. Snuggling is optional at this point.” He sighed heavily, turning on his side and leaving me staring down at his stupid, perfect back.
This wasn’t how it was meant to go. We were meant to have sex so I could fuck him out of my system. A little birthday present to myself, and then he was meant to leave. He wasn’t meant to stay or to want to snuggle. I picked at one of my nails, indecision making my chest tight.
“Elodie?” His voice was sleepy.
“Fine,” I huffed angrily, laying down flat on my back as far as I could away from him. I stared unseeing at the ceiling for several seconds, seething with anger that I didn’t want to feel. I didn’t want to be angry with Jax after what we had just shared. Him wanting to stay had just thrown me.
With a sigh, I turned to him, wrapping my arms around him and drawing our bodies flush.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” I whispered. And I half believed my own words. Sharing a bed didn’t mean anything, snuggling with a rockstar didn’t mean anything. And yet we both knew that was a lie. I had crossed a line now, not just with the sex but with this more dangerous form of intimacy. And it was a line we would struggle to get back from.
Jax caught both my hands in his and drew them up to his lips. “Of course, it doesn’t.”
EIGHTEEN
Jax
Ipurposely took the seat nearest Elodie the next afternoon. Erik had called a staff meeting and almost everyone of any importance was there. Which meant there were more than enough chairs for me to sit anywhere I wanted to. I had chosen to take the seat next to hers, using my foot to pull hers closer. I did it to see everyone’s reaction, but mostly to see hers. And while the others barely raised an eyebrow, she scowled at me, tearing her hand away from mine when I took it.
I grinned down at her, leaning back and leaving my hand where it fell on her knee. She could be as pissed off with me as she wanted to be. She couldn’t change what had happened between us last night. Or again this morning. And the sleepy sex we’d had this morning had been just as passionate and frantic as our first time. If anything, it had been better. Because I had woken up with her body wrapped around mine.
I’d never woken up next to a woman before, at least not one where I didn’t want to escape the second my eyes opened. Waking up next to Elodie I could get used to. Fucking her and hearing the way she called my name with her nails scratching down my back? I could really get used to that.
“What the hell are you doing?” she hissed out of the corner of her mouth. Her eyes were straight ahead on Erik, who was pacing with his phone pressed to his ear. He had called us all here to let us know what was happening after the attempted attack on Dion had gone so wrong, and so far, he hadn’t put down his damn phone. Not that I really cared. The longer he took to notice my hand on Elodie’s knee, the better. Not that I planned on hiding it. Everyone must have known something was going to happen between us last night when they left us alone. Half of the band had been urging me into doing something about Elodie since we had first met. They had been able to see something between us that I had been blind to.
Well, maybe not blind. More unwilling to admit.
“Well, you won’t let me hold your hand, so…” I flashed her my cheesiest smile, knowing full well it would make her livid. I wasn’t disappointed. She scowled up into my face. A deep line appeared between her eyebrows when I shrugged. “I’ll have to settle for this.” I rubbed the pad of my thumb over her knee. And she shivered. She desperately tried to hide it with her huffing and puffing, but I affected her even now. The slightest touch of my skin against hers was enough to get her going. Or maybe it was the anger as well. I knew that got me going. She was so desperately passionate about everything. And that came out in some wickedly fun ways when she was naked.
“Jax, for fuck’s sake. This is...”
Leaning close to her, I brushed her curling hair behind her ear. “This is what? We snuggled, remember?”
Erik cleared his throat loudly and when I lifted my eyes to him, I found him staring down at us. “Snuggled?” He shook his head. “Actually, I don’t want to hear it. Can we get on?”
Next to him, Dion and Tate laughed loudly. Louis leant forward with his hand out and his voice was loud. “Pay up, fuckers.”
“Pay up?” The assholes had been taking bets on us. I risked a look at Elodie, who had stiffened at my side, trying to gauge her reaction. She looked impassive. But I could see the embarrassment shining out of her eyes. I might have expected them to do something like this but Elodie was clearly uncomfortable. And I kind of hated that they were making her feel that way.
“You made bets?”
“Yep, and I am going to rake it in. Tate said it wasn’t going to happen, and Dion—”
I turned my head sharply to Dion. “And what did you bet on?”
He held up his hands in surrender.
“He said you wouldn’t have the guts to last night,” Louis answered for him with a laugh. “Pay up, Erik.”
Elodie shifted next to me. “You as well?” she asked him loudly, and this time there could be no denying the anger in her voice.
He sent her a sheepish look. “Sorry, Eli.”
