65. Jackson
65
jackson
The second time I came with her was in the shower. The third was as soon as she dropped her towel after drying off. Now we’re back on her bed, and she’s wearing nothing but a T-shirt I left here. I want to ask her if she wore it at all during the past six weeks, or if she had hidden it away in a drawer somewhere and only pulled it out now that we’ve fixed things between us.
God, I hope we’ve fixed things.
I keep waiting for her to change her mind. Maybe she decided she’d come with me in the heat of the moment. Maybe she’ll realize how crazy it all is and stay here with her best friend, her job, her life.
She moves to lean back on her hands, her head tilting like she can read my mind if she tries hard enough. “What’s wrong?”
I shake my head. “Nothing,” I lie. The last thing I want to do is plant the seed of doubt in her mind. Her eyes narrow playfully, and I grin. “Margot, I’m home with you. Nothing could be wrong.”
She blushes, and it’s so goddamn cute .
“You look worried.”
A small smile comes to my lips. I’m busted, but the fact that she knows me well enough to see it makes me happier than it should.
“The only thing I’m worried about is getting hard again if that shirt rides up any more than it already has.” I nod to her bare thighs, where the hem of my T-shirt has gradually risen higher every time she shifts.
“Yeah. We definitely wouldn’t want that,” she teases as she squirms to make the shirt do just that.
I cock an eyebrow, and she grins wider.
Sitting up, she crawls onto my lap, straddling me. Without thinking, my hands go straight to her bare ass, and I grip her hard against me, my cock already begging to be inside her again.
“I’ll put in my two-weeks tomorrow,” she says as her fingers play with my hair at the base of my neck. “And it should be easy to switch to online classes since we’re between semesters. I’ll call the office Monday and figure it out.”
“And you’re sure about this?”
Her eyes lock on mine, and there’s so much clarity behind them. “I am.” A slight crease between her brow forms. “Is that what you’re worried about?”
I weave my hand into her hair, my thumb brushing the soft skin of her cheek. “I never want you to feel like you’re giving up your dreams for mine.” The corners of her mouth fall, her lips relaxing into the perfect pout, and I kiss her without thinking. I can’t resist.
She puts a hand on my chest and gently pushes back to look at me. “I’m not. I’m just going about them in a different way. I’ll take my classes online, and instead of working for the magazine, I’ll . . . focus on my blog,” she says with a self-assured nod. “Or I’ll find a job writing that I can do remotely.” She drapes her arms around my neck. “My dreams are more flexible than yours right now, and I’m happy to bend if it means . . .” Her fingertips absently play with my hair again. “If it means I get to keep this—us.”
Hearing her talk like this feels like a dream, and imagining her on tour with me feels like an even better one. “I think you’ll like touring. Sleeping on a bunk isn’t bad once you get used to it, and we should be able to afford a few more hotel stays when the schedule allows for it.”
Her fingers graze the back of my neck and goosebumps prickle my spine. “And you’re sure the guys won’t mind?”
I let my hands slip under her shirt, so my fingers can trace her lower back. “Believe it or not, Dave brought it up to me a while back, and he was all for it.”
Her eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “And the others?”
I let out a laugh. “They won’t mind. And you know Mya will be thrilled.”
Margot’s lips lift. “I do like that she’ll be there, too. It takes some of the pressure off.”
“No pressure. If you hate it, come home early. Either way, it’s only six weeks. Then we’ll figure out where to go from there. We might end up in the studio, or Brian could extend the tour. Who knows?”
She takes a deep breath and nods. “Okay. I guess the only other thing is making sure I still earn enough to pay my half of the rent.”
My hands slide up, and my thumb brushes under her breast. “I’ll pay it.”
“Absolutely not,” she says with a bewildered laugh. “I can’t let you do that.”
“Sure, you can,” I say with all seriousness. “I’ve been living with minimal expenses for months. Pretty soon I’ll have more money sitting in my account than I know what do with.”
She gives me a leveling look. “Jackson, I don’t think?— ”
I kiss her. “You’re sacrificing so much for me. Let me do this for you,” I murmur against her lips.
“We’ll see.” She laughs, and I can’t help smiling at the sound.
I kiss her again, my smile growing. “Take my money, Red.”
She laughs harder, pushing herself off me. “You’re obnoxious.”
Rolling onto my side, I hook an arm around her waist before she can get too far. She lies on her back, looking up at me. Her hair is splayed around her shoulders, and I love seeing her like this. “I’m serious,” I say, tracing my fingertips over her collarbone where my shirt slips off her shoulder. “Don’t worry about working right now. Focus on school and let me do this for us.”
Her eyes search mine. But before I can figure out what she’s looking for, she quietly says, “Okay.” Her smile returns, and she looks up at the ceiling and lets out another small laugh. “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”
I can’t believe I have to leave her again in just a few hours. This apartment, this room, this girl, has felt like more of a home to me than my actual home ever did. Her room looks almost exactly the same as it did when I left for the tour, but I notice the few pictures she had of us are all missing now. I’m almost tempted to ask her if she still has them, but it doesn’t matter. We’ll take new ones.
My eyes fall on what’s left of the tattered bouquet she put on her dresser. “Why would Braden get you flowers?” My voice is soft, and for a moment, I wonder if I even said the words out loud.
I must have, though. Margot follows my gaze to her dresser before sitting up. “We went out to dinner tonight, and he ended up getting them for me.”
Tearing my attention away from the flowers, I arch an eyebrow at her. “Like a date? ”
She shakes her head. “No. Like friends.”
I let out a huff of what might be considered laughter. “I don’t think friends do that.”
“Yeah.” She grimaces as she smooths her damp hair back with both hands. “They don’t.”
I wait for her to say more.
“I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not like it was with Keith. I told Braden I wasn’t interested from the start.”
I shake my head. “I wasn’t thinking anything. Especially not about fucking Keith.” I should probably just let it go, but I can’t. Not when those flowers are staring me in the face. “So, nothing’s going on with Braden?”
“He likes me,” she blurts like it’s her best kept secret.
Lying on my back, I relax my arm behind my head. “Yeah, the flowers kind of gave that away. Nothing else, though?”
“Nothing else.”
I remember how much she stared at Braden the night we drove home from the party with him last year and wonder if I should believe her.
I have to believe her.
She puts her hand on mine, her fingers tracing over the lines of my palm. “Just be nice . . . whenever you see him again.”
Closing my hand around hers, I pull her back onto my lap. “Why wouldn’t I be nice? I can’t blame the guy for liking you.” My hands run up her thighs and under the hem of her shirt again. It feels so good to touch her. I can’t stop. My lips find her exposed shoulder, and I press a kiss to her skin. “You’re beautiful.” She sucks in air and my lips move to her neck. “The way you blush with your whole body is one of my favorite things about you.” I move to her other shoulder, and she squirms in my lap a little. She can probably feel me getting hard through my briefs. “You have a fierce loyalty when it comes to the people you love.” Her chest rises and falls in shallow breaths, so I pull back to look at her. She’s biting her bottom lip, so I pull it free with my thumb. “And you have a temper that would bring any man to his knees.”
She laughs, and I take it as an invitation to kiss her again. This time, she’s the one to deepen the kiss. She holds either side of my face, and when her tongue drags over mine, I groan. Margot moves to kissing my neck while she works on getting my briefs off, and I help her. With her hands on my shoulders, she holds herself above me, just out of reach.
“Mya told me to get you flowers.” I don’t even know why I said it, but after seeing her with flowers from another guy, I feel like I need to confess that the thought crossed my mind.
“You don’t need to get me flowers.” She keeps kissing my neck, not even bothered enough to look at me.
“I will. One day.”
She stops kissing me but only to lower herself onto my cock. “Okay,” she breathes once I’m fully inside her. “One day.”
Her hips start to move, and my head falls back. Fuck, she knows exactly what she does to me. My thumb moves to her clit, circling and teasing while she rides me. She decides the pace. She decides everything. I watch as this girl uses me however she wants to make herself feel good, and it’s one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen. I’m completely at her disposal, mind, body, and soul, and I hope she takes everything I’ve got and never lets go.