Dixie stopped short and eyed Em, scanning her face, searching for an answer Em probably didn’t have. “So you really are just having sex? That’s it?”
After these past couple of weeks, she didn’t want to think about what she wanted. She wanted to feel more like there was solid ground beneath her feet. She wanted her son to accept Clifton Senior’s absence, and not hate her for it. She wanted a lot of things.
Em avoided the question with more diversion. “He wants me to help him redecorate his house.”
“So he wants a decorator and a sex kitten?”
Being referred to as a sex kitten made her laugh out loud. “Take me to work, Dixie. I have underwear to leave lyin’ about.”
And a heart. She had one of those lying about, too. She only hoped it wasn’t lying on her sleeve.
Sixteen
Em stretched her arms upward and rolled her shoulders. This air mattress would be the death of them, but what a lovely way to go.
Jax plucked the hooks on her garter belt and grabbed her leg, pulling her down the length of the bed for a kiss. “Roll over, I’ll give you the once-over.” He held up his hands and wiggled his fingers.
She gratefully did as she was told, so relieved to find Jax harbored no hard feelings when she’d approached him today at work. She’d rudely lashed out at him due to her own insecure inadequacies. But he’d just smiled and said it was none of his business and he shouldn’t have intruded. Later in the afternoon, he’d texted her to see if she could meet him tonight like nothing had ever happened.
Back to business as usual, and she tried not to let any hurt creep in because of it. He was sticking to the rules she’d set forth. How could she blame him for that?
Jax nibbled at the small of her back, making her sigh with pleasure. “Did I mention this outfit is megahot?”
Em had decided to go vixen tonight, a total non-Em outfit. Corsets and garters and stockings and shiny black leather pumps. “I think you showed your appreciation.” Her stockings and garters were all she had left on because he’d shown his appreciation so well. So well that when Jax was done licking her to orgasm, she decided if everything ended now, she’d be happy she decided to do this.
Em heard him rub his hands together with the slick massage oil and smiled when his hands rolled over her back, so strong and wide, he soothed her aching muscles.
“Why so tense?”
“Just a long day.” Aka her mother and their conversation this morning, and what Louella had said to her last night. She couldn’t stop thinking about her mother and the mention of a boyfriend.
Jax weaved a pattern along her shoulders, slippery and delicious. “Anything in particular?”
Well, there was Clifton Senior, too. “Clifton wants to meet to talk when he picks up the boys next week.”
“Why’s that a problem?”
“Because Clifton never wants to talk to me. He wants to pick the boys up halfway to Atlanta and not have to look me in the eye when he does it. So he must want something.” What that was, she couldn’t imagine. And once more, she was sharing personal details Jax could probably do without.
“How does he feel about you working at Call Girls?”
“Probably the same way I feel about him not telling me he liked to wear skirts.”
“Touché.”
There was no reason to explain Clifton’s displeasure about her working at Call Girls. Yet, she had trouble stopping herself. “Clifton has no right to judge me. I don’t take the calls, I manage them. I keep the boys from ever entering that building without putting everyone on notice. There’s no naughty when I bring them in.”
Jax rolled her over, planting his hands on either side of her head, and straddled her. “Hey, no judgment from me. I’m writing their security software, remember?”
She softened her gaze. She was touchy about her work when it came to the boys. Everyone always had something to say about it, mostly her mother and Clifton, and neither had any right to judge her. “Sorry. I’m touchy about Clifton. He doesn’t like that I left my job as Hank Cotton’s secretary for Call Girls. He said it’s not respectable work. But he’s not a single mother with an ex-husband who likes fancy dresses more than he likes to pay his child support, is he?”
Jax grinned. “Fair enough. So the boys...”
Her ears pricked. “What about them?”
“They take a real beating for this thing with Clifton and Call Girls, huh?”
And it was killing her. She had to make a living. What Hank had paid her had barely paid the bills, and with Clifton giving her so little for the boys, there really wasn’t any choice at all. Taking the job with Dixie had been the smartest financial move she’d ever made, but it was taking its toll on Clifton and Gareth.
Obviously, Jax was fishing around for something more than he’d heard at the diner. “How’d you hear that?”
“Well, there was the diner last night, but Maizy mentioned it to me the other night when we were reading her bedtime story.”