Reckless (Renegades #1) (16 page)

“Tell me”—Jax’s voice came from somewhere deep in the room, somewhere behind the sofa. It was rough, strained—“you have something on besides my jacket, Lex.”

Lexi smiled. Excitement surged in her chest, and she closed her eyes. “Why?”

A sound came from his throat. Something needy, lusty. Pained.

She pushed herself two steps forward, out of the darkness of the short hallway leading into the suite’s living room. With one hand pressed to the wall, she used the other to ease aside one edge of his jacket, giving him a better peek. “Would it make you feel better to know I have on a bra and panties? Ones I bought today, while I was thinking of you?”

From where she stood, she could make out his shadow. He was sitting in a chair, leaning forward, arms resting on his knees. He’d left the curtains open, and the lights of the city turned the sheers a soft blush.

“You’ve…” he started, his voice thick, “…modeled.”

The excitement twisted on her and pinched. Lexi’s past included many men who she’d come to learn had been with her for the sole purpose of telling buddies they were sleeping with a model. She’d never wanted or enjoyed the superficial lifestyle, but it had paid well. A handful of years modeling on the side had given Lexi enough cash to launch Lexi LaCroix Designs.

“I have,” she admitted. “A long time ago. How could you tell?”

“The way you move, the way you stand.”

Lexi swallowed and asked him what she’d asked in a different way at the airport. “Have you modeled?”

He laughed. The sound slid over her like a touch, and need rose to the surface. “You didn’t get a good look at me, did you? I’m thinking your lights-off idea is a good one. I…dated a few models.”

She echoed his laugh. “Models don’t date unattractive men, Jax. And I have fifteen-fifteen vision. Rest assured, your looks may have been an initial draw, but they aren’t the reason I’m in your room dressed in next to nothing, ready to do anything you want until my plane leaves in the morning.”

Jax’s breath left his chest in a heavy whoosh, followed by silence. Lexi could swear the air in the room grew heavy. Thick. Tight. And not in a good way.

The shadow of Jax’s head lowered, and a muffled curse filtered through the room.

Lexi’s stomach pinched. She stepped forward with an urge to fix—mend whatever tear she’d just made between them.

“Then why?” His frustrated question stopped her. The hurt anger in his voice chilled all the heat in her belly.

He stood and came toward her. Lexi fell back a step. As soon as he rounded the arm of the sofa, the distant light from the bathroom whispered over him. He was shirtless, jeans unfastened and hanging low on his hips. His hair lay flat, pulled off his face, probably wet from the shower. The dim light hit on his straight nose, angled jaw, broad forehead. The hell he wasn’t model quality.

And that body… God, he was fucking
built
. The shadows hinted at ridges of muscle from his shoulders to his belly, some of which she’d already felt, but seeing it… The hunger she’d suffered all day tried to break through her fear.

“Why?” he asked again, standing close enough to touch. “Why are you here, dressed in next to nothing, ready to do anything I want until your plane leaves in the morning, Lexi?”

Her stomach clenched. But his tone wasn’t angry as she’d thought. He was hurt. Suspicious. Jaded.

Lexi tried to search his expression but couldn’t see any more than his flexing jaw. She swallowed back regret and reached up. Ran her thumb over the rigid, pulsating surface. “What happened today? You didn’t question me this morning.”

“I was reminded that you and I seem to have a similar problem—having people want us for reasons other than what they give up front.”

Lexi remembered his friend’s words at the airport.
“It’s not a good time for him.”
Yet she’d started a flirtation, accepted an invitation, then tossed in her own stupid mind games on the guy. Guilt tainted her excitement. She was always trying to please everyone else, always trying to anticipate what a client would want, need, love, and give it to her. But she hadn’t done that here. She’d only been thinking about what she wanted, not how it might affect him.

“I’m sorry. That’s…never a good feeling. But that is the beauty of anonymity, right? People can’t want something they don’t know you have.”

He didn’t immediately respond, then asked, “What happened at your meeting?”

“I’d really rather not talk about it, but since I can tell it’s important to you…” She shifted on her feet, trying to figure out what she wanted to say. “It…didn’t go as smoothly as I’d hoped.” She let out a breath, all the frustration and worry and disappointment flooding back in. “I was under the impression I was specifically chosen for this partnership. But I found out at lunch, while the designer really wants me to join her, she has a board of directors who are interested in a couple of other top designers. They’ve decided to turn this into a competition, which doesn’t please me at all. Not because I can’t win, because I know I can—”

She stopped suddenly, realizing how conceited that sounded. “I mean…I’m not saying that because I’m full of myself. I know because I’ve participated in so many to get where I am, that I know how they work, I know the ins and outs. I know what judges like to see, how they score, how to present pieces in a unique way. I know how to win competitions the way some people know how to take tests.

“Anyway, I’m already operating at my limit. I don’t have the bandwidth to stretch myself even thinner.” She could feel the stress rising again. Just talking about it made a strap of steel tighten around her chest, forcing pressure to her head. “But if I don’t take this opportunity, I’ll continue to be overwhelmed.”

This wasn’t a good time for either of them. “I’m sorry, Jax. I…have too much going on to be a good…” A good what? A good fuck?

Jesus, she was twisting her own mind into knots. She shoved her hands into the pockets of his jacket. “Do you…want me to go?”

“No.” He reached out and gripped her arms. Firm but not painful. The light touched on his tattoo—something she’d forgotten all about. “No, I don’t want you to go. I’m just…I just want to know why you want to be here with me. The real reason. The truth.”

She collected her scattered thoughts. “I’m here because I like you. Because you’re fun and thoughtful and interesting and sexy. Because you make me feel more than I’ve felt in what seems like forever.

“I’ve already made it clear I’m not looking for anything beyond tonight.” Her nerves kicked up as her mind spun. “I don’t know what else there is to want. What do you have that other people want from you?”

He hesitated. “Connections.”

When he didn’t say any more, she tried to connect the dots. “With who…movie people? Producers, directors, actors? That kind of thing?”

“That kind of thing.” His answer held a bitter edge.

“Well, that’s of absolutely no interest to me, Jax. I have a lot of the same people as clients. I have all the contacts I could want in Hollywood, and I don’t need any of them. As far as I’m concerned, people are people, and their value stems from their character, not their popularity or notoriety.” She leaned into him, and he let her, releasing her arms and sliding them around her. Combing his fingers through her hair. “Besides my clients, I wouldn’t know a star if they walked up to me on the street, and I like it that way.”

She slid her hands over his muscled torso from belly to chest, loving the way his hands fisted in her hair. The way his nipples tightened under her fingers and a moan rumbled in his throat.

“Everything I want is right here, beneath my hands.” She leaned in and kissed his chest. Loved the way a thin dusting of hair brushed her lips. “Are we good?”

“Not yet.” He tilted her face up with one hand and covered her mouth with his, lips hot and demanding. His tongue forced her mouth open and took hers. She opened fully to him on a moan. Let go of all thought and took in the feel of his mouth and this passionate, hungry kiss.

His arms came around her again, pulling her hips to his, his cock already rigid and swollen against her lower belly. The hot skin and hard muscle of his chest pressed against her. Lexi whimpered and tried to push higher, tried to get him between her legs, but she was already in four-inch heels and had no leverage.

Jax answered her need by lifting her, and Lexi greedily wrapped his hips in her thighs, rocking her hips into place as Jax licked into her mouth.

“Jax, want you.” She kissed him deeply. Scraped her fingers into his hair. “Need you.”

He groaned, his hands moving over her like he couldn’t touch her fast enough. His mouth eating at her mouth like he couldn’t get enough of her taste. He pressed her against a wall, but she couldn’t remember moving from the middle of the living room. His hips sank deep between her legs, and a fierce shot of pleasure arched her back. She broke the kiss on a moan.

Jax’s mouth dropped to her throat. His hands to her ass. He pumped his hips against her. His cock rubbed its hard length over her sex, and he used his hands to pull her into the movement. His teeth bit at the skin of her throat, then his tongue soothed.

“Oh God… Yes.” She couldn’t believe the intensity of this. “I’ve been thinking about this…all day.” She put her hand to his face, tried to pull his mouth up from where it kept sliding lower. If he closed his mouth over her breast, she’d explode. “Jax. Inside me. Come inside me. Please.”

His tongue slid over the exposed curve of her breast. “Soon.”

Christ, the way he moved. He made her see stars. He didn’t thrust. He rocked. Undulated. Varied pressure. Moved her hips to his strokes. Like a dance. The same way he kissed. This wasn’t a fuck. It was an art.

His tongue passed over her nipple, and the friction spread fire through her breast, down her chest, and between her legs.

“Shit, Jax…” She fisted her hands in his hair, dropped her mouth to his ear, and whispered, “I’m going to come. Fuck me. Please.”

He turned his head, and kissed her. A languid kiss, his tongue moving in her mouth the way she wanted his cock moving in her pussy.

He pulled back. “This is just the beginning. We have all night. A dozen different orgasms to explore. Let go and come for me, sweetheart.”

He dropped his head back to her breast and sucked her nipple into his mouth. Picked up the lusty dance of their hips, his pace harder, faster. He spread his hands over her ass cheeks, his fingers brushing the sensitive skin near her opening that ached for him.

The pleasure swelled inside her like a balloon. Lexi groaned behind gritted teeth, dropped her head back against the wall, let the sensations peak. The orgasm rose to the sound of his pleasure-filled moans. But when it broke, the pleasure wasn’t the low-level, languid heat Lexi expected. Electric fire shot through her hard, wrenching her muscles and prying a cry from her throat. The arch of her body pushed her against Jax. He took her breast harder in his mouth, her sex harder against his cock, intensifying the peak and wiping out all thought.

She shuddered hard. Tightened her arm around his neck and dropped her face to his head, breathing him in. Holding him close. The pleasure was sharp and sweet. Even more so with Jax’s kisses against her throat, her cheek, her temple.

Her body softened, muscles loosened. She rested her forehead on his bare shoulder, one hand still tight in his hair. Lexi didn’t have the strength to keep her legs around his waist, and they slipped down his thighs. He eased her feet to the floor. When she was steady, he lifted his hands to her face, whispered, “You’re so beautiful,” and drew her to him for a slow, relaxed, wet kiss.

The comment meant so much more to her knowing he didn’t just refer to what showed on the exterior. Lexi smiled and rested her head against the wall as his mouth slid to her cheek, her jaw, her neck.

She sighed. “You are the best kisser on the planet.”

“Takes two.” He pushed the jacket to her sides, then took her breasts in his palms, pressing them together. He bent and snuggled his face to her cleavage, his mouth open and hot.

She clutched soft handfuls of his hair. Need ramped quickly again as Jax suckled her breasts, his tongue sliding, teeth nipping, hands massaging the mounds with slow, heavy pressure.

“I’ve never seen a bra like this.” His fingers traced the edges of the lace that cupped the undersides of her breasts, supporting them for both visual appeal and easy access. “Whoever invented it was a genius.”

“You’re getting me all hot again.”

His mouth curved against her skin. “That’s what it’s all about, baby.”

He moved his mouth to the other breast and licked her nipple. She bit her lip to hold in another whimper.

He chuckled, low and dark. “You’re so sensitive.”

“You’re so good. The way you touch and kiss and…everything is just so perfect.”

“Everything?” he murmured, circling her nipple with his tongue until she arched her back, pushing her breast toward him. But he didn’t take it like she wanted. “What else feels good?”

He wanted to hear her say it. She closed her eyes, as if the dark room wasn’t enough cover. “The way you suck me.”

His mouth closed over her nipple, but he didn’t suck her as much as kiss her. “Like that?”

“Harder,” she whispered.

“Harder what?”

“Suck me harder.”

He growled and covered her breast with his mouth, rolled her nipple with his tongue, then tightened down with suction. Excitement flooded her body and stroked her pussy. She moaned and pulled her hands from his hair, slid them around his waist. She scratched her fingers over his skin and pushed them into the back of his jeans and under his boxers.

God, his ass was all tight muscle and hot, smooth skin. She pushed deeper into his pants and scraped. He growled, a frustrated, slightly angry sound. His hands dropped to her hips, thumbs hooked in the strings of her panties, and pulled them over her hips.

“You’re right,” he said. “The smell of the leather and your skin is fucking delirium.”

He slowly dropped into a crouch in front of her as he kissed his way down her body while skimming her panties down her thighs, past her knees, over her calves, and off her heels. The sight of this strong, broad-shouldered shadow kneeling in front of her was such a turn-on, a fresh wave of wetness slicked her sex. His tattoo flowed over his left bicep, across his shoulder, up his neck, and down his back. She wished for light again, aching to watch that ink roll with the movement of his muscle.