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Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ariella
I sat with Izzie out in the waiting room, letting her watch a video on my smartphone. We kept the audio down so that we wouldn’t bother any hospital patients.
Having lost track of time, I hadn’t seen Jaxson approach us.
“How are my two favorite ladies?” Jaxson asked.
“Daddy!” Izzie jumped down from my lap and held up her arms for her daddy to lift her up.
Jaxson picked her up and twirled her around before holding her on his hip. “We’ll be leaving soon, hopefully. It sounds like Mason’s going to get sprung out of here today, as long as he has someone at home.”
“Oh?” I didn’t know if he lived alone or had roommates. I hadn’t heard him talk about dating anyone, but it was obvious he had the hots for Hazel. Anyone could see it.
“Hazel is going to stay and help him out,” Jaxson said.
“That’s good.” I was happy for her, thrilled that maybe the two of them could figure out their relationship with time and wouldn’t have to hide it from everyone. Albeit a little jealous too but I would never admit it to anyone.
Lincoln stood a few feet away at the vending machine making himself a cup of coffee.
“I was worried about you,” Jaxson said and sat down beside me in the empty chair. He reached out and brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. “Still am worried if I’m to be honest.”
I smiled weakly. I couldn’t stop thinking about Nikolai. What Hazel had done, the blood, the fact Nikolai had done everything to protect his sister. It had been messed up and sick, but it didn’t detract from the fact he was dead. “I’m fine.” I wanted to be fine, telling myself and saying it aloud. Would it make it true?
“Are you sure?” he asked, his hand falling to my back.
I relaxed under his touch as he softly caressed my back in soothing motions. I wanted him to touch me, to kiss me, to make love to me. Lincoln was in the room, and we were supposed to be keeping our relationship a secret if we were going to be together.
I shook my head no. “I’ll probably have nightmares for a while, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.”
Lincoln’s heavy footsteps broke the spell and moment between the two of us. “Can I get you guys a coffee? The machine isn’t working. I’m going to go down to the cafeteria. Want anything?”
“I’m good,” I said.
“Me too,” Jaxson said.
Lincoln headed down the hallway and the opposite direction of Mason’s room for the elevator to the lobby where the cafeteria was located. We had a few minutes, just the two of us, plus Izzie. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to grasp what was going on between us.
Jaxson put Izzie on the seat beside him and played a video on his phone, letting her watch it. He stalked to the vending machine and gestured for me to come over to him.
I stood and stretched before I pointed at the machine. “Didn’t you hear Lincoln; the coffee machine isn’t working.”
“I heard. I just wanted a little privacy.” With Izzie’s back to us, he pulled me against him, tight and hard.
My eyes widened as his lips descended onto mine, his fingers at the nape of my neck, keeping me close. It wasn’t hard to melt into his kiss, my body falling easily under his spell.
He pulled back, one hand still on my neck, the other sliding under my shirt, teasing the waistband of my pants. “Jaxson,” I said, smiling from the pleasure but warning him to stop. We couldn’t be doing this in the hospital, let alone five feet away from his daughter.
“Lincoln will be a few minutes, and Hazel is preoccupied with Mason. I bet they’re making out.”
“Good for them,” I said. That wasn’t a reason that we should be doing that here and now. I gently rested a hand against his chest. “I want to be with you, but today was a lot.”
“You know that I would never have let anything happen to you and Izzie?” Jaxson said.
“I know and I appreciate what you did today. It could have ended a lot differently,” I said. The thoughts still flashed through my mind of Nikolai with his gun pressed against my forehead. I had to push those thoughts aside, or I wouldn’t be able to breathe.
His lips came down hard on mine again, bruising with a fierce intensity filled with want and need, not solely desire.
