Page 22 of The Vigilante's Lover

There, I’ve said it.

Jax’s expression is unreadable. I’ve just bared my pathetic heart. That I want him. I want this life. I don’t want to go home. That he can tie me up. He can do anything he wants. I’m willing.

“Well?” I manage to ask.

The soft dings of the alarms suddenly increase in volume and speed.

Jax glances at the dash. “They’ve found us,” he says. “Damn it.”

He wrenches open his door and dashes around to the trunk. I can’t see what he’s doing with it open, so I climb out of the car, tangled in the heavy, cold, wet dress.

When I get around to the back, Jax is pulling a large gelatinous brick from the trunk. Attached to it is a circuit board with a blinking green light.

“Time to give you your life back,” he says to the brick and heaves it into the underbrush.

He slams the trunk.

“Well?” I ask again. “Will you keep me? I’ll do anything you say. Anything you want.”

He pauses for a second.

“You really have nothing to do with Jovana, do you?” he asks.

“No,” I say. “I don’t.” My heart accelerates. I think he might be agreeing.

“And you’re not trained in any way as an operative?”

“I have the shoes now,” I say, lifting my foot in the white sneaker. “I can start.”

He closes his eyes for a moment, and when they open again, they are glittering and hard.

“I can’t have an innocent civilian come with me,” he says. “I’m a fugitive. I’m already putting my comrades in danger.”

I take two steps closer to him. “Don’t send me back to Tennessee. That’s not where I belong. I can feel it.”

Jax shakes his head. “We’re done here. The Vigilantes obviously know you are a civilian. I’m not sure why they are protecting you, and it doesn’t matter.” He points into the woods where he threw the brick.

“You stay close to that, and they’ll come for you. They’ll take you home.”

I lunge for him. “But I don’t want to go home! I don’t have a home! I have no one!”

I’m not going to let him go. I can’t.

He hesitates a second, and my hope surges. He’s changing his mind. He’ll let me come with him.

“You have no choice, Mia,” he says and pushes me away. “This is not the life for you.” He heads around to his door.

I won’t accept that.

I have to do something. He’ll drive away, and then I’ll never find him again.

He gets in the car and is about to pull the door closed when I leap for it, blocking it with my body.

“Mia, step away,” he says.

I’ve never done anything like what I’m about to do. I don’t even know how. But I know Jax feels something for me. I have to show him that we’re supposed to do this together, that he found me for a reason.

I’ll seduce him. I’ll be the persuasive woman that I was in my letters.

The letters. I glance behind Jax into the backseat. The red bondage rope is still strewn all over it from where I dug through my bag.

Without any hesitation, I jerk my sweater dress up to my waist to give my legs room to move. Jax looks down in surprise at the exposed red thong.

I throw a leg over him and straddle his body. I reach around him, far enough to grab the rope.

Then I’m back.

Jax puts his hands on my waist to lift me away. This gives me the perfect opportunity to wrap his arms in the rope and tie the fastest slipknot ever made. Before he can protest, I’ve got his arms over his head, four more knots locking him to the headrest. His elbows frame his face.

“Nicely done,” he says bitterly. “You want the Vigilantes to catch me, then?”

I swallow hard. I can hear the beeping of the alarm. I ignore it. I have faith that Jax can get us out of any jam.

I put my hands on his cheeks. His stubble isn’t rough, like I thought, but soft. It cushions my palms.

His eyes are dark, a stormy gray-blue. I look at his lips. I’m going to have them. Twice he almost kissed me, but didn’t. This time, I’m not going to let him get away.

I lean in, and we connect. His mouth is warm and softer than I expected. At first he just sits there and lets me move over his lips. I remember the bulge of him between us at the hotel, and I grind against his body.

His chest stills, and I know he’s feeling this. His face relaxes beneath my hands. Now his mouth moves across mine, and he’s kissing me instead of the other way around. His tongue slides between my lips and I automatically open.

I tilt my head to take him in as deeply as I can and a small groan escapes from my throat.

I don’t feel cold anymore, not at all, and heat blasts through my body as I move against him.

He maneuvers away from my mouth, his lips on my jaw, my neck.

I’m utterly lost, drowning in his attention, fire licking through me everywhere we touch.

The ropes fall into our laps and I realize he’s worked himself free.

I want to laugh, thinking my silly knots could hold someone like Jax.

His arms come around me and press me hard against him.

Our mouths find each other again and I want to scream about this feeling I have as we dive into each other again.

His hands stroke my back, my ribs, and come down to my bared thighs. He spreads me wider so I can feel him, hard and erect, pushing up against me. I don’t want anything between us. I want out of this heavy dress, to see him, to feel his skin.

The entire car lights up red inside. “Perimeter surrounded,” the car voice says. “Security breach complete in fifteen seconds.” It begins a countdown.

Jax breaks the kiss. “I hope this is what you wanted,” he says. “Because we’re about to get caught.”