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"I…" He blinked hard. "I love you, Tea. So fucking much."

I wiped his eyes with my thumbs, kissed his eyes. "You're beautiful, Jax." I caressed his face. "This was beautiful. So perfect."

He tucked my flyaways behind my ears. "I didn't hurt you? I wasn't too rough?"

I grinned down at him. "Did you miss the screams, honey? The begging? The fact that you made me come again when you came?"

He shot me a cocky grin. "No, I caught that."

"No, you weren't too rough." I swiveled my hips on him. "In fact, you might even go so far as to say I want a lot more of that."

He groaned a laugh. "Might need a few minutes."

I gnawed on my lip as I prepared to lose him from inside me; I slid forward, and he slipped out of me, making us both groan, and my body immediately spasmed in response, my pussy clenching around nothing.

I immediately nestled onto his chest, burrowing into the warm, safe shelter of his strong arms, sated in a way I'd never felt before. He kissed my temple and the crown of my head, groaning softly—a sound of utter bliss.

"Holding you like this is almost as good as getting to make love with you," he whispered. "Almost. A very, very close second."

"Agreed," I whispered, eyes heavy.

Seconds later, I was lost in a dreamless sleep.

Chapter 18

Jax

I woke up when Tea rolled away from me. I still had the condom on, but I was slack and it was about to fall off. I slipped out of bed and tiptoed into the en suite bathroom, glad as hell that Livvie didn’t do anything by half measures, like stocking toilet paper and towels in the bathrooms; she always claimed a staged house should still look a little lived in.

I took care of cleanup and went back to the bed, but then my phone started buzzing. I went to it, grabbed it—3:23 a.m.; it was Linus.

I took the phone out of the bedroom and shut the door just shy of latching, because I knew by now that Tea was a very light sleeper. I went to the end of the house farthest from the bedroom and answered it.

"Linus?" I knew he was my boss, but I couldn't help myself. "Where the fuck have you been?"

"Jax!" He sounded distant, muffled. "One sec."

After a pause, his voice was close and clear. “I’m so, so sorry, Jax. Is Tea with you?"

"Asleep."

"You're together?"

"Yes, but Linus, where did you go? We fucking crashed!"

"I know, I know. There's no excuse. I mean, there is, kinda, but…"

I growled. "But what? Tell me what happened. Please, sir." I finally remembered my manners, apparently.

"Oh, quit that shit,” he snapped, irritated. “Don't start sirring and kowtowing now, Jax. The shortest possible explanation is that my irresponsible, dumbfuck, horndog, idiot of a son went and impregnated the daughter of a European monarch."

"Uh, shit.”

"Yeah. And then ghosted her and tried to leave the country.”

"Dear god. And your daughter’s wedding? How was that?”

"Oh, that was beautiful. They're on a jet to Turks and Caicos as we speak, after a couple weeks doing who knows what up there in Alaska." A long, heavy sigh. "I've been in Europe this whole time, trying desperately to avoid an international incident. I'm not allowed to have my phone in the meetings, which is all I've done the last two weeks—meet with lawyers and politicians and diplomats."