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Blinking back the tears, I gather all my shit in the duffle bag, bend down near my broken laptop to pick up the USB drive and head for the door, sparing one last glance back to see Jack sitting on the edge of Peyton’s bed, his head hanging in his hands.
“I know you won’t believe me, but I have no intentions of hurting Peyton, or you Jack.”
He doesn’t acknowledge that I’ve spoken and without another backwards glance, I walk out of the door, closing it softly behind me. With the sound it reverberates in my heart, it may as well have sounded out a gunshot.
With a shaky breath I text Clarke.
I have what you need, I’m coming back.
Bonus Chapter
Jack’s Point of View
It hurts to move. Every inch of me hurts but I’ve been gone long enough. After the week away it’s lessened from a brutal agony to a throbbing pinch, and the days I’ve bad to myself have allowed me time to stop coughing up blood, even if my ribs still ache when I inhale too quickly. But I need to be, for Peyton, Leo, Nash, and as much as I don’t really want to admit it, for Briar too. I can’t trust her; the girl is clearly hiding things and keeps dangerous company. I’ve told the others and they agree she’s not divulging everything, but then Peyton hits with a low blow. Neither are we.
My mind replays the last time I saw her over and over again in my head. I was embarrassed, mortified that I had read her so fucking wrong when I went to kiss her that when that gangbanger walked right into the halls, I didn’t even hesitate to walk right up to him. I knew who he was here for. Hell, I’d never seen him before but in a university like this, there’s only one person he could have been looking for.
The way he looked me up and down, like he was sizing me up, measuring my worth and found me wanting was all too familiar and I gritted my teeth, but led him to the dorm. I didn’t fucking think. I should have fucking thought about it first, because the way she looked at him was like I’d brought the devil to our doorstep.
The fear in her eyes shone so bright that I couldn’t even fully enjoy the fact she was standing there in nothing but a towel, her hair a tangled and dripping mess down her spine. To make matters worse, the first thing she did was signal for Peyton to go into the bathroom like she was expecting trouble. That stung. She was panicking and the first thing she thought of was to get my baby sister out of the room, away from whoever the hell this man was to her.
Nothing prepared me for how I felt when he stepped into her though, like he knew the way her body curved, but then she flinched. That fucking flinch. I almost lost it. My chest aches at the reminder and I rub my hand over it to try relieve the pressure, it doesn’t work.
My phone buzzes, an incoming text from Nash saying he wants to do dinner with the girls, try pry some answers from our mysterious Darling Valley addition. He’s spending more and more time seeking her out and I can’t help but think he’s infatuated with her. It irks me more than it should. Leo’s a bit quicker about it, but I see how he watches her.
I message back saying I’m heading down to the dance studio and to meet me at the tower. Peyton’s been struggling a bit more this year, she hides it well, but I think she needs this dinner as much of the rest of us. The last year with her and Leo still in high school was a fucking nightmare, but this year has been hard on us all too.
When I go through the back door of the studio, I’m swept into the melody echoing through the halls. There are several rooms, but I follow the sounds of being buried alive, a song of someone who feels as out of control as I do. As I round hall, I push gently on the door to peer inside, unsure of what I expected to find.
The little poverty princess stands facing the mirror, twirling, and contorting her body. The sway of her hips as hypnotic as a sirens call. But what truly captures my attention is how she’s not truly seeing, right now. Despite her sure movements, executed to perfection, her eyes are unfocused. She almost looks… haunted and unguarded. Her hair flicks around her face in such a way that she looks almost ethereal, like she’s floating rather than dancing. I don’t think she’s ever looked more beautiful than she does in this moment.
Before I can fully comprehend what I’m doing, I’ve stepped in behind her, taking her hand in mine and resting my other flat against her stomach. She moves with me seamlessly, like we had done this a thousand times before. Her body moves around mine like a seductress, it’s edgy and raw. It’s all her, and I’m glimpsing it for the first time.
We move in unison, and I desperately want to pull her from wherever she is trapped in her mind. She reaches above her hand, and I grasp both her wrists gently in my own. She hisses slightly, and her hand jolts away in my grip, but she doesn’t pull away. I pull her until her back is pressed to my chest, reveling in the way her soft curves feel pressed against me. The girl is fucking tiny, totaling fuck foot-fuck-all, but she lacks nothing. Briar sashays her way down my body until she’s almost at her knees before turning and looking up at my eyes from her position on the floor. My dick starts to strain painfully against my zipper, not realizing that we are dancing and not about to tear each other’s clothes off.Although?
Before I finish the thought, she tugs on my hands and launches herself, jumping high. I catch her, grasping at her thighs and pull her in tight, completely in awe of her as she wraps her legs around my waist, arms around my neck, and her eyes now closed tight. My body is screaming in protest, but I would rather die than move away from her right now. Her breathing matches my own in punishing gasps and even with the fading music, we stay like that.
I close my eyes, swallowing roughly, before gently lowering her down to the group, making sure that even for a moment I can feel all of her pressed against me. When her feet hit the ground, she opens those stunning honey eyes and stares into my own. Her arms are still wrapped around my neck, and because I’m weak, I lean my face down closer to hers. Her eyes flick down to my lips and it takes just about all my fucking will power to not close the distance, but I remind myself that I tried that last time and she pulled away. If she wants this, she’s going to have to close the distance.
I can see the war she’s having within herself, probably the same one going on inside of me. This is my sister’s best friend. I see it the moment she decides and fight to hold off the grin aching to break across my mouth as she slowly begins to rise on her toes. Her movements are slow, unsure, as she gets closer, and when I feel the faintest touch of her mouth against mine, the sound of the door crashing against the war has her jumping back from me.
I have a feeling of who this is and lazily look over my shoulder, smirking at my baby sister as she stomps over to us. Hey eyes narrow at the distance, or lack of, between me and Briar, leading me to roll my own in response and take a small step away from her. She turns to look at her friend who’s staring at the ground guiltily and then levels me with her best what-the-fuck-did-you-do glare. Scoffing at her and folding my arms across my chest, I decide to wait her out. She’s got something to say, and Peyton is not a patient girl, she’ll say it quick.
“You better not be here to fuck another one of my friends Jack Vasiliev! You have enough whores on rotation and if you ruin this for me, I will tear you the fuck to pieces!”
Right. Fuck this. I level my own dark glare at Peyton and stalk over to her, gently pulling her away from Briar. She knows damn well I don’t have a rotation.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I can’t quite control the snarl in my voice.
“Stay the fuck away from my friend, brother. We don’t need this brand of bullshit on top of everything else.” Her words are calm, but she’s not fooling me at all, something about this has her worried, and as much as I want to say fuck it and throw caution to the wind, I don’t know how Peyton would cope if this didn’t end well. Fuck, it’s not like I’m asking to date the girl, I’m not asking anything. But the chemistry is there, and if she feels even a fraction of what I do, I know she wants to jump my bones just as hard. I do the only thing I can think of.
“I wouldn’t fuck poverty pussy even if her cunt weren’t owned by criminals.” I drawl out, I see Peyton’s eyes widen and flick to my side.
Briar’s shoulders have slumped as the harsh words spew out of my mouth, and my chest aches in response. I rub at it to try relieve the pain which causes Peyton’s eyebrows to jump up in her hairline. She’s pointedly looking anywhere but at me, nodding like she anticipated me to say as much andfuckif that’s not the response I wanted from her, like she expected me to lash out and be an asshole. I want to pull my words back, but it’s too late and there’s nothing I can do to mend the situation with Peyton standing in between us like she can protect her friend from my foul mouth.
Briar walks up to Peyton and pulls her in for a quick hug, telling her she has somewhere to be over the next few days and probably won’t see her until after the fall break. Peyton argues that it’s Thanksgiving and she wanted her to celebrate it with us but Briar just apologizes and leaves. I want to ask her where she’s going, or more importantly who she’s going with, but after what I just said, I expect she’d just glare at me and leave anyway.
Neither Peyton nor I say a word as we watch her leave, a heaviness in her steps that seems twice the weight it was when I walked in. As soon as the door slams, Peyton turns on me, hands on hips and daggers in her eyes.
“Now that you’ve proven yourself to be the big snarling asshole everyone thinks you are, think you can leave my friend alone? If she were interested, she would have fucked you already.”
I chuckle at her, but it’s dry, lacking all humor before tucking her under my arm gently to not agitate myself any more than I already have, and drop a kiss to her forehead. She has no idea how much her friend indeed does want to fuck me but won’t for the sake of her friendship with my dear sister. I feel her eyes burn me when we’re in a room, and the way she responded to me in the tower? Fuck. Yep, her friend definitely wants my dick, and I desperately want to give it to her.
“As if you’d let me touch your friends even if she did.” Her laugh is loud as she looks up at me with a wide smile.
“True, very true.”
