Page 1 of Jinx

Chapter One

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Jinx

I feel so betrayed…and a little horny. I can admit that seeing a man handle himself around several different weapons is sexy as hell. You can tell a lot by how a man holds his weapon. For instance, the man standing in front of me right now is thorough, methodical, and a lying piece of shit.

I can’t get the whole lying thing from the handling of his…weapon so to speak. I know he’s a lying sack because I know who is standing in front of me…now! Fury! The man everyone is talking about like he’s a fucking curse whispered at night. The man I’ve been talking to on the computer for the past five months. The man I thought was a skinny tech nerd and not someone I ever had to worry about being…well, like the men I am around twenty-four/seven.

“You’re Fury.” I’m not asking a question per se. It doesn’t exactly come out as a question either. More of an accusation really.

“Yeah.” His voice is as deep as I dreamed it would be but his eyes…those eyes are so much more than I could ever even imagine. “I’m Fury.”

His lips land on mine and he takes my breath away…while still shooting at the bad guys. It bears repeating -the man is kissing me senseless while taking the lives of the people trying to take me. How the hell did I ever think he was a scrawny nerd? How could I have been so wrong? Oh, I know how -because I was freakin’ lied to! By this asshole.

I try to pull back away from him but he isn’t letting me go. My heart, my emotions, can’t take any more. First I saw someone I really like shot…for me, Lori took that bullet for me, then these fuckers try to take me away and finally Fury. It’s too much. That’s got to be the reason I lean into the kiss, the reason I open for him, letting him in instead of kicking his ass.

He pulls away and looks down at me right before pushing me behind him again and shooting yet another bad man in the face. But guns don’t have infinite rounds and his runs out right as all hell breaks loose and the world lights up orange and gold with fire. I lose track of him for a heartbeat and feel my pulse kick up higher so that I can feel it in my throat.

I turn but instead of Fury in front of me a man I don’t know leers over me. And then drops at my feet as red spreads from a thin line forming around his neck. Without conscious thought my hand comes up to cover my own as my eyes dart higher and collide with startling light green eyes. How can a man have such soft, light eyes and have so much blood on his hands? And which body part do I trust, those eyes that capture my soul so easily and hold it softly in a butterfly touch or the crimson-stained tapered fingers of steel that don’t ask for permission?

There’s so much smoke in the air and so many bodies on the ground that all can do is reach out for the man standing in front of me. This is like a nightmare only I’m not waking up from this one. And his touch feels way too real when he wraps his fingers around my own and pulls me flush against his hard body. I hold my breath waiting for another kiss but it never comes. Instead, there’s a small pinch on the side of my arm but I don’t look down, not wanting to break whatever spell he’s cast on me. Then my vision starts to blur and I have no choice but to look.

I see his hand come away from my arm with some sort of injection gun and poof! Spell broken. That asshole! That absolute asshole. Every interaction I’ve had with him plays through my head from the start to the moment he showed himself for who he really is and breaks my heart.

“Why?”

But I don’t get an answer. All I get is the memories playing back in my slowly darkening world…

Six months ago

I switch back and forth from the chat window I have open to the online course I’m supposed to be working on. Life gets pretty lonely when you’re surrounded by big, tough men who hover like little old nannies. I swear, if the Victorians wanted to keep their women’s honor they should have thought about hiring biker governesses because let me tell you, no one would ever get ravished if those existed.

I read the message but my response isn’t coming anytime soon. I don’t know this person who just popped in but she sounds like she might have the same problem I do…she’s lonely. I’m fucking lonely too. I shoot a quick message and then flip back to the report I’m supposed to be working on. But I get a reply back quickly…Too quickly?

I spend the next hour talking to misfortune99 instead of doing what I’m supposed to be doing. And the next night is much the same. The third night I find myself excited to learn more and get to talk to her again. But the third night brings a surprise I didn’t see coming. Misfortune99 isn’t a girl just like me…she isn’t a girl at all. She’s a man…boy…whatever. I instantly shut that shit down and turn my notifications off so I don’t have to think about that anymore.

But I do think about it. Over the next few weeks, I think about it a lot. Whoever the person is on the other side of my conversation doesn’t really matter. It shouldn’t matter, right? He’s lonely. I’m lonely. I’m sure he didn’t mean to lead me astray. So I reached out. He’s left me several messages that I’ve ignored.

It’s so hard to trust when you grow up knowing what is out in the world. Not everyone is a friend and people usually only have themselves as number one. Over the next few months, we chatted back and forth sporadically. I try not to let myself become attached but over time it’s hard not to. Eventually, I gave him my phone number, I even asked him what he looked like. He’s tall and wiry and has to wear glasses. He sounds like the complete opposite of all the men I am around every day…and perfect.

One month earlier

I saw you today in town. Why were you walking into a bridal shop?

There’s a tone to his message that hasn’t been there before. It makes my hackles raise but I shove the worry out of the way. He’s my friend.

My brother’s getting married. I’m a bride’s maid.

We talk some more and the usual tone of the rest of the messages are the normal, easy-going exchange I have come to expect from my friend. He started out as misfortune99 but soon became Fury to me. He said he uses the name online a lot and it reminds him of Shakespeare's quote from Macbeth about life. My secret nerd heart got so big I thought it might burst.

This is the first time in my whole life that I’ve felt like I have truly connected with another person. The first time I felt like I had found someone I could belong with. This man that I’ve been slowly falling in love with one message at a time could never hurt me, never represent the threat to my heart that I’ve feared half my life. This man will never overpower me, try to control my fairy heart or force me to accept his ways over my own. With Fury, I am safe.

Chapter Two

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Jinx

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