Lately, I'd been high all the time, if not from my own pot, then from contact.
The days, now those were beautiful. Just me and my fiddle in the studio.
That's why I came out here. One of the best music collectives in the damn country. I thought I'd belong here. That it was a going to be a seamless transition.
But I was alone. Alone in a strange city with people who were more concerned with their high and their art than other people.
I was still invisible.
The cool night air hit me as soon as I emerged onto the back stoop. No one else out here, everyone was more concerned with the jam session going on in there.
It was my moment. So I did the thing I'd been aching to do all evening. I grabbed the joint out of my pocket and stuck it in my mouth, searching for my lighter. f*ck
. I didn't want to go back in there.
I looked around the back stoop area, hoping someone left one around here.
"You need a light?" a deep silky voice asked from behind me. I turned to accept, my bottom lip sagging when I realized exactly who I was looking at.
Janson.
I should've known by the way his deep timber lit up all my senses, but it couldn't be. Not here. Still, his rock-hard form stood solid and real as he quirked a lip into a dirty smile. I shoved the joint back into my pocket.
I'd had a crush on the man ever since I was old enough to know what a crush was. It was silly, just a schoolgirl thing, following my big brother's best friend around. Dreaming he might feel the same way. I'd moved on from it as soon as high school hit, but it would always be there in the back of my mind.
Even when I was furious that my brother sent someone for me.
"What in the hell are you doing here?" I asked, more like hissed, as I took a step back from him.
I didn't need the joint. I already had a pretty good buzz going from all the pot smoke and the whiskey I'd been shooting. I tripped over my feet, and he reached out, catching me and pulling me to him.
"I came to get you," he said as he looked down at me, that chiseled jaw so close.
I could lean in. I could see what his stubble felt like on my lips. I could taste the salt on his skin.
But that would be wrong. He wouldn't like that. I wasn't that f*ck
ed up.
"So what, you just going to pick me up like a caveman and carry me out of here back to Baltimore?" That sucked all the fun right out of the night.
"Would you stick around if I did?" he asked.
Smart man.
"f*ck
no."
"Didn't think so. I'm here to protect you, not kidnap you. Not yet, anyway." He released his hold on me, and my heart skipped a beat. I didn't want him to let go. It was the first time I'd been touched like that in forever. "I want you to come home with me."
"Home?"
"Back to my place, my cousin's place. Got a condo off the lake."
I should've guessed it would've been something fancy like that. Humboldt Park wasn't fancy, hell, it was halfway to being a f*ck
ing cesspool. It was the kind of place that people had been calling "up and coming" for a decade, but there was nothing "up" about it. It was a slum with hipster appeal. The kind that made me feel comfortable. I might've grown up in the suburbs in Severna Park, but I was an alien there. I'd always gravitated towards the grungy neighborhoods in Baltimore, and Humboldt fit that description here in Chicago.
But I was getting tired of the scene.
Maybe a fresh place and a shower would do me good.
A place that wasn't so filled with people, they were sleeping on the floors and in the broken down tub of the once-vacant tenement house.
"I'll go with you tonight, but I'm not coming home to Baltimore."
"I'll take that. For now." The way Janson said it, I had a feeling there was no choice in the matter anyway. If I had turned him down, he would've gone caveman on my ass.
Not like anyone would notice.
"Fine."
Janson
I gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, my fingers running along the threads of the stitched leather. I avoided Kathryn as soon as she hit eighteen. She'd always had a silly little crush on me, and as soon as she was old enough to be an option, I couldn't help but notice her.
She was gorgeous, and even in this unkempt state, I couldn't ignore it.
The way those jeans hugged that tight ass and her plaid shirt dipped down into her cleavage...
f*ck
.
She was barely an adult. I couldn't think about her like this. It was wrong.
And yet my cock was getting rock hard as I tried to focus on the road. I didn't know the streets of Chicago like I did Baltimore, and I couldn't afford the distraction.
There were a lot of things I couldn't afford. We had a war brewing, and I should've been there helping. Not rounding up strays.
I was mad about the whole thing and that only made me hornier.
f*ck
.
I had to get it out of my head. Get her out of my head.
So I just drove and tried not to even look at her. It was all I could do. I was f*ck
ing twisted.
Kathryn