The Real Me (How to Tame a Heartbreaker Book 4) (22 page)

"You were one of those drooling douchebags."

"Yeah, but I won, and now I'm taking you off display. You work for me now."

"That sounds kinky."

"It pretty much
is."

"That's hot."

"I know. You wanna know what else is hot?" He grabbed her by the hand and put her palm on his lap.

"That
is
hot." She smiled at him for a few seconds before leaning up to kiss him. His lips tasted so good that she didn't care about quitting her job, or bringing him to Clarksville to meet her family, or anything else.

Chapter 23

Jax and Cam were up most of the night, but she finally fell asleep in his arms. She had the alarm on her phone set for 11AM. It took about an hour to get to Clarksville, and they'd be expecting her to be there by 1:00.

She
stayed in bed for a few minutes, trying to remember and believe everything that had happened between them the night before. There was a ton of talking and laughing with three very memorable sexual encounters. She flexed several muscle groups in her core as she lay there, and could tell that she was sore and stiff in places she never dreamed possible. She smiled at the memory of asking him to go harder.

She tried to get out of the bed quietly, but Cam woke up. Or maybe he was already awake. Either way, he stirred when she moved
, pulling her into his embrace and draping a heavy leg over her. She turned and smiled up at him.

He returned the sleepy smile. "Mornin' sunshine."

"Mornin'."

He was quiet for a second. "I still love you," he said.

She giggled. "Good, because I'm pretty sure you thoroughly compromised me last night."

He shook his head. "Oh, you've definitely been compromised. You're at
like the highest level of compromisation."

She laughed. "That's not even a word."

"Yes it is."

"No it's not."

"Are you sure?"

"I think so."

"Well, it should be—and you get the idea anyway. You've been all-together compromised."

"I know. I think I'm sore." She ran a hand between her legs, testing the feeling, and he lifted his head to look down even though she was under the covers.

"Did I hurt you?"

"No. It felt good. Everything was perfect." She snuggled up next to him for a hug before pushing up to sit up on the bed. "I should think about getting dressed if I'm gonna make it to Clarksville for lunch."

"Are you going to tell your family I'm coming with you?"

"No—and my parents have no idea you even
exist—well at least not in
my
life. My sister's the only one who won't be blindsided. They're at church now, and will be until we see them, so they'll just have to be surprised."

"What kind of coffee do you want?"

"Are you going out?"

"No, I'm gonna have someone pick it up for us."

"A latte please. Vanilla or caramel—or really whatever flavor, I'm not picky."

"Anything to eat?"

"I guess I'll just wait for lunch at this point."

She left him sprawled out under the covers and crossed to the closet where she knew she'd find the clothes he
bought for her. She'd checked them out last evening and knew there were at least a few things in there that would fit. She chose some skinny capris and a loose fitting top that was a pretty deep red color. She noticed there weren't any shoes, which was a smart move on his part since he had no idea what size she wore. The flats she had on the night before at work went well with the outfit anyway.

J
ax put her hair in a messy bun on the top of her head, brushed your teeth, and put on a little makeup. Powder, mascara, and lipstick was all she had in her purse, but she put it on thinking it was obviously better than nothing.

Cam was dressed by the time she got back into the bedroom. He was sitting on the edge of the bed wearing jeans and vintage T-shirt that hugged the muscular curves of his chest and arms. "Do I need to put something else on?" he asked as she came out of the bathroom.

She thought he might possibly be the most gorgeous thing she'd ever seen and wondered why in the world he would even think about changing. "No way," she said. "By the time we get there, they'll all be changed into their after-church clothes." She pointed at his attire. "This'll be fancy compared to what they're wearing."

"You look fancy," he said, pulling her into a hug as he stood.

"I love these clothes. I couldn't decide between this one and the light blue."

"I think the red's a good choice," he said.

"We match." She picked up a piece of his faded grey and red T-shirt.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"As I'll ever be." She looked at him with an unreadable expression. "There's still time for you to back out. I wouldn't blame you. I promise it's nothing special."

"Stop trying to uninvite me. You're hurting my feelings."

She laughed and popped up to place a little kiss on the stubble of his jaw. Within the next five minutes, they were in one of the elevators down to the private lobby. It was being guarded by Brian again, and Jax asked him if he ever got a day off. There was a whole exchange where he claimed to have a twin brother and she believed it for a second but he laughed and told her he just worked a lot.

They stepped out
side, and parked on the street in front of them was a beautiful black SUV. The windows were darkly tinted, so she didn't see the driver until he stepped out of the front seat and began to circle around the front of the truck. She looked up at Cam with an expression of genuine surprise. He tried to steer her towards the backseat of the SUV, but not knowing what was going on, she stiffened.

"What's the matter?" he asked, pointing at the door that he was leading her to.

"Hello ma'am, you must be Ms. Jax." Reggie said as he expertly cut in front of them to open the door. This smell of leather and money and the feel of cold air conditioning hit them when he opened the door, and she could do nothing but climb up into the beautiful vehicle.

Cam climbed in after her. "You okay?" he asked, not
icing her stunned expression.

"Yeah, I'm good. I uh just sort of thought we'd be driving there like normal people."

"This is normal," Cam said. "Reggie's full time. You'll just have to get used to him driving because he gets really testy when I'm in town and he's still not driving."

"
Don't let him lie to you," Reggie said, catching the last piece of that statement as he sat in the front seat. Cam didn’t have time to reply before Reggie started raising the privacy glass. He stopped it when it was halfway up. "Cam told me to get you vanilla or caramel, so I just picked vanilla. I hope that's okay Ms. Jax."

"It's great Reggie, thanks. I didn't mean for
you to have to get it for me."

"Oh I don't mind one bit Ms. Jax
, seeing as how that is my job."

"Well thank you. Vanilla's great."

"You're very welcome. It's back there in the cup holder next to Cam's."

The window continued to go up until they were in total privacy. "Can he hear us?" she asked.

"Not unless you push that button." Cam pointed to a speaker that had a little button near the edge.

"I thought we were gonna show up in the Chevy," she said. "I guess maybe I shouldn't be surprised, but I had no idea you had a full-time driver. What exactly do you do with a driver when you go somewhere? Does he just chill with us at my parent's house?"

Cam laughed. "Reggie's a good guy and I've invited him in quite a lot of places, but he always refuses. He likes to draw and every time he's waiting for me, which is a lot, he works in his sketchbook. He's good. I've seen his drawings."

"So he just waits in the truck?"

"He does whatever he wants to do. You don't need to worry about Reggie. People work for me, Jax, which means they work for you now. You're gonna have to get used to it.

She made a face like she wasn't quite sure if she
could get used to it or not.

"
It's good to know you loved me even before you knew I was famous because there's no guarantee that it will always be like this. But right now, my life is pretty fucking good. Right now, the world is my oyster, and since what's mine is yours, the world is your oyster too. So drink your tasty coffee and let Reggie do his job and drive us to Clarksville to meet your parents."

Jax's family wasn't home
yet when they got to the house, so she sent a text to her little sister asking when they'd be back. Kate sent a text back saying church ran over, but they'd be home in a second. Jax's mom put a roast in the slow cooker before they left for church and had a couple of casseroles and vegetables in the oven on warm. They ate out quite a bit after church, but today (per Kate's request) they had plans to eat at the house.

"It smells like Arnold's in here," Cam said as they walked into Jax's childhood home. Arnold's was one of his favorite pla
ces to get soul food, and he was suddenly looking forward to lunch.

"
My sister's favorite is pork roast with holiday sides, and she gets my mom to make them every year on her birthday." 

Just then, Kate burst into the living room. "Jax are you here?
Whose truck is that in the driv—" She paused in her tracks a few feet into the room with her eyes round like saucers. She stared at Cam for several seconds before looking at Jax. "Are you kidding me?" she asked. "You just bring him here like this without
telling any of us
?"

J
ust then, Kate's boyfriend Jeremy along with their parents, Cindy and Rick Overstreet, came in the door behind Kate. She turned to them, throwing her hands in the air dramatically. "No big deal. Jax just thought she'd bring Cam Bishop home with her without telling anyone," she said.

They all three just looked at Kate like she was having some sort of irrational outburst.

"Look," Kate said, exasperated. Her hand whipped out and she pointed straight at Cam. "This guy is A-list famous," she said. "His name's Cam Bishop and he's in our house right now. Who's car do you think that is out there? There's probably a
driver
sitting in it right now."

Jax let out an uncontrollable laugh, thinking about Reggie sitting in there drawing or whatever he was doing. Cam, who seemed to be the only rational one of the whole bunch, stepped forward and stuck out his hand for Rick Overstreet to shake.

"It's very nice to meet you, sir," he said, smiling broadly at Rick and the whole family. "I'm very fond of your daughter."

Rick responded by shaking his hand and saying,
"We are too," but it was overshadowed by Kate's squeal of delight.

"I
knew
you wouldn't break up with him," she said.

It wasn't until their mother looked at her with a questioning glance that Kate realized she said something she wasn't supposed to.

"Jax almost broke up with him because she didn't know if she'd be able to handle dating someone famous," Kate said without skipping a beat.

It took Mrs. Overstreet a minute to find her voice, but when she did, she look
ed at Jax and asked, "How long have you and this young man been seeing each other?"

"
A few weeks," Cam said.

Jax's family all looked at her like they were surprised she hadn't
mentioned it. "He was the one I went to meet at the coffee shop a few weeks ago. I was trying to be pretty private about it until I figured out if it was going to work out or not," she said.

Thankfully, none of them asked about the fake name she mentioned when she told them about him the first time.
They stood in the living room for what must have been a full five minutes during the somewhat awkward but still friendly introductions. Jax could tell that her parents had heard of him because even they seemed a little nervous.

Jax and
Cam sat at the bar and watched Cindy take pans out of the oven and begin to uncover them. Jax volunteered to cut a cucumber, and was doing so when Kate and Jeremy came in from down the hall and joined them in the kitchen.

"I hope you're okay with me getting a picture with you before you leave, because no one's gonna believe me that—"

"You're
not
posting a picture of him on Facebook if that's what you're thinking."

"I won't," Kate said.

"I don't care what she does with it," Cam said. "Neil said we're all over the media anyway."

Jax looked up to see if her parent's had heard, but realized they were preoccupied
and hadn't. She hadn't considered the fact that they probably have access to the whole scene with her working at a bar, but her parents were oblivious to entertainment news, and she figured it could easily get past them unless someone brought their attention to it.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking about people videoing us last night at Bing's. That's probably what you're talking about, right?"

"Yeah, Neil already c
alled me and said I should be thinking about a statement since the videos have caused a little bit of a stir."

"A statement? What kind of
statement
? What do they want you to say?"

"He probably wants me to say that I was just being silly."

"Is that what you're gonna say?"

"No."

"So can I post the picture I take with you later on Facebook?"