Текст книги "Bad Romance"
Автор книги: Jen McLaughlin
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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 16 страниц)
I didn’t know. And honestly, it didn’t matter.
He closed his mouth over my clitoris, his tongue working magic again, and I squeezed my thighs on either side of his head. Threading my hands through his hair, I cried out his name and moved my hips around, trying to get closer to him.
Closer to release.
Just…closer.
“Jackson…God…I need…I need…”
He stopped making love to me with his mouth and pulled back, his dark, deep brown eyes locking in on me. He stared at me as if I was the only woman in the world, and in this moment…I felt like I was.
“I told you, I know what you need.” His fingers dug into the sides of my thighs possessively. “You need me.”
He lowered his head, flicked his tongue over me, and I was gone.
My orgasm rocked me harder than anything had ever hit me before, and I bowed my back, my mouth falling open in a silent scream. He let my hips fall to the mattress and stood, ripping his boxers off.
Bending down, he pulled a condom out of his pants pocket, tore it open, and rolled it on. Breathlessly, I watched his hand work over himself, unable to look away from his hard length. From my position on the bed, I could make out a thick blue vein running up the side of his shaft. When I’d explored his body earlier, I could tell he was big.
But seeing it in the flesh, and knowing he was about to make love to me, made my heart skip a beat. Enough so that I decided to tell him something I hadn’t felt the need to share before. “Jackson, I—”
“I know. I’m here.” He crawled up my body and kissed me, grabbing my leg and hauling it around his waist. He pulled back long enough to command, “Hold on tight.”
His mouth fused to mine again, and he positioned himself at my entry. I dug my nails into his biceps, closed my eyes, and then…
The searing pain hit me.
Chapter 11
Jackson
The second I thrust into her, I knew something was wrong. First of all, despite being warm and wet, she was so tight it felt like I had to force my way in. And when I did push harder, I broke through a soft barrier that gave way upon pressure, and she went tense beneath me. I may have never slept with a virgin before, but it was an easy bet that Lilly had been one up until a few moments ago…
And that I was her first lover.
Knowing that only made me want to grin, which probably made me equal with the cavemen, but I did want to show her a hell of a lot of firsts, and now I had…
Roughly. Without caution or care. Shit.
“Jesus, Lilly.” I reared back, searching her face. “Did I hurt you? Are you okay?”
Tears rolled down the sides of her cheeks, but she nodded. “Y-yes. I’m fine.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded. “You should have warned me. I could have gone slower. Easier. Been more of a…a…”
A what? Gentleman? A gentleman wouldn’t have taken her in the first place.
She sniffed and lowered her lashes. “I didn’t want you to change your mind.”
“Why me?” I asked. I had to know. “Why am I your first?”
“Because you were my choice,” she said, her hands sliding up my arms before resting her wrists on my shoulders. “Because I knew you would take care of me and not be focused only on yourself.”
I started to pull out of her, slowly, so as not to make it worse. It was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do, since her body was trying to pull me back in, but there was no way I could take her now. She had deserved a better first time than this. “Shit. Stop squirming.”
“No.” She dug her heels into my lower back. “Don’t leave me.”
I swallowed hard, my elbows on either side of her head.
My hands were still buried in her hair, and I turned my head, silently cursing myself out. How I had missed the signs that she was a virgin, I had no—Christ. When I turned away, my gaze fell on the only mirror she had in her room. Its position on the other wall showed the way we looked, bodied joined and limbs entwined.
And I…
Damn it, I couldn’t look away from how good we were, all wrapped up together. Her soft, smooth, pale, flawless skin contrasted with mine. My dark, scarred, tanned, inked-up body should have appeared out of place against hers…but it didn’t. It looked as if I belonged there, my cock buried inside her, covering her with my body, and I would be damned if I walked away now. This was her first time, and it had to be amazing.
I owed her that, at the very least.
Protectiveness—another unwelcome emotion making itself known—rose within me. For whatever reason, Lilly trusted me to show her what making love could be like. Had chosen me to be her first, instead of, oh, I don’t know, her fiancé. So I needed to shut off my mind, and my doubts, and my questions…and show her how good it could be.
“I’m not leaving you,” I whispered.
When our lips met this time, something felt different. I couldn’t place my finger on what, exactly, that was. But it didn’t make it any less true. Or any less scary.
I had survived war. Missiles. IEDs. Bullets. But this feeling she brought to life in me? It fucking terrified me more than all those things combined.
After a moment, she softened beneath me. The tension that had been making her tremble faded away as my tongue brushed hers, and I closed my hands over her breasts. They fit perfectly, and if I was a man prone to cheesy sentiment, I might say they were meant for me.
They weren’t. They belonged to someone else.
She belonged to someone else.
No matter how much I tried to ignore that fact, it kept rearing its ugly head. I rocked my hips gently, making sure to keep the movement small. Gentle. Her tight pussy squeezing my throbbing cock, it took all my control not to come right then without making sure she came, too.
That was how amazing she felt. It was like I died and went to heaven. Maybe I finally had. If this was heaven, I never wanted to walk on Earth again.
“Jackson.” She moaned, her fingers digging into my biceps, arching her hips higher. It made me plunge even deeper inside her, and my eyes rolled into the back of my head, because having her body wrapped all around me was too damn much. “Again. More.”
“No. We need to go slow.” I dropped my forehead on hers, breathing raggedly. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t.” She buried her hands in my hair and tugged, that fire that had always captivated me sparking to life within her again. “Take me. Now.”
If that was what she wanted, I would give it to her. It was an alarming trend—me considering what she wanted. I’d never given a damn about anyone but my platoon before. Why now? Why her? “Wrap your legs around me,” I demanded, ignoring those questions. “And don’t let go.”
She did as told. I took a deep breath to calm my surging need to take everything she offered, and more, without caring whether she came again or not. I wouldn’t. She needed to come. At least once. Then, and only then, I would let go.
Then I would find my peace.
Not wasting a second, I slammed back inside her. She cried out, her back arching, and strained to get closer. “Yes. God, yes, Jackson. Harder.”
Gritting my teeth, I reached between our bodies and pressed my fingers to her clit, moving inside her with a steady rhythm. The second I touched her, she screamed and bucked beneath me, her body taking over. It was the hottest thing I ever saw.
Her eyes flew open, and she locked gazes with me as her pussy clamped down on me. Her orgasm was fast and hard, but she didn’t look away. That moment where I watched her come—the intimacy of that moment—did things to me.
Terrifying, real, powerful things.
I felt connected to her.
“Jackson,” she whispered, finally letting her lids drift down, resting a hand over my racing heart. “More. Give me more.”
She was insatiable. Hungry. Hot.
So was I.
That was it. I tried to grasp on to any tenuous hold I had on control, but no. I lost it. All I could think, and feel, was Lilly. How she made me feel. How good she felt, wrapped all around me. She consumed me. Rolling us both fully on the bed, I thrust into her all the way, cradling her hips as I did so.
She screamed out in pleasure, raking her nails down my chest before digging them into my ass. “Jackson.”
“Your virgin pussy is so goddamn tight,” I growled, reaching between us to press my hand against her clit while fucking her fast and hard. “So. Damn. Tight. So. Damn. Mine.”
She nodded frantically. “Yes, oh, my God, yes.”
When I slapped the side of her ass with my other hand, she came again instantly. I felt her orgasm all the way to the tattered remnants of my soul. Her body tightened and coiled, and her walls clamped down on me harder than ever before. I cried out her name, pumping my hips once, twice, bam. I was a goner.
Groaning, I collapsed on the bed beside her, not letting go of her as I rode the waves of the most intense orgasm I’d ever experienced in my whole goddamn life. I had a feeling I wouldn’t want to let go anytime soon, which was a bad thing. She’d done something to me tonight. Something I wasn’t sure I fully understood, or ever would.
And I wasn’t sure if I wanted to.
All I knew was that here, in Lilly’s arms, I felt at peace for the first time in…well, ever. The same peace and rightness I felt all those years ago by the pool, only amplified by a million. And it felt pretty damn amazing. “Holy shit.”
She let out a small laugh and buried her face in my chest. “Yeah. Same.”
“That was…” I curled my hand around her neck and tipped her face up to mine. “That was special. I hope you know that.”
She nodded, her expression solemn. “I do.”
“Why haven’t you…?” I leaned up and smoothed her hair out of her face, staring down at her. Her cheeks were flushed, and her hair was messy, and she had never been more beautiful than she was now, in her bed, inside my arms, naked. “Why haven’t you and Preppy Prick had sex before?”
She blew out a breath, her cheeks going even pinker. “Because he’s not my real fiancé. And…and…let’s just say I’m not his type.”
“How the hell is that possible?” I asked, scanning her naked, perfect body. “Look at you. Is he waiting to make sure you’re actually getting married? Or are you? Is that what you guys decided to do? Or is it because you’re trying to find a way out of it still?”
“No.” She scrunched her nose and glanced away. “He’s been with other…people.”
“But not—?” I broke off, comprehension hitting me like a brick to the head. “Oh. Wait. Do you mean that he’s gay?”
She nodded. “Yes. Well, I suppose he could be bisexual, but he’s never tried to initiate anything physical with me.”
So he was gay. And she might marry him, anyway. “You can’t marry him. No way. That’s your way out. Tell your dad he’s gay.”
She gasped. “I couldn’t—wouldn’t—do that to him. If he doesn’t want people to know, then I won’t be the one to take that from him.”
“Even if it could get you out of the contract? Set you free?”
She lifted her chin. “Even then. There’s got to be another way. One that doesn’t compromise my moral standards.”
“Do you realize what you’ll be stuck with, if you don’t find another way? It’ll never be a real relationship,” I said slowly, trying not to let my irritation at the idea of her marrying another guy come through in my voice.
“He doesn’t know I know. I caught him once. Worst-case scenario, we just have to maintain appearances for a couple of years, until everything works out with the merger, and then I can get out of it with a quiet divorce.” She said it so matter-of-factly, like she wasn’t talking about bartering herself for the sake of money.
“Lilly,” I said, trying to bite back my frustration. “You can’t be serious about this. No way. No how.”
“This really isn’t your concern,” she said, sitting up and hugging her knees to her chest. “It’s my life, not yours. If I decide there’s no escaping it and marry him, it’s on me. Not you. Me.”
I stared at her, unable to believe she actually believed this. No one could be that selfless. I called bullshit. “Are you serious? You actually want to…seriously?”
“Yes.” She folded her hands in front of her knees, clearly feeling uneasy. “The articles of incorporation are complicated. Shares in the company can only be given or sold to family members. So if Derek and I get married, he can buy the shares, which will give Hastings an influx of cash. Then Thornton Products will also be able to use our distribution network. It’s a way to save both companies without having to go through the courts and risk word getting out that they’re in trouble.”
After hopping off the bed, I stalked over to her bedroom trash can and tossed the condom inside it. I didn’t face her yet, though. “What was tonight to you?” I asked, glowering down at it blindly.
“What was it to you?” she shot back.
“A release. A way to scratch an itch, maybe.” I shrugged, still not looking at her because it had been so much more. If I was a cornier man, I’d call it destiny. “I don’t know. But you seem to have your whole life mapped out already, so I figured you knew what you wanted the second you kissed me last night.”
She fell silent. After a few moments, Lilly said, “I knew I wanted you. Wanted to be with you. And it was so amazing. But…”
When she didn’t finish that thought, I finally turned around again. She had crawled under the blankets, hiding her nudity from me. “Now what?”
She flinched. “I don’t know. It’s complicated.”
“Great.” I crossed my arms, not bothering with clothes. I didn’t have a problem with being naked. “I’m so happy to hear that.”
Nibbling on her lower lip, she lifted a shoulder. “You make me feel alive, and so feminine and sexy. I like you, and I want to hang out with you, but it can’t be anything public for lots of reasons. People don’t even know you’re back yet, for one. And then there’s the merger…”
“Shit.” I ran my hands over my head. “You’re actually debating marrying a guy who will never fuck you like that.”
Her cheeks went even redder. “You don’t know that. Derek and I could learn to rub along together tolerably well. And it’s only marriage. It’s not forever. What marriage is these days?”
Mine would be. I refused to be like my mother and get remarried every year. When I married, if I ever married, it would be forever. “True. I’m shocked as shit my mother still has the capacity to put up with your father. I would have thought she’d dumped him a long time ago.”
She glowered at me. “What are you trying to get me to admit? That I’m upset? That I don’t want to do it? Because even if I was, and even if I didn’t, it wouldn’t matter. If I decide it’s for the best, then I’d do it, anyway.”
Hell, I didn’t even really know what I wanted from her.
Maybe I wanted her to claim her life as her own. To refuse to enter a loveless, passionless marriage with a man who would never desire her the way she should be desired. Or perhaps she could refuse to be a pawn on the chessboard of life. To…to…shit, to take what she wanted, and fight like hell to keep it. “That you aren’t going to do it. Tell Walt to go to hell.”
“I can’t say that yet.” She shook her head. “I won’t, until I make sure—”
The irony of this situation wasn’t lost on me. I’d never wanted more from a lover before, so I hadn’t been prepared for this feeling now. But here it was; there was nothing I could do to ignore it. And the worst part was, I damn well knew I couldn’t have more. Not only was she engaged to another man, but there was the small fact that Lilly was my stepsister. No one would accept us together.
Going public with our relationship would be a scandal of epic proportions.
I held a hand up, and she cut herself off immediately, like a good girl always should. Walt had trained her well. It made me sick. “We can’t tell people about this. No one can ever know.”
“I know. I just said that.” She avoided looking at me. “But we can keep seeing one another, like this. Be together secretly. No one has to know what’s going on. It can be our little secret. No one would ever guess.”
So she wanted to be a good little girl in public…but also the girl who fucked her stepbrother in private. I couldn’t do that. I refused to be her dirty little secret. I was too damn old for that. “So you want to sleep with me, while planning your wedding to Preppy Prick.”
“Yes.” She shrugged. “If I actually marry him, I wouldn’t break my marriage vows. Even if we never consummated it, I wouldn’t go there. I know it doesn’t make sense, given the situation, but I won’t cross that line.”
I blinked, unable to follow her logic. “But beforehand is okay?”
“Yes.” She frowned. “He’s with other people, too. I’ve seen it. So yes, to me, it’s okay. But only until the wedding—if there is a wedding.”
“After which you’ll be the ever-dutiful, loyal wife, even if he’s not loyal to you.” I fisted my hands. “Correction. Even when he’s not loyal to you, since he, you know, prefers men. Last time I checked, you didn’t have a cock.”
She shrank into herself at that. Her revulsion at committing herself to years of celibacy was physically clear to see, but at the same time, I saw her determination to do it, anyway. It was insane. “If that’s what it comes to…yes.”
If she told me she had a doubt—even a single, tiny one—about going through with it, maybe I’d feel differently. Maybe I’d try to convince her that she deserved to be happy with a man who could actually love her. I couldn’t be that man, but I knew the guy that could make her blissfully happy, who could stand by her side as they faced the world together, he existed. But if she was willing to commit herself to a loveless marriage that would make her miserable for a few years; if she actually thought that this was something she had to do, then so be it. Lilly could make her own choices.
But I refused to make it any easier on her. I wouldn’t be her buffer on the side. Her distraction from reality. Sex was off the table. Knowing my luck, I would end up falling for her—because, damn, if anyone could make me care, it was her—and she would still marry Preppy Prick.
And I would be stuck being his brother-in-law for God knows how long.
Hell, no.
It was best to call it off now, before anyone got too attached. Best to chalk it up to one night of stupidity, and move on like adults. I could do that. So could she. “We’re going to pretend this never happened. And it will never happen again.”
Blanching, she shook her head. “Jackson—”
“No.” I picked up my clothes, fury pumping through me. “If you think I’m gonna sit by quietly and let you marry a guy who you don’t even like, while having you in my bed every night, without ever giving a damn about you or how your life is going to end up, you’re out of your mind. What kind of guy do you think I am?”
And with that, I stormed out of the room, determined to forget about how wonderful Lilly Hastings felt naked in my arms….
Or how walking away from her felt worse than being shot.
Chapter 12
Lilly
The next morning, I pulled the covers over my head to shut out the sunlight illuminating my room. All night long, I tossed and turned, and my mind hadn’t shut off even for one second. I was going on two nights without a wink of sleep, and my brain felt sluggish and fogged up. All I could think and feel was Jackson, and all the orgasms he had given me, but now he wanted me to pretend it never happened.
Not freaking likely.
He might be experienced enough to put the past behind him, but I sure as hell wasn’t. I had had one actual sexual encounter—one—in my entire life, and it was with him. There was no way I could just shove his memory to the back of my mind behind the others, because there were no other memories. It was just him. And me. Naked.
That was it.
I closed my eyes, trying to forget about our fight, or how disappointed he seemed when I defended marrying Derek. But the thing was, I knew what I was getting myself into. I knew if I ended up marrying him, that it was never going to be some fairy-tale marriage, no matter how it looked from the outside.
But it didn’t matter.
If I didn’t find a way that could save Daddy’s company, and Derek’s, without the marriage, then I would do it. I might not want to, but I would. It was my happiness versus thousands of other people’s happiness—and there was no way I could win that battle.
If I didn’t marry Derek because I didn’t want to be tied down to someone I didn’t love, our fathers’ companies would fail. Companies that employed thousands of people. Those thousands of people had families. Kids. Parents. Spouses. All those people would be left without jobs and money and food on their tables because…what?
Because I couldn’t suck it up and marry a man who was a dick on a good day?
All because I wanted another orgasm?
I wasn’t that selfish, and I refused to let our employees down. If push came to shove, and there was no other way to save the companies, then I would do it. I’d bite the bullet and marry him. The needs of the many outweighed the needs of the one. That was that. Derek and I had grown up together; he’d been my escort to my sweet sixteen and our senior prom. Our parents had naturally hoped we’d unite the families at some vague point in the future, but when the companies started to flounder, vagueness became certainty.
Did it mean I was happy with that decision? That I didn’t wish that there was a way I could take control of my fate and still save the company, without having to marry Derek? Of course. That was what I was trying to do, while pretending to be a good little girl who would do as told. When I’d started to get restless as the future, and my eventual marriage, loomed ever closer, I’d sneakily visited a lawyer two towns over.
Under client confidentiality, she broke the news, pity in her eyes, that the only other option was to convince my father and the board to file an amendment to the articles. To change the contract, and offer shares up for sale to the public. I did learn that the articles didn’t specifically spell out what the familial relationship had to be, so long as the prenup said he was entitled to keep the shares if I was the one who filed for divorce.
It did. I made sure of that.
And if I married him, I would be divorcing him as soon as possible.
None of the menfolk thought much of it because who’d think Lilly Hastings had the spine to disrupt a carefully laid out plan? I knew our fathers were hoping that Derek and I would have a little Derek Thornton the fourth, but they were doomed to disappointment. Having a baby was the furthest thing from my mind. Derek was a “Preppy Prick,” but if he managed to convince me to sleep with him and I got pregnant, I wouldn’t just yank his kid away. Luckily for me, Derek would likely be equally as apathetic about having sex with me. As Jackson pointed out, I didn’t have a cock.
As for me, well…
Derek wasn’t Jackson.
Groaning, I yanked the covers back and scowled at the clock. The red numbers told me I should have gotten up for work ten minutes ago, so I climbed out of bed and hurried to get ready. Operating on no sleep didn’t exactly motivate me to give a crap about how I looked, so I grabbed a pair of leggings and a loose-fitting gray shirt with a sequined tiger face on my way into the bathroom. As I brushed my teeth, I turned on the shower and tossed the oversize shirt I’d worn last night to the side. It wasn’t till I spit and rinsed that I saw it.
I had blood smeared on my thighs. And it wasn’t that time.
It was evidence that I did something just because it made me happy.
Swallowing hard, I gaped at the mirror. Other than the blood, I didn’t look any different. I didn’t have a sign on my forehead announcing I was no longer a virgin. I didn’t even feel different. But yet, at the same time, I did. I felt older. More knowledgeable. More…
Trapped.
Jackson was right. My immediate future was loveless, celibate, and bleak. Derek and I could barely have a civil conversation; how could we ever have a meaningful relationship? He would never sweep me off my feet and make me come so hard I saw stars. He would never make me scream his name and curl my toes into the mattress.
Before Derek, I’d only dated suitable young men who had my parents’ approval. They would never dream of sullying the Hastings daughter, because I was the good girl they’d marry, not the kind they’d sow their wild oats with. So I stayed a virgin, contenting myself with masturbating, late at night when there was never the possibility of being overheard. I didn’t know there could be more than that. If I’d known what it felt like to have a man driving himself deep into me, the delicious helplessness of having that same man hold me down with effortless strength, well, maybe I would have been a bad girl sooner.
Probably not.
Because it wouldn’t have been Jackson.
Shaking off my dour thoughts, I stepped into the shower and washed as quickly as possible. I was a little bit sore, and it smarted between my legs when I moved too fast, but otherwise, I was fine. Well, fine, minus the fact that I soon had to face the stepbrother I’d screwed last night. The one who refused to help me cheat on my fiancé, despite repeatedly referring to him as “Preppy Prick.”
I wish I could hate him for that.
After dressing, I threw my hair in a sloppy bun, grabbed my purse, and headed down the stairs. As soon as I hit the foyer, Jackson came out of the kitchen, a mug of coffee in one hand, a to-go cup in another. He wore a black T-shirt that hugged him in all the right places and a pair of dark blue jeans. He looked unfairly sexy.
Then again, if I ever thought he didn’t look sexy, I would clearly be on my deathbed.
We stared at one another, and the way he looked at me, as if he was remembering me naked, made me shift uncomfortably, experiencing a different kind of ache between my legs now. “I made you coffee,” he said, his tone even and cautious.
“Thank you,” I said, reaching out for it. Our fingers brushed, and my stomach tightened at the innocent caress. His jaw flexed, so I knew he felt it, too—the sexual tension that had been there between us since the first night in the bar. “You didn’t have to do that.”
He ducked his head. “I know, but I wanted to. Despite my actions last night, I want us to be friends, Lilly. I don’t want what happened between us to be something we can’t move on from. We did it, it was great, but now it’s over. And we go back to being friends…family…whatever you want to call it.”
I held on to the coffee tightly, allowing it to warm my hands, because his words doused whatever heat I was feeling. Not because they were cold or anything—it was actually very kind of him. But because I didn’t want to be his friend. I wanted more. I wanted him. And I couldn’t have him. “I’d like that, too. Very much.”
“Good.” He smiled at me, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Your car’s outside. I went and got it last night.”
“Oh.” I hadn’t even thought about that. “Thanks again.”
“Anytime.” He rocked back on his feet. “If you come home in time tonight, I’m going to make pizza for dinner. You don’t want to miss it.”
God, he was good at this.
He acted as if he’d already slotted me away in his “hit it, quit it” files. I couldn’t see any lingering desire or passion. It was as if he’d thrown a mental switch and no longer thought of me like that. It hurt more than it should have.
But I straightened my spine and forced a cool smile to my lips. If he could move on and act as if last night didn’t mean a thing to him, so could I. “Yeah, sure. That sounds wonderful. I love pizza.”
“I know. I remember.” We stared at one another, the silence hovering awkwardly. After a little bit, he shifted his feet. “Did you need something else?”
“N-no.” I opened the door. “I’ll see you late—oh, crap.”
Derek stood outside my door, keys in hand. He never, ever came to my house, so why now? Why this morning, after Jackson and I…crap.
This couldn’t be happening.
“Hey, I have a meeting at your dad’s office today about the merger, and thought I would stop by and introduce myself to your—what the hell?” Derek broke off, finally seeing Jackson, who stood behind me. His colorful facial rainbow had faded to pastels, and he clearly hadn’t been too drunk to remember whose fist painted it. “What’s he doing here?”
I glanced over my shoulder at Jackson, who glowered at Derek. As soon as he saw me looking, though, he smoothed his face into a mask of nothing before he stepped forward, hand extended. “I’m Jackson Worthington, Lilly’s stepbrother.”
“I’m Derek, her fiancé.”
I didn’t correct him, because as far as he knew, I was playing along. Willing to marry him. “Derek, Jackson. Jackson, Derek.”
Derek didn’t take his hand. “You punched me. That was you in the club.”
“Yeah, I guess we got off on the wrong foot.” Jackson smiled and withdrew his hand, still holding his coffee in a tight grip with the other. His mug had an army logo on it. “I saw someone go up to Lilly, and she seemed upset, so I intervened. I’m her stepbrother, after all. I’m sure you understand my…protectiveness, right?”
Derek flushed, gave Jackson a once-over, and took his hand. “I wasn’t drunk. I was just feeling a little…frisky. So I sought out my beautiful fiancée.” He dropped Jackson’s hand and wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me closer. “Surely you understand that.”
Jackson stared at the spot where Derek held me, right above my hip. “Of course. And as long as the ‘frisky’ feeling is mutual, I would never interfere.”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Derek snapped.
Jackson didn’t say anything. Just raised a brow.
Derek stared back at him. He didn’t even look away when he asked me, “Would you like a ride to work? We have to go to your parents’ house after you’re done, so it seemed like a good idea to carpool.”
Damn it. Dinner. I forgot all about that. “Uh, yeah, sure. I would like a ride.”
“Guess I’ll be eating pizza alone,” Jackson drawled. He shoved his free hand into his pocket and clucked his tongue. “More for me.”
“You should come,” I said quickly. “To dinner. Tell them you’re back.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so.”
Derek opened the door. “Pity. I would have loved seeing you there.”
“I’m sure you would have,” Jackson said, his tone way too cheerful. “How long, exactly, have you two known each other?”
“Since childhood,” Derek said. He turned back to Jackson, his smile tight. “Since before her father decided to marry your mother. Long before you came into the picture.”
