Page 54 of All Jacked Up

“I don’t know.” I tried to sound nonchalant, but my voice was slightly breathless.

I blamed the way he smelled. It was another unfair advantage. Ransom Carver seemed to have a mountain of those pesky things.

His eyes dropped to my mouth, and I watched as his nostrils flared. Oh God, that was hot.

“I wanna keep you, Shakespeare. What we have. So, stop …” He paused and pulled in a ragged breath. “Stop looking like a fucking snack,” he finished, then tore his eyes off me, turned, and stalked farther into the room.

I, however, didn’t move. Ransom had just called me a snack. Me. Noa Raines. A snack. I fought hard to keep the massive grin off my face.

“Now, Shakespeare, sit your ass down and let me feed you.”

At this point, I might do just about anything that man asked me to.

Eighteen

Ransom

With a cigarette between my lips, I stood outside on the back patio, staring out over the night sky, wondering what the fuck I was doing. It was almost two in the morning, but sleep hadn’t come for me after an hour of staring at the ceiling, thinking about Noa in the room across the hall, so here I was. Not trusting myself to go back inside. As much as I had enjoyed sitting beside her while she ate dinner tonight, making her smile even though it was clear she didn’t want to, I’d been fucking relieved when she wanted to go back to the room and to bed.

The more I was around her, the worse whatever this was in my head got. I’d fought against the temptation to go watch her sleep. There was a comfortable chair in the corner of the room she was in. I could soak in the sight of her all night.

Yeah, I needed some fucking counseling.

The sound of the door opening behind me caused me to jerkmy head around to see who was interrupting my attempt at solace. Forge walked out in nothing but a pair of athletic shorts and a beer in his hand. He looked at the cigarette in my mouth and took a drink from his bottle.

“I thought you went to bed,” he drawled.

Taking a deep pull and letting it out, I stared back at the night. “I did.”

He didn’t say anything more as he made his way over to the sofa and sank down onto it, then propped up his feet on the coffee table in front of him. I hoped he didn’t plan on staying out here. My plan had been to smoke the entire pack I had in my pocket alone.

“I don’t think it’s as bad as you think,” he said after a few more moments.

I cut my eyes to him. “What?” I asked.

I was used to this. He always started conversations as if you were in on whatever he was thinking. Like you could read his damn mind. I rarely knew what the hell he was talking about when he tossed out random shit like that.

“A relationship. Oz sure is fucking happy. And look at Bane. Now Than. They sure don’t seem upset about being locked down to one cunt.”

Oh, no. We weren’t going there. He was reading this all wrong.

“That’s not what this is.”

He smirked at me. “Really? Because you sat your ass in the kitchen with her for over an hour while the game was on. And you’ve never brought a female home and kept her here. It’s fucking something.”

I took the cigarette out of my mouth before my teeth snapped off the end. “She’s my friend.” Yeah, I knew it sounded fucking ludicrous, but I had said it anyway.

A deep chuckle came from Forge. “All right, you keep telling yourself that. It’ll be fun to watch this play out.”

“Oz isn’t here,” I reminded him as my hand fisted tightly at my side.

“I don’t need my brother to save me from you. I’m not a kid anymore, old man.”

Fuck, would he just go inside and leave me alone?

When I didn’t respond, the silence returned, and I could almost forget he was out here. I should go back inside. Get some sleep. Or attempt to. Noa had more shit to handle tomorrow, and although she had told me she didn’t need help, I wasn’t letting her go face her mother’s trailer by herself. Besides, it was in a bad fucking part of town. Like hell was she going there without me.

“Kash wants to come home,” Forge said, turning my attention back to him.

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