Wilde Forever (Wilde Women Book 1) (12 page)

Jax stood at the foot of Brynn’s bed for what felt like an eternity and watched her sleep. Something profound and life-changing had happened between them, and he didn’t know quite how he felt about it. In the course of one short day, she’d sashayed her sexy ass into his empty emotional life and blown his world apart.

He’d gone from wanting to put a chokehold on his dad for sending him on what he thought was a fool’s errand to thanking him for meddling in his life. When he’d walked through the door of her quaint shop he’d been pissed off and as grumpy as an Internet cat.
And now look at me
, he thought.

Pressing a palm to the bulge straining against his fly, with the taste of her sweet pussy clinging to his lips, he’d never felt more alive. Or more conflicted. Not even the non-stop adrenalin rush of a warzone could compare to what he experienced as he’d brought the delectable Brynn Baron-Wilde to a screaming orgasm. Was he out of his mind?

Ever since Heather had walked away from their engagement, he’d kept his sexual interludes simple, easy, and without strings attached. His experiences as a wartime medic had undoubtedly changed the course of his life. There was something about living and breathing trauma and death morning, noon, and night that stripped away a lot of pretense. When it came to what he needed in a relationship, he’d quickly admitted his desires went way beyond what was termed vanilla sex and veered heavily into a need to dominate and control. He wanted a partner who would give herself over to him, not sit in judgment or reluctantly allow the occasional foray into rough, demanding sex. Heather had been a total cunt about the whole thing. She wanted to be a spoiled, pampered doctor’s wife, not the put upon spouse of a fucked-up veteran who wanted more out of life than safe and boring.

Funny thing was, the idea of spoiling and pampering appealed to him, but just not with some stuck-up bitch who practically donned a pair of exam gloves in order to touch his cock. When he told Brynn to hold her legs open and she obeyed, it wasn’t all that difficult to fall on his knees and worship her pussy for being such a good girl. She might not hold a degree in flirting or even fully understand how fucking sexy and desirable she was, but that only made her sudden appearance in his life all the better.

He didn’t doubt for a second that he could mold her to his desires, but that was where his conflict really grabbed hold and squeezed tight. Brynn was the type who would fight against being controlled. It was evident in her actions and words, but even so, she’d willingly given herself to him in the most intimate way a woman could. A guy she’d known for less than a day. That couldn’t have been easy. The memory of her naked and writhing on that kitchen table as she held her legs up and open so he could devour her did more than make him hard.

Sighing deeply, he watched her snuggle into the covers and saw what he hoped was a small smile of sated contentment on her face. He had to get out of there before his clothes ended up in a pile so he could slide into bed beside her and pull her naked body close.

Tomorrow would be here soon enough and perhaps after a shower and some time to reflect he’d know what to do next. When his cock pulsed he grimaced and shook his head. Cold shower? Probably not. Trying to banish the erection brought on by his ravishment of the sexy baker would probably do him permanent damage. No. He was going to have to release the beast by his own hand.

Glancing at Brynn’s sleeping form he made a silent promise that one day soon, he’d find out what it was like to come by her hand. Or better yet, her mouth. Or better still, while buried balls deep in her luscious body.

“H
ERE YOU GO, MRS. BLAKE. Eighteen crème-filled red velvet cupcakes with my special buttercream frosting. Plus, a mini cake tower covered in fondant just as you asked. I really wish you’d let me add the cake topper,” Brynn said with a sly wink.

The customer picking up the special order just laughed and shrugged with a devilishly wicked gleam in her eyes. “Oh, I wouldn’t want to embarrass you like that, Brynn. The topper is rather, um….ribald. Y’know! Just the sort of thing that adds the giggles to a bachelorette get-together.”

“Ribald!” Brynn squealed in delight. “What a great description, Mrs. Blake. I’m sure Dana will love whatever it is.”

Helping the harried looking woman with the order, they gathered the boxes, tied with twine that were adorned with a sticker logo that Charlie had designed for the bakery, and made for the parking lot.

This was something Brynn enjoyed. She loved doing special orders, working with customers to create just the perfect pastry for all sorts of occasions. It was a chance to let her creative side have a bit of fun, naughty cake toppers aside.

She was waving good-bye to Mrs. Blake when she caught sight of Jax’s truck pulling into the lot.
Shit.
A burst of nervous energy shot up her neck and for reasons she’d think about later, Brynn practically sprinted into the shop and promptly went to hide in the kitchen.

“Oh my Lord,” she breathed into air heavy with the scents of vanilla and butter. Dropping her face into her hands, she tried to calm her breathing. “Focus, focus,” she chanted quietly as if saying the word would magically make her forget the scene that she and Jax played out last evening on her kitchen table of all places.

Shaking out her hands to dispel the raw energy racing through her body, Brynn began racing around the bakery, throwing cake tins and pans into a pile for cleaning. The sound of the metal clanging was a punch to her frazzled nerves, but it was nothing compared to the noise inside her head.

After having slept like the damn dead, she’d roused, naked in her bed, with a sense of contentment that made waking up quite pleasant. For all of about five seconds she’d stretched and wiggled, a small smile on her face, until—WHAM!—memories of why she was naked and content slammed into her with the force of a football tackle.

If anyone had been watching, she was sure her reaction would have seemed pretty funny. Throwing off the covers, she’d grabbed her satin robe, and after pulling it on and knotting the tie as if it was a chastity belt, made a mad dash through the house until she came to a stuttering halt in the kitchen.

He’d cleaned up from dinner—not a thing was out of place and sitting on the table were her clothes, folded neatly in a pile with her torn bra and plain panties right on top. “Oh fuck,” she‘d groaned. It really was as awful as she remembered.

In her haste to leave the bedroom and get downstairs, she had forgotten about the twisted ankle that started their odd encounter and was grateful to discover it didn’t bother her at all this morning. Just as he’d predicted. Well, at least there was that.

Desperate to halt the flash memories invading her mind, Brynn paced around the bakery kitchen and tried invoking the Goddess Ignora. Charlie would be so proud of her for even trying. Ignora was an old joke between the sisters, something that made them laugh when a situation rose to the level of embarrassment that made a girl want to run and hide. Totally appropriate for the situation she found herself in right now.

Peeking through the windows of the double swinging doors that separated the bakery from the shop, she instantly spied Jax in conversation with Amy. He had a backpack slung over one shoulder and judging by her assistant’s body language, they were having quite a laugh.

Red heat crept up her neck and into her face.
No, he wouldn’t be that crass
, she thought. There was no way he’d embarrass her by sharing with anyone what had passed between them. She might not know Jax Merrill all that well, but he certainly came across as someone with a sense of decorum. He struck her as a gentleman through and through, until she remembered his face buried between her legs and groaned. Gentleman savage, maybe. The thought gave her goosebumps.

“Think Brynn,” she muttered. She certainly couldn’t hide in the bakery all day but facing Jax right then made her nervous as crap.
Did crap even get nervous
, she wondered.
Whatever.
The expression applied to how she was feeling, so shoot her if it didn’t make sense.

A timer went off, breaking her reverie and offering the distraction she needed. Maybe by the time she’d pulled out the things baking in the oven and got everything on a cooling rack he would magically disappear. She knew she was kidding herself, but there was always hope, right?

That hope vanished just a few minutes later when Amy poked her head in and announced with a humungous grin, “Mr. Merrill’s here to see you, boss, and there’s a customer asking about placing a special order.”

Dammit.
With a droop of her head, she muttered, “Um, okay. Yeah. Got it. Be right there.”

Wiping imaginary flour off her clean hands with a kitchen towel, she stepped through the swinging doors soon after with what she prayed was a bland, unreadable expression on her face. In no way did it help matters when she felt a very sexy pulse of awareness, something deliciously feminine that reminded her a little too much of last night, settle in her core.

Luckily, the customer got to her first and immediately started rambling on about a child’s birthday cake that she wanted adorned with Disney princesses and all sorts of little girl flair. No matter how hard she tried to ignore Jax’s presence, her body reacted to his nearness. Not only were her cotton panties getting damper by the second, she gritted her teeth and tried not to roll her eyes in frustration when she felt her nipples hardening.
Aw, come on,
her brain screamed. Not cool. Not cool, at all.

Of their own volition, her eyes suddenly zeroed in on the man scattering her composure and found him staring at her intently. She must have stopped breathing because her head suddenly felt fuzzy as a sensual mist enveloped her senses. His eyes burned with desire and a smile dangled on the corner of his mouth. When he licked his lips she remembered the intimate way he’d ravished her and how they’d shared the essence of that tasting in a kiss that rocked her senses.

Her body jumped at the sight—she flinched—and in one of those horrifying moments that unfolded in slow motion, the handful of receipts she’d been clutching to keep her hands busy flew into the air and spread across the floor in a picture-perfect version of fifty-two pick-up. Really? Anything else?
Fuck.

Brynn dropped like a brick, frantically trying to gather the pieces of paper into a scoop-able pile when she saw two very masculine, very big hands invade her line of vision. Her gentleman savage stepped in to rescue her from a moment of embarrassment. One his wicked lips and talented tongue had caused.

“I’ve got this,” she snapped, wincing at the testy sound of her voice. She
so
did not want or need his help.

“Brynn,” he murmured, reaching to gather the papers.

When she didn’t answer or look at him he said it again, only this time more gently. “Brynn, relax.” He stopped her frantic movements by holding onto her wrist.

She choked out a distraught groan, stared for a second at his big fingers wrapped around her hand, then raised her eyes helplessly to his. He gave her a slow, sexy smile. “I’ll take care of this,” he reassured her. “You go handle your customer, okay?”

Brynn bit her lip so hard she worried it would bleed. With a jerky nod she stood up and went back to the matter at hand, aware all the while that Jax was rescuing her but from what she didn’t quite know. Herself maybe. No. Make that definitely.

When she finally finished taking the special order she looked around and wasn’t in any way surprised to find him resting a hip casually against the shop’s long counter while he shuffled the receipts he’d rescued into an orderly pile. Well, damn. There was no way she could ignore him.

He was dressed differently today. The black jeans and t-shirt were replaced by a dark grey button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled back exposing the hair on his forearms. Brynn had a thing about hands. She sometimes joked with her sisters that she was a sucker for hand porn. And Jax’s hands fit that bill perfectly, something she discovered quite intimately not that many hours ago.

Instead of jeans, he had on black pants that fit him like a fucking glove and a thin belt with a small silver buckle. When he turned away from her for a moment, she sucked in a gasp at the sight his backside made in the dress pants. If this was his business look, she was in deep trouble.

Pushing some wayward strands of hair behind her ear, Brynn straightened and hurried to his side with long, but not all that confident, strides. It was a wonder she didn’t get tangled in her own feet and fall face first to the floor. He had that effect on her.

“Thanks,” she muttered with her hand held out. “I’ll take those.”

Handing her the slips of paper, he smiled into her eyes, leaned forward, and kissed her on the cheek. “Good morning to you too. I take it you slept well?”

She gasped and sputtered, not sure whether from the kiss, his reminder of her sated and content night’s sleep, or from sheer mortification for being called out due to her obvious lack of social manners.

Recovering as best she could, Brynn mumbled, “Oh. Yeah. I mean, good morning Jax.” That was all she was going to give him. He was out of his mind if he thought she was going to react to his taunt. Not in public anyway.