“Waiting for what?”

“For you to get sucked in by a woman.”

“I haven’t been sucked in.”

Dane snorted. “Sure you haven’t, mate. Why chase her when you’ve a got a line of women waiting then? Why’re you so prickly about me complimenting her?”

Connor concluded that he had to give him something if he was going to shut him up. He sighed. “I knew her before all this.”

“Before?”

“Yeah. Before.”

“You mean, like, you were together back then when you were teenagers?” asked Dane. Then something occurred to him. “She’s not the girl you mentioned that time I found you absolutely hammered when you were seventeen, is she? You said something about it being her fifteenth birthday and you’d had to get yourself well and truly rat-arsed or you’d have gone to see her.” Connor’s silence told Dane everything. “Let me ask you something then. If Jaxxon Carter is that girl who was important enough to you that you would drink yourself into a stupor over her – something I’ve never known you to do over anything – and she’s now back in your life again, why are you sitting here with me?”

Oh Connor was deeply regretting that he was there with Dane. All Connor had really wanted was to distract himself from thoughts of Jaxx. He had managed to ruffle her on Sunday and knew he couldn’t afford to allow her too much of a reprieve or a lot of recovery time. He needed to be right there taking up her breathing space if he had any chance of wearing her down. However he had also wanted her to sweat, wondering when he’d next show. Plus, a few days for her to cool off would help his cause. But thinking about her all the time wasn’t helping him keep to his plan.

If he was honest, they weren’t the only reasons he was staying away. It rattled him that he had such a driving urge to see her. Since kissing her on Sunday, he hadn’t been able to shake the memory of how she tasted, and he hadn’t wanted to. What he wanted was more. Maybe it was time to go and get it.

“Please tell me you’re done ’cause I’m freezing my tits off here!” griped Jaxxon, to which ‘Uncle’ Tony and his small crew chuckled. It was alright for them; they weren’t required to appear one with bloody nature in the chilly evening air wearing a thin dress.

“We’re done now, chick,” said Tony, almost drowned out by the bustle of the equipment being gathered to be loaded into the SUV which was parked down the hill.

Literally dithering, she leapt from the fallen tree she had been posed on and dived into her coat. She saw Tony’s smug look and shot him a glare that swore revenge. The idiotic man had come with the proposal of her modeling a collection of designer dresses made by a friend of his. Regardless of the fact that he was a popular designer, Jaxxon wasn’t keen on modeling skimpy things that revealed her body. Her response had been ‘Oh no’. Ollie had said ‘Sounds good’. Richie had said ‘I like that designer’. Their claims that she was out-voted meant jack to her, so Tony had resorted to gambling. He had bet her that she couldn’t get through a photo-shoot without swearing. Of course he’d won, so there she was in the middle of a woodland area having spent the day posing on rocks and protruding tree trunks.

“Just think, in a few weeks’ time you’ll be on that tour advertising the Allure line, sunning it up in places like Miami,” said Tony as he urged her to walk beside him down the hill. “You won’t be shivering then. Have you thought anymore about going to that trip to Milan before you go?”

“Still undecided.”

“Oh, chick, you don’t want to miss an opportunity like that. Others would kill to have a famous designer release an exclusive collection for them to model in their very own name. Did they want to use just your first name or was it your surname as well?”

“Tone, you must know by now that I’m not seeking the keys to Catwalk-dom. Strutting just isn’t me.”

“If nothing else, you can go over there and find yourself a fine, rich hubby whose life you can make miserable even while he adores you.”

“Funny, Tone.”

“Did Richie tell you about FHM magazine wanted you to pose for it?” he asked, smiling.

“You know very well what my response was to that. No way am I spreading myself all over a men’s magazine.”

Tony giggled. “Jaxxon, darlin, blokes will wank over that body of yours whether you’re in a men’s mag in your underwear or not, so what’s the difference?”

“I wouldn’t be comfortable on display like that.”

“Why? You’ve got the body for it, though I can’t for the life of me figure out how you can’t see that for yourself. Go on, give the men of your country something to add to their wank-bank.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Anthony Masters you are going to roast in the lowest level of hell.”

He laughed. “Oh, speaking of roasts, Lily asked me to invite you over for Roast Dinner on Sunday again. She also asked to adopt you but I told her that would be pushing it a bit.”

Jaxxon chuckled. “I wouldn’t miss one of your wife’s Roast Dinners for anything.”

“I’ll try to make sure my son doesn’t drool all over you this time. I suppose sticking him in the shed is always an option.”

“I still can’t believe Ant’s sixteen, he only looks about twelve.”

He nodded. “Don’t say that in front of him. The lads have always given him grief over it. Poor bugger – when you were in the annexe we swore him to secrecy so you wouldn’t have fans sitting outside the house, so now that you’ve moved out he told all his mates you used to live there and they didn’t believe him. He was guttered.”

“Aww.” Jaxxon giggled. As they continued toward the vehicles he told her which were his favourite shots and teased her about which were most wank-worthy. She swatted his arm for that. Jaxxon hadn’t thought much of the azure-blue convertible parked next to her Audi until she saw the figure leaning against it. Her heart stuttered and her stomach knotted. It had been three days since he had ‘visited’ her apartment; three days during which she had wondered when he would be in touch again, three days during which every time she had unlocked the door to her apartment she had wondered if he was waiting inside, three days during which she had hated herself for obsessing about it all.

Connor grinned at Jaxx’s scowl. He hadn’t expected a warm, welcoming reception, especially since he technically shouldn’t know where she was, but he wanted her to know how easily he could find her. As always, the urge to touch her had his fingers tingling. Seeing those bare legs of hers had his c*ck rising to attention. That scowl…Did she have any idea what she did to him?

“You gonna be alright?” Tony asked her as the sexual tension smothered him like humidity in summertime. He saw the way the F1 bloke was looking at her and he didn’t like it. People stared at Jaxxon all the time but this was different. He made Tony think of a predator that had already caught his prey and was finding humour in watching it try to get away.

“I’ll be fine, Tone,” she reassured him with a nod and a half-smile. Then she stood in front of her car, keeping at least three feet between her and Connor. She could feel her body tightening with a carnal hunger. His primitive need for her was beating at her skin, making her close to vibrating with her own. He was so magnificently masculine that it hurt. As his dark, hooded eyes roamed over her a blast of heat coursed through her.

Once they were alone she spoke, “I won’t ask how you got my schedule.” The smoky tint to her voice betrayed her desire. Same way he got her phone number and address, she imagined. Ollie’s secretary was obviously easily charmed.

“I’ll always be able to find you, Jaxx. Remember that.”

“What do you want?”

“Only the same thing I’ve always wanted: You.”

His frank words didn’t help reduce her horniness level. “I already made clear my feelings on that issue. For the record, they haven’t changed. So now you can run along home.”

She was so wrong. As it was, Connor was rooted to the spot by the thick and heady lust in her brown eyes. He conceded to himself that it was in fact possible that if he didn’t get to touch her in some way he would break down and pounce on her. He regarded her Audi. “I remember you used to say you’d buy a car like that if you won the Lotto. Ever f**ked in a car, Jaxx?”

She snickered at what was more of a proposition than a question. “You really do have selective hearing, don’t you.”

He shrugged. “I want you. You want me. I don’t get why you’re fighting it. I don’t get what I’ve done to make you want to fight me.”

“Basically, then, this is like a mathematical equation to you? ‘I want you’ plus ‘You want me’ equals ‘Shag’?”

Just the way she said that last word had his c*ck hardening excruciatingly. He shrugged again, smirking.

“Connor,” she said tiredly. “If you want sex so bad I’m sure there are easier ways to get it than chasing after an anti-social bitch.”

“I don’t want sex so bad, I want you so bad. There’s a difference.”

He said it so resolutely that Jaxxon knew Plan A wasn’t a viable option. The bloke had no intention of letting this go, probably just because her rejection was biting his ego. Worse still, her body didn’t appear to care that he could so easily emotionally scar her for life, and the importance of the fact that he had already caused her pain was fading against the pressure of the mindless lust. “Alright.”

“Alright what?”

She pinned his gaze with her own. “You’re right. I do want you, whether I like it or not. So” – she lazily unzipped her coat – “I’m going to take this off, then I’m going to brace myself against one of those trees behind me” – she flung the coat on the hood of the Audi – “and we’ll see what you want to do about it.” His eyes darkened, his nostrils flared and his Adam’s apple bopped. That seemed promising.

Turning, she advanced through the cluster of trees and over to an old oak. She stood with her palms flat against the tree and her feet a foot apart. She needed it to be like this; nothing that anyone could term romantic or loving. Out in the open, in relative darkness, facing away from him, and not even na**d. It would just be sex. No emotions. No gentle shite. No flowery words. No sense of closeness. Just burning out this overwhelming need.

Connor wondered why he was stood there like an idiot when he could be touching and caressing that body that had been tormenting his every waking thought – and his dreams, for that matter. The answer? He hadn’t wanted it to be this way. He had envisioned having her spread-eagled on his bed while he feasted on her and savoured every minute. This seemed too impersonal. Sordid, even. But that didn’t mean that he would or could walk away. He would take her any way he could get her.

Each moment that went by was agonising for Jaxxon. Her entire body was on high alert. Anticipation was twisting around inside her as she waited for him to touch her somewhere, anywhere. Just when she began to wonder if the rat was backing out, there was the rustle of footsteps in the grass. Hands landed on her outer thighs as a hot mouth landed on her earlobe, sucking and nibbling. His splayed hands slowly skated upwards, edging under her dress, as he trailed kisses along the curve of her neck. She nearly groaned from that alone. Jaxxon let her head fall back on his shoulder to give him better access to her very sensitive neck. Her stomach clenched as his hands reached her thong, but instead of getting to work they slid down her inner thighs. His movements were too slow for her liking. She would have snapped at him with impatience but then his fingertips bit into her skin as they ascended and one hand cupped her while the other continued upwards under her dress and palmed her bra clad breast. A soft moan was followed by a gasp as a finger slid passed her thong and along her wet crease.

“You know, Jaxx, I have to ask myself why you caved just like that.” He worked a finger inside her and groaned inwardly at how wet she was and at how her muscles tightened around his finger. “You’re one of the most stubborn people I know. You’ve fought me since you first saw me again. And up until, what, five minutes ago, you wanted to fight this.”

Jaxxon was beginning to think this might not have been a good idea. Not only was his every touch sending a thundering rush of desire through her that topped anything she had ever before known, but the fact that they were outside and it was dark was only adding to the thrill. Her back arched slightly as he thumbed a hard nipple through the lacy bra. And now his finger was picking up its rhythm…Oh Jesus. They needed to get to the shagging part quickly. Why was he still talking?

“I can’t work out why you just threw in the towel like that.” The complete turn-around was really bugging him. If she had caved during a moment of pleasure then he could have accepted that. But for her to go from a confrontational stance to a ‘shag me’ position – he just didn’t get it. He was about to say as much but then that perfect arse teasingly rubbed against his hard cock. Control gone. He drove his hand into her chocolate-brown curls, yanked her face to his and slammed his mouth down on hers. He took complete possession of it, tangling his tongue with hers over and over and then sucking on it. As he added another finger inside her she hummed her satisfaction into his mouth. It was going to be a tight fit. He scissored his fingers; stretching her, teasing her, preparing her. “Why the sudden white flag, Jaxx?”

“For God’s sake,” she snapped. The bloke never let up. “I’m horny and I want you; if that’s not enough, if this was only fun when I was resisting you, then get into your car and piss off.” His fingers stilled. A moment later he withdrew them. For a second she thought he was leaving but then she heard the telling sound of a wrapper being torn and a zipper being lowered. Her thong went with a snap. Finally she felt the tip of his condom covered c*ck teasing her soaking wet entrance.