by Aubrey Cara
“Hey, there you are,” Jess says from behind Mads. He stops short, rubbing the back of his neck as he looks around. I know the second he spots the shit. His lips thin, and his eyes go hard. His gaze lights on me zipping up her suitcase, and he gives me a nod.
“Is there anything else you need to pack?” he asks Madeline.
“I still need to grab my toiletries,” she says already striding into the en suite.
My brother trails behind her like a lost puppy, and I shake my head. Jess is in for a world of hurt. Her clothes weren’t spilling out of the dresser drawers or littering the floor of the closet. They’d been surrounding her suitcase, meaning she hadn’t unpacked.
After this shit is all cleared up, she’s going to be blazing a trail out of here and back to the city. As much as I want her to come home with us, maybe I’m feeding myself bullshit because I don’t want her to leave either.
Maybe it would be better if she stayed at a hotel until she left Clover Creek for good. The thought of dropping her off at one of the touristy hotels around here gives me heartburn.
She’s coming home with us.
And no, I’m not getting attached. I’ve just haven’t had my fill of her yet, and if she’s going to be in town…it would be a waste of good pussy not to enjoy her company while she’s here.
We’re ambassadors of Clover Creek, here to take care of her needs.
I’m so full of shit, my eyes are likely turning brown.
Waiting for her to finish up, I put the suitcase down and lean against the wall next to the bathroom. Quick enough, Mads comes out with an oversized bag slung over her shoulder and breezes past me out the door.
Jess and I follow down the stairs. She pauses halfway down, plucking off one of the only framed picture still on the wall. The glass is cracked, but she doesn’t seem to notice as she tosses it in her bag without really looking at it and continues out the door.
Terry and an officer I don’t recognize, stand talking between two squad cars, the red and blue lights flashing. Jess and I give them a wave. Terry gives us a head nod and a smirk inappropriate for the situation.
Chin up, shoulders back, Madeline gets in the passenger side of the rental. Before I get to the driver’s side, Jess stops me and leans in close.
“When Terry first got here, he asked her if she needed to be taken to the hospital…for a rape kit.”
“What the actual fuck?” I blurt a little too loudly. I glance over to make sure no one heard me and lower my voice. “Why?”
He raises his eyebrows like I’m stupid. “Smeared makeup. Missing shoe. Open torn shirt. The just aggressively fucked look she’s wearing.”
“Ah, fuck. What did she tell him?”
Jess shrugs. “That it wasn’t related, and I told him we had a consensual evening.”
“A consensual evening?”
“I was caught off guard. You should have seen her. She looked cornered. I didn’t know what to say.”
“That’s great. And?”
“And he asked her some bullshit questions trying for more dirty details. Needless to say, the entire police station likely already knows the daughter of Edward Fitzpatrick was caught with us.”
“You think Terry’s gonna tell tales?”
Jess scoffs. “Is a Lexus an overpriced Toyota?”
Yes. Yes, it is. Shit. I shake my head. Small towns mean news travels fast. Jess and I may have had a reputation in years past, but we rarely ever bagged local girls, and the ones we did usually had reputations of their own.
“I guess it’s a good thing she’s leaving soon,” I tell him.
His expression shutters. “Yeah. Probably for the best.”
“It is for the best. Madeline isn’t the kind of woman you keep.”
Jess shakes his head. “That’s where you’re wrong, brother. She’s exactly the kind of woman you keep.”
Yeah. There was a time I was just as heels-over-asshole infatuated with her.
I’m not making that mistake again.
Senior Year
Science is my favorite class. I mean not really. I’m pretty much failing chemistry, but my lab partner is Madeline. First day of third quarter, she sat down next to me, and when class started, Mr. Collins announced whoever we were sitting next to was our lab partner.
Madeline didn’t even groan about it or anything. I know, because I was watching to see her reaction. She was cool with it.
And spending weeks getting to sit next to her? Breathing in her pretty perfume and trying to make her laugh? Best shit ever. We’ve kind of become friends. We walk the halls together. Sit together at lunch on occasion.
She’s still pretty closed off, but she gives me these secret little smirky smiles when I make lame jokes. And I’ve caught her looking at me from the corner of her eye instead of taking notes or burying her nose in one of the millions of boring books she reads.
I’m 95 percent certain she’s into me.
“So…” I begin.
Her green gaze lights on me. One pretty winged brow rises. “So?”
I clear my throat. “The new Batman movie is out. I was going to go tonight, if you want to join me.”
“Umm…I don’t know. Is anyone else going?”
I frown. “Did you want anyone else to go?”
She glances over her shoulder with a frown, then back to me. “Not really.” She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “I haven’t really been social. I think I’d like it better if it was just the two of us.”
Shit. My chest puffs out and if my brothers were here, they’d say my head was in danger of not fitting through the door.
“Then it’ll be just us. Promise. Do you want me to pick you up?”
“No—no it would be better if I met you there. Shelbyville Cinema?”
“Yeah, I think it starts at seven thirty.” I know it starts at exactly seven forty-five. “So, meet me out front around seven?”
The bell rings, and Madeline scrapes back her stool as she stands like most everyone else in the class.
“I like getting there early enough to see the previews,” I add when she doesn’t say anything.
She stuffs her notebook and pen in her navy blue JanSport backpack. Flips her beautiful long red hair over her shoulder and smiles up at me. “Seven sounds good. I like watching the previews, too.” She places her hand on my right pec. Gives it a pat. “I’ll see you tonight, Jace.”
Tonight. I mentally do a victory dance. Fuck. Yeah.
She walks off, creating a breeze of her sweet scent. I wait for everyone to shuffle out before I readjust my dick in my pants so I’m not walking down the hall with a tent.
A throat clears, and I look up to see Mr. Collin. He’s a middle-aged nerdy dude. Khakis. Short sleeve button-up. He raises a brow. “Have a good weekend, Mr. Wallace.”
I cough. “Yeah, you, too, sir.”
Even embarrassed, I can’t help but smile. I know I’m wearing a goofy grin for the rest of the day. I don’t even give a shit.
10
Be strong enough to stand alone, smart enough to know when you need help, and brave enough to ask for it. ~ Mark Amend
M adeline
Present day
The buzzing in my ears is gone, but the familiar numbness has settled in. Maybe I should have argued with Jace about going home with them. Whatever is going on between us is the definition of complicated. It shouldn’t be happening at all.
But truth is, I don’t want to be alone.
We’re here for you. You’re not alone.
Jace has no idea how close he came to being tackled by a blubbering female. For one second, I wanted to throw myself in his arms and let him comfort me. And he would have. I would have hated myself for breaking down. He would have been uncomfortable. But in that moment, he would have held me for as long as I needed to be held.
My life has spiraled so far out of control, I’m free falling, and for whatever reason, Jess and Jace feel like a safe haven. Logically, I know they’re not, bu
t for now I’ll take false comfort over reality.
Tomorrow, I can get a hotel room somewhere nearby. Tomorrow, I can deal with finding a contractor and cleaning crew for the house…
My mother’s lake house.
My father preserved it like a fucking time capsule. I’m not sure if he kept it that way out of laziness or because he needed to be surrounded by her memory as much as I needed to get away from it.
Now all earthly traces of her are gone. Smashed and torn away because of some moronic assholes with too much time on their hands.
I pull in a ragged breath. I’ve been numb so long, I don’t know how to handle this blossoming ache in my chest. It’s making it hard to breathe.
I dig in my handbag for my antacids and pop one.
Jace gives me a side-eye. “You all right?”
“Peachy.”
Jess pulls into their driveway ahead of us. He’s out of his car and opening our trunk to pull out my stuff the second Jace has the car thrown into park.
Their house has a familiarity, even though it’s only the second time I’ve been here. My father would have called it an average home, for average people. I’ve certainly never been anywhere like it before. When I was little, we used to drive by homes like these, and I wondered what the people were like who lived there.
Now I know. They’re different. Free in ways I’m not sure I’ll ever be.
Unlike this morning, there’s engine parts spread out on the kitchen table.
“Seriously, man?” Jess complains to Jace as he walks past through the kitchen to the living room.
“I put rags underneath,” Jace says. “It’s fine.”
Jess turns to me, still holding my suitcase full of torn clothes, the Saint Laurent tote of toiletries slung over his shoulder. That bag likely cost more than their 1950s diner-style table and chairs.
“You staying in the guest bedroom or mine?” he asks just like he did last night.
Was it only last night? It seems like a lifetime ago.
“Or you can stay in mine,” Jace interjects, and Jess shoots him a dirty look.
I give an internal groan. Less than twenty-four hours, and it’s already getting messy.
“Guest room,” I tell them and hope the bed is as comfortable as Jess’s.
“Maddie, if you’re sleeping in the guest room ’cause you need time to process, I understand, but if you’re sleeping there to avoid Jace and I—”
I open my mouth to reply, but Jace scoffs. “For fucksakes. Let the little prude have the guest room.”
Little prude? It’s a misogynistic, childish taunt. I should in no way rise to the bait. But I want to. Oh, man do I want to.
Instead, without a word, I start opening cabinets hoping like hell they have some liquor in here.
“What are you looking for?” Jess asks.
I ignore him as I hit pay dirt. They have a backbar worth of booze. I grab the tequila and Jack Daniels off the shelf, deliberate over which one I need in my life more at this moment, and put the tequila away.
Tequila is for drowning regrets.
Whiskey is for numbing pain.
I unscrew the cap, take a healthy chug, relishing the warm burn as it goes down, and then leave the guys standing there as I make my way toward the bathroom. I want a hot shower. A warm flannel. And some sleep. In that order. And there’s only one place in this house where I know I’m guaranteed to get all three of those things, so to Jess’s room I go.
I set the Jack down and open his dresser drawers until I find his shirts, pull one out, slam the dresser closed, grab my bottle of Jack, and head into the bathroom.
I’m snatching a clean towel out of a narrow linen closet when Jace comes in, Jess right behind him.
“What are you doing?” Jace asks, arms crossed over his chest.
I slam the bottle on the vanity, shrug off my torn shirt, and undo my jeans. “What does it look like?” I slide my pants down, along with my panties. “I’m about to take a shower.”
“No shit, Sherlock, but why in here?”
Huffing out a breath, I reach for the bottle and take another swig. “Am I not allowed to use this shower?”
Jess puts a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Come on, Jace, let her shower.”
He shrugs him off. “I’m gonna let her shower, just in the better shower.” Jace scoops me off my feet like I’m a petite little thing instead of the tall full-bodied woman I am.
“Put me down,” I squeal. “I’m not in the mood to be fucked with.”
“Settle your ass, Mads.” He jostles me, and I still, clutching my sloshing bottle of Jack Daniels to my chest.
“I’m too heavy for you,” I complain but he’s already striding through the kitchen to the other side of the house.
“Fine,” I sniff. “It’s your back.”
His chuckle is his only reply. He carries me through a spacious messy bedroom that smells a bit musty, but also like the warm sexy man carting me around like a cave bride. The room has a massive bed in the center and leads into a gorgeous bathroom with a giant walk-in shower sporting three showerheads.
I’m pretty sure I hear angels singing.
He sets me on my feet and reaches for a remote on the counter. With a press of a button, the triple showerheads come on.
“Wow.” This is unexpected. They’ve obviously made updates to the house, and they’re all okay, but this is lux.
“I like fancy shit.” Jace winks like he’s including me with the fancy shit he likes then rips the bottle out of my hands and slaps my ass.
“Hey! Was that necessary?”
“Yeah.” He grins like a little kid who’s just pulled the fire alarm on purpose and leans up against the double-sink vanity next to Jess.
They’re the picture of hot arrogant males casually standing there. Jess’s ankles are crossed like he plans to hang out a while.
Annoyed with both of them, I cover my boobs. “Some privacy would be nice.”
Wearing matching smirks, they stare at me. Well, Jess’s gaze has wandered down to the thatch of red curls covering my pussy. I involuntarily press my thighs together under his watch, and his smirk turns to a full grin.
Maybe I should have held off on drinking until I was alone.
I stamp my foot, aroused and annoyed. “Leave.”
“Temper, temper, Mads,” Jace drawls. “Nothing wrong with us watching our woman shower.”
Our woman. My core clenches, and I flush from my face down to my toes at his possessive claim.
“I’m not anyone’s woman,” I argue, but with those two words, I’m reminded both these men, these brothers have been inside me. Intimately inside me. Fingers, tongues...cocks.
And they’re standing there like this is normal. Like it’s no big deal to refer to a woman as our woman.
My stomach twists. This is something they’ve done before. And to think I felt bad.
Indignation hardens my spine, and my hands drop to my hips.
“You’re sick freaks. How many times have you two stood there while some brainless whore pranced around for your amusement?”
Jess comes out of his relaxed stance, but Jace shrugs. “It’s been a while.”
Scowling, Jess smacks his brother’s arm. In two steps, he’s standing toe to toe with me. “First off, yes, we’ve shared women in the past. But we’ve never referred to any of them as whores or made them feel cheap.”
“Unless they’re into that,” Jace adds with a wink, and Jess shoots a glare at him before turning back to me.
“Second of all, I wouldn’t be so quick to label us sick or freaks when the tops of your thighs are glazed with pussy juices just from standing here naked in front of us.”
I draw in a sharp breath as much from his dirty words as knowing they’re true, and fight the urge to cover my crotch.
“Thirdly—”
“There’s a thirdly?” Jace injects.
“Thirdly,” Jess says louder. “I hadn’t planned on sharing you. Not with Ja
ce. Not with anyone. If you didn’t want both of us, you shouldn’t have fucked my brother.”
I try not to cringe away from his unflinching gaze. The guilt of earlier comes back in full force. I knew what I was doing with Jace was wrong and would hurt Jess, and I did it anyway.
“You’re right. This is all on me. I’m sorry.”
“Are you?” His lethal calm has the hair on the back of my neck prickling.
“I am.”
“Good.” He crosses his arms over his broad chest. “When do you want your spanking? Now or later?”
My ass cheeks flexed at the threat. “Neither,” I gasp.
“Not an option. We can do this now, or later, but if you wait, I’m also claiming your sweet little virgin ass.”
“You can’t be serious.”
I glance at Jace. He throws up his hands. “Don’t look at me, princess. He punched me in the face. You’re getting off easy.”
“In what universe is a spanking and anal sex easy?”
He winks in reply.
The grinning fool is no help. I should have known. He’s the idiot who spanked me in the first place.
“My spanking isn’t going to be anything like what Jace did,” Jess says as if reading my thoughts. “You’re going to be a 100 percent willing participant when I belt your ass. You’re going to bend over. You’re going to take it, and then...” He pauses heat firing his gaze. “Then, I’m gonna make you feel good, beautiful. So good you’re gonna be begging for more.”
Dread and desire war inside me, one feeding off the other. “You’re crazy,” I tell him.
“I think you like that.” He backs me into the shower until steam billows around us and the mist from the spray hits the back of my legs. Hands at my waist, he pulls me in and dips his head until our lips are a breath apart. “I think, maybe, you’re a little crazy, too.”
Then he’s kissing me. The kind of all-consuming kiss that has me arching up for more. He cups me between my legs, and I moan into his mouth.
