Lana wastes no time dropping her thong to the floor and unsnapping her bra. This is what we had, hot and fast. “Turn around and bend over on the bed,” I instruct her as I put a condom on.
“No,” she says, stubbornly.
I roll my eyes. “This means shit, you understand me?”
“So you think,” she replies with an attitude, an attitude I’m about to fuck right out of her.
I shrug, push her onto the bed, and spread her legs open. “You’re a nasty slut, already wet and I haven’t even touched you.” Lana says nothing as her hands grips my cock, guiding it straight into her pussy, and I try to hold back a groan, but I can’t. I pound into her hard and fast, with no mercy; until my leg starts to cramp up, and I move onto the bed, scooting her up at the same time. She seems to think this means more than it does because her lips search for mine, and I turn my head to deny her as I find my rhythm again. Lana doesn’t let it affect her, she puts her lips on my neck, and I’m so lost in the feel of her pussy, I don’t realize she’s leaving a hickey until it’s too late. When her teeth bite down and she moans against my neck, I come with a roar and rip my throat away from her mouth.
When my breathing is under control, I pull out of her and move off the bed.
“Satisfied,” I smirk, removing the condom. “You think you have me under some sort of fuckin’ spell, but pussy is pussy, babe. I’m a man, I’m gonna take what’s given to me freely.”
“You don’t mean that.”
Of course, I don’t, but I hate what she did to me.
I harden my face. “I don’t want you back Lana.”
When those words leave my mouth, I realize they are the most accurate words I’ve ever spoken to her, and an immediate calm happens in my chest.
Seriously?
I fuck her, and my heart stops hurting?
What the fuck?
“She’s leaving you know,” Lana says while she puts her underwear back on. “You’ll forgive me when she’s gone.”
“What are you talkin’ bout,” I grumble as I dig for clean clothes. “I need a shower, you can leave.”
“Jinx.”
She’s lying.
Jinx promised me she wasn’t going anywhere, even though she made me the promise before she was hurt again, she’s not a liar.
She doesn’t hurt people.
“Winter told me.”
The pounding starts in my chest again, and it has nothing to do with Lana and everything to do with Jinx.
“Leave,” I roar. “Fuckin’ leave!”
Lana finally gets the hint, not shutting the door behind her; I can’t believe I fucked her. I understand my callous attitude towards her after what she did to me, but she was a spiteful bitch bringing up Jinx after I had just fucked her.
I hurry in the shower, and afterward, when I’m brushing the taste of Lana’s lips out of my mouth, I get pissed when the mirror reflects a giant hickey on my neck.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why Lana branded me, she’s jealous of mine and Jinx’s friendship.
Jokes on her, Jinx voided our friends with benefits relationship when Lana arrived, and Jinx is nothing like Lana.
I’m starting to believe Lana was never who I thought she was.
Lana has used my heart as a weapon one too many times.
I’m fucking done.
Chapter Sixteen
Jinx
I’m lying on the couch with one of the many magazines the girls have bought for me, with my casted foot propped on a pillow when Winter comes into the room and sits in one of the recliners.
“I need to talk to you,” she says.
I can’t sit up because the glue and staples in my stomach still pull, so I close my magazine and put it on the table they’ve moved near the couch for me. They’ve made it clear I’m to spend the day down here, and they will move me to my room at nights.
Watchful eyes, they say.
Surprisingly, I haven’t had another panic attack.
It’s baffling, but I’m not complaining.
“What’s up?”
“Braxxon is sending us away.”
I pick my head up off the pillow and immediately regret it. “Who is he sending away?”
“Me, baby Lana, Storm, and Miracle, we’re being sent to Arizona. It’s a quiet chapter, and we’re not coming back until it’s safe.”
I put my head back down. “I see his reasoning, Winter.”
She sniffles. “I know, but this is home.”
I reach for her hand, and when she laces it with mine, I squeeze. “We’re good, Winter. I’ve already forgiven you. I know that’s why you’re here.”
Winter hiccups. “I’ve been a bitch.”
“You’re trying to make up for it.”
Winter gazes around the room and leans in. “I’m happy she’s alive, but angry with my husband for keeping it from me, and I’m sorry I fucked things up with you and Pyro.”
Oh, boy.
“Winter, she was your best friend, although your actions were shitty, you were hurting too. As for Pyro and me, we were only messing around. I’m still healing, and I admit, it was so easy with him, but we’re friends,” I say. “I think. He hasn’t spoken to me since I was laying on the closet room floor with a knife in my gut.”
She gazes around the room again. “Don’t tell Pyro I told you this. He was at the hospital every night for a few hours.”
I let go of her hand, my arm going numb. “Are you serious?”
“Yes, he would watch you sleep.”
“He’s all over the place,” I mumble.
“Wouldn’t you be?”
If I had a dead boyfriend come back to life, hell yeah. “It was so easy to open up to him, to let him touch me, and he said we’d still be friends, but he won’t talk to me.”
“Pyro was never good with emotions, and when he finally opens up, Lana fucks him over, and then he grows close with you, and you get hurt,” she whispers. “If I know Pyro, he’s a volcano, waiting to explode, and even though I don’t want to leave, I’m glad I won’t be here for it.”
I nod to my pain pills and Winter opens them for me. “It’ll be bad, huh?”
“He doesn’t care about much, but when he does, it consumes him.”
I swallow my medicine and put the water back on the table. “I shouldn’t take the not speaking to me thing to heart then?”
“I’d appreciate it, if you wouldn’t fuckin’ gossip about me,” Pyro grumps from the stairway.
Shit!
“I need a minute with Jinx.”
Winter’s eyes go wide, she gets up without a word and leaves the room.
“You got somethin’ to tell me,” Pyro demands as he sits on the coffee table. He’s so close I can smell his cologne, and I don’t miss the hickey on his neck. Pyro stiffens when my gaze stays on the red mark.
My heartbeat picks up, and I use all my strength to tear my eyes away from the love bite.
“Are you fuckin’ leavin’?”
Crap.
“Not for a while,” I admit. “I’ve got to heal first.”
His eyes narrow and go cold. “You promised you wouldn’t leave,” he grits out. “You fuckin’ promised.”
I gulp. “I meant like disappear, Pyro. I would never leave without saying goodbye. I don’t hurt people.”
Pyro gets up, pushes the table away from the couch, drops to the floor on his knees. “I’m not good with this shit.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want you to leave.”
I sigh. “If I don’t, we’ll most likely hurt one another,” I whisper. “Is that what you want.”
Pyro takes one of my hands in his. “I’m fuckin’ drownin’ here, Jinx.”
I reach up with my left hand and push his hair away from his eyes. “You need a haircut,” I murmur. “We haven’t really spoken since Lana came back and I was hurt.”
His thumb makes circles on my hand. “I don’t care about my fuckin’ hair.”
“I know you’re drowning, Pyro, but I’m not you, I can’t tell you what to do. I can be here as your friend, but you have to figure out your path on your own.”
“When do you plan to leave?”
I run my thumb on his bottom lip, mesmerized. “Not for a few months.”
Pyro sucks my thumb into his mouth with a bite, then releases. “I have a few months to change your mind then.”
“Determined, huh?”
“Look at your progress, darlin’, this shit would have sent you runnin’ months ago.” Pyro motions to my stomach and foot.
“What do you want from me?”
He leans his forehead against mine. “I don’t know,” he croaks. “What I do know is, you’re the only person I trust right now, and I can’t lose that. I can’t.”
I close my eyes. “I’m getting drowsy.”
“Shortcake?”
“I’ll give you the few months to change my mind,” I tell him with my eyes closed. “But you’re giving me mixed signals. I’m cool, but if those mixed signals keep happening along with more love bites from Lana, I probably won’t stay.”
I can feel his body stiffen when I mention his hickey. “I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for, we aren’t a couple,” I mumble through my sleep haze. “I’m not mad. I just want it clear that I’m not your backup, you can’t use our easy nature as revenge, either.”
Pyro sucks in a breath. “I would never use you, Jinx.”
I mumble, half asleep. “Not purposely. You’re drownin’, remember?”
“I’ll let you sleep, darlin’.”
“Mmmkay.”
∞∞∞
Chapter Seventeen
Pyro
“You aren’t going to say goodbye?”
I glance up at Jinx. “And leave you in here by yourself? Not a fuckin’ chance, darlin’, besides, they’ll be back.”
“Why’d ZZ decide to send Tea away with them?
I chuckle. “Tea’s an escape artist. She doesn’t listen to orders when we have lockdowns and Shadow’s weak as fuck when it comes to her.”
“She sweet talks him?”
“More or less. Fact is, she doesn’t listen, and we can’t have Tea sneakin’ out right now.”
“Strangely, I’m not worried,” she tells me with a little shrug of her shoulders.
“You’re not worried because I ain’t lettin’ you leave this compound.”
Jinx gives me a little thumbs up. “Lucky for you, I’m pretty immobile right now.”
The door to the housing building opens with Lana walking in with tears on her face, and fuck, I’m trying to be nice, but how fuckin’ dare she cry.
“You don’t get to fuckin’ cry, you were gone,” I growl. “That’s your own time lost with Winter and Storm. Fuck, Winter named her child after you for fuck's sake.”
“Pyro,” Jinx says, placing her hand on my arm. “Calm down.”
“Lana, sit down, take a breath.”
I whip my head towards Jinx.
What the fuck is she doing?
Strangely, Lana does what Jinx tells her.
As if my mind isn’t already in hell, I gotta have both my women in the same fucking room?
No, they aren’t your women, Pyro.
One fucked you over, the other might leave you.
“You gotta suck up those tears, Lana. Pyro’s right, you gave up the right to cry when you faked your death, and if you’re gonna make it around here, you’re gonna have to remember what you did to them all.” Jinx says, letting go of my arm. “I may not know you, but I do know what you put the people I care about through.”
Jinx eyes her pills and water, so I snag them up and hand them to her. “And, frankly, don’t use Pyro’s attraction to you as a weapon.”
Oh, shit.
Lana lets out a sob. “I didn’t.”
When did she become a liar?
Oh yeah, when she faked her fucking death.
“You did. I saw the hickey, and yes, it bothered me, but not in the way you think.”
Lana covers her mouth with her hands and talks through them. “I don’t understand.”
Jinx looks me in the eyes when she answers Lana. “I care about him. We’re friends, we’ve explored a little more, then you came back, and I’m giving him time to figure out what he wants, you need to do the same. Stop using your body to fuck with his emotions. I’m the kindest person you’ll ever meet, but if you keep messing with his mind, we won’t even have a chance at being friends, you’ll be my enemy.”
This is another check on my attraction list for Jinx.
She generally cares about me, whether we’re messing around or not.
It’s fucking sexy as hell.
“You’re not fighting for him,” Lana questions confused.
Oh, for fucks sakes!
“He isn’t an object, Lana. He’s a person.”
And, there goes my cock.
“He’s the first guy to make me feel comfortable again, we share a connection we don’t even understand,” she looks to me, “I know you hate being stuck in this conversation, but you have to hear it.”
“Go on, Shortcake.”
“You asked in the parking lot one night if I loved him, I told you, yes, but I haven’t fallen in love with him, and if you hadn't come back, I probably would have.”
I close my eyes, knowing Lana’s presence might have ruined something I didn’t even see myself, pisses me off.
Jinx would be a fantastic woman to fall in love with, she cares to the core of her being.
“But, I love you, Stefan.” Lana cries out.
I open my eyes, look over to Lana with an audible gulp. “I don’t think it’s the right kind of love.”
“What do you mean?” Lana gasps. “How are there different kinds of love?”
Damnit, I want out of this conversation.
“We were hot and cold from the beginning, then you fucking died,” I say using my fingers as smartass quotations. “And then you use my emotions and your body to get me to fuck you when you came back. I don’t know much about love, but if that’s love, I want nothin’ to fuckin’ do with it.”
“You guys act like you are fucking soulmates, and I’m intruding on something.” Lana curses.
“Maybe she is my fuckin’ soulmate, who fuckin’ knows. All I know is even my friendship with her is easier than it ever was with you. Fuck, she knows my emotions are a fuckin’ mess, and here she is, being fuckin’ supportive when in all reality, she should’ve told me to get fuckin’ lost,” I yell when I stand up. “The point is, the only thing I feel for you right now is anger, and you can’t even let me fuckin’ have it!”
“But we had sex!”
Jinx turns away, and it pisses me off because she doesn’t need the details of what happened with Lana and me, but now Lana has it out in the open, and I gotta squash it. “I’ve always been sexually attracted to you, Lana, but I’m more than sexually attracted to Jinx. I’m not sorry if it hurts your feelings to hear either, you fuckin’ broke my heart, and I’m not going to apologize.”
The door opens, and ZZ comes in, looking pissed. “They’re safely out of town.”
“They’ll be safe, brother.”
ZZ nods and goes up the stairs to his room, I imagine. The poor dude sent his entire family away, even Berry, his mother.
“Anyway, you can’t force Pyro to act, let him make up his own mind. Now, if you can excuse me, he’s the one who carries me to bed,” Jinx says while she struggles to sit up. “And, no, it isn’t a jab at you, he does it every night, cause walking on my broken ankle and a glued-up stomach is strenuous.”
Lana exhales. “You’re not going to freeze me out? You’ll come to me when you’re ready?”
“That’s what I’ve been tryin’ to tell you all along, Lana,” I say to her when I pick up Jinx and cradle her to my chest carefully.
“Get my pills?”
I bend down with her in my arms. “Got em’.”
>
“Thanks.”
The entire walk up the two flights of stairs to her room are spent in a comfortable silence.
She takes her necklace off and hands it to me, so I can unlock her door, I walk her inside, lay her down on her bed, go get the key out of the door, and then shut and lock us in.
“The door doesn’t need to be locked, because you’re probably going to be pissed with me in a second.”
I tilt my head back in frustration. “What?”
“Come here,” she beckons.
When I sit down on the side of her bed, she reaches for one of my hands and intertwines our fingers together.
“Did you hate fuck her, Pyro?”
A huff escapes my lips, I’m sick of fucking dealing with this shit.
“Pyro?”
“I did.”
“There’s still something there, you’re letting your anger cloud your emotions.”
How the fuck does she know this shit when I don’t even know it myself?
“I’m going to suggest something out of the ordinary here, please don’t be upset with me.”
I could never be upset with her, her hearts always in the right place.
“Sleep with her without all the hate, put it out of your mind for a little while. If there’s still a connection with her, you’ll get your answer.”
She can’t be serious?
“Let me get this straight. You, the woman I care about, who I might have somethin’ with, wants me,” I point to myself, “to go sleep with my ex?”
“That’s not all.”
“There’s more?”
“You’re going to kiss me right before you go do it, too.”
She’s fucking with me.
“Oh, shit, you’re serious.”
“I am.”
“When am I supposed to do this shit,” I smart off, irritation seeping through my voice.
“Now.”
I jump off her bed, she’s fucking crazy. I mean, I know we’re not a couple or anything, but shit, we are dealing with our own fucked up relationship, and she wants to make it more complicated than it already is?
“Shortcake, I’m not down with your plan. The hate fuck was an impulse, an angry fuck, and now you want me to put the anger away and put emotions into fuckin’ Lana?”
Reconstruct Me (Breakneck Book 5) Page 12