Rolling my eyes, I muttered, “You’re such a guy.”
“You’re just now noticing that? Gia, your observation skills need some work.”
I had to fight to keep from smiling. “Are we going to eat or what?”
“Are you going to quit worrying?”
“After a while, I hope so.” I ran my fingers up and down the stem of my glass. “We’ve been together six weeks total over the course of our relationship. You wouldn’t be asking me to move in under normal circumstances—it’s too soon. You can tell me that it’s not a big deal to you and you’re ready, but I’m going to have to see it to believe it.”
“Fair enough.” He straightened. “Maybe, under ‘normal’ circumstances, we would’ve bounced back and forth between each other’s places for a few months, keeping up the pretense that we weren’t rushing things along, but we never would’ve spent a night apart. We don’t have that much self-control.”
“Maybe,” I conceded. “But you’re not a guy who likes having his hand forced.”
“I had options.” Setting his glass on the counter, he rounded the breakfast bar, approaching me with a slow, deliberate pace that made my toes curl. “I could’ve walked. I could’ve beefed up the security of your loft, or put you up someplace, or just let you fend for yourself.”
He stopped in front of me, tugging the belt of my robe loose and exposing me. He licked his lips, his eyelids becoming weighted with arousal. He set his hands over my knees, pushing my thighs apart. Cool air caressed my sex as his thumbs slid along the inside of my thighs. “I could’ve taken your offer to be the guy you call when you get lonely for this.”
I wrapped my legs around his hips and lured him closer. “Maybe I wouldn’t have called.”
“Would you be that cruel?” Jax untied the drawstring of his pants and freed his heavy cock. Fisting it, he primed himself for me.
I was riveted, entranced by the sight of his large hand stroking his thickly veined erection. “I would’ve held off as long as I could.”
“I would’ve sexted you, called you, hounded you.... No way I’d suffer alone.” His lips brushed across my forehead and he breathed, “Can you take me again?”
“You really are making up for lost time, aren’t you?”
“Can’t help what you do to me.” He ran the wide crown through the lips of my sex, nudging my clit. “The minute you showed up at that bar in Vegas, I was a dead man walking.”
My hands curled around the seat of the bar stool. “Liar. You were trolling. Half a dozen guys painting the town for a bachelor party. You were out to get laid no matter what.”
“I was,” he concurred, grinning. “So were you.”
“Picked up the hottest guy in the bar,” I said breathlessly, squirming as he teased me with languid strokes of the velvety head of his erection.
“I scored the hottest girl ever.” His tongue licked across my parted lips in a blatantly erotic tease. “You had me so worked up. Embarrassing as hell to be sporting a major hard-on for hours.”
“It was impossible to miss.” I smiled, remembering the rush. “You’re so big.”
“You want it?”
I nodded. “Wanted it then, too. Took you home with me, didn’t I? Figured I was too easy, but I couldn’t resist you.”
Jax notched himself into my wet cleft with a low groan. “I would’ve chased after you for days if that’s what it took. I couldn’t imagine not having you.”
Tightening my legs, I pulled him closer, shivering as he slid inexorably into me. I moaned his name, awed by the vulnerability I felt every time he took me.
“Gia. Baby.” He cupped my nape with one hand and gripped my hip with the other, holding me steady as he rolled his hips, urging slick tissues to let him sink deeper. “Feel that? I’m pushing into you but it feels like you’re sliding into me. Every fucking time, it’s like you’re slipping under my skin.”
“I want to.” My nails dug into his back, my fingers flexing. “I want to own you, Jackson.”
“Witch,” he bit out between clenched teeth, his jaw tight. “I thought I was going to take you to bed, bang the hell out of your insanely sexy body until sunrise, then head home with a smile. But you chewed me up and wrung me out. I couldn’t’ve crawled out of your bed if I’d wanted to and would’ve begged to stay if you’d tried to kick me out.”
“Ha! Tells me what a player you are.” I gasped as he filled me too full, a wild joy spreading through me. “I had no clue. You had me thinking you regularly medaled in marathon fucking.”
His gaze was soft on my flushed face. “I was a starving man, baby, living on junk food and scraps, and you were my first real home-cooked meal. I needed you, Gia, and I haven’t stopped.”
“I need you, too.” So much. Too much. Just being in the same room with him made me feel alive.
Cupping my ass, he lifted me and carried me to the couch. He spread me out, never leaving me, rising above me like a golden god.
“Don’t forget that,” he said hoarsely. Shaky fingertips brushed my hair away from my forehead. “When things get rough, don’t forget I need you.”
I saw the worry in his eyes, the worry he told me not to feel, and my heart twisted in my chest. Then he started moving inside me, riding me with strong smooth thrusts, and I let him sweep me away.