Simply Irresistible (18 page)

“Only if you promise not to irritate me.”

They left, and Maddie figured the odds were fifty–fifty that they’d both survive the short trip. She stared at herself in
the mirror. She was wearing a long-sleeved knit tee and jeans, and she realized that for the first time in recent history,
the button on the jeans wasn’t cutting into her belly. Huh. She lifted the hem of the shirt and stared at her middle. It might
have been wishful thinking on her part, but it seemed flatter. “Maybe I should forget to eat potato chips more often.”

Two big, warm hands slid beneath hers, callused palms flat on her stomach. Her gaze collided with Jax’s warm, amused one in
the mirror.

For two days, he’d found a way to have his hands and/or his lips on her every chance he got. Yesterday morning, he’d been
wielding a huge power saw like a sexy lumberjack, cutting the fallen tree in the yard. When he’d caught her watching him,
he’d pressed her up against the stack of cut wood, slid his hands beneath her shirt, and kissed her senseless.

Yesterday afternoon, he’d backed her into the upstairs linen closet and she’d spent the best five minutes of her life making
out like they were teenagers.

Except she was fairly certain that a teenage boy couldn’t have brought her to orgasm with nothing more than a touch of his
fingers.

“Mmm,” Jax murmured now, those magic fingers stroking lightly across her stomach. “Soft and warm.”

“But not hard and ripped like you.” She tried to say this critically, but it was difficult not to sound breathless with his
hands on her bare skin, his chest plastered to her back, and his hips snuggled to hers.

“I’ve definitely got the hard taken care of.” Still holding her gaze in the mirror, he rubbed his jaw to hers as he slowly
rocked into her.

He was right. He had the hard taken care of. She thrust her bottom into him, moaning when he thrust back. At the sound, he
whipped her around to face him, slowly pressing her back into the wall.

“You’ve had a rough morning,” he murmured, his mouth descending to her neck.

“Yes. I’m dirty, Jax.”

“Don’t tease me.”

That got a low laugh out of her, and she shifted closer. She felt him smile against her skin as she obviously acquiesced,
not caring as long as he didn’t stop.

He didn’t. His lips brushed just beneath her ear, and his hands headed north.

“You’re tense.”

“A little,” she admitted. Her fingers were in his hair. He had better hair than she did, the bastard, all soft and silky.

“A lot,” he murmured against her, spreading hot, open-mouthed kisses along her jaw and down her throat, which he then gently
bit.

A gasp escaped her, and she clutched at him, moaning when he licked the spot to soothe the slight sting. His hands slid up
her ribs and very lightly grazed the undersides of her breasts. “I’m excellent at relieving stress,”
he said, and his thumbs glided over her nipples, wrenching a shocked, aroused cry from her that he swallowed with his mouth,
kissing her until they had to tear apart to breathe.

“Still need space?” he asked.

“Maybe later.”

His smile was sheer sex. “Are we alone?”

“Yes, but—” She looked around the hallway. “Here? You want to do it here?”

“Yes or no, Maddie.”

“
Yes.
”

He kissed her again, slipping a hand between her thighs, his fingers pressing on just the right spot to drive her even more
wild. It’d taken him four and a half minutes to get her to the toe-curling point yesterday. Right now she was pretty sure
he could have her there in half the time, which was more than a little embarrassing.

“Jax—”

His fingers began to move, but a low growl conveyed his frustration with her jeans. A second later, he’d unbuttoned them and
slid a hand inside. “Jesus,” he murmured reverently.

Lost, she ground her hips against him and heard him swear roughly into the side of her neck. All this while his fingers continued
to give her exactly what she needed. Like yesterday, it took shockingly little to topple her over the edge. She burst with
a shudder and a soft cry and would have fallen to the ground if he hadn’t supported all her weight.

When she stopped panting and her vision cleared, she realized she had a death grip on him. “Sorry,” she managed a little hoarsely.

“Christ, are you kidding? I’ll be thinking about that all day.” Tucking a damp curl behind her ear, he buttoned and zipped
her back up, and then studied her face. “Better. You look a lot less tense now.”

“And you look more tense.”

“I’ll live.”

“Or I could…” She pulled him toward her and placed her lips on his jaw. “Repay the favor.”

He groaned and pulled her in tight, but they both went still as a car pulled up in the yard.

Jax looked out and groaned, dropping his head to Maddie’s shoulder. “Material delivery.”

When he was gone, Maddie sat down right there on the floor. He had a way of filling her with mind-blowing pleasure. She wanted
to lose herself in it, but she wouldn’t. She’d made that mistake before and still wasn’t ready to trust herself.

Fifteen minutes later, Tara walked back inside the inn and executed a double take at Maddie sitting on the floor in the dirty
foyer. “What are you doing?”

Waiting for her bones to reappear. “Nothing.”

“So why do you look like you either just ate a bag of chips or got lucky?”

“What?” Maddie dragged herself upright and looked in the mirror. Flushed. Damp. Glowing.

Well, hell.

“Don’t let Chloe know you’re still eating chips,” Tara said on a sigh. “She’ll triple our yoga regimen.”

Maddie nodded. “Okie-dokie, I won’t tell Chloe about the chips…”

Or the orgasms…

T
heir last night together, Maddie and her sisters ended up at Eat Me Café. Silver and blue tinsel hung everywhere, and cut-outs
of Santa’s reindeer were hanging from the rafters. Tara was, as usual, overdressed in designer jeans and a blazer. Maddie
had gone with her decidedly not-designer jeans and her thickest sweater in deference to the chilly weather. Chloe was wearing
denim leggings, kickass boots, and a long-sleeved shirt that read
I MELTED FROSTY.

“Now we’re going to get along,” Maddie told them, walking through the decorated café. “Or I’m going to let my pores get big
and go back to eating potato chips three meals a day.”

“I don’t believe you,” Tara said, cool as a cucumber. “You’re going to hit the Love Shack, get trashed, and do something extremely
inappropriate with our master renovation expert.”

Chloe raised her hand. “Can I vote for that? I think getting mastered by our sexy carpenter is a good idea.”

Maddie’s good parts all stood up and voted for that, too.

Tara shook her head. “Bad idea, sugar. Still not ready.”

“Are you saying he’s out of her league?” Chloe asked.

“I’m saying he’s so far out of her league that she can’t even
see
his league.” Tara looked at Maddie. “No offense. I don’t mean he’s too good for you. I mean he’s too…”

“Hot,” Chloe supplied.

“Yes,” Tara said. “Hot. You have to work your way up to a man like that. Maybe start out with a basic model.” Her eyes roamed
the bar and landed on a good-looking man who was pulling a bag of tea leaves from his plaid coat pocket and signaling the
waitress for a cup of hot water. “Someone like him,” she said. “A training-bra version of Jax.”

Maddie sighed. “Subject change, please.” She lifted her water glass. “How about a toast to Mom, for bringing us together.”

Chloe and Tara lifted their glasses. “To Mom,” they said in unison.

“Aw.” Maddie smiled. “You two are so cute when you’re in accord.” Empowered, she lifted her glass again. “To our new venture,
the three of us.”

Silence.

“To our new venture,” Maddie repeated, giving them the evil eye.

“To our new venture,” they murmured.

“
The three of us,
” she said firmly.

“The three of us,” they muttered.

“But we’re still selling,” Tara said.

“Maybe selling,” Maddie said, looking at Chloe. “You going to pick a side anytime soon?”

“Soon,” she said noncommittally.

“Admit it,” Tara said. “You like being the swing vote.”

“Well, I do live to annoy you.”

Thirty long, awkward minutes later, they still hadn’t been served. The tension was rising. Tara and Chloe had a limit on the
amount of time they could spend in close quarters, and they’d met it. “So about that weather, huh?” Maddie asked.

Both sisters just stared at her.

Cripes. She searched her brain for a joke and came up empty. Desperate, she flagged down the only waitress in the place.

“Sorry,” the waitress huffed out, not stopping. “Our chef quit, and we’re going nuts.”

“
Chef,
” Tara said under her breath. “That guy wasn’t a chef. He was a short-order cook trained at Taco Bell, bless his heart.”

“Hey, I like Taco Bell,” Maddie said.

“You would, darlin’.”

Chloe snorted. “You are
such
a food snob.”

“I beg your pardon.” The South dripped from each word.
Delta Burke save us.
“I’d work here.”

“Right,” Chloe said. “
You’d
work
here.
”

“Absolutely.”

“Admit it, you’d
never
lower yourself to work in a place like this, with real people and real food,” Chloe said.

Tara’s jaw began to spasm, and Maddie’s belly matched it. Instead of pulling out the Tums, Maddie
grabbed the half of a green scarf and knitting needles. True to form, this scarf was already crooked.

“Food. Snob,” Chloe repeated softly to Tara, who abruptly stood, tugged on the hem of her perfect little blazer, and strode
purposely toward the kitchen, heels clicking on the chipped linoleum.

“Holy shit,” Chloe said, watching her go. “She’s going to do it.” She grinned and leaned back, like she’d just completed a
job well done. “God, she’s so easy.”

“Why?” Maddie asked, baffled. “Why do you mess with her?”

“Because it’s fun?”

Tara talked to the owner and vanished into the kitchen. In twenty minutes, the bell started ringing, accompanied by Tara’s
voice demanding that the waitress hustle because she didn’t want the food served cold.

In another hour, the owner of Eat Me Café was begging Tara to sign on until they could get a permanent replacement. Maddie
and Chloe had left their table and were in the kitchen now, staring in shock at how fast the chaos had been organized.

“I suppose I could stay a little longer,” Tara said. “If they get me
real
garlic, no more of this dried crap.”

“So you’re
not
leaving in the morning?” Maddie asked.

“No.” Tara was chopping onions at the speed of light. “I’m not leaving.”

“But your husband. Your great job. Your perfect life.”

Tara never even looked up as her hands continued to move so fast they were a blur. “Truth?”

“Please,” Maddie said, confused.

“I don’t have a great job. I do inventory for a chain of hotel’s cafés and restaurants, and I hate it.”

Maddie blinked. “And Logan?”

Pain and wistful regret came and went in Tara’s gaze. “He’s driving NASCAR, he’s on the road 24/7. I gave up traveling with
him two years ago. I was jealous of his career and bitter about being relegated to third place in his life behind his car
and crew. I divorced him. I’m alone and have been for a year and a half.”

“There’s been no one else?”

“Well, for a little while I thought maybe I could start a thing with a close friend, but
someone
else got in the way.”

“Me,” Chloe said softly. “I got in the way.”

Tara sighed. “I don’t blame you for it. I was still missing Logan. It wouldn’t have been right.”

“Excuse me, girls.”

The three of them turned to face Lucille. She wore her eye-popping pink track suit, minus the white headband. Today it was
a rainbow-colored knit cap. Maddie introduced her to her sisters.

Lucille smiled at Chloe. “The wild one.”

Chloe saluted smartass-like, but with a genuine smile. “At your service.”

“And you,” Lucille said, pointing to Tara. “You’re the Steel Magnolia who sometimes forgets to breathe. Just wanted to say
that was the best turkey club I’ve ever had, thank you. You’re gifted. Oh, and I hear the inn’s coming along. Looking forward
to working for you girls.”

Tara blinked as the older woman smiled and walked away. “I don’t forget to breathe.”

“Sometimes you do,” Chloe said. “Can we rewind a minute? Back to the you-don’t-blame-me thing? Cuz I gotta tell you, it feels
a little like you do.”

Tara took a deep breath, her fingers still chopping, chopping, chopping. “I might have a few anger issues.”

“
No,
” Chloe said in mock disbelief.

“And maybe some misplaced resentment.”

“How long is it going to be misplaced?”