- NINETEEN -
Halfway through midterm week, Cole and Jace asked Quinn and me to come over to their place and have a couple of drinks. I didn’t drink anymore, but it would be nice to just hang out with them again in a quieter setting than a loud house party. Jace reassured me that Jaxon was gone for the night. I tried not to dwell on where he was staying overnight. I can’t say that the idea of his spending the night at some girl’s house didn’t enter my mind a dozen times, but I was strong enough not to ask.
We all had our textbooks out to at least pretend as if we were going to study together. Jace was the only one actually studying; he seemed a little more stressed out over his tests than the rest of us. I tried to help him by quizzing him from the back of his books. He was insanely smart; I don’t understand how he could remember even half of this material. After hours passed with me stumbling over numerous medical terms and body parts I couldn’t pronounce, he let me off the hook with an appreciative grin. I only had one exam tomorrow and it was in English, so I wasn’t really worried at all about staying up too late.
Around midnight, we were all yawning. “Come on, Quinny, let’s go to bed,” Cole said, mid-yawn.
“Aw, I haven’t been able to spend enough time with Em lately. In a couple of months, she’s going to leave us for Africa. I think I want to stay out here with her,” she protested. Lately, she’s been bringing up my summer departure more and more. The most we had ever been apart was a week, so three months was going to be torture for both of us.
“It’s okay, Quinn, we’re all going to bed anyway. I’ll see you in the morning,” I told her.
“Come on, Ems, come get in bed with us too. I’d never say no to two women wanting to get in my bed,” Cole joked, while Jace started laughing at him.
“I don’t think I ever said I wanted in your bed,” I said, nudging him in the ribs.
“Just grab her, Cole,” Quinn told him. Before I could protest, Cole threw me over his shoulder and grabbed Quinn’s hand with his free one.
He laid us both down on the bed, got up, and grabbed two of his large T-shirts from the dresser, tossing them at us.
“Y’all change. I have to hit the bathroom,” he said.
After our jeans and shirts were thrown on the floor and we were in some form of pajamas, we lay down under the covers and Quinn held my hand.
“Night, Ems, I love you.”
“I love you too, Quinn,” I whispered back.
Then I heard her gasp and she sat up, looking down at me. “You’ve never said that back to me before.”
I pulled her back down. “I know, and I’m sorry. That wasn’t right of me, but I always have.”
She snuggled in next to me, and not long after, I heard Cole come back and get in bed behind Quinn. He kissed her and told us both good night.
The next morning, before I even opened my eyes, all I could smell was Jaxon. I didn’t want to open my eyes because I was too afraid it would disappear. I could stay in this dream forever. I rubbed my face across my pillow and could unquestionably smell him and his cologne. This was like the best dream and worst nightmare, all wrapped up into one. I reached over and knew that I wasn’t in bed with him since the space next to me was empty, but I also realized that I was no longer in bed with Quinn or Cole. With my eyes still sealed, I skimmed my hand across the comforter and felt the pleats that I remembered were on his gray-and-white bed. For my final test, I searched for the left corner of the sheet and felt the telltale rip that my earring had caused once.
My eyes finally shot open and my sightless exploration was confirmed. I was in Jaxon’s bed, but he wasn’t here with me. How did I get here? Did I get up and get into his bed in the middle of the night? If so, I needed to get out of here before he came home. Nothing would be more embarrassing than being the ex-girlfriend that not only couldn’t let you go, but also crawled into your bed in the middle of the night.
I stretched my arms out in front of me and noticed familiar handwriting on my palm. I brought it closer to my face to read, since my eyes hadn’t yet adjusted to the morning light.
My rule still stands. My bed. Not Cole’s or Jace’s.
Was this seriously happening? Did he go in Cole’s room last night and take me out of his bed just so he could come lay me in his bed all alone? Why the hell did he care where I slept anymore? “My rule still stands.” Who did he think he was? He didn’t have any right to make rules for me. He better not still be in this apartment, because if he was, I might rip off his head. What right did he have to take me away from my friends? I thought that I might even take a nap in Jace’s bed later today, just to piss him off.
To my chagrin, I was only in Cole’s shirt and my panties, which meant that he carried me with barely any clothes on. I know it shouldn’t bother me because he’d known every single inch of my body at one time, but I think that I deserved to be awake if he was going to touch me again. I looked around the room and didn’t see my clothes anywhere, so they must have still been in Cole’s room. He at least could have brought my clothes with me when he kidnapped me.
While I had been looking around his room for my clothes, I did notice more framed pictures than I remembered the last time I was in here. There were pictures on his desk, on his nightstand, and lined up on his wall. I moved in closer to look at each of them, noticing that I was in almost all of them. There were pictures of me and his mom; me and Jace; me and some of his buddies back home that I met at a couple of parties; me, Cole, and Quinn; and finally, me and him.
My favorite picture of the two of us was sitting next to his bed on his nightstand. It was the night of Garrett’s birthday party, when we weren’t even together yet. I remember we were standing next to the counter in the kitchen right after I had taken the tequila shot in front of him. I was looking up at him as though he was the only person in the world. I was amazed that I was able to give anyone that deep of a look. My hands were, as always, grabbing the waistband of his jeans tightly.
I remembered that Mason, who was majoring in photography, had taken this picture. He was usually snapping away at every event. At the time, we hadn’t realized that he was taking our picture—not until after we heard the identifiable click of a camera—and then he came over and showed us the image on his screen. I remembered we had both smiled at it, but I hadn’t seen the photo since then. I wondered if Jaxon had gone and asked him for it, or if Mason had given it to him. If he had given it to Jaxon, why hadn’t he given it to me as well?
I tried to think about the last time I was in Jaxon’s room. It had been the day before that awful party where I freaked out and ran away from him with Devon. I remember he had the one picture of all five of us together, sitting on the couch, which I had taken by setting the timer on my camera. But all of these other pictures definitely hadn’t been here. Why the hell would he frame all of these pictures of me and hang them up in his room? The more I sat here and thought about his actions, the madder I got. This was just hurtful. He needed to stop looking at pictures of me and playing my mix CD every damn night, where I basically poured my heart out to him through songs. He wanted this breakup; I didn’t.
I left his room and went down to Cole’s room. His door was closed, so I waited and listened outside the door to make sure I wasn’t about to walk in on something I couldn’t unsee. When all was silent, I entered the dark room. I noticed Quinn was still snuggled up next to Cole, sleeping. When the light from the hallway streamed in, they started shifting around.
“Em?” Cole’s scratchy voice asked.
“Sorry, Coley, I just needed to grab my clothes.”
“Emmy, where did you go? When I woke up last night and you weren’t here, I figured you had gone home,” Quinn asked, lifting her head up.
“That asshole Jaxon came in here, grabbed me while I was sleeping, and dumped me in his bed!” I shoved my palm in front of her face so she could read his written note.
“What are you talking about? Why would he do that?” Cole sat straight up, trying to read my palm as well.
“Months ago, he asked me not to sleep in your bed or Jace’s. He left me this freaking note on my hand saying that his rule still stands. I don’t know who he thinks he is. Now all I want to do is sleep in yours and Jace’s bed every night.” I paced back and forth.
Cole shook his head. “Wow, he’s got it bad.”
“He’s about to have it real bad.” I grabbed my clothes and stomped out of the room.
I actually hoped he was in the living room, because I was about to tear him a new one. Talking about it with Cole and Quinn had only riled me up more. Jaxon didn’t have any right to break up with me—in public, no less—and then try to control where I sleep at night. It only made me want to go around and sleep with every guy he had ever spoken to at this school. I knew I wasn’t capable of doing that, but he sure made me want to. I reached the end of the hallway with my hands in fists.
When I stormed into the living room, Jaxon was on the couch. Why would he put me in his bed, when he would just have to end up sleeping on the couch? He was lying on his stomach with his arms extended out under his pillow. On the rare occasion that I would wake up before him, I always found him like this. It became a game for me to see how long I could kiss his back before he woke up. Sometimes I could kiss a line up and down three times before he would start stirring. I had loved that uninterrupted time to explore his muscular back. With my fingers, I enjoyed tracing the lines of his tattoo that spread across the back corner of his shoulder.
I lost track of how long I stood there staring down at him sleeping. I hadn’t allowed myself to really look at him this past month. Anytime I started to, he would catch me, so I forced myself to stop. My anger fizzled as I listened to the rhythmic in-and-out of his breath. I would get furious with him later. It didn’t look as though he was sleeping peacefully anyway; he had a pinched expression in his eyes that I wanted to reach down and smooth out.
As I stood in the hallway entrance to the living room watching him, warm hands slid over my shoulders.
“Whatcha’ doing, pretty girl?” Jace whispered in my ear.
I jumped at the sound of his voice. “I’m just heading out,” I whispered back, but I didn’t move forward.
“You were standing here when I went to the bathroom five minutes ago.”
“Um . . . I guess I just zoned out. I’m still really tired,” I lied.
“You two are like sad little puppies. I don’t understand it,” he continued, whispering so we wouldn’t wake up Jaxon.
“This wasn’t my choice.”
“I don’t think it was his, either.”
I didn’t want to talk about this with Jaxon’s brother, no matter how good of a friend he was to me. “Hey, do you want to do a quick study with me later for English?”
“Sure, want to just do it now?” he asked.
“I need to shower first, but I’ll be right back.”
“See you in a bit, babe.”
I hurried down to my place and pulled the T-shirt over my head. I balled it up and held it to my nose. It didn’t even smell like Cole anymore. It smelled like me and Jaxon mixed together. I quickly tucked it under my pillow alongside his shirt that I’d never returned. Cole wouldn’t be getting that one back for a while, either.
I rushed through my shower and wrapped my wet hair up into a messy bun. I had a busy day ahead of me; there wasn’t time for blow-drying and styling. I needed to run through my review for the English exam today, and then after class, I would have to hurry over to the hotel and make sure all the preparations were done for the auction tomorrow night.
I walked up to the guys’ apartment door and debated whether I should knock or just go right in. I used to walk right in when Jax and I were together. Besides last night, I hadn’t been over here since our breakup. If Jax was still sleeping, my knocking would wake him up, and I didn’t want to interact with him right now. I turned the knob quietly and slipped inside. The couch was empty and Jace was in the kitchen cooking.
“Hey, Ems, that was fast. I thought girls took showers for, like, hours?” he asked, laughing.
“I wish. I don’t have time today, though. Do you mind if we study in your room?” I asked.
He shrugged his shoulders and handed me a plate of eggs and bacon. “Yeah, sure. This plate is yours, with the nasty chopped onions in it.”
“You put onions in my eggs?” I asked, surprised. “How did you know I liked them like that?”
“Take a wild guess. He came in here, chopped them up, and threw them in without asking. Does he care that I hate onions? No. I had to start over and remake my plate,” he grumbled.
“Jaxon did that?” He nodded his head and continued walking for his room. “You know he makes no damn sense,” I said.
Jace and I walked into his room and I closed the door behind us. “You’re trying to get my ass kicked, aren’t you?” He nodded toward the closed door. “Why don’t you just talk to him, Em? He’s never happy anymore . . .”
“He wanted this. I messed up and now I’m paying for it.”
“You’re just making both of you miserable. Didn’t we have this conversation with Quinn once?” When I didn’t respond, he continued, “He is going to get pissed that the door is closed . . .”
“We aren’t together anymore, Jace. If I want to go into some guy’s bedroom, I can. He can get over it; that’s what happens when you break up.” I sat down on the edge of his bed.
Jace’s room was just as tidy as Jaxon’s always was. Their mom really had taught them well. Where Jaxon’s bedroom was bright with light grays and whites, Jace’s room was darker with a black comforter and black-and-white pictures on the walls. I noticed a pair of used boxing gloves hanging from the ceiling in the corner above his bed. On his desk sat a model car that was an exact replica of the one Jaxon drove around in Texas. Next to the car was a framed picture of him, Jaxon, their beautiful mom, and their stunningly gorgeous dad, all standing together in front of their massive barn.
Interrupting my inspection of his room, Jace asked, “You haven’t been in many bedrooms lately, though, have you?”
I stared at him, wondering if I should answer that question, while he came and sat next to me on the bed. I decided not to. He would just relay that back to his brother and I would feel even more pathetic than I already did.
Instead, I pulled out my English text and began going over each subject area we needed to know. I quickly realized that Jace didn’t need to study this at all. He knew everything by heart already; he was only doing this to help me out. I caught myself zoning out while he read from his book to me. I watched his facial expressions and his mouth moving as the words he spoke flowed from his lips—lips that were the same size and plumpness as Jaxon’s. I spied that damn slightly turned-in front tooth that I had once told Jaxon was my favorite part of his face. My heart began to hurt from the sight of him. He looked too much like his brother and it was painful.
Before I could catch myself, I began leaning in toward his lips. In my mind, this had become Jaxon sitting on his bed reading to me, not Jace.
He immediately leaped backward away from me before I made contact. “What the hell, Em?” He looked at me with a stunned expression on his face.
I finally came back to earth and realized what I’d almost done when it wasn’t Jaxon’s deep, melodic voice I was hearing, but Jace’s. My hand shot up to cover my lips.
“Oh my God, Jace! I’m so sorry!” I yelped. All of a sudden, tears were streaming down my face. What the hell was going on with me? I had stopped crying weeks ago and now this week, I couldn’t stop.
“You really are trying to get my ass kicked,” he said, trying to lighten the mood, and I loved him for it.
“No, no, no, God, that wasn’t supposed to happen. I zoned out. You were . . .” I couldn’t say it. I was humiliated enough. How could I tell him that I had started thinking he was his brother and that was why I had almost kissed him?
“It’s okay; I understand.” He gave me a sad, pitying look, and I couldn’t be in this room with him another second.
I quickly reached down and put all of my papers and books back into my bag and leaped for the door.
“Em, wait! It’s okay!” he shouted.
When I ran out the door, I stumbled over Jaxon, who was sitting on the ground and leaning up against the wall. Reflexively, my hands flew out to catch myself but my face followed and my mouth hit my knuckle. I brought my legs in toward my body and crouched on the ground in that position for a second. If I ever hoped to get my dignity back in front of him, it apparently wasn’t happening anytime soon.
“Babe, are you okay?” Jaxon asked, hovering over me nervously.
“What the hell did you do, man?” I heard Jace’s voice from farther back.
“No, asshole, what the fuck did you do?” he barked at his brother. “I heard her shouting in there. Why would she be shouting when you said you two were just going to be studying?”
I couldn’t let Jace take the fall for my embarrassing mistake. I stood up and faced them. “Stop yelling at him, Jaxon, he didn’t do anything wrong,” I scolded.
They both stared at me with wide eyes. Then Jaxon reached down, scooped me up, and started walking toward the bathroom before I had a chance to protest.
“Jaxon, you can’t just pick me up whenever you want anymore. Put me down,” I said angrily.
He ignored me and continued into the bathroom. He sat me down onto the counter and turned toward the linen cabinet. I watched as he grabbed a clean washcloth and brought it to the sink to run water over it. When he seemed pleased with the temperature of the water, he twisted the cloth to ring out the excess. I just sat there watching him, having no idea what he was doing. He finally looked up into my eyes, and my stomach dropped; I missed those eyes. He brought the washcloth up to my lip and gently pressed down. I winced at the pain. He lifted it up and with another corner, he wiped my chin. I looked down at the cloth in his hand and noticed it was covered in blood. My blood. I had had no idea I was even bleeding.
“Are you okay?” he asked, too much concern in his eyes.
I took the cloth from his hand and hopped off the counter, holding it against my lip. “I’m fine, Jaxon. Next time, try not to eavesdrop, and maybe I won’t fall over you.” I know my tone was filled with ice, but I hated how he was trying to be friendly now all of a sudden.
I reached for the doorknob and he slammed his palm against the wooden door to keep it shut. I didn’t even bother trying to pull it open since he was a thousand times stronger than me. I just stared at the door, waiting for him to relent.
He came up close behind me without touching me, but I could feel the heat of his body. He started in: “What are you doing to me? You’re ruining me. This isn’t me. I don’t drool after women, but I can’t seem to get you out of my fucking head! Worst of all, we aren’t even friends anymore. You were my best friend, Emerson. Now you’ve got me jumping down my own brother’s throat because you’re in his bedroom. You’ve got me taking you out of some other guy’s bed just so I can see you in mine . . . just one more time.”
“Jaxon, you ended us,” I whispered.
“Why can’t we at least be friends? Every time I attempt to talk to you it turns into a yelling match.”
“It’s impossible. I can’t be your friend. It hurts too much. If I’m ruining you, then you’ve destroyed me. I finally trusted someone enough to love, and you proved that, all along, it wasn’t worth it.” Tears were running down my face again. One day I hoped that these tear ducts would just dry up.
“Please, Beautiful, just come to my room and talk to me.” I winced at his term of endearment for me. His arm came down from the door and I jumped at the opportunity by swinging it open.
“Just stop, Jaxon. Stop playing my CD at night, stop hanging up pictures of me in your room, stop taking me out of Cole’s bed, and stop making sure I get my favorite food. You don’t want me anymore; all of this stuff just confuses me!” I continued down the hallway to leave.
“Emerson, that’s not—”
“Leave her alone, Jax.” I heard Cole’s harsh voice interrupt from the end of the hall. I walked out of their place and headed straight for my car to get to school.
Everything was almost ready for the auction tomorrow night. Micah had actually been a huge help to me. I was surprised when he signed on for the internship at the beginning of the semester. I had no idea he was interested in this area of journalism. At least there would be someone I knew in Africa with me. I was still getting to know the others in the group.
When he saw my lip, he freaked out because it definitely looked as if I had been punched. It took a while to explain that I had actually managed to punch myself. After my ridiculous story, he laughed and told me that only I could accomplish that. Surprisingly, he hadn’t hit on me once since Jaxon and I had broken up. Earlier, I had needed to call all of the girls that were going to be auctioned off to make sure they would all be here on time, and Micah volunteered to call all twenty of them. I don’t care if he just wanted twenty hot girls’ numbers; that was a lot of time that he was saving me.
While we were finishing up the ballroom, I turned toward him from across a table. “Thanks again, Micah. You’ve helped me out a lot. If it weren’t for you, I’d have had to come up here at three in the morning after I got off work just to have this place done in time.”
“Not a problem, Ems. I know I gave you a hard time last semester about the whole dating thing, but I think of you as a good friend. I realize you would rather have Jax here to help, but I’m glad I could.”
“Right now, I’m glad it’s you.” I smiled at him.
“Wow, thanks.”
“Hey, I have to head out to work, but you should come by tonight. I’ll give you some free drinks for helping out.”
“I just might take you up on that offer.” He winked at me and walked me out to my car.
Later that night, I was cleaning off the bar top and talking to Micah about the schedule of events for tomorrow. I watched as Mark checked the IDs of Cole, Jace, Quinn, and Jaxon. They all smiled at me as they walked in, except Jaxon, who just glared at the back of Micah’s head. I pointed them to the pool table closest to the bar, which I usually tried to save for friends. Cole and Quinn came in most often, and Jace would come every once in a while, but Jaxon hadn’t been here in over a month. I wished he hadn’t come tonight, no matter how much I liked looking at him. The way he was glaring holes into Micah’s head gave me a pretty good idea that all he was going to do was cause me a headache tonight.
“What can I get you guys?” I asked as they approached the bar. Micah spun in his seat to see who was behind him. He tapped knuckles with Cole and Jace but just stared at Jaxon. They all gave me their drink orders. “I’ll bring them out to you.”
When they walked away to their table, I started prepping glasses for their drinks and pulling out bottles to pop the tops. Micah continued talking to me about the lineup for tomorrow, and I laughed out loud when he made a joke about one of the girls in the auction. He even made the annoying high-pitched noise she makes when she’s upset. Then I noticed Jaxon making his way back up to the bar.
“Better watch out, Em. If you’re not careful, you might pass your three-time limit with him,” he jeered.
“What the fuck’s your problem, man?” Micah spun in his stool to scowl at Jaxon.
“Leave, dude, before I kick your ass again,” his voice was barely above a whisper, but I knew what he’d just said.
“If I remember correctly, you guys broke up. I’m pretty sure I watched you do it in the middle of the damn courtyard at school for everyone to see,” Micah threw back at him. “If that’s the case, you don’t have any hold over her. She’s my friend and I’ll sit here and talk to her however long I want.”
“Have you raised your limit, Emerson, and gone back to your old ways with this guy?” He may as well have called me a whore right here in the middle of my bar.
I turned my cold eyes toward him and I watched his face fall in horror as the weight of his words hit him. “Fuck! I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t mean that at all, I swear to God.”
“Leave right now before I ask Mark to escort you out.”
I saw that my cold voice was making him panic, so I decided to escape into the back room. Before I could get the door closed to lock it, I was being shoved backward. Jaxon’s giant frame took up the entire door as he came into the room behind me. He grabbed me by the hips and lifted me up, and my traitorous legs wrapped around his waist as if they had a mind of their own. They knew where they wanted to be, as much as my head didn’t agree. My chest was heaving from my anger at what he had said earlier, and he just kept staring into my eyes.
Before I knew what was happening, he pulled the back of my head toward him and his lips were crushing mine, attacking them mercilessly. My body instantly responded to his fiery passion and the heat emanating off his body. I squeezed him tighter with my legs and threaded my fingers through his hair roughly. I needed this. I needed to release all of the pent-up feelings I still had for him. He walked forward until my back hit the wall of the storage room.
He pulled back too soon and stared into my eyes again. “Talk to me, Emerson.”
“No,” was my only answer. Then I pulled his head back to mine.
“I hate that I hurt your lip, baby.” He pushed back and laid small kisses on my bottom lip. My mouth opened to allow his tenderness.
Not giving him a chance to stop the delicious feel of his body against mine, I reached down for the hem of his shirt. I needed to feel his skin and I needed it against mine. He didn’t resist; instead he helped me by grabbing the back of his collar with one hand and pulling it over his head. My hands were instantly on his chest, feeling the bulges of his muscles. His skin was on fire and I instantly flushed from the feel of it. I wanted him and I knew he wanted me just as badly. His thirst was rolling off of him and it would have suffocated me if I hadn’t been feeling the same thing. He may not have wanted me in his heart anymore, but for now, I could deal with the fact that he wanted my body. I could feel his need growing between my legs.
I wanted him to take off all of my clothes and remove his pants. I wanted to forget everything he had done to me that ripped my heart out. I just wanted to enjoy the one body that had ever actually pleased me. He started moving again, and this time I felt something hit the back of my thighs. I realized he had moved us to the big deep freezer. He lifted me up a little so I was sitting on the edge.
“Emerson, stop. I’m not going to do this till we talk.”
“There’s nothing to talk about besides the fact that I want you and I need you inside of me.” He groaned at my words. What could he possibly have to tell me? I knew what this was. It was a weak moment. We both knew how good we were together in the bedroom and, just for now, we both wanted that back.
I could feel how rock-hard he was by now, and I couldn’t stop myself from moving back and forth against him. When I looked up at him, his eyes were rolled back in his head and his mouth was open. A short gasp whistled between his teeth. I loved this man with everything I had; this was absolutely going to annihilate me after we were done. There would be nothing left—but then again, I don’t know if there had been anything left in the first place. When he started his own rhythm of torture as he swayed into me, my back arched and I lifted my chest up toward him. The neckline of my shirt was already low, so he pulled it down farther.
“Do you have another shirt here?” he asked roughly.
“Uh . . . I don’t think I have one like this, but I could probably find a T-shirt. Why?”
“Good. You shouldn’t be wearing this so every dick out there can look at your tits all night anyway.” At that, he ripped the neckline of my shirt and pushed my bra down as well, until my breasts were fully exposed. Then he took me in his mouth.
“Jaxon!” I gasped.
He rocked against me faster and I relished the moan that shot out his mouth. I was so close but I didn’t want to end like this. I reached down for his waistband and pulled to let him know what I wanted. He moved back and I almost cried at the loss of his mouth on me. He quickly pulled my shorts and panties down my legs and tossed them to the ground. He unbuttoned his jeans and reached into his wallet for a condom before shoving them down his legs. Clutching my hips with his fingertips, he was instantly inside of me. Oh. My. God . . . Yes. How had I forgotten how wonderfully he filled me? How he completed every need that I had?
“Please talk to me,” he said again. Who would want to talk during this moment? I don’t think I could coherently express any thoughts right now.
“I know what this is, Jaxon. I’m not going to expect anything from you after this. I’m a big girl. Please, just go. Harder. I need you.”
“Fuck, baby, don’t say shit like that or I won’t last.”
He ripped the ponytail holder out of my hair, wrapped the length of my hair around his wrist twice, and tugged, so that I was forced to look up at him. His mouth came down hard onto mine and his tongue instantly darted inside. I missed his lips on me, anywhere they wanted to be on me, just as long as they were on me. His other hand traveled down my body lightly. The contrast between his rough pulling in one hand and the sweet caress of the other was invigorating. He knew I loved a little of both. When I bit down into his bottom lip, he picked up his pace again, pumping faster inside of me. I released his lip and he moved his mouth down to the spot under my ear.
“It kills me to see you writhing underneath me. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.” His voice dropped to a tone that I knew would make me come if he continued talking. “I love you so damn much.” With that, my body went off and I cried out his name again. His head ducked into my neck as he quickly followed behind me. We stayed there for a couple of minutes longer, heavily breathing in and out. “For as long as I live, I’ll never forget how your heartbeat feels against my chest,” he whispered.
This statement brought me back to reality. I slid off the freezer, reached down, and pulled my shorts back on. I heaved my ruined shirt off over my head and found the shelves that held the extra T-shirts. I found one close to my size and pulled it on quickly.
When I started for the door, he called out, “Emerson, talk to me.”
“I’m probably going to get fired for leaving the bar unattended. I need to get back out there.”
“We aren’t even going to talk about what happened here?”
“There’s nothing to talk about. We got an urge out of our systems.” With that, I walked back out to the bar, leaving my broken heart with him in the storage room.
Back behind the bar, I spotted Cole glaring at the back-room door from a barstool. I grabbed a rag and started wiping down the already clean bar top. I scanned the building to see if I could see Ed anywhere. Thank goodness, he must still be in his office.
“About damn time, Em; I had to cover for you while you were back there,” Cole said angrily. “Are you okay, or do I need to go back there and take care of him?”
I came around the bar and collided into Cole with a big hug. “I don’t think you will ever understand how much I appreciate your protectiveness or how thankful I am for you loving Quinn so much, Coley.”
He wrapped his arms around me and squeezed tight. I felt him lay his cheek down on the top of my head. “You’re like my sister, Em. I’ll beat up any guy that does you wrong, even if he is my best friend.” Speaking of the devil, Jaxon walked out of the back room right then. “I don’t think I need to guess what you guys were doing back there. Just be thankful Jace went and turned on the jukebox right after he followed you, or we probably would have heard it all. Seeing your faces now, though, do you really think that was the best idea?” he whispered, still holding on to me.
“No, I don’t. But I missed him so much.” The tears were starting to come, so I began to pull away, but he just squeezed me in tighter.
“I hate seeing you hurt, Emmy.”
“I’ll learn to be okay.”
“Get your hands off of her and let’s go,” Jaxon grated out from behind us. I stepped back from Cole and wiped my eyes, and he sighed in a frustrated tone.
I went back behind the bar and started getting everything cleaned up for the night.
“Stop being a jackass,” Cole said, slapping Jaxon on the back of the head as he walked by. “And don’t think I’m not going to kick your ass for what you said to her earlier, either.”
Jaxon whipped around and looked at Cole with wide eyes.
“That’s right, asshole, I heard it. I almost pummeled you into the ground right there, but I wanted Em to take care of it first.” And look at what a great job I did . . .
“Don’t worry. I already told Mom, and she’ll do it for us,” Jace laughed.
“Fuck . . . I’m such an idiot.” He turned toward me with sad, apologetic eyes. I quickly turned away to tell Quinn good-bye and give her a hug.
He had started coming back over to me when Jace cut him off. “Come on, Romeo, you’ve done enough for one night.” He grabbed his bicep and steered him to the door. “See ya later, Emmy,” Jace called out.