- Three -
AUDREY - Present day…
“Audrey, if you pick up one more damn box, I swear I’ll lock your ass in my closet until I’m done unpacking this truck!” Lane yells at me, as he’s backing the moving dolly stacked with three large boxes through our front door.
“Lane, I’m perfectly capable of carrying my own boxes,” I laugh, while darting around him. Chuck weaves in and out between the two of us, excited about his new surroundings.
“You weigh basically nothing. I’m afraid you’ll snap in half or something carrying these,” Lane says. Once I set the box down, I reach out and pinch the tiny bit of extra skin on his lower back. I’m surprised I can even grasp anything with how tight and toned he’s become. He swats my hand away and says, “Just start unpacking, I’ll unload.”
“I can help--” I insist, while trying to mess up his sandy brown hair.
He cuts me off with a ridiculous pouty lip. “Please, it’ll make me feel better.” No guy his size should have such a look. He knows that he’s won because I can’t resist his begging.
I was more than hesitant about this move, and I wouldn’t have done it for anyone other than Lane. The fact that we were both accepted into the same Masters of Accounting program doesn’t hurt either. Last year, I was shocked when both of our acceptance letters arrived in the mail, considering I had never even applied. Apparently, Lane took the liberty to apply for me. He told me that he didn’t plan on leaving without me, but he needed a reason for me to come along. And besides my cousin, Kennedy, Lane is my only friend so, to be honest, I would follow him anywhere.
The only thing that made me hesitant about moving up here was that I knew I’d now be on the same campus as Jace. It was hard enough living in San Diego, which isn’t too far from LA, for the past three years, but now I run the risk of actually bumping into him on a daily basis. If I see him, I know I’ll act ridiculous again and I can’t chance that. I’ve embarrassed myself enough around the Riley boys.
One year ago…
After more than two years of gabbing about Jace, Lane has finally convinced me to go and do something about it. I’m sweating bullets as he drives me two hours north to where Jace and Jaxon are attending school. I hate that he has to leave and get back to class because this could backfire in my face and I won’t have a place to stay. I realize how bold this is of me to just show up, but this is not something that can be done over the phone, and if I prepare him at all for my arrival, he’ll just shoot me down.
I see their truck parked in a garage outside the apartment building, which tells me I’m at the right place. Lane wishes me luck and drives away with all of my courage sitting safely in his front seat. As I’m making my way up the stairs, Jaxon sees me and hauls me inside his apartment, past the living room, and into his bedroom, without saying a word. Well, this is going fantastic.
I can see by the daggers he’s glaring at me that I’m not welcome here already. He’s still mad at me for things that he never cared to find out the truth about, and I don’t see the need to fill him in just to make him feel better. Plus, it wouldn’t make him feel better. He just wouldn’t hate me as much.
“What are you doing here, Audrey? I don’t need this shit right now. Why the hell would you fly all the way out to California? Isn’t this something you could have picked up a damn phone and called me about?”
I begin to tune him out at this point because he’s on a roll that he apparently needs to get out. He has no idea that I only live two hours away and that I sure as hell didn’t come up here to see him. The only good part about this little tantrum is that I can sit here and take him in.
He’s all grown up now and I can only imagine that Jace has done the same. Typically, a voice like his wouldn’t bother me, but I’ve associated this voice with my big mistake. It was my first hint that something was wrong, the first clue that I should have grabbed onto and shook until I discovered he wasn’t Jace. As I sit here, taking in his large shoulders and long, lean legs, I tune back in to hear him still reprimanding me. If he knew me at all, he would know that I’m an expert at blocking out harsh words. After dealing with it for eighteen and a half years, they just roll off my back now.
“Where’s Jace?” I ask, not caring if I’m interrupting him or not.
He freezes for a second and frowns at me, and I wonder if he’s trying to figure out why I’m asking him about his brother. “Audrey, are you listening to anything I’m saying? This is not a good time. I need to find Emerson, and you can’t be here when I bring her back.”
I don’t know who Emerson is, but damn… poor girl. Jax and I “dated” for three months, and I’m still surprised I stuck around that long. Jax is wild and just too much to handle. He has a nice side, but even that got on my nerves. He could never make a decision to save his life. Every time we sat in his Camaro trying to choose where we should eat, we’d go back and forth, telling the other to just pick something. Meanwhile, all I could think about was that I bet Jace would’ve just taken charge and we’d already be eating by now.
“I don’t need to be here when Emerson comes, Jaxon. Just point me toward Jace.”
“Jace is f*cking busy!” he yells. “He’s out there making something out of himself. Shouldn’t you be in Texas taking care of your child and screwing physics teachers?” I know he’s upset, and maybe in his mind, he has a right to be. But something else has to be going on in his life because Jax was never mean. Even when everything went sour between us, he had never been intentionally cruel the way he’s being now.
“You don’t know a damn thing about my life,” I state in a hard tone and stand to make my way toward his door. I may be able to let cruel words roll off my back, but in the last few years, I’ve also acknowledged that I don’t have to listen to them. And Jaxon brought up the one thing I wasn’t going to talk about. Lane is the only person on this planet who knows what really happened. Lane is the only person who ever cared to ask. No one asked. Not my mother, not my father, not Jaxon--no one cared enough to even ask.
As I make my way out of Jax’s bedroom, I find myself face-to-face with the one person that haunts my dreams. I want to hug him and I want to hit him. I hate that I still think about him. I mean, we met, we had coffee once, and we kissed twice. Why after three years do I still feel a connection with him? Have I just built him up in my head? Maybe it’s because he was the first person, outside of Mrs. Thomas and Nico, to show me real kindness. Or maybe it’s the fact that every time I saw him after that fateful day, he looked at me with such longing I swear I could feel it in my bones.
“Audrey…” he whispers in shock. He gives me that look, and I can immediately tell he still feels it. Maybe it’s purely just an attraction, but the electricity buzzing within me proves there is still something between us.
Behind me, I hear Jaxon curse under his breath. “Ignore her, Jace. Get back in here, Audrey,” he says, pulling me back into his room. I almost cry at being so close to Jace, and once again not being able to do anything about it.
This is icy territory that I’m still not sure how to approach. I could just blurt out the truth to Jaxon. I want to, God, do I want to. I want to tell him everything. I want to tell him how I’ve only wanted Jace since the moment I met him. In a way, I know Jaxon won’t care that I had only been with him to waste time. He already knew that.
The morning he brought me back home for breakfast after Cole’s party, he asked me to be his girlfriend. Right away, I refused. But then he explained that he thought I was a cool chick and we could have some fun together. He also wanted to get his mom and brother off his back, since apparently he’d been acting wild lately. He claimed that if he had a steady girlfriend, maybe they would lay off him and not worry so much. Stupidly, I actually considered his crazy idea.
When I later realized that Jace was a lost cause, I explained to Jax that I cared about someone I couldn’t have, and that the only way I would “date” him was if he knew that it wouldn’t be going anywhere. I also wanted to get away from my house more often. He completely agreed, saying he really only needed a buffer to keep his mom at bay. I didn’t have normal parents, so I had no idea what he was talking about.
We crafted this strange sort of relationship and friendship between us. I won’t lie, we had a good time together. But there was always something missing for both of us. If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t have agreed to it, but I was young and stupid and just trying to find an escape from my home life.
For the next three years, I compared every guy I came across to Jace, and they always came up short. That’s when Lane decided I needed to try and do something about it. I hadn’t seen Jaxon in years and I hoped the fact that we had never been in love would help to sway Jace’s opinion on the matter. Maybe Jace just needed to see that I never really meant anything to his brother and that it had always been him for me.
Nevertheless, when Jaxon pulled me away from Jace and back into his room, I realized it wasn’t my story to tell. This is his twin brother we’re talking about here. If Jace didn’t want him to know, I couldn’t hurt him even more by telling Jaxon. I spent the entire week trying to get Jace alone, but he slipped in and out of the apartment like a ghost and I couldn’t get him to listen for even a second. Halfway through the week, he stopped coming back to the apartment altogether.
When I finally met Emerson, I instantly despised her. Not because she was beautiful, and not because I sat around all week listening to Cole and Jax talk about her like she walked on water. None of that bothered me. What made me seethe was that the first time I met her, Jace had his arm around her shoulders. Who the hell was this girl, and how did she have all of these guys wrapped around her little finger?
Cole’s new girlfriend lived next door, and from what I was able to gather, she was Em’s best friend. I figured out that Jace had been hiding out over there, so every day I tried to stay close to the door in hopes that I could catch him. One day I heard him outside the apartment calling out to Quinn and I jumped up to open the door. He was already running down the hallway and heading out toward the parking lot. I was still in my pajamas and my hair was in a messy bun on the top of my head, but I didn’t care. My time was running out. Lane had called that morning to ask about my progress, and when I told him I was still at square one, he told me that I needed to kick it into high gear. I had classes to get back to.
Jace came back down the hallway with one arm wrapped around a beautiful, blonde-haired girl who could only be the infamous Emerson. His opposite hand was holding a large duffel bag. I winced, knowing that I was going to have to do this in front of her. But before I could even get introductions in, I had already pissed off Jace.
I wasn’t trying to be snarky when I said, “You must be the golden girl, Em, all of my boys are talking about.” I was trying to lighten the mood and get her to hang around for a while. I knew if she left, Jace would follow.
She didn’t even get the opportunity to reply. Jace icily told me to go away, and then he slipped into Quinn’s apartment behind Em. Behind the closed door, I heard their muffled voices and thanked the heavens I couldn’t make out what they had to say about me. Right then, I realized that maybe I was once again making a fool out of myself. I slid down the wall to the ground and cried quietly into my hands.
~~~~~~~~~~
Since it’s my last day here, I take a walk to try and actually enjoy this beautiful city. Last night, I finally came to the conclusion that this trip has been a failure. There’s a thin line between determined and pathetic, and I had crossed over into pathetic territory. I need to go home and just get Jace out of my head. Yes, I wish he would have listened to what I had to say, but I can’t keep thinking about someone who won’t even talk to me.
After watching the early morning surfers, I decide to attempt a different direction back to the apartment and happen upon the giant campus where Jace and Jax attend. The grounds really are quite beautiful with their red brick buildings, spectacular fountains, and towering palm trees scattered throughout. The library alone is a sight to behold. There’s a giant water fountain out front and a long garden filled with red and gold flowers. If I attended this school, I would love to sit out here between classes and listen to the relaxing sounds of the fountain.
Eventually, I come across Jaxon sitting under a tree in the middle of a beautiful courtyard. I hesitate for a moment, trying to figure out if it’s really such a great idea talking to him again. I finally come to the conclusion that I need to at least apologize for taking over his living room this week, and let him know that I won’t be bothering him again.
As I start to walk toward him, I notice Emerson approach him first. He lifts his head to look at her with a smirk on his face and a look of adoration in his eyes. I haven’t spoken to Jaxon much while I’ve been here, since he’s spent all of his time either sulking in his room or talking to Cole about Emerson. But if this week hadn’t already proved it, that look alone would have told me how crazy he is about her. It’s obvious she’s really done a number on this guy, because I never thought Jaxon Riley would be this whipped by just one girl.
As I approach, I think about what I should say. Maybe if I joke around with them, they’ll be more inclined to talk to me. Maybe if I get on Emerson’s good side, she will show me some female solidarity and help me find Jace.
I call out before I reach them so I won’t overhear a private conversation. “There you are!” I smile toward them.
Jaxon slams his textbook shut and stands up, glaring at me. I decide to turn my smile toward Emerson, but she’s only watching him.
“I’ve been looking all over for you, Jaxy,” I say, while inwardly cringing at my awkward attempt at sounding light-hearted. I guess not having many friends throughout life has made me socially incompetent. I have never called Jaxon by that nickname in the past and I can’t believe I just called him that now.
“What are you doing here, Audrey? I said I would come back to meet you at the apartment after my classes,” Jaxon growls at me.
Think of something, Audrey. “What, I can’t come hang out with my hubby? Besides, it doesn’t look like you’re in class anyway,” I joke. Sometimes I still can’t believe that we were so immature to run off and get married. But then again, I had already made the biggest mistake of my life four weeks before that…
“HUBBY?” Emerson gasps. Uh-oh…
“Audrey, shut the hell up!” Jaxon yells, while reaching for Emerson.
As he calls out to her retreating form, I realize that I just made Mess #7,594. She obviously didn’t know about our sham of a marriage that was immediately annulled, and my big mouth just tried to joke about it.
“She didn’t know? Jaxon… I’m so sorry…. I figured since you two are together… she had to know…. Shit! I’m so sorry. I was trying to make a joke.”
He points directly at me and says, “Go home. Not my home. Yours.”
I know Lane has a night class and I don’t want him to have to skip, so he’ll have to come back up to get me tomorrow morning. “I leave first thing in the morning,” I assure him.
“You bought a ticket?” he asks tersely.
“Sure,” I reply and begin my walk back to the apartment. Once Jace finds out I’ve pissed off Em, he definitely won’t want to talk to me either.
Basically, the whole week has been one big, fat flashing neon sign telling me to forget about this whole pipe dream I’ve had and move on. The one thing I can say is that I’ll never look back on this time and regret not trying. I’ve made the effort and gone the distance. Once again, no one has put in any energy toward me. I need someone who wants to meet me halfway, and I deserve it. Besides, I need to stop lusting after a guy I met three years ago, and who has barely said a handful of words to me since.
Jace doesn’t want me, I finally understand that, and Jaxon never even tried to speak to me amicably. Anytime I approached him, he practically snarled at me. If this had been four years ago, I would have been able to think of a million different reasons why people should hate me. Not now though. Now I think Jaxon is an a*shole and Jace just doesn’t care.
~~~~~~~~~~
Present day…
I slowly return from my painful memories to hear whispering coming from outside of the kitchen. I’m supposed to be unpacking, but the furthest I’ve gotten is taking three glass mugs out of one cardboard box.
“Watch this boy.” I look into the dining room and see Lane sitting at our table with Chuck between his legs. “And… she’s back,” he says, patting Chuck’s copper-colored fur. “Wow doll, that must have been a good one.”
I have always had a habit of zoning out for long periods of time, which is probably a side effect of my past. If you imagine yourself anywhere else, you just might forget about what’s happening in the present. While I don’t get beat anymore, I still find myself getting lost in thought all of the time. It’s easy for my mind to slip in and out. Lane likes to make light of the subject, but I can tell it worries him.
“How long was I out?” I ask, as I begin putting the remaining mugs into the cabinet.
“I’m not sure, but it was a while. I finished unpacking the truck, and then Chuck and I sat here waiting for your return.”
Moving here has been throwing me off lately. “Damn, I really need to snap out of it. How am I supposed to pay attention in class again soon?”
“I hate to say ‘I told you so,’ but you shouldn’t have gotten a taste. Ever since winter break, it’s only gotten worse. You should have already learned your lesson from your disaster visit up to see him. You need to go out there and just bang someone new. It’ll help, I swear,” he chuckles, while giving me his devilish grin. I know he’s full of shit because he rarely lets any guy near me.
“I told you we shouldn’t have gone to Texas, just so you could see what a loser I actually was!”
“Hey, I wanted to see where my girl grew up,” he says, shrugging his shoulders.
I still can’t believe he convinced me to go all the way back to Texas with him for winter break this past year. He’s been asking to go since we moved in together my freshman year because he wanted to see where I came from. I never had any desire to go back and I still don’t understand what he wanted to see.
It’s not like I have any good memories from there. Just two pissed off people I left behind and that’s only because I took Chuck, not because they miss me. I like to think of taking Chuck as my way of sticking it to my dad without actually having to see him. Besides, Chuck’s happier here anyways, since he never has to scrounge for food with me.
JACE - Winter break, eight months ago…
Jax and I have only been living in California for about five months now, and I already miss Texas like crazy. As we drive through our little town, I think about how this place is home to me. California is fun, but I’m ready to be done with school so I can get back here.
I’ve been looking forward to our trip home for a while, but more so in the past couple of weeks. Cole’s always locked away with Quinn and Jaxon is so far up Em’s ass I don’t even recognize him. I love Em to death, and she is by far the best thing that’s happened to Jax, but damn I’m jealous.
I want a girl riding next to me in my truck or on the back of my motorcycle. I want a girl to just lie around in bed with me for hours on a Saturday. When I see the way my brother looks at Em when she’s not paying attention, I want that. Yeah, I’m in college and I should be out there living it up with a different notch on my belt every weekend, but that’s just not me.
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten we’re getting you laid on this trip, man,” Jax interrupts my thoughts.
“I think I can take care of myself,” I reply, while watching the shops pass by out the window.
“Nah, you’re a cranky bastard. It’s happening,” Cole says from the backseat. “We should hit up that party tonight at Hunter’s lake house.”
“Or we could just find you a chick right now,” Jax challenges, pointing to the back of a brunette walking down the street.
“You mean the girl with another dude’s arm wrapped around her?” I ask.
I can’t help staring at her ass though, and there is something about a set of long legs on a girl. I’m tall, so I like my girls tall as well. All that bending over shit that Jax and Cole do with their girlfriends is not for me. I’d still like to be able to stand up straight when I’m seventy.
“She is pretty hot though, I’ll give you that.”
As we drive past them, my eyes are glued to her. “F*ck, isn’t that Audrey?” Cole asks. Yes, it sure is.
“Who the hell is she with?” I growl. “Have you ever seen him before?” My head is still turned and my eyes can’t seem to stop looking at her.
“I don’t give a damn who she’s with,” Jaxon states in an annoyed tone and continues driving forward. Meanwhile, all I want him to do is turn the f*ck around.
“She looks...good…” I try to say only to myself. When she’s too far away to see, I turn back around in my seat. I notice that Cole’s too quiet, and when I glance back at him, I see that he’s studying me. Inquisitive bastard.
~~~~~~~~~~
Two hours into the party, Jaxon’s being a p-ssy and leaving because he needs to call Em. Cole is already passed out drunk on one of the couches, which just seems like bad news for him. I should probably call Quinn later and tell her that he’s okay. We ended up taking two cars because I figured at least one of them would need to report in to their ball and chain.
Now that I’m alone, all I can think about is the dude with his arm around Audrey earlier today. Jax and I are not small, by any means. Thankfully, we got our build from our dad’s side of the family. When my dad died, he was thirty-five years old, but he was six-three and could still bench-press double his weight.
That guy with Audrey today looked threatening. Not saying I couldn’t take him; I’ve had plenty of experience my whole life fighting with Jax. He’s probably tried every move in the book on me, and I’ve always been able to counter them. And why the hell am I thinking about taking out Audrey’s boyfriend anyway?
For the first time in years, I consider getting wasted. I went drinking with Jax and Cole a few times when I was seventeen but hated the stuff, so I haven’t touched any alcohol since. However, it seems to help others when they want to forget hostile thoughts, and Audrey’s boyfriend is definitely making me feel aggressive tonight.
She seems to be a recurring weak point for me. When she came out to California to see Jax a couple of months ago, it took everything inside of me to stay away from her. I knew that if I let myself even stop to talk, I would end up grabbing her and holding her hostage in my room. Then I would definitely have some uncomfortable explaining to do.
A bubbly, short blonde stumbles up next to me with two plastic cups in her hands. She tries to mesh her body up close to mine, but her head only reaches my chest.
“Here handsome, I got you a drink,” she says, with her face tilted all the way back so she can look me in the eyes. She smiles and I can see that she’s already wasted. I grab the drink and without looking to see what it is, I put the cup to my lips and swallow the contents inside. Shit, this is terrible. It’s a mixture of liquor that someone tried to disguise with Coke, but it’s still f*cking awful. With my mouth closed, I cough down the burn. This crap is poison, but the spacey, warm feeling that follows entices me to grab another. And another.
Soon after, I grab the blonde’s hand and drag her out to the bonfire near the lake. Hunter has his truck parked down by the dock with all of his doors open and the music blasting. She leads me into the middle of the crowd of dancing couples and I spin her around so her back is against my chest.
I’m impressed by how fast the alcohol reaches my system, and I guess this would be the one time in my life when I’m considered a lightweight. Mentally, I’m scanning through my textbooks, trying to determine my blood alcohol concentration level, but it’s all a jumble. All I know is that I want to go one way, but my body starts shifting another. This blonde chick is grinding against me and it feels f*cking great. Right before I grab her to spin her around, I send out a silent ‘thank you’ for the fact that Jax left and Cole is out for the night.
She turns on her boot heel and looks up into my eyes. I cup her face haphazardly and can practically taste her arousal on my tongue already. She wants me. She continues dancing in front of my hips with her hands on my chest, while I scan the area for a place we can hide together. This is going to be quick.
Looking over Blondie’s shoulder, I suddenly catch the stare of big, brown eyes. I try to make myself focus on anything but those long, tan legs under her short, red sundress. It’s too late though. She notices that I’ve spotted her, and she reaches out to snatch a beer from some guy’s hand. Without removing eye contact, she places the glass bottle against the sides of her face, as if she’s trying to cool off from being overheated. She can’t turn away and neither can I. We both want each other. We always have, and I just might be drunk enough to finally let myself indulge.
I finally notice that the guy next to her is the ripped-up dude she was walking through town with earlier today. When he clutches her chin in one hand, turns her to face him, and shakes his head while mouthing the word ‘no’ at her, I start shoving my way through the dancing bodies. If she wants me, even if it’s only for tonight, then he’s going to f*cking step aside.
I continue walking until I’m standing with my toes touching hers. I hope she doesn’t have any personal boundaries because I don’t plan on recognizing them tonight. I can see the cold condensation on the beer bottle that she now has smashed against her chest. She rolls it across, leaving a wet trail in its wake. I can’t stop myself from reaching out and touching the chilled skin. When my fingertips graze across the area underneath her collarbone, her lungs swiftly fill with air.
Her boyfriend smoothly pushes me aside to stand directly in front of her. My body is intoxicated enough to stumble away, otherwise that shouldn’t have been so easy for him. He’s a shitty-ass boyfriend, if you ask me. I damn sure wouldn’t allow some guy to put his hands on her if she were mine.
“Doll, this is not a good idea,” he says to her in a warning tone.
“Lane, I’m a big girl,” she replies back to him kindly.
I’m already done with this little get-together of theirs. Thankfully, Lane shrugs and steps away. I’m finally looking down at her beautiful face again. She’s just as stunning as she was three years ago on the sidewalk outside of the bookstore. Her hair is a little longer and I’ve never seen her dressed up all sexy, but she’s still my same girl from that day. Except she never was my girl… don’t forget that, Jace.
She cocks her head and studies me with curiosity. She’s thinking hard about something and looks so damn cute doing it.
“Why are you drinking?” she questions. I start to wonder how drunk I actually am if she can tell even though I’m no longer holding a cup.
I smirk at her query and reply, “I thought I’d try something new tonight.” She catches my double entendre and I love watching her surprised mouth open and shut. I know another way I would love to see those lips move like that. She starts to grimace, but before I can ask what’s bothering her, I feel warm hands come up from behind and glide across my abs. Shit, the blonde.
“Come on, sweetheart. Trust me, you don’t want in the middle of that crazy,” Lane says, while grabbing Blondie’s hand. When she gets a good look at him, her eyes light up and she follows after him like a damn cat in heat. F*ck, I don’t know whether to fist bump him for being the best damn wingman ever, or slug him for being the shittiest boyfriend known to mankind.
I stalk forward, causing Audrey to reverse slowly. After fifteen steps or so, she backs into a large tree trunk. My hands hit the tree on either side of her face.
“It’s not fair that every time I see you, you look even more delicious than the last,” I whisper into her neck.
“I don’t think you realize what you’re doing right now.” She shivers under my lips.
“Why did things have to get so screwed up?” I ask, dragging my lips across hers. “Do you think we would be together if you hadn’t run into Jax?” I know I’ll regret this tomorrow, but I really don’t care right now.
“I can’t let myself think about things like that, Jace.” Her words are said like a prayer.
“Do you still think about me?” I whisper, while running a finger up the inside of her bare leg.
I feel her tremble before she admits, “Every single day.”
“Well, at least I’m not alone.”
My lips graze across her soft, plump ones. Her eyelashes flutter and she relaxes into me with closed eyes. I run my tongue across her bottom lip lazily before giving the same treatment to the top one. Her breath hitches when I lean back a fraction, and then ever so slowly I move in. I want to drag this out. I never got my moment with her so tonight I want to take my time.
Our lips finally touch and she moans with pleasure. My fingers drag upwards from the back of her neck into her loose curls and I pull her in tighter. Her hands brace themselves on my chest. Gradually, the slow, lazy kiss becomes heated and needy.
When her hands glide down and skim across my waist, I pull back instantly. Grabbing her hand, I quickly start dragging her off toward the driveway. We both need to get out of here before any other thoughts enter my head. When we finally reach Jax’s black ‘67 Camaro, I realize she’s tugging on my hand.
“Jace, where are we going?”
“I need you without an audience.” I try to unlock the passenger door for her, but I can’t seem to get this tiny ass key into an even smaller lock. “F*ck! I can’t work this thing.”
She reaches out and wraps her little hand around mine, taking the key from me. “You’re drunk.”
With what I hope is a smug grin, I reply, “Yup, and you are beautiful.” I emphasize this statement with a tap on the tip of her f*cking adorable nose, while catching a whiff of something that smells like coconut.
“I don’t like it.”
“You don’t like that you’re beautiful? Well guess what babe? I don’t like it either.”
“No, I don’t like you when you’re drunk.”
“I’ll never do it again.” I lean down to kiss her perfect lips. Emotions that I can’t comprehend are buzzing through me, so I reach out and squeeze her upper arm three short times.
She pulls back, but I stay there with my lips puckered out, hoping she’ll return. “Promise?”
“I cross my heart, baby. I just wanted to forget about seeing you with your boyfriend. Shit… I didn’t mean to say that part out loud.” I try to lean back down to kiss her again, but she swiftly unlocks the door and pushes me inside. When she comes around to the driver’s seat and hops in, I realize she’s about to f*cking try and drive this car. “Whoa… whoa… Audrey, only three people have ever driven this before. My dad, me, and Jax.”
“Guess there’s about to be four.” She smiles confidently and lifts her hand to show me four fingers, although I’m seeing about twelve at the moment. I hear her push in the clutch to start the engine. Damn, every time I hear this baby start up, I’m turned on. Add Audrey and I’m seconds away from coming in my pants. I have to have her and it needs to be soon.
She backs out of the drive, and when she shifts into first gear, I can tell that she feels the power under the hood. She may not understand what it means, but that little smirk tells me she likes controlling it.
At this point, I’m completely turned toward her, staring as she shifts into second. “Stop making that face,” I say to her, while groaning and readjusting myself.
Her adorable nose scrunches up in confusion. “What face?”
Third gear and I’m having a hard time staying in my seat. I can’t distract her from driving, but I’m dying to touch her. In the moonlight and soft glow of the dashboard lights, her skin looks like porcelain.
“The face with that little smile that says you’re enjoying my car way too f*cking much.” Technically it’s not my car, but I’ve put enough sweat and blood into this beast to call her mine. Just then, she turns down a familiar drive. “You’re taking me home?”
“Yeah, you’re drunk, remember? You need to go sleep it off.” There’s no way in hell I’m going to sleep right now. I direct her to pull over behind some trees. “No, Jace, I remember there being huge bushes over there.” She does it anyway, and just then I hear a loud, scratching sound. She instantly stops, pushes in the e-brake, and turns off the ignition. “Damn it, Jace! See!?”
I should be angry but I’m not. Hearing that little dirty word come out of her pretty little mouth makes me want to pull her into the backseat. So after I unclick her seatbelt, that’s exactly what I do.
“You’ll be pissed about that in the morning,” she says. I position her underneath me on the black leather seat, and the way she’s lying over the hump caused by the driveshaft makes her arch up into me. She’s gorgeous, so damn gorgeous.
“I’ll be more pissed if I didn’t take advantage of this situation.”
“What exactly is this situation?” she asks breathlessly.
“Your lips needing mine,” I respond and press my mouth to hers before she can question my words.
I start slow, wanting to test the waters and needing to know if I still feel that spark that I’ve been craving for the past three years. The second her fingers thread through my hair, I feel it. That undeniable charge that only Audrey has been able to cause.
It’s like a trigger has gone off and I can’t slow down. I pull her shirt up over her head and she’s already got her hands on the hem of mine. I try to help her out by pulling it over the back of my head, but I’m so wasted that it gets stuck. Her patience wears out so she jerks it all the way off and tosses it aside.
My hands are everywhere and I still can’t touch enough of her skin. Her hands are like a fire that I can feel through my jeans as she’s unbuttoning them. This is happening. This is finally f*cking happening and I can’t get all this damn fabric between us away any faster.
“Jace…” she moans, and my mouth is instantly back on hers. I plunge my tongue inside and can’t hold in my own groan. I hate that she had to do most of the work because of my fumbling fingers, but I love that there is finally nothing between us. I dip my fingers inside of her and against all odds, I’m even more turned on to find that she’s so ready. I can’t wait to feel all of her. As I stroke in and out, I remember to grab a condom from inside of my wallet. Before I can botch it up, she grabs it from me impatiently and…hot damn, her little hands are rolling it on me. This could get embarrassing if I don’t take back control.
“Put your hands above your head, babe,” I say in a raspy voice. She immediately complies without question. “Grab the seatbelt.”
With her big, brown eyes looking up at me, I reach out and loosely wrap the nylon strap twice around each of her petite wrists. “You okay?” I ask, hoping beyond hope that she’s fine with this. Her body language says that she loves it, but I need her confirmation. “You realize that I would never hurt you, right?”
I suddenly recall that I uttered a similar phrase to her the day we first met, and I groan when I see the gleam in her eye, telling me that she remembers too. “Jace, I trust you.”
Without missing a beat, I slide into her and pause, needing this moment to grasp a hold of my sanity. Having her body underneath mine is so overwhelming that I can’t seem to remember to breathe. She whimpers below me and tries to move against me. Ah… my girl needs a release already. I pull her legs up over my shoulders, while trying to keep my knee from slipping off the edge. With one leg bent up on the leather seat and the other foot braced on the floorboard, I finally gain the correct leverage.
Looking down, I’m captivated by the space where we’re connected. Holy Shit. I can’t believe how good she feels and how good we look together.
“Gorgeous… you’re f*cking gorgeous, Audrey,” I ground out like a prayer.
“Jace, please…” she begs. Before I start moving, I lean down to kiss her again. I can’t stop kissing her.
“How are your hands, babe?”
“Jace, please… just please…” she says, almost incoherently. I can’t wait any longer either so I begin to quickly thrust in and out. The backseat of the Camaro provides very little room for my six-foot frame to navigate her body, but I learn to work with what I’ve got. Because what I’ve got under me right now is incredible.
I spent four months of my senior year lusting after this body. I watched the way she walked, the way her hips swayed, even the way she lounged on the dock out by our pond with Jax. After she disappeared, I spent the last six months of my senior year recalling this figure in my dreams. The curve of her waist, the length of her silky-white legs, and the way her long, brown hair curled up in the humidity.
My chest squeezes at the idea of getting to know every inch of her body and finding out exactly what she wants. I love that her hands are restrained, allowing me to give her all the pleasure. They’re also not in the way of my mouth as I nip and suck my way across her chest. The farther I push her legs forward, the louder she gets. And the harder I push into her, the tighter she feels.
“Jace… Jace… Jace… yes, like that…” she chants without shame.
I need her to let go because I can’t hold off much longer. Drinking tonight was not my best decision, and if I would have known Audrey was going to be grinding underneath me, I wouldn’t have touched the damn stuff.
I reach up and pull the seatbelt to constrict tighter against her wrists. In the next second, her whole body locks up and I feel her contracting around me as she’s screaming my name. Pleasure shoots through me and I ride out the spasms by kissing her face from ear to ear and down to her neck.
“Damn, I needed that,” I say, blowing out a hard, ragged breath. “Thanks, babe.”
I collapse on top of her and then maneuver her body around so she’s cradled in front of me. I reach up and untangle the belt from her wrists, and she slowly flexes them in a circular motion.
I pull her in close and bury my face in her hair, memorizing her delicious scent. My lips kiss the back of her neck for as long as I can stay awake. Squeezing her tighter against me, I hold on for dear life so she can’t go anywhere. It doesn’t work though. I wake up the next morning in the backseat of my brother’s car… alone, with only the scent of coconut that lingered on her skin.