Page 53 of The Jaded Notes

“Then please don’t do it anymore.”

“I won’t.”

“Thank you.”

“No need to thank me. And if you say ‘no,’ we walk out of here and this never touches your career.”

“I don’t want to leave.”

She’s wearing a cream A-line dress with a zipper down the left side. It’s classy, yet cut low enough in the front I can see the silver-dollar-sized tattoo peeking out.

I step to her, reining in my yearning to claim her right now. We’re inches apart.

The energy in the room is full of caged desire waiting to explode. I lift her left arm and trail my fingertips along the zipper.

“You have a tattoo of two pistols right here.” I stop and press on her ribs. My breath tangles with hers as I stare into her curious gaze. “The barrels cross. You have another one over your left breast near your heart. It’s small. I couldn’t make it out, but I know it’s there.”

“You’re talking in riddles.” Her voice is breathy and full of want. She shifts back, putting distance between us.

I don’t like it, so I close the space. “I’m doing no such thing.”

She backs into the door, and I follow.

She licks her lips. “What are you saying?”

“I was there.”

“Where?”

“Elite-Sinsations.” My stomach tightens and my chest heats. “On Valentine’s Day. You were there, and I watched from the other side of the glass.”

Her breath catches, and she glances away. “You must have the wrong person.”

“There’s nothing to be ashamed of.” I cup her face in my palm. “It was you. Your brown hair, bleached on the ends just like it is now, was pulled up into a ponytail. You were with two men. They ravaged you until you couldn’t take any more.”

“Jax… Fuck. I didn’t expect you to…” She shakes her head. “Jesus, you’re the last person I wanted to see me like that.”

“Why?”

“Because of what you must think of me.”

I run the pad of my thumb over her bottom lip. “All I know is I couldn’t stop watching. I was walking by, coming from checking on something at the club, when I caught a glimpse of you as I passed your chamber. You were magnetic, and that’s where the problem started.”

“Problem?”

“Yes. From that moment on, I haven’t been able to stop picturing you that way. I left Paris to escape you, but thousands of miles couldn’t save me.”

It’s true. There hasn’t been a day since then that I haven’t thought about her. She’s more than a woman now.

Witnessing her give her power to two guys and how beautifully she allowed them to control the experience, knowing she could stop it at any moment, was haunting.

I’ve become obsessed with her. There’s a difference, though.

I don’t want to see her with two men ever again. No, she has to be mine. Only mine.

I know this is wrong on so many levels, but something about her draws me in like the sin that slipped off her lips that night. It’s stupid of me to want her like I do, given our age difference.

It’s confusing, confronting, and it’s taken over my mind. Never have I felt so out of control.