Bonus Scene

JAX'S POV This afternoon with Lola was the first time since I've been here that she's let her guard down. Even if that wall she's built is shorter by a millimeter-it's one small step for her-and a giant leap for me. The way she smiles and laughs at stupid shit I say while she unconsciously twirls her hair around her finger makes me want to ravish every inch of her body. Truth be told, I left her at her dorm and told her to come by later because it all became a little too intense for me. She's so close to me. I can touch her skin, feel her breath, hear the way her voice wraps around my name and yet she's still miles away from where I need her to be. Not to say I blame her. My girl is smarter than Einstein. Yeah, she's not only smoking hot, she's brilliant. The ultimate two for one. Problem is, trying to sell the idea of something so outrageous, whether it's the truth or not, to a highly logical and intelligent individual-well I think I may have better luck selling voice lessons to a shaolin monk. The entire situation is frustrating and the effort I'm putting into getting Lola to believe what I say is real is taking a toll. I bought groceries and booze earlier so I head to the kitchen and begin rooting for the bottle of unopened rye. I'd drink absinthe if I could right now-I'd drink anything that can take the edge off. I'm about to twist the cap off when there is a knock so demanding, so unruly, I think it may splinter the front door. Aggravated, I stomp to the entry and swing it open, ready to give the owner of the knock a piece of my mind but as soon as she comes into view, my irritation vanishes like a plume of smoke. Door number one, drowning my sorrows in overpriced rye. Door number two, Lola. I've hit the jackpot. The swell of her chest heaves fast and hard while she fights to catch her breath. Her face is flushed and wet with moisture. Tears. Before I can ask her why she's crying, she speaks. "I read it." Oh. That explains everything. I'd given her a copy of my wedding vows, and at the risk of seeming pretentious, those were pretty smooth. I step back to let her in but she surprises the hell out of me and grabs my face with her tiny hands. "I don't know you, but if you can love me that much, I can love you back. I know I can." She leans forward and places the most delicate, tender, tentative kiss on my mouth. Every functioning brain cell in my head screams at me to restrain myself but my body rejects the idea. I've missed those lips. Thought about them every day since I got here and I don't want her to change her mind. I slam the door shut and grab the backs of her knees to hoist her up. Her legs wrap around me as if the action is solely instinctive. She doesn't know it yet, but it is. That's right, Angel. You belong here. I kiss her like it's the first time, because for her, it is. Careful not to break the contact, I walk us to the couch and turn to sit. Her legs have nowhere to go but on either side of me, which is precisely where I'd like to see them. Lola stuns me all over again when she presses herself against me. Hard. I could be in trouble. She moves effortlessly against me and I know, without question she feels it. Everything about this, about us is right. She's probably wondering why she fought me in the first place. The thought makes me smile and I bite down on her bottom lip softly. Her lips are glossed with something cherry, a taste I have grown to love more than anything on the planet. "You'd better watch yourself, Angel. I might just turn into the devil if you're not careful." I slide my fingertips to the curve of her shoulder and pull the strap of her dress down before depositing a kiss on the flawless skin there. "I missed this. I miss you." Ugh. I'm a pathetic excuse for a guy but that's the thing with Lola. She makes me say things that no one with any amount of testosterone should say but I can't help it. Without her, I have no soul. "Jax?" "Yeah?" "Tell me," she says, "about us." I pause and kiss her again before sliding the strap into place. The only talking I should be doing right now is with my manhood, telling him to keep calm and chill out. "I'll tell you whatever you want to know but you're going to have to get your perfect body off of mine. I'm only human, Angel. You're turning me on something fierce." Color blooms under her cheeks as she swings her leg over me. "Sorry." "Don't apologize for my weakness. I can't lie though, you're my kryponite." As much as it kills me to do it, I rise to my feet and make for the kitchen. Not for rye, but for water. I need a cold shower but a glass of H2O will have to do. She looks disappointed as I walk away. She may as well dagger me through the heart. It would hurt less than disappointing her. I grab two glasses and return to her as fast as I can, handing one over. "First," I say, "we are health conscious." "Good to know. How did we meet each other?" I grin like a fool because the moment I first laid eyes on her, I knew I was done for. She was my sign. My angel, straight from God himself. "I'll never forget the first time I saw you. It was a dreary day, there'd been three days straight with no sunshine. I walked to the bookstore around the corner from my place, mostly because they served coffee there, not so much because I actually wanted a book." "Rainy day coffee?" "You bet." I tuck away a strand of her hair clinging to the side of her face. "That's the best time to go for coffee. When it's all raining and miserable. Anyway, I got my coffee and started walking around the store, killing time more or less and there you were." "Where?" "You were sitting on the floor with your arms wrapped around your knees which were pulled to your chest, a book in your hands. You were so into that book, you didn't care that people were stepping around you, stepping over you, you had tunnel vision for the words on that page. Whatever they were, they captured you." And you captured me. A nightmare stuck in the web of a dream catcher. "And?" "And I'm a curious person. I had to know what you were reading." "So you asked? Is that the first thing you said to me?" "Naw, I didn't ask." "What did you do?" "I sat beside you. I sat down beside you and read those words with the hope that I could learn how to capture your attention so deeply." In hindsight, the move was ballsy but I couldn't let her get away. Next to her, I could breathe. "What were they?" I laugh because I'd poke fun of any guy for the words I'm about to say, but she has that power over me. "You really wanna know?" "Yes." "He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she began." She eyes me skeptically. "Tolstoy. Oh my God. That kills your cheesy supermarket romance theory on my favorite books." "Just because you were reading Tolstoy doesn't mean it was a favorite. Now, had you seen it from my perspective, how utterly enthralled you were with it, you'd might not be arguing that it was never your favorite book." "Fair enough. Maybe I was reading it for school or something. What happened next?" "I read the words out loud and told you just now, in this moment, I could completely understand what Tolstoy was talking about. That two seconds ago, when I laid eyes on you, I didn't know where I ended and you began." "You did not." I hope my hand out, palm forward. "I swear to you I did." She sets her water down on the coffee table and grins. "What did I say?" "You smiled, this shy, coy, unbelievably beautiful smile. That was the beginning of my undoing, Angel. I knew I'd give anything to see that smile for the rest of my life, even after that." "So I was mute? A mute booknerd?" Not quite. She was this disarming kind of beautiful. "You're the quiet one out of the two of us. Always have been. You choose your words carefully whereas I just blurt out whatever the hell I'm thinking or feeling at the time." "So we compliment each other, I guess." "You're the best thing about me."