Wilde Forever (Wilde Women Book 1) (21 page)

The minute any sort of thought about the house flitted into her thoughts, Brynn found she immediately began dancing on the head of a pin. She’d be damned before she let her cousin get his greedy paws on what she saw as her home. Screw that. There was no way she would go down without one helluva fight. Her initial scheme to hook up with a beard in order to divert Nana’s crazy plot to interfere in her personal life lit up in her thoughts. It was a crazy thing to even consider entertaining, but what was a girl to do when her back was against a wall? It wasn’t like marriage-ready men were hanging off trees like ripened fruit. And besides, she didn’t have the time or the inclination to harvest anyone suitable. Not that she wanted to, she quickly asserted. Nope. She had to put her foot down and circumvent whatever fuckery her grandmother was cooking up. For a million and one reasons that didn’t need picking apart, marriage just wasn’t going to make it onto one of her lists. Case closed.

Maybe during her New York visit she’d look around and see who might fit the role she imagined for a faux husband. There was always Anthony Turner. He was sweet, funny, and as gay as the day was long. He was also so deeply wedged in the closet that he might actually consider helping her out. Anthony was an up-and-coming on-air host that the network was pushing hard. The ladies loved his suave manners and picture perfect good looks. Brynn had gotten to know him from her dealings with the cadre of foodies and marketing types who had made the once struggling lifestyle channel a mega-star in the network world of food, nutrition, and healthy living.

Taking out her phone, she brought up an app that she used to keep notes and began a new list labeled ‘Beards’. Entering Anthony’s name she added a reminder notification that would buzz her on Monday while she was at the network to look him up and scope him out.
There
, she thought. She was taking pro-active steps to shut this insanity down before Nana’s plan ruined everything she’d worked so hard for.

Collapsing into a comfy easy chair in the den, Brynn pressed a hand to her tummy when it growled loudly. Damn. She hadn’t stopped for lunch and now her stomach was all but eating itself yet she was too tired to even think about making a decent meal. And worse, the dozen frozen dinners she had on hand all seemed unappealing and sort of
meh
. Maybe she’d have a cup of tea and go relax in the bath to take the edge off a busy day, but first she should really text Jax and check in with him. Tell him how excited she was seeing the new room taking shape.

‘Hey you,’
she typed.
‘Got a lot done today. Looks amazing so far.’

A minute later her phone lit up with his reply.

‘Hey right back atcha. Glad you like what you see.’

‘How did you manage all of that by yourself?
’

‘Didn’t
,’ he replied. ‘
Had help
.’

‘
What? Who
?’ she quickly typed.

There was a good long pause before he answered. ‘
You eaten yet? Wait. Of course you haven’t. Why don’t you come to the loft and I’ll fill you in on the project. Made a pot of chili. Willing to share if you’re nice
.’

‘
Bite me,’
she texted back.

‘
Open to negotiation
,’ he answered. ‘
Get your ass in gear and say that to my face
.’

She couldn’t help but smile. Jackson Merrill was a lot of things; not the least among them a great guy she found easy to talk to. He was also complex and intense in a way that sent chills up and down her spine. Having sex with the handsome wolf had definitely been the wild card in their unusual relationship.

Wait a minute. Had sex? Who the hell was she kidding? Truth was, Brynn had fucked him with wild abandon just one night after he’d taken command of her body and brought her to a shuddering climax. On the goddamn kitchen table. Pretending both of those things hadn’t happened was useless. Especially when her inner wanton was begging for more. He’d surprised the shit out of her last night when, angry and demanding that she be smarter about her personal safety, he’d threatened her with a spanking if she didn’t give in to his insistence that she lock her damn doors. Part of her had been shocked but another part had trembled on his lap when he’d pushed her dress up and exposed her backside.

Brynn had been defiant and pissed off right up till the moment when she heard vulnerability and a good dose of anxiety in his voice when he’d growled at her to ‘not make him do it.’ She surrendered so fast it stunned her. Something about the anguish coming off him in waves got to her.

While the idea of Jax Merrill spanking her was more than just a little titillating, she didn’t want it to be in anger and clearly, neither did he. A part of her she didn’t know all that well wanted to comfort the big man on whose lap she lay, but he’d put up a wall after her capitulation that she had no choice but to respect. Something was up with him but what she didn’t know. Exploring a sexual dalliance with a guy, any guy, wasn’t exactly something she’d ever done before. It wasn’t like sex was ever a big part of her life to begin with. Roger had been a selfish asshole in bed and since her husband was the only real experience she had when it came to comparisons, a man like Jax who came off as an accomplished lover opened her up in ways she hadn’t expected. He was also complicated and if she was reading him right, slightly banged up and damaged from his time in the military.

Well,
she thought with a shake of her head that sent blond curls cascading around her shoulders when she removed a hair tie,
be that as it may
. Theirs was a temporary arrangement. In six weeks he’d be gone, once the work on the house was complete, and she had bigger fish to fry. Right then and there Brynn realized she knew very little about him except for the meager background info he’d shared so far. Maybe he had a girlfriend stashed away wherever he called home base. Nah, he wasn’t the type to mess around, she was sure of that, and he’d admitted that he wasn’t married. But that didn’t mean his life was a blank page either. Maybe she should take the time to get to know him better—would make their crazy sexual escapades much easier to categorize.

J
AX HAD A HEADACHE. ONE of those motherfucking thumpers that had the ability to bring him to his knees. It had started last night when Brynn taunted him and messed with his head about locking her doors. Her defiance was like a master key, opening up the tightly closed box where he kept all the messy emotions and impulses that followed him home from the war.

“Fucking women,” he muttered in the silence. Why did they find it so goddamn necessary to constantly try to prove they could handle anything and everything without male input? What was the big fucking deal anyway? Didn’t mean they were weak or any less ball busting or independent. He was just showing an interest in her safety after all. It wasn’t like he was trying to take over her whole damn life.

His inner voice chose that moment to laugh like hell. Of course he wanted to take over her life. That was the problem where Brynn was concerned. Take over? Yeah. Dominate the fucking shit out of her? Hell yeah. Cherish and spoil her rotten? Well, there was that too, a new and previously unrealized impulse that was more than messing with his shit. Especially since she all but had a stop sign flashing on her forehead. She might be willing to get naked with him, but he was pretty damn sure it stopped there for her.
Fuck.

Going to the door of the converted garage, he leaned against the frame and waited for her to appear in the shadows. Nighttime was coming earlier and earlier as the seasons changed and try as he might to rationalize that her walking the couple of hundred feet between the house and where he stood was no big deal, he couldn’t stop the compulsion to make sure she made it safely. What if she tripped? Or got hit by an asteroid?

Holy God.
Fuck my damn life
, he thought. This was what she’d reduced him to. If anything happened to her it’d gut him. Permanently. They’d known each other for exactly four days and before he even knew what the hell was happening, she’d gotten to him. Big time. That damn inner voice was being a bit more direct by claiming loud and clear that she was his. His in that knight in shining armor way that frankly, scared the fucking crap out of him.

He calmed instantly and some of the thumping headache eased off the minute he caught sight of her. Relief flooded his system when he saw her turn and lock the back door before she skipped down the steps of the porch and headed toward the garage. Straight to him. Where she fucking belonged. Okay, that thought definitely rattled his cage.

Halfway between the house and where he stood she stopped and looked up at the sky. Twilight was upon them but she was clearly visible. He smiled when she threw her arms wide and twirled around with her head thrown back like some ancient goddess of old dancing under the moonlit sky. The laugh he kept inside, but the sudden hardening of his dick was another thing altogether. When she was less than twenty feet away, she waved, and he would have sworn she was glowing from the way her eyes lit up.

“It’s a full moon tonight,” she chirped as he opened the door to let her in. “I just love the way it looks so huge in the sky when it first appears. Gives me the chills,” she giggled, wrapping her arms around her body for emphasis.

He didn’t know why or where the thought came from to begin with, but he blurted out, “Baghdad at night when the only light was from the moon was pretty impressive. Almost made you forget what a fucking shithole you were in.”

Brynn blinked at him, surprised by his response. “Wow. I never thought of it that way. Guess no matter where we are or what situation we’re in, the moon is always there watching.”

Now that the box was unlocked and creaking open, he couldn’t stop the flashflood of memories that came rushing at him.

Looking up, as he held the door open he told her, “I used to look at the moon when it was high in the sky and think that it connected me to my other life. The one at home where people weren’t being blown up every damn day and where doing something as innocuous as moon watching wasn’t an invitation to get your ass shot by some insurgent with good eyes.”

She looked at him and nodded as if she understood. He felt her hand touch his waist as she slid by and had to squeeze his eyes shut for a second to get control. It was the first time in years that he felt anything at all that resembled actual need for the simple touch of another when he was having one of his moments.

His reverie was broken when she laughed and declared, “Whoa. Something smells like heaven!” Watching her rush into the galley kitchen and lift the lid on the pot of chili he’d thrown together lightened his mood considerably. When her stomach growled loudly she giggled and smirked.

“Feed me sir, before I have to do you bodily harm.”

Sir? God. She was fucking –A –adorable. Only Brynn would be so clueless as to not realize how provocative such a simple expression was to a man like him.

“Back away woman,” he growled teasingly. “Don’t mess with my culinary seduction. I have a plan in place in case you hadn’t noticed, so go park your butt at the table and mind your damn manners.”

The grin she shot at him when she sat down made the rest of his headache vanish instantly.

“Oooooh. Got ulterior motives, do we?”

He laughed and raised an eyebrow at her. “Call me sir again, and you’ll find out.”

“Hmmmm,” she smirked. “I thought ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ were the magic words.”

Jax leaned over her where she sat and locked his eyes with hers. “Please comes later. After the sir. Thank you is a given. Understood?”

She blushed and bit her lip in the surprisingly innocent way she had that reminded him flirting wasn’t her strong suit. As always, the thought only made his sex surge and tighten. Yeah. She was his. Now all he had to do was let her in and hope his demons didn’t scare her the fuck away.

Whenever he got physically close to her, the woman became a textbook case in female arousal. Her nipples puckered beautifully, she blushed, and her breathing changed. When he saw the flash and the inevitable dilation of her pupils, Jax knew he had her in the palm of his hand. From there it wouldn’t take much to get her panties off. True to form, she pulled a defensive maneuver and did a complete about-face in the conversation.

“So, you going to explain how so much work got done at the house or do I have to get mean and force it out of you?”

“Ah. Mean, is it? How mean?” He liked teasing her. She didn’t know how to react when he fueled their flirts with suggestive comments.

“Shut up,” she chuckled. “I’m not that good at being all cocky so cut me a break and just tell me what’s going on.”

“No problem.” He grinned. “Best to let me handle the cocky thing anyway.” The mocking leer he sent her way hit straight on. No surprise there. He was a crack marksman after all.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Food and an explanation, please. Um,
sir
.”

Yeah. There wasn’t anything he could do but laugh at her insolence. She was playing with fire and didn’t even know it.

Bringing the pot of chili to the table, he dropped it on the rustic wood surface and ladled a huge scoop into one of the stoneware bowls he found in the cupboard. Pushing it at her he instructed, “Eat,” then scooped up an even bigger ladleful for his bowl.