Jaxson's Song (8 page)

Chapter Seven

A Declaration of
War

“
W
hat
are
you doing in here?” Jaxson demanded, shoving a hand through his
hair and struggling to hold on to what little patience he had left.
That fact was driven home when his fingers encountered the rough
edge of the platinum wig that now rested haphazardly on his head.
He had no pride left.

Reminding himself that
none of this was Kate’s fault helped somewhat. His problems had
nothing to do with her; his neighbor was an innocent bystander, and
a passing one, at that, he was quick to remind himself.

“
What are
you
doing in here?” Kate countered, pressing her hand
tighter over her mouth. “I heard all the, um, noise…”

“
If you’re going to laugh at me, then get out.” His eyes
narrowed before he looked beyond Kate, to the pale light that
spilled onto the carpet and rimmed her hair in a dusky halo. He’d
been stumbling around in the damn dark and the power was back on?
He closed his eyes and silently counted to ten.

“
Uh…Jaxson?”

“
When did the power come back on?” He voiced the question
without bothering to open his eyes.

“
Oh. Just now, I guess. I hadn’t even noticed until you
pointed it out.”

He opened his eyes then
and stared at the woman who’d taken several steps into the room.
Hands at her sides, her steps were tentative now, but she was
steadily coming toward him. His mouth twisted into a frown but her
steps didn’t falter. Within seconds, she was standing in front of
him. “You didn’t notice?”

Kate shrugged and stared
up at him. “In the south, the power is always going out. You get
used to it.”

Jaxson didn’t want to get
used to it. Any of it. Not the heat or the shit weather, damn sure
not these godforsaken wigs. He watched Kate’s chest rise and fall
as she inhaled, and then she took the final step that brought her
toe to toe with him and he couldn’t think at all.

“
So…” Small, white teeth briefly clamped down on her full
bottom lip, but then her head came up and she regarded him in the
cool stillness of the bedroom. “Do you need help?”

“
I…” He shook his head and tried to block out the warmth
emanating from her body. Jaxson quickly found out that by taking
small, shallow breaths, he could—mostly—block out the cross between
cotton candy and caramel that was Kate’s scent. “No.” His mouth
snapped shut and he took a step back. “Just hit the light on your
way out, will you?”

“
Uh…oh, okay, yeah,” she stammered, blinking
rapidly.

Jaxson turned his back to
her and faced the nightstand, fingers only a little unsteady as he
once again began to work the long pins out from around the edge of
the wig, just like his aunt had shown him.

They weren’t coming out.
He bit back another string of curses as he tried to get a grip on
one of the long pins, only to find it was hopelessly entangled in
both the thickly woven backing of the hair piece and the wig cap.
He gave it up for the moment as a lost cause, moving on to the pin
next to it. He managed to yank that one out and flung it onto the
dresser as he heard the tell-tale click-click-click of the light
switch across the room. Kate’s voice rang out a second
later.

“
It’s not coming on.”

Jaxson grunted. “Bulb must
have blown.” He tugged at another pin. “Just leave the bathroom
door open, then.”

When silence was the only
response, he figured Kate had left to go back to her own room. He
jumped a foot in the air when smooth, cool fingers pressed against
his shoulder.

“
Here. Let me help.”

He turned to face her, and
long moments passed while he stared down at her pixie face. She
seemed hesitant again, unsure of herself, maybe unsure of him. He
inhaled, then cursed himself an instant later when her scent filled
his senses. “Most of the pins are stuck,” he heard himself
say.

Her fingers moved
skillfully over the same pin he’d had no luck with, and in less
than sixty seconds Kate had extracted it from the wig
cap.

“
Okay. I’m impressed,” he grudgingly admitted, a ghost of a
smile curving his lips. Kate deposited the pin in the hand that
Jaxson held, palm up, between their bodies, and went to work on the
next one.

“
I used to do Lilly’s hair,” she murmured, dropping another
pin into his waiting hand.

“
Your sister?” he asked, distracted and struggling to form a
coherent response as Kate leaned up on tip-toe in order to reach
the pins and fastenings behind his left ear.

“
Hmmm.” She nodded. “Besides, I’m a nurse.”

He wasn’t sure what that
had to do with anything, but he held his breath when she leaned
forward.

“
Oh, wow, this is really stuck.”

Smooth, cool strands of
her hair brushed against Jaxson’s chin; his gut clenched and he
closed his eyes, fought hard for control. Oh, yeah, he was
definitely getting hot for his neighbor. And that was just flat out
stupid. Idiotic. His life was a tangled fucking mess. He didn’t
even know her.

“
Got it.” She pulled back, triumphant, the final pin in hand.
Her eyes became wide, serious, violet orbs. The teasing laughter in
her tone faded and her hand skimmed the side of his face as she
reached up and pulled the wig from his head. “You have dark hair,”
she murmured.

The hair pins fell
soundlessly to the plush, navy blue carpet. Jaxson brought both
hands up and as if it had a mind of its own, one hand slid up to
cup the side of Kate’s face, mirroring her own position. The other
hand closed over her fingers. His breath hitched at the close
contact. Kate’s fingers were cool and, like the rest of her body,
felt delicate in comparison to his own. The rest of her slim form
radiated a warmth that went straight to his head and he closed his
eyes, pressing his forehead against hers. He had to tell her no.
She had to leave. Now. He couldn’t afford to get involved. And even
if it were possible, he didn’t
do
involved.

“
Why are you doing this?” He whispered the words into her skin
and tried not to wonder how she would feel, how she would
taste.

“
I don’t know,” she breathed.

He felt her shivered
beneath his hands and tilted her head up. “I…don’t know,” she
repeated, with only a little more force this time. Her fingers
curled around his and she pressed her smooth cheek to his
own.

Her heat leeched into him
and he felt all at once surrounded, swamped in the dizzying mix of
emotion that he was already beginning to somehow associate with
Kate.

“
You have to go.”

“
Yeah,” she agreed.

Jaxson’s blood boiled at
the small catch in Kate’s voice, and he dipped his head down a
fraction of an inch. The slight move put him into even closer
contact with her; his lips hovered only millimeters from her mouth.
Close enough to drink in her soundless, gasping breaths. Close
enough to touch…

Never in his life had he
struggled so much.
You can’t do this.
Send her away
. But a louder, more
insistent voice was making itself heard now over the thready,
barely-there hum of his conscience.
Now, now, now
. The litany kept
time with his heartbeat, and then the roaring of his ears drowned
out even that and he lost the battle altogether.

Jaxson’s lips opened
against her skin, and he pressed a hot kiss against the corner of
her mouth. Kate went rigid against him, and he tightened his hold
on her, moved to cup the back of her neck. He trailed quick,
furtive kisses along her the line of her jaw, pausing only to trace
a slow path with his tongue. Her sharp intake of breath went
through him like a spear, then he felt her press even closer to
him. He groaned and caught her earlobe between his teeth, tugging
and then swirling his tongue against her skin before moving to
claim her mouth in earnest.

Oh, God, she felt so damn
good against him. His lips settled over hers, his tongue darting
out in between teasing, nipping kisses, and he was rewarded ten
times over when she rocked her hips against him. Jaxson felt like
he was on fire. His arms felt coiled and tense as they closed all
the way around Kate. The juncture of her thighs rocked into his lap
again and he bit down on her lip, one arm automatically coming down
to circle around her hips. The soft material of her pink pants
bunched in his fist. He inadvertently pulled the cloth tighter
against her rear, groaning when her legs parted and allowed him
even greater access to her body.

He had been wrong. Kate
wasn’t delicate at all, but strong and lithe—and
hot
. He groaned,
the sound coming out as more of a growl, and he wrapped his other
hand around her hair, pulling her head back and kissing his way
down her throat. Kate made a gasping, moaning sound, deep in her
throat, and he felt an answering twinge in his body. Two steps back
and he had her pressed against the nightstand.

“
Jaxson…”

“
Oh, fuck yeah…” he gasped as her legs parted even wider than
before. His hands shot out to grip her hips, and he was yanking her
forward even as he stepped between her legs. Kate made another
sound in her throat, and one hand struggled with the pink-tasseled
drawstring of her pants.

Jaxson shoved her hand
away but was quick to replace it with his own. Kate reached out to
grasp his shirt and she tugged at it, yanking the fabric up, trying
to pull it over his head. The material caught on his earring and
Jaxson winced, the fog in his head abruptly clearing. He let go of
Kate and braced both hands on the bedside table, his arms framing
her as glanced down at himself, chest heaving. He wasn’t wearing a
shirt; Kate had been trying to pull his godforsaken dress over his
head. Sometimes…there are no words.

He shoved away from the
nightstand—from the bed—without looking at the blonde, violet-eyed
creature whose breathing was still every bit as heavy as his own.
What the hell had he been about to do? He chastised himself as he
walked around the bed, and, when that wasn’t far enough, to the
dressing table at the opposite end of the bedroom. His hands shook
as he removed the gaudy, gold hoop earrings and tossed them onto
the surface of the rented vanity. Kate was an innocent stranger,
and besides that, the woman was a nurse. He bit back a groan and
forced his eyes away from her in the mirror. He watched her slide
off the nightstand, and eyed his own less-than-composed face, his
guilt and frustration reflected back at him in stark
clarity.

Kate was a nurse, and he
was…a screw-up. A bookie from east Brooklyn who’d thrown away more
chances in five years than most people got in a lifetime. Jaxson’s
lips thinned into a harsh line and his hands tightened on the
lacquered surface of the dressing table. He was still in full war
paint, and angrily he removed the false eyelashes, pretending not
to notice Kate hovering near the door.

He wished she would just
go already. Even before he turned state’s evidence, he’d had
nothing to offer a woman like her. A now that he was bait for a
killer, for a man whose very existence he woke up cursing each
morning? Well, now he had even less to offer. The possibility that
Jaxson would end up winning his freedom, but paying for his
association with Roger Klein, with his life…was very
real.

He glanced once more at
the woman behind him. A man like Klein wouldn’t care that Kate was
standing next to Jaxson, he’d snuff out her life just the same.
Hell, Kate was young and blonde; although her hair was a shade too
dark, she was eerily close to the type of victim that fucking
pervert seemed to prefer. Jaxson cursed the day he’d ever been
stupid enough to do business with a man like Roger Klein. He’d
known there was something not quite right about the man, but one
dollar was as good as the next, right? Wrong.

He raised his eyes to his
neighbor’s, in the mirror. Kate had to go; hanging around with him
could prove hazardous to her health. But she wasn’t leaving; it
looked like he’d have to turn around and speak to her. He thumped a
fist against the top of the vanity and turned around to face
her.

“
Go back to your room, okay?”

“
Hey, I wasn’t—”

“
Look, let’s not do this, eh? I’m just not
interested.”

“
So, are you…”

Jaxson frowned when she
paused and turned to leave, apparently unwilling to say anything
further. “Am I what?” he asked, halting her progress from the room,
against his better judgment.

She bit her lip, one hand
on the door. “Well, are you…a, um…a lesbian? I mean, it’s okay if
you are, I just…”

Jaxson froze. “Are you
serious?”