Free Simply Irresistible by Jill Shalvis Page A

sweater over a black T-shirt, mirrored sunglasses, and a crooked smile was Jax Cullen.

Chapter 7

    “Experience is something you get…

after you need it.”
    P HOEBE T RAEGER
    M addie stared up at Jax, who was not hung over and didn’t have a crease on his face. He looked big, and bad, and so sexy it
     should be a crime, and she reacted without thinking.
    She shut the door in his face.
    Tara gasped.
    Chloe laughed.
    And Maddie covered her face. “Quick, somebody shoot me.”
    “Honey.” Tara’s hand settled on her shoulder. “Maybe you don’t know this being from LA and all, but shutting the door on someone’s
     nose is considered rude in almost all fifty states.”
    “You don’t understand. It’s him.
Jax.
” And maybe it was the fact that her brain was on low battery, but just looking at him made her hot and bothered. Her! Thewoman who’d decreed that the entire male race was scum. “What do I do?”
    “Well, for starters,” Chloe said, “You stop slamming door on guys who look like
that.
”
    “He has superpowers,” Maddie said, nibbling on her thumbnail.
    “Yeah?” Clearly fascinated, Chloe took another peek. “Like being hot as hell?”
    Tara lightly smacked Maddie’s hand from her mouth. “What does he want?”
    “I’m going to guess SpongeBob Pants here,” Chloe murmured, still looking at him.
    Maddie pushed her away from the window so she could take her own look. “Oh, my God,” she whispered.
    On the porch, Jax turned his head and gave her a slow, mischievous wink, making her jump back as if he’d bitten her. “
Oh, my God.
”
    “She’s starting to repeat herself,” Chloe said to Tara, who took her turn at the window.
    “Oh, sugar.” Tara took her time looking him over. “You’re not ready for the likes of him.”
    “I hate to agree with her on anything,” Chloe said to Maddie. “But she might be right on this one.”
    Drawing in a sharp breath, Maddie put her hand on the door handle. With a sister crowding her on either side—she wasn’t sure
     whether it was for moral support or to make sure she didn’t jump his bones—she opened the door.
    She had to give Jax credit. Certainly, the three of them looked like wild, grossly unpredictable creatures from Planet Estrogen.
     But much as he had at the bar in the face of that pissed-off Smarmy Suit, he stood his ground. He even smiled.
    “Hey,” Maddie said, taking a step forward to give them some privacy, but she tripped over the yarn. It took her a few seconds
     and most of her dignity before she fought her legs free.
    He pulled off his sunglasses to watch her, revealing those melted caramel eyes, which seemed to be both amused and heated.
     Amused, no doubt, because of the little yarn incident, not to mention the bedhead and SpongeBob pj’s. As for why his eyes
     were also heated, she could guess—he was thinking of last night.
    Which made two of them, because the kisses—oh, good Lord, the kisses—were suddenly all her brain would upload. The memory
     of those delicious, hot, deep, amazing kisses had kept her up most of the night. And then there’d been how his hands had felt
     all over her. Just remembering had something tingling behind her belly button and heading south.
    “You okay?” he asked.
    Sure. She was peachy. Or she would be soon as she cleared a few things up. Because as much as just looking at him put a big,
     goofy smile on her face, she had to be honest with him. Or at least as honest as she could. “About last night. I’m sorry if
     I gave you the wrong impression, but I’m really not in a good place for this right now.”
    He didn’t say anything to this, and the silence was worse than the hangover.
    “It’s nothing personal, of course. But I can’t, I just can’t go there.” Why wasn’t he saying anything? “I’m… not interested.”
     Okay, so that was liar, liar, pants on fire, but his silence was unnerving. “I mean, I realize that I probably didn’t
seem
uninterested last