by Cassie James
This town—these people—they’re not above anything. They’re not better than anyone. They didn’t do anything to deserve to escape the consequences of their choices. For some, it’s even more true than for others.
Ed Woods doesn’t come out unscathed, though he doesn’t know it just yet. He will soon, though. They all will. Because my project with Dr. Peterson is officially done. I’m not sure how it was even humanly possible, aside from the fact that he’d already done so much of the legwork, but in only a few weeks, Peterson manages to pull together a finished book. The ultimate exposé of the people who theoretically had everything and still chose to find every way they could to cheat the system.
Dr. Peterson puts his final notice in to the school, and I just do my best to settle into my new normal. No more mysteries to solve or great debates about morality to be had. At the end of the day, I hold tight with both hands to the hope that maybe spilling all the secrets now will end the cycle of bad behavior passed from generation to generation.
At the very least, parents can stop passing on to their kids the urban legend of Hollis Lexington’s mysterious hidden treasure. Because along with everything else I let Peterson write about, I give him everything my grandfather had about himself. The secret folders at the beach cottage. Hiring a hitman against my mother after her betrayal. And with Grant Harrington’s blessing, the details of a long hidden affair with Grant Harrington Sr. I’m sure people could do with less details, but I don’t spare anything.
I love Hollis Lexington for everything he did for me. For the fact that he never stopped hoping for my return. For the fact that he loved me enough to do something completely illogical in the hopes of protecting me—despite that his plan ultimately backfired majorly. But for as much as I loved the man, it wasn’t right what he did, taunting people with the knowledge that he’d dived into their most personal secrets and held them captive for all this time.
I’ve never managed to figure out just quite how he did it. Power and money talk, I guess. I can’t say I haven’t benefitted from those same things. I imagine without the power and money that comes from being a Lexington, I never would have gotten away with everything I did. Busting up a long kept Patience secret society. Spilling town secrets to an outsider.
I did it all with the best of intentions. I guess one thing I can always thank Nikon Park for is that it kept me from growing up blinded by the politics of it all.
If that hadn’t been the case, maybe I wouldn’t have had the nerve to stand up to such powerful people. When you come from nothing, it’s a hell of a lot easier to risk losing everything again.
“You’ve been quiet for a long time,” Jax breaks the silence, pulling my gaze away from the textbook in front of me. I’ve been staring at it even though I obviously haven’t actually read anything in the past several minutes, I’ve been so wrapped up in my thoughts.
I smile at him and shrug, glancing from him to Smith. “You all haven’t said anything, either.”
“That’s because I was too busy trying to come up with an excuse to get you naked.” Jax offers me a cheshire grin as he abandons his spot sitting against the headboard to crawl toward me at the end of the bed.
I look up at him innocently as he shoves my textbook off the bed. “Since when do you need an excuse to do that?”
Just as Jax starts to reach toward me, Smith clasps a hand around my ankle and yanks me firmly across the bed, pulling me out of Jax’s reach too quick for Jax to do anything about it other than glare. Smith shrugs with a smirk. “I told Dad I’d be home to make sure Mom doesn’t trash the house when she comes back for the last of her shit.”
“Dammit, fine,” Jax murmurs, his eyes trailing over me with obvious resentment. This dynamic between them, I get the feeling he’s not used to going second. This’ll be the first time with me, at least.
I’ve been so good about going along with this, but now the question bubbles up before I can help myself. “You gotta tell me what’s the deal with this,” I say to Smith, adding, “Please,” when his face falls. He looks uncomfortably over at Jax, who only shrugs as he refuses to answer for his friend. Jax has well and truly proven that he doesn’t have the same sharing complex that Smith has. Jax and I have gone solo more times than I have with anyone else. He’s got a knack for finding every free moment he can to steal me away.
Smith, though, he always waits until he can get Jax and I alone at the same time. “If you’re not into it—”
“I am definitely not saying that,” I interrupt him immediately. “I just want to know why. Is it just with Jax?”
He rubs a hand over his face before he answers me. “No, it’s not about Jax. I can’t really explain it, it’s just always been this way. It’s not the same for me when I’m one-on-one with someone. It doesn’t have to be Jax. It could be anyone, if they were up for it.” He raises an eyebrow suggestively.
I perk up at the insinuation. It seems there’s someone else I’m dating that he’s got in mind, though I don’t ask right now. That’ll be a conversation for later, it’s not like I’m in any hurry. We’ve got all the time in the world. I plan to make really, really good use of that time, too.
At the moment, though, I’ve got more… pressing matters to attend to.
I don’t care that he’s in a bit of a time crunch, I take my time sliding Smith’s pants down his legs and then his briefs. His cock springs up as I free his hard length and Smith wraps a hand around himself, stroking with a steady pace as I discard his clothes and then lean back to do a tiny strip tease out of my own.
He doesn’t get impatient until I’m down to only my panties. A thin pink thong that leaves basically nothing to the imagination. He reaches for me, hands grabbing me by the sides of those panties, and tries to tug me forward. My eyes go wide as the unmistakable sound of ripping fabric greets our ears. Jax barks out a laugh as Smith comes away with my ruined panties, having accidentally ripped them clean off my body.
We both look down in shocked silence for a moment before he chokes out, “Shit, I’m sorry.”
“I’ve got more,” I say with a shrug as I yank the ripped panties out of his hand and discard them over the side of the bed.
The panty ripping was actually just what I needed to get my engine throughly revved. Apparently it really did the trick for Jax, too, because when I glance over he’s already shedding his own clothes and climbing back onto the far edge of the bed with dick in hand.
I turn back to Smith rolling a condom on and holding his arms out to me. I slide my arms over his and toss a leg over him so that I can slide comfortably into his lap.
I kiss him once. Twice. Three times. He smiles against my lips. “Maybe Mom will be fine at the house alone,” he suggests.
As tempting as it is to talk him into staying here for a full-on marathon, I know Smith’s been struggling with the issues between his parents. I really think being forced to help deal with his Mom is an important part of the process for him to deal with everything that’s happened so that maybe eventually he can heal from it. Right now the scars his Mom has left are so raw, and honestly she deserves to have to face his anger.
So instead of giving in to his suggestion, I reach between us to help guide him into me, getting this show on the road. I have to use my knees to shift my weight before I can actually sink down all the way over him. Once I’ve settled his hands drop to the tops of my thighs, running over my smooth skin and then digging his fingers in as he tries to urge me to move.
I rise up slowly, thinking I’m going to get to set the pace from this position, but I guess Smith has other ideas. He uses his grip on my thighs to force me quickly down again. My whole body shaking as it means he slams into me harder than I was ready for.
He groans so hard that I know he liked it, and suddenly I’m fully on board with this new plan. I lean forward just a bit more so I can settle my hands on the headboard for balance—and then I set to work riding Smith like a goddamn wild mustang.
He’s like a man
possessed, his hips slamming up to meet me every time I sink down over him. And because of the way I’m leaning, every time he slips inside of me he’s brushing against my clit, which means I’ve got no shot in hell of lasting for any length of time.
“Smith,” I mumble, ready to warn him that I’m about to lose my fucking mind, “I—” my words fall apart as I fucking explode. He slides into me much easier as I basically drop on top of him, my muscles quivering so hard for a minute that I can’t otherwise move. I’m convulsing hard enough to briefly wonder if I’ve just induced a seizure or a stroke or something.
By the time I feel like I can move again, I’m a sweaty, overheated mess. Not that Smith cares. He pushes my hair away from my face and leans in to kiss my forehead.
“I can finish myself if you need to stop,” he offers, but his voice is strained like the very idea of it pains him.
He’s a fucking saint for even making the offer.
I shake my head as I put my hands on his shoulders and push myself back up so that I’m sitting upright over his lap again, his dick still hard inside of me. It takes me a second to get going again, but once I do we fall into that same rhythm as before—just minus the intense pressure on my lady bits this time.
He ends up snaking a hand into my hair and yanking me around a bit, which only makes me ride him harder to his breaking point. When he comes for me, he falls apart just about as much as I did.
He lets his head fall back against the headboard, looking like he has no intention of moving, but I’m not letting him get away with that. I smack his chest with the back of my hand and then lean forward to kiss the same spot. “You’ve got to go,” I remind him in a voice that leaves no room for arguing. He groans, but shuffles off the bed and grabs his underwear.
Jax wastes no time as Smith busies himself redressing, his eyes staying on us as Jax drags me to the end of the bed so that my head hangs off the end of it. I’m not sure what the hell he’s doing, but he hasn’t steered me wrong yet, so I let my head hang even as Jax climbs back onto the bed and over me.
“Enjoy,” Smith says with what I’m pretty sure is a grin, though its hard to tell as I adjust to seeing him upside down because of the way my head’s hanging. I raise up slightly just to be sure and yep, he’s definitely grinning. As well as he knows Jax, I’m sure he knows whatever Jax is planning next. I’m sure he would have been a part of it somehow, too, if he didn’t have to leave so soon.
“You know,” I announce as much to myself as to them, “I never imagined this was how things would turn out, but I’m really glad they did.”
“I’ll second that,” Smith agrees as he pulls his shoes on and then starts for the door.
I let my head fall back once again as Jax’s next words float over me like they’re caressing me. “You and me were inevitable,” he says. Truer words have never been spoken. From that first moment, when he was just an asshole stranger copping a feel of me while I was facing a total upheaval of my whole life. Even then, I think we’d been destined for this moment. Destined to end up crossing paths over and over again until I was able to see who Jax is under all the layers of asshole.
And I do. I see him for everything he is—the good and the bad—because the only way to really love someone is to love all of them. Which reminds me…
“Smith, wait!” I call out before the door is fully closed. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” he tells me with a chuckle that lingers even as he closes the door behind him.
Now that I’m alone with Jax, I raise my head back up to look at him. He’s looking back at me like he’s waiting for the go-ahead to ravage me and I’m sure as hell more than happy to give him that. “I love you,” I direct the words at him now.
“And I love you. A whole hell of a lot,” he growls as he dives between my legs, eager to show me just how much he loves me.
I enjoy every fucking minute of it.
Epilogue
The problem with long-distance relationships when you’re keeping a whole harem’s worth of boyfriends is that when you’re finally together again, it’s impossible to figure out where to put your hands first. Jake and Ace stand back as I work myself into a frenzy trying to greet Patrick, Smith, and Jax all at once.
The three of them are finally home for the summer after a long as hell first year of college. I, along with Jake and Ace, opted not to go. Ace is only deferring a year, or so he says. I don’t think he has any clue what he wants to do, and unlike most parents in Patience, his dad hasn’t nudged him one way or the other. He definitely learned from his own father’s mistake of trying too hard to control a son’s future.
I tried to talk Jake into going to college, but he isn’t in any better shape than Ace. We were both the kind of kids that never considered college as an option for us. We expected to work ourselves down to the bone just to survive until we died—or won the lottery or something. It took a lot of coaxing to convince Jake to even consider the idea of college in the first place. He hated the idea of taking a handout from me, even if it was for something so damn practical. In the end, arguing over the money issue didn’t even matter, because Jake has no idea what comes next, either.
I’m not quite in the same boat as the two of them. I know exactly what I want to do, I just wasn’t ready to do it. This past year, I took the time to fill in the gaps of my family history, and also my family finances. It turned out, the Lexingtons might not have had a hand in the day-to-day operations of a lot of things, but our family held onto a lot of different businesses over the years. Most of them were already run by perfectly capable people that I was more than happy to let continue on, but there just so happened to be one company that lost several higher-ups not long after I took control over everything.
That company was Pop Restaurants, Inc., a holding company for several chain food places along the northeastern coast. And one of those holdings? Mango’s Hot Chicken. It was like fucking kismet to discover that. I wasn’t in any way, shape, or form prepared to run a business, but I had started working very closely with Kelsey Donovan, the woman I hired to manage the company for now and eventually help train me up when I’m ready so that someday I’ll actually help run the family businesses instead of just living off of them.
Part of the agreement when I hired Kelsey was having Brandi finally fucking fired like she should have been a long time ago. That felt really, really good.
The only thing better was finding out just days later that not only had Ed Woods lost his re-election bid, but half a dozen women from his campaign had come out of the woodwork to accuse him of sexual harassment. His political career was well and truly over, stripping the man of the one thing he’d loved most. Ed Woods had become the laughing stock of Patience.
It all made for one hell of a way to come full circle after all this time.
“I can’t believe I’ve got all three of you back for the entire summer.” I beam at them, giving each of them a once-over to admire all the ways they’ve changed since I saw them last.
Jax groans, always the first to get an attitude about everything. “You’re acting like you haven’t seen us in years. You literally did a round of visits just two weeks ago.” Two weeks is a really long fucking time. One of the perks of having an ungodly amount of money? Impromptu visits to opposite sides of the coast so you can visit all three of your college boyfriends back-to-back are totally within reason.
Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself. Three more years of this might actually kill me… or convince me I need my own place. Only time will tell.
Jake starts trying to shuffle everyone towards the door of the Patience library where Peterson’s doing a special reading today from his book—the one I helped him to write. It’s the first time the city has given the okay for him to do any kind of event here, after the fallout that came at first from the negative attention his book drew to our town. I was one of the first people to stick up for him, not because I personally care for the man. I’ve still got long held rese
ntments about his initial plans for his book. But because the only way to move forward sometimes is to get through things, and the scandals of the past were something Patience desperately needed to get through.
“Juliet.” Dr. Peterson pulls me aside before I take more than two steps into the place. He glances at the guys as they all stop behind me, waiting like a group of very, very handsome puppies. “Could I have just a second of your time?” he asks, clearly uncomfortable with the added audience.
I turn and shoo them away. “Go find seats, okay?”
He relaxes slightly once they’re gone. “I’m glad you made it. I wasn’t sure if you would—you’re a hard lady to get ahold of.” Yeah, on purpose. I just smile and nod. “I want to thank you again for all the help you gave me. We’re announcing the movie deal at the end of the reading today.” God, I hope Anna Kendrick plays me. He hesitates for a second before adding, “I was hoping that you might stick around afterward, maybe discuss the possibility of another book?” His eyes are so round and helpful, but I have no intention of giving him an answer he likes.
“I helped you make your career,” I remind him.
He nods, looking pained now like he wishes he hadn’t brought it up. He hasn’t forgotten that I could really mess up this newfound fame of his if I ever let it slip that he’d actually been intending to expose a bunch of high school students initially, and by taking a job as someone they were supposed to trust, of all things. The optics wouldn’t be good for him.
“I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to thank you enough for that, really,” he gushes. I always hate this part of conversations with him, too.