“Yeah, hi,” she said a little shyly. “You’re Warren, right?” Of course Anna was faking her uncertainty. She knew exactly who this bloke was – he was a gold-medal winner for God’s sake! She had first seen him in the flesh at the charity event. He had smiled at her a few times but they had never got round to talking. Probably because she had made it her business to get drunk to distract Jaxxon from Connor’s antics.
“And you’re Jaxxon,” said Warren as he looked passed Anna at the woman who he had thought Connor was going to devour in the middle of the charity event. He didn’t know an awful lot of what, if anything, was going on between them, but he knew Connor. He’d seen how possessive his mate was of her and had figured it might be best to warn him that there was now another bloke coming onto her. Turned out he was right to do so. He handed Connor a Budweiser, noticing at the same time that it was what Jaxxon was drinking too.
Jaxxon nodded. “And you’re the one who snitched to Connor that I was here tonight.” There was no way that Connor was already here when he saw her. It was obvious by the frustration on his face that he had been stewing on his emotions for a while which suggested having dragged himself here from somewhere else.
Warren smiled at her astuteness. “What made you think it was me?”
“You’re finding way too much pleasure in this awkward little situation. Plus, it gave you an excuse to hang around Anna. Upset her, you’ll lose your bollocks.”
She said it so matter-of-factly that he laughed. “Fair enough. That ginger one there is Clive, the tubby one is Mick. Both my brothers-in-law.”
Jaxxon nodded at the blokes sat on either side of Connor. It was almost like they were flanking him. She smiled at that. Connor gave her a questioning look but she said nothing. There was a long silence at the table. She realised that Anna and Connor’s mates were all fixated on her and him, watching and waiting to see how this was going to play out: Was Jaxxon going to blow her fuse after Connor’s display of ownership? Was Connor going to pop a vein after seeing her with Luke? She considered warning them that there was likely to be unsuitable language from the outset and scenes that some people may find disturbing.
It seemed that over the years Connor had forgotten just how often he had had to chase idiots away from Jaxx. The problem was she had a body that made a bloke think sinful thoughts. It had always gotten her attention, and always the wrong kind of attention. Boys had seemed to automatically think that if she had a body so alluring she was some kind of seductress and was up for anything. Then there was the fact that her sister had been very loose with her body; boys tended to then reason that if Jaxx was Leah’s sister, she must be easy just like her.
From minute one Jaxx had brought out his primitive instinct to protect. It didn’t even matter if the boy seemed harmless. If he was a male and too close for Connor’s liking then that male needed to be on his way…because she brought out another primitive instinct in him too: to possess. Every wicked curve of her body called to any red-blooded male. She was edible. And he wanted another taste. He hadn’t thought of anything else since the second she drove away the other night. Having her again was the only thing that would calm the raging lust coursing through him, the only that’d feel right. He itched to touch her so much that he found himself tapping his restless fingers on the arms of the chair. He wanted to drag her out of there and f**k her to unconsciousness. Disliking the way she looked so unperturbed, he made sure he said something that would get him a response. “Oh there’s nothing quite like finding a randy bastard sniffing around your woman.”
Jaxxon looked at him with mock sympathy. “Oh Connor. How you do love to delude yourself. I’ll say this one more time: I belong to no one.” She was impressed at how steady her voice was given that her insides were coiling with a vicious hunger for the raw, carnal pleasure she knew he could give her. There was no denying that his body was designed for it. She could vividly recall the feel of him, thick and hard and long, inside her. And going by the way his lips were curved into his cocky smirk, he knew that she was recalling it.
“You felt like you were mine the other night.”
It probably should have bothered her that he had announced that for his mates to hear, but the world thought they were shagging anyway after what the tabloids had printed. “Sex doesn’t give you ownership rights.”
“My body owned yours the other night, and you know it.”
It nettled her the way he said that; like she was at his mercy, like her body was his to bloody command or something. “It’s so sad, Connor. The way you’re being all cocky and boastful you sound like a teenage boy who’s just finally popped his cherry. It was a quickie in the woods, no need to get carried away with yourself.”
“I’m getting carried away, am I? As I recall it, you were the one screaming.”
“If you think that makes me anything like the other women who follow you around like you’re the Pied Bleeding Piper then you’re very much mistaken. And you’re just as mistaken if you think I’ll tolerate your possessiveness.”
It was a struggle to keep his voice level. “And you’re very mistaken if you think I’ll ever be alright with another bloke being near you, let alone touching you. I see red every time.”
“Try to imagine how little I actually care.”
He couldn’t help smiling. She was pushing him but her ballsy responses and the frustration shimmering in her eyes only made his dick harder. It wasn’t easy reigning in his eagerness to have her when he could sense that she was just as affected by the sexual tension as he was. “Be as pissed off with me as you like. It won’t change the fact that Wednesday night will happen again. But you already know that, don’t you.”
There it was again: that insinuation that she had no control over things. Fair enough, she didn’t have much at all. But she knew that he wasn’t as in control as he liked to think. Maybe it was time to fight fire with fire. “You know, McKenzie, these games of yours – getting my private schedule, swooping in and scaring off other blokes, breaking into my apartment – are pretty annoying. I’m not usually a fan of game playing, but I’ve got a good mind to make an exception here.”
The calculating gleam in her eyes had him intrigued. “I’m up for it, Carter.”
“You don’t know what it is yet.”