Page 63 of Stay with Me

He didn’t respond right off. Instead, one arm loosened and his hand trailed up my spine, tangling in the ends of my hair. A rush of shivers followed that hand, and those shivers spread out through my arms, to the tips of my fingers and down to my toes, and everywhere in-between, especially the in-between part.

God, his chest was really hard.

I lifted my face off said chest and then raised my lashes. Jax was staring down at me, a soft smile curved on his lips. His other hand shifted off my lower back, and smoothed its way to my hip, and great googley moogley, that feltgood. So good I didn’t even take into consideration what he might’ve been able to feel through my shirt and tank top.

Tequila was fucking awesome.

His warm chocolate gaze drifted over my face as his hand tightened on my hip, which caused lots of my muscles to go squishy. “I’m glad you came home, Calla.”

My heart stopped. The freaking world stopped. “Really?” I heard myself say.

“Really,” he replied.

Okay. I didn’t care if it was the tequila making me hear things, and I didn’t care that my entire chest was turning to mush, and if that made me dumb or not, and I didn’t care that I was about to do something I’d never done before, or that the room was spinning slowly like we were on a merry-go-round.

I stretched up on my toes as I lowered my hands to his shoulders and I went for his mouth. I was going to kiss him. I’d never tried to kiss a guy before, but I was going to do it now. I was going for a home run of my lips against his wonderful lips, because he said I was safe, and that he was glad I came home, and that I was really fucking—

Jax jerked his head back. Actually his entire body jerked back, and my mouth didn’t land on his, but more or less skated off his chin and down his neck. Since my mouth was open, I got a good taste of his skin.

Wowzers, his skin tasted good.

Who knew?

He sidestepped the coffee table, putting space between us. Without him being there, I toppled forward. His hands curled around my upper arms, stopping my fall and ... and keeping me an arm’s length away.

Confused, I stared at him. His eyes were wide again, all laziness and warmth gone from them. Uh oh. This wasn’t good.

“Calla,” he began softly, too gently. Like way too gently.

Oh no. This was so bad.

“Honey, that’s ...”

My heart started pounding violently, drowning out whatever Jax was saying. This was like fucked-up bad. As in the kind of bad one did not live down. I tried to kiss Jax, beautiful and charming and so fucking nice Jax.

I actually tried to kiss him?

Oh my God ... tequila sucked butt.

“... I said you were safe with me.” His voice was deeper, lower when I tuned back in to whatever the hell he was talking about. “I wasn’t lying.”

What the hell didthathave to do with the price of tea in China? Or the tequila that had suddenly turned on me like a crackhead with a rusty spork? I tried to kiss him and he had jerked back from me, physicallyremovedhimself from my mouth.

Holy shit balls.

The messy and wet ball was back, this time in my stomach and my chest, but it was mingling with something else that was vile, and quickly rising.

Oh no.

I lurched back, tearing myself from his grasp. “Oh my God,” I gasped out. “I can’t believe I tried ...” I swallowed a hiccup, a bad hiccup. “Oh wow.”

“It’s okay. Why don’t we sit down?” he offered, taking a step toward me.

Another hiccup. “Tequila is a dirty whore.”

Jax frowned, brows coming down. “Calla—”

Spinning around, I darted for the bedroom. I could feel it. The mess was almost there. I stumbled around the bed, my feet slipping as I hit the bathroom door, slamming my hands into it. The door cracked off the wall, no doubt denting the plaster.

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