Jordy #2
“I know you’re just trying to protect me,” I rushed on, wanting that look, and the thoughts in his head that caused those looks, to go away forever. “I know you can’t stand the thought that someone might hurt me. And that’s not a bad thing. But I swear I’m okay. He’s nothing. He’s no one.”
Looking pitifully conflicted, Kieran swallowed hard, letting his breath hiss out between his teeth. Recognizing I was at least somewhat getting through, I dragged my hands up the straining muscles in his arms, over his tight shoulders, and up to his face.
“I love you. If you love me, you’ll back off.”
He let out a bark of bitter, caustic laughter, rolling his eyes up to the sky, but he didn’t push me off. “Give me a fucking break, Jordy.”
“Thank you,” I said, relieved when he let me nudge him back, little by little, until his back was against the passenger seat of the truck. “You’re-”
“You know, I really thought you were different,” Andrew piped up from behind me.
When I looked back at him, I saw the flesh around his eye was already red and starting to swell from where Kieran had decked him.
But at least he’d risen up to his feet. “You’re a whore, just like every other omega.
You’re going to look around one day and regret settling for a bully that keeps you locked up like an object! ”
“You don’t know me, and you don’t know him!” I snapped. “I tried to be nice to you, but you’re a creep. Get the fuck out of here before I let him go and you end up with more than a black eye.”
Glaring at me with more hatred than I’d ever seen in anyone’s face, he turned away and started stalking off. We watched him until he had fully retreated back into the youth center. The moment he was out of sight, my muscles relaxed, and I let myself melt into Kieran’s chest.
He reached down to grip my ass, pulling me up into his lap as he lifted himself up onto the passenger seat.
I kissed him, obediently letting him squeeze me around my waist and hips and thighs like he was checking to make sure I was really okay.
When he seemed satisfied with the results of his brief exam, he pulled back and stared into my eyes.
“The next time anyone tries to touch you like that, you’re not holding me back,” he warned me. “I mean it.”
“I know,” I said, a chill skittering up my spine. I knew he meant it, too. “That’s not going to happen. I mean, it never has happened until him. You know that.”
He didn’t respond to me with words, but instead reached up and brushed a tendril of my hair off my forehead. He looked calm, but when I felt his fingertip tremble just slightly against my skin, I knew he was still upset.
“Hey,” I said. “I don’t want to go home yet.”
“Okay,” he answered. His voice was still intense, without an ounce of casual in it. I wished I could read his mind so I knew what to say to soothe him. “Where do you want to go?”
“Can I drive?” I asked, the corner of my lip perking up when he gave me an incredulous look. I’d definitely expected that.
“No.”
“Mom lets me drive her car sometimes,” I pointed out, and he scoffed.
“Mom drives a sedan,” he informed me flatly. “This thing is a boat on wheels.”
“I can do it,” I said, even though I was pretty sure I couldn’t. It didn’t matter, I’d known he wouldn’t let me anyway. But at least if he was thinking about this, he wouldn’t be thinking about anything else.
“Do you even know how to drive a stick?”
“I don’t know, do I?” I asked, blinking my eyelashes at him as I poked a finger into the crotch of his jeans. Batting my hand away, he shook his head, but he was laughing a little.
“If I thought you could drive this thing as well as you do that, then we wouldn’t have any problems,” he remarked. The tiny smirk on his face was so handsome I could feel my pulse fluttering inside me. “But I don’t think that. So no. You’re not crashing my truck.”
I sighed dramatically, dropping my head on his shoulder. He shifted a little, pulling my body more firmly to his chest, his arms wrapping tightly around me.
“Fine. I guess if you like being my chauffeur and hauling me around all the time.”
“It’s all I’ve ever wanted,” he deadpanned, his words muffled against the top of my head where he’d pressed his lips. He’d tried injecting sarcasm into the words, but I wondered how sarcastic he was really being.
“Can we just, like, grab some food and park somewhere quiet and lay in the back of the truck?” I wondered. He kept a giant comforter rolled up behind his seat, which we’d utilized many times when he’d taken me to see movies at the drive-in theater.
I thought about all the times I’d been sitting or laying next to him while a movie played on the giant projector in front of us, wishing I could stop staring at him through my peripherals.
Wishing I could reach out and thread my fingers through his, or snuggle into his side and lay my head on his chest but knowing I would never get to do that.
And now he had me bundled against him, kissing my temple and stroking his fingers over me like I was his most treasured possession.
“Yeah. Do you have your insulin?” He questioned, and for some reason the fact that he even thought about that stuff when it wasn’t his responsibility gave me all the fluttery butterflies in my stomach again.
Like I was always on his mind, even the small parts of me that he didn’t need to worry about.
Like making sure I was happy and healthy and taken care of was an ingrained need for him.
And I guess if the stuff they said about mates was true, then it probably was. At least a little.
“Of course,” I said, pulling the little zip-up travel cooler I kept my insulin pen in, out of my pocket to show him. “Gotta shoot up before I eat.”
“You know Chester hates it when you call it that,” he remarked, raising an eyebrow. But he still had that deliciously sexy smirk on his face, which meant he wasn’t thinking all those dark thoughts anymore. He was only thinking about me, which is how it should have been.
“Yeah, I know.”
CLUTCHING THE FOOD bags in my hand, I watched Kieran spread the blanket over the bed floor of the truck. He grabbed the bags from me, and then helped pull me up over the tailgate.
We’d parked in the corner of the lot of a small park with a reservoir. There were still a few people lingering around, but because it was getting later in the evening, it was mostly quiet.
I’d realized on the ride over that I’d taken off my fancy little suit jacket at the center once I’d been ushered off the stage, because I’d felt like I was overheating from all the lights and all the attention, and I’d forgotten to grab it on the way out.
There was no way in hell we were going back for it now, the risk of running into Andrew was too big.
I’d figure out some other way to get it before my dad could notice it was gone.
Shoulder to shoulder, Kieran and I sat against the back of the cab.
With my legs crossed, I sighed, breathing in the clean air.
The transition from summer to fall always felt strange for me.
I’d never dreaded going back to school, but a new year meant I’d gotten older and should have some maturity or growth to show for it.
I was never exactly sure if I had that or not.
This time was different. So much had changed in such a short time, and that nagging feeling that I’d always tried to ignore, the fact that I was hopelessly in love with a guy I couldn’t have, was gone.
Things wouldn’t be perfect and breezy, I knew that.
At least not for a little while. But I’d never felt happier or more secure with the direction of my life.
“Thinking a little too hard over there,” Kieran finally commented.
To my surprise, I’d been spacing out so hard and for so long that we’d both finished eating and the sky was just barely starting to darken.
But being in his presence was sometimes like that for me, where I didn’t feel like I needed to look perfect or always say the right thing so everyone would perceive me a certain way.
“Ah, sorry,” I said, gathering up my trash and shoving it back into the bag before leaning on him, resting my head on his shoulder. “Just spacing out, I guess.”
“I get it,” he answered. “There’s… a lot going on.”
“You mean because we’re speeding toward the most inevitably awkward conversation in recorded history where we freak our parents out by announcing we’re dating?”
He snorted, tilting his head back to rest on the back window of the truck for a second. “Yeah. That’s part of it.”
“What’s the other part?” I wondered, snuggling more tightly against him when he lifted his arm to wrap around me.
He was quiet for a few moments, and I knew he was deciding whether or not he wanted to talk about it. Patiently and hopefully to ease his concerns, I nuzzled my face into his skin, wrapping my arms around his hard torso and squeezing.
“Did Mom tell you about the thing that happened that night?” He finally asked.
“I asked, so don’t get upset with her.”
He exhaled hard, and I watched him furrow his brows together, his eyes flickering with unhappiness.
“It’s okay,” I murmured. “You don’t have to worry about how I feel.”
Scoffing, he shook his head. “That’s the main thing I worry about.”
“You already know how I feel,” I reminded him. “Have I not made myself clear?” I added in a light tone.
“It doesn’t… bother you?” He asked, his hand coming up from his lap to cup under my chin so I couldn’t look away. Sometimes when he stared into my eyes like that, his gaze felt like a physical entity that wanted to crawl inside me and live there forever.
“Why would it?” I asked, but then really, I knew why. I’d started to understand the minute she’d told me. But if he didn’t say it, then it would never go away. And I’d never wanted to be rid of something so badly in my entire life.