“Be careful,” she said.
He just smiled. “It’s delicious.” He was standing so close she could feel the muscles across his chest moving against her back. The front of his jeans rubbed against hers where they curved over her behind.
She almost moaned.
Jax eased away. “So...you and Wyman, you were pretty serious for a while, before he started drinking and doing drugs.”
She nodded. “Smoking pot mostly, but still...”
The pasta and sauce were done. She turned off the stove and turned to face him. “That wasn’t the only reason we broke up. There were...other issues.”
“Yeah, like what?”
Oh, boy. She wished she hadn’t opened this particular Pandora’s box. “We were...um...incompatible in other ways.” She could feel the color rising in her cheeks. Jax noticed, and his dark eyes sharpened.
“You mean physical ways? You two weren’t compatible in bed?”
She moistened her lips, barely able to force out the words. “That’s right.”
Jax’s gaze held hers. “Why not?” He seemed to be demanding an answer. Her breathing went shallow. Her heart beat too fast. Did she have the courage to tell him?
“Curt was pretty much...um...a beta kind of guy. He liked me to...um...take the lead in the bedroom. But that’s just not my thing.”
She had barely seen him move, but suddenly he was closer, just inches away. “So you like a man who takes charge.”
She swallowed. She could see the heat in his eyes, feel the hunger in every muscle in his body. He wanted her. This was her chance to fulfill every fantasy she’d ever had about Jaxon Ryker.
She looked into his hard, handsome face. “Yes.”
One step and he was pressed full-length against her. A big hand slid into her hair to cup the back of her head and hold her in place as his mouth came down over hers. Her eyes closed and her lips parted. Jax was kissing her, deeply and thoroughly, the way she had always imagined.
She moaned and he deepened the kiss, ravaging her mouth, sending delicious shivers through her body, and still it wasn’t enough.
“You want this?” he asked as he pressed his lips against the side of her neck. “You want me?”
Her breath hitched. “Jax... I’ve wanted you for so long.”
A low groan escaped. “Mindy, baby...” He kissed her again, and then he was lifting her into his arms and carrying her out of the kitchen and down the hall to his bedroom.
He kissed her as he set her down beside his king-size bed and began to strip off her clothes. His big hands were everywhere, unbuttoning her blouse and tossing it away, unfastening her bra and sliding it off her shoulders.
He cupped her breasts, lifted and caressed them with a reverence she had never imagined, then he lowered his head to take the fullness into his mouth. A soft moan escaped as he explored and tasted and drove her insane. Desire rolled through her, thick and hot. Her head fell back, shifting her long hair across her back.
Jax returned to kissing her, and for a few precious moments, her passion-fogged brain functioned enough to shove up his T-shirt, urging him to strip it off over his head. Jax complied.
Hard muscle surrounded her, deep sculpted valleys, six-pack abs, toned pecs, the perfect fan of curly dark chest hair, narrowing down in a single line that disappeared into the top of his jeans. She loved that he didn’t have Curt’s pale, hairless chest. Jax was all man and proud of it.
She pressed her mouth against a flat copper nipple, and a shudder rolled through his powerful body.
“I’ve got to have you, baby. I know I shouldn’t. I know it isn’t right, but I need you. Tell me I’m what you want, too.”
“Yes... Oh, yes, Jax. Please...”
“Jesus, honey...” The next thing she knew she was naked and he was lifting her, settling her in his big bed. He left her long enough to strip off his clothes, then he joined her on the mattress and started kissing her again.
“I want everything from you,” he said, his hands moving over her breasts, skimming lower, sliding hotly, expertly down her body, touching, stroking, making her burn. “I want everything you’re willing to give. But I promise I won’t rush you.”
She whimpered. She wasn’t that experienced with men, as apparently Jax could tell. Mindy pulled his head down and rained kisses all over his face, kissed the corners of his mouth.
