Page 78 of Jax
I lunged. She cackled. Sully yelped. And then I shoved, hard.
Maddy toppled backward in a spectacular arc, flailing like a Muppet on fire before crashing into the water with a theatrical wail.
Silence fell. Then Maddy burst to the surface with both fists in the air. “I DIED GLORIOUSLY.”
Bellamy laughed so hard she nearly fell off the rock. Sully let himself sink backward in surrender. Jax shifted, letting me slide off his shoulders with care. His hands lingered a moment too long on my thighs before letting go. I landed in the water with a splash, my skin buzzing, my pulse wild.
I turned to face him. We were close, close enough to see the faint rise and fall of his chest, to catch the flicker of something darker in his gaze.
“You didn’t drop me,” I said, softer this time.
“I never would.”
It hit harder than it should have. Less because of what he said, more because he meant it. Maybe it was the heat in his voice, or the memory of rope and breath still caught beneath my ribs. Maybe it was that I still hadn’t figured out how to want someone who didn’t flinch when I bared my teeth.
I looked away first. But not before I saw that smile—quiet, knowing, like he already understood what I wasn’t ready to admit.
After some time playing in the water, we made our way toward the fire pit, soaked and humming with leftover adrenaline. The sun had dropped behind the trees, twilight casting the sky in deepening blue. Lanterns flickered along the trail. The fire cracked with a soft indifference, steady against the unraveling of the day.
Jax moved beside me with the kind of gravity that pulled everything toward him—slow, steady, heat rolling off him in waves deeper than skin. It curled low, pressed deep, and I noticed. God, I noticed. The clean line of his jaw. The damp curls against his neck. The faint bruises on his collarbone, proof of rope and restraint and how he’d held me like he meant to.
I tightened a towel around myself, pretending it was for warmth. Pretending the fire was enough. Pretending I wasn’t still vibrating with the ghost of his hands.
In the shallows, Carrick and Bellamy were tangled up together like the water had rewritten their priorities. Her legs looped around his waist, his hands were anything but idle, both of them kissing each other like the world had ended and restarted between their mouths.
Maddy flopped onto a flat rock with a soaked sprawl of limbs and triumph. “I demand a prize.”
Niko sat nearby, impossibly dry, beer in hand, one brow raised. “You deserve restraints.”
She turned toward him like a cat catching movement. “That’s what I keep asking for, Sir. And yet… here we are.”
He didn’t argue. Just pulled her onto his lap and shut her up with a kiss that landed more like a claim than affection.
Jax dropped beside me, stretching like the stones belonged to him. “Five bucks says she bites him.”
I shot him a look. “Somehow I get the feeling that I shouldn’t take that bet.” That smirk of his was a hazard. The kind that made women forget their judgment, and their underwear. I focused on wringing out my hair, pretending not to notice his gaze, but it stayed, slow and hungry, curling across my skin like he already knew how I tasted.
Around the fire, the team now sprawled in sun-drunk disarray. Sully had launched into a singalong no one joined. Bellamy leaned into Carrick, laughing breathlessly each time hekissed her neck. Maddy poked a marshmallow stick at Niko’s cheek while he looked skyward like divine intervention might still be an option.
Jax leaned in, his warmth brushing mine. “Feels good, doesn’t it?”
I didn’t answer. Because it did. And I hated how much I didn’t hate it. So I stayed—wet, warm, fire-lit and full of noise. Surrounded by people who didn’t flinch at the mess. Who made room even when you didn’t know how to ask. My pulse synced with the music, the laughter, the rhythm of his breath.
When I looked down, Deacon’s frog blinked like it understood everything. I tried not to laugh. Too late. Jax caught it and smiled, quiet and knowing. Like it meant something. And maybe it did.
Smoke curled through the air. The fire crackled, throwing gold across the scene as Sully knelt with reverence, rotating his marshmallow like he was solving dark matter equations. “This is golden perfection,” he said. “Michelangelo had his chapel. I have fire, sugar, and unrelenting skill.” Across from him, Bellamy held her marshmallow in the flames until it caught and blackened. She didn’t flinch. Just stared it down like it owed her alimony.
“She wants it to scream,” Jax murmured.
I looked on incredulously. “She’s gonna eat that?”
“She’s gonna conquer that,” he corrected. “That marshmallow owes her money.”
Bellamy rotated it slowly, watching it combust with eerie satisfaction. It crackled and sagged, bubbling like it regretted ever existing. Honestly, I respected her energy.
I leaned in, Jax’s shoulder brushing mine. “I’d like to never piss her off.”
He smirked. “Smart. She’s got fire and disappointment on her side.”
