CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Finn
When our voices died away, there was no more sound. The whole restaurant was eerily silent, not even the click of the air-conditioning system, or the sound of the wind outside interrupted the heavy silence that filled my ears. The only sound was the ragged breathing of three sets of lungs as all of a sudden, we realized what we had just done.
Somehow I was able to wrench my eyes away from the work of art that was a freshly fucked Bee, and glance in the direction of Jackson.
He was watching me, warily, unsure as to what to make of all this now that it was over. His lip curled up in a slow, tentative, cautious smile.
I took a breath, and then gave him a nod. We'd deal with how it happened... later. With what had happened... later.
For now, it was only Bee that mattered.
And right now, she wasn't looking all that great.
"Oh my God," she exhaled, so quietly I don't think she realized she'd even said it. Her face went pale as she whispered again in quiet panic, "Oh my God."
"Hey," I said, moving to reach for her.
But she yanked her arm away before I could grab it. Glaring at me, she slid from the table and padded barefoot over to where her clothes had fallen in a heap. Her face went from pale to flushed bright red as she looked at her shirt, then resolutely yanked it over her naked breasts without even bothering with her bra.
"Bee," Jackson said, the care in his voice tugging at my heart for some strange reason.
But she turned sharply, fire blazing in her eyes. And she opened her mouth and said, "No."
There was only the sound of breathing again, but this was different. It was the sound of her anger as her breathing grew faster and faster. Like she was getting ready to run for her life.
I held my hands up, desperate to stave off whatever it was that was happening in her brain. "We didn't do anything wrong here," I pointed out judiciously.
Her eyes flashed. "Oh sure. You didn't," she burst out. "Two guys? Scoring with the same girl?" A wild, mirthless laugh escaped her throat. "Well! You're just a couple of studs, aren't you? Anyone finds out you did this, they give you a high five, maybe buy you a drink or something. What about me?" At that, her voice quavered a little. "What about me? Shit. There's a word for a girl who gets fucked by two guys at once," she bleated. "I'm a fucking slut!"
"Bee!" I cried angrily. "Don't say that..."
"Why not?" she demanded. "It's true. I can't believe...." She closed her mouth and her eyes went out of focus for a moment as slow, dawning comprehension washed over her face. "I can't believe I did that," she whispered.
Then she froze stock still, and then all at once turned and ran for the door.
"Bee!" Jackson cried as he rushed after her.
"Jackson, pants!" I yelled as I struggled into mine.
He growled, and whirling around he yanked a piece of plastic sheeting down upon from the wall and wrapped it around his waist in some sort of loincloth. I sprinted past him, zipping my fly as I did so, and yanked open the door.
She was there. Thank God. I was so relieved that she hadn't left, that she hadn't got into her car and rushed off before I could say anything or do anything to prove to her that this wasn't something she needed to regret having done. That no one was going to talk badly about her, not while I had breath in my body....
But she was right there. I didn't even think about why she was there, until I looked up and saw it.
"Fucking hell," I swore.
This time, it wasn't only across the front of her window. No, this time the black, angry letters marched from one side of her building, all the way around to the other, wrapping her sweet little shop in a ribbon of anger.
And this time, "go home!" was not the worst thing that it said. No, this time it was much, much worse.
Slowly, I looked over at her.
She stood there, frozen. Stock still like a statue. Her face was calm and focused. Only the flare of her nostrils, and the high spots of color on her cheeks betrayed how angry she was.
"Oh, what the fuck?" Jackson swore when he caught up with us. He stood there for a moment, and then exhaled. "I'll call the police," he said.
"I'll go get the solvent," I agreed with a nod.
"It's okay," Bee said tightly. "I'll deal with that."
"No fucking way we're letting our girl deal with this alone," Jackson growled. "We're helping you."
I glanced over at him and caught his eye. "Our girl?" I mouthed.
He shrugged.
"You go back in," I told her. "Get some more wine. We'll take care of this."
For a second, I wondered if she was going to smack me. The way her eyes flashed, and her color flared upward, I wondered if maybe she thought somehow I had done this. She radiated misdirected anger, and honestly, if it'd make her feel better, I'd take one in the jaw.
But then, she sagged a little. And that was almost worse.
The look of defeat that slid over her face was more terrifying than her fury.
"Okay," she said sadly, and headed back in.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Okay," I said, trying to gather my thoughts. Jackson was watching me closely. "So. We'll talk about all this later," I said, gesturing to him and his plastic sheeting loincloth. "Right now, you need to put on pants, before the police you're about to call arrest you for public nudity.”
"What? I'm covered!" he protested. Then he looked down.
The sheeting was completely transparent, and left absolutely nothing to the imagination. I wrinkled my nose and looked away.
He let out a short laugh. "Oh, I see. I guess you seen enough of my dick for one evening?"
"Fuck off," I laughed, some of the tension draining out of my shoulders as I did.
Jackson grinned. "You can look again. One more time. If you need to."
I shook my head. "You are such an asshole," I said.
He shrugged and looked over his shoulder back into the restaurant. "Yeah," he said. "At least that much hasn’t changed."
I heard the meaning in his words. That hadn't changed.
But everything else suddenly had.