Page 25 of Study Games

“Because I can’t trust you,” I whispered.

His arm slipped around my waist, drawing me into him. Unlike before there was no coercion, no strings like a puppet master. This time his gentle touch gave me every chance to push him away, scream right in his face again but I just…didn’t.

His eyes roamed my face like he memorized every inch of me, committing me to memory, puzzling me out. I’d do the same but maybe later. Right now…I yawned into the back of my fist, letting my eyes fall shut. If I was doing this, he’d get the full package.

Resting my head against his shoulder when he cupped the back of my head in his larger hand became too easy. HIs palm transferred heat and security in a single touch. Weight slipped from me, letting gravity steal away what I clung to in desperation and anger. Jax’s arms folded around me, holding me to him. His chin rested on the top of my head while I breathed in the faint scent of acrylic paint mixed with smoke and leather.

“You’re not pathetic, Waverly. But you are intelligent and amazing. You don’t deserve to be tormented by them.”

I shivered at the mention of the twins, twisting to look over his shoulder, but he held me too firmly. I hiccuped a laugh. “Now you’re laying it on thick. You drew on my bees,” I accused softly, the random memory popping up at the most inappropriate time.

“And it made it more…readable. You could see it, am I right?”

I swallowed and released my tight grip on my control a little more, handing it over. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Only it kinda felt like it might not be. This Jax and last semester's bully were not the same person in this moment.

“Yeah. I could. See it, I mean. The movement, and the way they go up. I knew there was a pattern, a correlation, but I couldn't see the direction. You made that clearer,” I admitted.

Jax’s breath hitched and his heart pounded a little harder against my cheek, though his arms softened around me.

Not a cage.

“You could see that?”

Was his voice tinged in wonder? I tilted my head back to read his face, and he let me.

That was a mistake I couldn’t take back. Because the moment my gaze met his, his coal gray eyes darkened impossibly to midnight black, filled with the sort of cold fury that comes from a black flame.

My heart matched his as I tried to step back, but the soft arms that embraced me so gently banded tight. Jax’s lips curled in a sneer I knew well and my next mistake revealed its fresh penance I’d pay here on the street as his head dipped fast, his mouth crashing over mine in a brutal, claiming kiss.

9

JAX

She tasted like morning dew and sweet honey. That would be my new nickname for her when I managed to surface for air. Which I hoped was never. A soft whine built in the back of her throat as my tongue plunged between soft lips that yielded with the sort of grace I knew she’d submit with, driving my need for her.

It took less than another breath before she kissed me back until I inhaled her desire that matched mine. Soft lips spread beneath my open-mouthed kiss that shouldn’t have happened. I hadn’t planned it, hadn’t thought, only took from her without so much as an okay after everything i promised to save her from the twins, from herself.

My knight in tarnished armor act was falling apart pretty fucking fast, but right now I didn’t really care.

She was just there. I needed to feel her mouth beneath mine, the press of her body against me too much. For fuck’s sake, she’d seen me. More than the friendship I had with Crush or any other girl the frat boys threw at me in the past year I dealt with in an effort to maintain my image.

No, Waverly actually understood what I’d done. Yeah, she was pissed I’d drawn over her sketch but she also got what I tried to say in the first place without my having to tediously explain it to the point I felt like I was pulling thoughts from inside my head like extracting so many gray hairs.

More than that, she got why I’d done it.

Which made fucking about with her so much more delicious. The tip of her tongue touched mine in a hesitant graze of a caress, and I was done. I cupped the back of her head, my fingers knotting into her silky hair to the knuckles, tilted her back to deepen the kiss. Her body arched to accommodate me as I took the kiss beyond the realm of pornographic right there on the street, practically begging to get us both arrested, or worse.

If the twins stuck around to watch the show, we were beyond fucked.

Not that I could have stopped even if I wanted. Her honey and spice scent swirled around my head as I stroked my tongue along hers in a slow dance that stripped everything away from both of us. I reined my arousal back after a second, savoring her. Her lips softened, and she let me lick and nip at them in play, responding by rising onto her toes and winding her hands behind my neck, toying with the ends of my hair.

My cock hardened from a simple kiss alone, but unwinding Waverly’s passion was anything but simple as she rubbed her body against mine. Complicated didn’t cut it. The girl had depths she buried, despite declaring she had a few hidden–or not so hidden–kinks a moment before.

I intended to rip down every wall she built just to show her how incredible she could be.

Cradling her cheeks in my hands, I broke the kiss to feather my lips over hers, moving along her jaw until she tipped her head back and let me taste her flesh. Burying my head in the crook of her neck, I wrapped my arms tight around her and licked and sucked at the sensitive spot until she giggle-moaned, writhing against my body as I marked her.

Sure, she’d be filthy with me in the morning, but right now I’d bet my little honey bee dripped in all the right places.

---