Under the Table by Layla Reyne

Author:Layla Reyne [Reyne, Layla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Layla Reyne
Published: 2024-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

Wet.

Rough.

Insistent.

Furry?

The last sensation, among the others against Jax’s cheek, nudged them out of their Feb-induced fantasies and toward reality, pushing them through the fog they’d been wading in the past hour.

Ariel Camino’s voice at their side, urging “Muévete, Sugar,” propelled them through it faster.

They planted an elbow in the soft surface beneath them and struggled to lever upright. A gentle, steadying hand landed on their shoulder. “Take your time,” Ariel said. “I was talking to the cat, not you.”

Jax fought against their seemingly weighted eyelids, wresting them open just in time to see a snow-white ball of fluff jump off the end of the couch with an offended meow. “There a Spice around here too somewhere?” they asked as they continued to work their way to vertical.

“There is,” Ariel said, helping them. “The orange one that shares his one brain cell with all the other orange cats in the world.” His easy, charming smile was so at odds with the man who’d held Fletcher hostage at UTT that Jax gave their head a hard shake, thinking maybe the fog was still clouding their mind.

Pain sliced through their head, disabusing them of that notion.

Once they were steady, Ariel withdrew his hand and settled back in the chair beside the couch. “Water and ibuprofen,” he said with a jut of his chin at the coffee table.

Jax scooted to the edge of the couch, slowly so as not to amplify their headache and to assess whether they’d sustained other injuries. They twisted their back, shook out their arms, stretched their fingers and legs. All fine. Nothing wrong that they could detect, and nothing binding their limbs either. They swept their gaze around the immediate area—no weapons in sight, no other humans besides Ariel. Then scoped out the larger area—an open floor plan kitchen-dining-living area in what appeared to be a cozy, lived-in, ranch-style home. In the middle of the back wall, large sliding glass doors led to a fenced-in backyard, quiet this time of night.

The same night or longer? “How long have I been out?”

“A few hours.” Meaning they hadn’t gone far. “We’re in San Jose,” Ariel said, anticipating their next question.

“Shit,” Jax cursed before throwing back three tablets and a gulp of water. “Have you been this close the entire time?”

“I travel a lot, but yes, this is home base.” He shrugged. “Lots of people, international airport, great food.”

At the mention of food, memories from a couple of hours ago flooded back to the front of their mind. Shattering, splintering sounds from the dining room, Chloe locking a shaking Feb in the pantry, a prick to Jax’s neck before the world went dark.

“Feb? My family?”

“All safe. It wasn’t my intention to harm any of them.”

“Didn’t look that way with Fletcher.”

He cast his gaze, light brown behind a pair of tortoiseshell glasses, out the back windows, but not before Jax caught the sadness and longing that pinched his features, that leaked into his voice. “Especially not him.” After a long moment, he cleared his throat and turned back to them.

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