Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (30 page)

He slid his hands down further, over the soft
contour of her waist until he reached the bottom of her skirt.
 
He tugged the material up, his fingers
stroking her legs.

Their tongues danced against each other as he
moved her skirt up and Anna slid one leg up over Jaxon’s hip.
 

“Careful, Princess,” he growled.
 

She opened her mouth to talk, but he kissed her
again, silencing her, letting her know who was in charge.
 
Her skirt was pushed up to her hips now,
and his fingers moved to the inside of her thighs, moving higher and higher as
their kiss became more passionate.

When Jaxon finally brushed his fingertips over her
panties, Anna whimpered.“Oh my God,” she moaned.

She was wet, even through the fabric, and Jaxon
moved his finger over her panties, feeling her slit.
 
His cock was rock hard now, and in
another couple of minutes, he wasn’t going to be able to stop himself.
 
He was going to have to take her right
here in the elevator.

He tugged her skirt up even more, giving him
better access, then slid his finger inside her panties, moving slowly, feeling
the smooth wetness of her mound.

“Jaxon,” Anna moaned.
 
Her arms were wrapped around him, and
she pulled him close, clinging to him.
 

He took her hand and placed it on the outside
of his jeans, and she started to undo the button, letting him know that she
wanted him just as much as he wanted her.

But suddenly, the elevator dropped.
 
Anna shrieked and then tightened her
grip on Jaxon’s shoulders.

“Shit.”
 
He reached out and pushed the button, but it was too late.
 
The elevator was stopping to pick
someone up on another floor.
 
“It
must have a time limit on how long it can stay stuck.”

Anna quickly pulled her shirt up and smoothed
down her skirt.
 
A second later, the
elevator slowed and a young couple stepped on.

Jaxon tried to slow his breathing.
  
He looked at Anna out of the
corner of his eye.
 
Her cheeks were
flushed, her hair tousled and sexy around her shoulders.
 
He could still smell her perfume mixed
with the scent of her arousal.

The elevator resumed its ascent and Jaxon shook
his head.

He wouldn’t be able to take much more of this.

C
hapter
T
hree

When they got to Katie’s hospital room, Katie was
sitting up in bed, watching an episode of the Golden Girls and holding a flimsy
paper cup filled with ice chips.

“Hey!” she said when she saw Anna.
 
Her pretty face broke into a smile.

“Hi,” Anna said, leaning down and kissing Katie
on both cheeks.
 

“Thanks for coming.”
 
Katie readjusted the blue and white
checked blanket that was draped over her legs. “You didn’t have to, you know.”

“I know,” Anna said, “but I wanted to.”
 
And
I needed a reason to get away from your brother before I ended up doing
something I’d regret.

“Jaxon,” Katie said in surprise, her eyes
falling on her brother as he walked into the room.
 

“Hey, sis,” he said nonchalantly.

“What are you doing here?”
 
Katie’s voice was suspicious.

“I heard you were in labor.
 
You didn’t think I was going to miss the
birth of my first nephew, did you?”

“No, that’s great, I’m glad you’re here, but
how did you…I mean, I thought you were in… ”
 
Understanding dawned on Katie’s face as
she realized Jaxon and Anna must have been together.
 

Anna looked down at the floor and fiddled with
her fingers.
 
“Where’s Adam?” she
asked finally, in an effort to move the conversation onto safer ground.

“He went to sign some papers at the nurses’
station.”
 
Katie narrowed her eyes,
then moved her finger back and forth between Jaxon and Anna.
 
“What’s going on here?”

“What do you mean?” Anna asked.
 
Her face felt hot, and she reached up
and smoothed her hair.
 
She wondered
how disheveled she looked after her tryst in the elevator.

“I
mean
,
why are you two together?”
 
She
turned to Jaxon.
 
“I thought you
were sleeping in the guestroom.
 
I
thought I was being so nice, staying quiet so I wouldn’t wake you.”

“Oh, stop,” Jaxon said, rolling his eyes at his
sister.
 
He flopped down in one of
the brown corduroy chairs that lined the far wall of Katie’s hospital room.
“Anna and I ran into each other at the gas station.
 
She asked me if I wanted to grab a bite,
and then we got to reminiscing.
 
We
were still out when she got your text.
 
It was nothing nefarious, so you can wipe that look off your face.”

Katie cocked her head, her frown
deepening.
 
Anna could tell she
didn’t believe a word of Jaxon’s flimsy excuse, but what could Katie really
say?
 

“How are you feeling?” Anna asked quickly,
perching on the edge of Katie’s bed and trying to ignore Jaxon’s presence.
 
She could almost feel his mouth on hers,
his hands pushing her skirt up.
 
If
that elevator hadn’t moved when it did, she would have let him take her right
there.
 
Her face flushed hot, and
she shifted on the bed.

“Not bad,” Katie said.
 
She started describing how the
contractions had started, how she’d only been sleeping for about an hour when
they’d woken her up.
 
Anna tried to
listen, nodding politely as Katie talked, but her mind was a million miles
away.

She couldn’t stop thinking about kissing Jaxon,
about how it had felt when he’d been touching her in the elevator. Why had he
told his sister that they’d run into each other at the gas station?
 
Was it because he felt it was none of
Katie’s business?
 
Or was it because
he didn’t think anything else was going to happen between them?

A young nurse walked into the room.
 
She was wearing hot pink scrubs, and her
dark curly hair was pulled back in a ponytail.

“Well,” she said, looking around and breaking
into a smile.
 
There was a slight
gap between her top front teeth.
 
“It looks like you have your support team all ready.”

“Yes,” Katie said.
 
Her voice was cheerful, but Anna saw her
grip the blanket in her hands and twist it tightly.
 

“I’m going to check you right now,” the nurse
said, sensing Katie’s unease.
 
“Hopefully you’ll have a quick and easy labor, and get to meet your son
before too long.”
  
Her tone
was upbeat and cheerful, like having a baby was no big deal and that everything
was going to go smoothly.
 
Anna
liked her immediately.

“Do your friends want to step out for a few
minutes?” the nurse asked.
 
“It
won’t take long.”

“Yes, of course,” Anna said.
 
She gave Katie’s hand a squeeze.
 
“I’ll run down to the cafeteria.
 
Do you want me to bring you anything?”

Katie shook her head.
 
“I’m not allowed to have anything but
these stupid ice chips.”
 
She
squeezed Anna’s hand back, and Anna saw the look in Katie’s eyes -- excitement
mixed with fear mixed with wonder at the fact that she was about to bring a new
life into the world.

“Okay, I’ll be right back.”
 
Anna flashed one more reassuring smile,
and then walked out of the room.

Almost immediately she heard footsteps behind
her.
 
Jaxon was loping down the hall,
his boots making heavy noises on the linoleum.
 
Her heart sped up.

“Wait for me,” he commanded.

“Shh!” Anna said as she arrived at the elevator
bank. “There are people here having babies, you know.” She hesitated, her hand
poised over the button.
 
She didn’t
trust herself to get back into an elevator with Jaxon.

“What are you waiting for, Princess?”
 
He was behind her, so close she could
feel his body heat on the back of her neck.
 

Excitement raced up her spine, and her arms
broke out in goose bumps.

She pushed the button.

The doors dinged open, and Anna got on the
elevator, doing her best to ignore the butterflies that were having a party in
her stomach.

Jaxon pushed the button for the first floor,
reaching across her body to do so.
 
His arm brushed against hers, and she shivered.
 
He stood close to her for a second, then
stepped back and leaned against the side of the elevator, watching her but not
moving.
 

The elevator began its descent, and still,
Jaxon didn’t move. Anna thought she might go crazy wondering if he was going to
do anything, wishing he would, hoping he wouldn’t, being disappointed when he
didn’t.
  

When the elevator spit them out on the ground
floor, he let her walk out first, and they followed the signs to the cafeteria
silently.
 
The hospital was still
extremely quiet, the cafeteria nearly deserted except for a few residents
scattered here and there, the doctors who were low enough on the totem pole to
get stuck working the night shift.

Anna picked out a bottle of orange juice and a
cookie.
 

“You sure that’s all you want?” Jaxon
asked.
 
“It could be a long night.”

She swallowed, wondering if he was talking
about Katie, or something else.
 
“I
can always come back down later.”

Jaxon grabbed a chicken sandwich, then took a
bottle of water out of the floor-to-ceiling cooler.
 
When the cashier was done ringing them
up, he had his cash out before Anna could even open her purse.

“Thanks,” she said.

“No problem.”

He led her to a table in the middle of the
room.
 
As they walked, he put his hand
on the small of her back, guiding her.
 
The touch of his fingers sent an electric buzz through her body.

He pulled her chair out for her, and Anna sat
down.
 

Don’t
fall for it.

 
This was typical Jaxon.
 
He was confusing and sexy and charming
and completely unreliable.
 
It was
one thing to be taken in by him when you were eighteen and didn’t know any
better.
 
It was another thing
altogether when you were a grown woman.
 
She needed to keep a safe distance from him.

“So,” he said, opening his water and giving her
that devastating grin of his.
 
“What’s been going on with you, Princess?”

“I live in London,” Anna said.
 
Surely had had to know that?
 
But it was probably only because Katie
had told him.
 
Anna had been keeping
tabs on Jaxon for all these years, and he probably hadn’t even bothered to
Google her.
 

As she gave him the quick rundown of what she’d
been doing since college – how she got her job, where exactly in London
she lived, etc., she thought about that night when they were kids, the night
he’d left her waiting for him, leaving her with nothing but a broken heart.

She remembered how it had felt, standing by her
front door for hours, her eyes glued to the window.
 
When he was twenty minutes late, she’d
called his house, but it just rang and rang.
 
No one had cell phones in those days,
and so she had no way to know where he was, what he was doing, why he wasn’t
there. And so she’d stayed by the window, her nose pressed to the glass,
waiting for Jaxon to come.