Afterburn

and tossed the wallet on the tiled entryway.
    I was ripping open the foil with my teeth when he started pulling at my pants, tugging them roughly. I stumbled, laughing, falling into him, letting him sweep me up again and lower me to the floor.
    Kicking off my shoes, I wrestled with him, our arms and legs tangling as we fought our clothing and our own desperate urgency. Jax yanked off his shirt, pulled the jeans off one of my legs and ground out, “That’s good enough.”
    He ripped my panties to get at me, hissed through his teeth when I sheathed him in latex. Then he pushed my thighs wide to sink between them.
    His first thrust inside me had my back bowing off the floor.
    “Gia.”
    With his neck arched, shoulders straining, sweat glistening on his chest, Jax was impossibly beautiful. He throbbed inside me, so thick and hard, so deep. My heels dug into the carpet, my hips churning as I struggled to accommodate him.
    “Baby, wait,” he gasped, gripping my waist to hold me still. “I’m too close....”
    “Jax...please!”
    He looked down at me fiercely, his eyes glittering in the semidarkness of a room lit only by light spilling through the windows.
    “Is this what you want?” He pulled back, sliding out of me. Then thrust.
    “Oh, God,” I moaned, quivering. “Don’t stop.”
    One hand at a time, he linked his fingers with mine and pulled my arms over my head. Rolling his hips, he stroked deep on the inside, rubbing me perfectly on the outside. For all his impatience to get at me, once he was there, he took his time.
    His lips touched my ear and he whispered, “Give it to me, baby. Let me feel you.”
    Rocking upward, I wrapped my legs around him and took it, climaxing with a low pained moan, shivering with pleasure as my sex clenched in desperate ripples around him.
    “That’s it,” he coaxed hoarsely, beginning to move. “Ah, Jesus, you feel amazing.”
    I held on, his measured drives keeping me hot and wanting. My core tightened, reaching again.
    “You’re so hard,” I whispered, loving the feel of him, the smooth slick glide.
    “It’s you.” He kissed me, his hands tightening on mine as his hips lunged again and again, taking me with long, deep plunges. “Gia, baby...you’re making me come.”
    His pace quickened, then he tensed, his head thrown back as the orgasm hit him. I watched, awed, as shudders racked his powerful frame. He groaned my name, his eyes squeezed shut, his neck straining as he came with such intensity it brought me off again.
    Turning my head, I sank my teeth into his forearm, muffling my cries as the hunger sharpened painfully, then receded into a hot, sweet ache.
    “Gia.” He clutched me firmly, nuzzling his sweat-slickened face against mine.
    Wrapped in him, filled with him, I released my bite and pressed my lips to the mark. Wishing it was possible to so easily brand him as mine.

Chapter 7
    J AX ROLLED TO his back beside me and groaned. “I can’t feel my legs.”
    I laughed, knowing just how he felt. I was tingling all over, as if my entire body was reawakening after a long hibernation.
    Which was sadly true.
    He turned his head toward me. I looked at him.
    “Hey,” he said, reaching for my hand and lifting it to his mouth for a kiss.
    “Hi.” I studied him, seeing that soft warmth in his eyes I’d missed so much.
    “I’m sorry we didn’t make it to the bedroom.”
    “S’okay.” I smiled. “I’m not complaining.”
    “I’ll get you there as soon as I can walk.”
    “Getting old, Rutledge?” I teased, knowing that at twenty-nine, he was in his prime.
    He looked at the raised ceiling with its pretty moldings. “Out of practice.”
    “Yeah, right.” I threw my arm over my face, hiding my reaction. I couldn’t think about him with other women. It made me crazy. “I read the papers, you know.”
    “Escorting a woman somewhere and fucking her are two different things.” He leaned over me. Catching my wrist, he pulled my arm above my head and exposed my face. “But it feels good to know you’ve been keeping tabs.”
    “I wasn’t.”
    Jax flashed his dimple at me. “Okay.”
    He rose up to his knees and sank back on his heels, removing the condom. His movements were easy and unaffected, but the sight of his half-hard cock glistening with semen made my mouth water.
    I pushed up onto my elbows and licked my lips. “Come here.”
    He responded instantly, his cock stiffening and lengthening. “Jesus, Gia.”
    I moved toward