Molly:OMG. You texted me back. How are you? Are you okay? We miss you! xxx
Molly:Like, seriously. Rainn is super grouchy without you to out grouch him. Help me! xxx
Molly:When can we see you? We made you things. We miss you! Are you coming back to work soon? We miss you! We miss you! Xxx
I don’t want to know what she means by“we made you things,”if it’s anything she expects me to eat or drink. Her coffee is murderous and she can’t tip potato chips out of a bag without spilling them all over the floor. But…I miss her wide eyes and infectious smile. I miss all my guys. But not enough to crawl back across town and behind that bar. Not yet. Even without the cloud of fatigue hanging over me, I’m not done being alone with Jax. I don’t know why—what else I could possibly want?—but as a new, healthy agitation sweeps over me, I start to get an idea.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Jax
Eve keeps me out most of the day. It’s dark by the time I skin out of her car and run up the stairs to my apartment. I expect to find Tanner in bed, or at the very least on it, but he’s nowhere in sight as I let myself into my place. The bed is as neatly made as he’s ever going to make it, and something that I haven’t cooked is scenting the air from the kitchen area I can’t see from the hallway.
I bend to untie my boots. Footsteps come up on me and Tanner’s socked feet appear in my peripheral vision. “Hey.”
“Hey,” he says. His feet keep moving. Pacing. And I raise a brow as I straighten up.
Up until this point, he’s slept a lot. If I don’t think about what had to happen to get us here, it’s been kind of nice. I’ve never really seen him rest. But he’s not asleep now—he’s wide awake and prowling. He needs something, but what?
I watch him fidget as I take off my coat and boots. He’s agitated, I can tell, but it’s not the same as the anxious energy I’ve seen in him before. The accident has temporarily knocked it out of him. It’ll be back, Iknowthat, but I’m enjoying its absence.Andhaving Tanner all to myself in the weeks it’s going to take before he can work again.
Selfish? Without doubt. But I love him. I’m never gonna feel bad about that. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Sure about that? You seem kinda buzzed.”
“Gabi gave me some medicinal bourbon, but that was a while ago.”
“Medicinal?”
“Didn’t you know he’s a fucking doctor?”
“He never said.”
Tanner smirks. “That’s because he’s full of shit, but…I don’t know. It sure did something to me.”
“I can tell.”
“Can you?”
I insert myself into his personal space. He’s practically vibrating, and the heat in his piercing stare goes straight to my dick. “Yeah, I think so.”
Tanner kisses me. It’s soft at first, and he runs a gentle hand under my clothes and up my spine. He cups the back of my head and pulls me closer. Our bodies collide, melding together, and my bones turn to liquid as he slips his tongue into my mouth. The heat between us is raging, volatile after weeks of light touches, sweet kisses, and not much else. I want to be careful with him, like he was with me for so long, but I didn’t need that then, and he doesn’t need it now. Tanner’s a big boy. He’s still living life without the use of his injured arm, but the rest of him works just fine.
More than that, hewantsthis. He tugs me to the bed and topples us down, then he pulls me over him and splays his arms, as submissive as I’ve ever seen him. His eyes blaze. “Whatever you want. Take it.”
“What doyouwant, Tanner?”
“Everything.”
“Don’t say it if you don’t mean it.”
“You think I’d do that?”
“No.”
He smirks and stretches his good arm over his head to find the lube in my bedside table. He throws it at me. “Do your worst. I can take it.”
