There was so much going on in my head. Mack. Mom. Dead bodies with bullet wounds in their forehead. Clyde rubbing his chest, obviously worried and stressed over everything. Glorious steak dinners that never happened. Coming back here. Leaving here. The way Jax had held me this morning with my back pressed against his front.

I didn’t want to think anymore.

Lifting my gaze, I met his. “I don’t want to think.”

Jax didn’t question or comment on this. There was a flare of something hot and heady in his eyes, and then he dipped his mouth to mine, and he kissed me sweetly—the kind of kiss that went beyond the heavy and sensual ones. It meant something, and I seemed to open up to it, really feeling it, believing in it.

And that was pretty damn spectacular.

When the kiss did run hotter, my mouth opened to his and the moment our tongues touched, his hands dropped to my hips. He pulled me against him, and I could feel him pressing against my belly. I remembered this morning, my hand around him, his powerful body shaking with release. Those memories scorched my skin, but it was nothing compared to the kisses he trailed across my jaw, to my ear and below, over my throat. My head tipped back as my fingers delved into his soft hair.

“You’re not going to think,” he told me in between those wicked nips. “Not for one fucking second.”

“Good,” I said.

He chuckled against my throat as his hands slid off my hips and quickly made their way under my dress. I really liked where this was heading, especially when he hooked his fingers under the band of my panties.

They hit the floor in a nanosecond.

“Ready for this?” he asked.

I nodded as I opened my eyes.

He grinned, kissed me quickly, and then gripped my hips. He lifted me right off the floor and placed me on the kitchen counter.

Yep.

My bare ass was on the kitchen counter.

And that was all kinds of inappropriately hot.

Jax ran his hands along the inside of my legs. As he reached my knees, he eased them apart. Air caught in my throat, and instinct demanded that I close my legs, but his thick lashes lifted, and heated eyes locked on to mine.

“Don’t close them, baby.” His voice was deep and rumbled through me.

I didn’t close them.

When he pushed a little farther, I could feel the cool air rushing over me. Warmth crept into my cheeks, turning to a flush that spread down my throat and over my chest. My heart pounded as he dipped his head, kissing me softly as his hands continued up over the top of my thighs. He snagged the hem of my dress the higher his hands traveled. I bit down on my lip as the skirt of my dress ended up tucked around my hips and waist. My hands tightened around the edge of the counter.