Page 16 of Burn of Obsidian
Chapter 8
Thea
Thea stiffened against the person behind her, cringing as she turned. “Oh, excuse…”
Bloody hell.
No way was her luck that bad.
“What are you doing here?” She hadn’t even noticed Robbie leave, not when the mountain of a man currently glowering down at her sucked all the surrounding oxygen. It was impressive, considering not many men could make her feel small. “Is it Harper? Is she okay?”
Thea didn’t stop him when he reached for her wrist, opening her fingers to reveal Robbie’s watch, the one she had taken when he’d been startled from his seat. Pulling her arm back, she quickly grabbed everything else she’d stolen from her clutch bag and called the very little magic she had. Using little pockets of space between the realms, she forced the entirety of her bounty back to a special drawer in her bedroom.
She went to step back, only for him to close the gap between them. “Is there a reason you’re blocking my way like some kind of neanderthal?”
He tilted his head, and Thea ignored how her heart fluttered – which was ridiculous. She’d only met him once, and that was one too many times. He’s been insufferable, a tall wall of stubborn masculinity that had grunted demands at her like a dog. And then he’d become a dog. Or some kind of wolf creature. Either way, their first meeting wasn’t a particularly pleasant experience.
“We need to talk,” he said in his deep, raspy voice that had featured in one or two of her dirty fantasies. Not that she would ever admit that out loud. No, that was something she’d take to the grave.
“I suppose a ‘hello’ is too formal,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
“So you remember who I am?”
Thea snorted. “Of course not.”
He clearly didn’t believe her, but humoured her anyway. “Jax.”
“Well Jax. You never answered my question.” Thea knew she was being purposely short with him, but he made her nervous. His lips were tight, as was his jaw. There also seemed to be an air of hostility surrounding him – a natural fuck-off vibe.
It made her want to tease, to see whether she could make him crack his uncomfortably calm exterior. It was what he deserved for ruining her mark.
“What exactly do we have to talk about?” she pushed when he didn’t reply. “Surely there’s a reason you interrupted my date so rudely.”
His eyes met hers, such a dark blue they reminded her of frosted sapphires. His expression was stoic, which wasn’t much different from what she remembered in her post traumatic haze. She found herself studying his face, trailing the scar a few shades darker than his olive skin tone. It started high on his left forehead, slightly obscured by his dark hair before cutting through his brow, and then his eye. It marked the bridge of his nose, slicing diagonally across to slightly distort his upper lip on the right like some great creature slashed his face from one side to the other.
It should make him look cruel, but somehow it made him striking, handsome.
Stop it, Thea!
“I wouldn’t call that a date,” he said.
Thea snorted, reaching over to grab the drink Robbie had bought her. She hadn’t planned on drinking it, but with Jax, it seemed she needed it. “How would you know? When’s the last person you took on a date?”
Jax simply stared, not responding.
“No, seriously. Tell me. You clearly know enough about dating to come ruin mine.”
“I don’t date,” he said, dipping his head and closing their distance. “I fuck.”
Thea choked on her drink, the alcohol burning as it went down the wrong hole.
That wasn’t what she expected him to say.
“Congratulations,” she said between coughs. “You’re just like every other fuckboy in existence.” She placed her drink back down on the bar, subtly wiping the liquid from her face, as if she hadn’t just embarrassed herself. “But you still haven’t told me why you’re here at this exact moment, bothering me. Look, it’s been months. I appreciate you saving me from that guy – ”
“Three months, two weeks, six days and a handful of hours since I saved you from that Skull.”
“You named the guy with the freaky skeleton face paint ‘Skull’? Wow, how original.”