Page 7 of Jacked and Jaded

Jackson stood at his parents’front window staring at the house across the street. He’d been watching for Calliope’s car, but he didn’t see it in the driveway yet. She always came home for her mother’s birthday and today was that day. She never missed it. It had been almost a year since the last time he’d set eyes on her, a lot longer than that since he’d talked to her. He hated that things between them had ended so badly.

It wasn’t just one single thing that happened between them. There had been a few.

One particular incident happened when he’d been well on his way to being drunk when he got a phone call from his mom asking that he go by Calliope’s house and make sure she was okay. Her mom, Maureen, had been trying to get a hold of her and was worried when she didn’t answer after numerous tries. Seriously? He really liked Maureen, she was a great friend to his mom and an even greater mom to Calliope, but she tended to be a worry wart, always afraid something was going to happen to Calliope. She probably wouldn’t be such a Nervous Nelly if her husband hadn’t died suddenly in a car accident, so he tried to cut her some slack. Being an ER nurse who worked nights didn’t help matters one bit either. She had seen a lot of shit and knew how quickly something could go bad.

He was going to ask why his mom didn’t walk across the street herself to check it out, then remembered she and his dad had taken off for the weekend and wouldn’t be back until Sunday. Well, shit. It looked like he was taking a ride.

Hopping on his bike, he turned in the direction of Calliope’s. He was going to feel like a complete moron for checking on a nineteen-almost-twenty-year-old, who was fully capable of taking care of herself. If the guys at the club knew what he was doing, he’d never live it down.

He pulled his bike up into her drive, stopping close to the closed garage door. He knocked on the front door and waited. He didn’t hear anybody moving around inside when he put his ear to the door so he knocked again. He waited a minute and still nothing. Knowing where the secret key was hidden around back, he pulled it out of its hiding space and unlocked the back door. He set the key on the counter and listened to see if he could pinpoint where Calliope might be.

Not hearing a thing, he began to get worried. What if something really did happen to Calliope? Shit. He checked the living room first and found the television on, but the volume set low. Next he planned to check her bedroom. Maybe she fell asleep and didn’t hear her mom’s attempts to contact her. As he came close to the bathroom, he thought he heard something. He turned the knob and found the door unlocked. Looking back now, he should have knocked or announced himself before slinging the door open, because when he did, he found nineteen-going-on-twenty-year-old Calliope stomping her feet, her hands fluttering everywhere and dropping her towel. She was screaming her head off, her eyes shot wide and she was completely naked. He swallowed hard, hoping that wasn’t his tongue he’d just choked on.

He didn’t know who was in more shock, her or him. He didn’t mean to scare her, but he had to say, seeing her jump around, her tits bouncing, was something truly amazing to see. He couldn’t help but laugh. After she stormed over and started smacking the shit out of him, he wished he hadn’t laughed.

“Get out! Get out! You asshole!”

He backed out, still laughing and dodging her flailing hands. She got in a couple of good hits before he found the door slammed in his face. After he got himself under control, he couldn’t help but think Calliope’s mom didn’t need to worry, she was alive and well.

Fuck me. He needed to get his growing erection under control before she came out, or things were going to get even more awkward. Sure, they were both of legal age, but for some reason, being eight years older than her seemed like an awful lot.

He backed up as far as he could against the wall as the door flew open. Steam barreled out around a fuming Calliope. She had a towel wrapped around her that barely did the job. She had a whole lot of leg, almost up to her hip, exposed to his view. He couldn’t help it. He was a man after all. He let his eyes roam from her pink painted toe nails, up her slim ankles, to her long, shapely legs. He continued his perusal, stopping at her eyes. If her eyes could shoot laser beams, he’d be fried right now.

He bit into his bottom lip, trying to keep from laughing again, his hands held out in front of him in case she got a wild hair to start wailing on him again. When she continued to stare and not say anything, he felt compelled to break the silence. “I am so sorry. I never meant to scare you.” When she growled and took a step toward him, he tacked on, “I’m telling the truth. I didn’t mean to scare the shit out of you. But in my defense,” as if he had any, “I gotta say, you are downright entertaining jumping around naked and screaming your head off.”

“Jackson!” She raised her hand like she was going to try and swat at him again.

“No! No! No! I’m sorry.”

She brushed wet hair out of her face and took a deep breath. “Is there any particular reason you are here, in my house, scaring the absolute crap out of me?”

He choked on his laughter. “My mom wanted me to come by and check on you. Your mom called her when she couldn’t get a hold of you and she was worried.”

“Uhhh.” She groaned, dropping her head back and staring at the ceiling like she was praying for patience. “I don’t think she’s ever going to let me grow up. I keep telling her I’m not going to be living here forever and then what is she going to do? Ask my new neighbors to keep tabs on me? This has got to stop.”

Calliope turned down the hall, toward her room, mumbling about smothering mothers. He followed her and stood, leaning in the doorway. He watched her pull a pair of lacy panties out of her drawer and tossed them to the bed. From another drawer she pulled out a tank top and a pair of sleep shorts. They also ended up on the bed. She turned and was about to drop her towel, when she realized Jackson had followed her to her room. She cocked her hip, tilted her head and raised one brow. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Hoping for another show.” He snickered right before a pillow collided with his face. He caught it before it hit the floor.

Calliope stomped over to her door and shoved it closed in his face. He chuckled at that.

He’d always thought she was a beautiful girl, but now, she was an exceptionally hot woman. A very young woman. A woman he should not be having sexual fantasies about. Thanks to her little show in the bathroom, his fantasies were doomed to become even more realistic. Damn it. He had to adjust himself again.

The door was jerked open so fast, it was Jackson’s turn to jump. At least he didn’t scream like a little bitch. That would’ve been embarrassing as hell. Taking a good look at what she was wearing, he honestly didn’t know why she bothered. It left little to the imagination. Her tank top was white and he had no trouble seeing her nipples grow hard under his gaze. Her sleep shorts weren’t any better. He bet if she bent over, her ass cheeks would be hanging out. Fuck. Was it getting hot in here?

She smirked, knowing she’d scared him, too. Calliope yanked the pillow out of his hands from where he held it against his chest like a shield and tossed it back to her bed.

She crossed her arms beneath her tits and he had to smother a groan. Did she realize that when she stood like that, it only pushed her tits up higher? Looking at her, he didn’t think so.

“Okay, now that you’ve taken ten years off my life, we need to get something straight. If youevertell anyone that you saw me naked and that I screamed like a little girl, I will hunt you down and kill you. Do you understand?”

Fighting not to smile, he nodded his head and answered, “Mhm.”

With her hand on her forehead, she walked to the living room, Jackson trailing behind her. “God, I am so embarrassed. I can’t believe you saw me naked,” she groaned.

“From what I saw, you have nothing to be embarrassed about.” He tensed, ready to fight her off if she came after him again. Not that she hurt him when she was hitting him, but after several good whacks, it did start to sting.

The look of longing in her eyes told him he’d said too much. He should have left well enough alone. It was no secret to him that she’d been crushing on him since she moved to Redemption. He’d pretended not to notice considering she was sixteen when she got here, but as the years went by, he couldn’t help it. He wasn’t blind. Just last summer he’d seen her in a bikini and sweet baby Jesus, he’d tripped over his own feet. He was embarrassed to say he’d jacked off to that image for weeks. Fuck, the girl was smoking hot. He’d never tell her that, though. No, it was better to keep things as friends between them.

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