The Heartbreak Prince Duet

by C. R. Jane

  Fuck. The hospital was not the place, nor was this the time to get distracted by the sexual attraction that apparently neither of us had the strength to ignore. Slowly we broke away, my fingers trailing down his jaw, which he clenched as they raked over his cheeks. Pressing his forehead against mine, I held him close while our breathing slowed.

  The doctor arrived, and Jackson snapped up, moving to the corner of the small room.

  “Ms. James, you got very lucky,” he began disapprovingly. “I’m sure you’ve been warned not to take drinks from strangers, you could have died.”

  My cheeks flushed with shame, and I didn’t bother to correct him with what had really happened. The truth was much more awful than that.

  Jackson’s fists were clenched and his jaw ticked, but he didn’t say anything, controlling himself for once…something I was grateful for.

  The doctor turned his attention to Jackson, taking a step back when he saw the ferocity written all over Jackson’s face. “Watch for dizziness, blurred vision, a worsening headache, and vomiting. She’ll be tired for the next few days as the drugs work their way out of her. I recommend waking her every few hours just to make sure she isn’t having a latent reaction. If it seems like it’s hard for her to wake up, call us immediately. If you want to go out and get your car up by the front, I’ll send the nurse in with discharge instructions.”

  Jackson nodded, and the doctor left without a backward glance. The staff here really needed to work on their bedside manner.

  Jackson grabbed my clothes and handed them to me. “Here, let me help you.”

  For some reason, the thought of him helping me get redressed out of my hospital gown had a flush spreading all over my chest. The guy had seen lots of my naked parts, but I felt somehow that it was more intimate for him to dress me than it had been for him to undress me.

  “I’m not an invalid. I can dress myself. And I know what he said about you watching me, but I probably should get back to my room tonight. I’m sure Lane can come check on me once or twice.” The words came out half-heartedly. It was like I was saying them just to see what his reaction would be.

  Jackson studied me as if he was prepared to wrestle me down in order to win this battle.

  “You know, we really need to break this habit of meeting up in hospital rooms,” he suddenly said slyly, breaking the slow tension that had been building in the room.

  “Shut up and get me out of here,” I ordered.

  He sidled up to me and grabbed my chin between his thumb and forefinger, tipping my head to find my eyes. The flare of his gaze was like a comet burning through a midnight sky. “You will be in my bed tonight, Everly. And there’s going to be a time, not too long in the future, when my bed becomes your bed…permanently.”

  Holy… I nodded like he was a puppet master controlling my strings.

  A laugh rumbled through his chest as he walked out of the room then with one last parting glance, leaving me with a stunned expression. I savored the rare sound of his laugh, a small smile on my face.

  But as soon as he left the room, my smile dropped. Because that conversation with Caiden…it was churning in my gut. What Jackson was telling me was going to happen between us sounded a lot like forever, but Caiden’s words had sounded a lot like forever earlier as well.

  And Caiden’s promises of forever had never meant good things for me.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  My eye cracked open when a pounding from downstairs didn’t stop.

  “I know you’re in there with her, Jackson Parker. You need to open this fucking door right fucking now,” Lane called out from outside.

  An unfamiliar voice yelled something from outside.

  “Fuck you too, lady,” Lane snarled at whichever of Jackson’s neighbors were complaining at the way too early wake-up call.

  Jackson groaned next to me. He’d woken me throughout the night with a soft caress to my cheek each time, unfortunately no sexy times happening in any of the wakeups. I would try something, and he would just smile and kiss my forehead.

  Which was probably a good thing, judging by the fact that I could feel the pulse of a headache building again even now.

  Jackson sat up next to me, the sheet sliding down his torso. His skin was burnished gold in the early morning light, and I had the insane urge to lick between his perfect abs.

  “Good morning, little angel.” His voice was sensual, warm, caramel smooth with a rough grate on the undertone from sleep.

  If it was possible to melt, I did. My insides liquefied, and I leaned in towards him. It became infuriatingly easy to let the past disintegrate into nothing at the first pass of his mouth. A barely there brush, and then he tasted my top lip and then the bottom, teasing with his teeth. I groaned and closed my eyes, giving up the intimacy of watching for the relief of feeling. My hands roamed, steely biceps rippled under my touch, broad shoulders were just as rigid when he tightened his hold. His mouth was warm, tasting way too good, considering we’d just woken up, and destructive.

  Long, provocative licks of his tongue rendered me speechless. Questions turned to need, and I dove into his hair to pull him even closer while I stroked back into his mouth. His growl rumbled between us.

  I loved how his arms stroked along my skin. How did he do this? How could he make me so overwhelmed and desperate to attach myself to every part of him? I couldn’t think; I could only feel. He was everywhere. His body and mouth commanded my response, and I responded by nibbling and sucking on his lips. We played until he broke away to nip my chin and neck.

  “You’re delicious.” He pressed each word into my flushed skin.

  “Quit fucking and open this motherfucking door,” Lane yelled from downstairs, and I ripped away from him, feeling terrible for leaving her outside for so long.

  Jackson’s neighbors were probably going to start rioting.

  I’d sent Lane a quick text on Jackson’s phone the night before, telling her that I was all right. I was sure she was in a panic from not having any more details.

  “Your friend is annoying,” Jackson commented as he dragged himself out of bed, flashing me a perfect view of his ass as he walked over to his dresser, completely nude.

  I cursed the fact that I’d had Jackson Parker nude next to me and hadn’t been able to take advantage of that. I really needed to stop having life-threatening events happen that led to his bedroom.

  The joke sent a bucket of ice water crashing over me as Jackson pulled on a pair of pajama pants and left to go let Lane in.

  Less than a minute later, the ball of energy that was Lane descended on me. She sobbed into my shoulder, squeezing me so hard, it was difficult to breathe.

  “I’m going to kill him,” she wailed, and I froze.

  “You know?”

  “Jackson told me.”

  “She let me get five words out before she was flying up here…into my bedroom,” Jackson commented from the doorway, leveling Lane with an annoyed stare. “So I’m sure there are some blanks you can fill in…for both of us.”

  I shivered, dread licking up my spine at having to relive it. Lane finally let go of me and sat back, looking at me with raccoon eyes by her mascara smearing from her tears.

  Haltingly, I told the story. Jackson had to leave the room halfway in, and I heard the crash of him hitting something against the wall. Lane scoffed at the noise and gestured for me to continue, her face becoming grimmer and grimmer as the story progressed.

  “I’m going to kill him,” Lane snarled when I’d finished. “I never liked that guy.”

  Now it was my turn to scoff. Lane had never outright said she didn’t like Landry. Not that this was her fault at all.

  Lane shivered and sniffled, rubbing her eyes again and smearing more mascara everywhere. “I’m never drinking again. I’m just going to attach myself to your side so you won’t ever be alone.”

  “I’m never going anywhere but class, so that won’t be a problem,” I responded, although my heart lurched at the thoug
ht.

  Before Caiden and Jackson had come into my life, I’d spent all my time in that big, decaying house with my mother. Except when I was in school, that house was all I’d known after my father had died. It seemed like a major step backward for me to once again be trapped in my room outside of class. And Melanie was almost as bad as my mother.

  Lane’s phone rang just then. Her face brightened as she picked it up. “I’ll be right there to get it,” she said before hanging up.

  I looked at her expectantly. “The club found your phone. It had fallen under the table where we were sitting. I’ll go get it.”

  “Thank you,” I told her fervently. I hadn’t even tried to explore yet what I was going to do to replace my phone if it wasn’t found. I was the opposite of rolling in the dough at the moment.

  Lane gave me a quick hug and jumped off the bed. “So…should I bring the phone back here?”

  I opened my mouth and then closed it, not sure what the answer should be. I told myself a thousand times over that Jackson and I were done, and yet I always ended up here. I didn’t think I could ever trust this new easiness between us, because it had happened after he read my journal and found out the truth. If he hadn’t found it, things would have continued on.

  And even though the hate sex had been life-altering, the fact that Jackson’s actions had reminded me every day that who I was wasn’t enough for him was something I couldn’t get over.

  “I don’t know,” I finally said.

  “She’ll be here,” came Jackson’s voice. He stepped into the room, holding an icepack to his bloodied knuckles. Evidently, that noise earlier had been the sound of his fist hitting the wall.

  “Excellent,” Lane said excitedly, and I rolled my eyes.

  Jackson and I locked gazes then, as Lane waved and hurried out of the room.

  A million words were exchanged in that silence, and all of them were laced with I love you…

  “Why don’t you get cleaned up, and after Lane gets back with your phone, I want to take you somewhere.”

  “Where?” I asked suspiciously. He was looking at me like I was the sun, the moon, and everything in between.

  He rolled his eyes. “Just shower,” he ordered. “I have to go run a quick errand, but I’ll be right back.”

  I resisted the urge to ask him where he was going like the needy girl I was unfortunately turning into. I watched as he went into his closet for a few seconds before coming back out in a tight-fitting black T-shirt and jeans that left little to the imagination.

  I stuck out my tongue at him, even though what I wanted to do was lick him, and then walked stiffly to the bathroom. I was feeling a lot better, but man, if I needed one more reason to never do drugs, this was it. The after effects were killer.

  I heard the garage open and close beneath the floor, and I turned on the shower, hating myself because I already missed him.

  Jackson

  “Do you have him?” I asked Kyle, a starting linebacker on the team.

  “Yeah we picked him up at his dorm room. We checked his phone, and the fucker had been trying to get in contact with Everly for hours.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  “Want us to start?”

  “Nah, I need this to be very personal.”

  Kyle laughed darkly, knowing exactly what I meant, and we hung up.

  Landry Evans was a dead man.

  There was a football house a few blocks away from campus. Unlike the frat most of us were a part of, this was a house the alumni had bought the team, where the more clandestine shit went down. The hazing we didn’t want to get reported, the assholes various members of the team needed to deal with…all the stuff the administration didn’t need to know about.

  I hadn’t really had a need for the house until now.

  But blood was about to be spilled. And I didn’t want any additional eyes on what I was about to do.

  I walked inside the ostentatious brick colonial that was the “football house.” It was way too much for a bunch of college students, but nothing’s too good for Rutherford Academy’s football team. Our alumni had more money than Midas, and they were very generous with the team.

  I’ve been grateful for the top-notch stadium, coaches, and training facilities since I’d been here. But today, I was very grateful for this house. Especially the basement portion of the house, which currently housed the cockroach that was Landry Evans.

  The air got stale as I walked down the stairs into the basement. A few members of the team that I was close with stood watch, and they had Landry trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey in a fold-up chair in the middle of the room.

  It was a little bit too mafia looking for my tastes, but I guess whatever got the job done. As soon as I’d heard what Landry did to Everly, I’d arranged for him to get picked up. My body had been craving violence on Everly’s behalf ever since my fight with Caiden. It was like my body idiotically thought that it could prove its worth to Everly by destroying as many of her enemies as possible.

  Everly had goodbye in her eyes, and it was all I could do to hold on to her right now. But I would do whatever it took to stack the cards on my side.

  Landry’s eyes widened when he saw me, and then he schooled his features quickly.

  “Why am I not surprised?” he spit out, brave for someone sitting tied up in a chair. But no one ever accused Landry of being smart.

  Calculating maybe, the way he laid in wait for Everly to show some weakness, but not smart. He obviously let his dick do most of the thinking, since he’d had to pull off to the side of the road to try and force his way into Everly’s pants instead of waiting to get somewhere private.

  Hot rage curled in my stomach at the thought of what had happened.

  I carefully tucked Caiden’s part in the story away for a time when I could examine it more closely, along with the way he’d been looking at her when I’d walked into her hospital room. I didn’t want to think about Caiden rescuing Everly right now. I couldn’t handle it.

  I circled Landry, just watching him. A small smirk lifted the corner of his mouth as he tipped the chair back on its back legs like he didn’t have a care in the world.

  I knew what would happen if Everly were to turn Landry in. It would be the same thing if some girl tried to turn me in, not that I would ever have to stoop to those levels to get laid. The police would slap the asshole on the wrist and then let him go with something that amounted to nothing. Or if they did pretend to take her story seriously, Landry’s parents would drag her through the mud every day for the rest of her life. They’d call her a slut and slander her name until Everly wished she’d never said something to begin with. That was what happened for rich entitled guys like Landry. That was what happened for rich entitled guys like myself…and Caiden.

  I saw Caiden sitting in that chair. Caiden had used his charm and resources to put the blame on Everly, so no one dared to suggest that maybe the poor girl from the bad family’s injuries weren’t all from that car wreck. Although thinking back now, that should have been obvious to any medical professional. But yet no one questioned Caiden because he was a Parker.

  Not even me.

  So that was why Landry was here. That was why I was here. Because while the legal system of this town might be wrapped around Landry Evan’s proverbial dick—and that of every other guy just like him—I was not. Seeing him sit there with that smirk, knowing that he’d been trying to contact Everly even after what he did…hatred that I’d only ever felt before with Caiden simmered in the pit of my stomach, begging for release.

  The possessive, obsessive love I had for Everly demanded nothing less.

  “Man, I feel special. I’ve got the campus celebrity, Jackson Parker, here to see me,” he said in a guttural drawl. “I bet you love this, don’t you? I was so close to having your girl, and now she’s going to run into your brother’s arms.”

  A growl ripped from my throat. “Watch your fucking mouth. Don’t mention her again.”

  L
andry laughed, a manic look in his eye, and Kyle stepped forward. I held up a hand to stop him.

  I stood over Landry. His chair lost its precarious perch, and the resounding thud of his skull as it hit the cement floor was music to my ears.

  I wrenched my fist in his shirt, knocking his head against the floor another time so that his eyes looked slightly dazed and out of it. I then dragged the chair upright once again.

  “Do you dream of how she tastes, how she smells? I have ten pairs of her used panties, and I’ve jacked off to them so much you can’t even tell what color they are,” he said with a dreamy look on his face, as if he were thinking about her perfect pussy right there.

  There was little time between the movement of his mouth and my hand making contact with it. I hit him with so much force that blood painted the wall and floor behind him. All the anger living inside of me since I first heard what Caiden did was freed upon the bastard who tried to take what was only mine. A resounding roar escaped my throat when I connected again, this time splitting my already torn up knuckles on his cheek bone.

  His scream was driven into a grunt as I lit into him again and again. One side and then the other, until Kyle pulled me away, holding my upper arms back in a vice grip.

  “You probably shouldn’t kill him, Parker,” Kyle drawled loud enough so that I could hear him above my jagged breath and Landry could start to fear what the end result of all of this was going to be.

  Shrugging him off, I straightened my shirt, never taking my eyes off Landry. I’d made a mess of his face, a cracked lip and cheek, and I knew that the crazed smile on my face must’ve been a sight to behold. But I’d been carefully walking the line between normal and psychopath for years. It felt good to step over that line every once in a while.

  “Is this all still a game to you? Are you still thinking about her underwear now, you sick fucker?” I dragged in a lungful of air, not expecting more than the moan he returned. “We’re going to do this a bit longer. And then maybe I’ll let you walk out the door. But so help me…” I lunged forward to grab him again and shook him so hard that his neck snapped backwards. “If you so much as think her name again, I will fucking end you.”