“Ten grand to pretend to be my girlfriend and make nice with my mother and sisters. One lunch. Ten grand. That’s a pretty sweet deal.”
She taps her foot against the floor, and I can’t keep away from her any longer. Crossing the room, I drag her stiff body into my arms, remembering how badly I wanted to kiss her as she moaned under me.
“She’s a good cook,” I add, and her lips twitch.
“Fine, but I’m no good at small talk.”
“I’ll say,” I murmur, nuzzling my nose against her neck. My dick begins to rub against the join of her legs, and she parts them, her breath coming faster as I lick a path up to her mouth. I’m about to push my tongue inside and finally taste her when something vibrates against my side.
“Shit,” Jax mutters.
I pull back as she drags out a cell phone. The name “SCOTT” is glaring bright on the screen, and a sharp crease forms between her brows.
“Sorry, I have to take this,” she glances at the clock. “And I have to go.”
I groan. “You’re not seriously leaving me like this.”
“It’s not my fault,” she says, but it doesn’t have the same sharp quality she usually uses. She suddenly seems worried, and I let her go.
My stomach knots as she looks at the money on the desk and then back at me.
“Take it,” I say, my voice hoarse.
The sordid eroticism of it fades completely. I don’t want her to be here just because of those crisp dollar bills. I want her to be here because she’s desperate for me, just as she was only minutes before.
She was euphoric, molded against me, as if I could do whatever I wanted to her, ruin her for any other man. All that fucking sass was extinguished as she lay languidly against me.
It was an addictive feeling.
Jax grabs the cash, giving me a wide berth as she passes me, her eyelids low and heavy, as she puts the phone to her ear.
“Hi,” she says, throwing me a wary glance, but I don’t follow her. I stand in my office watching her shove the money into a ratty black backpack that she drags from beneath the chair.“Yeah, I’m coming now. Wait for me, I’ll cover it. Don’t leave by yourself.”
Then she’s gone, leaving me with an odd taste in my mouth and an unwelcome, burning desire to follow her and find out who the hellScottis.
Chapter 20
Jax
“So that’s eighteen grand,” Scott says, laying out the cash that I’ve brought to the club. It’s everything I’ve received from Gray so far, as well as what Seb and Ben have given us.
We’ve been sequestered in my office downstairs for half an hour, the thumping music starting to give me a headache.
Scott is in a bad way, hunched over and in pain, but he still refuses to see a doctor. His eye is an ugly dark purple, the eyelid completely swollen shut. Even our security guards told him to get it checked, and his stubbornness is driving me crazy.
“We’d be better off with 25k,” I say, looking at the pile of cash. “The more we can pay him, the better.”
“Sure, and where are we going to get that kind of money by Sunday?”
“I’ll get it.”
“Jax,” he says, looking up at me, licking his swollen lip. “You’re not doing anything stupid, are you?”
“Of course not.”
“You’re not, like, selling drugs at the club or something.”
I laugh. “You think I want Flynn to kill us both? No. Nothing to do with the club, this is my money.”
