Page 40 of Jealous God
With a groan, I flopped back onto the towel. “Where are the others? They should have been back by now.”
“They’ll be back, Jax, and everything will be perfect for your little surprise.”
My little surprise. Had I ever gone out of my way to surprise a girl before? Had I actually ever done anything nice for a woman bar letting them have the privilege of my company for a few meaningless hours? I liked to think what I had with Elodie was casual. We had both agreed to keep it that way. But who was I fooling? Not the band, not Tate. The only person I was fooling was myself. I could keep telling myself that I wasn’t into her, that it was just sex.
Really fucking good sex at that.
But it wasn’t. Not really.
* * *
“Jax.”Elodie’s arms tightened around my waist as she took in the view in front of her. I had lured her away whilst they set up, no doubt acting shady the whole time. But standing there in the sand with her, with the setting sun silhouetting everything, it felt almost dreamlike, and even I had to admit it was romantic.
Who knew I had it in me?
“Jax, what did… Did you do this?”
My own arms tightened around her. I dropped my lips to her hair, still wet from the afternoon spent in the ocean. “It’s nothing, just a little something for your birthday.” Tilting her head up, I pressed my lips to her to silence her, because I knew she was about to argue with me. “And before you start, this isn’t actually your birthday, Elodie. So, you can celebrate with friends.” I kissed her again. “You can celebrate with me.”
It would be easy to lose myself in the taste and feel of her lips on mine, but I knew the others wanted her as well. It might have been my idea, but they had been the ones to pull it out of the bag.
“It's perfect.”
It was kind of perfect, low key, sure, but with the band and crew sprawled out around the campfire, and the setting sun making it all glimmery and shit, I could see why she would think so.
“I figured you wouldn’t want a party, so this is a little different.” Suddenly I was nervous, and I didn’t know why. “Hopefully they got everything I asked for.”
She raised a dark eyebrow. “You asked them…?”
“Gave them a damn shopping list right down to that disgusting pineapple juice—”
She squeaked. Her arms slid from my waist to curl around my neck, and her lips were hungry against mine. We stood there for several minutes before she moved away somewhat reluctantly.
Sighing happily, I rested my head against hers.
“You remembered?” She seemed genuinely shocked.
“Of course, I did.”
Except there was no of course about it. If she had been anyone else, I wouldn’t have remembered.
“Hey, love bugs.” Erik appeared out of nowhere, looking all very un-Erik-like in his board shorts and bare chest. The expensive suit, the cufflinks, and the permanent look of disapproval were nowhere to be seen.
“Hey, Erik.”
He looked at Elodie. “Can I steal your man toy away for a little while? Just a few minutes.” He smiled wildly, all bright and friendly, but I wasn’t fooled. I tightened my grip on her, smoothing my hand down her back to cup her ass.
“Yeah, of course. I’ll go and thank everyone.” She untangled herself from my arms and headed away from us.
I watched her go. Erik did as well, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. As soon as she was within the circle of the fire, Dionysus Rising was on her, closing ranks about her like a tsunami. And that’s when Erik sighed.
“What are you doing, Jax?”
I turned to him in shock, tearing my eyes away from where Elodie had been swarmed by my band, our crew and the big burly bikers who protected us. “What do you mean, what am I doing? I’m throwing a little celebration for Elodie’s birthday.”
Erik’s hand closed around my arm, dragging me back up to the parking lot where the buses were. All of them were dark; everyone was down on the beach.
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”
