Page 23 of Savage

Jaxon grunted, “Making things worse for who?”

“Yourself,” I replied simply.

His lips formed a provocative smile and he flicked a glance towards his father, “You don’t have to be embarrassed, my dad’s a man, he gets it.”

“I get what exactly?” Marcus replied in a hard voice.

“How a man’s mind works when it comes to women. I’m not the only one in this house who thinks with his dick.”

OMG! I almost fainted, kill me, kill me now. I could hardly breathe.

The silence stretched and it was thick and heavy. It felt like a huge chain had been draped across my shoulders.

I was about to fall to the floor in full-on panic mode but my stepfather saved me. He must have seen how rattled I was by his son’s comment; it being my mother on the end of Marcus’s dick. A horrible thought I know.

“Wynter. Go to your room,” Marcus commanded and I fled. I certainly didn’t want to be privy to that part of the conversation. Marcus was going to kill his child; I could feel it. The antagonism between them was painful to watch.

The words Jaxon shouted as I made my way from the room would echo in my head for the rest of that night.

“I’ll be up later.”

Four

I hardly got a wink of sleep that night due to whittling about Jaxon.

In the morning, Daisy was all over me like a rash, which was proof that Marcus must have told her what he’d witnessed in the gym. The realisation that he probably thought we were shagging made me want to bury myself under my bed covers and never come out.

Who knew what Marcus had said to my mother? The situation could have been handled so much better. Jaxon’s attempt to make his dad lose it had now made a mountain out of a molehill.

Daisy knocked on the door and swept in before giving me any time to answer. I was hardly awake as she glided over and sat on my bed. She’d brought me a cup of coffee, but I’d immediately seen straight through that bullshit. My mother never brought me coffee in bed.

I was surprised, as she usually took a lifetime to get to the point. This time she went straight for the jugular. “Is there something going on between you and Jax?” she questioned with a firm look. The fact that she just blurted it out suggested she found the thought stressful. I suppose she would have since she was now pregnant with Marcus’s child, but she need not be. I’d looked it up last night to double-check. Jaxon and I were not blood-related so yes, sharing a half-sibling would be weird, but it wouldn’t be considered incestuous if we were having sex. I’d gotten carried away and continued reading; it was also legal for step-siblings to marry when their parents were married. As if, and why the heck was I checking it was OK to have sex with a stepbrother I disliked so much? Because you want to get into his pants my libido echoed with a Tarzan-like call.

What can I say, I got ahead of myself.

My eyes narrowed as I took in the way she wrung her hands in her lap. She was agitated, possibly because she was rushing. My mother was wearing gym clothes and would be on her way out. She must have felt this conversation important as nothing came between my mother and her morning routine.

Peering at her through one eye, I visibly wilted. It took me a minute to construct my reply. “No, there isn’t. Not like that anyway. We don’t even get on. You know that.”

Daisy didn’t look relieved at my reply, quite the opposite. “You know he’s too old for you,” she rasped out, folding her arms across her slight chest, something she did when she was trying to look assertive. Forcefulness was an alien concept to my pushover of a mother.

“He’s not that much older than me,” I thoughtlessly batted back. Why the hell I had chosen to point that one out was anyone’s guess. It almost made me sound as if I saw him as potential boyfriend material. Yes, he was fit and would probably be a demon in the sack but no thank you.

My outburst backfired like a motherfucker. Daisy didn’t like it at all and she embellished her comment. “I don’t mean in years; I mean in life experience. He’s probably slept with lots of girls.”

“I imagine he has but so what? That has nothing to do with me.” I buried that slight twinge of jealousy I’d experienced at her un-shocking revelation. That type of emotion connected with Jaxon could do one. So, what? Any female with a pulse probably fancied him, but I wouldn’t allow myself to get caught up in that shitstorm. As if I’d want a relationship with someone so socially impaired my mind told me. What, not even as a fuck buddy? That other side of me questioned. I batted those thoughts to the side.

Daisy released a sigh of exasperation. “I just don’t want you getting hurt sweety.”

Her words annoyed me as did her endearing name. I looked after my mother, not the other way around. I always had done. We were both a bit ditzy but my mother had her whole head in the clouds, with me it was just the top section. That’s what I told myself anyway.

I sighed and gave her a pointed look. “Anyway, I have a boyfriend, Mum. You remember Dominic?”

She huffed and shrugged her Lycra-encased shoulders. “Marcus mentioned he caught you and Jaxon downstairs and you looked close.”

“Yes, in the gym. We weren’t doing anything though. Jaxon was winding his dad up on purpose. You know what a shit he can be.”

Some of the tension left her face. “Marcus thinks you have a crush on Jax.”

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