Damn it. He didn’t want to just expose every single thought he’d had about her. She made him forget every pep talk he’d given himself and she totally tore through the red flags waving around in his mind.
“If you want to work together, then by all means, let’s work.” He nipped at her jawline, pleased when her head tipped back. “But I’ll give you this one and only warning—I want you and I intend to have you.”
When her eyes widened, then darted to his lips, it took every single ounce of willpower for him to pull back and release her. His body protested at the loss of her touch. But he wanted her to be just as aching, just as frustrated as he was. Only then would he get to see the real side of Livie, the side he’d wanted to expose since she stepped foot into that hangar wearing her proper suit.
“If we’re going to really dig into this idea, we can’t be . . .”
She waved her hand between them. Amused, Jax reached out and wiped a damp tendril from her forehead.
“Can’t be what?”
Her eyes narrowed. “You know,” she said, swatting at him. “Stop touching me.”
“You just arched your body against mine and moaned. Now you’re choosing to say no?”
“I didn’t arch or moan,” she argued. “Maybe we should have chaperones when we discuss renovating.”
Jax couldn’t stop the laugh from slipping out. “You think someone in the room will stop me from doing what I want? You don’t know me very well.”
“I don’t know you at all,” she all but shouted over the pounding rain. “I know you worked for my father, now you’re a single dad, and you make me—”
“What?” he asked, more intrigued than ever.
She let out the most unladylike growl. “Forget it.”
Jax wasn’t sure if she was talking to him or herself, so he merely shrugged. “I’ll drive you home. Let me pull my truck into the hangar and put Piper in.”
Livie opened her mouth, then closed it.
“What?” he asked. “You want to argue about that, too? You don’t honestly think I’d let you walk home in this rain, do you? Besides, it’s pitch-black out. I’m a Southern gentleman, Livie. I’ll make sure you’re properly taken care of.”
Her swift intake of breath was all he needed to know he’d hit his mark with that last line. He wasn’t messing around. She may have thought this talk of attraction was done, but he’d barely gotten started.
Suddenly, Livie’s eyes widened as she peered over his shoulder. Jax turned, catching sight of Piper standing in the doorway with her lopsided ponytails. She rubbed her eyes and yawned.
“Hey, sweetheart.” Jax crossed the cracked concrete and lifted his sleepy girl into his arms. “You ready to head home and get tucked into bed?”
“You promised to read the Amelia Earhart book tonight,” she whined as she lay her head on his shoulder.
“I did, but I didn’t know we’d be here so late.”
The kid couldn’t remember the daily ritual of brushing her teeth, but she sure as hell wasn’t about to forget a promise he made last minute as she hopped out of his truck for school this morning.
“Daddy.” She wrapped her little arms around his neck. “You can’t break your promise. That’s what you always tell me.”
Sometimes he really felt he was nailing this parenting thing, and other times he realized his guidance came back to bite him in the butt.
Jax glanced to Livie, who still hadn’t moved, hadn’t taken her eyes off Piper. And then it hit him. The bibs.
“They’ve been on the back of the office door since you left,” he reminded her. “She’s just started wearing them recently. They’re a little big, but . . .”
He truly had no idea how to approach this, and from the look on Livie’s face, she didn’t either.
“If you’d rather she not—”
“No, it’s fine.” Livie blinked, as if she were pulling herself from some trance. “I forgot about them until you mentioned them the other day, but I hadn’t seen them yet. I’m just surprised, that’s all.”
“Are you having another date?” Piper mumbled.
Jax shot Livie a wink. “Not tonight,” he said, patting Piper’s back. “Livie needs a ride home, though. Can you stand here with her and I’ll go get my truck so you two don’t get so wet?”
She nodded against the side of his neck, her wild hair tickling his jaw. He sat her down, but Piper immediately went over to Livie and extended her arms. Livie froze, not enough for Piper to notice, but Jax was pretty in tune with Livie. She didn’t want to get too wrapped up in this place, with him or his daughter.
“Be right back.”
Jax didn’t offer any reason to Piper why Livie wasn’t picking her up, and as he walked back in to get his keys and shut off lights, he threw a glance over his shoulder. Piper was firmly resting in Livie’s arms. In that second, something tripped inside his chest and he had no way to even describe the emotion.
Turning from the scene behind him, Jax couldn’t let any of this get too personal. No matter how strong the pull of attraction was toward Livie, he had to keep reminding himself of how Carly had also tugged him into her life only to stomp on his heart and walk out without a regret.
Jax turned off the lights, set the alarm, and headed to get his truck. He wasn’t looking for a relationship. A little flirting, kissing . . . whatever else may arise was fine, so long as commitment stayed out of the equation. If they had a business deal, fine, so long as they both agreed to it. But anything deeper, forging a stronger bond, was out of the question. After all, he not
