Free Anna in the Middle by Barbara Elsborg Page B

for the best.
    * * * * *
    While Jax slept, Will eased himself out of bed and began to empty his suitcase. Will was tidy, Jax wasn’t, and rather than argue about it, Will tidied up after him. Dirty clothes into the laundry basket, suit jacket back in the closet, pants in the press, clean gear returned to the chest of drawers. Will ran his hands around the side pockets of the case, checking they were empty and felt something long and hard. He pulled out a thin, jagged length of wood. Will turned it in his fingers, wondering what a section of fence was doing in Jax’s suitcase .
    “It’s a piece of wood,” Jax said from the bed.
    No shit, Sherlock. Will turned to him. “Like to explain what it’s doing in your suitcase?”
    “Lucky charm?”
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    Barbara Elsborg
    Will frowned. “Can’t you come up with something better than that? How about you like to be prepared in case of an attack by a vampire. Maybe it’s part of a fiendishly difficult jigsaw puzzle.” He looked at Jax and grinned.
    “I…I pulled it out of a woman’s backside.”
    Will felt his world begin to implode and the wood dropped from his fingers.
    Jax sat up and threw the covers off his legs. “It’s not what you think.” Oh Christ. Then it was exactly what Will thought.
    Jax got to his feet. “She climbed over into my sister’s garden and got caught on the fence. I pulled the wood out of her butt.”
    So why did you keep the fucking thing? “Oh,” was all that came out of Will’s mouth.
    Will wanted to back away as Jax took a step toward him, but he didn’t. He always backed off from confrontations, but not this time.
    “You fucked her,” Will said.
    “Yes.”
    Will bit down on the insides of his cheeks.
    “It isn’t a problem,” Jax said. “Don’t let it be a problem. You know how I feel about you.”
    But Will didn’t know, so it was a problem. He wanted to believe Jax loved him but the words had never come out of his mouth. Will was beginning to think the guy was incapable of saying them.
    “It’s okay,” Jax soothed and took another step toward him. “Will?” Will hesitated but he let Jax pull him into his arms. Jax pressed his naked body against him, put his lips on Will’s and nipped gently with his teeth.
    It’s not that fucking easy. I’m not that fucking easy.
    Will remained lax, fighting an inner battle because he wanted to hug Jax, but he was so angry, not at Jax but at himself for letting this get to him. They’d agreed it was okay to see women so why the fuck was he so upset? Jax’s arms slid over his back, up to his neck, kneading tense muscles, urging Will to respond. Why didn’t he? Jax’s lips slipped to Will’s neck and his teeth grazed his collarbone. Will shuddered.
    “Will,” Jax said. “Get a grip, mate. It’s fucking piece of wood. I’m never going to see her again.”
    Will’s brain did some math and he pulled away. “You came back to London a day early and you didn’t phone me. You were with her.” He didn’t want it to be true but when Jax didn’t deny it, he knew it was.
    “You aren’t going to tell me that you wouldn’t have taken a fuck that was on offer?” Jax asked, his eyes darkening, a warning of his anger.
    Yes, that would be what he’d tell him, if he could speak, Will thought. He’d listened to Jax tell him about the women he’d slept with, watched it turn Jax on and felt the result in the sex they had after the revelation. Will was less turned on. He wanted Jax to 48

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    bring home a woman they could share. Will wanted a life spent as a three, not as a two and one, because he knew who’d be the fucking odd man out. Will took a deep breath.
    Jax pressed his body tighter against his, held their dicks in one hand, rubbed his against Will’s, the wet tips smearing pre-cum over their bellies.
    “Come on, Will.”
    Sex was not going to put this right.
    “Do you want me to tell you about her?”
    No, he didn’t. “Get the fuck off me,” Will