“I meant—”
Wait, what?
I eye him and slowly explain. “You said keep it clean, to find a way. That’s what I did.”
“So that’s how you play, huh?” He creeps in, hands covering the exact spot Jenson’s had been. He squeezes and I inhale. “Like to use this body to do what needs done? To get what needs got?”
No. Never that, but I repeat what I already said. What he said first.
“Find a way.”
His grip tightens and then he’s walking me back, leading as he pleases until we’re surrounded by darkness. Still, he keeps forward, driving me backward.
The summer night wind whistles through the trees, blowing my hair into my face, sending a shiver down my spine, and obstructing my view. Of him. Of the moonlight.
I go to push it back, but he does it first, his pinky skating along the soft, sensitive skin of my temples. I tense when he grows closer to my scar, but he doesn’t dive deeper into my hair.
“I asked you to keep it clean,” he says, his shadowy eyes locking on to mine. “What part of that made you think touching someone else was allowed?”
Someone else.
Someone else?
“I don’t understand.”
A scoffed laugh leaves him, and he drops his gaze to my neck. “Yeah, you wouldn’t.”
“Try me.”
He slips his fingers beneath the strap of my tank top and slides them down to where the end meets the cup of my bra and tugs.
I slap his hand away and his glare snaps up to mine.
He gets in my face, and I don’t realize I was sliding backward until my shoulder blades meet a wired fence.
His arms stretch out beside us, and he leans in. “It means you aren’t here to whore out.”
“Excuse me?!” I try to jolt forward, but he’s a wall of weight, barricading me in. “Get away from me.”
“Don’t want to.” He frowns, one of his hands coming down to skate along my fingertips. “Why you let him hold your hand?”
I swallow, but snap, “If that pisses you off, then it was damn good you weren’t in the house when we were.”
Trying a wolf isn’t smart, but caging a fawn isn’t either.
I may be ‘new’ here, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be a still target.
He shoves even closer, so close my chest has no room to inflate with my heavy inhale. “Fuck’s that mean?”
“It means I know what the slope of his muscles feel like right before they disappear into his jeans.”
Oh my god!
Why’d I say that?! Like he cares—
A growl leaves him, and he stretches his arms out, dipping back only to come in again.
Okay, so he doesn’t like people messing with his stuff.
I mean staff.
Noted.
Definitely not going to mention Jenson’s arms wrapping around me and pulling me in.
His eyes flash and he jerks away, charging toward the house.
Mac suddenly appears, his head snapping from his friend to me and back as he falls in line.
“You didn’t.” He glares.
“Didn’t what?”
He throws an arm out. “Taunt him.”
“Taunt him?” I jerk. “Are you joking? He’s acting like a crazy, unstable, confusing person!”
“Not an act, he’s exactly all of those things, Brielle. What did you say to him?”
“Nothing.” Not really.
He glares. “You talked out loud again, didn’t you?”
“I—”
Ooooh.
Oops.
“Fuck.” Mac spins and runs around the house, so I follow.
We get there right as Royce is tearing the door open to what must be Jenson’s truck.
He grabs him by the neckline of the shirt he must have just put on and rips him from the seat.
I gasp.
Someone laughs beside me.
I look over to find Chloe grinning with her phone in her hand. She pushes some buttons, then crosses her arms and smiles at the chaos.
She looks to me. “Oh, honey, get used to this, catalog it even. It makes for some good after-hour thoughts, if you know what I mean.”
I meet her eyes and she winks.
“Your boy’s got stamina, lots and lots of stamina. And since you arrived?” She giggles with a grin. “He’s pretty much exhaling testosterone, he’s so repressed.”
Yeah, I’m not touching any of that.
I rush closer to the sidewalk as Royce grips the guy by the neck and lifts him from the floor. He says something, but nobody else can hear it, and then Jenson lifts his hand and what do you know, it points toward me.
Royce whips around.
A loud, cruel laugh leaves him and then Jenson’s head meets the side mirror. Both he and his mirror crash to the ground.
Royce isn’t satisfied, and steps over him, but I’m done with this.
I shoot forward.
Mac tries to grab me, but I cut left quickly and evade him, grab an abandoned bottle from the grass and smash it against the hood.
Royce’s wild eyes snap up, his lip curling.
They flash when it’s me he finds.
“Stop.”
He leers at me through thick lashes. “Get the fuck out of here.”
“No. I said stop.”
“Baby girl, I will tear you apart—”
“So do it. This isn’t on him.” I explain, “He and another guy were about to light up the living room in there. I was helping.”
“Helping. By letting people touch you. By touching someone. That’s not helping, that’s hoeing.”
Anger burns my skin, and I step closer. “You are a dick and he was only playing along to defuse the situation. You said—”
“I don’t care what I said!” His shout is rushed and wrathful. “Listen to what the fuck I’m saying now or you’re gone.” His chest heaves and he steps over Jenson’s forgotten body, slithering toward mine. “You will touch no one, and no fucking one will dare to touch you. Do you understand?”
I clench my teeth and look away.
This is what I asked for, isn’t it? Him to tell me what he expects, what he wants me to and not to do.
So I don’t argue.
I turn back and meet his eyes with resolved strength in my own.
I will not get kicked out of this place, especially not yet.
My brother said he’s headed home tomorrow, and when he gets here, he’ll find out I am too.
“Okay, Playboy. No one touches me. I touch no one.”
His chest rises and falls rapidly and with eerily slow movements, he licks his lips and closes the slight gap between us. His eyes slide between mine, his warm, cinnamon and zest hinted alcohol breath fanning across my skin.
My body starts to heat, but this time for an entirely different reason.
He’s looking at me like a broken boy, like I hurt him and he doesn’t understand how it’s possible.
That makes two of us.
Royce comes even closer, his thumb finding and pressing into the hollow of my throat. He pushes a little harder, a need to be rougher twitching against me, but it’s with a gentle pressure he glides higher, until he’s lifting my chin.
My heart beats faster as I meet his muddled gaze.
Blood from his busted knuckles splats silently against my collarbone, shocking the skin there and creating prickles around it.
“You want to play, Tink, play,” he rasps headily. “Take. Demand.” His eyes darken and he leans forward, pressing the left curve of his lips to my ear, gliding them slightly, as if he has a need to press them against me, but he refuses himself. “Demand... and receive, my little Tink.”
Tires screech against the road in the distance, the cease of brakes following.
Royce steps around me, and my entire body finds the need to follow his escape, spinning with his as he slips away, taking the air from my lungs with him.
Right there, in the center of the str
eet, stands Maddoc and Captain, blank expressions on both their faces, one solid black SUV idling at their backs.
The back door opens and Raven steps out.
Her eyes fly from Royce to me and narrow.
He steps up to her and after a short stare-off, she finally slips back inside, Royce following.
He doesn’t shut his door and when I look to Maddoc, he drops his chin expectantly.
I don’t realize I’m moving forward until I’ve reached him.
“Get in.” He glares past me.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. He’s mad at me.”
“It wasn’t a question.” The command is short and sharp. His eyes shift to mine, and while they’re brimming with a heady warning, there’s no anger there.
Room for discussion? Definitely not, but no anger.
He faces forward, and only then do I look behind me.
The house and back yard must be completely empty now as every partygoer is scattered along the front catching the show.
There isn’t a single one who isn’t staring at me. At Maddoc. At the car behind us and back to me.
Micah breaks through the crowd then, tension lining his features, and for a second I’m relieved. Maddoc must sense it, because he shakes his head, and in the same exact second one brother tells me no without a word, another wraps his fingers around mine hanging loosely at my sides.
I look down, following the tattooed forearm up until my eyes collide with a pair of clouded brown ones. Royce hangs half out of the door, holding on to me.
He tugs, and for some reason, even though he was a giant jackass just now, I let him.
I climb in beside the drunken playboy, trying to ignore how his hold on me grows tighter, more possessive, with each passing second, and pretending his lips aren’t slightly brushing against the side of my neck.
They are, but every time they meet my skin fully, they disappear, taking the air from my lungs with them.
I don’t know what it means or that he’ll remember this tomorrow.
I don’t know why he said what he said, did what he did, or if it even matters.
And I don’t know why, when the night basically went to crap, thrill burns me to the core.
I know it’s reckless.
But I’m not sure I can control it.
I’m also not so sure I want to.
Chapter 17
Royce
“Daddy, look it!” Zo runs ahead of me, damn near tripping over herself while trying to carry a giant-ass panda bear that’s a solid foot bigger than she is.
Captain comes around the corner with a grin, his steps slowing when he spots her, the panda, the new stuffed penguin backpack she has on and the two black bears in my hands.
His eyes pop up to mine and he frowns, but when he drops to his knees in front of his baby girl it’s with a smile.
“Uncle Bro taked me to make stuff, see!” She smiles, shoving it in Cap’s arms and runs to me, snags the bears and runs back. She hops into Cap’s arms, knowing he’ll catch her, and pushes the ballerina and basketball player dressed black bears in his face.
I laugh, wiping at my mouth in an attempt to hide it, and Cap’s grin doesn’t fall until Zoey is running around the corner to go show Victoria.
He hops up and punches my shoulder.
I laugh. “Hey, Madman’s playin’ dirty. Had to show him up. I’m her favorite.”
He chuckles. “All right, but no more animals. Pretty soon we won’t be able to find her in her bed, she’ll be so covered.”
“Fine, fine.” I grin. “I’m gonna put this away.” I lift the small gift box at my side.
Cap’s grin widens and he slips closer. “What’s in there?”
The fucker knows it’s for the soon to be here baby Bray.
“Nuh, uh. That’s for me to know. I’m the special one.” I grin and he laughs.
I leave his ass there laughing.
The second I’ve got the box stuffed in my closet, my phone rings.
“What up, MacMoney?” I answer.
“Your girl’s in the pool.”
I freeze, squeezing my phone. “I don’t have a girl.”
“All right.” I hear his punk-ass smile. “Brielle hopped the fence, she’s in the pool.”
“At the school?”
“Yup. The sensors went off, that’s how I know.”
“How the fuck did she of all people manage to make her way up that fence, it’s three times the size of her.”
Mac laughs. “Right. You want me to go get her out?”
I’m already down the stairs and out the front door. “I got this.”
“Yeah... figured you did.”
“Fuck off. But, aye, keep your phone on you in case I need backup.”
“Oh, for sure man, five-foot silver-haired girls can be dangerous.” He laughs. “Make sure you turn off the cameras if the need presents itself.”
I groan and hang up.
He jokes, but for real though... she might be.
For me.
I went off half-cocked last night.
I text Captain to let him know I left so Zoey doesn’t go looking for me and let Maddoc know I’ll be missing the first part of the movie he wanted to watch tonight.
I’m turning into the school lot minutes later. I could easily pull up on the property, drive around to the back and avoid a walk, get there sooner.
I think I’ll sneak up on her instead.
Brielle
I push off the siding, gliding from one end to the other before coming up for a breath. I walk out as deep as I can reach, dropping my head back.
I smile at the stars, zoning in on the Little Dipper, but I don’t short myself the rest of the night sky.
The stars, they’re bright and shining, lighting up the dark sky and giving hope to those of us reaching for more, searching for a sign it’s out there.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath, choking on it a second later when my peacefulness is interrupted.
“Fuck you doing?”
I gasp and whip around, searching the night for the one and only Royce Brayshaw.
He slips through the gate, sliding up in a pair of black jeans and a sleeveless gray T-shirt, tattoos proudly displayed, not that he thinks about that.
His art of choice isn’t for the sake of others, but himself.
One day he’ll be decked out, looking the part of a polo player and the next, be center stage at a sold-out hip-hop concert. He could even hop on a Harley and fit into the roughest of biker clubs. He’s universal perfection.
He tips his head and I remember he asked a question.
What am I doing?
“Swimming.” I dip down until the water is just beneath my lips. “You gonna tell?”
He scoffs and slips closer, his face now half illuminated by the light. “Tell who, me?” he mocks. “Ain’t nobody else gonna get you in trouble.”
I roll my eyes and spin around, smiling at the resistance of my widespread fingers under the water. I face him again. “So am I?”
“Are you what?”
“In trouble.”
He studies me a long moment, and then he’s kicking his shoes off, tugging his shirt over his head and dropping his jeans.
He steps toward the water, the gleam of the moon catching and radiating off the chain that he leaves draped around his neck, allowing me to see it for the first time. Not that he realizes it.
It’s not too thick, reaches just below his pecs, and from it hangs a perfect circle, a crest-like charm that I can’t make out.
His hand comes up, rubbing along his stomach and my eyes fly to the spot, to the clean, tan satin of his skin that disappears into the silk of his boxers.
I swallow. “Your cocks are on.”
He smirks.
“Socks!” I shout. Oh my god, what is wrong with me?! “Your socks. They’re on.”
He ignores me and makes his way over to the diving boards. He climbs all the way up to the highest platform, an
d with ease and precision, dives straight in.
An exhilarating jolt shoots through me and I laugh, tracing the empty air back up to the top and then dunking under, searching for him deep in the dark water.
He swims right for me, and when he begins to rise, I do too.
My smile slowly fades as I stare at him, his eyes bouncing between mine.
“You like to swim.” He decides.
“I love the water.” I slide backward a few steps and he swims in. “We didn’t go outside during summer when we were little, so I never actually learned the whole swimming part. Sad for a Cancer, right? Water is supposed to be my element.”
A shadow slips over his eyes. “Is that supposed to magically save you from drowning?”
I laugh. “No.”
“So why’d you hop in the pool, in the dark, alone, if you can’t swim?”
“I don’t leave the shallow end. I just push off the side where I can reach, and glide from one corner to the other.”
“You can’t swim.”
I turn, kick off the edge and begin doggy paddling, but my body begins to sink so I let my feet fall back to the bottom. Laughing, I turn to him.
“I can doggy paddle, Playboy. Kind of.”
A grin pulls at his lips and he stands now in the shallow end with me. “That’s pathetic, even my niece’s doggy paddle game is stronger than that.”
I smile.
Royce’s face goes slack, realizing he’s, once again, slid out from behind the armor he’s built so strong around him, and this time, what slipped out was about something, someone, far more precious in his life.
He whips around, disappearing under the water.
A niece. He has a niece.
I want to ask more, but when Royce comes up, it’s right in front of me. He towers over me, a heavy warning in his shaky glare. “Forget what I said, do you understand? Mention her and I’ll—”
“I get it,” I cut him off in a whisper, and his face hardens, his nostrils flaring as he stares at me.
I give a small smile.
“You don’t have to do all that, threaten and warn me every time we have a conversation. It will only lead to me not wanting to have any more.”
“What makes you think I care?”
I can feel that you do, even if you don’t want to...
I don’t say that.
Break Me Page 18
