Chapter 25
JAX – IF YOU CAN’T FIGHT IT, FUCK IT
As I walk down the stairs, I hear Callum and Emmett talking about Everlee in the kitchen, but they stop when they see me. Callum knocks back the last sip of his drink and sets it on the counter, sliding the glass over to Emmett.
“Good afternoon, boys!” I say, pulling up a seat at the bar.
Callum nods his head, but doesn’t speak.
I don’t think mopey is the right word, but he’s been quieter the last day and a half. I know he’s feeling things for Everlee, which is unlike him, but he doesn’t understand. We can’t have a long-term relationship. We tried it once, and it blew back in our faces.
Emmett casts a glance at me, but also doesn’t speak.
“Seriously, you too?” I groan, eyes rolling as my fingers rake through my hair in pure disbelief.
“I just don’t understand why we can’t try—” Callum starts before I hold up my hand to silence him.
“We have rules for a reason. That we made together. To protect us.” My words come out clipped as irritation pulses through me. “You barely know her and you want to change them.”
Their silence hits harder than I expect, as guilt stirs in my chest. With a sigh, I admit, “I’m not saying that there isn’t something there, or can’t be.”
Emmett perks up and Callum shifts his body towards me.
“You guys. You’re making me be the ass.”
“Only you, can prevent you, from being an ass,” Emmett says in a deep voice, reminding me of the bear that used to talk about forest fires.
“What’s the purpose of the rules if we’re just going to ignore them?” I ask, tone even, more curious than confrontational, as I seek understanding.
“There’s something about her, Jax. You have to admit it,” Callum encourages.
Knox bounces down the stairs jovially, then quickly turns to walk back up when he senses the tension.
“Knox!” Emmett bellows.
“I didn’t do it!” Knox shouts back a little too quickly as he pauses on the steps, eyes shifting nervously between Callum and me.
That fucker definitely did something, but that will have to wait. “Get your ass down here,” I command.
“Mannnn,” he elongates and whines, throwing his head back in the air like a toddler on the verge of a tantrum.
“We’re talking about Everlee,” Callum offers.
He perks up and smiles. “Well, then.” He finishes bouncing down the stairs and pulls up a seat at the opposite end of the bar from me. Dead giveaway he did something in my room. “I want to keep her.”
“We’ve been over this before. She’s not a pet,” I drone.
“Stop. I was only teasing.” He smiles. “Kind of.”
“Look,” Callum huffs, clasping his fingers together.
“I think she’s different. I’ve never felt this way about the others, and I know it hasn’t been very long.
I get that. But I don’t know. I just feel something different with her.
From the second she looked up at me that first night.
There was this look she gave, like she was daring me.
She pushes and gives as much as she takes.
Most of the girls we’ve been with aren’t like that. They’re needy. She’s… not.”
I let out a long, exaggerated groan, but stop as soon as I remind myself of Knox. Never. Callum really likes her and won’t back down easily.
“I know. Trust me. I didn’t want to like her this much.
I was curious about her, and when I saw her running out of the bathroom, her eyes were a mixture of fire, anger, and relief.
Like a girl trapped, trying to get out. Then that man stumbled out after her.
” He shakes his head. “This feeling bubbled up inside of me and I wanted to kill him.”
“We’re all glad you didn’t,” Emmett remarks. “Plus, that’s more Jax’s style.”
I cut my eyes at him, and he holds his hands up in retreat with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.
“Just saying,” he mumbles, washing Callum’s glass in the sink.
“I want to see her tonight. It’s been two days and I feel my body itching.”
“You’re like an addict.” I laugh.
“She’s like a drug,” he sighs, blinking slowly, running his tongue over his lips.
I tap the counter, the sound echoing through the empty room. “Fine.”
“Fine?” the guys ask with hope in their eyes.
“I’m not saying I want to change the rules, but we’ll see. We can see if she wants to come to Vixen tonight. Sophie will be there, so maybe it will be good to get another set of eyes on the situation. Get her input.”
“I bought Everlee something yesterday,” Emmett chimes. “Maybe I should take it to her?”
I laugh. “You’d just end up fucking her. No, I’ll go.”
“You’ll end up fucking her,” Knox retorts.
“I doubt it.”
“She has a way about her, brother,” Callum warns.
“I think I can manage.”
Emmett runs out of the room and comes back a moment later with a small purple silicone object.
I laugh, grabbing it out of his hand, then put it in my pocket.
“It has a remote!” Emmett pumps his eyebrows.
“Dibs!” Knox shouts.
“Rock, paper, scissors.” Emmett balls up his fist and holds it in the palm of his hand.
“Seriously? I never win these,” Knox whines.
“While you all figure this out, I’m going to head over to her place.”
“Don’t fuck her,” Emmett playfully chides.
“I’ll try not to,” I reply sarcastically. She doesn’t seem to have the same effect on me as she does on the others. But that’s fine. I’m the hard ass of the group and I’m fine taking that role.
Twenty minutes later, as I’m walking up the front steps of Everlee’s building, an older woman in a green dress steps out, her purse tucked firmly under her arm. She smiles and holds the door open for me, letting me walk right in.
Straight in. She has no idea who I am or what my intentions are. She just let me in. What’s the point in having security measures if old women are just going to let anyone waltz right in? I push down the thoughts creeping into my mind. Everlee is a grown woman. She can handle herself.
Because I don’t care.
Well, I shouldn’t care.
As I walk up the stairs inside the building, I hear her voice floating down the hall, and I pause. She’s upset. Angry.
My fists clench and I huff at my knee-jerk reaction of wanting to run to protect her.
I stay on the stairs with my back pressed against the wall and continue to listen.
“I want to talk to you,” the man whines.
“I’m pretty sure there’s nothing that needs to be said between us.” Her tone is razor sharp. She seems more angry than scared, but that’s Everlee. Our little fighter.
No. Not our. Just her. She’s a little fighter.
“What do you want?” she sighs.
“I broke up with Wendy.”
Wendy? This must be that douche from the party Callum mentioned.
“Do you expect me to care?” she snaps back. Even though she's out of sight, I can imagine her hip jutting to the side, hand confidently resting on it, and a face full of sass. The thought brings a smile to my face.
“I broke up with her for you!” he yells with whiny frustration.
“Sucks for you, because this is never happening again.”
I can’t help but smile.
“Come on, Ev. We were good together.”
“We were so good, weren’t we?” she says softly, like she’s giving in.
My chest tightens with a small, involuntary twitch, making me feel uneasy.
She continues, her tone hardening, “So good that you were sleeping with at least three other girls while we were together. It wasn’t that I wasn’t putting out. Because damn.”
“It wasn’t you. It was me. It is me. I have a problem.”
“No shit, Sherlock.”
I smile. She’s a little firecracker.
“Stop. Will you let me in so we can talk?”
I roll my eyes. He’s a whiny little twatface.
“No way in hell.”
“You looked so good Wednesday night. God. I couldn’t get you out of my head.”
“I know I looked good. My date thought so too.”
“Your date. So, you aren’t serious?”
“It’s none of your concern what we are or aren’t. You need to leave.”
“Come on, Everlee. I'll do whatever it takes to make it up to you.”
“Fine.”
What? I nearly choke. She can’t seriously be giving in to this jackass.
“Fine. Name it,” he answers excitedly, equally as shocked as I am.
“Go without sex for a year. No sex, no oral, no jacking off.”
“That’s impossible.”
“No shit. So is this.”
Fucking hell. I shouldn’t doubt her. I also should not be feeling this level of giddy excitement.
“But I dumped her for you.”
“Well, at least you’re breaking up with girls before you try to bang another one. That’s progress and I’m proud of you. But when I say there’s literally no chance in hell of us getting back together. I mean it. Zero. Zilch. None. Nada. Zip. Z-”
“Fine. But I’m not giving up on us.”
“Sucks for you.”
“I’ll win you back.”
Rolling my eyes, I turn around the corner. I don’t have all day to listen to this little cum stain and he clearly can’t take a hint.
As I walk down the hall, I notice Everlee with her head pressed against the door frame. My lips curl into a smile because I can’t help but think she’s debating on whether to punch him or slam the door in his face.
“I think she said no, buddy,” I say as I get closer.
Her head pops up and her eyes land on me, pulsing wide with excitement.
“Who are you?” Douche face asks.
Feeling a surge of anger, I stuff my hands into my pockets, resisting the temptation to slam his head through the wall when I see his cocky little expression.
But the slight quiver I catch from him sends a jolt of satisfaction through me.
I’m at least a head taller than him and muscle…
there’s no contest. I could flick him with my left pinky and he’d fall over.
Probably crawl to find his mother’s teat. “None of your concern.”
“Ev, I’m not going to leave you here with this stranger.” He thumbs over his shoulder at me.
“Seriously, what the fuck?” she retorts. “He’s not a stranger.”
I wink at her. No, we’re not strangers at all. I probably know her better than he does. He probably needs a fucking map to find her clit and then still couldn’t find it. Fucking hell, this guy is grating on my nerves.
“I know most of your friends.”