Too stunned to speak, I stood there full of uncertainty, rigid with desire. I couldn’t deny the powerful urge I had to stick out my tongue and lick him. To take what was mine and never give him back, but I was unsure if he wanted me within this heated moment too.
“Don’t you dare say that...” Jack whispered hoarsely as his eyes searched my face. “I’m nothing like your fucking dirtbag ex.”
“Oh, yeah?” I glanced down at his mouth. “Prove it.”
Daringly, I reached out and traced my fingertips over the curve of his tightly pressed lips. God, I was crazy for touching such an angry person, but Jack left me no choice. I teetered off balance and was certain to fall to my doom. I had to cling to him to discover the truth he kept buried, concealed away as much as I had tried to do too, but the reality of my affection hammered madly in my chest.
“Play with fire, Elle...” Jack breathed against my fingers. “You’ll get burned.”
My mouth parted, and I bit my lip. His eyes caught the action, and he cursed with a sound coming out of him that was too damn delicious. My teeth released the tender flesh, and I licked my lips. Unable to stop the enticing gestureswhile he watched me with nostrils flaring. Jack held back. His knuckles were white as he gripped the axe handle and wouldn’t let go.
“Will I?” I pressed on as my fingertips grazed along his jaw and through his neatly groomed beard. “Or will you go up in flames with me?”
A flash of desire blazed in Jack’s eyes for an instant, then went dark. He’d held on after I ignited the spark, and he blew the flame out and denied us the chemistry we wanted to explore.
“Careful. You shouldn’t touch me like that. It’s been hard to fucking control myself around you.” Jack grabbed my wrist, and held it between our faces. His intense stare never wavered from me. “All you’ve done is get in my goddamn head, and all I want is for you to get out.”
“For once, we agree,” I whispered.
“Then why won’t you go away, Elle?” Jack questioned with narrowed eyes. “Tasting your pretty lips, your drenched pussy, and your feverish skin didn’t stop the thirst I have for you. What’s it gonna take, princess?”
“Fuck me,” I replied.
I was dead serious. Passion flooded Jack’s gaze, and I had set the truth free. He wanted me.
Jack released my wrist with a groan. “No.”
“Yes, Jack. I hate to even think about it, but sex is the only way to get whatever the hell this is out of our systems,” I pleaded with Jack. “I want to move on.Weneed to get past this because I can’t continue to live beside someone I want to be around every goddamn day.”
“Jesus, Elle, you shouldn’t desire me this way. I can’t...” Jack stopped talking and dropped the axe to his side. “No. I won’t have sex with you because you’re Gabriel’s daughter. I’m bad for you, and I’ll prove it.”
Jack turned his back on me and walked away. Anger whipped through me like flames I couldn’t contain, and my entire body quivered with frustration. He rejected me. Jack Timber doesn’t get to dismiss me.
“Don’t you walk away from me, Timber, when I—” My tangent ended with the slam of the axe blade into the stump.
“See this?” Jack pointed at the wooden handle next to his shed.
I swallowed hard. “Yeah.”
“Ride it,” Jack ordered.
I blinked in shock. “What?”
Jack cursed, walked three giant steps toward me, and grabbed the back of my neck. His massive six-nine stature towered over me as he made me stare down at the axe handle. He gestured toward the end, and his index finger grazed the smooth wood. I shivered in his hold.
“I want your tight cunt wrapped around the handle, Elle. Fuck, princess, I need you to ride my axe cowgirl style. I want you stretched and ready when I take you,” Jack insisted.
“You can’t be fucking serious?” I asked in disbelief.
“I’m fucking dead serious.” Jack peered down at me. “Ride my axe handle or are you just daddy’s little girl?”
TWENTY-SIX
Axe Rider
Jack
Elle stared down at the axe for what seemed like fucking forever while I held my breath. She wouldn’t listen. My little Elle would defy me as she had always done, and she’d run out of my backyard, petrified by what I had demanded her to do.
