Page 3 of Still Forever
The ballroom at the hotel was decorated so beautifully; the black was offset by the gold accents and centerpieces, which were genius. I was sitting at the table, heels already off, sipping a glass of champagne, and as full as a tick when I noticed Jaxon again.
That same calm. The same energy.
Across the room, he stood talking to Trouble. The fact that they both had worn nonchalant expressions all night, I couldn’t even tell if the conversation was serious. Trouble was talking as Jaxon listened, nodding every other minute. And as if on cue, his eyes scanned the crowd and found mine. Quickly, I dropped my gaze to my half-empty plate and prayed that he didn’t see me “staring” at him again.
I tried to ignore him after that. I took shots with Storm and Hunter and joked the night away with Judah. Then I stepped outside on the balcony to get some fresh air and hopefully sober up. As soon as I found a moment to myself, I felt the energy change. I didn’t even have to turn around to know that Jaxon was behind me.
“You good?” He asked as he invaded my space. Not enough to be inappropriate or pushy, but close enough so that the air surrounding us felt different.
I turned to him before responding, as if I needed confirmation of who was there. Like his voice hadn’t been etched in my memory for the last two and a half hours. He stood tall, hand in his pocket, and his shirt slightly unbuttoned, revealing the rest of the art that the pieces on his neck tied into.
“Nope,” I replied, giggling.
I knew I had to look like a complete mess. I was drunk, my curls had fallen, my makeup had probably sweated off, and I was holding my heels in my hand.
“Shit, you look like it to me,” he said as his eyes did that thing that made me nervous again. Scanning the length of my body, making me feel naked even in a full-length gown.
“I’m Kennedy,” I said as I extended my hand to him.
“Jaxon,” He smirked as he took it, and we shook hands.
“What’s funny about my name?” I frowned, almost offended.
“That you’d think I’d let your pretty ass prance around here all night and not find out who you were,”
That made me blush. I let that statement linger before we fell into a conversation. We talked for twenty minutes, it wasn’t about anything special—food, music, and we watched some of the people coming and going. But the way he listened? Like he had stored everything I had just told him to use at a later date, it was attractive to me.
“Come on, Kenn, we’re going to see Storm off,” Hunter interrupted the conversation that we were having. She had peeked her head out the door before she realized that I wasn’t alone. Then she gave me a wink and went back inside.
Silence fell over us as he turned back to me and stared. “You stare at women all the time that you ain’t ready for?” I asked him.
His eyes never left mine as he gave me a light chuckle.
“I don’t stare at anything I don’t plan to have, Shorty,” His voice was low and smooth. And I’d be lying if I said the words didn’t give me chills. I took a step back from him to put a little space between us.
“Let me call you later,” he said, pulling his phone from his pocket and holding it out to me. I took it, entered my number into his contacts, and handed it back, keeping my calm as I gave him the initiative to reach out first.
“Goodnight, Jaxon.” I threw the words over my shoulder as I walked back into the venue so that I could say my goodbyes toStorm. I could feel his eyes on me. But I didn’t turn around, not because I didn’t want to, but because I couldn’t trust my feet to keep moving if I did.
I rolled my eyes as I finally snapped out of my daze. I hated that this man still had the same effect on me years later, no matter how pissed I was at him. Jaxon made me feel things I could never understand. It wasn’t something that I could hide or deny.
“Zo!!! I said I want to go homeeeee,” I whined when he made a left turn instead of the right toward the estate.
“Chill, I gotta pick something up for Jax, it’ll be quick,” He chuckled.
Zo was the head of Jax’s security team for the estate. Then Jax had made him my personal detail when we first decided to take our relationship seriously. It’s like Zo fits right in with the Jennings bunch. He was overbearing and crazy, just like them. He had been by my side for the last three years, and if Jaxon trusted someone with my life, then that spoke volumes about them. Zo had seen me at some of my best moments, and a couple of my lows when I would sit in the back seat quietly dropping tears. After all this time, he was family, and we were way past formalities.
I sighed and continued to look out the window while he drove us through a part of New York that didn’t even look familiar to me. The drive was long, and just out of curiosity, I used the GPS to see that we were well over an hour and a half away from home.
We settled in front of a massive glass house. The spotless floor-to-ceiling glass blurred the lines between what was inside and what was out. As the lights from the truck shone on the house when we pulled in, an indoor swimming pool came into view.
I was in awe of its beauty. I had always wanted a home like this one, but Jax said it wasn’t practical for safety reasons. Hesaid it was a security breach. It would be easy for people to use drones to watch us or determine the layout of our home. He called it a “death trap.” And I understood his point, but that didn’t make me like the look of it any less.
I was so busy staring at the house that I didn’t even see the figure walking up to the car until it was right in front of us. As it approached, I smiled before I stepped out of the back seat of the truck. Even in the dark, I knew the man standing just feet away from me from anywhere.
“Why are you being sneaky?” I asked as I rushed into Jax’s embrace. He wasn’t supposed to be home from Peru until next week.
“Business got handled, so me and Judah came home, Ma. I missed you.” He said before he leaned down to me, cupping my butt and kissing me. We stood in front of the home kissing like teenagers before we finally parted.
