Afterburn

effect on people. When he entered a space, he immediately took it over.
    Squaring my shoulders, I pushed through the revolving doors and walked straight up to him. I wore a black Nina Ricci sheath. It was an elegant, classic piece that I’d paired with the nude peep-toe Louboutins my brothers had collectively given me for my last birthday.
    I looked like the kind of woman who would be seen with Jackson Rutledge. Better yet, I felt like it.
    Keeping my stride, I marched up to him, fisted his tie in one hand, and stretched up to kiss him. Hard.
    A low rumbling sound was my reward, followed by the rapid unfolding of his big body. He got me before I could pull away, catching me by the nape and hip, holding me to him as he deepened the kiss into a full-blown melding of our open mouths.
    Standing on the street, with cars and people streaming by, we kissed as if we were alone.
    “Hello, gorgeous,” he said gruffly when I broke away to pull air into my tightened lungs. He nuzzled his cheek against mine.
    I broke free with a quick twist and slapped him across the face.
    His head turned with the blow, his breath hissing out between his teeth. Rubbing his jaw, he looked at me with hot eyes. “I’m guessing you’re not looking to play rough.”
    “You fucked me over, Jax. Right after you fucked me literally. Did you take a shower first? Or were you still smelling like me when you made the call?”
    “Get in the car, Gia.”
    “You’re an asshole.” I tamped down my simmering anger at him. At me. At the entire situation. But mostly at him.
    “Always have been,” he agreed grimly. He straightened and opened the passenger door, which involved pulling the door out then pushing it upward. “Took you a long time to figure that out.”
    I stood there a moment, staring at him. He stared back, his eyes hidden behind the damned sunglasses, his mouth an unyielding line.
    “Don’t lose your confidence now,” he taunted softly.
    My mind spun as it had all day. Why did he want me to go with him? Why the flowers and the invitation to dinner? “You angling for a kiss-off screw?”
    “I’m not ending things. I want you. That’s not news.”
    His brusque, unapologetic attitude made my teeth grind. It was like he was daring me to be the one to walk away.
    I slid into the seat and clicked my seat belt into place.
    Jax ducked his head down. He looked at me over the rim of his shades. “For future reference, the slap was overkill. You had me down for the count with the kiss.”
    He straightened and shut the door.
    I smiled grimly. In the boardroom and the bedroom, Jackson Rutledge was going to learn a thing or two about playing with me.
    * * *
    J AX PULLED INTO the subterranean parking garage of his apartment building and two valets greeted us. As one of the bow-tied guys helped me out of the car, I was struck again by the financial gulf between Jax and me. I wasn’t intimidated by his wealth, but it was possible the disparity was a bigger problem for him.
    It didn’t improve my mood to think of it.
    Reaching for my hand, Jax linked our fingers and led me to an elevator. I’d half expected him to fly us out to Virginia or D.C., and realized abruptly that I had never allowed myself to consider the likelihood of him living at least part-time in New York, too. But of course it made sense that he would have a place in the city, which was the financial center of the country.
    The elevator doors closed behind us, and he immediately pulled me into him. I let him. He leaned back against the brass handrail, spread his legs, and urged me to stand between them, his hands running up and down the length of my spine.
    It’d been so long since I’d been held with such intimacy and tenderness.
    He’d been in New York the whole time....
    I closed my eyes and absorbed the warmth of his body, the smell of his skin, the soft caress of his breath against my temple. I’d denied myself the comfort of a man’s touch for too long.
    “How was your day?” he murmured.
    “Busy. How was yours?”
    “I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”
    I closed my eyes, holding fiercely to my wrath. It was a harder task than it should’ve been.
    He laid his cheek against my temple. “I’m sorry, Gia.”
    “For what? Helping Pembry screw the deal I was working on?”
    Jax sighed. “You knew the score. We talked about this.”
    “That doesn’t excuse you. I don’t accept your apology.”
    “I don’t blame you, but you’ll find a way to handle it.