I Want You Back (Want You #1)(72)

He said, “Your legs,” without hesitation.

“It can’t be a physical attribute.”

“Naming your tits isn’t an acceptable answer either?”

“Ya think?”

Jax helped himself to a bite of ice cream. Then he set the cup aside and caged me against the counter.

My heart rate shot up a hundred beats, and I craned my neck to look up at him.

“Everything.” He kept those beautifully troubled eyes on mine as his hand curled around the side of my face. “I’ve always loved everything about you, Lucy. As far as what’s going on between us besides parenting as partners? Maybe this will clear things up for you.” His mouth crashed down on mine.

Then I was kissing Jax like I hadn’t kissed him in a decade.

Nine years, my subconscious reminded me.

Whatever.

But as passion exploded between us, it felt like we’d never been apart.

Kissing Jaxson Lund wasn’t something I could ever forget. He poured every ounce of his lust into me, fueling mine, reminding me of how it’d been between us.

Spontaneous.

Hot.

Desperate.

Fast and hard and hungry and dirty.

So very dirty and slightly obscene the way this man kissed me.

Every.

Single.

Time.

And time stopped for me. My head spun with each swirl of his tongue. My lips throbbed where he sucked on them. Nipped at them. Licked them in a long, sensuous stroke of his wicked tongue.

Jax felt my blood pounding as he slightly pushed his thumb into my carotid artery, as if he needed to gauge that my response to this—to him—was as powerful and all-consuming as before.

It was.

It so was.

When I shifted closer to him, that’s when his rumble of satisfaction vibrated through me.

He slid his hand down my throat, pressing his open palm on my chest before he slipped his fingers beneath my robe.

Jax never eased up on the kiss as he sought my skin with both hands. And where I expected his passionate greed, he gifted me with soft caresses bordering on devotion.

I spun further and further into the black hole of desire as Jax annihilated my walls with each sucking kiss, every insistent sweep of his tongue against mine.

I clawed at his shirt, needing something to anchor me as that need dug into my very existence. Having this physical connection was a frightening thing. Once I’d had it, I craved it. Which made it so much harder when it was ripped away.

No wonder I’d opted to build a wall around this part of me.

No surprise that Jax was the only man with the determination to knock it down.

Jax’s lips left mine so he could drag an openmouthed kiss from the base of my jaw to the hollow of my throat, and then slowly, slowly, slowly back up.

As he breathed heavily in my ear, chills skittered across my skin.

When he finally spoke, it wasn’t what I expected.

“Luce, I’m about five seconds from coming in my jeans, so I have to stop.”

I smiled and stroked his hair. “Okay.”

He nuzzled my throat and pulled me completely against his body.

That’s when I realized he was actually shaking. “Jax?”

“Fuck. Just give me a minute.” His hold on me tightened, and he’d buried his face so deeply in my neck I had no idea how he could breathe.

I hoped he got himself under control before Mimi burst in, as she was prone to do. I didn’t know how we’d explain it.

He released me and took a step back. He righted my robe—wearing his usual cocky smirk—and smoothed my hair back, before tilting my head to meet his gaze. “That’s what’s going on between us.”

When I started to speak, he shook his head.

“Please listen first. I want a chance with you. Maybe this is a surprise, maybe it’s not. But don’t discount how serious I am. Yes, it’s complicated as fuck-all, but there’s one way we can simplify everything.”

“How?”

“Tell me that this isn’t one sided and everything we’ve talked about has allowed you to believe that I’ve changed.”

“I know you have. That’s why I didn’t shove you away when you shoved your tongue down my throat.”

He smiled and pecked me on the lips. “You loved it.”

“Your take-charge side has always been impossible for me to resist, sport.”

His eyes searched mine. “You want this, right?”

My heart hesitated, but my mouth didn’t. “Yes. But I want to take it slow. Like baby steps slow.”

“I can do that.”

“And if it’s not working out, and we call it off, we act like adults.”

“You already act as if this is going to fail. Like it’s just us killing time with each other until someone better comes along.”

Jax had it all wrong, but the hurt in his eyes caused me to switch gears. “Fine. But both Channing Tatum and Josh Duhamel are single now, and if I run into them—”

His mouth was on mine again, owning mine again, every muscled inch of him plastered against me, his hands in my hair as he proved he knew exactly how to turn me on.

When Jax finally broke the kiss, he murmured, “Think about that if you ever ‘run into’ one of them.”

“Who?”