Jax and the Beanstalk Zombies (8 page)

“What are you talking about? I’m not talking to a stupid goose.”

The bird in question began to flail about again.

“Promise. Her.”

“Of all the–” The do-it-now look in her eyes stopped him cold. “Fine. I promise to be nice to Ms. Christmas Goose.”

The stubborn bird honked at him from underneath its downy wing.

“Now what?” Jax asked.

“Oh, you’ll have to carry her down, my boy,” Antoine replied.

The old man had to have lost it. How in the world was he supposed to climb down who knows how many miles of beanstalk with a wiggly goose in his arms?

“It’s a good thing I brought my elevator ring.” Antoine pulled the silver ring off his pinky finger. “If you’ll both just come over here.”

He pushed a button the size of a jalapeno seed on the ring’s side and aimed the resulting beam of blue light at the vine. A holographic elevator hovered over the opening in the cloud ground.

“Well, come on, we shouldn’t dally.” Antoine strode into the mystical elevator.

“You had this all along and yet we still climbed all the way up? Twice?” Veronica marched into the elevator behind Jax and the doors slid shut.

“Unfortunately, it only goes down and I was so distracted by the zombies yesterday, I completely forgot about using it.” Antoine pushed the
G
button and they floated downward.

It took only a few minutes to reach the ground by their tents inside the stone circle. However, the doors didn’t open and the magic kept them inside the holographic walls.

“Oh bother. Jax, can you hit the open door button?” Antoine turned to Veronica. “There’s always something that goes wrong with these Bavarian relics.”

Juggling the goose, Jax awkwardly punched the button. Just as the doors opened, the goose went into wild animal mode, thrashing in his arms until it managed to break free. It sprinted out of the elevator, madly flapping its wings, and disappeared into the woods.

Chapter 8

Veronica leapt for the goose and ended up with an armful of air and a mouthful of grass and dirt for her efforts. Jax might have the right of it. That bird just might be the tastiest Christmas dinner ever.

An hour later, she and Jax were still tracking the webbed-footed miscreant through the woods. Antoine had stayed at camp in case the goose waddled its way back there. It hadn’t. Instead, the goose had stayed within eyeshot but just out of arm’s reach in the woods, its tail feathers wagging back and forth.

“I think she’s mocking us,” Veronica complained.

“That’s giving her too much credit. It’s just a goose,” Jax replied. “Look! It keeps picking up a twig, tossing it in the air and then grabbing it up off the ground again. It’s like the crazy thing wants to play fetch.”

“That’s it!”

Figuring it wasn’t the craziest thing she’d seen over the past few days, Veronica scooped up a small stick from the moss-covered ground and flung it toward the goose. The bird took off after it in a flash of white and returned a moment later, dropping the stick near her feet. It wagged its tail feathers and stared at her expectantly. When she didn’t do anything, the goose nudged the stick with its bill until it was pressed against her boot.

“You have got to be kidding me. It’s a goose that thinks it’s a yellow lab.” Jax let out a belly laugh.

“Oh no, it’s too smart for a lab. Maybe an Australian Shepherd.” She reached down and stroked its soft feathers. “Aren’t you a smart girl?”

The goose honked happily.

Jax swiped a stick and dangled it in front of the goose before sending it sailing in the other direction. The goose gave chase, returned and dropped it at his feet.

Veronica watched as the two continued to play their game. His laughter filled the woods. His obvious joy at such a simple thing as playing fetch played havoc with her heart. The late afternoon sun highlighting the warm brown of Jax’s skin reminded her of just how good it felt to curl up next to him in bed. How many times had she woken up with his arm tossed across her waist, one of his hands cupping her breast? Too many and not enough.

Jax tossed the stick again. “I spotted an onyx rabbit the other day and thought of you. Are you still collecting them?”

“Not really.”

Her father had decimated her miniature rabbit collection when she had refused to give up treasure hunting. With precise movements, he’d smashed the delicate objects one by one while his bodyguards restrained her. He’d thought to control her, to bend her to his will by threatening something she held dear. It wasn’t until he stood in a pool of broken glass and ceramics that he realized just how wrong he’d been. Veronica had lived her life under his thumb for too long. She wouldn’t do it any longer. She’d started Kwon Limited the next day.

Jax made his way over to her. “Well, here’s to hoping you give it another shot.” In his palm lay a cameo the size of a half dollar on a silver chain. It had a black background polished to a high sheen with a white rabbit in profile carved in white onyx in the foreground.

“Where did you find it?”

“Pull your hair back.” When she complied, he fastened the chain around her neck, never losing eye contact. “There was an estate sale in Durham.”

“On the way up to see Antoine?”

“Nah, about six months back.” His fingers followed the silver chain down her neck, leaving a trail of fire. He traced the line to the cameo resting an inch above her breasts’ upper swell.

The air stilled around them. Veronica sucked in her bottom lip, betraying her sanity by wishing like hell he’d continue his path of discovery, pull her jumpsuit’s zipper all the way to her hips and peel the leather from her overheated skin.

Muttering under his breath, he dropped his hand to his side and glanced away from her, seeming to have found something fascinating hidden among the rocks, moss and dead leaves in the woods’ underbrush.

Veronica’s hair slipped loose from her fingers and cascaded down her back. Awareness prickled across her skin as the constant buzz of attraction between them grew into a cacophony of promised pleasure and something more. Grasping for something–anything–to say, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind that didn’t involve tangling their naked limbs together. “When did you start collecting?”

“I didn’t.” He raised his gaze from the ground, hitting her with the full force of those deep, brown eyes. “I got it for you.”

The last bit of resistance she could manage against him crumbled. “And if we hadn’t seen each other again?”

“Then at least I would have had it to remind me of the woman I love.” His warm hands cupped her face and he lowered his mouth.

Veronica considered turning her head a few degrees so his lips would land on her cheek. It was the smart thing to do. The sane thing. Jax had been the one person in her life she’d trusted, the one who’d never tried to manipulate her or bend her to his will. Then he’d broken her heart with the swift brutality of a unicorn skewering a leprechaun.

But that thought lasted only a millisecond because she couldn’t deny any longer that she’d never given up hope that he’d return and explain why. The truth of the matter was she’d never stopped loving him and there was nothing in the world she wanted as badly as this.

She met him halfway, and his full lips tasted like peppermint candy, cool and refreshing. The kiss wasn’t delicate and sweet. Hungry and desperate for the salvation she could only find with him, she crashed her lips against his.

He groaned his approval, and glided his hands from her face, down her torso and brought them to rest on her hips. Fingers splayed wide, he grasped her ass and lifted her until she could wrap her legs around his waist.

Relishing the hardness nestled against her clit, Veronica gripped his shoulders and rocked against him as she deepened the kiss. The warmth building in her belly expanded, filling her with a kind of frantic need to touch him everywhere all at once.

Jax must have felt it too because one of his hands drifted up her back, pressed her upper body to the hardness of his. He curled his fingers around her hair and fisted a large swath, pulling her head back.

The action yanked her away from his succulent lips. At first she mourned the loss, but a heartbeat later he found that spot with his mouth where her shoulder met her neck and a sexual lightning bolt short-circuited her system. She quivered in his arms and tightened her legs around him so his cock was as close as it could be to her while they were both fully clothed. It took everything she had not to mewl her pleasure.

He continued his hedonistic assault on her, skimming across her flesh with his lips, stopping to suck on her collarbone before continuing downward. “I’ve missed you so much. Your soft skin. The smell of vanilla trailing after you wherever you go. The way you make me sit up and take notice. I’ll never stop loving you, Veronica Kwon.”

Forget the gold coins and the magic goose. Finding Jax again was her greatest discovery. “I love you too.”

“I have to explain what happened before–”

“Let’s talk about it later.” She inched the zipper on her jumpsuit down over her teal lace bra, stopping only after her belly button came into view. “Right now, we have other matters that demand our attention.”

Jax’s already dark eyes became almost black with desire.

She snapped open a pouch attached to her tool belt and pulled out a piece of soft fabric. “Have you ever fucked on a magic carpet?”

With a flick of her wrist, she unfurled the cobalt blue material. It hovered a few feet off the ground. The goose nudged the corner with its beak, but when nothing happened, wandered over to a patch of mushrooms.

The magic carpet tickling the back of her knees, Veronica snagged his cotton t-shirt, pulled it free from the confines of his jeans and snuck her fingers inside. His abs twitched underneath her fingertips. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go for a ride.”

Whatever internal battle Jax had been fighting ended, and he kissed her like a man possessed. He pushed her jumpsuit off her shoulders until it hung loosely at her waist. His mouth found her breasts, licking and then sucking her nipples peeking out through her lace bra.

The ardent attack made her entire body vibrate with need. She shoved the jumpsuit off her hips and shimmied it down her legs, while Jax worshipped her tits like a new convert. With a hand on his shoulder, she pushed him away so she could slip her feet out of the boots and the leather. Without the height from her heels, she only came up to his clavicle.

He whipped his t-shirt off and made short work of shucking his jeans. “Damn, you look good enough to eat.”

“Is that a promise?”

He hooked his thumbs in the band of her lace panties and sank to his knees. “You know I can never get enough of your sweet taste.”

She expected him to sweep the flimsy material down her thighs. Instead, he found the tender spot right above the silk bow on the waistband with his lips. That kiss melted her bones into warm caramel. Lucky for her, the magic carpet was there to catch her fall. The ancient threads caressed her back as Jax finally slid the lace down her thighs and spread her legs.

He delivered feather-light kisses from her knees north. Then he flicked her clit with his tongue, making every nerve in her body cheer.

“So damn good.” He whispered the words against her center before weaving a spell with his tongue that made actual magic seem paltry in comparison. His hands gripped her hips, anchoring her to him as he pushed her farther, demanded more of her.

She clenched the magic carpet in her hands as pleasure twisted her body. The trembling started in the small of her back, a mini-bodyquake tensing her muscles. It built in waves, heightening the sensations until her orgasm arched her back and her scream filled the woods, scaring flocks of sparrows from their hiding place in the branches.

Thighs still shaking from her climax’s aftershocks, she watched Jax rise to his feet. Her attention started out on his juicy mouth, but slid down, taking in his well-defined pecs, defined abs and the stiff cock jutting from between his legs. Damn, she’d missed that, and all the many ways he knew how to use it.

Jax stepped between her splayed legs and slid his hard length into her an inch at a time.

Slowly, so slowly, the bliss of being filled nearly overwhelmed her senses. “Please Jax, I need you.”

“I live to please you.” He pushed forward in one thrust until his pelvis rubbed against her sensitive nub.