“You need to relax. Lily’s a good friend.”
“How long have you known them?”
“A long time. Long enough to know that they have my best interests at heart. They know I’ve not cooked in a long time, and they were a little jealous that I decided to this with you and no one else.” He pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Please. Try and get along with them.”
“I’ll try.”
“It’s going to be great.”
“Jax, I’m still finding this a little surreal right now.”
He kissed her cheek again, seeing her blush just a little. “Good.” He’d been hoping to startle her.
He could be an asshole, but he knew how to also be a gentleman. It was his secret, and he wasn’t going to let anyone in on it.
“I’ll go wash up and get changed. I smell like fried chicken.”
She made to pull away, but he still held her hand, and he pulled her close. Cupping the back of her head, he slammed his lips down on hers, startling her. She let out a gasp, and he gripped her ass even tighter. She was so soft against him.
Dani didn’t fight him. Not one bit. Her hands were on his chest, and she moaned as he continued to kiss her.
He broke the kiss first. “Fried chicken is the best kind of smell.”
Her cheeks were on fire.
“I’ll be back.”
“I’ll be waiting.” He watched her disappear into the bathroom. “Not now. Not for some time. You’re not getting any kind of action, and we’re going to have to deal with that.” His cock was rock-hard, but after a few seconds of thinking about birds, it seemed to calm him.
Back to his stir-fry.
****
Dani took a sip of her wine, smiling as Ryan recalled one of Jax’s memories as a child. Lily and Ryan were his childhood friends. It was probably why out of all of his friends, Ryan was around the most. Wes and the others were guys they’d picked up along the way.
“So, as he jumped into this freezing lake in just his boxers, he was acting all hard and tough. I told him to get the fuck out and he told me he couldn’t. I thought he was just trying to show off. He’d lost his boxers in the damn lake and had to walk out completely butt-ass naked in front of the entire school.”
“Hey, I owned that moment. I didn’t back down. This loser didn’t help me one bit.”
“A lot of girls liked what they saw,” Lily said. “They were all over him. Love letters and all that. I even had girls try to be friends with me just to get with him. It was embarrassing and so lame. I saw right through them.”
“Don’t believe everything you hear,” Jax said. “It wasn’t that bad.”
“It was. You had, like, a huge pile of Valentine’s cards on your desk. Every girl wanted you to love her.”
“Is that when all this started? The girls? You didn’t want to let them down?” Dani asked.
She was genuinely curious about all of it.
The silence told her she wasn’t even close.
“Jax has never had a steady girlfriend. Not even in high school. Those cards were always opened, but he didn’t take any girl up on her offer until after—”
“My mom died,” Jax said.
She saw the sadness in his eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s fine, guys. She knows all about my mom’s passing and what happened after. I … I got angry, and when that happened, I decided to no longer be the nice guy.” Jax shrugged. “I wasn’t perfect.”
“He took every single girl up on their offer and of course he never returned their phone calls, and never asked any of them out. They were always all over him, surrounding him like a celebrity.”
“It must have been hard,” she said. “Wow, can’t you tell I don’t have any friends at all?”
“None?”
“Nope. Most of my friends were pretty much married out of high school,” she said. “I’m the rebel of the family. I’ve even got a tattoo to prove it.” She stood up and lifted her shirt to show off the ink across her lower back. “I did well in high school. I wanted to go to college, but my parents refused to help me with any of that. I missed the scholarship track, and then they were preparing my life as if I wasn’t even there. They already picked out the perfect husband for me, and the house, and I packed my bags and left. I didn’t want to be controlled. I wanted to explore the world. I got to the city. Have two jobs, and I’m loving it. I’ve not had time for friends though, until now.”
“And you totally can be friends with me. Any girl that can get Jax’s attention for longer than three seconds I’ve got to know.” Lily raised her glass. “To friendship and to possibilities.”