Page 142 of Stay with Me

“I’m pretty sure with everything that’s been going on, you could use the break. Just don’t go into any of the private rooms,” I joked.

“Thursday nights are kind of busy, hon, and I don’t feel—”

“We have the bar and the kitchen handled. And I promise not to get kidnapped or anything crazy.”

An eyebrow arched. “You promise?”

“Totes-ma-goats.”

He smirked. “I don’t think that’s something you necessarily have control over.”

“If I stay behind the bar, I think I’ll be fine. Plus Nick will be there. And you already have him coming in on Thursday to cover you. We’ll be fine.”

“You sure are fine.”

I sighed. “Jax.”

With a wicked grin on his lips, he pulled me into his lap and I went to him, straddling his thighs. I liked this. A lot. But he wasn’t going to distract me. “Go. Okay. I’ll be at the bar and you’ll come get me before we close. I’ll be fine.”

He leaned back against the couch cushion. “But what if I want to take a girl home with me?”

“I don’t know about that. The way Katie talks, those girls oil themselves up. You might have a hard time holding on to one of them.”

Jax tipped his head back and laughed. “Nice.”

Then something occurred to me. “What if Katie’s dancing?”

He shook his head. “That will be a bathroom break for me.”

“She’s really hot.”

Hooking his arms around my hips, he spread his legs and I slipped farther onto him. “It’s not that. It’s just that she’s Katie ... and I don’t want to see her like that.”

I grinned and hoped that she was dressed as a fairy again. “So you’re going?”

One hand slid up the line of my spine, tangled in my hair, and then he tugged my head down to his lips. “I’m going.”

“Good.”

He nipped at my lower lip. “You’re probably the only girl in the world who would just say good to the fact her man is going to a strip club.”

My man? I got a little caught up in that phrase so I didn’t point out that I thought a lot of girls really didn’t care about strip clubs, because then he was kissing me, slow and sweet.

When his mouth left mine, his lips brushed over the curve of my jaw. The bruise from the botched kidnapping had already began to fade, but he placed a kiss there, and my heart did a little dance.

I settled in his arms as he idly flipped through the stations on the TV and it wasn’t long before my eyes drifted shut. I was lulled away by the steady sweeping motion of his hand along the line of my spine. It was strange. I never thought I could ever allow someone to touch me there, even if I was wearing clothes, and here I was, comforted by a caress that would’ve made me cringe not too long ago.

So much had changed.

Once he’d settled on a baseball game, he dropped the remote and his hand ended up in my hair. “Reece called earlier, when you were on the computer doing your school stuff.”

My eyes opened, but I didn’t move. I was feeling way too lazy for that level of effort. “What did he want?”

“Just keeping us updated on Mack. Reece and Colton really think he’s gone to ground, especially since they’ve been riding Isaiah hard, which won’t bode well for Mack, either,” he said as he twisted my hair around his fingers.

“Yeah, Detective Anders said something like that yesterday when he talked to me.” My hand was on his chest so I started drawing a circle with my finger. “It’s just crazy. It’s like all of them know that this Isaiah is dirty, but they don’t do anything.”

“They can’t, honey. Isaiah is smart. He cleans up after everything and nothing leads back to him. That’s why he’s not going to be happy with Mack. He messed up with your mom and Rooster, obviously took Rooster out—”

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