Have Your Way With Me

by Parker, Weston

  Eventually though, birds started singing outside and reality came with the impending dawn. Jordan yawned and stretched out, his arms above his head. “I should probably go.”

  “What?” I frowned, barely able to lift my head from the pillow. “Why?”

  “Kole might drop by in the morning to hear about the luau. Also, my Jeep being parked outside your house all night and into the next morning isn’t really subtle. It’s like asking for him to find out.”

  “True.” I sighed but sat up without bothering to cover myself with a sheet. It was much too late for modesty. “Want me to walk you out?”

  He shook his head and got out of bed, picking his shirt up off the floor before leaning over to plant a lingering but chaste kiss on my lips. “Nah, I’m good. Go back to sleep, Ellie. I’ll call you later?”

  “Sure.” I yawned, ogled his tight ass when he walked out, and lay back on the pillow once he disappeared into the darkness. It was fucking amazing how fast we’d fallen back into the most natural rhythm.

  There was no need to talk about anything, no need for him to feel like he had to stay or cuddle or to manage expectations. Things were just easy for me with Jordan.

  Except for the whole him “being my big brother’s best friend” thing, which meant that while it could be as easy and natural as breathing between us, it still couldn’t mean anything.

  Fuck. I rubbed my eyes and released a long breath. We’ve done it again.

  Why did the one guy it felt like this with have to be Kole’s friend? I knew sleeping with Jordan again had probably been a mistake because of my brother and our history, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care.

  I’d missed what I had with Jordan for so long. Surely, it couldn’t hurt to have just a little bit of fun, to get my fill of him one last time before it would all have to be over forever.

  Chapter 13

  Jordan

  A furious pounding at my door had me frowning as I set down my tools. I was busy building a new bookshelf and whoever was at my house was keeping me from finishing it.

  With a heavy, annoyed sigh, I strode through the house and yanked open the door. “What?”

  Kole stood outside, but he stormed in as soon as the door opened. Fury twisted his features, his pulse pounding. I closed the door and cocked my head at him. “Oh, it’s you. Come in, please.”

  He bit out a laugh, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Clearly, he was pissed off about something. I just fucking hoped it wasn’t what I thought it might be.

  Although if he had found out that I’d spent the night with his sister, I was pretty sure he’d have punched me instead of just storming past me. Still, it was better to be safe than sorry, so I had to be cautious here. “What’s wrong with you? Did something happen at the base?”

  He shook his head but then paused and nodded. “In a manner of speaking, yes.”

  “Hang on a sec. Let me get us something to drink and then we can talk about it.” I walked past him and into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of soda from the fridge and pouring us each a glass before going back into the living room.

  Kole took his glass from me and sank into the couch, but he didn’t relax. “It’s Elyse.”

  My heart seized in my chest. He knows. Fuck, he definitely knows.

  “I showed her around and apparently, a lot of the guys noticed her.”

  He doesn’t know. The tension binding my muscles together released, but it was replaced by a different kind of tension. Jealousy coursed through me, still as irrational as it had been last night, but there was nothing I could do about it.

  “What do you mean they noticed her?” I asked, gritting my teeth as I braced myself for his response.

  “They noticed her, noticed her,” he bit out, his hand tightening around the glass so hard that his knuckles turned white. “I overheard a couple of the younger guys talking about her earlier. They were casually discussing how hot she was and how they’d like to bend her over and fuck her from behind.”

  My stomach lurched and bile ran up the back of my throat. The possessiveness that had reared its head at the luau sat up and roared now, like the banging of a bass drum in my chest. Mine. Mine. Mine.

  Internally shaking my head, I reminded myself that she wasn’t mine. If Kole realized that I was taking the news as badly or perhaps even worse than he was, he’d know something was up. He wasn’t stupid.

  Calm the fuck down, Jordan, I chided myself and inhaled a deep breath through my nose. It didn’t do anything to quiet the banging drum, but at least I could control the rage that had threatened to make me ask the names of the perpetrators so that I could track them down myself.

  “Okay,” I said slowly. “I’m assuming none of them are breathing anymore and that’s why you’re here. You need help with the bodies.”

  “This isn’t something to joke about,” he snapped, but I hadn’t been joking. Not really.

  Kole was still just as protective of Elyse as he had been in high school and I’d seen him break a guy’s nose once for saying something about her. “Okay, then I’m assuming that they’ve each lost a valued appendage. If they don’t have that, they wouldn’t be able to fuck her or anyone else.”

  “That’s not all they said.” He paled, a furious flash running up from his neck to color the sides of his whitened cheeks. “Someone said that they would—”

  He cut himself off, his jaw tightening to the point that I was worried for a second that his teeth might break. Red spots danced across my vision. I really didn’t want to know what else he’d overheard, but it would look weird if I didn’t ask at all.

  “Someone said that they would what?” My voice was tight with strain. If this was anywhere near as bad as I thought it might be, I was going to punch something. Anything. Even the wall would do just fine.

  “One guy said that he’d lap at her pussy like a dog while another one said that he’d fuck her mouth while his buddy was at it.”

  Shit. Fuck. Nausea rolled through my stomach and I had to squeeze my eyes shut to collect myself before I lost it. “What did you do to them?”

  He had to have done something and I needed to know what it was. Hopefully, knowing what hurt he’d laid on them would help calm my own need for destruction.

  Kole shook his head. “Nothing. I literally bit my tongue and raced over here before I really did fucking kill one of them. That wasn’t even all they said, but I really don’t want to repeat the rest. There’s some sick shit those guys are into.”

  Yep. Nope. I wasn’t going to ask this time. He’d said he didn’t want to repeat it and I wouldn’t make him. “Yeah, I can only imagine. I’ve heard about a lot of the stuff they get up to and it’s not pretty. So what now? You’re just going to let them get away with it?”

  “What am I supposed to do, Jordan? I can’t go running around shaking my fists at the younger officers like a maniac.”

  “No.” An evil smile lifted the corners of my lips. “But you are a commanding officer. You can do whatever the fuck you want to them and disguise it as training or an exercise.”

  I saw him turning the idea over in his head, and for the first time since he’d arrived, some of the fury melted out of his eyes. “You’re right. Those fuckers are going to regret talking about my sister that way.”

  If they were going to regret talking about her that way, I half wondered what he’d do if he knew that only hours ago, I had been lapping at her pussy like a goddamned dog and I’d happily still have been doing it. I didn’t let my mind wander too far down that path, though.

  Kole knew me too well. He could read my expression better than anyone else and he’d definitely ask what I was thinking. I didn’t really want to add lying to his face to my list of things to feel guilty about.

  I wasn’t afraid that he would find out because I was scared of what he’d do to me. I was afraid because finding out would hurt him. It would tear our lifelong friendship to shreds and his heart clear out of his body.

  Elyse would get hurt
too, and that also wasn’t something I wanted. If it had only been the threat of having my dick ripped off, I’d have told him the truth. I knew I could take him in a fight if it ever came to physical blows, and frankly, he deserved a free shot anyway after everything I’d done.

  Hurting both of them that badly wasn’t an option for me. Kole would never stop feeling betrayed, for good reason, and he’d lose the one person who knew him better than anyone else, too: me.

  There was stuff I knew about him, his family, and their history that I wasn’t even sure Elyse knew. Like how his father used to beat up their mother so badly that she had to be taken to the hospital or how their mother had been in such deep debt when she’d died that the few items of hers Elyse had had with her was all that was left.

  Kole had sold the rest of it years ago because he’d had to, not because he didn’t have space for it like he’d told Elyse at the time. It had been the cause of the sole fight the two of them had ever had, and it had been because of a lie he had told to protect her.

  “Yeah, I hear you, man,” I said eventually when it felt like I’d kept quiet for too long. “Make them regret it. Then let them know what they were punished for. Word will spread and no one will ever talk about her that way again.”

  He nodded, taking a sip of his soda. “That’s another good idea. I guess I just can’t fucking believe that they’d talk about a commanding officer’s family that way. Is nothing sacred?”

  Ah, and there’s that familiar stab of guilt. “Nope, not when it comes to having a hot girl on base.”

  I froze, realizing that I’d slipped up. Never before had I even alluded to the fact that I thought Elyse was hot in front of Kole. Thankfully, it seemed he’d misunderstood me. “Yeah, can you even believe that they think she’s hot? She’s my baby sister, for Christ’s sake. She’s beautiful and precious, not hot.”

  She was beautiful and precious, but she was also fucking hot. Obviously, I didn’t tell him that. “Maybe they didn’t realize she was your younger sister. Maybe they thought she was a friend or something.”

  “No, they knew.” His jaw clenched again. “I introduced her to a few people and it must’ve spread who she was from there. One of the assholes even said they’d like to fuck her on my desk.”

  I held back an enraged sound. “Fucking disrespectful assholes. Whatever you do to them, make it good. Then take a video of it and send it to me so I can enjoy watching them suffer to.”

  “I always knew you were sadistic,” he said, his tone teasing. “But seriously, you’re a good friend. Apparently, you’re also the only person I can trust with my sister. You know what we’ve been through and you actually give a shit about us.”

  “I give much more than a shit about you,” I said. “In fact, I give at least two shits.”

  Kole laughed and flipped me off, then drained the rest of his soda in one sip when he saw the time. “I’ve got to be getting back. I just needed somebody to talk me off the ledge and you’re the best person for that job. You always have been.”

  “Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all week.” I put my own soda down on the coffee table and got up to walk him out.

  He rolled his eyes at my lame attempt at a joke. “You really shouldn’t quit your day job, even if it is just collecting pineapples.”

  “Stop being a snob.” I grinned and shoved my elbow into his side as we walked. “At least there’s no one at my job making comments about my sister.”

  “True that.” He sighed and dragged his hands up and down the sides of his face. “I came so fucking close to losing my shit again, man.”

  Closing his eyes briefly, I saw pain on his features before he opened them again. I knew why he was in pain too. It was because of the last time he’d lost control and about what it had cost him, and me for that matter.

  I didn’t say anything about it, though. We’d been through it so many times that trying to reassure him and set his mind at ease was pointless. It was one of those things we disagreed on and probably always would.

  He turned around when we reached the door, surprising me when he pulled me into a very quick, back-thumping hug. “Thank you for always having my back, Jordan. It means so much to me to know I can count on you and that I have at least one person I can really trust.”

  Guilt didn’t just stab me this time. It flooded me. I returned his hug and stepped away, giving him what I hoped didn’t look like a guilty grin. Everything about me felt guilty. “No problem, man. I’m happy to be here for you whenever you need me.”

  “Thanks.” His expression turned thoughtful as he pulled his keys out of his pocket. “I have next weekend off. How about me, you, and Elyse do something fun together? Are you available?”

  I swallowed past the guilt threatening to close my throat and nodded. “Sure. I’m available.”

  “Great,” Kole said. “If I don’t see you before, I’ll see you then.”

  “Good luck with the plotting against the assholes,” I said, opening the door to let him out. “See you next weekend.”

  After he left, I tried to go back to my bookshelf but I couldn’t concentrate. By the third time I hit one of my fingers with the hammer instead of the nail I was holding, I decided to give it up for now.

  Elyse and I spending time together around Kole had always been difficult back when we’d been together as teenagers. The problem with us all knowing each other so well was that Elyse and I had to work really hard to make it seem like we didn’t know each other at all.

  We’d all been little more than kids then, though. The same couldn’t be said now. Elyse and I had even more chemistry together as adults than we’d had as teens, and after last night, would we even be able to pretend not to really know each other anymore?

  It had been one of the best nights of my life, and the other two nights on my top-three list already belonged to her. Last night had been on a different level, though. As adults in our own space where we hadn’t needed to worry about someone walking in at any moment and without the uncertainty we both used to have, it had been fucking fantastic.

  I’d never come that hard or that much in one night in my life. It was like I hadn’t been able to get enough of her, like my body was making up for all the time we’d been relatively inactive all at once.

  All I’d needed to get hard as concrete was one glimpse of her bare skin, and since we’d both been naked most of the night, I hadn’t had any problems in that department. Hearing her moans and smelling her arousal were enough to push me over the edge every goddamn time.

  Spending time with her while Kole was with us and not be thinking about everything we’d done was going to be fucking difficult, if not impossible. But I had to do it. Somehow, I had to look into those gorgeous light blue eyes and pretend not to know what they looked like glazed over with pleasure.

  Yeah, good luck with that one, buddy.

  Chapter 14

  Elyse

  The daycare was filled with smiling, happy children and it was awesome. The sound of little voices was music to my ears. It was my first day on the job, but as I walked into the center, it felt like I was coming home.

  Colorful murals of popular children’s characters decorated the walls. Plastic containers overflowing with all sorts of toys lined the room and beneath my feet was a spongy type of mat.

  “This is the classroom you will primarily be assisting in,” my brand-new boss said. Layla was an older Hawaiian lady with beautiful black hair and laugh lines around her mouth. “I’m going to pair you up with Alice for the first week to show you the ropes. This is her classroom, too.”

  Her lips pressed into a line as her dark eyes flicked across the room. “It looks like she’s a little late again. I’m sure she’ll be here soon.”

  Layla perked up when the door opened to reveal a petite girl around my age. She had golden curls in a bouncy ponytail behind her head and bright blue eyes. “Ah, there she is now. Her ears must have been burning.”

  She waved to catch Alice’s atten
tion and pointed a finger at me. “Alice, this is Elyse. She’s the new assistant. Elyse, Alice. The senior assistant for the class.”

  “By senior assistant, she means that I’m the only one of us who started here at the same time who’s still able to tolerate this madness.” She winked at me, then smiled sweetly at Layla. “I tolerate it because I love it, of course.”

  Layla let out a soft snort. “Of course. Will you show Elyse how it’s done around here this week? Starting next week, I’m sure we can leave her to tolerate the madness by herself.”

  “If she’s still here next week.” Alice smiled, and when I extended my hand to shake hers, she pulled me into a hug. It seemed people around here were really into hugging. I liked it, though. “I’m only joking. We’ll both still be here next week, unless one of these tiny dictators decides to off us.”

  Layla rolled her eyes at Alice, then cocked her head as if she’d heard her name being called. “I believe I’m being summoned to the office. Have fun, girls.”

  “We will,” Alice sang out as Layla left the room. Then she turned to me with her eyes wide. “I wasn’t kidding when I said it was madness around here, so consider yourself warned.”

  The next second, there was a crash and one of the children started crying. Alice sighed and grabbed my arm. “Come on, time for your first lesson. Tommy! What did I tell you about reaching for the puzzles on the high shelves?”

  Tommy was a little boy who was probably around five years old. He had messy brown hair and his lower lip was sticking out as his green eyes filled with tears. “You said not to and to call an adult.”

  “Right,” she said and pointed at the puzzle box lying open on the floor, pieces of it strewn all over. “Why did I say that?”

  “Because the puzzle is going to fall on me.” His voice trembled, but he didn’t seem injured. I assumed that was why Alice wasn’t checking him over. He’d had more of a fright than anything else.