JAX: MC Biker Romance (New Adult Contemporary Bad Boy Romance) (20 page)

“Manning up,” he’d said, causing her to roll her eyes.

The country thing really just wasn’t for her, not by a long shot, but she could tell that’s what he loved, so she nodded, as light smile curving at her lips.

They were virtually strangers, which made it even more amazing that he was so willing to be so involved in everything. He was the most considerate man she’d ever met in that regard, and she’d been enjoying getting to know him over the couple of weeks.

He always called to check on her; to make sure the baby had the best of everything. “Money is no object,” he had said time and time again. In truth, she hadn’t been struggling financially since her college days, but it was nice to hear that the baby could have more than even she could give it.

“This place is a dump. It’s nowhere near good enough,” Jax said, as soon as they took a step into his trailer.

She laughed. “You know I don’t care about where I stay, as long as I have a comfortable bed, and from what I remember, you have one.” She’d been staying in a motel down the street from the rodeo until the doctor’s appointment. Any place seemed better than that.

He chuckled. “That’s truthful, but I think you’d be more comfortable at the house. My mom has servants that can care for you both.”

“I don’t need anyone to take care of me!” She was laughing; nowhere near offended. It was still very sweet that he wanted to take such good care of her. “I’m not incompetent, you know.”

She wasn’t sure where all the doting was coming from, but she liked it, and truthfully, she was surprised just how much she liked him. She was a little scared, though. With the way that he was acting, she knew something about herself that could have made things a little more complicated than it already was.

She knew that she could fall in love with him.

They went line dancing that night to celebrate the first successful doctor’s appointment. He couldn’t believe he’d actually gotten her to agree to it. “Country is not my thing,” she kept saying over and over and over again. No matter how much she seemed to love the ranch – which he was increasingly happy that he had gotten her to agree to stay at – she didn’t love Texas. She didn’t love the hats, she didn’t love the music, she didn’t love the words. She didn’t love any of it.

But damnit all, he’d gotten her to line dance with him.

The Do-Si-Do shuffle was the latest and greatest, and she was laughing, cheering, and getting into it more than he’d ever thought possible. He loved seeing that side of her; the side of her that he’d been seeing more and more as each day went by.

“You know,” he said, as soon as they joined arms with each other. “That dress is so incredibly sexy.” He didn’t know what was coming over him. There was something sexy about watching her dark, curvy body, dancing in a nice flowy yellow dress. There was something about it that had gotten his juices flowing.

She pulled away from his neck and looked in his eyes. "You like?" she asked, almost seductively. He didn’t know what happened after that. The next thing he knew was that he was fueled by her with his hands squeezing her thighs just before moving his fingers upward and playing at the thin amount of fabric that draped over her hips.

“Let’s get out of here…” he groaned in her ear, as soon as he felt the heat between them start to scorch. Their line dancing didn’t even resemble the other dancers anymore. He knew it was only a matter of time before someone started hooting and hollering and making a show out of their touching. They were being way too obvious. She nodded in response, and he smirked before grabbing her hand and pulling her away from the center.

Truth was, they were too far from the ranch. He didn’t want to wait that long. Not even just that, though, every single one of his family members were at the house, and he didn’t want that sort of awkward how-do-you-do pleasantry crap that would have commenced before the making out could have begun. That was a mood-killer if there ever was one.

So, he took her to the trailer.

“This isn’t because I don’t think you’re good enough for a better environment. It’s just private here…” he trailed, feeling guilty as soon as he took his pregnant sort-of-girlfriend one step into his small trailer.

“Shut up…” she growled, eagerly taking his lips in an assaulting whirlwind of passion.

My God, he loved her hips more than anything in the world. They were thick, just enough to grab on to, and they led up to the sexiest thin waist he’d ever seen. Brianne was the perfect example of the shapeliest hour-glass he’d ever seen. Truly, she was the sexiest woman he’d ever been with. That made him feel even gladder that she was the mother of his unborn child; maybe with any luck, he’d be stuck with her for a while.

He smirked, and her hands floated to the bottom of his shirt, urging him to lift his arms so that she could pull it off of him without even bothering unbuttoning. He loved feeling wanted by her, probably because he wanted her so much.

Her lips attached to his as soon as the plaid button-down was slung away from him, and the next thing he knew, he was taking her bra off. He wasn’t sure when it happened exactly or how long it had been; all he knew was that he had been entranced by her kiss.

"Pants...off..." he gasped as soon as Brianne let him up for air.

*****

“So that was your plan?” Jax’s brother, Jimmy, fired out as soon as Jax came down the stairs. He’d been upstairs helping Brianne get ready for their annual rancher’s club dinner party. It was a huge event that all the local ranchers in the area attended, and it was usually thrown at their ranch. It was something his dad had started years ago; something about making a community stronger and more unified or whatever.

He sighed at his brother’s outburst. Both he and John were standing there, right at the bottom of the stairs, looking like a couple of want-to-be thugs.

“You’re going to steal my inheritance?”

John balled up his fist and launched a punch directly into Jimmy’s shoulder, scowling.

“Our inheritance,” John corrected.

Jimmy sighed and nodded,

“Our inheritance.”

Jax rolled his eyes. Clearly, their mom had told the other two the contingency in their dad’s will, and clearly, they were pissed that he was the only one that had gotten anyone pregnant, but he didn’t have time to explain. He didn’t have time to fight, and he sure as heck didn’t have time for them. So, instead of debating with either of them or defending himself for that matter, he pounded through them. He didn’t have time for them or their idiocies. He had to get ready for the dinner.

It was strange being at a dinner as fancy as this one. It was odd seeing a bunch of fancy dishes served to men with cowboy hats. Heck, it was odd seeing a bunch of fancy dinners being served period, especially in a house like this one… which she was still getting used to, to be honest.

Brianne had grown up in a modest house with modest dinners. It wasn’t until she got out of college that she’d made any money at all, and even then, that was only for a short time. She’d just gotten into the swing of making real money again when she found out that she was pregnant with Jax’s child.

She hadn’t intended on staying so long, but now that she’d been there, she couldn’t help but fall in love with some of the people. Not all; namely the douchebag brothers of his that kept looking at her and whispering to one another with permanent scowls plastered on their faces. She wondered if it was because she was black or if it was the fact that they thought she was some sort of whore. Whatever it was though, it was pissing her off.

“So, you like what you see?” Jimmy asked, cockily.

Brianne twisted her brows and put her salad fork down to speak. “What do you mean?”

“This place; the ranch, the family… this huge dining room, and all these folks sitting around at this nice dinner... all of it.” He leaned forward, almost menacingly in his chair; close enough so that he could whisper to her.

“Do you like it?”

She was still confused, but nodded. “Yeah, it’s really pretty here.”

It really was. The dinner was lovely with ten round tables covered in high-quality linen, and with china and crystal laid perfectly over top as the settings. The tables each held a dozen white roses as the center pieces, and they were spread out over a large dining hall lit with chandeliers galore.

It was gorgeous.

“The dining room is really nice, and this dinner is great.” She didn’t know what all they wanted her to compliment the family on, but whatever it was, she was sure that she could do. The place was beautiful; probably the most beautiful place she’d ever seen, let alone stayed at.

Jonathan scoffed before stabbing his salad angrily. “Yeah, so glad to be of assistance.”

“What?” She really didn’t know what the heck they were talking about now. Why were they being so bitchy all of a sudden? This was the first time she’d met them after the weeks she’d been in town. Julie had introduced them just before she had a seat at the table with them. It was quick and to the point; almost businesslike, which seemed strange when she thought about how close Julie was to Jax and Janie, and how incredibly emotional she usually was with them. It was clear they weren’t around very often; almost as if there were some bonds that had been broken because of it, so what the heck did she do to them to piss them off already?

“Well, with you being knocked up and all, this is all Jax’s,” Jimmy said, his large gut swelling the longer they looked at him. It was like she could physically see him getting fatter as he continued to stuff his face; one roll after another, after another. All of them smothered in butter.

“Forgive me,” she said, in the most polite voice that she could muster despite the fact that it was clear that they were being buttholes about something. “But, I’m not sure I understanding what you’re talking about?”

“Well, in our dad’s will, it says the first person to spawn a child gets all this.” Jonathan gestured around the room, but she knew he meant way more than just the dining area. He meant the whole estate.

“That’s why he’s keeping you around, Darlin’. Jax isn’t the committing type. If he’s holdin onto you, it’s because he’s wantin’ something from ya.” Jimmy added.

She wanted to yell out a resounding, “are you kidding me!?” along with a swift punch to the pair of nuts these two obviously shared, but realized that would have been too undignified for the current setting that they were in. So instead, she placed the edge of her napkin at the corner of her mouth and cleared her throat. “If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen…” She stood up quietly and softly, making sure to stay as dignified as humanly possible.

They stood as she pulled her chair away to stand, as if they were all of a sudden taking on the roles of gentlemen. She wanted to flip them off, to tell them to screw off, but three could play the game that they were playing. She was a woman. She was used to cattiness behind bitches backs. So, in perfect womanly fashion, she nodded politely in their direction. “Thank you,” she added sweetly just before pushing her chair in.

Was that really the entire reason he was buttering her up? Was that why he was being so great about all of this? Why he was pretending like he gave a crap? Because she was carrying his child? The ticket to over a billion dollars in assets?

“Are you okay?” he asked as soon as she rounded the corner after leaving the dining area. He must have caught on to the fact that had finally let the tears fall when she got out of view from everyone else, but instead of responding, she balled up a fist and launched it directly into his jaw.

“Why didn’t you tell me!?” she screamed.

He clenched his jaw and looked at her, ignoring the pain. “What the heck are you talking about?!”

“Your brothers just told me the whole dang reason you’re doing all of this! It isn’t because you actually care! It’s for the money! For this place! You’re keeping me and the baby around to make yourself rich!” And with that, she ran away, ignoring him as she pounded toward the stairs.

She had heard what he said. He had said, “The ranch never meant anything to me! It didn’t seem like the right time to talk about it because it wasn’t when you first showed up, and beyond that, I told Jimmy and John that they could have it!” But, she couldn’t listen to anymore.

She was tapped out for the night… done.

She just wanted to get some sleep.

*****

A knock on the door woke her up from her sleep and, before she could even think about telling them to either come in or go away, the door creaked open. Her eyes were puffy and sore, as she opened her eyes, and she knew it was because she’d fallen asleep crying.

She wasn’t sure if she’d overreacted the night before or not, but she knew that she hadn’t answered any of Jax’s calls throughout the night or any of his texts.

Call it hormones, call it being pissed off beyond belief that his brothers were buttholes, and not just buttholes, but buttholes that made her feel like crap about herself for the first time since she’d been back in Texas. Was that really all she was to him?

“Brianne?” a tiny voice called from the door. It was Janie.

Brianne smiled. “Come in, Sweetie…”

“Mom said to come in and check on you. You’ve been asleep for a really long time.” The little girl walked hesitantly at first toward the bed, and immediately, Brianne’s head snapped to look at the clock just beside her large king-sized bed: 4 P.M.