Cousin Aubrey warned me that Jax was a handful, and now that he’s up close and personal with me, I can understand why. His charisma and self-confidence radiates from him like heat.
I can’t speak. I just sort of mumble something that sounds like “Thanks.”
“Are you gonna drink it?” he asks, chuckling. “Here, I’ll have one, too.” He holds his own shot out towards me.
Jax stands there, waiting for my response, showing off his lean and tight muscles, the dark jeans molded to him like a second skin, his goofy T-shirt bearing the image of a tux cummerbund and ruffles down the front but somehow looking absurdly good on his expansive chest. I don’t see any tattoos on him, but I’d bet anything he has something on his torso, maybe even his thigh. A little “surprise” for the ladies he beds, something that makes her feel like she’s sharing a secret with him. His dark blond hair is a little shaggy on top, his jaw clean-shaven.
Everything about this man screams sex.
“Fine,” I mutter, picking up the shot glass and sniffing it.
“To my big bro Smith, for getting lucky and finding his girl,” Jax says.
“Her name is Aubrey,” I remind him.
He grins wider. “I know her name, hon,” he winks, and then downs the shot.
I close my eyes and manage to get the burning liquid down my throat, and then when I open them again, Jax has already gone, vanished, back to his seat as if he was never even there.
The only proof I have is the empty shot glass on the table in front of me, and the tears streaming from my eyes, which I quickly wipe away.
This is crazy. I’m in a Quentin Tarantino movie, and my cousin is marrying into a family of bar owning bikers or something.
Sitting just down at the other end of the table from me, I have a good angle on Aubrey and her fiancé, Smith, and I can’t help staring at them now, watching them, trying to understand how this all even happened.
Did Aubrey lose her mind?
But then I watch as Smith leans over toward my cousin and sweeps a lock of hair from her face. His touch is so gentle, his eyes locked on her and so filled with passion, that my heart clenches in jealousy and sudden understanding of how Aubrey could fall for a man like him. He brushes a soft kiss on her lips, and she sighs against his mouth, her whole body arching toward him. They murmur quiet words to each other that I can’t hear from my end of the table.
I tear my gaze away from their intimacy. I’ve never had anyone look at me that way. Touch me like that. Make me feel like I’m the center of his universe. What would that feel like?
Yeah, I can see by their interaction why Aubrey is crazy in love. Why my cousin has such a glow about her that she’s never had before.
There’s a light tinkling sound near the far end of the table, and I glance over to see Jax rising with his slender wine glass in his hand, clanking it with a fork.
My heart gives a strange kick at his crooked smile to our group, and I push the reaction back in self-disgust.
This guy has player written all over him. My sister had her heart broken by a guy like Jax—smooth talker, smoking hot in bed, always had an excuse for the shit he pulled, never took responsibility for any of his actions.
In the end, she was left devastated, pregnant, and living with my parents. However hot and sexy and exciting these kinds of men can appear at first—I know what they leave behind in their wake, and it isn’t pretty.
But Jax isn’t bothering to pretend to be anything other than what he clearly is—a hot, arrogant guy who can get laid simply by flashing a smile and buying some desperate girl a drink or two.
Jax’s eyes connect with mine once again as he keeps clanking his glass to get everyone to quiet down. He gives me little more than a passing glance, and then eyes the dipping cleavage of the bridesmaid across from him.
Ugh, and I have to go over and talk to this douche later to help me decorate Aubrey’s car tonight. Twenty bucks says he finds some way to get out of it. Throws me a charming smile and asks me in his sweetest tone if I could pretty please just handle