Fighting Ever After (Ever After #3) (9 page)

When the
three of them came back downstairs, the hostility had left Bas, so whatever was
said must have changed things. Shane was saying his goodbyes to Jax and
promising to bring someone over for her to meet tomorrow and then he left and
it was just the four of us

Chris stood.
“I’m gonna crash at Dad’s tonight,” he said, “Ky you want to come snuggle?” I scowled
at him. “Oh come on, I thought your rules only extended to females,” he joked
and I wished he’d just kept his mouth shut.

 
“Rules?”
Jax eyed me curiously.

I sighed, “I
don’t sleep with anyone Princess.”

 
“Hmph.
I find that really hard to believe,” she retorted,
misunderstanding me.

“We’re not
talking about the same thing, Princess. When I take a girl to bed it’s not
sleeping that we do, and when we’re done I say goodbye. I don’t spoon, or
cuddle, or do mornings after or any of that other bullshit.”

“Yes, how
unreasonable of a girl to expect any decency or consideration after giving it
up to you.” Her scathing tone told me I wasn’t earning any points with her, but
I didn’t give a shit.

“You think
they come to me half dressed and lust crazed, looking for a good cuddle?” I
sneered. “They know exactly what they’re getting and I can assure you, they’re
plenty satisfied when I’m done.”

“You’re an
ass.”

“On that note, goodnight.
You kids try to play nice.” Chris waggled
his eyebrows and made his exit.

“Well
Casanova,” she said, her voice brimming with contempt. “Your choices are the
couch or the princess bed. You can take your pick. There are extra blankets in
the closet by the stairs,” she waved her hand to indicate the closet she was
talking about before she turned and headed up the stairs. I looked at the couch
and then followed after her and Bas. At least that girly ass princess bed was a
real bed. I watched Bas follow Jaxyn into her room. I think I’d be willing to
break my own rules to trade places with him.

I don’t know
what it was that woke me. She hadn’t made a sound coming into the room, and yet
I knew without a doubt that someone was hovering over me. That was the feeling
I had woken to, and I had no doubt about
who
it was. I
just didn’t know what Princess was up to. The next second I heard the telltale
sound of a cell phone camera snapping a picture. It was hard not to grin.
That little brat.

Before she
had time to react, I grabbed her and pulled her down onto the bed, rolling us
so that she was beneath me. “Good morning, Princess,” I uttered in a low voice.
I had her wrists pinned above her head, and our bodies were connected in all
the right places. She was so soft beneath me. Her small, t shirt covered
breasts brushed my bare skin with the heavy rise and fall of her chest. Her
breaths were coming in short and I could smell the fruity scent of her shampoo.
I felt myself start to stiffen.

I switched
her wrists to one hand and pried the phone out of her fingers with the other. “I
think I’ll take this.” I held it up and unlocked the screen, she really should
have it password protected. I went to her pictures and found the one she’d
taken of me, curled up in these fucking ridiculous pink sheets with the
princess pillow. I deleted that shit, narrowing my eyes at my naughty little
princess. “That wasn’t very nice, Princess.”

Her
breathing became more ragged and she stared up at me with wide eyes, full of
apprehension and something else. I chuckled, amused and pleased by the desire I
saw. I lowered my body so that there wasn’t an inch of space between us, and my
mouth hovered just above hers. I turned my head and grazed her jaw line with
the tip of my nose until I buried my face in the crook of her neck. I breathed
in deeply, taking in the fruity smell and the more subtle, natural smell of her
skin. I let out a sigh and groaned, “
Mmmm
. If this is
what I’m missing out on waking up to, I may have to reconsider my stance on
sleepovers.” I wouldn’t mind waking up to her beside me. Even with messy bed
hair and sleepy eyes, she was fucking gorgeous. I wanted to taste every single
inch of her, starting with her lips and ending at her sweet spot.

I pressed my
lips to the skin of her shoulder that was exposed by her loose shirt and then
parted them to trace my tongue up her neck to her ear. The instant my tongue
met her flesh, she sucked in a sharp breath and her body stilled beneath me. I
gently tugged her earlobe between my teeth and the soft little sigh that I’m
not even sure she was aware she let out, almost undid me. I released her
earlobe and quickly pushed myself up off the bed before she realized how hard I
was becoming. I picked up my discarded jeans and shirt from last night and
threw them on before quickly escaping the room. Another second in there and I
would have stripped her bare and taken her hard and fast.

I found the
bathroom and splashed some cool water on my face and then used her toothbrush
to brush my teeth before heading downstairs. Bas was sitting at the counter in
the kitchen and Chris was rummaging through the cupboards. “You’re sure there’s
not a coffee pot here somewhere?” he asked his brother.

“I’m sure,
so just give up. You should have made some at Dad’s.”

“Well I
would have, but I came over so Jax could make me breakfast.”

“Yeah, and
maybe next time you could text me to give me a heads up that you’re letting my
girlfriend in the house too.”
Lissa had showed up?

“Well, I
assumed she had called you to tell you she was coming. I didn’t know she was
going to find you in
Jax’s
bed and then react like
that.”
Oh shit.
 She found them in bed, and I’d slept through it?
That had to be good. From Lissa’s behavior the other night, I doubted she had
been okay with it.

“Eventful morning?”
I asked.

“You have no
idea, man. I can’t believe you slept through it. She was screaming and yelling,
calling people whores and bitches, well not people, just Jax, but it was
intense,” Chris filled me in. I felt a little bad for what had just happened
upstairs. Obviously Jax had already had a shitty morning and then I went and
did that.

“Hey, did
you see her up there when you got up? Think she’ll come down any time soon?” He
asked. I ignored him and walked over to the fridge, rummaging through its
contents to find what I needed to cook breakfast for her and these two idiots.
They disappeared into the living room to wait.

When Jax
finally came down, fresh from the shower, I’d familiarized myself with her
kitchen. The bacon was sitting on a plate cooling and the potatoes and omelets
were just about done. “Hungry?” I asked her.

She nodded
and I grabbed a small stack of plates from the cupboard and told her to sit
while I dished a plate for her and set it in front of her. 

“Umm,
thanks,” she muttered, seemingly surprised by the gesture.
My
own fault.

“Don’t look
so shocked. I’m not always an ass, and you’re welcome.”

Then Bas and
Chris came barging into the kitchen from the living room like a couple of
hungry wolves.

 
“Smells good.
Food done?”
Chris
asked, not even slowing down as he made his way over to the stove, grabbing one
of the plates. Bas was right behind him and by the time I’d grabbed the orange
juice from the fridge and poured two glasses, I was lucky there was any food
left.

“
Mmmm
. Wow, this is amazing,” Jax said.

“Much better
than Nutter Butters in strawberry milk, that’s for sure,” Bas teased her and I
just shook my head, not at all surprised even though I didn’t know her that
well.

“Princess,
cookies aren’t breakfast.” I set my plate on the table next to her, along with
the glasses of juice. I pulled out the chair, and once I was seated, I slid one
of the glasses over to her.

“Thank you,
but cookies can be breakfast if you put them in a bowl and add milk,” she
argued. “This is really amazing too though. Thank you for cooking.”

“I don’t understand
how you have a body like that if you’ve been eating cookies for breakfast.” I’d
felt every inch of her this morning; soft and feminine, but toned in all the
right places.  “But you’re welcome for this, it wasn’t a big deal. We all
needed to eat.” For some reason I didn’t want her to know I’d done it for her.
I knew she would look at me all weird, with those perceptive eyes, and probably
read more into it than me just trying to make up for being an asshole earlier.
 That was the only reason I’d done it. It wasn’t like I did nice shit for
people all the time.

“Hey man,
where’s our juice?” Chris raised a mocking eyebrow at me.

 “You
dickheads can get your own,” I told him, not missing the way the corners of his
mouth quirked upward. I tried to ignore it, but even I had to admit that I’d
been lying earlier when I told Jax I wasn’t usually an ass, because I was. Ace,
Spade, Chris, his brother, Danny and even that little genius punk Marcus; they
were my family. Nobody else mattered; nobody else was supposed to matter. If I
was a dick to a girl, I didn’t feel bad about it. I certainly didn’t cook her
breakfast, so I could see why Chris was amused, surprised even, but he was
wrong about why I was doing it. He was seeing something that wasn’t there, that
wouldn’t ever be there. This girl was inevitably going to be around for a
while, and things would be better if I didn’t make her hate me, and my chances
of eventually getting laid were better if she didn’t hate me too. That was the
only reason.

Bas was
complaining to Jax about the lack of coffee and talking about some shopping
trip to pick up stuff for him to stay with her and the dinner she was cooking
tonight.

“Oh man I
can’t wait for dinner,” Chris said excitedly before shoveling another bite of
eggs into his mouth.

“How can you
already be thinking about dinner when you’re still eating breakfast?” Bas asked
him.

“Easy, I
haven’t had her cooking in three years.” This was the second time he’d seemed
overly excited about the prospect of her making him a meal.

“You like to
cook?” I asked her.

“Yeah, it
was something I used to help my mom do every night,” she answered and then
looked back over at Chris. “Who said you were even invited though? I’m cooking
for my brother’s family.”

He just
laughed. “Like I said, I haven’t had your cooking in three years. The fact that
it was announced that you are making dinner was all the invitation I needed. So
what are you making?”

“I was
thinking I would make lasagna.”

“And I was
hoping you would say that. Oh and you have to make cheesecake, please say
you’ll make cheesecake?”

“Strawberry okay with you?”
She asked him sarcastically.

“Hell yes!”

I took the
opportunity to include myself in that invitation. “Well then, you two can go do
your shopping,” I told her, “and we’ll head back to our place and meet you back
here later.” She sighed but didn’t argue. I figured that was as good as I could
expect. At least she didn’t tell me I couldn’t come.

When
everyone was done and the food was gone, thanks in part mostly to Chris, he and
Bas dropped their dishes in the sink and disappeared into the living room. Jax
got up and grabbed the pans and extra dishes. She started rinsing things and
loading the dishwasher. I looked toward the living room, but instead of
following them, I got up and went to stand next to her. I took the plate she
was rinsing and loaded it myself.

She started
to protest, “You cooked, you don’t have to do the clean up as well.”

“Just say
thank you, Princess.” I bumped her out of my way with my hip and started
washing the pans she’d placed in the sink to soak.

“Thank you.”
She grabbed a dish towel and began drying the dishes as I washed them. I was
content with the quiet between us, but that left me questioning my reasons for
being in here with her and why I wasn’t able to just walk away. I preferred to
ignore the thoughts that were running rampant in my head about why that might
be. I told myself, once I had her figured out, the challenge would lose its
appeal and then I could walk away. I took the opportunity to try and pry more
information from her.

“So, you
ready to fill me in on last night? What was up with Bas and your brother? I’ve
never seen Bas so violent, but since you’ve been back, it seems it’s a common
occurrence.”

She wouldn’t
meet my eyes.
“Nothing really to tell.
Bas and my
brother haven’t always gotten along. They sorted some things out last night and
now they’re all good.” That wasn’t even close to it. I could tell she was
leaving all the good stuff out.

She turned
away and started putting the pans in the cupboard. I could tell she was trying
to avoid looking at me. I shut off the water and turned, leaning against the
counter, to watch her. My eyes locked on the curve of her ass when she stood on
her tip toes to reach overhead to put something on the top shelf. He shirt rode
up just a fraction, but it was enough to make me want to go press myself up
against her, molding my body to hers, and wrap my hands around her slim waist
and feel that peaches and cream skin that was exposed, beneath my touch. When
she finally turned to face me again, I blanked my expression and she just stood
there, eyes narrowed, taking me in. “Where did you learn how to cook, and are
your skills limited to breakfast?”

She was
changing the subject and making it clear that that she didn’t want to talk
about last night or Connor or any of the shit I was dying to know. She was
almost as stubborn as I was, but one way or another I would get her to open up.
I found myself having to hold back a bitter laugh at that thought as I answered
her question, telling her about all the time I spent with our cook as a kid and
even into my teens.  Usually when a girl started opening up, I just wanted
to shut her up. That was the point when they had to go before they started
thinking we were something we weren’t. Now, I couldn’t get enough out of this
one, and not only did I want to know everything about her, but I was sharing
shit from my own life. I never did that.

I didn’t
want anyone thinking they knew me or that they had me all figured out. I hadn’t
told Jax much, but already I didn’t like the way she was looking at me, like
she was searching for something. She needed to know that whatever she was
hoping to find, wasn’t there. I took a threatening step towards her and lowered
my voice to the one reserved for getting a girl to drop her panties, “And my
skills go way beyond breakfast.” It had the desired effect and she immediately
pulled back. I had her right where I wanted her, and her body responded
beautifully to my control. She tried to hide it, but I caught the heavy rise
and fall of her chest, the shift in her stance and the way she was wringing
that dishtowel in her hands. A physical reaction to each other, that’s all this
was. “I look forward to tasting your cooking tonight.” My meaning wasn’t lost
on her and she brushed it off with a roll of her eyes that came off more
nervous than I’m sure she intended it to.