“But she shouldn’t have to.”
Shut up, Olivia. You have so many other things to do besides get more involved with the toddler you’ve fallen for.
But she couldn’t let it go. Piper was the sweetest little thing with a mop of curly blond hair on the rare occasion it wasn’t in crazy pigtails, and the image of her in Olivia’s old bibs kept flashing through her mind.
“I could just go as a friend,” she explained, realizing she truly didn’t mind stepping in. “We’ll just explain to Piper that you and I are friends—”
Jackson snorted. “Is that what you call it?”
She quirked her brow and continued. “Friends only and I’ll tell her I need a break and a spa party sounds lovely.”
Jackson narrowed those gorgeous deep brown eyes. “You’re up to something.”
Olivia swallowed. She didn’t want to admit she knew that emptiness of having one parent being around more than the other. Granted Olivia was older, but Piper had a void in her life and try as Jackson might, he couldn’t fill it completely. Not that Olivia was trying to step in as a mother, but she could be a friend to sweet Piper while she was in town.
“I don’t have to,” she told him, leaning against the counter. “I’m just throwing it out there.”
“Are you that desperate to get out of talking to me?”
She hadn’t thought of it from that angle, but being alone with Jackson wasn’t smart. So, if she went to this party, it would be a win for Piper and Olivia.
“I’m doing this for your daughter.”
Jackson shrugged. “I’ll ask her, but I want her to understand that you’re just a friend. She can’t be confused about what you and I have going on.”
“We don’t have anything going on other than trying to figure out the airport.”
That sly grin spread slowly across his face as he took a step forward and closed the distance between them. “You can keep telling yourself that, but I don’t believe it any more than you do.”
He didn’t touch her, simply put one hand on the counter, turned his body toward hers, and put his other hand on the opposite side of her, trapping her against the counter. Her eyes widened. Perfect, she wasn’t as unaffected as she kept claiming.
“You want to be angry,” he murmured, his eyes darting to her mouth. “But you’re not upset with me, you’re upset because you have emotions you don’t know what to do with.”
“Stop touching me.”
He leaned in within a breath of her lips. “I’m not touching you at all,” he whispered. “I haven’t even begun.”
She closed her eyes. “I can’t think when you’re this close.”
“Then we’re on the same page.”
He slid his mouth over hers. Without rushing, without pressing into her, because he wanted to get to know that touch, that taste that only Livie provided. When she opened for him, it was all Jax could do to continue to tease her. He wanted her aching, he wanted her to be just as frustrated as he was. And she was. He could tell by the way she looked at him, the way she kept trying to dodge him, but her body betrayed her when she melted against him.
Jax continued to only touch her with his mouth, but her fingertips gripped his forearms, digging in as if she were barely holding on by a thread, too. He wanted her to snap, he wanted to see her unleash that inner passion. Why did she keep it so pent up when there was obviously so much inside of her?
She whimpered slightly, arching as her hands trailed up his arms and over his shoulders. Her fingers threaded through his hair as she angled her head the opposite way.
There. She was taking the lead. The one and only time he would relinquish control with Livie would be if she wanted to show him exactly what she needed. He’d not been this stirred up by a woman in so long, he couldn’t even attempt to stop this roller coaster of emotions.
“Well, I see why she wanted us to go get the paint.”
Livie jerked in his arms and Jax glanced over his shoulder toward the back door where Melanie and Jade stood, both wearing huge grins. Their arms were loaded with paint cans and sacks from Knobs and Knockers.
“Ladies,” he greeted, while Livie attempted to disengage herself from between his body and the counter. He wasn’t quite ready to let her go, nor was he going to act like they were caught doing something wrong when it had felt so very right.
“I did not ask you to go,” she corrected. “You both volunteered.”
Jade sat the gallon of paint on the counter. “Looks like you took advantage of the time we were gone. We can come back later if you’d like to finish.”
Jax hadn’t known Jade well when she’d lived here before because he was so much younger, but he liked her sass.
Livie gave him a shove that had him stepping back. “There’s nothing to finish,” she argued, straightening her clothes. “Jackson stopped by to look at the tools in the garage to see if he wanted anything. Then I had him take the brackets down.”
“I’ve never seen brackets removed that way before,” Melanie replied in her sweet tone as she sat her bags on the counter.
Jax couldn’t help but smile. Melanie had that perfect Southern belle appearance with her blond hair and her bright blue eyes. Her voice was like honey, sweet, soothing. But she delivered that snarky comment like a seasoned pro.
Livie let out the most unladylike growl and grabbed his screwdriver from the counter. “We’re done here.” She handed him the tool. “Let me know what time the party is.”
“I’ll text you about the party,” he told her. “And keep the screwdriver. You’ll need it when I come back to put the brackets back in place.”
Because he just wanted to,
