Page 71 of Sweet Wicked Vows
Three nights sleeping beside Jaxon. Having his body close enough that I could feel him, smell him, close enough to reach out and touch him.
Three nights. That was nothing.
Three nights.
I could do that, right?
“Don’t think you can get away with cheating again this year!”
“Screw you, I didn’t cheat!” I shook my head. “It’s not my fault you suck at this. You’re just a sore loser.”
Mal, Lola’s twin brother, flipped me off with a grin. “I may be a sore loser, but at least I am not a cheater.”
“Leave her alone,” Violet said between mouthfuls of her hot chocolate. “We all know you’re shit at pumpkin tossing, always have been. You’re so bad you have to go around and accuse people of cheating to make yourself feel better.”
“Better than you.” Mal grinned. “Your pumpkin came dead last, Vi.”
Violet shrugged. “It’s a stupid game, anyway. One that requiresno real skill or talent.”
“Now who is the sore loser?” Mal teased. “It’s okay. At least you’re not a big cheater like Evie.”
Pumpkin mulch flew from my hand and was breaths away from hitting him in the face. Mal roared with laughter, running to scoop up a pumpkin before Lola got a chance to pick hers.
All the Juniper children were home from the holidays, with Lilly catching a flight back from Switzerland the day before Jaxon and I arrived. The sheer joy Samantha was experiencing having all three of her children back under one roof was adorable.
She was practically glowing and blissfully unfazed by the siblings’ constant bickering.
“Intense.” Violet hummed.
I cocked an eyebrow. “What is?”
“The way he looks at you.” She took a long sip from her mug. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s hot—in the sort of scary possessive way.”
I didn’t need to look at who she was talking about. Jaxon’s gaze was like a million and one matches sparking to life on my skin. I felt him watching me when he thought I wasn’t paying attention.
The way he looked at me, I wasn’t sure it was because he was starting to feel the air change around us, too.
“Have you slept with him yet?” Violet asked. “His energy is telling me he is packing some serious heat down there.”
The memory of his tongue, his lips, and his fingers on my body sent a shiver down my spine.
“Strictly business, remember?” I said, more for myself than her. “Having sex complicates that more than it already is.”
She looked unconvinced. “That or having sex will make it much simpler.”
“We get a divorce in nine months, Vi. Nine months from now, I will be back to doing what I love, Flynn will be in charge, andJaxon will leave and continue living his life without me.”
She tracked him walking from the back door of the house and across the garden from the brim of her glass. “I don’t know, Evie. The way he looks at you—that isn’t the look from a man who is willing to walk away.”
Coffee and spiced midnight wrapped itself around me.
Dressed in the least Jaxon-like clothing, a pair of black jeans—because why would they be any other color—and a simple black T-shirt with a flannel shirt, it was short-circuiting my mind seeing him in casual attire.
He looked just as good, if not better. Then again, I was certain Jaxon would be fuckable in anything he wore.
Violet excused herself, disappearing back into the house.
He handed me a glass of red wine. “I’ve been warned by several people already that I am to keep a very close eye on you.”