Quiver

by Laura Avery

  QUIVER

  A DARK ROMANCE

  BOOK ONE

  BY LAURA AVERY

  Copyright 2018 Laura Avery, all rights reserved.

  No part of this work may be reproduced without written consent of the author. This book is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Quiver is a dark romance and is intended for mature audiences only. It’s extremely possessive and crude. Please don’t read if strong sexual situations, language, violence, and bullying offends you. All individuals portrayed in this work of fiction are eighteen years of age or older.

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  Quiver –

  Verb

  1. To tremble or shake with a slight rapid motion.

  Noun

  1. A slight trembling movement or sound, especially one caused by a sudden strong emotion.

  Chapter One

  “At least if he hated me, he felt something for me, anything for me.”

  EMERY

  I have no reason to be scared anymore.

  I have no reason to be constantly looking over my shoulder, constantly wondering if I’m going to feel his dominating presence lingering in the air before I see him. Any fear that consumed my skin was shed all those months ago when I moved away from him, any emotions buried deep in the scars I carried within what was left of my soul.

  But that was the issue.

  The issue was that no matter how much distance I put between myself and Jackson Lucas, or how long it had been since his dark grey eyes pierced into mine with the sharpness of a thousand knives, he was still lingering all over my body like a rash that I couldn’t get rid of. He was embedded in my veins like a virus that was spreading slowly, taking over every inch of my insides piece by piece, dragging out my misery before destroying me completely.

  I jumped at the hand that thrust itself into my lower back and swung around, bracing myself. Almost 24 months later and I still wasn’t comfortable in my own skin, still wasn’t positive that my past wasn’t lurking in the shadows, searching for the perfect chance to come back and haunt me.

  “Jesus, Emery,” my best friend, Morgan, shook her head and lowered her hand from me. “You need to at least try and relax.” She glanced at the huge house that stood in the back of us, the music blaring so loudly that the glass looked like it was about to shatter into a thousand pieces at any moment. “Nothing bad is going to happen, okay? It’s been two years for God sake.”

  “I know.” I nodded and bit down on my lip. “I know, it’s just…”

  “What?”

  “I feel him.”

  Morgan rolled her eyes and dragged me forward, closer to the college party that was taking place mere feet from us. “You don’t feel him, you just think you feel him. Jackson is thousands of miles away from here, probably with some leggy blonde wrapped around his cock. I’m sure he only takes brakes from her when he’s intimidating whatever poor girl he found to replace you in his twisted game of torture.”

  My body stiffened at her statement. I didn’t say anything but she must have felt the change in the atmosphere because she sighed and stopped walking again, turning her attention back to me. “I don’t get you sometimes, Emery.”

  I closed my eyes and tried to reset myself but it was no use. I wasn’t the best at hiding my emotions. Although you would have thought by now I would have learned what people don’t know about you they cant use against you. Morgan’s words had stung because the truth was more twisted than I wanted to admit.

  The thought of Jackson finding someone else to torture sent a rage I didn’t understand shooting up and down my spine, even more than the thought of some perfect girl doing things to his body I would never be able to. The thought of him hating someone new should have been a relief to me but it wasn’t because if Jackson had found someone else to wrap up in his insane world wind of a personality than it meant that I wasn’t special.

  It meant that even our hate was nothing to him.

  And that killed my soul since for reasons I would never be able to comprehend I didn’t want Jackson to forget about me, I didn’t want to be nothing to him. At least if he hated me, he felt something for me, anything for me.

  I swallowed. “I don’t get myself sometimes.”

  Morgan lowered her head, tracing her sharp green eyes on me. “The guy pretty much made your life hell for as long as I can remember, humiliated you in front of the whole school multiple times, had you shaking in fear all the damn time until that night with his brother and…”

  She trailed off when she saw me wince at the mention of Jackson’s older brother and the night that had always been off limits between the two of us. Between me and anyone really, besides the police and my parents. She knew not to go there and that was why she found herself backtracking.

  “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. It’s just… you’ve put college off for two years, you know? You’ve stayed out of sight, you’ve gotten stronger, and now you’re finally here. You’re finally in college with me and as your best friend, I’m begging you to enjoy it. Don’t let that awful family take another second of your happiness, Emery, let them rot in hell like they deserve.” She squeezed my hand hard and didn’t let go for a few seconds. “Okay?”

  I moved my body closer to her and let my shoulders relax. “Okay.”

  “Good!” She threw her arm around my shoulders and started to shimmer against my skin as she dragged me along. “Now come on, it’s your first college party and you look fucking hot, let’s enjoy it.”

  If only it were that easy.

  Chapter Two

  “Hello, my little lamb.”

  EMERY

  I was not looking fucking hot.

  Not even a little bit. Morgan had tried to tease my normally limp brown hair into an appealing just had sex look and the outcome had left me looking less like a pleasure kitten and more like an overexcited chia pet. The nighttime smoky eye plastered on my face was too noticeable on my otherwise dull features. Unless you counted my nose, no one would ever miss my nose.

  I pulled my black halter top down for about the tenth time since we walked in the door, determined to cover up the layer of my stomach that was threatening to peek out. The problem was that the more I tried to handle the issue of my stomach, the more the issue of my boobs came into place. Pulling the fabric lower only made them pop out more. I crossed my arms over my chest. How had I let Morgan talk me into this top and this push-up bra? Clearly, I couldn’t handle it. The skirt she had shoved me into made my knees shake with anxiety. It was way too short, way too tight.

  I turned the beer in my hands over slowly, taking in the scene around me. College parties seemed just as drunken and immature as high school parties; the only difference was that everyone looked a little older. Not that I went to many high school parties, not with the chance that he could be there, just searching for the next opportunity to show me just how much I disgusted him.

  Shit, stop thinking about him, Emery.

  I turned back to the guy standing in front of me, judging from the look on his face he had asked me something that I had completely missed. I sighed and tried to search my mind for whatever we had been talking about before I checked out. Morgan had disappeared as soon as he approached, probably thinking she was doing me a favor, but not having her within eyesight was making me anxious.

  “I’m sorry, what?” I gestured toward the music, trying to explain my delay.

  He grinned a perfect smile. “I asked if you were a junior?”

  I shook my head. “Freshman.”

  Surprise flashed in his gaze. “Really? You look older.”

  Somehow admitting I had deferred for two years because of my intense past didn’t see
m like the best kind of frat party conversation so I bit down on my lip and just shrugged. “I guess I’ll take it as a compliment.” And maybe I would have if circumstances had been different. If I had never walked in on Jackson’s brother that night. If I had never gone to the police. If I had never… The word never carried bottomless possibilities in my head and in the end, it was a complete waste because I had done all those things. I could never take them back. I could never rewrite history.

  And even if I could, I wasn’t sure I wanted to.

  “It’s definitely a compliment,” frat party boy said to me, closing his hand around the outside of my shoulder. “I could pay you compliments all day,” his words were layered in sexual suggestion.

  I tried not to cringe, I wasn’t used to guys touching me. The only guy who really put his hands on me had been him. And his touch wasn’t light, he wasn’t curious like frat party boy. No, Jackson’s touch had always been dominating and suffocating.

  I closed my eyes, trying to listen to what frat party boy was saying, trying not to let the anxiety that was creeping into my bones take over my entire body. And then I stiffened, frozen in my tracks, unable to move, barely able to blink. And it had nothing to do with being touched by a random boy at my first college party.

  A cold breeze shifted up and down my spine, followed by a jolt of electricity.

  He was here.

  I could feel him with every inch of my being, the way I always felt him before I saw him. I could sense his gaze burning daggers into the back of my head even before I felt the energy change in the room. Everyone was looking at him, taking in his beautiful exterior and the nasty enterer that radiated off of him like a brightly lit star in the dead of night. But Jackson was an illusion, the kind of star that pretended to guide you home only to lead you into a dirty trap that left you brittle and broken.

  And before I had a chance to turn around and search him out, frat boy was thrown up against the wall to the side of us, his neck pinned under the tan muscular arm that I had memorized like the back of my hand, although the past few years had made it more defined if that was possible.

  I felt my breath catch in my throat and closed my eyes, praying that when I opened them again this whole scene would be nothing more than an illusion of my crumpled mind. No such luck, my eyes locked in on the same tall frame, the same dark hair that stopped just before the nap of Jackson’s neck.

  He had found me. Just like he had promised he would.

  The room was eerily silent, everyone stopping to gape at the cruel debacle that was taking place in front of them. Frat party boy was choking under Jackson’s grip, stuttering with wide eyes. I should have tried to help him, I should have screamed, should have done something. Anything. But I couldn’t move, I seemed to be frozen in place, just like everyone else in the room.

  “Okay, okay,” a deep voice said, chuckling loudly at the look on everyone’s faces. “There’s nothing to see here, everyone carry on with your pathetic excuse of a night,” Pierce Lucas’s tone was laced with sarcasm, just like always.

  I grabbed a hold of the wall for support. I should have known he would be here, too. Jackson rarely went anywhere without his little brother. Pierce was almost as intense as Jackson and just as impressive.

  His eyes locked on mine right away and he shot me a devilish grin.

  That’s right, Emery, we know exactly where you are.

  I scanned the room, praying that Liam wasn’t here, too. As bad as it was having Jackson and Pierce here, having the oldest Lucas brother along for the ride would have been even worse. I let out a small sigh of relief when I didn’t see him but it did little to ease the overwhelming fear that was weighing on my chest.

  They had found me.

  What would they do to me?

  “Get lost,” Pierce snapped again at the partygoers, a deep rage in his tone. “Now.” And just like always, people started to slowly back away from us. They were still watching Jackson, still confused and intimidated. I knew just how helpless they felt, it was the way I had felt my entire life, every time the Lucas boys walked into a room.

  He looked at me again and then traced his sharp gaze back to Jackson before biting down on his bottom lip evilly. I knew exactly what he was saying without using his words. This was my fault, what Jackson was doing to this kid was all because of me. I had put someone in danger and Jackson was all too eager to collect.

  I forced my jelly legs forward wobbly. “No!” It came out as more of a scream than a statement. I couldn’t let anyone get hurt because of me, not again. “Jackson, no! Please!” I hated begging but I felt desperate, terrified.

  “Aw, what’s wrong?” Pierce moved closer to me. “You worried about your boyfriend?” he asked me, not bothering to lower his voice. “You finally find someone to fuck that virgin pussy of yours? Still desperate for attention, huh?”

  A small laugh erupted around me and I felt myself flush.

  It was just like high school.

  “Jackson!” I pleaded again. “Please! Let him go!”

  Jackson didn’t bother turning around, his arm only tightening on the kid’s neck, who had slowly started to turn a light shade of blue. Oh, God, he was going to kill him. Right here in front of everyone, that was how crazy Jackson Lucas was, how untouchable he was. His family’s power and money could buy him out of anything, just like it had his entire life.

  “He’s nothing to me!” I gasped loudly. “You came for me! Let him go!”

  Jackson pushed against his throat one more time but then loosened his grip an inch.

  “He’s a stranger,” I sounded shaky. “Please.”

  Jackson released him and let his limp and choking body fall to the ground.

  Pierce laughed, finding it hilarious. “Fish out of water.”

  Jackson ran a hand through his hair roughly and then turned around, looking me up and down with a hatred so sharp that it could have cut through metal. He cocked his head to the side. “Hello, my little lamb.”

  My knees instantly went out from underneath me.

  Chapter Three

  “God, how could someone so evil be so damn beautiful?”

  EMERY

  Jackson was across the room within seconds, stopping my body from collapsing and pushing me forcefully up against the wall that was behind me. My back landed roughly on it with a thud and a dose of pain shot up and down my spine. Jackson pushed his knee between my legs, holding me up as he placed his hands over my body on either side of the wall, boxing me in.

  His scent pushed into my nostrils, taking over the small part of me he didn’t already own. He smelled better than I remembered. Sex, danger, and cinnamon all swirled into one deadly combination. He jaw was more defined; his nose angled even more perfectly, his smooth skin even tanner. Jackson Lucas was absolutely beautiful. And he was also the absolute devil.

  I drifted up to his eyes. They were deeper than my memory allowed me to process. The same icy blue rested there, only pricklier, with more burn. They passed for grey when he was angry enough. One look into them and I knew the only thing that had changed about Jackson Lucas was how much he despised me.

  He hated me even more than before.

  I looked down at the ground, not wanting to make eye contact with him, not wanting him to know the effect he still had on me, even after all this time. His jeans were darker than his eyes, tight and showing off every toned muscle in his legs. I could practically see his washboard abs through the white t-shirt he was wearing. God, what had he done spent the last 18 months in the gym?

  The thought of Jackson shirtless and sweating made me blush.

  “Look at me,” he demanded.

  Hearing his voice again sent shock waves up and down my thighs. That deep rasp was still there, sexy and evil. How many girls had heard that voice panting their names in the darkness of Jackson’s room as he rocked their bodies into another planet? The thought of his thick tongue doing things to them that he would never do to me made my insides turn to rocks.
>
  “Emery,” he whispered. “Don’t make me ask again.”

  I forced my chin up, not wanting to piss him off any more than I already had just by existing. My brown eyes landed on his frozen blues and I felt my legs start to give out again, a large trembling drifted up and down my body, causing me to shake underneath him in fear.

  He closed his eyes for a few seconds and absorbed my fear into him, enjoying every second of it. “Fuck,” he growled, letting his hand drift down the side of the wall a few inches. “I forgot how much I enjoyed feeling your trembling body underneath me, little lamb. How much satisfaction I took in knowing I could make you shake without even touching you.”

  I was having so much trouble breathing that I felt like I had asthma. His hold was even deeper on me than I thought. He had found me; I would never be safe, no matter how much I ran and no matter how many pep talks I gave myself. I would never beat him. He was always one step ahead. He was stronger and smarter in every way that would ever matter.

  It was why he called me his little lamb. Because he was the wolf and I was the poor defenseless creature that he was intent on tearing to shreds whenever he grew starving enough. Well, that, and because he didn’t think I was worthy of having a real name. I knew this because he had informed me on more than one occasion, along with the rest of the student body.

  I knew why he was here. I knew what he wanted.

  I had only been anticipating it for the last two years.

  Revenge.

  He wanted revenge for what I had done to his family.

  Beg. The words instantly flooded into my head out of nowhere. Beg for your life. It might be pathetic but it might be your only chance. It might be the only way to try and get ahead of this situation. He might get off on it; he might enjoy the sensation of you stroking his ego enough to keep you around for a while.

  Then I could form a plan, a new plan.

  My insides shook heavily with terror.

  “Please,” I tried. “I’m sorry about your brother but I didn’t lie!”