QUIVER, BOOK FIVE (A DARK ROMANCE)

by Laura Avery

  QUIVER

  A DARK ROMANCE

  BOOK FIVE

  BY LAURA AVERY

  Copyright 2018 Laura Avery, all rights reserved.

  No part of this work may be reproduced without written consent of the author. This book is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Quiver is a dark romance and is intended for mature audiences only. It’s extremely possessive and crude. Please don’t read if strong sexual situations, language, violence, and bullying offends you. All individuals portrayed in this work of fiction are eighteen years of age or older.

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  Chapter One

  “She wasn’t the same girl I had left behind.”

  EMERY

  The walk to the front door of the small white house in the middle of the peaceful neighborhood was daunting. Each step felt closer and closer to a fate I knew deep down would destroy me. When I reached the front of the porch I ran my hands back and forth over the smooth red paint of the door for a few seconds, taking in how ironic the whole scene was.

  The neighborhood was like something out of a movie, happy kids smiling and bike riding up and down the sidewalks while their parents caught up in the middle of the circle that lined the end of the street. And, there, right in the middle of it all was the prettiest house I had ever seen. No one would have ever known that behind such a beautiful and clean exterior lived skeletons deep enough to dig many graves over again.

  The door swung open before I could knock and my hand fell with a thud to the side of my body. Seeing Charlotte shouldn’t have astonished me. I was, after all, there to see her, but it still did. She was just as beautiful as the last time I saw her even though she looked completely different.

  Gone was the dark blonde hair; in its place was a dark black that blended in with her extremely pale skin effortlessly. Her ones green eyes were clouded over with brown contacts. She had gained weight, too. Her skinny frame had added at least twenty pounds to it and her ones lanky arms looked muscular, more defined when she reached up to lean against the doorframe.

  She had been in the gym, bulking up.

  Who are you getting strong for, Charlotte?

  What are you scared of?

  “Emery,” she said my name softly but made no gesture at movement.

  Was she not going to invite me inside?

  Her voice was just as startling as when I had heard it on the phone hours earlier. Sharp, clear, it felt almost invasive. A chill ran up and down my back and a shot of fear made its way into my veins. Not the kind that came over me when Jackson was close, this fear was almost more intimidating. It was the one that came from the knowledge that you may have been in bed with the devil, aligned with something dirty that was disguised as purity.

  Charlotte had played me; I knew it even before I opened my mouth.

  “Did you lie to me?” I asked the question anyway.

  Her silence was only further verification. “Oh, my God.”

  She sighed. “It’s not that simple, Emery.”

  “It sounds pretty simple to me,” I snapped.

  There was a loud sound of laughter from the room behind her and Charlotte closed her eyes and winched in pain. “Now really isn’t the best time for me, Emery.” She glanced over her shoulder nervously, making sure no one had heard us. It sounded like I had interrupted their breakfast.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” I seethed. “Is there a more convenient time for us to talk about how you lied me into helping you ruin someone’s fucking life?” My voice was rising without my permission, heat and rage running up and down my entire body. I was close to blowing the entire scene up; I didn’t care if her perfect parents were only a few rooms away.

  I no longer owed her anything, clearly.

  “I didn’t realize you meant right this second when you said we should get together.” She looked behind her one more time before grabbing her coat off the hook on the side of the entryway and pushing both of us outside. “You must have driven all night to get here,” she was still whispering even though the door was safely shut behind her.

  I wasn’t sure if she was stating a fact or making an observation, I was sure I looked just as awful as I felt. “Why don’t you spare me the small talk and start to explain yourself Charlotte.” I made no effort to keep quiet, I wasn’t doing her or anyone else any favors.

  “I can’t do this right now.”

  “You had better or so help me God I’ll start screaming bloody murder as loud as I can.” My voice didn’t waver at all because I meant it with every part of my soul. I was going to get some answers and I was going to get them right then and there. I hadn't driven all night just to feel as lost as when I had started. I ran my hands over my eyes, trying to force them to stay open.

  I was so close to being defeated but I forced myself to hang on.

  Charlotte tugged her coat closer to her body and crossed the porch, gazing out at the streets in front of us as she crossed her arms over her chest. “So, I guess they found you then.”

  “I don’t think they ever lost me,” I responded coldly.

  She exhaled heavily. “Did you tell them where I was?”

  “Not yet,” I scoffed, moving closer to her back. “I thought I’d give you a chance to explain first. It was an idiot move considering you’ve been playing me for the last two years.” It was taking every ounce of my self-control to not start screaming at her, to not grab her by the back of her perfect hair and force her to look me in the eye while she explained how she could rope me into her craziness. How she could have sat there crying to me night after night, begging me to help her get over Liam Lucas while she pretended to know just how awful I felt.

  “If you really believe that why did you even come?” She turned around, her fake brown eyes glowering with an emptiness I hadn’t seen on her all those months ago, the time passed between us had made her cold.

  “I don’t know,” I answered her honestly. “I guess a part of me was hoping that it wouldn’t be true, that the girl who sat with me all those nights ago talking to me for hours had an explanation for making me help her tear a families life apart, for manipulating me into putting an innocent man in prison.”

  Her eyes grew wide. “Liam didn’t go to prison.”

  “He was confined to his house!”

  “He lives in a mansion!”

  “And that makes it right?”

  She looked away. Good, she should feel guilty.

  “It’s not like they were innocent.”

  “That’s not the point and you know it! You’re just trying to tell yourself whatever you need to in order to justify what you did in your head. They weren’t perfect, no one knows that better than me, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to ruin someone’s life. That doesn’t make it okay to lie under oath.” This whole situation was the biggest mess I had ever seen in my life. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you could get into if anyone ever found out? How much trouble I could get into?”

  For a split second, I thought she might cry but the look of distress was gone just as fast as it had come. She wasn’t the same girl I had left behind, that much was clear. She had grown stronger, more independent, and a slight piece of me felt envious of her for it. I never could seem to find my strength without Jackson. It was like I couldn’t breathe until he was near.

  “Charlotte, I want there to be a reason for this whole mess, I want to believe that you’re a good person, but I need to know… were you okay with what was going on in that room? Were you…” I cleared my throat and blinked rapidly. “Were you a willing participant?”

  I expect
ed her to lie, to curl up into a ball and cry, to scream, maybe punch something. I expected a reaction, any kind of reaction. What I got instead was the cold hard truth. “Yes.”

  A shot of bile lunged its way into the back of my throat and I had to force myself to push it back down before I threw up all over the front of her porch. “You make me sick.” I turned away from her, unable to stand the sight of her for a second longer.

  “It’s not that cut and dry, Emery.”

  “Fuck you,” I spat between the tears that were starting to form behind my eyes and threatening to drip down. How could she sit there and talk about something that had turned my entire world upside down so casually? I had spent years scared that Liam and Pierce would find me, endless nights wondering how I was able to function without Jackson’s body near mine.

  I swung around on my heels and stomped across the porch, starting down the steps. I didn’t have to stand there and take that, I had heard enough, Charlotte had manipulated me into being a liar with her and didn’t even have the decency to feel bad about it.

  “Emery! Wait!” She hurried after me and grasped onto my arm so tight I thought she would cut off my circulation. “It’s not that simple, I swear there’s a reason that I did what I did, a good reason.” Her nails dug into the flesh on my arm as she rapidly inhaled. “If I had any other choice, I swear to you I wouldn’t have let it go down like that.”

  I did my best to shrug her off. “Then why did you do it, Charlotte? Explain it to me, please, because none of this is making sense!” I moved closer to her when she hesitated. “I’m part of the reason he was in that courtroom to begin with. I’ve protected you all these months, never breathing a word of where you were or what we went through. I think the least you owe me is an explanation for a situation that was your fault to begin with.”

  She closed her eyes, deep in thought for a few seconds before slightly shaking her head. “I can’t, Emery. I wish that I could tell you everything, I really do, but doing so would be putting you in extreme danger and I’m in enough of that for the both of us.”

  “If you’re in danger we can tell someone, we can get help…”

  “No one can help me,” she interrupted coldly.

  “Charlotte.”

  “Leave it alone, Emery,” she said firmly. “I mean it.”

  I was getting a little sick and tired of everyone telling me to leave things alone. “Whatever,” I mumbled; yanking away from her so hard that I stumbled a little bit and taking off down the steps again.

  “Are you going to tell them where I am?”

  I froze at the end of the porch, scuffing my boot back and forth over the smooth edges of the sidewalk. I had no reason to believe anything she was saying, she had lied to me once, she could easily be doing it again. Still, there was something in her voice that confused me. A deep underline meaning that told me she was going through something I could never possibly understand, even if I did know what it was.

  “I don’t know,” I answered honestly.

  “Don’t, I beg of you. It will only make things worse.” She shot me one last lost look before turning around and slipping her almost unrecognizable frame back through the door and into the perfect house and life that her flawless family had helped create for her.

  I used to think they were the nicest people I had ever met.

  So why was I suddenly left with a sour taste in my mouth?

  I took in the house of secrets one more time and then turned around and jogged back toward my car. I hadn’t gotten all the answers I wanted from Charlotte but suddenly I had no further interest in being there. Suddenly, I wanted back toward my own life more than anything else.

  Back to Jackson.

  Even if he was probably furious with me.

  Leaving without his permission wasn’t something he would approve of.

  I had been a bad girl and I was sure to be punished for it.

  Chapter Two

  “An orgasm for an orgasm.”

  EMERY

  By the time I drove all the way back to my dorm I felt more like death than ever. I had pulled over and slept for a few hours at a rest stop on the side of the highway but it had done little to calm the overwhelming questions swirling around inside of my mind. It felt like no amount of sleep would do anything to numb the sense of dread my body was trying to process.

  I opened the door and sighed into the darkness, kicking my shoes off roughly and stumbling inside. All I wanted to do was sleep but I was terrified of the dreams I would have if I surrendered to it. A low chill drifted over my body and I froze.

  Jackson was there.

  I didn’t have to see him; I could feel him.

  I flipped on the light and closed the door behind me before locking eyes with Jackson’s intense and angry gaze. His large frame looked awkward on my small mattress, his heavy chest rising and falling slowly as he took every inch of my body into account.

  I could feel him studying every ounce of me, undressing me with his eyes and destroying my heart with his evilness. The chill that had come over me seconds earlier deepened and I started to shake immediately. If I had been expecting some sappy welcome just because Jackson had admitted to his brother in a heated argument that he kind of, sorted, loved me in his own fucked up way then I was foolishly mistaken.

  Jackson was furious.

  He stood up slowly and walked toward my body, running his hands back and forth over one another. His grey eyes were glazed over and his black hair stuck up in the front as if it hadn’t been combed in days. His light stubble had grown in heavier around his chin in only a day. Maybe he should have looked disheveled but he didn’t. He looked rugged and sexy as hell, instead.

  “I needed some time after what you guys told me,” I rushed out.

  “Shut the fuck up,” he snapped, cutting me off. He grabbed me by the elbow and pushed me against the back of the door hard. “You think you’re allowed to just take off like that? Did I tell you that you were allowed to do that, huh?” He placed his hands on either side of me, boxing me in.

  I closed my eyes and tried to control my shaking. “I’m sorry.”

  “Save your bullshit apologies, lamb.” His fingers curled around one another. “I don’t want to hear how sorry you are, I want to see you do better. You’re supposed to be a good fucking girl and instead, you’re running around doing all kind of questionable shit and I’m not going to tolerate it.”

  My eyes drifted toward the ground, I wasn’t sure why Jackson had me feeling ashamed but he did. I was desperate for his approval, dying to show him I was worthy of the only amount of love he had ever been willing to give up. Out of all the women in the world he had chosen me and that had to mean something. Hell, it meant more than something to me; it meant everything.

  “Look at me when I’m speaking to you, Emery.” Jackson’s hand wrapped around the back of my neck and locked my eyes back onto him. “Do you understand me?”

  I bit down on my lip. “Y-yes.”

  He used his thumb to pry my lip out of my teeth and ran his finger over it a few times roughly. “Then you need to start behaving like a good girl, Emery. As much as I enjoy punishing you I will not stand for being disobeyed.” He gently stroked my cheek before leaning down and brushing his lips on top of mine hungrily, biting down hard for a second before slipping his tongue into my mouth and stroking forcefully.

  Tasting him again was enough to send my body into overdrive and I wrapped my arms around his neck, lunging my mouth into his and devouring every inch of his mouth. He tasted even better than he smelled. The two nights he had been away from me felt like an eternity and I silently thanked God I had never tasted him before I disappeared all those months ago. If I had thought life without Jackson was rough before now that I knew what it felt like to kiss him, to hold him, to have him inside of me, having to leave him behind for even a short amount of time seemed unbearable.

  Wetness overtook my center and my thighs started throbbing with heat. Every part of me was beg
ging for him, desperate for him to fill me up the way he had days before. Who knew having sex one time could make you crave it so badly but that was what a man like Jackson did to you. He came out of nowhere and suffocated you with his warmth, overwhelmed you with his desire, and dominated you with his body.

  But Jackson Lucas’s hold ran even deeper than that. Anyone with enough presence could take control of your body, turn you on in just the right ways, but only Jackson could push me to the edge, only Jackson could make me scream his name for hours and only Jackson had the power to take it all away in one movement. The power to teach me just how lost I would be without him.

  He had taken over my mind long ago and now?

  Well, now he was taking over my body too.

  An eye for an eye.

  A touch for a touch.

  An orgasm for an orgasm.

  I would always be more his than he was mine. No matter how much he let me in it would never be the way I let him in because I wasn’t just choosing to allow him to claim me. It ran deeper than that. I was surrendering to him. Every inch of my mind, body, and soul was screaming Jackson’s name and none of them were satisfied until they felt his hold on me intensify tighter and tighter.

  It should have felt suffocating but it didn’t. It was the opposite. It was like I was dead without him and every touch, every taste, every graze, every sultry word, was slowly bringing me back to life.

  And what an awakening it was.

  Jackson untangled my arms from around him and pushed me back into the wall roughly. “No,” he snapped, shaking his head. “You don’t get to be in any kind of control, now when you’ve been such a bad girl.” He tightened his grip on my hands and swung my body around, shoving my stomach against the wall as he clasped my wrist together and shoved them over my head. “You don’t fucking move a muscle unless I tell you it’s okay, Emery.”

  I gasped as my wrists buckled and my knees started to shake. “O-Okay.” How I planned on staying completely still when I wasn’t even in control of my own body when he was around was beyond me but I knew better than to argue. Jackson was angry with me and he wasn’t going to calm down until I committed every dirty action he had in store for me. I had broken more than one of his rules and it was up to me to make it up to him.