Page 11 of Street of Dreams
Mac could play rough too. He swung and clipped Jake’s chin with his knuckles. They grappled again, neither using their full strength, and Mac ended up pinned face down on the concrete in a headlock. There was light pressure on his throat, not nearly as tight as Jake made it seem. But the only thing Mac could think about was Jake’s crotch resting across his lower back.
Jake’s mouth came down next to Mac’s ear and filled it with a husky whisper. “Is this how you want it?”
Mac gulped and nodded. He squeezed his eyes shut and pretended to paw at Jake’s arm as if it were choking him, which it wasn’t. Really, he only squirmed in order to give Jake friction.
“I should rip your head off!” Jake shouted, as he pressed his hips forward.
“Leave him alone!” Skylar screamed. She yanked on Jake’s hair so hard he fell to the side, and she actually dragged him several feet. The twins immediately intervened and pulled her off their brother.
Fear for her safety made Mac jump to his feet. “Hey! Let go of her!” He quickly looked to Jake, who held up a hand as if he had everything under control, as cool as ever.
“Let her go,” Jake calmly told his brothers.
Skylar pulled out of their grasp and ran to Mac, inspecting his jaw, eyes wide with fear. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” He wasn’t looking at her, though, his sights were trained on Jake, who was looking back at him with that cocky grin of his.
“We’re not done, Mackenzie.” Jake kept his gaze on Mac as he walked toward the entrance of the diner with his brothers.
“We’ll finish this another time,” Mac replied, trying to keep the corners of his mouth from curling upward and hoping Jake knew exactly what he meant.
Jake nodded. “Yeah. We will.”
Skylar wrapped her arms around Mac, on the verge of tears. “Oh my God. That was awful. We need to call the police.”
He smiled and shook his head. “I’m not calling the police, Sky.”
“Why not? He assaulted you!”
“It was just a fight. No one got hurt.”
She exhaled, relief clearing some of the worry from her face. “Are you sure you’re OK?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
“I can’t believe you just had a fistfight with Jake King. Are you crazy?” she asked, as she pulled him toward the car. “The three of them could have killed you.”
“It wasn’t a big deal.”
She slammed the car door closed and started the engine. “He’s such a fucking asshole!”
“You don’t know his story or why he is the way he is. It can’t be easy growing up in the King household.”
“Why are you making excuses for him and his brothers?”
“I’m just saying that, maybe, there’s a reason he acts the way he does.”
She was about to put the car in gear, but stopped to face him, brows scrunched together with confusion. “What the hell are you talking about? They’re nothing but thugs and bullies. Why are you sticking up for them?”
Mac stared at his best friend. They didn’t have many secrets between them, but this one he thought he’d hang onto for a while, because he didn’t know what to do with it. But now, he wanted to share it.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Skylar asked.
Mac pressed his lips together, but the smile broke through anyway. He felt like a kid struggling to keep his first crush a secret. “All right.” Mac let out a deep breath that turned into a short burst of laughter. “I can’t believe this happened.”
“What?” Skylar pressed, impatient for an answer.
He shielded his eyes with his hands, the smile still on his face, and shook his head with disbelief. “I had sex with Jake.”
