“I think she’s mocking us,” Veronica complained.
“That’s giving her too much credit. It’s just a goose,” Jax replied. “Look! It keeps picking up a twig, tossing it in the air and then grabbing it up off the ground again. It’s like the crazy thing wants to play fetch.”
“That’s it!”
Figuring it wasn’t the craziest thing she’d seen over the past few days, Veronica scooped up a small stick from the moss-covered ground and flung it toward the goose. The bird took off after it in a flash of white and returned a moment later, dropping the stick near her feet. It wagged its tail feathers and stared at her expectantly. When she didn’t do anything, the goose nudged the stick with its bill until it was pressed against her boot.
“You have got to be kidding me. It’s a goose that thinks it’s a yellow lab.” Jax let out a belly laugh.
“Oh no, it’s too smart for a lab. Maybe an Australian Shepherd.” She reached down and stroked its soft feathers. “Aren’t you a smart girl?”
The goose honked happily.
Jax swiped a stick and dangled it in front of the goose before sending it sailing in the other direction. The goose gave chase, returned and dropped it at his feet.
Veronica watched as the two continued to play their game. His laughter filled the woods. His obvious joy at such a simple thing as playing fetch played havoc with her heart. The late afternoon sun highlighting the warm brown of Jax’s skin reminded her of just how good it felt to curl up next to him in bed. How many times had she woken up with his arm tossed across her waist, one of his hands cupping her breast? Too many and not enough.
Jax tossed the stick again. “I spotted an onyx rabbit the other day and thought of you. Are you still collecting them?”
“Not really.”
Her father had decimated her miniature rabbit collection when she had refused to give up treasure hunting. With precise movements, he’d smashed the delicate objects one by one while his bodyguards restrained her. He’d thought to control her, to bend her to his will by threatening something she held dear. It wasn’t until he stood in a pool of broken glass and ceramics that he realized just how wrong he’d been. Veronica had lived her life under his thumb for too long. She wouldn’t do it any longer. She’d started Kwon Limited the next day.
Jax made his way over to her. “Well, here’s to hoping you give it another shot.” In his palm lay a cameo the size of a half dollar on a silver chain. It had a black background polished to a high sheen with a white rabbit in profile carved in white onyx in the foreground.
“Where did you find it?”
“Pull your hair back.” When she complied, he fastened the chain around her neck, never losing eye contact. “There was an estate sale in Durham.”
“On the way up to see Antoine?”
“Nah, about six months back.” His fingers followed the silver chain down her neck, leaving a trail of fire. He traced the line to the cameo resting an inch above her breasts’ upper swell.
The air stilled around them. Veronica sucked in her bottom lip, betraying her sanity by wishing like hell he’d continue his path of discovery, pull her jumpsuit’s zipper all the way to her hips and peel the leather from her overheated skin.
Muttering under his breath, he dropped his hand to his side and glanced away from her, seeming to have found something fascinating hidden among the rocks, moss and dead leaves in the woods’ underbrush.
Veronica’s hair slipped loose from her fingers and cascaded down her back. Awareness prickled across her skin as the constant buzz of attraction between them grew into a cacophony of promised pleasure and something more. Grasping for something–anything–to say, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind that didn’t involve tangling their naked limbs together. “When did you start collecting?”
“I didn’t.” He raised his gaze from the ground, hitting her with the full force of those deep, brown eyes. “I got it for you.”
The last bit of resistance she could manage against him crumbled. “And if we hadn’t seen each other again?”
“Then at least I would have had it to remind me of the woman I love.” His warm hands cupped her face and he lowered his mouth.
Veronica considered turning her head a few degrees so his lips would land on her cheek. It was the smart thing to do. The sane thing. Jax had been the one person in her life she’d trusted, the one who’d never tried to manipulate her or bend her to his will. Then he’d broken her heart with the swift brutality of a unicorn skewering a leprechaun.
But that thought lasted only a millisecond because she couldn’t deny any longer that she’d never given up hope that he’d return and explain why. The truth of the matter was she’d never stopped loving him and there was nothing in the world she wanted as badly as this.
She met him halfway, and his full lips tasted like peppermint candy, cool and refreshing. The kiss wasn’t delicate and sweet. Hungry and desperate for the salvation she could only find with him, she crashed her lips against his.
He groaned his approval, and glided his hands from her face, down her torso and brought them to rest on her hips. Fingers splayed wide, he grasped her ass and lifted her until she could wrap her legs around his waist.
Relishing the hardness nestled against her clit, Veronica gripped his shoulders and rocked against him as she deepened the kiss. The warmth building in her belly expanded, filling her with a kind of frantic need to touch him everywhere all at once.
Jax must have felt it too because one of his hands drifted up her back, pressed her upper body to the hardness of his. He curled his fingers around her hair and fisted a large swath, pulling her head back.
The action yanked her away from his succulent lips. At first she mourned the loss, but a heartbeat later he found that spot with his mouth where her shoulder met her neck and a sexual lightning bolt short-circuited her system. She quivered in his arms and tightened her legs around him so his cock was as close as it could be to her while they were both fully clothed. It took everything she had not to mewl her pleasure.