She loved it, hated it, wanted it, didn’t want it.
Now add in the tone of Jax’s voice, amused and teasing, and it tripped her ever-sensitive trigger. That he could joke about her discomfort made her angry. This wasn’t funny. Her embarrassment wasn’t something to poke her through the bars of her humiliation with.
She finally looked directly up at him, fought not to get sucked in by the heart-stopping way his eyes crinkled up around the edges when he was amused. “Is this funny to you?”
Now he was looking down at her, his eyes warm and smiling. “Not at all. I’m just pointing out we’re going through an awkward phase.”
“You’d better not be. Making fun of me, that is.” There it was. Stern teacher’s voice.
“Can I say something?”
“Can I stop you?”
“After last night, seems I have no censor. So, it isn’t looking good.” He’d managed to somehow maneuver her toward a corner, using his big frame as a coaxing method. The shelter that frame gave her almost stole her breath.
And that made her angry. Why should the shelter of a man make her feel safe? Wasn’t her own shelter good enough?
But then he smiled crookedly, and Em’s anger evaporated, replaced by a slight tilt upward of her lips—lips she had to clamp down on to keep from showing her cards. Her inability to control her mood swings left her little room to judge someone else’s behavior. “Then fire away.”
Jax stared down at her. Oh, those eyes. So expressive and intense, searching hers. “First, because I can’t seem to stop myself, I like that stern teacher’s voice you use. It’s pretty hot. I know, I know, too much too soon. But there it is. Second, I don’t like that you’re uncomfortable with me after last night. Third, I don’t like that we’re going through an awkward phase because of last night.”
“The awkward part is standin’ at attention. It’s a little awful.” So awful she wanted to borrow her stern teacher’s eraser and wipe it away.
“But you have nothing to feel awkward about, Em,” he grumbled.
She stared down at her suede boots.
He put his lips to her ear, making her curl into him. “Whaddya say we start over?”
Pouty face. “And forget last night ever happened?” She leaned back and waited for his response.
He leaned into her, too, making her shivery and light-headed. “Well, I’d like to think what happened wasn’t forgettable, but if it makes you feel more comfortable, we can put it on a shelf. Wipe the slate clean. Technically, we just messed around like we were still in high school.”
A shelf. Like that kind of explosive reaction to him had a shelf. She had two choices where Jax was concerned. Give in to her secret fantasies or avoid him altogether.
That rush of whatever Jax did to her, the wave of plum crazy that held her brain hostage and let her lips roam free, took over again, unplanned and totally unprovoked. “I have a question.”
“I hope I have the answer.”
“Do you want to have sex with me?”
*
Jax’s brow furrowed, deep lines forming on his forehead, the scent of Em in his nose. He had a brief, speechless moment filled with all the visuals her words spawned before the sweet lines of her face came back into focus. “Come again?”
In the dim corner, right beside the biggest brass planter he’d ever seen, Em’s eyes flew open. Her hand went to her throat in that cute way it did when she was embarrassed. “I just said that out loud, didn’t I?”
He half grinned, watching as she licked her lips—nervous, embarrassed. “Yeah. It was a little awesome.”
“And not like me at all, but...”
He made sure she was hidden from prying eyes with the size of his body, but couldn’t resist running his finger along her cheek. “You know, you keep saying that, but maybe it is like you and you just weren’t aware of it.”
She didn’t look too sure about that, yet it didn’t stop her from responding to his touch. Her jaw shifted an inch, the tips of her toes moving closer to his. “So you think this crude, forward half of me, the half of me that has no filter, is emergin’ now because?”
“Because you like me?”
She retreated, her chin lifting, exposing her long, pretty neck. “I don’t even know you, and as a by the by, I’ve liked plenty o’ people and I’ve never been forward with any of them.”
He leaned into her, giving him the opportunity to move even closer—smell her hair, take a quick peek at the front of her knit sweaterdress, hugging all those curves. “Well, let’s face it, I do give good car.”
She relaxed again. “Jeep.”
Was she teasing him now? “Right. Point being, you’re obviously comfortable enough with me to show me who you really are. Sometimes, it isn’t just in the movies where physical connections like that happen.”