Persuasion Skills (11 page)

“I’m sorry.”

“Excuse me?”

“I didn’t mean to make you feel like some
plaything. You mean so much more to me than just some physical satisfaction.
You know that, right?”

She didn’t know what to say. All she
could do was nod and stare at him, afraid of what his words meant.

“This,” he said as he rubbed his cock
slowly against her stomach, “isn’t going anywhere. I doubt I’ll ever stop
wanting to get inside you. But I don’t want you to ever think that I don’t
respect you, Pep. You’re my best friend, and I’d never do that to you. Am I forgiven?”

She had to gulp past the affection
clogging her throat. Falling out of love with him was going to be damn near
impossible.

“I know that, Jax. You’re forgiven, but I
reserve the right to kick your ass the next time you get out of line.”

A smile bloomed across his face. She
wanted to squeeze her eyes shut against the warmth of it. “I wouldn’t have it
any other way. As long as you know I may spank your ass in turn. Are we
square?”

“Yeah, He-Man. We’re square.”

“Good.”

He leaned down and kissed the tip of her
nose, before rolling away.

She barely had a chance to blink before
he reached over, turned off the bedside lamp, and settled beside her.

The room was plunged into a soft
darkness, the hearth’s fire across the room chasing shadows along the walls.

He pulled her down to him, snuggling his
front to her back.

“Jax?”

“Hmm?”

She wiggled against him as he snaked a
hand up to palm one of her breasts and the other down to cup her pussy.

“Exactly how short is your memory?” she
asked, trying to hold back a smile.

She felt more than heard his rumble of
laughter against her back.

“Like an elephant’s. This isn’t
man-handling. It’s spooning.”

“And you just have to do it with your
hand on my crotch?”

He pressed his hard length against her
ass.

“Most definitely.”

The man was incorrigible.

“You’re impossible.”

“And you’re keeping me from my beauty
rest. Besides, a wife set on punishing her husband should expect a hard set of
blue balls rubbing against her at night.”

She couldn’t hold back her bubble of
laughter as she snuggled against him and rested her hand on his strong arm.

Surprisingly, her body relaxed into his
as if they were unlikely perfect puzzle pieces. It wasn’t long before her eyes
drooped to sleep, letting her greedy heart bask in the feel of his arms holding
her tight.

Chapter Eleven

Jax was ripped from a sound sleep, a
guttural growl erupting from his throat into the soft morning light.

Blinking into consciousness in the warm
cocoon of the bed, his mind was fuzzy with sleep, but his body burned hot and
tight with need. It took him several moments to orient himself.

He remembered falling asleep with Pepper
in his arms and was about to attribute his arousal to heightened morning wood
in her presence when he felt her hand tighten around his length.

Another moan was pulled from his lips as
his hips arched up, and sudden realization hit him.

How long had she been stroking him?
Looking down, he saw her snuggled to his side, head resting on his chest, her
face turned up to his, and her eyes … closed and fluttering in sleep.

One of her legs was draped across his
hips, and she was slowly rubbing the wet heat of her pussy against him. No
wonder he felt ready to burst. The little brat was driving him to the edge
while she slept.

He leaned his head back onto the pillow
and struggled to take a few calming breaths. He had to put a stop to her
ministrations and soon. Because of her, he’d been in varying states of arousal
since she arrived yesterday, and at the moment, he was seriously wondering how
much longer his internal organs could stay operational with all of his blood
firmly lodged in his cock.

If your erection
lasts longer than four hours, you should seek immediate medical assistance.

The coolly delivered medical warning
fluttered through his mind as he struggled for control of his baser instincts.
He used to laugh at all of the little blue pill commercials on television, but
as he gritted his teeth against the soft, mind-bendingly erotic strokes of
Pepper’s hand, he found himself sympathizing. The only good news was that he
was sure that as long as she was in his life, he’d never worry about his dick
being ready.

After a few more moments of delicious
torture, he pulled her hand gently from his shaft and held her slender fingers
to his chest.

Her forehead spiked down in a slight
frown before it smoothed out. She let out a small sigh and snuggled more firmly
against him, her warm breasts and wet sex searing an imprint on his side.

Gliding a hand up her thigh, he admired
the velvety soft feel of her skin and bit back a sigh of his own. There was no
way that he would ever tire of having her in his arms, but if he didn’t get out
of the bed soon, he’d do something really stupid. Like roll her over and bury
himself to the hilt in her succulent cunt.

Clenching his hand on her thigh, it took
him a few more moments to convince his cock that the time had come to leave the
temptation of Pepper’s warmth.

He finally released her, extricated
himself from her sexy clutches, and slowly rolled off the mattress as quietly
as he could, trying not to wake her. He quickly made his way to the closet and
pulled on a pair of jeans before stopping in the bathroom to brush his teeth. Fortunately,
by the time he made his way to the kitchen, he had his body somewhat under
control.

He started breakfast in hopes this would
be enough to get his body to settle back down completely. If he was lucky, he
might actually go a whole five minutes without wanting to explode.

He laughed softly as he gathered the
ingredients necessary for a big breakfast and recalled the events of the
previous night. Since he’d realized how he felt about Pepper, he never once
doubted that they were a perfect match. Last night had solidified that belief.

She was the one person in his life who
managed to always put him firmly in his place when his tendency to steamroll
went unchecked. It was one of the things he loved most about her. She was never
afraid to speak her mind and level the playing field.

He shook his head at his lack of finesse
in the shower. He hadn’t intentionally meant to make her feel like some object.
The whole escapade had started as a way to rip the band aid off of her fear of
sleeping in the same bed as him. Which, technically, in retrospect, he supposed
he’d accomplished. His dick just wasn’t fully appreciative of that fact yet.

After she’d left him stranded and
desperate in the shower, it had taken him forever to get his hard-on under
control. He hadn’t been joking when he told her there wasn’t enough cold water
in the world to combat his arousal for her. The moment she left, he’d adjusted
the temperature to an arctic blast, but the memory of her mouth on him was too
strong. A half hour passed before he just gave up and accepted the fact that
short of pulling Pepper back into his arms, nothing was going to offer him any
relief.

Even now, doing the mundane task of
cracking eggs into a bowl, the memory was enough to stir his cock back to life.
He shifted his stance lightly to relieve the quickly growing pressure in his
jeans.
Down, boy.
No woman had ever
been able to distract and arouse him to the levels that Pepper did.

A re-affirmation of his plan was called
for. As he mixed pancake batter, he mentally pulled up his “Operation Pepper”
plan. He was tempted to consult the notes he’d written down in his projects
journal but decided against it. The last thing he needed was for Pepper to find
him reading his master plan. He was smart enough to realize that she might interpret
his notes as too calculated an approach. But what else was he supposed to do?
If he waited around for her to come to the same conclusion he’d already
reached, they’d be too old to do anything about it.

He’d already accomplished two of the
biggest hurdles by getting her to come to the cabin and convincing her to stay.
Admittedly, he was floundering a bit in the effort to convince her marriage was
the perfect course of action, but he wasn’t completely losing the battle
either.

Despite all of her protestations, she was
still responsive to him both physically and emotionally. Yesterday had proven
that their friendship extended naturally into romance, whether she wanted to
concede the point yet or not.

What he needed was a little more
patience. He thought briefly on his “plan B” but quickly dismissed it. As
enjoyable as it may be, he didn’t want Pepper to doubt his genuine love for
her. Now that he’d proven that his attraction to her wasn’t going away any time
that century, he would back off a bit. He snorted softly into the air, just a
little bit. He doubted he’d be able to have her in the same room as him, and
not touch her, but he would try not to push her into any more heavy moments
like he had last night.

His decision made, he focused his energy
on completing breakfast and convincing his dick not to pounce on Pepper’s
half-naked sleeping body across the room. He added a package of sausage links
to a skillet and began to slowly let them sizzle.
Mind over dick. Mind over dick.
He was a grown man, with dual
engineering degrees and a PhD. How difficult could it be?

“Hey, do you need some help with that
sausage?”

 
He
turned to see Pepper leaning against the kitchen island, her hair mussed and
her eyes still slightly hooded from sleep.

He let his gaze travel over her curvy
legs exposed by her make-shift night gown, to rest on her large dark nipples
clearly visible through the white fabric.
Well,
shit
. He brought his gaze up to her face as her lush mouth opened wide to
let out a yawn, before her perfect pink tongue slipped out and slicked across
her full lips. In a matter of seconds, his cock stretched to full mast. Ten
years of higher education completely wasted.

Pepper stood blinking up at Jax, admiring
the thick lines of his muscular chest as she bit back a sigh. She had to admit
that waking up to find him half naked and cooking breakfast was a definite perk
to being locked away with him.

The smell of the sizzling food had pulled
her from a delicious dream that still had her core wet and aching. Her body kept
thrumming with the memory of it when she rolled over and saw him across the
room wearing nothing but a pair of snug, worn blue jeans. Before she could
think better of it, she’d padded across the bedroom into the kitchen and
approached his turned back.

She couldn’t keep her gaze from taking in
every inch of his exposed flesh. She doubted she’d ever get tired of the view.
Finally, she made her way up to his face, her brow wrinkling in surprise at his
scowl.

How could she forget how obsessed with
breakfast he was? She suspected it was most likely due to the fact that morning
meals were the only ones he actually knew how to prepare without burning.
Whenever he’d ever made her breakfast, he’d always insisted on doing everything
himself.

Recalling her question regarding helping,
she rolled her eyes.

“Okay, sorry I forgot about your culinary
expertise, Chef Grey. I’m gonna go get dressed, and I expect a full plate when
I get back.” She smiled teasingly at him.

Her words only seemed to make his scowl
deepen. Shaking her head at him, she turned to leave, but before she could take
one step, his hands gripped her around her waist.

The room spun, and by the time it righted
itself again, the cool surface of the granite countertop graced the underneath
of her rear. He nudged her legs apart and stepped in between her thighs. She
bit back a moan at the feel of his erection prodding at her through his thick
jeans.

“I thought we settled the whole no
man-handling thing last night,” she said, giving him a frown of her own.

He cupped her cheeks in his palms and
leaned down, his forehead touching hers and his evergreen gaze capturing her
eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to
be a grouch.”

She reached up and placed her hands on
his forearms.

“If you’re so sorry, then why is my butt
frozen on this cold counter?”

She smiled at him, hoping to tease a
smile out of his serious face.

His eyes crinkled before he dropped his
hands down to cup her ass. He squeezed her cheeks before yanking her forward,
forcing her to wrap her legs and arms around him to prevent herself from
falling.

“Jax—”

“You forgot to give me my good morning
kiss.”

He held her hips firmly against his as he
nibbled at her exposed collarbone.

“Shouldn’t you actually wait to be
offered one before taking it?”