Chapter 38
38
JAYDEN
“Your dad, huh?” Cole’s voice is tight.
I woke up in time to hear Jo say her dad gave her a black eye. Instantly, I’m on alert.
“It’s not like that,” Jo rushes to say. “It was my fault. I picked fights with him on purpose.”
Cole is silent. The rage that’s bubbling in my chest is unreal.
No one gets to hurt my girl. No one but me.
My words come out low, “I’ll kill him.”
Jo jumps and looks at me. “No! You can’t kill my dad.”
Yes I can.
“Why didn’t you say something before?” I can hear Cole trying to keep it together.
“Because it doesn’t mean anything? I wanted to fight him. Please, it’s not that big of a deal,” Jo pleads.
Cole scoffs as if he doesn’t believe her. “You were fucking twelve.”
“So?”
Twelve. She was a damn kid.
I clench my jaw and force my gaze away from her. The shadows on her face make it look like she has a black eye now, and I can just picture it when she was a kid. If I look at her any longer, I’ll get Cole to make a stop at her parents’ house.
It would be a long detour. Maybe we’ll have time…
Jo continues to plead with Cole. She’s defensive, and that makes me angrier. Her piece of shit dad doesn’t deserve that kind of defense. I’m jealous of any energy she’s giving to anyone else. She’s mine. Ours.
She doesn’t get to defend anyone else.
I try, but I can’t keep my eyes off her. Jo has stopped arguing, and now she has her arms crossed. She looks so small and helpless.
I know a lot of things about Jo, but I didn’t know she fought her dad. But I can see it. Not sure why I didn’t guess this about her earlier.
Jo sees me watching her and rolls her eyes. It’s brief, but it makes all the blood go straight to my dick.
I snatch her up, and before she can put up too much of a fight, I lay her over my lap. “Still have a spanking you owe me.”
“Get off me!” Jo struggles. It makes me hard as fuck to have her at my mercy.
I chuckle. Jo has put her one pair of shorts back on, but that won’t stop this from stinging.
“Tell me why you fought your dad.”
“Get off me!” Jo tries, but she can’t get out from under my arm. I barely feel her attempts. I know if I checked her panties, she’d be wet.
“Guess you want the spanking now.” I raise my hand.
Jo stiffens.
I wait.
“I was bored,” she gasps. “I was bored, okay!”
I stare at her, suddenly even more interested. She was bored? Sounds like something I would say.
“Let me up.”
“You were bored?”
“Yes! I answered the question, let me up.”
I frown. She did, but I didn’t say I wouldn’t give it to her, and I still owe her a spanking. I slap my hand down on Jo’s ass with a delicious sound.
Jo squeals, and I let her up. She scoots back, crossing her arms again. “Caveman.”
“Who picks fights because they’re bored?” I raise an eyebrow at her.
“I don’t know! I did.” There’s no deceit in her tone, just embarrassment and…arousal.
“Did you win any of them?”
Jo glares at me. “Depends what you mean by win.”
I pause again. I fought throughout high school. I won every time, but I never felt like I was winning. It was always a fix until my next fight, and I’d leave that one even more empty. The only time I didn’t feel empty after a fight was with Jo.
She was the first time I didn’t win.
I blink and cock my head. I stare at her. Really look at her.
Jo narrows her eyes. That fight I’ve been obsessed with for so long is burning bright in her eyes. But for the first time, when I look at her, I also see the pain. And then I realize something with horrifying clarity.
I’ve been trying to break something that was already broken.
Something just like me.