Page 58 of Burned & Bound

“I checked the fucking weather,” he grumbled. I didn’t hear the rest of whatever he said. My brain went right back to the train of thought about Jackson. I was obsessively stuck on everything.

“Why’d you do it?” I interrupted whatever the fuck he was saying. He let out a small sound of confusion.Yeah, that was my fault.I elaborated, “The paint… the locks… why’d you do it?”

“Because.” He shrugged as if that was enough of an answer.It wasn’t.

“Why do you care so damn much about what happens to me?” I asked. That was the one thing I couldn’t wrap my head around.And I wanted it to make sense.I needed to know why.

“I’d rather go through hell with you, West, than watch it destroy you.”

He’d… what?

What did that mean?

I didn’t know what the fuck to do with that, but something hot flared in my chest. It wrapped around my heart and did something inexplicable to me. Closing the distance between us, I grabbed his shirt and kissed him.Was that really what I was doing?I didn’t have a clue. I felt as awkward as I did the first fucking time. Sure, I’d kissed a handful of people, but none that I wanted to. None that mattered.

Jackson mattered.

His hands cradled my head as he stepped closer. My body stiffened in reaction.Why was this so fucking difficult?I kissed him again and again in an attempt to silence the demons in my head telling me this was all wrong.

In the end, the voices won.

“I’m not worth it,” I whispered breathlessly against his mouth.

“You just let me keep believing that for the both of us,” Jackson said, quiet and full of conviction. He kissed me again. When his tongue touched the seam of my lips, I opened.

Everything about his kiss was soft and gentle, but I felt it with every fiber of my being. The sensations rolling through me were overwhelming. My world tipped and the spiral from his touch was intense.

“West,” he began as he broke the kiss, “I can feel you shaking. Do you want to stop?”

Shaking?Was I shaking? I didn’t have a fucking clue. I didn’t know what I was feeling. It was… something.

Good?

Bad?

I couldn’t tell.

But I wanted to find out.

I had to find out—had to figure out if I liked kissing Jackson.

Wordlessly, I shook my head, unable to clear the fog in my head, and kissed him again.

CHAPTER 42

west

Palms against the wall,I closed my eyes as scorching water burned down my body. No matter how hot it got, it didn’t chase away the chill in my bones.And it had nothing to do with the weather.

I spiraled. Everything was out of control. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I’d kissed Jackson, and it felt… nice. Good? Maybe?

I felt something—something I hadn’t felt in practically a lifetime. Something I hadn’t anticipated feeling ever again.

Arousal surged through my body in uncomfortable waves that set my nerves on fire. Good or bad, I couldn’t tell. I was too overwhelmed by it all. Just the water rolling over my skin was torturous.

My dick was painfully hard—standing at full attention like it wanted something from me. I had no control over it. No chance of making it go down.

I couldn’t remember the last time it fucking worked.

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