JAX (Breaking the Declan Brothers #1) (4 page)

“Ah, Rayna, he’s not a boy anymore,” I say.

“Even better.” She laughs as we push through the front door and enter the bar.

The place is far smaller than it looks from the outside. Rustic, original stained wood covers the walls. There are a couple dozen people inside, and the music isn’t too loud, just low enough to hear yourself talk. I hate when you can’t hear your own voice in a bar. We spot Melody right away. The years have been good to her. With a tray full of beers, in a checkered blue and white flannel tied just below her breasts, she comes right over to us.

“I’m so glad you guys made it,” she says and leans in for a hug. So not to hit the tray, I carefully one arm her. “You look great, Emmie.”

“Thanks, so do you,” I pull back from the half-ass embrace. “This is Lurlene, a friend of ours from Manhattan.”

“Hi.” Melody smiles. “Yeah, Rayna said you were all staying at her sister’s for the summer. That’s awesome.”

“Oh, my God!” A blonde waitress barges in on our conversation. Hands fisted, she’s bouncing on her heels. “Did you hear who’s on tonight?”

“Yeah, I heard,” Melody rolls her eyes at us.

“He’s on now! Can you watch my tables,” she squeezes her hands together, “Please, please, please!”

“Sure,” Melody says, rewarded by a chaste kiss on the cheek from the animated blonde.

“Who the hell is that and what is she talking about,” Rayna asks, watching the girl bounce away.

“That’s Jenny. She’s not so bad, just a little flighty. And she’s talking about what’s going on behind those doors,” Melody nudges to the back. “It’s where the action really happens in this place.”

“What kind of action,” Rayna’s eyebrow raises.

“MMA fights,” Melody says.

“Are you kidding me?” My eyes widen and I grab Lurlene and Rayna’s hand. “Oh, we gotta check this out. Melody, can you bring us a few beers?”

“You haven’t changed a bit, Emmie. Always gotta be where the action is,” she laughs. “Sure, I’ll bring them back to you guys in a few.”

“Thanks,” I say as Rayna opens the door and the spotlights hanging from the ceiling blind me.

Lurlene’s behind me, pushing me forward. And through the shouting crowd and the high cage, I catch flashes of the fighters’ bodies. Adrenaline pumps through my veins. I always wanted to see a live MMA fight. Near naked, tatted, muscle bound men fighting in a cage—there’s something so fiercely savage and sexy about it.

In no time, through Rayna’s pushy attitude, we reach the front.

With the smeared blood on his chest, the guy on the floor looks like he put up a good fight, but I don’t think he’s going to be able to break free from the chokehold of the burly guy leaning across his throat.  I can’t see floor guy’s face, but damn, his body is flawless. There’s a tatt running up from the waist of his black boxer shorts and another tatt on his thigh. It ripples over his muscles as he slams his foot into the mat. The ref hunches over them, and I’m thinking sexy beast on the floor is a goner. No way is he getting back up from the floor. Then his hips gyrate upward and he overtakes burly guy. He throws him forward, and as floor guy rises, everything inside of me shuts right the fuck down.

No! It can’t be!

“Holy shit!” Rayna gasps. “Is that Jax?”

I can’t look at her, can’t utter a damn word. Shocked by the sight before me, all I can do is latch my fingers into the holes of the cage and try to pull myself closer. Is that really the polite and collected Jax Declan covered in tatts? Could that magnificent body, viciously attacking and kicking burly guy’s ass, belong to Jax? The same man, who just slammed his head into burly guy’s gut, picked him up, and then dropped him on the floor?

Oh, fuck. I’m in trouble here. I thought the pie tease was a bit risky behavior for the mild-mannered Jax Declan but this. Shit, I mighta bit off a lot more than I can chomp on when it comes to
this
Jax Declan.

Just as they call the fight because burly guy can’t get back off the floor, I hear Lurlene behind me say, “Oh, I get it. JZS. Jax, Zeke, and Slate, this has to be their bar. Right?”

I spin around. Mouths dropped, Rayna and I both look at her. Rayna’s eyes flash to me. “No! They don’t own this place, do they,” she says. Still speechless from what I just witnessed, I stand with my mouth dropped open. “I knew their father was a boxer, but,” Rayna glances at the cage, and then hits me in the arm. “He’s leaving.” She whacks me again, and God knows I need that smack to knock me back into reality. “You gotta go after him and find out.”

I turn, and looking larger than life, Jax’s huge form heads toward a door in the back of the room.

“Go,” Lurlene says, pushing me, followed by Rayna swatting me in the ass, urging me on, too.

I take a step. He pulls the door open, and the light in front of him casts all around his body. Then it swallows him up and takes him from me. He disappears as the door closes behind him.

CHAPTER FIVE

I pull the door open to a long hall. Smack dab in the middle of it is a lithe and powerful animal, strength and beauty, an exquisite arrangement of muscles in a virile male body. My heart beats hard. I pick up my steps. My heels click on the hardwood floor. There’s no way he can’t hear me. Still, he just keeps strutting forward. Dammit.

“Jax!” His feet come to a halt. His head turns and those dark eyes land hard on me, quivering every cell in my body. My heart gallops, and I think my feet might have, too. I make it to him in no time at all.

His eyes take a real slow stroll down my tight cami, my skirt, and they pause a second at my heels. Then they flash back up, making my heart and hormones flutter that much more. “What are ya doing back here, Em?”

I set my hands on my hips. Damn, I love when he calls me Em. “I think the bigger question is what the hell were you doing out there? You fight?”

He turns around to face me, hands taped and balled at his sides, sweat glistening upon every muscle on his bare chest. “Sometimes,” he hefts his naked shoulder as if what I just saw out there was no big deal, just another day at the office. Hell, he was magnificent.

“Do you own this place?”

“Zeke, Slate, and me, yeah.” He brushes a hand over his already tousled short dark hair. “Look, I gotta take a shower,” he says, and I get the feeling he’s trying to get rid of me. But he’s not getting off that easily.

I take a step closer. After watching what his beautiful body is capable of, closer is all I want to be. My eyes stroll down the hard slab of his belly, but I don’t make it to his feet. Instead, my momentary pause lands on his crotch. Then, from beneath the hoods of my lids, I peer up at him. “You want some company in the shower?”

“Now, Emmie Rue,” his hand drops from his head, “you don’t wanna go teasin’ me.” His lip curls, hands clutching and releasing at his sides as if still pumped from the fight.

I arch a brow. “Maybe I do.”

“No. You don’t,” a husky but dangerous chuckle rumbles from him. “I’m not one of your boy toys you can play with.”

“Who says,” I place a finger on his chest and run it down along his tattoo, following the tribal art to the waist of his shorts, “I’m looking for a toy?”

“Oh, you’re lookin’ for somethin’, but the games I like to play aren’t always nice,” he snatches my hand, “and I can assure you that I don’t always follow the rules.”

“What rules?” I swallow hard from the strong, firm grip of his hand on my wrist. 

He laughs, releasing me. “The kind of rules beauty queens expect.”

“I’m not that girl anymore.” My skin tingles where he touched me.

“Yeah. Maybe not.” His eyes drop to my mouth. “Still, I’d take you to a place where even all grown-up princesses are afraid to go.”

“Well, then, it’s good that I’m not a princess, either.”

“No?” A crooked grin tugs on his sexy mouth.

I tilt my head and smile up at him. “No.”

“Well, then,” he says, hands fisting at his sides, pecs flexing, “show me you’re not afraid to get dirty. Get on your knees.”

My courage and smile slowly wanes. “What?”

“Get down on your knees and suck my cock.”

Not ever did I think such a wicked thing could come out of Jax Declan’s mouth. Shit, it’s fucking making me hot. Who the hell is this guy? I look to the left then the right. Am I considering it?  “But anyone could come along and see us,” I say with logic, attempting to talk myself out of it.

“And?” His brow arches.

“They’d see me sucking your cock.”

“And?” The side of his mouth lifts a little higher.

“And… and that’s just not right.”

“I warned you, there’s no right or wrongs when it comes to me,” his grin spreads. “Now why don’t you run along? I’m sure there’s a guy back at the bar that’ll play by your  safe rules.”

“What are you doing, Jax?” I glare at him. “You trying to warn me again? Are you one of those boys who like to play rough? Don’t always listen to a girl when she says no?”

“As a matter of fact,” his eyes go dark, “you could beg and scream, but the only way to stop this
man
, is by saying two words.”

“Yeah, and just what two words are those?”

“What? Thinkin’ you might be needin’ them? Are you gonna get on your knees for me, princess?”

“The words,” I urge.

“No. More.”

“No more?” I study him, nibbling my bottom lip. Is he serious? “So, let me get this straight when you’re with a woman, and things get a little rough, she says “no more” and you stop.”

“Only then.” He nods.

I stare at him, assessing that this is definitely something about him that I’m going to need to know—just not today. While everything inside rallies for me to drop down to my knees, and be his little cock slave, I can’t bring myself to do it. I’m a tad frightened—excited, but certainly scared. He’s right, though, I’m not fucking with some boy here. Jax is all man.

I take a deep breath.

“Well?” His left eyebrow rises. Son-of-a-bitch, he’s challenging me. Fuck this. I turn on my heels. I’m not playing his game on a whim. If I want to beat Jax Declan, then I’ll need a strategy. I start down the hall. My steps slow. Hold on a damn minute. He’s trying to send me away. He wants me to scurry off like some frightened princess! Shit, the hot bastard is already winning!

I whip back around just as his broad shoulder disappears from a doorway. I barrel down the hallway, enter the room he went into, and the door slams shut behind me. It’s pitch black. I blink. And as my eyes adjust to the darkness, I feel the pressure of his palm low on my back. He pushes me, and my chest hits the wall. His hard body presses against mine. He drags the hair from my shoulder. His warm breath brushes over my neck.

“Changed your mind? Ya ready to play now, Em?”

“I’m here, aren’t I,” I say, impressed that my fear didn’t weed its way into my voice.

“Pull your skirt up around your waist.”

Call me crazy, desperate, or wanting, but I don’t throw in the towel. Could be that I can’t see him, or that I want him too much to deny myself his touch. I start to yank up the tight material. He doesn’t back away or give me any room. His body holds close to mine, and in a G-string, my naked ass cheeks rub against his silky shorts.  Damn, it feels good.

“Your shirt and bra, pull them up, too. I want ‘em off your tits.”

Heart banging in my rib cage, I start at the hem of my shirt. I work my fingers up into the seam of my bra and tug until my throbbing heavy mounds pop free.

“Now, put your hands on the wall and don’t move.”

I feel for the wall and set my palms on it. His body retreats, and with my breasts flat against the cool wall and my naked backside free of his shorts, I’m suddenly vulnerable and exposed.

His fingers slip under the tiny string at my hips. Taking his time, he drags the thin material down my thighs. He taps my ankle. “Lift,” he says, stern and resolute. His tone forces me to pick up my foot, helping him as I step out of my panties. His warm touch slithers back up between my thighs. “Spread your legs.” Upon his utter command, my feet slide apart. “I want to fuck you hard with my finger,” he hisses close to my ear and every muscle braces for the intrusion. My nails scratch the wall as I wait for him to enter me. “But, as much as I like it dirty, I’m covered in another man’s sweat and blood, and there’s no way I’m going to fill your sweet tight pussy with that kind of filth. So, instead,” his words vibrate through me as I hear a ripping sound, and I can only assume he’s removing the tape from his hand, “I’m gonna teach you a lesson about teasing me. Push your ass out.” Again, with the command of his words, my hips sway back, and I’ve never felt so sexy in my life.  His hand comes down hard on my ass cheek. He! Holy shit, he hit me! The sound of his flesh striking mine not only echoes in the room, but it pulsates to my pussy. “And,” he smacks me again, heat followed by a slow burn ripples over my tender skin, “the next time you come to me with the desire to fuck in your eyes,” he strikes my ass harder, “I expect you to do exactly as I say.” He fists a lock of my hair and yanks my head back. Voice low and close to my ear, he says, “And if you do that then just maybe after I’ve had my way with you, I’ll treat you like a princess.” His teeth sink into my neck then soft lips swipe over my sensitive flesh. “Now, say it. Tell me what you want.”