Page 5 of Jack

“What?”

Hannah, totally oblivious to the tension in the room, rushed to my side and grabbed my arm. “Come dance with me! They’re playing some music in the living room.”

Now I was the one sighing. I shot a helpless look at Jack as Hannah tried to pull me out of the kitchen. He slowly lifted his hands away, so I could follow her into the living room. Now that I was paying attention, I could hear a song playing in the living room that I loved, but my feet felt like blocks of cement. I stared at Jack, feeling freakishly resistant to leave his side.

Hannah, high on a combination of alcohol and excitement, was not paying attention to the dynamic at all. She looked at my feet for a moment, as if trying to understand why they weren’t moving. “Ava, come on!” she screeched, and gave my arm a sharp tug.

As I followed her into the living room, I felt swamped with confusion. It had been a lot easier to dismiss Jack when he seemed like a superficial fuckboy. Hearing that he had principles, and learning, based on how he’d helped out Nikolai tonight, that he was a good friend made me uncomfortably attracted to him. I’d just come out of one terrible relationship, and I knew I was not ready for another.

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Chapter 3

Jack

I stared at Ava as she danced with Hannah and a couple of other girls in the center of the living room. I had the grim satisfaction of knowing I was right to have avoided her all this time. I liked her, and that did not work for me. Christ, I’d almost kissed her in the kitchen. While I’d wanted to kill Hannah when she’d interrupted us earlier, I was now relieved at her interference.

Unfortunately, this insight didn’t seem to be dampening my interest. Normally, by this time of night, I would have hooked up with someone and spent the rest of the party in some bedroom.

Not tonight.

Tonight, I was sitting here watching Ava dance. She’d removed her poncho, and was now only wearing a snug, light green camisole that was doing an outstanding job of showing off a pair of tits that would fit my hands perfectly. She was also wearing a pair of low-waisted, black skinny jeans that fit her ass in a way that made my dick twitch appreciatively. In fact, the only thing keeping me from getting completely hard was seeing all the other dickheads at this party staring at Ava as intently as I was.

I shot Nikolai a glance and found him frowning at Hannah.

“What’s your problem?” I asked.

Nik spared me a glance and returned to staring at Hannah. “I created a monster. Do you see all these guys checking Hannah out? They probably barely knew she existed before this party, and now they’re fucking drooling over her.”

Jared Bruckner moved to where Hannah and Ava were drunkenly swaying and started to dance awkwardly in their vicinity. His moves betrayed that his presence on the dance floor was calculated to put him in proximity to the girls, and not because he had any actual ability.

Nik cracked his knuckles and he gave Bruckner a hard stare. Since the girls were about two feet in front of us, Bruckner noticed Nik’s move. Both girls were wrapped in a mental cocoon of alcohol and comradery, so they hadn’t even noticed Jared yet. Bruckner quickly jumped a step away from Hannah, but that put him closer to Ava.

I did not like that.

Bruckner looked back at us, as if seeking approval for his location change. I scowled and shook my head at him.

Bruckner rolled his eyes, but wisely turned to another girl and started dancing with her.

Fuck, how had this happened? I was definitely going back to avoiding Ava after this party was over. This growing interest in her was making my skin feel too tight.

I was pondering this potential mess when the door opened, and Shelby entered with her two best friends, Casey Woods and Addison Kowalski. I’d actually known Casey and Addison much longer than I’d known Shelby. Addison’s parents were friends with mine, so they had always held out hope that we’d get together, which was the reason I stayed as far away from her as possible. I knew Casey from elementary school, but only because of her friendship with Addison. I’m not sure if we’d ever actually had a conversation before.

All three were drama, but Shelby was definitely the worst. In that moment, I was regretting every time I had slept with her.

Shelby looked around the room and gave me a relieved smile when she saw me sitting on the couch. I assumed she was pleased to see that I hadn’t hooked up with some other girl. We’d already had a long, drawn out conversation where I explained that I was done sleeping with her, so I wasn’t particularly pleased to see her focus on me.

She marched over to the couch. “Get me a beer,” she directed at Casey, over her shoulder. Casey let out a small sound of irritation but walked towards the kitchen.

“Hey, Jack,” Shelby purred.

“What do you want?”

She fluttered her eyes in a way I’m sure she thought was provocative, but left me cold. I kept glancing around her to keep my eye on Ava. I wanted to make sure none of the other assholes at this party tried to make a move on her while I was getting rid of Shelby.

“What do you think?” she asked as she rubbed her foot against my calf.

I shook off her touch. “We’ve discussed this. I told you we were done hooking up and I meant it.”

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