Clyde had hated the pageants, but my dad . . . “I don’t know,” I heard myself saying. “Dad never said anything to Mom.”

“I think he talked to Clyde.” Jax smiled a little. “You know what I said last night about the whole pretty thing? I wasn’t fucking around. That’s why I’m taking you out.”

Then his arm curled even more, and I was chest to chest with him. The contact sent a shock wave of sensation swirling through me. His head dipped, his mouth inches from mine. My free hand ended up pressed against his chest.

I couldn’t breathe.

I didn’t care.

“You didn’t kiss me last night,” I said, and then I wanted to kick myself in the lady parts.

His eyes narrowed slightly. “Fuck no, I didn’t.”

A pang lit in my chest. “Then why do you want to take me out?”

Jax stared at me a moment, and then his features returned to the lazy, relaxed look that was somehow incredibly sexy and nerve-racking. “Honey, I’m not going to do anything with a girl who’s drunk, especially you. No way in hell. When I said you were safe with me, I wasn’t bullshitting around. I even told you that last night.”

“You did?” All I remembered was Jax jerking back, but he had been talking while I was knee-deep in freak-out mode and about to hurl. “Oh.”

“Oh,” he murmured, and then he rocked my world. “And I remember you telling me I was your first kiss. That shit in the office earlier doesn’t count, but I’m going to be your real first kiss. After I take you out on Sunday.”

My mouth dropped open. I was back to freaking out, because he’d known about my years as a pageant queen, and needing to get away and being turned on. Yes, I was turned on. I might be very inexperienced for obvious reasons, but I recognized what my body was going through. Which wasn’t good, because there was no way I could explore any of that with him and I didn’t plan on being around long enough to give either of us time.

“Actually . . .” His head dipped again and his chin grazed my right cheek. “I want to kiss you now.”

I shivered.

Jax felt it. “And I think you want me to kiss you. Correction. I know you want me to kiss you.”

I shuddered this time, nearly overcome by the heaviness in my breasts and the sharp whirl of tingles down below. My hand fisted in his shirt. He couldn’t kiss me. I couldn’t go out with him. This wasn’t why I was here.

Why was I here again? It didn’t matter. The reason had to be dumb.

He made a deep sound in the back of his throat that really twisted me up in delicious little knots and now it was his lips sliding over my cheek, following the curve of the bone, heading straight for—

The office door burst open. “Jax, are you—whoa. Not expecting that.”