Текст книги "Playing for Keeps"

Автор книги: R. L. Mathewson

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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 15 страниц)

Chapter 20

Jason couldn't help smiling as he looked down at his little grasshopper. Not only had he proved that Haley loved him, but that had been the hottest sex of his life. She'd been so unbelievably hot and wet and so fucking tight he'd almost exploded when he'd entered her.

The last two months had definitely been worth the wait. Sex had never felt so good before. Just thinking about how good it was had his cock hardening for more.

"Get off me!" Haley said, shoving him away.

Confused as hell, Jason moved off of her.

"What's wrong?"

"You had sex with me because someone told you I wouldn't have sex with you? You had sex to prove someone wrong?" she damn near yelled.

He held his hands up in a placating manor, hoping to calm her down, but dropped them when he remembered she couldn't see.

"It's not like that!"

"Oh? Then no one told you I wouldn't sleep with you?"

He ran a hand through his hair, wondering how this had gone bad so fast. "Look," he sighed, "maybe we should go inside and talk about this."

"Now? Now you want to talk about this?" she demanded, trying to walk past him and almost falling into the pool. He quickly caught her. As soon as she was steady, she shoved his hands away and cautiously walked around the pool.

"I can't believe you did this!"

That caught him short. "What the hell do you mean? How exactly was this a surprise? I'm your fucking boyfriend, Haley. This was bound to happen sooner or later with the way we were going at each other."

"Just because we're dating doesn't mean I was going to sleep with you!" she snapped.

Holy shit.....

They'd been right.

"You were never planning on sleeping with me were you?" he demanded, not bothering to hide how pissed he was.

"I wasn't sure yet! Up until ten minutes ago I hadn't made up my mind!"

He rounded the pool just as Haley found her glasses and put them on.

"You were fucking playing me?" he demanded.

When she didn't answer he continued. "Your friends were right. You were getting a kick out of playing me!" he yelled, for the first time since he met her not caring that he made her flinch.

"Did you brag that you brought me to my knees and kept me panting? Was this payback for all the bullshit I put you through over the years? Did you even care for me a little bit or was all this a fucking game to you?"

"A game?" she demanded, wiping away tears that Jason wouldn't let affect him. She was upset? Too fucking bad, because he was pissed. She'd played him.

"You have the nerve to yell at me when you just took my virginity to prove something?" she demanded.

He froze.

A virgin?

She'd been tight, but.......

"Oh my god," he croaked.

"I don't know who you spoke to, well, I have an idea who, but they left out one very important item. I was saving myself for the man I thought I'd spend the rest of my life with. That's why I didn't sleep with you," she said, clearly trying to fight back the tears.

Just like that all the anger in him drained away. He reached out to pull her into his arms only to have his hands weakly slapped away.

"You were so damn eager to prove something that you didn't even stop to think about what you were doing!"

"Baby," he said, keeping his tone gentle, "if I had known you were a virgin I would have done this differently, but I can't regret this." He took a steadying breath. "I'm in love with you Haley."

"Ow!" he said when his little grasshopper kicked him in the shin. "What the hell was that for? I told you I love you and you attack me?"

"That's for being a jerk! You wait until you screw up to pull out the big guns? How about telling me that and making love to me because you love me and not because you felt you had something to prove?"

He nodded solemnly as he reached out for her. "That sounds reasonable. Let's go inside and I'll do this right."

"Are you crazy? You think I'm going to let you touch me after what just happened?"

"I'm really sorry about this," he said, reaching for her again.

"You actually thought I could hurt you? That's worse than anything you've done here tonight," she said, gesturing wildly towards the pool. "It should have been more than obvious that I loved you," she mumbled, wiping frantically at the tears streaming down her face.

Jason felt his heart break as he watched her. "Haley, I'm so sorry."

Haley ignored his apology and he couldn't say that he really blamed her at the moment. "You were so busy trying to prove that I wasn't playing you that you didn't think."

"What are you-"

"Jason, I'm not on birth control and you didn't wear a condom," she said, cutting him off.

"Oh shit," he mumbled. He'd fucked up in so many ways tonight he wasn't sure where to start, but he knew which fuck up was the most important.

"Oh shit is right," Haley snapped, opening the sliding glass door and stepping inside.

He'd never forgotten to wear a condom before. Not once. He licked his suddenly dry lips. "Haley, we have to talk."

"You should have thought about that before," she said, turning her back on him.

"Haley, please don't do this."

"Just leave me alone, Jason," she said, shutting the door and locking it.

She was just mad, he told himself as he waited for her to come back and give him another piece of her mind. He'd fucked up big time, but they'd both known from the beginning that he was probably going to do that.

After a few minutes he was sure she'd realize that he never really believed she could hurt him. He loved her. She had to know that he wouldn't love her unless he trusted her. She just needed a few minutes to cool off.

When a few minutes turned into thirty minutes he forced himself to move. He just needed to apologize to her. He hopped over the small picket fence separating their properties and made his way to her window more than ready to beg and plead if that's what it took to get her to listen to him when the sound of her quiet sobs caught his attention.

"Haley?"

No answer.

He stood there wondering what the hell he should do. Suddenly crawling into her room and pleading with her didn't seem like such a smart idea. She needed time to think, probably more time then he'd given her.

"I'll be in my room when you're ready to talk. So, just yell or call when you're ready," he said loudly, feeling like a useless idiot and not having a damn clue what to do. He left, hoping she'd come to him when she was ready.

******************

Haley spent half the night crying and waiting for Jason to crawl through the window and hold her. When she realized that wasn't going to happen she grabbed a pillow and a throw blanket and headed for the couch, unable to sleep in her own bed without Jason.

She couldn't believe how much this hurt. She'd been an idiot to think she could prepare herself for this moment. Losing Jason was hard enough, but the way he'd hurt her......

In one night she'd apparently lost so much, her best friend, boyfriend, her virginity and her heart. On top of that it appeared she'd lost a few of her friends, which she really could care less about if truth be told. There was a reason after all why she kept putting off girl's night and it had very little to do with Jason. They'd been a part of the old Haley's life, the pushover version of herself where she never spoke up for herself and let others push her around. A few months ago when they started hassling her about Jason and letting her know they couldn't believe Jason settled for someone like her she should have cut them out of her life, but hesitated. She didn't like hurting anyone's feelings and apparently Jason didn't know that about her.

How could he have thought she would do that to him? She could just imagine what Amy and her friend Kate, well mostly Kate, could have said to upset him, but what she couldn't understand is why he didn't talk to her first.

Admittedly it was a conversation they should have had in the beginning, but that didn't excuse his behavior. He'd set out to seduce her consequences be damned. It hadn't mattered if she had her reasons for wanting to wait or how she felt for that matter. He'd only cared about himself.

She wished she'd realized that sooner, especially before last night. All these years wasted and for what? A horrible experience she could never take back. For that alone she would never be able to forgive Jason.

*************

"You're out of eggs," Mitch yelled.

"I don't care," Jason said, never taking his eyes away from Haley's front door.

Around three this morning he'd realized he'd fucked up this situation even more by not going to her. He spent the next two hours going over every single moment from the night before, trying to figure out exactly when he'd fucked up and made a list. After he made sure he hadn't missed anything he folded the three page list, front and back, and stuffed it in his back pocket and came outside waiting for Haley so he could start apologizing.

He contemplated waking her up, but then he'd have one more thing to apologize for so he settled for waiting on his front step. A half hour ago Mitch decided to join him after he spotted him waiting outside on his way home. It hadn't taken long for the other man to figure out that he'd fucked up.

"Are you going to sit out here all day?" Mitch asked, stepping out the front door. "I'm starving. Let's go get something for breakfast. By the time we get back Haley will be up and you can go grovel."

Jason stubbornly shook his head. "I'm not leaving until I talk to her. Besides, I'm not hungry."

"Holy Christ," Mitch mumbled, crossing himself.

He ignored Mitch and focused on Haley's front door. A few minutes later it opened and Haley stumbled out. Jason was on his feet within seconds and heading for her. He really wasn't sure how much longer he would have been able to wait before breaking into her house and begging for her forgiveness.

"Haley, I....," he trailed off when he spotted the large duffle bag she was half carrying, half dragging. "What's going on?"

For the first time in months Haley's face didn't light up when she saw him. She pushed her glasses back up her nose and went back to pulling the bag.

"I'm going away," she said, sounding sad.

"For how long?" Jason asked, feeling as though his entire world was crashing down around him.

"A week," Haley said, walking past him as she dragged that damn bag.

A week? No, they couldn't be apart for a week. That was too much time. A week thinking over how badly he'd fucked up and how much better off without him she would be was not what they needed. They needed to work this out here and now so he could get on with the groveling.

"I don't think that's such a great idea, Haley," he said, automatically lifting the bag and placing it in her opened trunk for her when she began struggling to lift it. "Why don't we go inside and talk this over?"

She shook her head stubbornly. "I can't. If I don't go I'll be out of a thousand dollars."

He waved that aside like it was nothing. "I'll reimburse you. Just stay here and let me explain about last night."

"There's nothing to explain, Jason," Haley said, shaking her head sadly. "I think it's for the best if we end things now."

Her words felt like a punch to the gut. "You're just mad, Haley. Maybe...maybe you're right. Maybe you just need a week to think things over," he said quickly, desperate to do or say anything that would make her take it back. "Take a week, think it over. We both knew I was going to fuck up at some point, my little grasshopper. After you think about it you'll realize that's all it was. Then you'll come back here and I'll grovel and we'll move past this."

She couldn't even look at him as she said, "I'm really sorry, Jason."

Jason couldn't move, could hardly breathe as Haley stood up on her toes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "I'm sorry," she said, sounding close to tears. "We'll always be friends," she said, delivering the killing blow.

Chapter 20

Haley just barely stopped herself from looking for Jason when she stepped back outside and saw that he'd left. It was for the best she told herself as she threw her small backpack into the trunk. She closed it and walked slowly to the driver's side, hoping to catch one last glimpse of him.

Even though she'd always known they had no future she couldn't stop herself from feeling disappointed. He'd given her up so easily. Maybe it was a good thing that they were over then, she told herself. If he gave up so easily then he really didn't care about her and it was for the best that she found out now.

At least that's why she tried to tell herself over the next three hours as she drove. Every five minutes she was either checking to make sure her phone still worked or stopping herself from calling him. She just wanted to hear his voice.

She knew it was over between them, but that didn't mean anything to her heart. All she wanted to do was pull the car over and curl up into a ball and cry, but she wouldn't allow herself that release, not yet. When she arrived at the cottage, then she'd allow herself to break down in privacy and use the week to mend her heart.

After this week was over she really didn't know what she was going to do. She'd told him they would always be friends, but she really didn't think she'd be able to see him day in and day out and survive after this. Worse, what would she do when a woman woke her up screaming Jason's name after he tossed her aside? Haley wouldn't be able to survive knowing Jason had been with another woman.

During the next week when she wasn't crying, or getting drunk into oblivion, she'd figure out what to do about work and her house. If worse came to worse she could rent out her house and find an apartment even if only temporary. Work would be another issue. Right now she worked at one of the most prestigious private schools in the country, but she knew if she left she'd most likely end up working at a public school for a lot less money.

Her stomach's rumbling thankfully broke her out of her rather depressing thoughts. She took the next exit off the highway. Ten minutes later she was back on the highway and frowning down at her purchase, an extra large orange juice, three coffee rolls, two muffins and three apple pastries.

"Great, he's got me trained," she muttered with an eye roll. Either she'd have to break herself out of the habit of ordering for a small army or she'd become fat, she thought with a sigh. She picked up one of the coffee rolls and took a small bite before putting it down and taking a sip of juice. When a particularly annoying song came on the radio she spent a minute looking for a decent song. When she finally found one, she picked up her coffee roll and frowned at the half eaten baked item.

Apparently she'd eaten more than she thought. Great, she was eating out of depression and would no doubt be as big as a house by the time school started in a few weeks. She took a bite out of her coffee roll and placed it back on the passenger seat and picked up her now half empty juice.

"What the hell?" she murmured, taking her eyes off the road to look down at the insane amount of food she'd bought. Hadn't she bought two muffins and three apple pastries? There was only one of each now. She was starting to wonder if she was going crazy when a large tan hand suddenly appeared, scaring the holy hell out of her.

She let out a surprised yelp, jerking the wheel to the right and almost crashing into a tow truck. It took her a few seconds before her brain started to function again and when it did she narrowed her eyes on the hand that was blindly searching for the orange juice.

Glaring, she reached down and pinched the back of the hand. Hard.

"Ow!"

Haley stole a quick glance back at the backseat and cursed. Somehow Jason had managed to fold his large frame onto the floor of her midsize car and cover himself with the large towel she kept back there.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Jason sighed heavily as he tossed the towel away and struggled to climb off the floor. Once he was comfortably seated in the back seat he reached forward and snagged her orange juice. "Having breakfast." He took a sip. "What does it look like?"

"Why are you in my car?" she demanded as she did her best to glare at him and keep the car driving in a straight line.

"How else do you expect us to finish our fight?" he asked, leaning forward to snag the last apple pastry. He took a big bite before holding it to her lips for her to do the same.

She shoved his hand away. "What the hell do you mean to finish our fight? We were done, Jason. I'm sorry, but it's over," she said, trying to remain calm.

"No, we didn't."

"Yes, we did."

"I don't think so," he said calmly, finishing off the rest of the pastry as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"For god sake, Jason, I dumped you!" she snapped, feeling the last thread of patience snap.

She looked up in the rearview mirror when he didn't say anything for a minute only to find him frowning. Finally he shook his head. "No, I think I would have remembered that."

Her mouth dropped open.

"Anyway," Jason continued as if he hadn't just left her speechless with that little announcement, "after our talk I realized that you planned a week away for us and I really couldn't agree more. A week away is exactly what we need to work through our problems."

"Oh my god," she mumbled, "you're insane."

Another careless shrug.

"So, where are we going anyway?" Jason asked, getting comfortable.

"We aren't going anywhere. I'm leaving you at the next rest stop. You can hitchhike your way back home."

"That's really not going to work for me," Jason said, giving her a sexy smile when she glared at him through the mirror.

Her grip tightened on the steering wheel as she prayed for patience. "Jason, it's over. I'm sorry, but you have to accept it."

"No, I don't," he said calmly, irritating her even more.

"Jason," she said tightly.

"Haley," he mocked in the same tone, making her lips twitch damn him!

She sighed heavily. "Jason, you really hurt me last night. I don't think you-"

"I know I really fucked up, Haley, but if you remember I did tell you when we started that I was most likely going to mess this up," he said, cutting her off.

"Yeah, you did, Jason, and last night you proved beyond a doubt that you aren't capable of being in a relationship."

"No, last night I proved that I'm a fucking idiot," Jason said matter-of-factly.

She wasn't going to argue with that since she'd come to the same conclusion after hearing what happened, but that didn't mean she'd changed her mind.

"Jason, we're over," she said more softly.

He snorted. "No, we're not."

"Yes, we are! Stop saying that!"

"No, we're just fighting. You love me and you damn well know it."

She opened her mouth to deny it, but she couldn't. She did love him. More than anything on this earth, but he'd hurt her last night and she wasn't so sure that she could trust him not to do it again.

When she didn't say anything he settled back in his seat and said, "I'm coming with you so you might as well get used to it. The sooner we get the fight over with the sooner we can move onto the next phase."

"What phase?" she asked cautiously.

"Makeup sex," he said, grinning hugely as he wiggled his eyebrows.

***************

"What are we doing here?" Jason asked as he climbed out of the car, but not before Haley did. He wasn't an idiot after all. She was still pissed off at him and was probably still looking for a way to ditch his ass. In retrospect, he probably shouldn't have made that makeup sex comment.

The hour they spent at the rest stop had definitely proved that. She'd tried everything she could to get him out of her car, but he refused to budge. Finally when she was out of breath and exhausted from trying to drag him out of the car, it was a sad attempt, she gave up, slammed the door shut and drove off, ignoring him for the next two hours.

"I need groceries," she muttered unhappily, throwing another glare in his direction. When her eyes shot between the Super Wal-Mart center and her car he snagged the keys out of her hand.

"Hey!" She tried to grab them away from him.

"Sorry, my little grasshopper, you're not ditching me at Wally World," he said, pocketing her keys and heading for the store, leaving her to either fume at him or follow. He didn't bother looking back since he knew she wasn't going anywhere.

Although Wal-Mart wouldn't be his first choice, this solved one problem. He didn't have any clothes since he'd been in a bit of a rush to hide in Haley's car before she spotted him. But this would work out rather nicely for him and since he could smell the salt in the air he knew exactly what to buy.

"I hate you," Haley mumbled, storming past him to grab a carriage.

"You love and adore me," Jason informed her as he deftly snagged her carriage away from her and headed towards the men's department.

Along the way he stopped at the women's department when a little black bikini caught his eye, deciding that it would look great on Haley he threw it into the carriage as well as the red one behind it. He wasn't too worried when Haley didn't follow him. He figured she was somewhere in the store trying to calm down or buy a baseball to beat his ass into submission.

That was fine. They had a whole week to work their problems out whether she wanted to or not. She was his, plain and simple and the sooner she realized they'd be together forever the sooner he could correct the mistake he made last night and show her how good it could be between them.

After he grabbed swim trunks, enough clothes for the week and a few toiletries he headed for the grocery section. When he spotted Haley's carriage he couldn't help but snort in disbelief. Did she really think buying single servings of food was going to feed them for a week? Clearly their fight had addled her brain.

He paused near her carriage ignoring her cute little glare and dumped all his things into her basket.

"Hey!" she said, trying to stop him. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I need more room in my carriage for food," he simply said. He headed towards the dairy section, hoping she wouldn't just ditch his shit to get back at him. Then again she should know that if she did he would take it as an invitation to walk around naked the entire week.

"Why do you need bubble bath?" she asked as she came up next to him in front of the dairy coolers.

He placed two gallons of milk in the carriage. "It's for you," he said in a tone that let her know it should be more than obvious. His little grasshopper loved taking long hot bubble baths to relax and he really needed her to relax if he was going to convince her to forgive him and forget about that breakup nonsense.

"O-kay," she said slowly, picking up a familiar black cardboard box. "And what about these? A twenty pack and magnum size no less, someone thinks awfully highly of himself."

Sighing, Jason reached over and snatched the box of condoms out of her hands. "Only one box? I thought I grabbed three," he murmured, making a show of looking in her carriage for the other boxes. Finally with a resigned sigh he threw the box back. "Remind me to grab a few boxes on the way out."

With that he headed over to the cookie section, knowing she was definitely going to follow this time.

"Why the hell would I remind you? We're not going need one box, never mind three!"

Jason really couldn't help but smile at that little announcement. "Okay," he said, grabbing the box of condoms and sticking it on the top shelf between some figs and jelly cookies. "I was hoping you'd say that."

The damage had already been done last night. Granted if it had been any other woman he would have dragged her ass to the emergency room for the morning after pill, but with Haley he felt oddly calm about the whole thing. Actually, he felt a little excited at the idea of Haley having his child.

Up until a few hours ago he hadn't given much thought to the consequences of last night. He'd been too scared that he'd lost Haley for good to really give it some thought, but once he found himself squeezed into his little hiding place he hadn't had much to do but think.

When he allowed himself to consider having a kid he may have freaked out just a little. Thankfully Haley had been blasting the radio so she probably didn't hear him hyperventilating. After he finally managed to calm down he allowed himself to think about Haley pregnant with his child. He'd been a little shocked when the idea didn't freak him out.

Soon he was picturing little girls with mischievous green eyes and pigtails asking him to play tea. Of course he'd bring real food to the tea party. None of that pretend food bullshit for his little girls.

By the time Haley had stopped for breakfast he'd been calmer about everything. He'd already decided to ignore that breakup nonsense. It was just ridiculous and he knew sooner or later Haley would realize that so they could get started on making their all girl baseball team.

"You were?" Haley asked, looking so damn confused and adorable.

"Damn straight," he said, grabbing several cookie packages and tossing them into his carriage. "Nothing should come between us when we're making love," he explained, loving the way her little face went bright red.

"We're not doing that again!" she hissed quietly.

Not doing it again? Puhlease. If there was one thing he knew about his little grasshopper it was that she was as insatiable in the bedroom as he was. He'd have her in his bed by the end of the day, guaranteed.