by Laura Avery
I felt my cheeks start to burn.
“Ah, she’s pathetic when she blushes, isn’t she, brother?”
Pathetic.
The word rang in and out of my mind and the kid from last night popped into my head. The kid who had told me to hang in there, that Jackson wouldn’t be a problem forever. I had been thinking about him nonstop all night until Jackson came around and clouded my soul and body into a big hormonal mess just like he always did. I had to find that kid, I had to figure out what he had meant. Something that was sure to be a problem thanks to my two new bodyguards.
“Of course, you aren’t blushing as much as you were the last time we saw you, now are you?” There was a sharp edge in his voice and I swung around to catch the hatred in his eyes. Pierce was always so cool, so collected, always cracking a joke even when he was beating the crap out of someone. It was easy to forget that he had been affected by what happened that night, too. Easy to overlook the hell he had probably been putting himself through for the last twenty-four months just like the rest of us. “It must be nice,” he continued. “Being able to go away to school while my brother is caged up like an animal.”
“Pierce,” Jackson pounded his hand down on the table. “Don’t.”
Pierce looked away and grumbled something under his breath.
The professor started the class then and I did my best to concentrate on what she was saying and take notes but it was hard with Jackson burning holes into the side of my face. I could feel him watching me, studying me like a puzzle he would never be able to figure out so he wanted to rip it into a thousand pieces.
He reached his large hand out and pulled my chair over to his so that our knees were touching. He placed his hand on our desks, almost shielding us from the rest of the world. He was so close I could feel his sex breath lingering all over my skin and my thoughts immediately went to the bite on my neck.
When I couldn’t take it anymore I finally looked at him, expecting to see his eyes clouded over with their usual hate but to my surprise, they were closed. He leaned in closer to me, his lips brushing the outside of my ear. “Why?”
“Excuse me?”
“I need you to tell me why.”
“Why what?”
“Why did you do it?”
His words lunged into my throat and I cringed. I didn’t want to talk about that night and I definitely didn’t want to do it here. Still, it wasn’t the kind of question I could ignore, especially because it was completely out of character for Jackson. I had never thought he would bring that night up, he got tense last night when I uttered one word about it.
Was he really giving me a chance to explain?
I swallowed and cleared my throat. “Because Charlotte deserved that, because it was the right thing to do,” I whispered the words out slowly, trying to convey just how much I meant them.
Jackson’s eyes snapped open with so much fire I jolted back in my seat. I knew it had been the wrong thing to say right away. His Jaw tensed and his right eye twitched slightly, the way it always did when he was extra angry.
“You’re a fucking liar,” he jolted at me. “Just like her.”
“I’m not, we’re not… I…”
“Stop. Talking.”
I snapped my mouth shut.
Jackson and Pierce weren’t ready for the truth.
And to be honest, they probably never would be.
Chapter Four
“His mood swings were starting to give me whiplash.”
EMERY
I felt Jackson’s arm run across my knee a few minutes later before he leaned over and rasped lightly into my ear. “I’m ready for you to show me now, little lamb.”
I set my pen down on my notebook. “Show you what?”
He smirked evilly down to my leggings. “My slutty undies.”
My arms started to tremble slightly. “What? Here?”
“You asked if I wanted to check,” he reminded me helpfully.
“I meant in the bathroom! Where we were alone!” I hissed.
He shrugged. “Well too bad, I want to see them here.” He bit his lip and let his eyes travel up and down my body longingly before he met my eyes again. “And we both know I always get what I want.”
The message was clear. He wasn’t happy with the answer I had given to his question and now I had to be punished. His hand traveled off my knee and up toward my thigh so gently that I thought I might explode. I watched as if it was happening in slow motion.
“Someone will see,” I offered up helplessly.
“And I give a fuck?” his tone raised a half an inch.
“Shh!” I shushed him before I pushed his hand back down and grabbed the waistline of my leggings and pulled them down enough so that the red lace was being exposed. “See? I have them on. Satisfied?” I went to move my hand but he stopped me, placing his grip on mine and holding it there as he let his eyes travel down the front of my panties.
“Fuck, lamb,” he moaned. “Slutty panties sure look good on you.”
I glanced over, taking in the hunger in his eyes and cleared my throat softly again. “Jackson, someone is going to turn around and see.” I glanced around the room in front of us, frantically trying to move his hand away but he only kept up with my pace, refusing to let go of me.
He pushed his leg over mine. “Spread your legs,” he whispered.
“Jackson! We can’t!”
“Why not? You helped me get off last night, I think it’s only fair that I return the favor.” He smiled devilishly at me. “Stick your fingers down the front of your pants, Emery.”
I shook my head and glanced over at Pierce to make sure he wasn’t paying attention but he was too busy typing angrily into his phone to pay us much mind. No doubt texting Liam about what a lying bitch I was and how much fun Jackson and him were having putting me in my place. “No way,” I told him sternly, deciding to put my foot down. “Not in a fucking classroom with half the student body around us, Jackson, you may think I’m a slut but I’m really not.”
Jackson rolled his eyes, looking suddenly bored. How someone could go from pissed off to turned on to bored in a matter of three minutes was beyond me but his mood swings were starting to give me whiplash. “Would you calm down? No one’s going to look if you would stop being so damn loud about it.” He ran his fingers up and down my leg again. “Not that I care, in fact, it might be kind of fun if they did watch.”
I glanced at the teacher but, of course, she was chatting away barely noticing the porn that was about to play out in the back of her classroom. “I’m not in the mood.”
Jackson laughed loudly and a few people in front of us turned around. “That’s a fucking joke, you’re always in the mood when I’m near you, lamb, and you know it.” He leaned over closer to me and bit the edge of my ear. “Now are you going to be a good girl or am I going to have to cause a scene?”
I looked straight ahead and Jackson’s fingers started tracing small circles around the inside of my legs, slowly inching closer and closer to my center. He placed his hand over mine and brought it slowly to my center, tracing my finger gently up and down my slit through the fabric of my leggings. I gasped lightly and tried to keep the warmness that had started to grow there under control.
“That’s it, that’s a good girl,” Jackson whispered into my ear. “I bet your tight little pussy is getting all worked up right now, isn’t it, my little lamb?” He dug my fingers further inside of me and smirked. “You can feel your sweet little juices starting to flow down that sticky center, can’t you?” He wrapped his arm around my back and tilted my head toward him, forcing me to look him in the eye. “Don’t make me ask you something more than once, Emery, you know I don’t fucking like it.”
I gasped and then shoved my mouth together. I was terrified someone would hear me and all the naughty things I was thinking. I was trying to be good but my body was betraying me, desperate for Jackson’s approval.
“Y-yes,” I hissed, trying to look away but hi
m but failing.
“Yes, what?” he growled.
He moved my fingers faster, sending the tingling between my legs to take off even further into the sky, my pussy was lit up like the Fourth of July and it only wanted to fly higher, higher, higher. “Yes, I-I-I’m wet, Jackson.”
“I know you are, baby,” he murmured softly. “You need to stick your hands down your leggings and feel the real thing, little lamb, it’s the only way to make yourself feel better.”
God, I couldn’t believe he was doing this to me in the middle of class. I looked around again, growing more anxious by the second. My body was trembling back and forth in my seat and judging from the look on Jackson’s face, it was only adding to his pleasure with the situation. “Fuck, I love how nervous I make you.”
Pierce picked that moment to throw his sweatshirt over the front of our desks, obstructing the bottom half of us from the rest of the room. “Here, let me help you out, bro.”
Jackson smiled sheepishly. “Thanks for that.”
I jolted back, mortified that Pierce had known what we were doing the whole time. What was even worse was that Jackson seemed to think it was normal, like it was no big deal his brother would be sitting two feet from us and watching the show his big brother was getting ready to perform for him. Did they… did Jackson do this kind of thing a lot? Feel up on girls in the middle of classrooms?
The thought made me sick.
They made me sick.
Suddenly, Jackson’s touch felt all wrong and any heat that had been stirring in my body started to run cold. What was happening to me? Why was I letting the fact that Jackson and Pierce were jerks affect me yet again? I pushed away from Jackson and shook my head. “You guys are fucking jerks, I’m not some toy the two of you can pass back and forth! Sharing isn’t caring when it comes to this girl!”
The teacher stopped talking and everyone turned around to look at me. Shit, I guess I had said that louder than I intended. I could feel the heat drifting into my cheeks as I flushed.
“Uh, what?” Pierce sounded perplexed.
I couldn’t stand being around them another second so I did the only thing I could. I grabbed Pierce’s sweatshirt off the desk, shoved it across my face so I wouldn’t have to look at them and then ran as fast as I could out the door.
And I didn’t stop until I reached my dorm.
Chapter Five
“Mine.”
EMERY
Jackson was sitting on my bed looking impatient when I opened the door and lunged myself into my room. My mouth hung open in shock. “How the heck did you beat me here?”
Jackson threw down the notebook he had been reading. “Captivating stuff, really. The 8th-grade version of you is extra pathetic; I especially love the part about Morgan thinking I only picked on you because I had a crush on you. Great theory, really.” He was across the room in a few easy strides, nudging me inside and closing the door behind us.
My anxiety level shot up when I realized he had been reading my 8th-grade diary. God, what had I even wrote back then? Judging from the lack of interest on Jackson’s face it couldn’t have been anything too bad. I pulled my arms tighter around my body and crossed the room, turning my back on him. “How did you get here so fast?”
He scoffed. “I didn’t. Maybe if you ate more you would have more energy.” I could feel his body moving toward me, even though his movement was graceful. I didn’t have to hear or see Jackson too know he was near, I could feel him in every inch of my being. He was stamped into my body and soul like a scar that had been carved long ago. It might fade and lose its luster but it would always be there.
“I ate plenty this morning, thanks to you,” I told him, still not turning around. My stomach was fuller than it had been in months. Jackson had stood next to me while I ate a huge plate of breakfast, silently observing my every bite.
Tired of waiting for me to look at him, Jackson swung me around to face him. “What got into you back there, huh? Why did you take off like that? You know I don’t like having to chase after you, Emery. I don’t chase anyone.”
I moved out of his grasp, still feeling wounded. “Because I’m not going to be passed around like some whore. Maybe you think it’s hot for your brothers and you to nail the same women but I won't be one of them!” I pounded my fist into his broad chest. “You hear me? I will never be one of them!”
Jackson grabbed my hands and pushed my body back onto my bed, causing me to start my trembling. “Who the fuck said I was going to share you with Pierce?” His jaw started to clench, his adrenalin picking up with each passing second.
“Isn’t that what you were implying back there?” I closed my eyes.
Jackson pushed his knees down onto my bed and pulled me forward again. “Look at me.” He pushed his hand behind my neck and ran his fingers over the spot he had sucked earlier. Once my eyes popped open he started to trace small circles on my skin. “Let me make one thing very clear, lamb, no one will ever have you except for me. No one. And that includes my fucking brother.”
I felt like I was drowning in his eyes. “Oh,” I gulped.
“Yeah, oh,” he sounded pissed. “You do what I tell you to do and if I wanted my brother to have a piece of you, you’d obey, because it’s what you’re supposed to do, but I’ve never been very good at sharing.” He moved his hand slowly to the front of my face and traced back and forth over my bottom lip with his finger. “So, the next time you get all dramatic because I’m not all over you or because I’m not punching my brother in the face for trying to help me feel your hot little pussy…” he trailed off and let out a soft moan. “Just keep in mind that you’re mine, Emery.”
The wetness from earlier returned to the spot between my legs like an old familiar friend who had been there comforting you all along. “Jackson,” I half moaned, not trusting myself to fully speak. He knew how much he turned me on already; I didn’t need to stroke his ego even more. Still, my quivering had started picking up speed.
My eyes drifted closed, enjoying the tingling feeling on my lips.
“What the fuck?” he pulled back, his tone turning to ice.
I opened my eyes and followed his gaze down. “What?”
“What the hell are you doing with that on?” His gaze was burning holes into Pierce’s sweatshirt that I had pulled over my head on the way back to my room in an effort to keep warm.
“It’s Pierce’s sweatshirt,” I offered up, twisting the ends of the dark blue sleeves up and down between my fingers before I hugged the fabric closer to my body.
“I know whose sweatshirt it is, Emery, I’m asking you why the fuck you have it on?” He shook his head and yanked it over my head without waiting for an answer. “You aren’t allowed to wear other men’s clothing, do you understand me?” He through the bulky thing across the room and it landed on top of Morgan’s bed with a thud.
“I was cold,” I mumbled crossing my hands over my chest.
“That doesn’t make it okay.” He unzipped his own North Face and shrugged it off his huge arms, wrapping it around my shoulders and shoving my arms inside of it. “If someone were to see you walking around in Pierce’s sweatshirt they would get the wrong idea, they would think he was claiming you and that’s not okay since you belong to me.” He pulled the zipper up to my chin. “You get cold, you wear this, got it?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Good girl.” He leaned in and took my bottom lip between his, sucking and biting it possessively a few times before releasing it. “Now, are you ready to finish what we started earlier?”
My fingers moved to the top of my leggings self-consciously. I had touched myself before, most of the time when I imagined what it would be like to be with a man like Jackson, with a man so physically perfect even if he was completely lost and filled with darkness, but the thought of doing it in front of someone else was intimidating.
Especially when it was in front of him.
The man was the reason for some of my biggest demons.
Not to mention the most beautiful creature I had ever seen up close.
My tremble was answer enough for him and he pushed me down onto the bed so that I was on my back and leaned down next to me, resting his head in his hand as he glazed up and down my body slowly. “Put your hand between your legs, little lamb.”
I pushed the fabric of his much too big sweatshirt up so that it was bunched around my stomach and I didn’t look like I was drowning in it anymore. I looked up into his intense eyes nervously. “I’ve never had an audience before.”
He groaned. “You’re killing me here, Emery.” He moved even closer to me, sliding his body into the side of mine and causing even more heat to rest in the spot between my legs. “Just start by running your fingers up and down that slit through your leggings.”
My hands shook as they moved between my legs and I felt him inhale swiftly next to me. My index finger moved back and forth over my line and my thighs started to tingle like they were under rapid fire. I looked at him curiously but his eyes were trained on my hands, desire and anticipation rested in them.
“Jackson, I c-can’t….”
“Shh, go faster,” he demanded. “Work those fingers faster.”
I picked up my pace, allowing my sinful feelings to help me get some relief. Lord knew I deserved it after the past few years. I had so much built up aggression, so many nights I had dreamed of having someone want me, of someone looking at me the way Jackson was looking at me now. Like I was sexy and thrilling. Like I turned him on. Me, the shy lamb from the other side of town was making the powerful Jackson Lucas all hot and bothered.
And if the growing bulge that was being pressed into the side of my leg was any indication, I was making hard as fuck, too. The image of his huge and hard cock from last night played in my mind and I immediately felt my body starting to shake.
Oh, God, was I going to cum already?
How embarrassing.
“I’m nervous,” I admitted.
“I know,” he rasped. “It’s so hot.”
“I’m inexperienced,” I added.