Ignite

Watching me watch him, he smirked and remarked, “You do a lot of staring.”

I openly stared at him now, just to prove that I could do what I want. I took in his short hair, blue eyes, soft mouth, wide shoulders, big chest, smooth abdomen, and right when I spotted his V line leading to his goodies, I made a smirk of my own and turned away. He was way too sexy. I needed to get away before I found myself pinned beneath him and punished again. Well, that didn’t seem like such a bad thing to wake up to. You did not just torture yourself all night in an attempt to steer clear from him only to ruin that with a good morning screw!

Disturbing my thoughts, my cell phone rang and vibrated noisily on the night table. I grabbed it and looked down. My heart jumped into my throat.

Fuck.

I cautiously sat up, wriggling completely out of Jaxon’s hold and rested my back against the headboard.

“Hey Daniel,” I answered.

“Good morning, beautiful. How’re you doing?” He sounded cheery and relaxed.

Jaxon flopped on his back and looked up at the ceiling with a blank face.

“I’m good. How about you?”

“Yeah, good. I’ve been on the road since five in the morning.”

“Why?”

“I’m just getting into Gosnells as we speak.”

I felt a lightning bolt of panic sweep through my chest. “What? You’re… here?”

“The longest three hours of my life.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

“You wouldn’t have let me otherwise.”

Sighing, I brought a hand to my forehead. “Okay. Well, where are you then?”

“Not far away. Where are you?”

“I’m… at a good friend’s house.” I risked a glance at Jaxon whose jaw was strongly clenched. Mr Glare was coming back, fast.

“Text me the address and I’ll be there soon.”

“Yeah, yeah, okay.”

“See you, babe.”

“See you.” I hung up and stared at the phone in horror. He was going to come here, and he was going to see Jaxon and… My breathing quickened.

“He’s coming here, isn’t he?” Jaxon asked flatly.

“Yeah,” I simply answered.

“To the house?”

“He wants me to send the address. I don’t have to if you don’t want me to–”

“Go ahead and send it. I’d like to meet your guy.” He didn’t try to hide the bitterness behind his words.

I let out an unsteady sigh as I sent the address to Daniel. I couldn’t lie about where I was. I couldn’t ask to meet him elsewhere either. It would be too suspicious, and he’d wonder why I would want to keep my “good friend” to myself. The good friend was meant to mean Lucinda, but he might not think so when he showed up.

“Are you gonna tell him?” Jaxon’s eyes were dead set on me, taking in my panicked reaction without a care in the world.

“Tell him what?”

“That you fucked me.”

Grimacing, I jumped out of bed and hurried to my suitcase beside the door.

“Are you going to tell him?” he repeated when I didn’t answer.

“Of all the things to ask me, this is what comes out of your mouth first?” I retorted, scowling at him.

He sat up and rested his back against the headboard. The covers barely covered him below the hips, and I could make out his V line. I turned my eyes away just after he crossed his arms.

He replied, “Yeah, this is what I’m asking.”

“Well don’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s none of your business.”

“It became my business when you all too willingly fucked me last night, Sara.”

I shuddered at his words, so blatantly said in such a blasé way. “Are you gonna tell your girlfriend?” I fired back, feeling smug now.

“Already told her,” he casually replied with a crooked smile.

Shocked, I met his gaze. “What?”

“Told her last night. She wasn’t my girlfriend, by the way.”

“You called her your girlfriend.”

“I may have misled you.”

“You were screwing her, though.”

“Yeah, we fucked, but we weren’t an item.”

I stopped looking for something to wear and turned completely to him. “The other night you were all over each other. You held her hand and–”

“I did that to piss you off.” He studied my stunned reaction and shrugged. “No sense in lying, right?”

“You led her on. Do you know how hurt she must feel?”

“She knew what she was getting herself into when she started lingering around me, practically begging for a root. She knew it was coming. They all know it.”

I was shocked. Outraged. Seething. “How could you be so cold?”

“Coming from the girl who cheated on her boyfriend.”

He’s not my boyfriend, I wanted to say. But that didn’t feel right, because technically he kind of was in a really messed up way. Daniel had stressed monogamy, and I had been on the same page. I wouldn’t have agreed to our arrangement if I knew he was out screwing other women. God, if he knew about Jaxon… He’s going to know about Jaxon, my mind piped in. There was no way around it. It would be wrong to withhold that information.

“Well?” Jaxon was still waiting for his answer. The bastard.

“Of course I’m going to tell him,” I muttered. I returned to my suitcase and pulled out a pair of jeans and a grey thin sweater.

“Do you think he’ll still want you?” When I didn’t reply, he snickered. “He couldn’t possibly want you, right? Unless he’s really that pussy whipped–”

“Would you stop talking about him?” I interrupted irritably.

I ignored his grin and hurried into the bathroom to change. I went to throw my hair up, and then angrily growled at seeing the damn hickey again. It was so damn obvious. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I mean, I was going to tell him I technically cheated, but I didn’t want to strut around with the proof right there on my neck. I also wanted to tell him in a quiet place and not break it to him the second we saw each other.

I splashed water in my face while my heart hammered away having to come clean for something I’d never done before. Cheating? Me? Oh, God. How could short encounters with Jaxon turn me into this kind of person? My stomach dropped and I might have heaved on the spot, only there was nothing to throw up; I’d eaten nothing yesterday.