Afterburn (Jax & Gia 1)

“Stop thinking and feel, baby,” he murmured, nibbling on the corner of my mouth. “Let me make you feel good. That’s all I want. To make you feel good.”

Turning my head, I caught his lips and let him.

* * *

NICO EYED ME as I slid onto a bar stool at Rossi’s after closing and I knew he saw my makeupless state, which betrayed the shower I’d taken just a half hour before. He had been cleaning up the bar, but he stopped and pulled out a beer, popping off the top before sliding the bottle over to me.

“Forgot how much I like Jax,” he said conversationally.

I nodded. I liked Jax, too. Thing was, I didn’t know which Jax was the real one.

“You two going to work it out?”

“No, it’s temporary. But this time, I know the rules.”

“Maybe I don’t like him so much.” Nico popped open a second beer and took a long pull. “He’s in love with you, you know.”

“He’s in lust,” I countered drily, picking at the label on the bottle. “And that’s okay, I can live with that. It’s the other stuff—the way he talks to me sometimes, as if there’s more, and the head trip I’m on about why he left and came back—that’s hard for me to deal with.”

“My offer to knock some sense into him still stands.”

I smiled. “Might be easier and more effective to knock sense into me.”

“Can do that, too.” He tapped his bottle against mine. “But you’ve got plenty of sense. You know what you’re doing. You just wish you weren’t doing it. He obviously doesn’t have a clue or else he wouldn’t risk letting you get away. He’ll never find better.”

“Ah, God, don’t get sappy on me now. I can’t take it.” I wasn’t entirely kidding. I felt weepy and emotional. Sex with Jax did that to me.

Nico grinned. “Fine. Get off your ass and help me clean up so we can get the hell out of here.”

With a sigh, I slid off the bar stool. “Shit. I should’ve stuck with sappy instead.”

* * *

AN INSISTENT POUNDING on Nico’s door woke me Sunday morning. I rolled off the couch with a curse, stumbling over with the intention of bitching out whoever it was.

When I blinked wearily through the peephole, however, I saw beloved faces.

Pulling off the security chain and turning the dead bolt, I opened the door to my brothers and Denise. “What the hell?” I groused.

“Yeah. What the fuck?” Nico wandered in from the bedroom wearing sweatpants that barely clung to his hips. Brother or not, I could still appreciate what a good-looking man he was. “You know what time it is?”

Vincent came in first. “Time to get up.”

Angelo followed Denise in, holding her hand in his. “You put Gianna on the couch? Seriously?”

“I offered her the bed.” Nico crossed his arms. “She wouldn’t take it.”

“Don’t blame her,” Vincent said. “If that bed could talk, it’d have its own reality show.”

“Don’t be jealous,” Nico returned. “I’m sure your bed will see some action eventually. Despite everything, you’re still a Rossi.”

“What are you doing here?” I interjected. I was really happy to see them. Having my family around brought back normalcy I’d lost the night before in Jax’s bed. I was back to feeling like Gianna Rossi—and not absolutely sure I was the writhing, moaning, clawing woman who’d enjoyed a half-dozen orgasms in a matter of hours. It was as if I were two different people.

And you’re mad at Jax for having two sides....

“We’re waiting for you to get dressed so we can grab some breakfast,” Denise answered. Her hair was pulled into pigtails that framed her pale face. She’d matched her lipstick to the pink in her hair, making her look like some sort of anime superheroine. “I’m starving.”

“Something’s wrong with you people,” Nico muttered. “It’s too fucking early for food or anything else.”

“It’s nine o’clock,” Vincent pointed out.

Nico shot me a look and drawled, “As I said.”

* * *

BY NOON, WE’D eaten and hit the basketball court at Nico’s apartment complex. Not to brag, but I was pretty good at the game—enough that I’d gotten a partial scholarship to UNLV for my skills. Of course, I’d learned everything I knew from my brothers.

I had just cleared a three-pointer and was waving off the usual good-natured taunts and ribbing when I caught sight of Jax walking up. I stopped right where I was, admiring his long legs in shorts and his loose-fitting T-shirt. He wore shades and twirled his keys around his finger. When Nico bounced the ball to him, Jax caught it up and dazzled me with his dimpled grin.

“Hey,” he said, coming to me first and pressing his lips to my flushed forehead.

“You found us.” A hot rush of pleasure surged through me. He’d picked me up and dropped me off at Rossi’s, so finding Nico’s place had taken initiative and effort.

“I missed waking up to you,” he whispered against my skin.

His damned sunglasses made it impossible to read him. I took the ball and backed up so I could breathe.

“Rutledge,” Angelo greeted him, bristling.

“Kick back, killer,” Denise admonished, rising from the chair her husband had dragged over from the pool area. “Hi, I’m Denise. Angelo’s wife.”

Jax shook her hand. “A pleasure.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” she said. “None of it good. I hope you prove the guys wrong.”

Jax glanced at me with raised brows.

“Oh, she doesn’t talk about you at all,” Denise qualified, making me smile. The woman knew how to get her digs in.

Vincent and Angelo both reluctantly shook hands with Jax, then Vincent said, “Are we playing or what?”

“I’d like to jump in when there’s a chance,” Jax said, surprising me.

“Shit.” Nico ran a hand through his hair. “Take my spot on Gianna’s team. I’m wiped, thanks to some too-fucking-early-in-the-morning visitors.”

“Pussy,” Angelo muttered.

“Whatev. We were kicking your ass.”

“We were going easy on you,” Vincent answered, catching the ball when I tossed it his way. “So we wouldn’t have to hear you bitch.”

“You wouldn’t hear me if you’d stayed home.”

“Shut up,” I told them. “Let’s do this.”

“There’s my girl,” Jax said with a smile.

We started the game. Jax was good. Really good.

I’ve played hoops now and then. Nothing like you. Never gave it the time.

I remembered those words of his from before, whispered into my hair while he cuddled me after sex. Clearly, he’d given it time since we parted.

Had he done so because of me? Was I reaching by making that connection?

Jax passed the ball and I made the shot.

If only figuring him out were as easy.

Chapter 9

MONDAY WAS A day like any other, yet it felt so different. It took a lot of work to avoid thinking about Jax. At least until I got to the office.

I arrived a half hour early, but Lei was already there. She sat at her desk, dressed in a black skirt and blazer embellished with red. Her hair was up, her red-framed glasses perched on her delicate nose. She glanced up when I stepped through the open doorway, her painted mouth set in a hard line.

“Ian got to Isabelle over the weekend and signed her.” She pulled her glasses off.

“What? How did he know?”

Lei sat back. “That’s a good question.”

I felt a flutter of unease in my stomach. “I haven’t told a soul. No one.”

She nodded grimly. “I believe you.”

“Would Isabelle leverage you agai

nst Ian?”

“It’s possible.” Leaning back, she gestured for me to settle into one of the chairs in front of her desk. “Ian is better known than I am.”

Thanks to the Hollywood-themed eateries she’d envisioned, which Ian had stolen from her. The irony was painful.

“But I don’t think so,” she went on. “One of the things that attracted Isabelle to working with us is that Savor is headed by a woman. Ian would’ve had to make an offer too good to refuse.”

“I wonder what it was.”

“I intend to find out. I’m meeting with Isabelle over lunch to see what I can coax out of her.”

I took a seat. “I should talk to Chad. Maybe take him out to lunch.”

“Yes, I was going to suggest that.” She studied me. “Did you see Jackson Rutledge this weekend?”

I hesitated a split second before answering, feeling as if a trap were closing in on me. “I did,” I confessed, “but we didn’t talk business. Not even in a roundabout way.”