Suzanne Wright - From Rags

“You’re not. I’m saying I will. For once, Jaxx, don’t fight me.” For a long moment they just looked at each other. He knew Jaxx was searching his eyes for uncertainty or uneasiness. He was confident she would see neither because there was none to be found. Eventually she gave him one simple nod.

“When you said you had to pick up a few things, I didn’t think you meant that ,” griped Connor as a huge Great Dane trotted inside his apartment and settled onto his sofa. Jaxx had insisted that before going with him to his place she needed to go shopping to stock up on some items and clothes, since most of hers had been destroyed. He’d wanted to go with her but she threatened to go stay at Tony’s if he was going to coddle her so, after whining about it, he relented.

Jaxxon stayed behind the threshold and shrugged. “Bronty’s mine, end of.” He threw her a pained look but she saw that there was humour there. Still she didn’t walk through the door. “Connor, are you sure about this? About me staying here for the week? I swear I won’t get cheesed off if -” He yanked on her wrist, bringing her crashing into his chest and swung the door shut. She let her shopping bags drop at her feet as his hands shaped her.

“Why wouldn’t I want this body in such easy reach for seven whole days?”

“You’ve just had it in easy reach for four consecutive days.”

“I’m greedy when it comes to you, you know that.” He regarded the bags on either side of her. “That all you got? I was expecting something like twelve bags and ten boxes.”

“I don’t like shopping. Anyway, I’ve got my suitcase of stuff from the holiday so I didn’t need all that much. Speaking of the suitcase…”

“It’s in the bedroom.” He swatted her arse before releasing her. “Unpack your stuff wherever you want.”

“Oh, guess what, I bought some lovely little pink decorative cushions and ornamental candles and some tubs of jasmine-scented pot pourii.” At the look of horror on his face she burst out laughing.

“That wasn’t even funny.” But he was already laughing with her.

“You’re so easy to wind up.”

He shook his head, smiling, as she headed to his room. He was surprised at himself. He had wondered if once Jaxx got here with her stuff and it all became real he might start regretting his decision or at least feel a bit uncomfortable. But no. Not even the sight of that huge dog dominating his sofa had him second guessing himself. He might have even been able to cope with decorative cushions for a week…then again maybe not.

It was while she was still unpacking that Dane arrived, paying him a surprise visit. Connor sighed at the smile that Dane was trying to hide on spotting Bronty. “Warren phoned you, didn’t he.”

“Why would Warren phone me?” But his smile broke free. “Alright, Warren phoned me and I had to see for myself if you really were being the Shining Knight.”

“I think it’s supposed to be ‘the Knight in Shining Armour’, isn’t it?” said Jaxxon as she caught the end of Dane’s sentence on her way into the kitchen where he and Connor were leaning against the long, black, marble breakfast bar.

“Hello there, Jaxx.”

Connor’s brows flew upwards. “When did I say you could call her that?”

“Oh, right, yeah. Jaxx on , sorry.” But he wasn’t sorry, and Connor knew it.

“I don’t suppose you know where Anita was last night…?”

“She went to bed about ten o’ clock and there wasn’t a murmur out of her ’til this morning.” Which meant that Dane was thinking the same as what he could see Connor was thinking right now: Anita could have gotten out of the house without them knowing and gone to Jaxxon’s apartment, but there was no knowing for sure.

“It wasn’t her,” said Jaxxon with surety. She didn’t know why she was so certain considering that her opinion was based purely on theories. Her gut told her it wasn’t Anita.

Connor threw her an impatient look. “Who else could it be?”

“Maybe she has a stalker,” said Dane.

Jaxxon tapped his temple. “Connor, think about it: would Anita do that to my apartment risking that you might ask me to stay with you? I seriously doubt it.”

He waved away the comment. “She’d never think I’d do that.”

“Well if she felt threatened enough by my being in your life to come to where I live and feed me some tripe about being pregnant then she must believe what the tabloids are printing about us being in some heavy relationship. If she believed that, then she could easily believe you might ask me to stay with you if my apartment was trashed. I doubt she’d risk it.”

Dane winced. “Actually, the main reason I came here was to pass on some news that I don’t think you’re going to sing and dance about.” He sighed. “Anita’s pregnant.”

Silence met that statement for a few seconds.

“You know this for sure?” asked Connor after he got over the sensation of his stomach plummeting.

“She did a pregnancy test yesterday morning while Niki stood outside the bathroom door. She never tried convincing us she was pregnant the way she did with Jaxxon. But then the past few mornings she was spewing her guts up so she did a test. I don’t have to tell you she’s ecstatic. She’s planning on coming to tell you tonight.”

Jaxx was going to leave now, wasn’t she? Connor wouldn’t blame her. As soon as he told Anita she still wouldn’t be getting a ring on her finger she’d be onto the tabloids, spreading news of the pregnancy, and then Jaxx was going to get caught up in the whirlwind that followed. He spared a glance at her and, yep, there she was putting on her black leather coat.

“Where you going?” asked Dane.

“There’s someone I need to have a little chat with.”

Connor’s head snapped up. “What?”

“Wait.” Dane placed himself in her path to the door. “Of course you want to tan her hide -”

“Oh I don’t want to tan her hide,” snapped Jaxxon. “I want to carve out her heart with a burning hot knife while she’s alive and screaming in agony, but that’s completely off the subject. As it happens, it’s not her I’m going to visit.”

“Then who?” asked Connor.

The last person Luke Winston expected to see when he opened his front door was Jaxxon Carter. As usual, her natural allure threw him for a second. There was nothing at all revealing about what she was wearing and yet she looked sexy as hell. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, willing back his ability to speak. “Er, hi.”

Jaxxon gave him a winning smile. It hadn’t been difficult to find him. When he had been trying to get her to go home with him that night at the bar he had told her about the house he owned and the name of the street. All she had had to do was look for the black Mercedes he had also told her about and she knew exactly where to find him. “I know this is out of the blue -”

Luke cleared his throat with a deliberate cough. “It’s fine. Come in.” He winced as it suddenly occurred to him that the inside wasn’t in great shape. The cleaner wasn’t due in until tomorrow. Those thoughts ended as she strutted passed; his eyes were glued to her arse. Just as he was closing the door a hand shoved against it, sending him backpedalling.

“Winston,” drawled Connor as he entered.

“Alright there mate,” greeted Dane in a deceptively friendly voice.

“Oh I brought them along,” announced Jaxxon before entering the living room. “Hope you don’t mind.”

Connor smiled at Luke. “Don’t worry, we’re not here to break bones. What reason would we have to do anything like that?” He gestured toward the living room. “After you.”