Chapter 8

 

“Trust me, I can explain.”

 

Anna keeps walking ahead and lets out a bitter laugh. She’s tempted to try and test Jared. She wants to see if he really can get himself out of the muddy – no, quicksand – situation he’s in. But that would be too painful – facing him and looking him in the eye. They’ve only been going out for a month and a half, but her feelings for him have been growing at a faster rate than time itself moving. She won’t be able to bear listening to him and trying to ask for her forgiveness. How can she forgive a cheater?

 

“Jared, I saw what I saw…” Anna then says adamantly, trying to avoid his advances of pulling her in for a kiss or a hug. She looks around her surroundings, the flame from the bonfire looking like just a spark from this distance. She’s lost sight of Laura, who she left behind with Nate and Alex. Anna hopes Laura’s feeling better than she does though. “I don’t care if you’re bisexual. I don’t care if you’re having group sex.” Anna doesn’t see the way Jared opens his eyes into the shape of saucers. “We talked about dating exclusively, and we both agreed. I expected sex was part of that.” Then, she meets his eyes. Looking at him sends her stomach and chest twisting and turning, but she keeps the eye contact. She has a point to make. “Now, can you honestly tell me you can explain your cheating? I saw you and Nate and Alex in the flesh.”

 

“What?!” Jared screams, eyes and mouth opening so wide a bug can probably enter without much difficulty. “What the hell? You think I had a threesome with those two?” Instantly, the worried look on his face shifts into an appalled one as he moves his upper lip and bares his teeth. “Seriously?!”

 

This time Jared shakes his head and rolls his eyes. “Of all the situations…a threesome with those two?! Fucking gross.” He can’t help but shiver at the thought, and he almost feels his dinner, pizza and chicken strips, and beer rising to the back of his throat. He cannot throw up in front of Anna.

 

“Well then, what’s your excuse?” Anna dares, shifting her eyes to meet Jared’s. She’s never been a confrontational person, but she does speak up when she believe strongly about a project or a idea, or in this case, her belief. “I saw all of you naked. Did you three just suddenly decide to compare one another’s dick sizes in the middle of a party? You left Laura and me for that?”

 

Jared lets out what looks to be a sigh of relief. Why a sigh of relief – Anna has no idea; it almost infuriates her. But then he runs a nervous hand through his blond hair, the strands sticking up sexily in various directions. He looks like he’s having an internal argument with himself, but before Anna can walk away and leave him, he finally speaks.

 

“I have to tell you something…” he says, voice almost a whisper. Anna’s tempted to let out a ‘finally’ but decides otherwise. It looks like the tables have turned. Jared looks more nervous than Anna had been moments ago. He actually looks more nervous than Anna’s ever seen him been, ever.

 

“Alright,” Anna then says, finally deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt. Jared genuinely looks conflicted. He definitely doesn’t look like he’s making a fool out of her. “What do you have to tell me?”

 

“Show you rather…” he then corrects his earlier statement. “But you have to promise you can’t say anything. You can’t tell anyone. And please…don’t scream or run away.”

 

“What?!” Anna says, shuffling through her purse and trying to look for her pepper spray. Damn it. She forgot it back in her apartment. She never thought that she needed protection while in Jared’s company. He always made it known he would protect her. She never thought she’d need her pepper spray to use on him. “Are you going t-”

 

“No, Anna,” Jared says. “Just promise me.”

 

She lets out a heavy sigh, and then another one, as she tries to calm herself. When her heart is finally beating at a normal pace, she looks at Jared and gives him a nod. “Alright, then…”

 

Anna doesn’t know what to expect. All she knows is Jared can be trusted; she’s gotten that feeling since the first time they met. And her gut feeling never disappoints her. And so, when he stands a couple meters away from her, she empties her expectations. She’s not hoping for the worst, but she’s not hoping for the best either.

 

What she doesn’t expect is for Jared to start removing all of his clothes and then seeing a black bear before her, right in the exact place Jared had just been in a second ago. She almost screams, but she manages to hold it in just in time for the bear to miraculously turn back into Jared – the naked version.

 

“What…the….fu-”

 

“See? I told you I wasn’t having a threesome.” Jared almost rolls his eyes but manages to keep it in. Then, after he dresses up, he walks to stand beside her. “Now, will you let me explain?”

 

Meekly, Anna nods her head and gives the floor to Jared. With a sigh of relief, Jared starts to speak. He breaks down his walls, submits to vulnerability, and shares a part of his life a very rare few only know about.

 

Almost an hour passes when Jared finishes. He explained that they had just finished a run when Laura and Anna saw him with Nate and Alex. He also told her about his family, how both his parents were shifters and that only one out of their four offspring remained human. He told her there are other shifters in Black Creek, but he didn’t give out specific names. He also told her about Laura, how she knew, and that was why she wasn’t panicking. By the end of everything, all Anna can do is nod her head in understanding.

 

“So you’re not cheating on me?” she asks, still best to be sure.

 

Jared shakes his head and lets out a small laugh. “I’d never,” he says in response. Then, he wraps an arm around her waist and pulls her closer to him. “Are you alright?”

 

She nods her head. Yes. She can finally let out a sigh of relief. She can finally look at him again with affection instead of fear and hurt and pain. Then, Jared moves his head a hairsbreadth away from hers.

 

“Can I kiss you now?”

 

Another nod.

 

And so, he closes the distance between their lips and cups her face in his free hand. He presses deeper when he hears Laura let out a whispered moan.

 

Slowly, Jared’s hands slide down from Anna’s face to her neck, and soon after, his lips follow suit. Lips and tongue moving, Jared starts to knead the skin on Anna’s collarbone before moving over to the curve of her neck. At both the painful and pleasurable feeling, Laura can’t help but elicit a soft moan before her arms wrap tighter around his back. Sneakily, Jared starts to slide the strap of her dress off her shoulder before his hands dip underneath the cotton material.

 

“Jared…” Anna breathes, when she feels his fingers twisting and pulling her taut nipples. “Hmm…”

 

At the sound of her voice, Jared starts nipping on the skin of her neck more excitedly now. Anna flinches once at the feel of his teeth digging into the curve of her neck, but she’s not complaining. She always loves it when Jared kisses her there. When Jared pulls his lips away from her neck, Anna elicits a groan of displeasure, and when she opens her eyes, she sees Jared’s head settling right in front of her breasts. Then, his one hand slides the other strap of her dress down as the other hooks her leg around his waist.

 

“A little impatient are we?” Anna then asks, with a cocked up eyebrow and a knowing laugh, when she sees Jared unbuttoning his jeans. She automatically lifts a corner of her lips into a smile at the sight of his erection. Even underneath his underwear, there’s no ignoring his length and girth, and Laura’s instincts get the best of her when she licks her bottom lip.

 

“I can say the same for you,” Jared says, hooking her other leg around his waist after Anna removes her underwear.

 

With the palms of his hands nestled underneath her bum, he carries her to the nearest tree and sets her back against its rough bark. Anna arches her back, avoiding the rough texture, as her breasts press harder against Jared’s chest, and her dress pools around her waist.

 

“I’m having a lot of ‘first time’s with you, you know that?” Anna says, as her fingers travel along the waistband of his underwear and then underneath. She lifts his hardness, its tip teasingly grazing her outer flaps. Anna can feel herself; she’s soft and moist inside, getting wetter with every second Jared’s erection stays outside of her.

 

“You know, I’m always at your service,” Jared mouths out before he presses his lips hard against hers and starts to enter her, his sheer force and strength pushing her back harder against the rough bark.

 

Rough – it’s somewhat of a sign, a sign of the kind of night they’ll be having.