Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
KANE
Ican’t stop thinking about her, and time drags on as I wait for the lesson to end. Twenty more minutes. Exactly twenty tediously long minutes and seventeen seconds.
Clouds hang low, drifting like white mist over the peaks, as I stare out the window at the distant hills. Jessica’s college is over there, nestled among them, and I wish I could pack up my stuff and drive over to spend the day with her. But we agreed to lay low for now.
It sucks that I can’t show her off to the whole town. I want everyone to know she’s mine, and I want it so badly that it hurts sometimes. But she already has a target on her back.
Instead, we sneak around where we can, and every morning after I drive her home, I kiss her until my lungs burn and my heart aches, just to keep her in the car with me for a few more precious moments.
But time stops for no one, not even us, and no matter how hard I try to make the seconds slow down, they keep slipping away.
What’s worse? I’ve actually started to enjoy the persistent ache in my chest in some perverse way.
I never realized a girl could hurt me this good.
“Is it just me, or is Mrs. Goddard looking even hotter today?” Cash whispers, tearing me from my thoughts.
I look away from the hills and give our professor a quick glance.
A pencil skirt is hugging her shapely legs, and her tall black heels click on the floor as she paces in front of her desk.
Her blouse is unbuttoned enough to show some cleavage without breaking the dress code.
It’s no secret that she has sucked us all more than once. The ring on her finger is as much of a deterrent as a speed limit on an empty road.
Cash frowns and nudges me with his elbow. “Are you okay?”
Seated to Maverick’s right, Noah leans his head out to look at me. I know what they’re thinking. It’s been days since I got a good night’s sleep, but it’s worth every stolen moment with her, every kiss.
“I’m fine,” reply and stifle a yawn.
“Are you sure Jessica isn’t really a siren sucking the life out of you?” Maverick asks.
“She’s sucking something out of him,” Cash snickers, and I shove him so hard, he almost knocks his laptop and notebook to the floor.
“Is everything alright, boys?” Mrs. Goddard asks as she sits on the desk. “Do I need to see you after class, Ravencourt?”
There’s no missing the suggestive undercurrent in her words as she crosses her long legs like she’s Sharon Stone.
“Me or him?” Cash gestures between us. “Or both of us?”
Oh, hell no.
My face must say it all because he nearly cracks up laughing. The only time we share women is when our father throws demands around. I’m not usually one for sharing. Forgive me, but seeing my brother’s sex face isn’t exactly a turn-on.
“Him,” Goddard says, pointing at me with a heated, lingering look. Rage surges through me like a lit fuse, and the pen snaps in my closed fist.
“Damn, there went my blowjob,” Cash mutters, only half serious as he tears out a page from his notebook, crumples it, and tosses it at the back of a swim team member’s head. The guy stiffens, his shoulders rising toward his ears.
The bell rings to signal the end of class, and we stand up and gather our tablets. A yawn slips out as we move out of the row. I really need to try to get a few hours of sleep before tonight. Don’t fucking know when, but I’ll make it happen somehow.
Mrs. Goddard calls my name, and I stop mid-step.
Distracted by his phone, Cash bumps into my back. “The hell, man?”
A few deep breaths steady the storm inside my chest.
What does she want now?
I haven’t entertained her advances in a long time, not since the first time she sucked me off. She quickly caught on after that and focused her energy on my brother instead.
But since Jessica started occupying my every waking thought, my professor has been lingering with her gaze in a way that makes my skin crawl.
It makes me wonder, and not for the first time, if I have a neon sign that says unavailable or something. Women seem damn drawn to taken men.
“I won’t be long,” I say to Cash and the others before walking over to Goddard, who leans back against the desk and watches my approach with heat in her eyes.
“What’s this?” I ask when the door shuts. “A slap on the wrist for shoving my brother?”
“You disrupted my class, Kane,” she tuts, her gaze sliding down my body and then back up.
“This is detention.” As I stay silent, she slowly removes her hair clip and unbuttons her blouse, revealing a sheer lace bra.
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed you’ve been distracted lately.
It would be a shame to see your grades drop, wouldn’t it?
” She slides her blouse off her shoulders and arms, then reaches back to unclip her bra.
“Your grades are very important to your family.”
“Put your clothes back on.”
She ignores the sharp tone in my voice and takes off her bra. “You can hardly concentrate in class. Why have you been so distracted lately, Kane?”
This is crazy. If she believes I’ll fall for her advances, she’s even more narcissistic than I initially thought.
Striding up to her, I swipe up the creased blouse, shoving it at her non-too-gently. “Put your fucking clothes on before I make—”
The door opens, and Cash stumbles inside, pushed back by a furious Chris. What’s he doing here? How the hell did he get past security?
“You can’t go in there,” my twin says.
“Get out of my fucking way, Ravencourt.” Chris barges past and freezes in place. “What the fuck?”
My eyes fall shut. Fuck. This looks bad. His timing couldn’t be any worse.
Mrs. Goddard’s cheeks burn. Mumbling excuses, she quickly dresses, grabs her bag, and rushes out.
The sound of her heels on the floor echoes off the walls, and I wince inwardly with every loud click.
Chris glares at me, furious. He’s already made me out to be the villain, and what he saw here now, what he thinks he saw, only makes it worse.
I’ll never be able to convince this guy there’s no other girl for me but his sister.
“It’s not what it looks like,” I say, even though I know it won’t do any good. Have those words ever worked? Just once? It feels like we’re preprogrammed to react badly to it.
“It’s not what it looks like?” he questions as if he can’t believe I said that out loud. “It’s not what it fucking looks like?” His friends enter the room, flanked by Maverick and Noah. “You’re screwing around on my sister.”
“I swear, I’m not—”
I don’t get to finish that sentence.
Chris charges, and we crash into the desk, causing the others to curse and rush over to separate us. Fists start flying. A punch lands against my jaw. I drive my knee into his ribs.
We barrel to the floor, and Chris straddles me.
He fists my shirt and drives his bloodied knuckles into my face. The blow sends sparks across my vision. Blood explodes in my mouth as he hits me again.
I don’t fight back this time.
What’s the point? I actually need him to like me.
He hits me once more before Noah and Jackson tear him off, nearly toppling to the floor themselves with how furious Chris is.
Cash helps me to my feet, and I wipe the sticky blood from my chin with the back of my hand.
As Chris tries to rip himself free from Noah and Jackson’s firm grip, I work my tender jaw. My face is throbbing like I’ve gone ten rounds in a boxing ring.
“Nothing happened.” I spit blood on the floor, tasting copper on my tongue. “She tried to seduce me, and I turned her down.”
“Bullshit,” Chris snaps as he tries one more time to pull free.
This guy won’t fucking listen to me.
Determined to shake some damn sense into his thick skull, I storm up to him, but Cash and Malice seize my shoulders. We stand face to face, breathing hard like raging bulls. My pulse pounds in my ears, while his thumps at his temple.
“I would never cheat on your sister,” I say through clenched teeth.
Not willingly. Never willingly.
“He’s telling the truth,” Maverick states with boredom as he eyes Jackson. “She asked him to stay back.”
The facial muscles in Chris’s face strain. He successfully pulls free of the grip on his arms. “So what? She had her tits out.”
“I. Didn’t. Touch. Her.” My jaw aches as I slowly deliver each word to hammer them home. Chris’s hard glare darkens even more. He inches closer, assaulting my senses with the scent of motor oil and weed. “This is your final warning, Ravencourt. Come near Jessica again, and I’ll end you.”
“Why don’t you just kill me now?” I try to wrench free, but the steady hands on my shoulders keep me locked in place. “It’s the only way I’ll stay away from her, Holt. You hear me?”
He exhales a breathy sound, part bitter chuckle and part scoff, before pulling a gun from his pocket and aiming it at my head.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Sam says as Jackson blurts, “The hell are you doing, Chris? What the fuck?”
Everyone backs away with their hands up. Everyone except Chris and me.
I stare him straight in the eye as he clicks off the safety and steps closer. The metal presses into my forehead, but I don’t flinch. I just glare back at him.
If he wants me to stay away from Jessica, he’ll have to bury me first.
“You’d die for my sister, Ravencourt?”
Jackson steps closer. “Chris, for fuck’s sake, man—”
“Shut up,” he barks, barely glancing his way. “This dipshit wants to die for my sister. Let’s see if he puts his money where his mouth is.”
“Do it,” I challenge. “Put a bullet in my brain.”
“Don’t fuck with me.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. I’m only fucking your sister.”
Cash hurls his phone. “Dammit, Kane, will you shut up for once in your goddamn life?”
The only one who seems unbothered is that psychopath, Malice, who plops down on one of the seats and kicks his legs up. He looks chill as anything as he fishes a lollipop out of his pocket, unwraps it, and pops it into his mouth.
“I’m calling his bluff.” I smirk, tilting my head ever so slightly. “He won’t kill me.”
“No? Don’t think I will?” he asks, matching my smug expression. “You don’t think I’ll end you right now.”
“No, you won’t.”
“Why’s that, Ravencourt? What makes you so sure?”
“Because you love your sister, and she’d never forgive you.”
He shifts closer. “You think you know my sister better than I do?”
“I know her in ways you don’t.”
Cash mutters under his breath and drops his head back. I don’t know why I’m provoking Jessica’s brother or why he doesn’t just shoot me. If the tables were turned, I’d have emptied a magazine by now.
“You don’t know a thing about her,” he says tersely as he pulls back on the hammer, and my heart rate spikes. “You never will.”
Then he pulls the trigger.