Chapter 8 #2
Bailey is playing with a thread of her torn and grass-stained pantleg, an angry look on her face.
“You ignoring me?”
She doesn’t answer.
“Why?” I ask. “Because I’m pissed off about not being able to get out of here? Because I’m pissed I can’t do much to keep you safe from these fuckers? You’re mad at me for being pissed off that I’m in a cage, unable to shift, not able to protect you?”
“Fuck you, Jason,” she fires back.
“Fuck me?” I ask and let out a low, astonished laugh. “You know what? We’ll talk about all this shit when we get out of this mess you dropped us in.”
“Oh, I’m the one who put us here, am I? Get real.”
“You’re the one who made it so I can’t get us out of this.”
“Or maybe you being in under that magic is why you’re conscious. Maybe they would’ve done something worse to you if I hadn’t put you there. Maybe I saved your life. But forget it. Sit there and be mad if you want but I don’t want to talk about it, so feel free to ignore me like you usually do.”
Fuck, she’s being feisty. And it’s a direct line to my cock. Too bad I can’t use it on her right now, give her an attitude adjustment.
“Got nothing to say to me, huh?” I challenge. “Nothin’ at all to say about the fact that we’ve just found out you’re destined to spend the rest of your life with me?”
“I have nothing more to say to you. As far as I can tell, probably nothing ever again.” She folds her arms across her chest, pushing her tits up higher, giving me a fantastic view that I feel zero guilt for drinking in.
A spark lights up inside me, an overwhelming urge to grab her and kiss that angry look off her face.
Kiss her with everything I’ve got and watch her melt into one of those expressions she always aims at me when she thinks I’m not paying attention.
I want one of those and this time, I suspect I’ll pay very close attention.
Yeah, giving myself permission today to look at her, really look at her, I’m very much looking forward to getting free of this bubble and giving Bailey Blackwood that attitude adjustment.
“Thinkin’ your tune’ll change after I kiss that angry look off your face and introduce you to my knot and my canine teeth,” I say.
And I could have never, ever in a million years predicted how good it would feel to say something like this to Bailey. But watching the shocked pink hit her face before it turns angry is a beautiful thing.
She asks, “Oh, so now you decide you want me?”
I smile. “Fate decided it, kiddo.”
She scowls at me, somehow angrier, then matter-of-factly announces, “Well, guess what, Jason Creed? I, Bailey Blackwood, reject you.”
I laugh.
This makes her even angrier. And it makes emotion swell up in me. Strange emotion that I’ve never experienced before.
“You’re not rejecting me, Bay,” I say, my voice coming out rough. “You’ve been in love with me since you were twelve years old.”
“Eight,” she corrects. “Maybe even six. But fuck you, Jason. I finally see you for who you are, and I want nothing to do with you.”
“We’ll see what happens when I pull you close to me, give you what you’ve been waiting for.”
More pink in her cheeks. And the even more intense scent of warm apples with a nuance that makes me smile wide.
“Fuckin’ fuck me. Bailey Blackwood’s wet for me again,” I say, pulling that sweet scent in, wanting to fucking bathe in it. “And now that I know you’re mine, I’m lookin’ forward to finally doing something about it.”
And I think her head is about to explode. Her head and my jeans.
Ignoring the daggers she’s trying to fire at me from her eyes, I take in a long, slow visual drink of her.
The cleavage. That pouty mouth. All the shiny hair.
The sultry librarian in eyeglasses who hasn’t got a clue how many boners get sprung for her every day.
No, not me. Until now. Because I wouldn’t play with Grey’s sister.
Not in a million years. But now she’s not only Grey’s sister. She’s mine.
I don’t even mind the daggers, actually, because she’s looking at me with all that fire.
I chuckle darkly and watch a swallow work down her throat. My gums itch, a weird sensation, and damn, do I ever want to taste her skin, sink my teeth into that creamy, pulsating spot by her collarbone.
She’s furious with me. And she’s very fucking attractive when she’s angry. Yeah, my mate is fucking pretty. Damn, but I’ve got my work cut out for me. But I like a challenge, which I don’t often get with the fairer sex, so I’m almost hoping she doesn’t give in too soon.
Footsteps.
I move to the bottom of the stairs.
The younger guy comes halfway down, extending a phone. “Go ahead. It’s your friend.”
“Jase?” Grey is on speaker on my phone.
“Grey!” I shout.
“Hey man,” he greets.
“Shit obviously went south. Bailey showed up and we were magicked unconscious and put in a Starling witch’s basement.
They’re after those artifacts, of course, but said I had decoys.
I don’t know why the fuck Erica put decoys in my bag while the Starling witch said the real deal is already in Romania, but–”
“We’ll talk about all that, bro. Later.”
I stop talking.
“Dani’s on the way to you,” Grey keeps going. “We’ll figure this out. Alta Starling has been reprimanded by her coven and swears no harm will come to you two. Hang tight, okay? How’s my sister? And how the fuck did she get tangled up in this?”
“She’s mine, Grey.”
“She’s…” He lets that hang.
“Smelled it two seconds before we were knocked out. Woke up restrained, then that witch put her hands on Bay, so I lost my shit. She threw some green ampule at me that knocked me out again.”
“The fuck?”
“Bailey’s okay. But all I can do to keep her safe is try to physically block her so I’m very fuckin’ not happy.
” I flash her a look and she’s staring, wide-eyed.
“but yeah… they used something to block me from shifting, green skinny flowers on a vine, restrained us both. Bailey fed me one of those breath strips Aphra made for our dead brother-in-law.”
“Pale green angels trumpet vines. Nightshade family,” Bailey calls out.
“I’ll be damned,” Grey says, sounding completely shocked.
“Same,” I tell him.
“Congrats, brother. Holy fuck. Congrats, squirt. Shocked as shit, but… happy for you both.”
I let that sink in for a second and feel a smile spread across my face. My eyes lock with Bailey’s. She’s not smiling. She’s frowning while staring at me. But I’m soaking in what Grey’s just said.
This right here… it’s a testament to why Grey’s my brother, blood or not.
No over-protective big brother shit, no threats against my life.
Just… congrats. Because he knows me almost as well as I know myself.
We were already family, now we’ll be brothers by law, too and not just by the Wyatt Meadows link.
Through Bailey. And I like this a fuckin’ lot.
“Thanks, bro. Means a lot.”
Bailey doesn’t answer his congrats and now wears the cutest scowl I’ve ever seen. It’s like she’s just been offered a shit sandwich.
“Bailey?” Grey calls.
“What?” she snaps.
He’s silent for a second before asking, “You all right?”
“Not at all!” she barks.
I chuckle. “She’s okay, Grey. She’s a little pissed off at me.”
Bailey’s eyes snap to me and narrow. “A little?”
Fuck, she’s making my cock harder right now.
“I don’t know how the fuck you wound up there, baby sister.”
“Not only did she feed me that potion, she also stole the necklace Mimi made from your house.”
“No shit? Bailey?”
Bailey says nothing, but she gives me a snottier look for ratting her out.
“That won’t work unless me or one of the Young sisters puts it on her.”
“Told her as much,” I say.
“Guessin’ I’m off duty now though,” he muses. “Guess it’s up to you to sort her out, Jase.”
“Oh, I will,” I warn, giving her a loaded look.
She quickly looks away, but I watch the swallow work down her throat, and it looks to me like she’s just clenched her thighs.
Grey grumbles, “I did not need to hear that.”
“We’ll talk after we get back,” I say. “After a couple days. Or maybe a week.”
Bailey visibly shivers and this gives me a thrill unlike anything I’ve felt before.
“Ulk,” is the sound Grey makes, then he says, “Anyway… shit has kicked off here, too. Jared claimed Cicely.”
Bailey straightens up and looks shocked, piping up with, “What?”
“Drama, though,” Grey adds. “I’ll get into it with you when you get back.”
“What do you mean drama? What drama?” Bailey asks.
“Too much to get into and definitely not on the phone. Talk to you both later. Hang tight, yeah? Dani will sort you out.”
“Yep,” I say. “Later.”
The guy holding the phone ends the call and walks back up the staircase and stops. “Does she want to use the toilet before we leave?”
“I do,” Bailey gets to her feet. “Move please,” she says waiting for me to step aside.
Everything inside me itches to touch her. Bury my face into her hair, sink my canines into her skin while my cock–fuck! Wait…
Bailey is probably a virgin. This rocks me.
Because she must be. I’ve never seen her with anyone.
Linc and Mase have ribbed me more than a few times saying she’s saving it for me, hoping I identify her as my one and only.
But I don’t think anyone of us truly saw this coming. Except, those meddling Young sisters.
“Move, Jason,” she repeats, snottily.
And damn. I really can’t wait to adjust this attitude of hers.
“You or that other guy touches her?” I point to the guy on the stairs.
“I won’t,” he states, raising both hands.
“If either of you do… I will hunt you down, won’t quit either. There will be no place you can hide. I’ll find you and I will chew your fuckin’ carcass after making sure you feel a world of pain. Tell me you get me.”
“I won’t touch her. Neither will Cesar.”
“If he touches her, you still pay. You both will.”
He looks like he’s about to shit his pants.
I bare my teeth.
He nods quickly, saying nothing.
I move aside and she haughtily climbs the stairs. And I can’t take my eyes off the sway of that sweet peach of an ass. An ass I’m sure I’ve never looked at before. That ass is mine. It thrills me to no end that I’ll probably be her first and I’ll absolutely be her last.
That fear about only having one woman to play with for the rest of my days is gone. Just like that. The way Grey, Mase, Tyson, and Rye said it’d be. It feels good to have the worry of who I’ll mate with off my shoulders.
Now I’m left with another emotion. Eagerness. Yes, I’m looking forward to playing with my pretty little mate.
A lot.