Page 54 of Save Her from Me

“The sex deal? What, too embarrassed to say it after grinding on my face?”

I pressed my lips together, irritated by his little smirk. So much about this man set me off. He frustrated my senses and drove me crazy. Even the arrogant slant of his jaw while he waited me out had me wanting to leap on his lap to kiss the expression off his face.

Like he’d read my mind, his eyes shone.

His phone rang on the table.

At the same second, mine did, too.

Jackson checked his screen and flipped it over without answering.

Mine was Bridgette’s mother calling again. I did the same.

“We need to be friends,” I finally said after the phones had quietened. “Without benefits, which was your call, but if we’re going to live together and share this space, we need to find a way to coexist.”

Slowly, he commenced eating again. “Okay, friend. Who’s ringing ye?”

“The mother of the student whose video gave Larson my location.”

“Why?”

I took up my bread and dipped it in the rich stew. It tasted divine. My brother got an A-plus for seasoning. “She says I owe her money because the instructor spotlight video was earning big for them. I’m choosing to ignore them both for now. Who’s calling you?”

Jackson curled his lip.

“Your mom again?” I guessed.

He inhaled a deep breath, and for a moment, I assumed he wasn’t going to reply. But he surprised me.

“She wants me to visit this weekend. Last time I saw her was two years ago.”

“Two years?”

He inclined his head. “I didn’t answer her calls then either. She came to my dorm building.”

“She doorstepped you?” I shuddered at the idea of someone turning up unannounced.

“The horror, I know. Luckily Raphael was there, and he stayed with me through the whole duration, so…”

“It wasn’t so bad?” I concluded. I had no idea what a family looked like after the violent death of one of its members, but my instinct said it should’ve brought them closer, like I was with my brothers since our parents threw us under a bus.

“It was still fucking painful,” he confessed. “I just had company to get drunk with after so I could forget.”

My phone rang once more.

I checked the caller—the mother again—and groaned.

Jackson gestured to it. “Give that here, friend.”

I handed it over. “Why?”

“Can I answer for ye?”

I stared for a beat, my lips parted. Then I gave a single nod.

Jackson accepted the call. “Ariel’s phone. No, she’s not available, and I don’t think she’ll care you’re interrupting your holiday to blow up her phone again. Since one of her students took illicit videos of her and endangered her life to an internet predator, she’s not taking calls.”

Silence met his words. Then babbling, the mother scrambling over her reply.

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