Page 61 of Nightmare’s Playground

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Ben said no more people food.” I sighed. “And no more stairs. His hips are worse than I thought. He’s got arthritis on top of the dysplasia, and every pound he’s carrying is sitting right on those joints, so⁠—“

Jax grunted.

I glanced up at him. His jaw was tight. “What?”

“Fuckin’ Ben.”

A giggle burst out of me before I could stop it.

Oh my God. He was jealous. Of the man who’d ditched me for his ex-girlfriend halfway through our date.

It was ridiculous, because I was standing here in my kitchen with him.

“If it makes you feel better,” I said, biting back a smile, “he never gave me butterflies.”

Jax reached over, turned off the burner, and moved the pan off the heat. Then he turned, backed me into the counter, and dropped a kiss on my lips.

“Do I give you butterflies?” he rumbled against my mouth.

I bit my lip.

Butterflies didn’t even begin to cover it. The man gave me a whole damn zoo. “You give me everything,” I whispered.

His eyes went dark.

For a second I thought he was going to put me back up on the island and we’d never make it to the eggs, but instead he kissed me once more, slow and deep, and stepped back.

Then he reached for his cut where it was hanging over the back of my barstool, and shrugged it on.

Wait. What? My stomach dropped. “What just happened? I thought–“

“Gotta go take care of somethin’,” he said.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Seriously? You’re leaving?”

He looked at me for a long beat, then sighed. “Gonna go see your brother.”

Was he freaking crazy? “Jaxon. Don’t.”

“Babe.” He closed the distance between us and tipped my chin up with one finger. “No more hiding.”

Then he kissed me long and wet, his tongue stroking mine until my knees went weak and my hands were fisted in the front of his cut. When my lungs started to burn, he pulled back, and I gasped for air like I’d been underwater.

“I’ll be back,” he promised.

Before my head could make heads or tails of what just happened, he was gone, and I was left standing in my kitchen with a pan of cold eggs and my heart threatening to beat out of my chest.

That big bastard.

He used my body against me.

Hours later and with no word from Jax, I unhappily made my way down the steps to the bakery.

As much as I wanted to take the whole day off, crawl back into bed, and lie there smelling him on my sheets, I’d already scheduled interviews for this afternoon, and I wasn’t rescheduling. I needed the help too badly.

I shouldered through the steel door into the kitchen, and Ian spun around to face me.