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“Eh, fuck those people. My high school wouldn’t let me opt out of dissecting a fetal pig, so I got an F. I refused to do it. I thought it was so horrible I didn’t care if I failed.”
The tone in her voice touches me. I look over and see that she and I are a lot more alike than I first thought.
Stopping on the trail, I turn and cup Jax’s face in my hands. “I know it’s too hot for touching, but I want to do this.”
She leans in just enough to meet me as my lips capture hers. I don’t care how hot and humid it is in the forest; I could stay here and kiss her like this all day.
Jax has a kiss that can compel me to ask her to marry me this minute. I don’t want to say that. Who says that after knowing her only a few days? And I don’t know how to work it into a conversation. Breezy is not in my nature.
I only tell her as much truth as I think she can handle at the moment. “Jax. Do you know why I call you a dragonfly?”
She smirks. “Because you think they’re pretty?”
I reply, “They’re a sign of a balanced ecosystem. That’s what you are to me. Everything felt out of sync until I met you. Now that you’re here, I feel like I have my equilibrium. I know it sounds insane, but that’s how I feel. And I don’t want you to leave.”
Jax blushes and smiles. “I’m your dragonfly?”
“Yes, and I hate it that you’re leaving next week. Everything is going to feel wrong again.”
She lifts one shoulder to match her sassy little eyebrow. “Maybe I won’t ever leave. It’s pretty nice here.”
I’m going in. “Stay with me.”
The gentle press of her pelvis against mine edges me further to the brink. She’s thinking, considering. I watch her face move through ten different emotions.
I won’t move a muscle until she tells me what I need to hear.
I watch her throat bob up and down as she thinks, possibly swallowing some feeling she’s not ready for.
Well, she’d better get ready.
Chapter Sixteen
Jax
Hearing someone say the words, “Stay with me,” feels as good or better than any “I love you.”
“I love you” is a special moment, an outpouring. But typically, those words are not spoken out loud until a person knows they’re safe to say them.
“Stay with me” feels much more raw, vulnerable, and direct. It’s a specific request. I am needed. I am wanted. He wants me to do something that’s just not done: never return home from vacation, to be with him. With Brooks, it’s also a promise of protection. He knows what’s waiting for me back home. If I stay, I’ll be putting my trust in someone who, just a few days ago, was a stranger.
I can’t believe I’m thinking this over. But why not? What do I have to go back to? Guaranteed, the only person who will be speaking to me when I go back to LA is Sierra, and there’s a chance she might not go back ever. She plans to have her baby on the big island and recuperate there as well. After that, who knows.
And then, like puzzle pieces, it all comes together.
Of course. Sierra’s laying low from her unsupportive family. I should be staying here to support her, at least until she’s settled with the baby. Maybe even longer. Hell, I have enough squirreled away I could stay and rent a small apartment and get a job, provided I can navigate the work visa situation.
Finally, I decide. I’m jumping in with both feet. “I’ll stay. Sierra’s going to have her baby here; you’re here. Let’s try it and see what happens.”
Brooks looks as if he wants to say something important. My stomach somersaults as I wait for him to speak, but then the moment passes. Instead, he speaks to me with his touch. He scoops me up into his arms and kisses me until I’m breathless. His soft yet demanding lips make my spine tremble. His kiss leaps from passionate to hungry to starving, and soon my feet leave the ground.
I don’t know how he can hold me like this, but he shows no signs of strain other than the soft grunts that escape his throat with the friction where our pelvises meet.
Do I think this man intends to love me forever? As of now, he does. And now is all I have.
Chapter Seventeen
Brooks
