“The one that required you to work for him and marry Katie?”
“Yes. Only the other night, he stopped by with Katie, saying he would ensure the band was signed if I married Katie. I refused.”
“You did?” Bre asked with a ghost of a smile.
“Of course I did. Even though you wouldn’t give me reason to hope we could be together, I couldn’t marry Katie knowing the way I feel about you, and even if you didn’t exist, I wouldn’t marry her.”
Bre bit her lower lip and then looked away. “You wouldn’t?”
“Never. I want to be with you—only you. I love you.” His thumb caressed her cheek.
Bre’s eyes flew to his, and her uncertain expression cleared. A small sob escaped her lips. “I didn’t want to believe it, but I was too scared to ask you to tell me the truth.”
Jax pulled her into a tight embrace and wrapped his arms around her. “Don’t be afraid to ask me anything. Ever.”
“I love you,” she murmured into his chest, breathing in his clean, spicy scent.
Jax tipped her face up to his and kissed her, more tenderly than ever before, more enduring, more loving, because for the first time since they met, they had absolutely nothing hanging over their heads. No Cam, no Katie, nothing.
“Good, because I only want to love you. Today. Tomorrow, and every day after that,” Jax whispered, and she shivered, because that’s exactly what she wanted.
Epilogue
One year later…
Jax watched Bre as she walked into the their room backstage. She wore dark skinny jeans with heels and a black boucle jacket over a vintage t-shirt. Damn, he liked the way her long legs looked in those jeans.
When she spotted him, a bright smile spread across her face. “There you are,” she said, walking toward him. “The show was great.”
“You made it back in time to see it?” he asked. She had a big art exhibition for her paintings at the gallery in Aspen, and as much as he hated her to miss any performance, he loved that she had embraced her talent and become a full-time artist. Six months ago, she sold her share of the gallery to Michael while maintaining ownership of the building she’d inherited from her grandmother. With the rent from the gallery, she had the means to move to LA and move in with him, and he couldn’t have been happier.
“I wouldn’t have missed it. I have to stake my claim so those lust-crazed women don’t get any ideas.” She laughed and nodded her head in the direction of the rest of the band.
Jax chuckled. “No, all those women are here for the guys,” he said, pointing at Cam, Marc, and Alec, who were laughing good naturedly at the women trying to get them to autograph their bodies. “I think I’ve made it clear to anyone that will listen that I’m taken.”
Cam looked up and waved. Bre waved back with a huge smile on her face. Jax still hated the closeness of their relationship, but he knew they were more like family than anything else, and Bre needed a family because her mom would never be that for her. He only hoped that eventually she would come to think of him as family. The longer he knew Bre, the more amazed he was by what a wonderful, caring person she turned out to be with a narcissist for a mother. Luckily, they hadn’t heard from her in months.
Bre tipped up his blue LA Dodgers cap. Standing on her toes, she wrapped her arms around him, tangling her hands in the back of his hair, and bit his lower lip. Tilting her head back, she smiled and then brushed a kiss across his lips.
“Bre,” he murmured. “It’s been seven days since I’ve seen you. Don’t tease me. All I could think about on that stage was that you would be home tonight and in our bed. Promise you’ll never leave me for that long again.”
“What about when you go on tour?” she whispered into his ear, pushing one of her hands under the hem of his shirt and sliding it up to his chest.
“Fuck the tour,” he said, clutching her tight and hoisting her off the ground. “I’m not leaving you for that long.”
“Who said you had to?” Bre murmured into his ear, making him shudder.
“What do you mean?” he questioned, pulling her closer to his body.
“I talked to your agent. I asked him to give us our own bus so I can go with you. I don’t want to miss your first tour now that Chasing Ruin hit it big.”
“No. You can’t put your career on hold to follow me around the country,” he said tenderly.
“I don’t intend to. With our own bus, I’ll have a place to paint so I don’t get behind, but you have to promise not to get sick of me and throw me out.”
“Never,” he said, kissing her hard on the lips. “You’re a genius,” he murmured against her lips as he carried her toward an empty room.