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“Fart circus,” Evan snickered.
“Run backwards into the knife block, Ace?” Joey took a sip of the beer Ed delivered. “Even worse. I walked in on Carter and Summer on the kitchen island.” “What were they—oh my God! That’s disgusting. Are pregnant people even allowed to have sex?” “That’s exactly what I said. Apparently, it’s no big deal.” Joey shuddered. “It’s probably a big deal to the babies who are getting poked in the face by—” “And now I’m never getting that image out of my head,” Jax said, taking a healthy gulp of beer. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.” Jax chanted his way down the stairs, carefully clutching the banister. He had rug burn on his forehead and probably his knees. But it was his eyes that burned with the image that would take more than therapy and drugs to erase.
“Here,” she said finally. “I brought you this. I know you eat when you get upset.” Jax glanced over at the beef stick his mother was brandishing. “Mom, that’s the least appropriate snack you could have found in this situation.”
“Better?” “Nothing a case of beer or amnesia won’t cure,” Jax said weakly.
Poor Jax - these chapters made me LOL repeatedly.
Because I realized I didn’t have to change everyone else in my life to make me happy. I just had to remember who I was.”
“It would have to be the perfect tenant,” Beckett said, sipping his scotch. “I don’t want to have any weirdos in the backyard with the kids and Gia here.” “Ever think that this is a town full of weirdos?” “Yeah, but we’re the harmless kind of weirdos. We’re charming in our weirdness.”
“If we waited to go for something until we feel worthy, no one would ever do anything.” “But if I can make a go of this place—” “If you can, you can. If you can’t, you’ll do something else. That’s what life is all about. Living. Trying. Loving.”
“Don’t ever let anyone make you feel less than, and that includes yourself,”
What did matter is we took a moment, a slice of a day, and did with it exactly as we wished. A lesson I could never iterate in a father’s lecture but one so essential to the way a man lives. Find your slice and live it.
His hand shook as he held out the white terrycloth, breath caught when their fingers brushed. It was then that he knew he wouldn’t survive this. Her fire would incinerate him, and he didn’t care. Jax was willing to sacrifice himself. Every time he kissed her, he lost a piece of his soul. What did the rest of those pieces amount to?
She shivered against him from the cold, from the heat. And then her mouth was on his. And there was no more winter night, only that scorching flame.
When she took a step back, Jax snagged her wrist. He couldn’t stand to not touch her. “Stay, please.” If she went too far, the spell would be broken.
Jax dropped to his knees and rested his forehead against her taut stomach. She was a queen, a witch, and he was her devoted servant. He breathed her in. Joey wasted no time with perfumes or scented lotions. Her own scent was spellbinding, all smoke and fire and earth. There was no one like her in the world.
Neither of them breathed, but even without oxygen, his heart knocked against his chest in an incessant pounding. A razor-sharp anticipation.
There was probably more to her rant, but the words never made it past her lips because Jax thrust into her, hard and deep. Completely sheathed in her, he stopped and held. Home. He was finally, finally home.
sigh...
Their gazes locked, and he saw the wonder, the desire, and that little shadow of fear in her.
He dropped a kiss on her cheek as he peered over her shoulder at the stove. “Chili? And what’s this? If you tell me that’s cheesy cornbread, I’m going to marry you.” “Then no, it’s definitely not cheesy cornbread. It’s boiled Brussels sprouts.” “Liar. I’m totally marrying you.”
“You taste like beer and beautiful,” he told her. “What does beautiful taste like?” she asked, arching an eyebrow at the line. “You.”
It hit him fast and bright, how much he loved her. How much he’d always loved her. Being with her in this homey scene sharpened the keen desire he had to make this their everyday.
“What was that?” Joey murmured into the crook of his neck. His answer gutted her. “That was love,” he whispered.
His thumbs hooked into the waistband of his underwear, and Joey felt her mouth go dry. She’d seen him naked, felt him inside her, yet every time the anticipation nearly killed her. Tonight, it might actually do just that.
“I belong to you, Joey,” he said, raining kisses soft as butterflies’ wings on her face. “I always have. You know that don’t you?”
“Say the words, Joey.” His voice was low and rough.
“I belong to you,” she whispered. A single hot tear worked its way free and slid down her temple into her hair. “Now tell me you love me. I need to hear the words.”
Jax pressed his hips into her and the broad, smooth tip of his erection was encircled by her wet entrance. “Say it.” “I love you, Jax. I love you. I love you.” She chanted the words until, with a single powerful thrust, he was inside her. Filling her, loving her, branding her.
She opened her eyes to look at him to see what her words had done to him. His eyes were squeezed shut, his jaw set. Steeped in pleasure and purpose, he began to move in her. And when his lashes fluttered up, when those cool gray eyes looked into the depths of her soul, she knew. She knew what it was like to be loved, to be worshipped. Tears fell unbound as he slid out slowly, achingly, before he glided back in filling her to the hilt. He set the pace, a slow and steady climb up into the stars.
“My beautiful Joey.” He sent her over the edge with another measured thrust, and as the pleasure of the moment clawed its way out of her throat in a scream, she felt him stiffen, heard him groan on his own release. They moved together, her release draining his, until there was nothing left but them and the stars in the night sky behind them.
“You left without a word. You could have come to me, could have told me what was happening. I could have fixed it. But you didn’t. You just left. You used it as your excuse, and you got out. Turned your back on all of us and just left.”
“You two took it upon yourselves to make decisions for me, and I tell you now, that will never happen again. As far as I’m concerned, you both can go to hell. Now get away from my stables and don’t come back.”
“I let you back in without knowing the truth. It never occurred to me that my father pulled any strings to get you out of my life. And I never had a clue that your dad knew and kept your secrets. So maybe I’m stupid.”
This whole chapter kills me
In that moment, I saw my son clearly standing on his own two feet taking—too much—responsibility for his life.
They owned each other in the moment, in the night.
He must have lost ten years off his life when he saw her lying there, crumpled on the ground like a forgotten flower. And the blood. The memories came back at him fast and sharp. Once again, he was walking into a hospital covered in a good deal of Joey Greer’s blood.
Joey glanced around her when she got to the stables to make sure the Joey police weren’t making their rounds before she slipped inside.
They were doing this for her. All of them. Because they loved her. And whether she understood or even appreciated what they were doing, she realized that they were doing their absolute best for her. And that’s all anyone ever had done. Maybe they hadn’t known better before. Maybe they knew better now. But what mattered is that they were putting their best efforts forward for her. And she loved every single one of them for it.
“Jax?” she said. His lips brushed the top of her head in a lazy kiss. “Yeah?” “Seeing as how we’re fake engaged and all, I think you should move in.” “Is this the head wound talking?” he asked lightly.
“Everything you’ve ever done where I’m concerned came from a place of love. Sometimes stupidity and love. But the love part is what’s important. And I’d be the biggest asshole in Blue Moon if I ignored that.” Jax tipped her chin up, brought his mouth within a whisper of hers. “I’m so glad you’re not the biggest asshole in Blue Moon. I love you, Jojo.” “I love you back.”
“Do you know what I see when I look at you, Joey?” She faced him, arched an eyebrow. “I can’t even imagine.” He brought his hands to her waist, and she felt the love in those gray eyes. “I see my past,” he began, turning her wrist up and starting to trace her scar from the elbow. “I see my present.” He skimmed a hand over her cheek, fingers dipping into her hair. “And I see my future.”
“We don’t have time to find out what engaged sex is like.” “Why the hell not?” she demanded, squeezing him with her thighs. “Because we’re getting married in an hour.”
“Isn’t it amazing that your mom found a love like that twice in a lifetime?” Joey asked, nodding at them. “I think it’s amazing that we did,” Jax said as he lowered his mouth tenderly to hers. She responded by biting his lip.
When they broke apart and Joey put her head on his shoulder, Jax looked around them and saw circles within circles. Another baby for the new generation of family. Another venture for the farm that had sustained them all in one way or another. Marriages, promises, mended relationships. A love that just kept building on itself. If home was where the heart is, Jax’s heart was right here in the middle of chaos.
