Pursuit: A Bad Boy Romance

by Cristal Pierre

  “Of course,” is Jared’s response.

  “Well…that’s true,” Laura says, still laughing. “You have to admit though it adds a little spice to your life.”

  “Careful now,” Alex says, lifting the edge of his lips into a flirtatious smirk. Then, he plants a kiss upon the woman’s lips. “You’re turning me on, babe. Yo-”

  “I think Anna doesn’t need to hear what you’re going to say.” Laura quickly covers Alex’s mouth, but the man starts mumbling incoherently. “Swear, you have to keep quiet. Show them you’re an introverted, respectable man.”

  At that, Nate can’t help but bark out a laugh, and Jared quickly joins in. “’Introverted, respectable man’ my ass,” Jared says, shaking his head, before he turns to Anna. “Don’t worry, Nate and I will keep him behaved. We’re just going to take a walk around.”

  “Maybe, get ourselves into trouble,” Alex teases, shifting his eyes from Anna and then to Laura. “We’ll be back right away. You ladies will be okay, right? Just give us a call if something comes up.”

  “Of course!” replies Laura. Then, she turns to meet Jared’s hazel brown eyes. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep your woman safe.”

  “That’s what I like to hear,” is his reply. Then, he lands a kiss on Anna’s lips. “I’ll be right back.”

  When the three men disappear from their line of sight, Anna turns to face Laura and asks, “Did they really just leave us?”

  Laura tips the corners of her lips into a smile whilst she shakes her head. Then, she opens her mouth and says, “Why? Do you miss your boyfriend already?” To add, Laura nudges her shoulder repeatedly to tease her.

  “No…it’s just that Jared’s usually protective,” Anna starts, as she shifts her head to side, deep in thought. “And he just left us here in the middle of the night…with a party full of strangers…”

  In reply, Laura shrugs her shoulders before she sidles up to Anna and wraps an arm around her shoulders. “Trust me. There’s nothing to worry about. They’ll be back before we know it.” Then, Laura hooks an arm around Anna’s and pulls her in the direction of the mobile bar. “Come on. We can have fun without the guys. Let’s not waste a great party!”

  And have fun they do – so much fun they’ve already lost count of how many drinks they’ve had. They’re definitely right in the boundary between being tipsy and drunk. They can still walk on their own, but they can’t hide the wobbly legs and turtle-like pace. Surprisingly though, Anna and Laura manage to get from the heart of the party and towards a more quiet closing a bit further away from all the people

  Quiet. Anna can’t help but close her eyes and rub her temples together. The deafening hip-hop music blasting from the speakers is starting to give her a headache. She walks a few steps nearer the thicket of trees, and when she opens her eyes, she tries not to squeal at the sight before her.

  Jared, Nate, and Alex – they’re all naked in front of her and Laura. They look very much out of breath and are panting and sweating heavily. Beads of sweat trickle down their chiseled exteriors. The moonlight eliciting a faint gleam makes their sweat-trickled bodies shine. She tries (and succeeds) to keep her eyes looking up instead of sneaking a peak at their gifts. She can’t think about how hot and tempting they all look, not when the sight before her is self-explanatory.

  Anna tries and fails to keep in the tears threatening to slide down her eyes. She tries to ignore the punch to the gut she feels right at that moment. She’s been made a fool. She doesn’t need to ask what’s going on between the three Jared, Nate, and Alex. They’re naked, and they’re out of breath. Now, it’s not so surprising anymore why Jared is a god in the bedroom. The man has experience, both with women and men, and with groups of them. Anna can’t believe she caught the man she’s dating in a threesome with two other men.

  “I think Laura and I will head out…” Anna says, choking with tears. In that moment, all she wants to do is run away – far, very far from Jared. “Let’s go…”

  “But whyyy?” Laura whines. Anna takes a second glance at the woman beside her. Why does she seem so oblivious at the moment? Can’t she see that the men she’s dating are having a threesome with the one Anna’s going out with? “But we’re having so much fun!”

  “What?!” Anna then shouts. She’s almost tempted to ask if all of them are high on drugs because she can’t possibly be the only one panicking at the current situation. How is Laura not losing her mind at seeing her supposed boyfriends sweaty and naked with Jared? How is Jared acting so passive as if this isn’t hurting her? They’ve talked about becoming exclusive, after a month and a half of dating, and Anna obviously expected that sex was automatically included in the agreement without having to talk about it in detail.

  “So you just planned on ‘pumping and dumping’ me all along, huh?” Anna asks, in the middle of turning and walking away. There’s no missing the bitterness and acid in her tone. “Play and de-virginize the virgin, huh? Congratulations then, you win.”

  And with that, she walks away and doesn’t look back. In the background, she hears Jared calling out to her, repeatedly shouting ‘I can explain’. Anna shakes her head. She saw what she saw. There really is no need to explain.

  Chapter 8

  “Trust me, I can explain.”

  Anna keeps walking ahead and lets out a bitter laugh. She’s tempted to try and test Jared. She wants to see if he really can get himself out of the muddy – no, quicksand – situation he’s in. But that would be too painful – facing him and looking him in the eye. They’ve only been going out for a month and a half, but her feelings for him have been growing at a faster rate than time itself moving. She won’t be able to bear listening to him and trying to ask for her forgiveness. How can she forgive a cheater?

  “Jared, I saw what I saw…” Anna then says adamantly, trying to avoid his advances of pulling her in for a kiss or a hug. She looks around her surroundings, the flame from the bonfire looking like just a spark from this distance. She’s lost sight of Laura, who she left behind with Nate and Alex. Anna hopes Laura’s feeling better than she does though. “I don’t care if you’re bisexual. I don’t care if you’re having group sex.” Anna doesn’t see the way Jared opens his eyes into the shape of saucers. “We talked about dating exclusively, and we both agreed. I expected sex was part of that.” Then, she meets his eyes. Looking at him sends her stomach and chest twisting and turning, but she keeps the eye contact. She has a point to make. “Now, can you honestly tell me you can explain your cheating? I saw you and Nate and Alex in the flesh.”

  “What?!” Jared screams, eyes and mouth opening so wide a bug can probably enter without much difficulty. “What the hell? You think I had a threesome with those two?” Instantly, the worried look on his face shifts into an appalled one as he moves his upper lip and bares his teeth. “Seriously?!”

  This time Jared shakes his head and rolls his eyes. “Of all the situations…a threesome with those two?! Fucking gross.” He can’t help but shiver at the thought, and he almost feels his dinner, pizza and chicken strips, and beer rising to the back of his throat. He cannot throw up in front of Anna.

  “Well then, what’s your excuse?” Anna dares, shifting her eyes to meet Jared’s. She’s never been a confrontational person, but she does speak up when she believe strongly about a project or a idea, or in this case, her belief. “I saw all of you naked. Did you three just suddenly decide to compare one another’s dick sizes in the middle of a party? You left Laura and me for that?”

  Jared lets out what looks to be a sigh of relief. Why a sigh of relief – Anna has no idea; it almost infuriates her. But then he runs a nervous hand through his blond hair, the strands sticking up sexily in various directions. He looks like he’s having an internal argument with himself, but before Anna can walk away and leave him, he finally speaks.

  “I have to tell you something…” he says, voice almost a whisper. Anna’s tempted to let out a ‘finally’ but decides otherwise. It looks like the tables
have turned. Jared looks more nervous than Anna had been moments ago. He actually looks more nervous than Anna’s ever seen him been, ever.

  “Alright,” Anna then says, finally deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt. Jared genuinely looks conflicted. He definitely doesn’t look like he’s making a fool out of her. “What do you have to tell me?”

  “Show you rather…” he then corrects his earlier statement. “But you have to promise you can’t say anything. You can’t tell anyone. And please…don’t scream or run away.”

  “What?!” Anna says, shuffling through her purse and trying to look for her pepper spray. Damn it. She forgot it back in her apartment. She never thought that she needed protection while in Jared’s company. He always made it known he would protect her. She never thought she’d need her pepper spray to use on him. “Are you going t-”

  “No, Anna,” Jared says. “Just promise me.”

  She lets out a heavy sigh, and then another one, as she tries to calm herself. When her heart is finally beating at a normal pace, she looks at Jared and gives him a nod. “Alright, then…”

  Anna doesn’t know what to expect. All she knows is Jared can be trusted; she’s gotten that feeling since the first time they met. And her gut feeling never disappoints her. And so, when he stands a couple meters away from her, she empties her expectations. She’s not hoping for the worst, but she’s not hoping for the best either.

  What she doesn’t expect is for Jared to start removing all of his clothes and then seeing a black bear before her, right in the exact place Jared had just been in a second ago. She almost screams, but she manages to hold it in just in time for the bear to miraculously turn back into Jared – the naked version.

  “What…the….fu-”

  “See? I told you I wasn’t having a threesome.” Jared almost rolls his eyes but manages to keep it in. Then, after he dresses up, he walks to stand beside her. “Now, will you let me explain?”

  Meekly, Anna nods her head and gives the floor to Jared. With a sigh of relief, Jared starts to speak. He breaks down his walls, submits to vulnerability, and shares a part of his life a very rare few only know about.

  Almost an hour passes when Jared finishes. He explained that they had just finished a run when Laura and Anna saw him with Nate and Alex. He also told her about his family, how both his parents were shifters and that only one out of their four offspring remained human. He told her there are other shifters in Black Creek, but he didn’t give out specific names. He also told her about Laura, how she knew, and that was why she wasn’t panicking. By the end of everything, all Anna can do is nod her head in understanding.

  “So you’re not cheating on me?” she asks, still best to be sure.

  Jared shakes his head and lets out a small laugh. “I’d never,” he says in response. Then, he wraps an arm around her waist and pulls her closer to him. “Are you alright?”

  She nods her head. Yes. She can finally let out a sigh of relief. She can finally look at him again with affection instead of fear and hurt and pain. Then, Jared moves his head a hairsbreadth away from hers.

  “Can I kiss you now?”

  Another nod.

  And so, he closes the distance between their lips and cups her face in his free hand. He presses deeper when he hears Laura let out a whispered moan.

  Slowly, Jared’s hands slide down from Anna’s face to her neck, and soon after, his lips follow suit. Lips and tongue moving, Jared starts to knead the skin on Anna’s collarbone before moving over to the curve of her neck. At both the painful and pleasurable feeling, Laura can’t help but elicit a soft moan before her arms wrap tighter around his back. Sneakily, Jared starts to slide the strap of her dress off her shoulder before his hands dip underneath the cotton material.

  “Jared…” Anna breathes, when she feels his fingers twisting and pulling her taut nipples. “Hmm…”

  At the sound of her voice, Jared starts nipping on the skin of her neck more excitedly now. Anna flinches once at the feel of his teeth digging into the curve of her neck, but she’s not complaining. She always loves it when Jared kisses her there. When Jared pulls his lips away from her neck, Anna elicits a groan of displeasure, and when she opens her eyes, she sees Jared’s head settling right in front of her breasts. Then, his one hand slides the other strap of her dress down as the other hooks her leg around his waist.

  “A little impatient are we?” Anna then asks, with a cocked up eyebrow and a knowing laugh, when she sees Jared unbuttoning his jeans. She automatically lifts a corner of her lips into a smile at the sight of his erection. Even underneath his underwear, there’s no ignoring his length and girth, and Laura’s instincts get the best of her when she licks her bottom lip.

  “I can say the same for you,” Jared says, hooking her other leg around his waist after Anna removes her underwear.

  With the palms of his hands nestled underneath her bum, he carries her to the nearest tree and sets her back against its rough bark. Anna arches her back, avoiding the rough texture, as her breasts press harder against Jared’s chest, and her dress pools around her waist.

  “I’m having a lot of ‘first time’s with you, you know that?” Anna says, as her fingers travel along the waistband of his underwear and then underneath. She lifts his hardness, its tip teasingly grazing her outer flaps. Anna can feel herself; she’s soft and moist inside, getting wetter with every second Jared’s erection stays outside of her.

  “You know, I’m always at your service,” Jared mouths out before he presses his lips hard against hers and starts to enter her, his sheer force and strength pushing her back harder against the rough bark.

  Rough – it’s somewhat of a sign, a sign of the kind of night they’ll be having.

  Chapter 9

  Jared wants to groan – out loud. And not in a good way. He’s lying wide awake on his bed with Anna sleeping soundly beside him. He honestly can’t believe how Anna’s sleeping through the continuous pinging of her phone. It’s been going off for at least five minutes now, and she’s not even flinching beside him, not the slightest bit. Jared knows his stamina – it’s great – especially when it comes to sex. He doesn’t expect to knock her out though after those three rounds. He reminds himself to take it easy during the next time. It doesn’t help that he’s a shifter – with the ability to almost never tire. It’s a miracle though that Anna never complains about when they have sex, the many times they have sex, and the kinds of sex they have. Like Anna keeps telling him – she’s always having ‘first time’s’ with him.

  The string of thoughts brings a smirk to his face, suddenly remembering the series of moans she elicited just a few hours ago. It was music to his ears. But the thought then dies down as quickly as it comes. The pinging from Anna’s phone still hasn’t ceased, and Jared’s almost tempted to throw and smash it against the wall. The sound is driving him crazy. Maybe, a calmer approach would do. He turns around on the bed, leans across Anna’s lithe and petite frame, and reaches for her phone on the bedside table.

  Jared presses the main button of her phone and watches as the screen lights up, blinding his eyes for a second or two. When his eyes get used to the brightness, he then skims across the screen, and slowly, his fingers start trembling. The phone almost falls on top of Anna’s face, but his fingers instinctively tighten around the device before it falls from his hand. He can’t believe the string of messages on her phone. Apparently, the messages are coming from her mom – well before the normal time people are supposed to wake up.

  ‘Haven’t you met anyone rich on that dating site yet?’ the topmost message reads.

  He starts to ask himself if that’s a normal question parents ask when it comes their child’s dating life. Surely, families prefer to keep the wealth in the family, but there’s something about the message that troubles him and strikes a nerve, and he isn’t placated when he reads the rest of the messages on her phone.

  ‘Don’t you have a businessman boyfriend right now?’

&nbs
p; ‘Is he helping you financially?’

  ‘I have an emergency. I need your help.’

  ‘Please call me when you read this.’

  And the icing on the cake: ‘Your father and I promise to pay your boyfriend back.’

  Now, Jared really won’t be able to sleep. He sits fully upright on his bed, clicks the phone closed, and swings his legs over the edge of the thick mattress. Then, he stands up and walks over to his cabinet and puts on a hoodie and a pair of sweatpants. When he reaches his living room, he starts putting on his socks and then his running shoes. He contemplates on calling Alex or Nate for a last minute run but then decides against it. He’s not in the mood to pour out his feelings.

  He can’t believe he’s been played. Looks really can be deceiving. Jared never expected this kind of betrayal from a woman like Anna – sweet, introverted, and feminine Anna. He honestly thought she was being genuine this whole time. He never got the feeling that she was only using him for money. That all along, she was just waiting for him to bite that bait. She’s often talked about how her job sometimes feels like a dead-end especially with the low pay and zero-growth prospect. He never expected though that her end game all along was to treat men like a walking ATM machine. And he’s the lucky winner.