by J. S. Cooper
“He loves her as you loved Hunter.” He took another step towards me. “He’s obsessed with her.”
“No, he loves her. There’s a difference.”
“Do you want to know why he left last night, Nancy? Do you want to know why he left without taking you?”
I nodded silently.
“I told him I didn’t care what he did, but he had to let you stay. He had to let me marry you. If he didn’t, I told him, I would tell Katie everything.”
“Everything about what?” I frowned, my heart beating.
“I don’t know if you’re ready to hear this.” He grabbed my face and stared into my eyes. “I don’t know if you can handle the truth.”
“I can handle anything.”
“Katie and I dated.” His eyes bore into mine. “Three years ago. I had just moved to the city. I was 22, she was slightly older. We hit it off.”
“Because you randomly met her or because you planned it?”
“Is there really a difference?” His fingers fell to my trembling lips. “We met. We went on a few dates. Despite her being slightly older, we were a good fit. I liked her.”
“I see.” I tried to look away, suddenly feeling jealous.
“Don’t get it wrong, Nancy. I didn’t love her. I didn’t want to marry her. I was attracted to her. I wanted to fuck her. Long and hard, like I want to fuck you.”
“You’re a pig.” I took another step back and hit the wall. I tried to push him away as he stepped closer to me, but his solid muscular mass was too much for me to move. He then pressed into me and I could feel his cock hardening against my stomach.
“You’re prettier than her.” His lips whispered against mine. “I want you more than I wanted her.”
“I don’t care.” I shrugged. “I don’t want to know.”
“Don’t be jealous, Nancy. It’s you I’m with now.”
“I’m not jealous.” I lied.
“I didn’t want to be with Katie and Brandon didn’t want that either.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying there’s a lot you don’t know.”
“Why do you want to marry me?” I struggled against him. “It makes no sense.”
“I want to marry you so I can protect you and myself.” He sighed. “Your dad killed Hunter because I told him you guys messed around. What if he finds out the truth? Will he kill me too?”
“I don’t believe he killed Hunter.”
“He hit me in the face and then he got Greyson to hit me as well.” His body shook. “I need you to trust me Nancy. I’ve been nothing but honest with you. We have a connection. I see you’re an innocent bystander, just like me. Your dad is bad news. Yes, my dad and I wanted to bring him down, but that’s because he ruined us. All we have left is the academy. And we wanted to hurt him like he hurt us. Evil doesn’t deserve to win. I can’t help it that your father is the devil.”
“Meg told me that Greyson used to call himself the devil.” I mumbled as I stared at him. I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know Brandon well. I didn’t really understand why he’d just abandoned me. Yet, I didn’t know Jaxon either. All I knew was that we were attracted to each other and he wanted revenge on my father. Would he have told me the truth if he was really a bad guy though? Maybe he was being honest. If he was, that meant my dad was a really bad guy. I couldn’t fathom why he would kill Hunter, but then I didn’t really know him. I’d often thought about him and Katie when I lay in bed. He loved her so much, yet sometimes I thought about their story and it freaked me out. There was a thin line between obsession and love and I did sometimes wonder if my dad hadn’t crossed it. I sighed as I looked into Jaxon’s wide eyes. They looked so sincere and caring, yet, part of me was afraid of him. I was afraid that he was manipulating me. I really didn’t know the truth or what had really happened. I didn’t trust Jaxon even though my heart soared to be with him and touched by him. My biggest problem was deciding whether to pretend I did trust him and believe him. What would he do if I let him know how conflicted I was! If he had murdered Hunter, then I was in danger. In fact, my whole family could be in danger. And if he was telling the truth, if he was truly innocent, then he was in danger. I knew in my heart I would never forgive myself if something happened to him. I had to make a decision.
“Nancy, you’re shivering.” His fingers stroked the top of my head and I rested my head against his chest. “I’m going to take care of you. You’ll be okay.”
“How did you guys choose Amber and Shannon to join the academy?” I whispered against his chest casually.
“Why?” He asked softly, still stroking my hair.
“I was just curious.”
“You’ll have to ask my dad, I’m not really sure of the process for the other girls.”
“What about Louise?”
“Louise?” He paused. “She’s been here for years. It’s her life. There’s nothing she’d rather be doing.”
“Oh, does she recommend or know any of the girls?”
“Oh no. Louise had no family.” He whispered against my head. “She has no one to recommend.”
I felt my stomach sinking at his words. I knew he was lying and I knew that he knew he was lying. I couldn’t trust Jaxon. I knew from the intonation in his voice that he was hiding something from me. Only I had no idea what it was.
“Where are you going?” Jaxon frowned at me as I walked to the door.
“I’m leaving.”
“Leaving?” He frowned again and his expression looked closed off, so much so that I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
“I think my time here is done.”
“Because Hunter died?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Because I don’t know how he died or rather who murdered him.”
“I don’t think you want to know.” His voice was terse and his expression pained.
“Was it you?” I bit my lower lip.
“I can’t let you leave, Nancy.” He shook his head.
“Why not?” I knew that this was going to be the time that he took me to the side and showed me his true colors and why I was here, or he was going to tell me that he was falling for me. I waited in sweet anticipation to find out which one was going to happen.
“You haven’t finished the course.”
“What course?” My heart dropped in disappointment.
“I haven’t finished teaching you everything you have to learn.”
“I don’t want to learn anymore.” I shook my head. “Frankly, you’re not that good of a teacher.”
“What?” His eyes narrowed and he grabbed my hands and brought me into him. His chest felt hard against me and I looked up at him with unblinking eyes.
“Let go of me.” I said firmly, ignoring the rapid beating of my heart.
“What?” His eyes flashed at me in an emotion I didn’t recognize.
“Unhand me.” I said sarcastically and his lips curled up.
“This isn’t college, Nancy. This isn’t English 101.”
“Maybe you need to go back to school then as you don’t seem to understand what let go of me means.”
“I understand what let go of me means.” His small smile faded. “I’m just not going to do it.”
“Why not?”
“Because we haven’t gotten what we want.”
“And what’s that?”
“To fuck.”
“Oh.” I gasped and tried to pull away from him. “That’s not going to happen.”
“It’s not?” He tilted his head to the side and studied me. “Isn’t that why you came to the lovers’ academy?”
“No.” I whispered and suddenly I felt sad. “I came for Hunter.”
“Your father killed him.” He dropped my arms and stepped back.
“What are you talking about?” My breath caught and I tried to see if he was lying. “I don’t believe you. My dad wouldn’t do that.”
“Brandon and Greyson were here last night for one reason and one reaso
n alone.”
“No.” I shook my head, not wanting to believe it.
“Yes. Your father had a gun.” He continued. “He came to kill. It was either going to be me or Hunter. Then he found out that Hunter dragged you here for the wrong reasons.”
“But it was you...” My voice trailed off and he turned around.
“You’re not leaving, Nancy.”
“You can’t make me stay.”
“I can make you do many things.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because I want to marry you.” His eyes darkened as my stomach flipped.
“What are you talking about? Why do you keep saying that?”
“I want to marry you.” His voice sounded anything but loving.
“I think I want to leave now.” I walked towards the door and waited for him to run up and grab me. My fingers gripped into the handle and turned slowly. He didn’t stop me as I walked outside of the door and hurried to my room. I was almost to my door when I heard Amber and Shannon arguing at the bottom of the stairs.
“Can we leave yet?” Shannon muttered, her face screwed up and sulky. Nothing like her usual timid expression.
“We’ll leave when I say we can leave.” Amber replied tartly.
“What about Louise?” Shannon sounded annoyed. “I thought she got a call about that show off Broadway.”
“She did, but like you said it’s off Broadway, not on.”
“Does that really matter?”
“In our family it does.” Amber’s voice was stiff. “What’s your problem anyway?”
“Barry called and he’s missing me.”
“You need to move on from that chump.”
“He’s the father of my son. I’m not just going to move on. They want me to come home.”
“It’s nearly done, Shannon. We’ll be going home soon.” Amber sighed and paused. “What was that noise?” Her voice rose and I stepped back as quickly and quietly as I could and made my way to my room. My heart was pounding and my face was burning at the fear of nearly being caught. What had I just heard? It didn’t make sense. How could Shannon have a son if she was a virgin? It didn’t make any sense to me. What was going on here? I walked over to my bed and sat down. I’d never been more confused in my life. Why had Jaxon asked me to marry him? Why would Shannon come to a lovers academy and pretend she was a virgin if she had a kid and why had Hunter been killed? It made no sense. Absolutely no sense at all.
CHAPTER 3
Jaxon
The best way to deal with feelings of guilt is to occupy your mind and ignore them. Once guilt sets in, there is no way to remove it. It tells you that you’ve done something wrong and you know it. It tells you that if you could go back, you might make a different decision. Guilt can kill you slowly. It creeps up on you and takes over your brain. I’m not really one for guilt. I’m not a sociopath, I do know when I’ve done something wrong, but I find it doesn’t help to feel guilty about it. What’s done is done. You move on and do the best you can to forget about it.
I felt my heart drop when Nancy left the room. I knew that she hadn’t believed everything I’d said. Though, I knew she had wanted to believe. She’d wanted to believe very badly. She liked me. Though, I wasn’t even sure if she realized how much. I wasn’t sure if she knew that the connection we had wasn’t normal. She might be blaming it on the sexual chemistry we’d had. The sexual chemistry that was eating me up inside. My cock was still rock hard, even though she’d left the room an hour earlier. I wanted more than anything to be inside of her and I knew she wanted it too. Though¸ I couldn’t think about that. Not yet. Not right now. I was playing too dangerous of a game. If she called home now, it would all be over.
I hadn’t wanted to let her go. I hadn’t wanted to risk everything blowing up now. Yet, I’d known I had to. I had to let her go. I had to let her think she could trust me, to a certain degree. Nothing would progress past this point, if she didn’t trust me. It didn’t help that I had my own questions. I walked over to the door and banged it with my fists, resisting the urge to slam my fist through the window. I wanted to break something. I wanted to feel pain and see blood. I needed to be reminded of what a sick and dangerous game this was. I was about to hit the door again when I received a phone call.
“Jaxon.” My dad’s voice was cold as I answered the phone.
“Yes?” I said warily.
“How is part two going?”
“It’s going.”
“You’re not weakening?”
“I’m not weakening.”
“It’s a pity about what happened to Hunter.” His voice held a question, but I didn’t respond right away.
“Yes, it’s a pity.”
“Death is only the beginning.”
“Yes.”
“She’s not a stupid girl.”
“I know that.”
“She’ll start asking questions.”
“She’s already asking questions.”
“Does she know anything?”
“Nothing more than we want her to know.”
“You know what’ll happen to her if this doesn’t work.”
“I know.”
“Brandon won’t be happy once he knows the truth.”
“I know, dad.” My voice was annoyed.
“You don’t have long.”
“He thinks she’s pregnant.”
“Smart move.” He paused and I could almost see the smile on his face. “The marriage will proceed then.”
“Of course it will.” My voice was irritated. “She wants me. She wants to protect me. It will proceed.”
“You’ve a lot of faith in your answer.”
“I’ve a lot of faith in the way she reacts when I touch her.”
“That’s my boy.” He laughed. “Enjoy the spoils while you can.”
“It’s not like that.” My voice was stiff and I frowned at the empty space in front of me.
“Just make sure that you marry her before she finds out about the academy.”
“She’s not going to find out dad.”
“Trust me, nothing stays a secret for long. She’ll find out. And once she realizes that the Lovers’ Academy doesn’t really exist, she’s going to ask questions. She’s going to ask questions that neither of us is going to want to answer.”
“She won’t find out.”
“Remember the rules of Chess I taught you when you were a boy. If you want to be a winner in the game, you must never start with the same openings. You must never count on one strategy for too long. Also, never underestimate your opponent. You must account for their accounting of your next ten moves. Figure out your strategy based on them figuring out your strategy, it is only then you can win the game.”
“Winning the game doesn’t always mean you’re a winner, dad.”
“Winning this game is all that matters, Jaxon. Don’t forget that. In a game of cat and mouse, the winner is the one who gets the cheese and survives, not just the one that gets to keep his life.” And with that he hung up.
CHAPTER FOUR
Nancy
I woke up the next morning with a heavy head. I hadn’t slept well and I didn’t know what to do. I had nowhere to go. No one to talk to. I had no options. It scared me to feel so alone. I’d gone from having a loving family to nothing in a week. I felt isolated and unsure of myself. I knew I should just go back to Brandon’s, wait out the summer and then go to college. That’s what any normal person would do, but I wasn’t normal.
BANG BANG. The knock on the door made me jump. I got out of bed slowly and walked over to the door, not sure who was waiting for me.
“Oh, it’s you.” I stared at Jaxon’s calm, yet serious face.
“Yes, it’s me. Can I come in?” He stood there patiently and I frowned at him.
“This is a bit out of the ordinary for you, isn’t it? Since when do you knock?”
“Since I realized that you would prefer me to knock before I entered the room.”
“Maybe not, but you didn’t know how good masturbating felt before.”
“Oh.” I blushed up at him.
“I wouldn’t want to catch you in the act.” He grinned and walked into my room. “I might just have to finish you off myself.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I closed the door behind him and turned around.
“Well it means, I can use my fingers or my cock. Though, this time, I think I’d much rather use my cock.”
“You’re…” I started, but he cut me off.
“Yes, I am.” He grinned. “Whatever you were going to say was true. I am everything you think I am, including a good lover.”
“Whatever.”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it?”
“I haven’t thought about it.” I lied, trying to ignore the thoughts I’d had early this morning.
“Liar.” He licked his lips.
“What do you want?”
“I wanted to make sure you were okay. Last night was crazy and I suspect today will be even crazier.”
“Why? Another death?”
“I hope not.” He shivered. “I’m talking about the police. They will want to question you this morning. They understood you were in shock last night, but I don’t think they’ll let it go another day.”
“Why do they want to question me?”
“To see if you did it, of course.” His eyes narrowed as he looked at me. “You didn’t of course.”
“Is that a question or a statement?” I looked into his eyes and frowned. “Because for a second there, it really sounded like a question.”
“I think none of us can really know what happened until the police figure it out.”
“I’m shocked you let the police come to investigate.” I walked over to my bed and sat down and looked at him. “It seems to me that there are things that you and your father wouldn’t want to get out.”
“We’re happy for the truth to come out. We don’t evade the truth. We just want all the answers out in the open.” He came and sat next to me. “How are you feeling this morning?” He stared into my face, his eyes a mere inch from my own.
