Stay with Me (Wait for You, #3)(82)

I shouldn’t even be in the house, let alone sitting in his bed, because I don’t belong here.

All at once, I wanted to be back at Shepherd, sitting with Teresa and watching the Hot Guy Brigade from a safe distance. There I was safe, because no one knew anything about me, and I had my Three F’s, and that was it, what I knew and what I forced myself to be okay with.

Clenching the juice box to the point it almost exploded like a volcano, I started to slide off the bed, my belly doing this terrible twisty motion. “I can sleep downstairs tonight and then tomorrow—”

“What?”

My toes were almost on the hardwood floor. “I said, I could sleep downstairs and tomorrow I can—”

“I heard you.” He put the empty beer on the top of his dresser as he faced me.

I glanced around. “I’m confused. If you heard what I was saying then why did you say what?”

“Okay. Maybe I should’ve expanded on that statement,” he corrected, and with wide eyes, I watched him bend over, and then I sucked in a short breath as he gripped my hips. An acute quiver radiated down my thighs, because wow-wee, this man knew how to grab hips. “Why in the f*ck would you be sleeping downstairs?”

Slowly, I lifted my fruit punch and took a huge gulp. “I just thought that after . . . um, everything . . .” I trailed off as he lifted me back so that my feet weren’t on the floor.

“You thought what? That I didn’t want you up here with me?” He prowled onto the bed. There was no other word for what he was doing. One leg was on one side of mine, and the other on the other side. His hands were still on my hips. “That I didn’t notice how great you looked today? And not once did you turn your cheek to the left to hide?”

Oh my God.

Fruit punch forgotten.

“You thought I didn’t want to sleep beside you again? You guessed that wrong if that’s the case.” His fingers curled into my hips, sending a rush of warmth through my veins. “I really f*cking enjoyed going to sleep next to you and waking up next to you. Which is new to me. I’m not usually a big fan of that, but you . . . yeah, you’re different.”

I never wanted to be more different in my life.

His hands dragged up my sides. “Or you thought I didn’t notice that you were doing good all day, in spite of the shit we dealt with in the morning? We went to a shit hole and we almost got run over, but you still smiled afterward. You handled it, went to work. Then Aimee showed up.”

Jax dipped his head and brushed his lips across mine. “Aimee and I never dated.”

My muscles locked up as my brain called bull crap on that. “I don’t think that’s really any of my business.”

He made a deep sound of disapproval. “You’re in my bed right now, right?”

“Well, yeah.”

“And my mouth was just on you, correct?”

I nodded.

“My hand has been between those pretty legs, too?”

Oh wow. That warmth turned to a molten heat that centered between said legs.

His forehead pressed against mine. “And I’m taking you out to dinner later. So tell me, how in the f*ck does some chick showing up tonight, hanging all over me, and insinuating that we’ve got a past, have nothing to do with you?”

“Okay,” I whispered. “When you put it that way, I guess it does.”

“Guess?” He drew back, shaking his head. And then he sat back, his legs on either side of mine, his hands resting on my waist. “I get that you haven’t done this before.”

I raised my fruit punch and took another drink while there was a flutter in my stomach.

“But you need to understand where this is heading. I’ve already told you that I like you. I think I’ve made that pretty damn obvious. And when we get done with this conversation, I’m going to make it even more obvious for you.”

Not going to lie. Big parts of me liked the sound of this.

“Aimee and I hooked up a couple of times,” he went on, and an ugly feeling lit up my chest even though I’d already figured it out. “She normally stays in Philly and I guess she’s still going to college up north. I don’t know, and honestly, I don’t care. Things were casual between us. She’s been to my place. Never stayed the night here. Not once. And she sure as hell never got to drink fruit punch in my bed.”

“I’m happy to hear that last part,” I admitted.

A grin flashed across his face. “Aimee is a beautiful girl. She knows how to have fun, but she isn’t the girl for me. Never has been.”

That flutter was in my chest again.

He shifted his hands as he tilted his head to the side. “And I know that what’s going on in your head is more than just some chick I’d slept with in the past popping up. It’s what she said tonight.”

I tensed all over again. “Jax—”

He placed his forefinger over my lips, silencing me. Normally, if anyone did that to me, I’d be inclined to bite their finger off, but the subject matter was too intense for that.

“I know,” he said quietly. “I know all about the fire.”

Air lodged in my throat. I planted one hand in the bed as I leaned back from him, but his hands tightened around my waist. I didn’t get very far. I couldn’t do this. I could feel the slight grip on my control slipping.