Page 3

three

. . .

Claire

The kitchen timer sounds with a loud buzz, jolting me from the dreamy haze of peeling potatoes side by side with Jax. He mutters a curse under his breath.

"Hang on," he says, quickly adjusting the oven dials. He turns back to me, his eyes smoldering at me like melted chocolate. "Let's put this on warm for now."

My heart flutters as he takes my hand, his skin warm and slightly rough against mine. He leads me out of the kitchen and up a narrow wooden staircase, the old steps creaking beneath our feet. With each step, the tension between us builds, electric and palpable, sending shivers racing along my spine.

At the top of the stairs, Jax guides me down a dimly lit hallway to a door at the very end. He produces an old brass key, unlocking the door and gesturing for me to enter. Intrigued, I step inside.

It's his private quarters—a cozy space with sloped ceilings, exposed wooden beams, and a large bed draped in a patchwork quilt. The room is lit only by the soft glow of an antique lamp on the nightstand. The air feels charged, crackling with unspoken desire.

The moment the door clicks shut behind us, Jax turns to me. In one fluid motion, he gently presses me back against the door, one hand cupping my cheek, the other snaking around my waist to draw me close. I catch my breath, pulse hammering in my ears.

"Claire," he murmurs, his lips a hair's breadth from mine. "Tell me you want this too."

In answer, I wind my arms around his neck and pull him down into a searing kiss. His mouth claims mine, hot and hungry, tasting of cinnamon and longing. I pour everything I feel into the kiss—the days of flirting, the aching want, the need flaring bright between us. He groans softly and deepens the kiss, his tongue sliding against mine, igniting sparks behind my closed eyelids.

Every inch of me burns for his touch. I've never wanted anyone like this, with an intensity that borders on desperation. All coherent thought flees my mind as his lips trail fire along my jaw, down the column of my throat.

This is a point of no return. Standing here in Jax's arms, lost in his passionate embrace, I know there will be no going back. Wherever this leads, whatever the consequences, I'm his—mind, body and soul. The realization is terrifying and thrilling all at once.

Jax's talented fingers slowly unzip my dress, each tooth releasing with a soft purr that seems to echo the pounding of my heart. Cool air kisses my overheated skin as the silky fabric parts and pools at my feet. I'm left standing in nothing but my lace bra and panties, shivering under the intensity of his molten gaze.

"God, you're exquisite," he whispers reverently, calloused hands skimming my sides, igniting trails of goosebumps in their wake. "A work of art."

Self-consciousness wars with arousal as I fight the urge to cover myself. But the raw hunger in Jax's eyes chases away any lingering doubts. He looks at me like a man starved, like I'm the most desirable thing he's ever seen.

Emboldened, I reach out to unbutton his shirt, my fingers trembling slightly as I reveal the hard planes of his chest, the roped muscle of his abs. He is strength and power, barely leashed. The air thickens, charged with an electric current of anticipation.

Jax walks me backward until my legs hit the edge of the bed. He lowers me down gently, covering my body with his own, a delicious weight that sets every nerve ending alight. I've never been this close to a man before, skin to skin, heartbeat to drumming heartbeat.

"I'm going to worship every inch of you," Jax promises darkly, his breath hot against my ear. "Until you're begging for release. Until my name is the only word you remember."

He captures my wrists and raises them above my head, pressing them into the pillows in a wordless command to keep them there. I obey instinctively, my body his willing canvas to paint with pleasure.

Then his mouth is everywhere—mapping the curve of my breast, the dip of my navel, the sensitive skin of my inner thigh. He uses lips and tongue and teeth to stoke the fire burning through my veins, higher and hotter, until I'm writhing beneath him, wordless pleas falling from my lips.

No fantasy could have prepared me for the reality of Jax's touch, at once torturously tender and fiercely possessive. He teases and tempts, stoking my arousal to a fever pitch, until I'm teetering on a knife's edge of excruciating bliss.

"Say it," he demands, his voice gruff and rasping against my skin. "Tell me what you want."

"I...I want...more," I gasp out, barely recognizing the needy moan issuing from my own lips.

He chuckles, deep and low, the vibration of his laughter sending fresh shivers through me. "I thought you might say that."

With a wicked grin, Jax pulls the bottle of maple syrup we used earlier from his back pocket—our playful innuendoes now heightened with newfound meaning. He drizzles a slow, sticky trail down my abdomen, his eyes never leaving mine.

"You've never known true decadence until you've tasted yourself with a hint of maple," he murmurs, his voice thick with desire. "Let me show you, Claire. Let me show you how good we can be together."

And as he brings his fingers to his lips, tasting me along with the amber syrup, the world around us melts away. I’m covered in sticky syrup, but I don’t care as Jax’s tongue licks it all off my heated skin.

I glance down and see him free himself from his pants. His heavy cock drops free, and I gasp when I see the liquid beading the tip. It’s impossibly hard and straining toward me.

I stare, transfixed, at Jax's impressive length, my mouth going dry. I've never seen a man aroused before, and the sight sends a fresh gush of wetness between my thighs. He sees me looking and grins wickedly, wrapping a hand around himself and giving a slow, teasing stroke.

"Like what you see, sweetheart?"

I can only nod mutely, my brain short-circuiting as I watch his fist slide up and down his thick shaft. He's magnificent—all hard angles and coiled power, barely restrained. The hunger in his gaze threatens to devour me whole.

Jax settles his hips between my splayed thighs, the blunt head of his cock nudging insistently at my entrance. I tense instinctively, suddenly nervous. This is uncharted territory for me. But Jax cups my face, forcing me to meet his eyes.

"Relax, baby," he soothes, brushing a tender kiss across my lips. "I've got you. I'll make this so good for you, I promise."

Emboldened by his words, I let my legs fall open further, welcoming him into the cradle of my body. Jax pushes forward, slowly, carefully, letting me adjust to the unfamiliar stretch and burn. It's intense, this feeling of fullness, of completion. Like a missing piece of myself I never knew was absent until this moment.

"God, you're so tight," Jax grits out, his face taut with restraint. "So perfect."

He hilts himself fully inside me with a low groan, and we both still, suspended in the gravity of our joining. I can feel every ridge and vein of him, pulsing deep within my core. It's overwhelming in the best possible way.

After a long, charged moment, Jax begins to move. He withdraws almost fully before surging back in, setting a steady, deep rhythm that has me seeing stars. Each thrust hits a spot inside me that I didn't even know existed, stoking the embers of my arousal into a raging inferno.

"That's it, sweetheart," he praises roughly as I arch to meet his strokes. "Take what you need."

I lose myself to the sensations—the delicious drag of his hardness, the dizzying spiral of pleasure building at the base of my spine. Nothing else exists outside this room, this bed, this man. Jax is my entire universe, the axis on which I spin.

He leans down to capture my lips in a searing kiss, swallowing my increasingly desperate moans. One hand slides between our sweat-slicked bodies to find my aching center. He rubs tight, focused circles around the sensitive bundle of nerves, winding the coil of tension inside me tighter and tighter until it's unbearable.

"Let go, Claire," Jax commands, his voice rough with need. "Come for me, baby. I want to feel you fall apart."

His words are my undoing. With a keening cry, I shatter in his arms, my inner muscles clenching rhythmically around his pistoning length. Wave after wave of ecstasy crashes over me, whiting out my vision, stealing the air from my lungs. I clutch at Jax's shoulders, my nails digging red crescents into his skin as I ride out the aftershocks.

"That's it, sweetheart," he praises, never stopping the relentless pump of his hips. "God, you're exquisite when you come. I could watch you fall apart like this forever."

Jax picks up the pace, chasing his own release now. His thrusts become erratic, more forceful, hitting that secret spot inside me over and over until I'm teetering on the edge again, oversensitive and yearning.

"You're mine now, Claire," he growls possessively, his eyes flashing with primal hunger. "No other man will ever touch you like this. I'll make sure of it."

I can only moan in assent, too lost in sensation to form words. The knowledge that I'm his, completely and irrevocably, only heightens my arousal. I want to be owned by him, body and soul.

"Say it," Jax demands harshly, punctuating each word with a deep, grinding thrust. "Tell me you're mine."

"I'm yours," I gasp out, my back arching off the bed as he hits a particularly sensitive spot. "Only yours, Jax. Always."

My declaration seems to unleash something wild in him. With a guttural groan, he hoists my legs over his shoulders, the new angle allowing him to plunge even deeper. I cry out sharply, my body bowing under the onslaught of sensation.

"That's right, baby," he rasps. "Take all of me. I'm going to fill you up so good, ruin you for anyone else."

His filthy words and the relentless pounding of his cock catapult me to new heights. A second climax hits me without warning, even more intense than the first. I keen his name like a prayer as I convulse around him, stars exploding behind my tightly shut eyelids.

"Fuck, Claire," Jax snarls, his hips snapping frantically now. "Your little virgin cunt is squeezing me so tight. Gonna make me come so hard..."

With a hoarse shout, he buries himself to the hilt and stills, his cock jerking inside me as he finds his own release. I can feel the hot rush of his seed painting my inner walls, marking me indelibly as his own.

The intimacy of it, the pure possession, sends me spiraling into a third shuddering climax, my body milking every last drop from Jax's pulsing length. We cling to each other as the aftershocks roll through us, chests heaving, sweat-slicked skin sliding deliciously.

After long moments, Jax carefully withdraws and collapses beside me, pulling me into the shelter of his arms. I tuck my face into the crook of his neck, breathing in the intoxicating scent of sex and spice and something uniquely him. My body still hums, nerve endings singing from the force of my release.

"That was..." I trail off, lacking the words to encompass the magnitude of what just transpired between us.

"Earth-shattering? Life-altering?" Jax supplies with a wicked grin, his fingertips tracing idle patterns on my hip.

I slap his chest playfully, a smile tugging at my lips. "I was going to say intense. But yes, all of the above."

He chuckles, the sound a deep rumble beneath my cheek. "Oh, sweetheart. That was just the appetizer. Wait until you see what I have planned for the main course."

A delicious shiver races down my spine at the dark promise in his voice. If that was just the beginning, I can scarcely imagine what other decadent delights Jax has in store. The mere thought has desire unfurling anew in my still-quivering core.

As if reading my mind, Jax rolls me beneath him again, his weight a welcome anchor pinning me to the rumpled sheets. He nuzzles my neck, teeth grazing the sensitive skin of my throat.

"After dinner," he murmurs, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. "I’m going to spend all night feasting on you until you forget your own name."

I already can’t wait.