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?”
Jinx hisses as she sits up.
“Don’t move,” I order her. “You know better.”
“I always have reasoning behind my logic, Pyro.”
“Okay, smartass, what’s your logic?”
“If our connection is as strong as the both of us believe it is, our kiss will out do anything you do with her, if only you put your anger away.”
I’m so fucking confused.
“You said I had my own mind a half hour ago, that I should decide everythin’ on my own, now you’re forcin’ my hand.”
“No, only speeding up the process. Essentially, you can choose not to do it, and go about the next however many days, weeks, months feeling like you have been.”
“Shortcake, I believe your pills are makin’ you a little mean.”
“If you don’t want to do it, then don’t.” she shrugs.
“If I do this, and I get my shit under control, can we go back to our deal before she arrived?”
Jinx smiles, beckoning me to come closer. I kneel on her bed and lean down. “I believe you’re a little buzzed from your meds, darlin’,” I whisper against her lips, and she whispers back, “A little.”
Screw it.
I bite her lower lip, she moans and pulls back. “See, a simple peck, and we get hot,” she murmurs against my lips.
I pull back, a little pissed she teased me. “You’re the ice this time.”
Jinx giggles, a rarity for her. “I can be the ice.”
“In all seriousness, Jinx. I’m a little uncomfortable goin’ from you darlin’, then to her.”
“You want me to be honest with you?” she questions leaning back against her pillow with a grunt.
“Be careful, babe, you’re still healin’,” I adjust her pillows, “and yes, I always want you to be honest with me.”
“I want you to get it over with.”
I move to sit up straight. “Why?”
“I guess I’m confused with what I want, too.”
I rub my forward, a headache forming. “How so?”
“You want me to stay, right?”
Of course, I want her to fucking stay.
“You know I do.”
“I’m afraid if you take too long to decide, I’ll be left in the dust.”
“Meanin’?”
“What if the more time we spend together, the more my feelings for you grow, and you choose her in the end. I don’t want to get hurt, and I know you don’t want to hurt me.”
I swallow back the bile threatening to come up; the idea of hurting her making me physically sick. “I don’t want that either.”
“You might put us all out of our misery if you get it over with,” she says with a sigh. “We can figure out where everyone stands.”
I would kill to figure this shit all out.
“You’re an amazing lady, Jinx Kay.”
“I’m being supportive and maybe a little selfish.”
I lean back on my elbows. “You’re not selfish.”
“Are you gonna do as I suggested?”
I lean forward and put my face in my hands. “I’m not really in the mood to fuck someone on command, darlin’.”
“Then go talk to her, see where it leads.”
If this will make Jinx happy, I’ll fucking do it; even if I don’t want jack shit to do with Lana after what she did to me, but Shortcakes logic is sound. I have sexual tension with Lana, along with an emotional block where she’s concerned.
I stand, and her baby blues follow my movement. “I can’t promise I’ll do it tonight, babe.”
“I know.”
“If you need anythin’ text me, darlin’.”
Jinx grins. “I took my meds, I’m going to bed.”
“Alright, Shortcake. I’ll talk with you tomorrow, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
I bend down and kiss her forward, my lips lingering longer than they need to. “Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow,” she repeats.
∞∞∞