But their plane had landed so late that they couldn’t get in the prison then. It was nearing midnight, and this no-tell motel was their only option.

“Oh, look,” Sarah said. “I think the bed vibrates.”

He heard a squeak and a bounce, and he looked over to see Sarah on the bed. She’d just pushed a button and that bed was seriously moving.

“It does,” Sarah said as she shook.

He dropped their bags and just watched her. Sarah was smiling up at the ceiling and she was . . . humming softly. He frowned because he thought he knew that song.

Jax walked closer to her. “Sarah, what are you humming?”

She immediately stopped. “I don’t hum.”

Uh, yeah. She had been. She’d been humming a tune. And it sounded so familiar to him. Like something he’d heard when he was a kid.

She turned off the bed. Lay still. Her smile was gone. Her whole expression was just . . . empty. Like a light had been switched off inside her.

“Sarah . . .”

She sat up. Stared at him. Only she didn’t look quite like his Sarah. She was different. Cold. And when she looked at him, Jax could have sworn that he saw calculation in her gaze. “I know you want something from me,” she said.

Did he now? “And what’s that?”

“I haven’t figured it out, not exactly. But I mean, why else would you come all this way? Why take these risks? It’s not as if you took one look at me and fell in love.”

He stalked closer. “You seem very sure about that.”

“You’re not the type of man to fall in love. Not at first sight and, well . . . after what happened between you and Emma, maybe not at all.”

He sat on the bed next to her. It immediately sagged beneath his weight. “I care for Emma.”

“Caring and loving aren’t the same.”

He put his hands on either side of Sarah, caging her in place. “And you and Emma aren’t the same, either.”

“Why did you let her go?”

“Because she didn’t really want the man I was. She was looking for a way out.” They’d both been kids on the street, desperate. For a time, they’d clung to each other. “She found her way out.” She’d fought for her freedom from the past. But Jax knew, every time she looked at him, she just saw darkness and pain. She remembered what it was like to have nothing.

To want everything.

“What will you do . . .” Sarah asked and her face was still too emotionless. “When you find your family? Are you going to talk with them? Or are you going—”

“To just keep living my life?” Because that was an option. Doing nothing. “I just want to know who they are.”

Her gaze fell. “Maybe you’re better off not knowing, did you ever think of that?”

Now it was his turn to laugh, and that laughter was bitter. “I grew up with an abuser. He spent his days hitting Charlene, because she’d get between him and me. He took me . . . he was a fucking kidnapper, and in the end, he got exactly what he deserved.”

Death.

“You did it,” Sarah said.

He leaned in closer to her. “You don’t really want me to confess, do you? Because then you might have to tell someone about what I did.”

She didn’t pull away. Her hand lifted and touched his cheek. “No, I won’t tell anyone. Haven’t you realized it yet?” She leaned forward and kissed him. “Your secrets are safe with me.” The kiss was slow, sensual. So soft. Her lips feathered over his and her tongue lightly teased him.

“And you,” he growled back against her delectable mouth, “will always be safe with me.”

Her hand slid up his cheek. Sank into his hair. “I will learn all of your secrets, Jax. And they won’t scare me.”

He kissed her. Harder, deeper than she’d kissed him. “Good.” Because he wanted her to know, even if he was reluctant to say the words himself. Sarah had come into his life and she’d taught him about fear.

He’d been afraid when she’d been in the fire. Terrified that he wouldn’t get to her in time.

And when he thought of her turning away from him . . . because she might come to hate him or be disgusted by him . . .

Fear.

He tumbled her back onto the bed. He’d been slow with her before. He’d savored her. She truly was a woman to be savored.

But something seemed to be happening in that room. To her. To him. To them.

Emotions were tangling out of control. The present—it was a time bomb, and he just needed—

“Fuck me, Jax.”

Her. She was what he needed.

He pulled back, just enough to yank open her jeans and shove them down. She kicked off her shoes. Tossed the jeans and her underwear. Then she was straddling him. Wrapping her legs around him and bringing her sex against his crotch. His dick was long and hard because—this was Sarah. He always got turned on by Sarah.

She jerked open the snap of his jeans. Pulled down the zipper, and then her hot, soft hands were pumping him. Again and again. She swiped her thumb over the tip of his arousal, and then she brought her thumb up to her mouth and sucked it. Her eyes were on his as Sarah tasted him. She was so sexy that he thought he might explode right then.

But Sarah pushed up. Her hands closed around his shoulders as she positioned her body. And her sex brushed against him. Warm silk but . . .

“Condom,” Jax gasped out. He grabbed for his pants, started to put on the condom as fast as he could—

“I’d like to feel you,” Sarah said. “Skin to skin.”

He stilled, his whole body locking down as a surge of primal arousal flooded him. He would like nothing more than to fuck her, skin to skin, nothing between them. Nothing at all.

“I’m clean,” Jax told her, because he was fanatical about protection. He never wanted to risk having a child he didn’t know about. A child out there who was wondering . . .

Where’s my dad?

No, Jax slammed the door on the thought.

“So am I,” Sarah said.

And an image popped into his head. A baby, with Sarah’s smile. The real smile that didn’t come often enough. His heart seemed to hurt.

“But I’m not on the pill,” Sarah said. Her eyes looked so deeply into his.

She’s different. I want to be with Sarah. But . . .

He wanted to protect her, too. Because he had plans for Sarah. Plans that lasted far longer than a few dangerous days in New Orleans. But he wouldn’t be forcing her to stay with him because she was pregnant.

She’d stay because she wanted him. Just as desperately as he wanted her.

He kissed her. Heard that soft, sexy moan that she gave, and it just made him want her all the more. His hand slid between their bodies. When he touched her, Sarah was hot, but not nearly wet enough, not for him. He needed her wild, just the way he liked her.

So he stroked her.

“Jax, now!”

No, not now. Not yet. He was holding tightly to his control, for her.

He slid his index finger into her, then worked another finger into her tight sheath. She closed around him, feeling fucking fantastic, and he knew he’d explode when he drove balls-deep inside her.

His thumb pressed to her clit. He pushed and heard that moan come again. He pushed—

Her nails dug into his shoulders. “I need you.” Sarah kissed a hot path down his neck. Licked. Bit lightly. “Don’t make me wait, Jax. Don’t.”

He couldn’t refuse her. Not his Sarah.

His fingers withdrew. She was nice and wet now. Ready for him to sink inside her hot core.

Jax drove into her. His hands locked around her hips, probably digging in too deeply, but Sarah just arched toward him. Faster and harder they went and he was pretty sure they were breaking that old bed.

He didn’t care.

She was a tight glove around him. Every arch and glide of her body just pushed him ever closer to the edge of his control. He’d never wanted anyone the way he wanted Sarah.

No one would ever be like her.

She stiffened against him, her delicate muscles tensing, and he eased back because he liked to see the pleasure sweep over her face.