The Real Me (How to Tame a Heartbreaker Book 4) (18 page)

"Hello?"

"Hey Jay, I'm here with Jax."

"Oh, hey Jax."

"Hey," she said, leaning in.

"Would you please tell her that I wouldn't mind emba
rrassing myself to get her back?"

"You should have
heard
some of the things he thought about doing," Jason said, laughing. "Obviously you're with him right now, so which one did he go with?"

Jax leaned closer to the phone to speak. "
He just walked into the bar and let everyone recognize him for who he was."

"Oh he'd be willing to do
much
more than that. Are you putting him to the test? Because I'm pretty sure we could get him to do just about anything right now."

She laughed
and shook her head at Cam.

"Thanks," Cam said. "I told her I was going to steal the microphone from the band and embarrass her publicly if it came to that."

"Oh, that's nothing. He'd totally do that," Jason said without hesitation.

"Thanks man," Cam said.

"No sweat, see you guys later."

"Yep."

Cam disconnected the telephone, put it in his pocket, and looked down at her. "You have three minutes and your time starts now."

He slapped her on the backside
and she shrieked with delight as she took off into Bing's.

Chapter 19

It was easier to be delighted in front of Cam than it was in front of her fellow employees who she was about to leave in the lurch. She walked from the back door to the bar with an ever-growing sense of dread. By the time she reached her station at the bar, and saw how busy they were, she wasn't so sure about ditching them anymore.

"Can you pour me a C
rown and Coke?" Byron asked as soon as Jax was in earshot. She couldn't help herself; she picked up a glass and the bottle of Crown Royal and made the drink. She knew she had a three-minute window, and thought she might have to use every second of it to work up the nerve to quit in the middle of her shift.

Did she really
have
to quit? The answer to that was obviously no, but it wasn't like she was having fun working there. She would be finishing the shift out of guilt. She would, no doubt, rather be leaving with Cam right now, but they were just so busy, and—

"A Greyhound with Grey Goose, please."

Jax looked up to see a woman standing there smiling. She thought she probably had about two minutes left and couldn't ignore the woman when she was staring straight at her. She handed the Crown and Coke to Byron and began to pour the Greyhound. She made change for a twenty-dollar bill, and after she handed it to the lady, her plan was to tell Byron and everyone else she had to be going.

"
I need a bottle of Jax to go," a guy's voice said. She thought it was a customer that had said he needed a bottle of Jack, and was stunned when her gaze came up to meet Cam's. He smiled at her expression, which went from stunned to regretful. She shrugged and threw her hands up like
what am I supposed to do when we're this busy?

He gave her a challenging stare. "Make it happen o
r I'm going public," he said. Two or three people around them were already snapping photos with their phones. He caused a scene wherever he went—and she now understood why a beard might come in handy.

"Don't." she said, trying to get close enough where she could mumble it so everyone around them wouldn't hear.
The group of people that was paying attention to them grew from five or six to ten or twenty within a matter of seconds, and Jax felt like she was becoming the center of attention in spite of the fact that the band was in the middle of playing a song.

Cam, who was totally at home in the limelight, turned to the crowd around them with outstretched arms asking them to take notice. "I'm trying to get her to ride off with me in
to the sunset, and she keeps wanting to make drinks."

He gave Jax a challenging look that made it seem like it was her turn to speak. Her gaze shifted
around at the group of people who were waiting for her response. Even Byron had heard everything and was looking at her.

"Look how slammed we are!" was all she could come up with. She was extremely nervous and had no idea what to say. There were now ten or so camera phones pointed at them. She stared into
Cam's gorgeous blue eyes, and for the briefest of seconds, everything around them melted away. She felt it and knew he did too.

"
What's it gonna be?" he asked, smiling. "Are you coming with me or not?"

Her eyes widened at the impossibility of knowing what else to do. She was silent for a few seconds, trying to figure out how not to embarrass herself.

"Let's ask everyone else," he said, finally. He looked around to see that he now had the attention of what seemed to be about forty people. "Don't you think it's much better for her to walk out in the middle of a shift than for her to make me wait in the parking lot out there until she's finished working?"

A couple people yelled out their approval to Cam's question, but most of them just nodded or took photos and video of Cam.

"Don't leave him hanging!" a random guy yelled out.

"I'll l
eave with you!" a girl added.

The c
omment drew a round of excited whistles and yells from other females.

Cam only had eyes for Jax. He stood in front of her with his hands up as if waiting for her answer. She glanced over at Byron regretfully.

"I think I'm leaving," she said.

"Chris is gonna be pissed," he said, stone-faced.

"The lady just said she was quitting," Cam said. "I don't think she's concerned with how Chris will take it. It's bad that she's leaving you with a bunch of thirsty customers, but that's sometimes what happens when people quit jobs they don't need anymore. I'll buy a round for all my friends here to make up for it."

Everyone within earshot yelled
his or her approval.

"I think we're all set here," he said, looking directly at Jax.

She glanced around for a few seconds, but then looked back at him with a smile that showed the overwhelming excitement she was feeling. A few yells came from the crowd at her smile, and Cam motioned with a wave for her to come over to him. Jax could have walked the twenty feet around the end of the bar, but she decided to climb over it instead. She put her purse over her shoulder and found a spot to put her foot so she could climb onto the bar. She sat on it with her back to Cam. Then she used her hands on the bar to swivel herself to where she was facing him, being careful not to let her shoes touch the bar on the way around. She let her feet dangle off the bar as she looked right at him.

He moved to stand between her legs, and at least three people yelled
and whistled. He turned to the onlookers. "Don't you think she's doing the right thing?"

They clapped and hollered for her.
Some of the people in the room knew Jax and at least two of them called out to her by name. She scanned the room, feeling like she might forget to breathe or stop being human from nerves.

Cam looked at Byron, "I'll be in touch to settle up on this round, and sorry for taking her, but that's just
the way it is."

His gaze shifted to Jax
who stared down at him between her legs. He scooped her off of the bar and into his arms. She tried to put her legs down, but he shifted and held onto her.

"I'm gong to kiss you and then we'
re gonna run out the front door," he said.

She smiled down at him hoping it wasn't obvious that she was a love-struck bundle of nerves. "I can't believe I'm doing this," she said.

"Believe it."

He lifted his chin almost imperceptibly telling her he wanted that kiss he'd mentioned. She ducked to let her lips touch his and the onlookers erupted in a chorus of cheers.
She enjoyed the glorious feel of his lips on hers for a second, but couldn't ignore the cameras still trained on them. She absentmindedly wondered if they were disrupting the band, but the thought just drifted through her brain. Cam was all there was, and now that she was in his arms, she didn't care about Byron, or the band, or the bar. In that moment, he was her everything, and the moment was all that counted—it was all she had.

"I'm ready," she said.

He flashed her a dazzling smile as he put her down and grabbed her by the hand. Everyone cleared a path for them as they ran out hand in hand. They went past the bouncer and around the side of the building before they slowed and came to a stop. She was giggling at the rush of emotions that washed over her as a result of everything that had just happened.

"Is your life like that all the time?" she asked with wide eyes.

He pulled her to his side as they continued walking to his truck. "All the time," he said. "I can't go anywhere without people taking pictures of me."

"So that's why you wore the beard?" They were almost at the truck when she said it, and he stopped walking and looked down at her. "I'm sorry about that," he said. "I had no way of knowing I'd meet you, and even once I did, I liked that you wanted me for me."

"You don't have to explain," she said. "I get it. After what just happened in there, I understand."

He led her to the driver's side, and she climbed in and slid under the steering wheel and into the middle of the bench seat.
Cam got into the driver's seat and closed the door before looking over at her.

"Did we cover the fact that you're mine?"

She wondered what he meant by that exactly.

"You're my girl, you know that, right?"

She smiled, but it had a confused edge to it that made him scowl.

"I just want to be sure that you know you're mine—that you belong to me. You know, that you're not planning on seeing anyone else anymore."

She wanted all of those things, but felt like she needed to protest part of his comment based on the principals of girl power.

"So I
belong
to you now?" she asked.

He looked over at her. His hand was on the key, poised to turn it and start the engine
, but he just stared at her with a sly half-smile. "You know you do." He said it so sweetly, that she would have never even thought to deny it.
Of course
she wanted to belong to him. She'd fallen in love with him without even knowing he was a star, and that information only made him
more
attractive. Plus, she loved seeing his face. During their drive, she shifted so that her thigh brushed against his, and he put his hand around it, pulling her closer to him.

She was wearing her work uniform, which was extremely form fitting, and Cam's hand crept seductively toward her inner thigh. He was careful not to let it come close to the top of her thigh because, honestly, he wasn't sure how fast she wanted things to happen, and he didn't want to scare her.

"This might sound weird, but now that I know you're famous, I'm even more embarrassed about that thing that happened over the phone."

"I'm not sure what you're referring to," he said.

She pushed at his leg teasingly. "I'm serious," she said.

"I participated too," he said, glancing at her as he drove.
"I came all over the place just imagining what you were doing on the other end."

Jax covered her face and giggled shyly.
"Oh my God, I can't believe you just open your mouth and say words like that." 

"Oh those words? Those are only the beginning, baby girl. Just wait till I start making love to you. Wait till I'm telling you all the things I'm gonna do to you just before I do them."

She leaned up so her mouth could meet his ear. "What kind of things are you gonna do to me?" she whispered. She might not have meant for it to be super-seductive, but it came across that way and she couldn’t help but notice the rise and fall of his chest as he struggled to control his breathing. She loved that she had the ability to affect him that way. He grabbed her hand and placed it on his lap.
He held it in place on top of his hard erection.

She was so turned on that she wanted to jump on top of him as he was driving down Broadway.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"My apartment."

"What if I'm not quite ready for—you know."

"We won't do anything you're not comfortable with," he said. "I know you're mine
and that's all I'm worried about. I'm not trying to rush into everything else."

His willingness to take things slow inexplicably made her want to do the opposite. Him saying
I'm not trying to rush into anything
made her want to rush as fast as her little feet could take her.

"I'm not saying I'm
not
ready," she said, clarifying. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay with waiting if I wanted to."

"I'm fine with it, but I'm finer with checking out my girl."

She wanted to check him out too—every inch of him.

"So it's my choice?" she asked.

"It's your choice."

"So, if I said I just wanted to hold hands and watch a movie, you'd be okay with that?"
"Yep."

Now that he was
acting so laid back about it, she wanted him like crazy. She wanted to talk to the Cam who'd just been talking dirty to her.

"It'll be my first time, you know."

He stopped in the middle of the entrance to the parking garage. There was nobody behind them, but Jax glanced out of the back window to make sure. Cam knew there was no one there, so he didn't even pay attention.

He grabbed her by the chin and tilted her face to look at him.
"I want it to be perfect for you," he said, "and there is absolutely no pressure for it to happen tonight. There are other things we can do to—"

"I want it. I want you." She regarded him sincerely, and Cam wasn't about to refuse her.

He knew in the back of his mind that he should try to be a gentleman and make sure he took his time, but shit, he had needs, and right now he only needed one thing. Jax Overstreet.