9. Jax
9
JAX
S he tasted like morning dew and sweet honey. That would be my new nickname for her when I managed to surface for air. Which I hoped was never. A soft whine built in the back of her throat as my tongue plunged between soft lips that yielded with the sort of grace I knew she’d submit with, driving my need for her.
It took less than another breath before she kissed me back until I inhaled her desire that matched mine. Soft lips spread beneath my open-mouthed kiss that shouldn’t have happened. I hadn’t planned it, hadn’t thought, only took from her without so much as an okay after everything i promised to save her from the twins, from herself.
My knight in tarnished armor act was falling apart pretty fucking fast, but right now I didn’t really care.
She was just there. I needed to feel her mouth beneath mine, the press of her body against me too much. For fuck’s sake, she’d seen me. More than the friendship I had with Crush or any other girl the frat boys threw at me in the past year I dealt with in an effort to maintain my image.
No, Waverly actually understood what I’d done. Yeah, she was pissed I’d drawn over her sketch but she also got what I tried to say in the first place without my having to tediously explain it to the point I felt like I was pulling thoughts from inside my head like extracting so many gray hairs.
More than that, she got why I’d done it.
Which made fucking about with her so much more delicious. The tip of her tongue touched mine in a hesitant graze of a caress, and I was done. I cupped the back of her head, my fingers knotting into her silky hair to the knuckles, tilted her back to deepen the kiss. Her body arched to accommodate me as I took the kiss beyond the realm of pornographic right there on the street, practically begging to get us both arrested, or worse.
If the twins stuck around to watch the show, we were beyond fucked.
Not that I could have stopped even if I wanted. Her honey and spice scent swirled around my head as I stroked my tongue along hers in a slow dance that stripped everything away from both of us. I reined my arousal back after a second, savoring her. Her lips softened, and she let me lick and nip at them in play, responding by rising onto her toes and winding her hands behind my neck, toying with the ends of my hair.
My cock hardened from a simple kiss alone, but unwinding Waverly’s passion was anything but simple as she rubbed her body against mine. Complicated didn’t cut it. The girl had depths she buried, despite declaring she had a few hidden–or not so hidden–kinks a moment before.
I intended to rip down every wall she built just to show her how incredible she could be.
Cradling her cheeks in my hands, I broke the kiss to feather my lips over hers, moving along her jaw until she tipped her head back and let me taste her flesh. Burying my head in the crook of her neck, I wrapped my arms tight around her and licked and sucked at the sensitive spot until she giggle-moaned, writhing against my body as I marked her.
Sure, she’d be filthy with me in the morning, but right now I’d bet my little honey bee dripped in all the right places.
I groaned into her neck with the thought of sinking into her wet, tight heat, but I knew I couldn't rush her. Plus, we were in public, which didn’t bother me, but I had a damn fine idea it would freak her out if I found the nearest fence, bent her over and, fucked her to within an inch of both out lives, twins be damned.
“Stop that,” she murmured playfully.
Her fingers tugged at my hair when I marked her up a little more, intent on securing my place in hell for ruining the pretty skin I’d jerked off over the memory of too many nights to count. Hell, even the night I filled my Jacket with itching power and made her wear it did it for me. That was fun. I’d rubbed myself raw afterward for the pure pleasure of making her cry.
No. She had no idea how fucked up I could be in my own kinks. But that wasn’t all I could be.
I squeezed her curves, letting my fingers sink into her flesh and wished there wasn’t the barrier of our clothes between us. She arched a little, humming her pleasure at the contact against my lips. My cock thickened, aching as she pressed into me, but it was my heart that tore, needing to know I could steal more than a single kiss from her.
Flirting with Waverly did it for me. She’d been an easy target to tease, riling in the cutest damn way. Somewhere along the line my head hadn’t worked out when the teasing became flirting, and flirting became something more…addictive
I'd fallen for the smart, geeky girl who cut through all of my bullshit layers, so similar to hers, and saw me without realizing it. Now I had her in my arms I didn’t want to let her go.
“How about I stop if you let me help you, Waverly. Whatever the fuck is going on, you don’t have to battle this alone.” Them. I held her tight as she stiffened, knowing I'd release her if she asked, but not wanting to hear the words I knew were coming.
We didn’t have the foundation for this—hell, there was no we. Trust didn’t come into the few hours a week I stole from her, and suddenly, a study session was nowhere near enough.
“Of course I do,” she said neutrally, straightening in my arms to extract herself from my grip.
I warred with myself for a full minute, then broke every rule I’d ever set for myself.
“Fuck it. I don’t want to let you go. I will if you ask,” I amended when alarm flared in her pretty, midnight deep eyes. Tomorrow, maybe. “But I– fuck, you taste good,” I murmured, running my fingers over her cheeks, trying to erase the Laurent twin’s touch. Whatever the hell was going on between the three of them, my anti-hero sense hated it. The way they looked at her, like they owned a part of her they should never have a claim on…everything about that scenario screamed all fucked up and wrong . The sort of wrong I wanted to throw a claim around her alone. “Let me help you.” I paused. “Please. And I don’t beg, Waverly.”
“Don’t you?” She tipped her head to one side, a speculative look in her eyes before she shook her head, her hair flying around her face. “Why?” Her brow dipped, she stared up at me, all defiance and independence and strength and desperation at once belaying her last question. “Why would you want to help me, unless it's to bully me later?”
I cleared my throat. “You're right. I haven’t been kind to you. I brought your phone back and I wanted to…” I hadn't planned this speech out, either. Where the hell was my head?
“Take me upstairs and fuck me?” she suggested, just a shade too bright.
I focussed on her, every sense sharp. “No.” But what a thing to jump to, unless…
“No? Wasn’t that what that kiss was? To test the waters, see how pliable I am?” She smiled sweetly, but a bitter look akin to resentment lit her eyes. Mistrust.
“What are they asking you to do in payment?” I asked, watching her face carefully, unwilling to find out what task they set her just yet. Baby steps, for her and for me.
“What?” A breath laced with shock came hot on the heels of her skin paling.
Her breath stalled, and I wound my arms tighter around her.
Fucking assholes.
“You want to tell me upstairs, or here?” I asked, giving her the option. “And when you’re finished, let me work out a way to make you safe from them.”
It hadn't been a big stretch–the Twins were well known for being the campus wraiths, and they reveled in that reputation, feeding the monster they became.
Waverly–she had trust issues, hid her body and mentioned a sex tape when I handed her phone back. Plus the way they touched her…that moment was burned into my memory and I’d do whatever I had to do to earn her freedom from them.
“How did you..?” She stared at me a little wildly, the whites of her eyes showing. Waverly pressed her hands to my chest, her fists clenching in my shirt beneath my Jacket, but she didn't push me away. Not yet.
“There were a couple of hints you’ve dropped. Trust me, Waverly. Please? I know that’s a stretch but…I’ve been on the other end of their bullshit train, been hospitalized with broken ribs and later for self-harm because I hated myself so damn much for not fitting the mold.” I grimaced, freeing one hand to flick back the cuffs on my black shirt to display the monsters inked over my wrists, gnawing my way inside. She mirrored my expression when she saw the gore depicted there but true horror didn’t etch itself across her beautiful features until I pressed her soft fingertips to the hash of ugly scars concealed beneath. “I get it. I get you, far more than you think. Let me help.”
Her breath hitched as she stared up at me, true understanding widening her eyes. I wanted to memorize that look too, freeze her in place and draw her perfection in my graphites.
“What?” Her eyebrows rose as she leaned into me the smallest amount. My heart thumped heavy in my chest. “Tell me. Everything , Jax.”
“Let me in.”
She puffed air in my face, and I smiled down at her as she whispered her words to my lips. “Said the wolf to the granny.”
“That’s a whole different level of kink.” I tilted my head to one side, and leaned down to lick the corner of her mouth until she wriggled in my hold. “Why are you fighting me?”
“Bad habit?” She shrugged. “Self preservation? If I let you inside, will you keep your hands to yourself?”
I didn’t bother pretending. “Fuck, no.”
Her eyes burned bright and dark at once. “Your mouth?”
I shook my head, letting the hint of a smile play at my lips. Gods, teasing her felt good. Right. “No, Waverly. I’m gonna talk, listen, and kiss you all damn night long.”
She swallowed. “Just my lips.”
I shrugged. “Whatever set is on display.”
She made a choking sound that wrapped around my cock and strangled me until I panicked I’d come in my pants right then on the damn street.
“Fine, Jax. Since I have zero control over everything else, why not this too? Do whatever you fucking well like.” She threw her hands up and broke away from me. Metal glinted in the poor lighting as she pulled a key from her pocket.
I sauntered after her, trailing my fingertips along the curve above her ass. “Keep that potty mouth going, and we can work on that list of kinks you mentioned.”
She laughed at me over her shoulder, sharp and clear. “You wanna know my kinks? Trust. Control. Security.”
I caught her waist, pressing my lips to her cheek when her breath stalled. “And if I promise you these things?” I released her before she could forge an answer.
Waverly stumbled forward, wrapping her arms around herself. I followed her at a safe distance, pausing when she shot me a confused look over her shoulder.
“Are you coming?” Her words crashed into my laugh as I wound my arms around her waist to kiss her neck while she fiddled with the lock at her door.
“Do you think it’s safe that I know where you live, Waverly?” I licked a line along her throat, tilting her head back until she gasped.
Her short nails clawed at my wrist as her door creaked open, but we weren’t inside yet.
“Jax,” she gasped, pressing her body tight to mine.
“Yes, Waverly,” I coaxed, trailing my fingertips between her breasts to close my palm around the gentle curve of her belly. My hand fit perfectly around her body and I groaned softly into her neck.
“Inside,” she whimpered. “Please.”
“Oh, I will be,” I promised her darkly. “But you’ll beg a whole lot longer than that.” I kissed the corners of her mouth until her small noises grew louder.
Then I pushed her across the threshold, enjoying watching her trip over her toes on the threadbare carpet, and gently closed the door behind me, locking us in.
“Sure of yourself, aren’t you?” Waverly risked sassing me as I grabbed for her again, unable to keep my hands to myself for more than a second.
She knew what she did to me–dammit, she had to. From the way her hands softened over my wrists, her fingertips curving to caress my scars in a way that hurt like fuck though not in any physical sense, I underestimated the languages this girl spoke.
“Yeah.” My voice rasped with need. I shoved my desire deep. Rushing her would achieve nothing except screwing up what little foundation we’d built in the last few minutes. Plus, I needed to take my time with her. Sure, I could fuck her against the nearest surface–wall, door, the fucking floor–but just filling her with my seed hit only one kink button and tonight I’d tick them all off.
Nor did fucking he fast earn her trust or the words that freed her from the intimate touch of a pair of predators I needed to rip apart–after I figured out what they had on her that damaged her so damn deep.
Finally, I let her up for air,my chest heaving like I chased her across campus and up the stairs. Waverly watched me through dazed, hooded eyes, her thick lashes sweeping across her cheeks in a lazy fashion. After a moment the haze of arousal diminished, and I reached for her again, but she shook her head, trotting back a step with her hands up in warning.
“Alright. Well, welcome to my extremely humble, cheap and shitty abode.”
“You swear a lot when you’re angry. Kinda cute.” I caught her hand as she turned circles in the small space as a tour guide. “Why aren’t you living on campus?”
“You think they give scholarship students real Rippton U digs?” she muttered, managing to keep her voice free of bitterness.
I wondered at the tenacity of this girl, her strength. Her fingers flexed stiffly in mine, then curled tentatively. I wondered how long it had been since she’d had some sort of human contact with someone who cared for her.
“Cute,” I whispered in her ear so she jumped, frowning at her answer. I knew at least half a dozen scholarship kids at Rippton who shared the dorms and one who made it into a frat–her answer made no sense.
Another part of the Waverly puzzle to unravel.
“I’m not cute,” she muttered, ala cuteness.
“Sure you are. And sexy, and smart, and…” And I can’t wait to tear those clothes off you and feel your skin bare and hot against mine.
But that wasn’t tonight’s program no matter how much I teased her down stairs. Helping her work through whatever shithole of an oubliette the twins had thrown into was.
Waverly whirled on me, gripping my shoulders where I stood on the step below her so we were of a height. Her forehead pressed to mine. “I’m none of those things, and none of them go together, ever.”
I smiled, drawing her mouth to mine in a sweet kiss that left her–agreed, shitty–apartment rocking beneath my boots. “You’re lying to yourself. You know that, right?”
“Cheeky damn artist.”
“You’re welcome.” I grinned at her back as she trotted along the narrow, poorly lit hallway to her room, and let me in.
For all that she’d said about dingy accommodation, I expected far worse. The small apartment looked cramped because it barely held enough space for one person, let alone two and all their things. The sofa was a bit threadbare, but the walls were clean, if the paint peeled in places, and the living area had a vibe my attic lacked.
But her bedroom was all Waverly–if I walked into it without knowing who it belonged to I’d pick it as hers on the spot. Bright, and motherfucking sunny in a way I’d never be. My lips curled up as I stared around the awkwardly painted room she’d obviously done by hand in the brightest ducky yellow ever. It should feel like an egg yolk got murder splattered all over the surface but somehow she managed to avoid that. It was just bright.
And yeah, fucking happy.
“Okay. I have never spoken to anyone about this, ever.” Waverly reached around me to flick the lock on the bedroom door despite there being no one else at all in the place. “If I tell you this, my future's in your artsy hands.”
“No, it’s not.” I caught her fingers and brushed my lips across her knuckles just to watch her eyes flare wide. Her lips parted as a bonus and I managed not to steal her next breath. Jst. “Listen to me, Waverly..” I tugged at her hand when she resisted a little, and I sighed, ducking my head before I swooped up to catch her waist and drew her onto my lap, perching on the edge of her bed. She made a pretty noise I tucked away for my spank bank and made sure to keep my arms loose around her. If she hated my touch, I’d let her go, for now.
But she hadn’t objected before, and I hoped she was comfortable with more because I was a tactile person and needed the contact, craved it. My silent version of a conversation held in a different way than everyone else.
I wondered if she’d get that part of me, too.
“Right.” Waverly rolled her eyes and tossed her hair where it grazed the back of her neck. Taking me by surprise, she straddled my hips, fluffing the same brown corduroy skirt she’d worn earlier around us both. “What? I want to be able to see your face. That’s how I judge if I can trust you or not, or if you’re so horrified by me that I need to throw you out on your leather clad ass.”
I huffed a laugh, watching her watch me, and didn’t hate the feeling. “This is your test. Got it.”
I gripped her hips and scooted back across the bed until my back pressed to the sunshine and daisies brand of Waverly wall, though I didn’t let go once I was there, digging my thumbs into the tender spot.
Her eyes flared wider as she realized her mistake, a soft moan slipping free.
Fucking Jackpot .
“Jax–’” she gasped as I pressed her down onto the hard ridge of my cock, grinding her hot, panty covered pussy over the zip of my jeans. My leather jacket spread out around us, over her quilt, and I hoped to fuck the place smelled like me when I left.
“Yes, Waverly?” I murmured, controlling the movement until her eyelids fluttered. My arousal skyrocketed the moment she straddled me, taking back control of the situation, and her independence. She glared at me and I shrugged, giving her a crooked grin. “Hey, you put yourself there. Didn’t think it through, huh?”
“I didn’t know you–” She bit her lip, her earlier confidence evaporating in an instant.
“Hey,” I released one hip and caught the nape of her neck to pull her down to me, brushing my lips across hers but not kissing her, though her soft sigh made it all the harder to have her so close and not fuck around with her more than I already did. “I want you. I’ve never made a secret out of that. This morning, playing around with you…I wanted nothing more than to kiss you and see if you tasted like honey. You do, by the way,” I added conversationally.
“I do?” She relaxed, tension slipping from her as I talked. Her thighs softened, draped over my hips and it was the most sumptuous feeling I’d ever experienced. Her curves were perfect in all the right places. I wanted to strip her, and mark up every inch of her pristine, pale flesh. I knew she wouldn’t have ink. She was the good girl sort who didn’t do that, which made me that much more curious about what the twins had on her.
Didn’t make me want to devour her any less, or claim her as mine.
Distraction was my favorite technique for pulling a brain into letting go of shit it didn't need to hold onto. I traced my fingertips along her thigh. “Remember you didn’t like the nickname I gave you? Well, now I know.”
“I didn’t.” She spoke against my mouth, and my lips tingled in response to the contact. It wasn’t the only thing that tingled as she shifted over me.
I caught her hips in both hands, holding her still and resisted giving her a full blown groan directly into her mouth. “Didn't what?”
“Know that you wanted…me.”
I stared at her. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
She giggled and blushed, shaking her head. “No.”
“Damn.” I kissed her anyway because I couldn't get enough of her.
She was addictive. Every touch and kiss created a need for more. I slid my hands along her back, memorizing the feel of her beneath my palms. My fingers itched for a sketchpad, to draw her and figure out who the hell she really was underneath all those layers she covered herself in, the physical ones as well as the mental barriers.
Maybe if I asked her, she would say the same thing about me.
But right now, I was interested in doing a little teasing before I stripped back those layers one by one.