Jagged Harts, page 14
I bury the hurt that I’m sure is splashed across my face at his nasty words. I straighten my stance and lift my chin up as I stare at Dax. He is standing at his full height, his face a perfect mask of composure. But the flaring nostrils and the near black eyes give him away. In that moment, I think of the one thing guaranteed to make his façade crack.
“C’mon, Cole. Let’s head back to my place,” I say coolly, reaching out and grabbing Cole’s hand.
Cole’s eyebrows shoot up his forehead before he nods and follows me out the door. When we get to the door, I turn around and lock gazes with the green-eyed jackass while he continues to shoot me the deadliest glare that I’ve ever seen. If I wasn’t so royally pissed off, I probably would be intimated. Instead, I blow that fucker a kiss and stroll out into the night with Cole’s hand in mine. I think I hear some shouting come from inside the party, but I decide to block it out as we head towards my dorm.
The farther we get from the party the more Dax’s words begin to sink in. Whore. In my opinion, the nastiest word in the English language. It is one that I have been on the receiving end of more times than I can count. When your mom is the whore of Sunny Crest Trailer Park you get labeled by association. Just imagining being compared to her in any level has my stomach rolling.
Biting back the angry tears that are begging to escape, I let out a ragged breath. Cole slips his arm over my shoulders and tucks me into his side. I look up to see a soft smile and sympathetic eyes. I give him a weak smile before turning my eyes back down to the sidewalk.
When we get to my building Cole looks almost uncomfortable as he scratches the back of his neck.
“I’m really sorry he said those things to you, darlin’. That was really fucked up and I can tell it really got to you.”
I wave off his sympathies. God knows that I don’t need anyone’s pity.
“It’s fine.” I pause for a second before deciding that I am not going to let that asshole ruin my night. He proved to be exactly the kind of person that I had first thought he was, so why am I all upset and surprised. Fuck him. I screw on an assuring smile as I look up to Cole.
“Do you want to binge some Harry Potter?”
The sympathetic look fades away from his eyes and mischief takes its place.
“Why, Miss Davis. Are you trying to get me alone in your room?” He teases.
I snort, releasing a genuine laugh before swatting his arm.
“Behave. Hands to yourself.”
He chuckles and places his hands in the air in surrender.
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Once we get upstairs, he pops in the Sorcerer’s Stone while I grab the ice cream.
“If we keep making this a thing, I am going to have to walk sideways through my door,” I call out before plopping down next to him on my bed.
I offer him a spoon and the tub of ice cream. He looks upset for a moment before he looks into my eyes.
“Don’t say that. You are so beautiful. You don’t even have a clue.”
I clear my throat before turning back to the TV. We really need to have that boundaries talk. I think allowing him to get all handsy with me tonight may have blurred the lines and I need to fix that quick. But tonight, I just don’t have it in me to get into it.
I know deep down that I was holding a teeny tiny flame for Dax ever since I met him, despite his asshole tendencies. Well, tonight Dax effectively snuffed that flame right out. I don’t have time to deal with anything close to a relationship anyways and I have done the whole friends with benefits thing and casual hookups. I can barely handle my own emotional drama, why the hell would I want to take on anyone else’s on top of that? Dax is an asshole but in the end this is all for the best.
Looking to the side I see that Cole is still staring at me with a serious look across his face. His eyes drop to my lips just for a second. My eyebrows raise slightly before I lean away just a bit. Cole must be able to read the look on my face because he pulls me in for a hug while he rubs soft circles on my back but doesn’t try anything more. We stay that way for so long that my eyelids start to get heavy. Before I even realize it, I’m falling asleep to the smell of laundry detergent and pine.
The creak of the floorboards has my eyes springing open. They strain to see who is coming down the narrow hallway. I roll over on my side and tuck myself against the back of the musty couch, hoping that whoever it is will just leave. I’m never that lucky, though.
A strong hand buries into the back of my hair and rips me off the couch and onto the floor. I land on my hip and as much as it hurts, I quickly forget about the pain as the first slap comes. The sharp sting has my blood thrumming in my cheeks. I open my mouth to cry out for someone, anyone, but he is quick to cover my screams.
His dirty hand covers my mouth before shoving several fingers down my throat. I gag against the intrusion, but he only pushes farther. Tears begin to gather in my eyes as he continues shoving his fingers deeper until my stomach is rolling. I feel the bile traveling up my throat but before I can retch it up, a heavy fist slams across my face and all I feel is darkness.
Gasping for breath, I shoot up to a sitting position. I hold my throat gently as I greedily suck in the clean air. Even though I am safe, and it was nothing more than a nightmare I can still taste his fingers. I can feel the pain that each hit delivered. I can hear the impending footsteps sounding down through the quiet trailer, holding promises of pain and terror with each step.
A body moves next to me and for a moment, I panic. I fly out of bed and leap over to my desk where I pick up my lamp like a weapon, ready to beat the fuck out of whoever broke into my dorm room. Then the figure rolls over and I see clearly who it is. Cole.
Cole came home with me last night. We ate an entire gallon of ice cream and I crashed early on. Blowing out a ragged breath, I shake my head as I slowly place the lamp down.
Apparently Cole wasn’t awake enough to witness my little freak out because when he opens his eyes he gives me a sleepy smile.
“Good morning, darlin’.”
“Hey,” I rasp with my best attempt of a smile.
He seems to notice how forced it is because his head cocks to the side gently.
“Did you sleep okay?”
I nod my head slowly as I walk over and sit on the edge of my bed.
“You?”
His smile widens as he sits up.
“The best sleep of my life.”
I cringe at his words. Fuck. Letting him stay the night was most definitely a mistake. Doing my best to divert the conversation I laugh lightly.
“Well then I feel really sorry for you, because these twin beds are like sleeping on cardboard.”
He chuckles as he leans forward and rests his elbows on his propped knees.
“What are you doing for Thanksgiving?” He asks.
I stare at him for a moment confused. Is Thanksgiving coming up? Is that something normal people keep track of? I have never had a traditional Thanksgiving before, so I don’t really understand all the hype. The food that people normally have is pretty good, at least from the stuff that I have had before. But is the holiday something that I actively look forward to? Most definitely not.
“Probably working,” I shrug.
“The White Oak closes.”
“Oh, well then probably just hanging out here and getting some homework done, binge a little Netflix. What about you?”
“Come with me,” he says.
“What?”
“Come with me, for Thanksgiving, to my house.” His smile is shy but filled with hope as he looks at me. I go to tell him no in the nicest way possible, but he presses on. “I am driving home on Thanksgiving morning and staying the night then coming back the next morning. My family takes holidays very seriously and I promise my mom will stuff you full of home cooked food until you can’t move. Come with me.
“We will have fun. My family will love you, and my little sisters will drive you crazy, but they are so cute that it is almost worth it. I want you to come with me, I can’t leave you here all alone. Come.”
The last word is softer than the rest of his persuasive argument. He says it almost like he is pleading. I still don’t get what the big deal is.
I can’t go, I don’t know these people. And yeah, he is my best friend, and it would be cool to do something other than barricade myself in my dorm room, but I can’t intrude on their family time. Besides, it isn’t like me going home for a holiday to meet the parents exactly instills the boundary lines that I want to draw with Cole.
But what else am I really going to do? It’s just dinner, right?
“As friends, right?” I clarify.
His smile twitches for a second before he nods and smiles.
Fuck it.
“Sure. Why not?”
Cole’s face lights up brighter than any expression I have ever seen.
“Great! We are going to have a ton of fun. Trust me.” He leans over and kisses the side of my head, holding it for a second too long to be considered just friendly. Fuck. We really gotta talk. Just not after I had a super shitty night.
Fuck this is a mistake. Me going home with him is not going to convince him that we are better off as friends. Neither was dry humping him in the middle of the dance floor last night, though. I am going to blame this all on Dax. If he wasn’t such an asshole, none of this would have happened. Yep. Dax Hart fucking sucks.
CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN
DAX
Red. All I saw was red as I watched her dancing with Cole. I knew she was unlike any other woman that I had ever met from the moment that I met her. Hell, that’s what I liked about her. So, when she gave me the cold shoulder after I asked her to dance, I wasn’t surprised or upset. I thought maybe things would be different between us after yesterday, though.
She pushed me away after we kissed the other night, but I thought that she was just scared since there is clearly more than a mutual attraction between us. Fuck knows it scares the shit out of me. No matter how hard I try and what I do though, I can’t get her off of my mind. Maybe it isn’t the same for her, though. Instead of being scared maybe she simply just isn’t into me. That thought stung more than I would like to admit, but I didn’t want to focus on that. I just kicked back with a beer and watched her move her outrageously sexy body to the music.
“Bro you are drooling,” Blake jokes.
Him and Aubrey get along pretty well, and he seems to always be the first one to call me out when I watch her at the gym, The White Oak or fucking anywhere. If Aubrey enters a room, my eyes are like heat seeking missiles that land on her every time and Blake gets a fucking kick out of it.
“Fuck you,” I grumble.
I tip my beer back and drain it before cracking open a new one. He is probably right, though. She is so beautiful it’s not even fucking fair, but there is something else about her, something that almost draws me to her. I don’t quite know what it is, but she gets me, probably better than I even get myself.
I have tried to get her out of my head, I mean she is so prickly and not anything like the women I normally get with, but that is the great part about her. She isn’t just a quick lay. Which is also the scary as fuck part.
After I took her home last night, I was feeling down and horny as fuck just from being around her all day. I didn’t even think about trying anything with her since the last and only time that we kissed she quickly ended it and told me to forget about. Like that was fucking possible.
So, I went to The White Oak and found someone that would take my mind off of the fucked up day I had and get Aubrey out of my head. Win, win, right? The shitty part is that the instant the girl’s lips touched mine, it was Aubrey that popped into my head. I practically leaped away from the girl in front of me and told her that I wasn’t into it anymore.
She got all huffy and stormed out of the bathroom but made sure to put on a good show for her friends and mine that were waiting for us to come out, no doubt to protect her ego. When I stepped out of the door, I felt like such a piece of shit for trying to replace Aubrey with another girl. It’s not the girl’s fault that I’m into someone else. Maybe I need to take Marcus’s advice and just go for her before it’s too late.
I snap out of my thoughts and return my gaze to Aubrey. I can’t help but smirk, she looks so fucking hot tonight. Her platinum locks are cascading down her back as her body sways, the tight dress she is wearing sliding up every once in a while when she gyrates her hips. She is temptation in the fucking flesh.
Fuck it. I am tired of being the creeper in the corner just watching her dance. I think it is time I show her how much better it is to dance with a partner. I go to take a step so that I can do just that, but someone beats me to it. I watch as Cole slithers his arms around her. Fucking snake.
My body goes fucking rigid as I watch with murderous contempt, waiting for Aubrey to push him away or send me some type of signal that she wants me to throttle his ass because I have been itching to do that ever since the other day at The White Oak, but she doesn’t. She leans into him and puts her arms around his neck. I am fucking seething now, silently brewing with anger.
I stand there clenching and unclenching my fists, trying and failing to get a hold of the rapidly building anger inside of me. It’s irrational. She isn’t my girl. We are friends at best and based on her attitude tonight she doesn’t seem too interested in becoming more. Maybe I should just stop driving myself crazy and let her go.
Fuck that.
She is gonna be mine, she just doesn’t know it yet.
I continue to watch them very closely while I contemplate exactly how I can get Cole the fuck away from her. Then I watch as he slides his hands down to her ass and brings her into him. Still, she doesn’t push him away and when I see his hands squeeze, it sends me right over the edge.
I am fucking done.
Before I even know what I’m doing, I shatter my fresh beer against the floor and am rushing towards them. Aubrey glances up at me, her look of confusion morphing to anger when I grab her arm and haul her away from Cole like I’ve been imagining for the last 10 minutes. But instead of crushing my lips against hers like I also fantasized, I yell at her.
After I tore into her about coming across easy, she dished it right back to me by leaving the party with Cole. Shit. That didn’t go like I was hoping. Smooth move asshole. I didn’t mean any of it either. As soon as the words left my mouth I wanted to take them back, especially when I saw the look on her face. But what the hell did she want me to do? She was driving me crazy. Making me jealous and shit. Fuck, I’ve never been jealous a day in my life. Guess I’ve never met anyone worthy of being jealous of.
Fuck this. I am not letting her just walk away from me. We need to talk this shit out. If she’s going home with anyone, it’s going to be me. I only manage to take one step towards the door before a flurry of red hair steps in front of me, blocking my path.
“Hey Daxie,” the stage 5 clinger purrs.
I fucked her once and she has been practically humping my leg at every turn since. Even if I did go back for seconds and Aubrey wasn’t on my mind twenty-four-fucking-seven, I still wouldn’t touch her because not only was she a lousy lay, but the bitch is crazy as fuck. She is smiling up at me with what I am sure are well rehearsed fuck me eyes, but I don’t think she realizes the crazy overpowers any sex appeal she would have had.
“Move,” I say as I try to step around her.
She steps in front of me again, putting a hand on my chest.
“Don’t be that way, baby. Come dance with me. Let’s have some fun. You know we always do.”
Her face breaks out into a low seductive grin that makes me groan. I can’t deal with this shit right now, fuck, ever. I brush past her and head out the door without so much as a backwards glance. When I step outside I look all around but don’t see Aubrey or Cole anymore. Fuck, what am I even doing?
I clearly crossed a line with her based on her reaction. I have never seen her look so wounded. The look only lasted a few moments, but it was long enough to make me want to crawl into a fucking hole like the piece of shit that I am. She needs space. I’ll go see her tomorrow and we will talk shit out.
Jumping into my car I fire it up before heading home. I need to get my shit together. This all has got to fucking stop. I can’t fucking take it. Ever since I found out what Aubrey Davis tasted like I have been a fiend aching for more. We have to clear shit up and fast.
I wake up the next morning to a head splitting headache. Great, just how I wanted to start my morning. I pop a couple of ibuprofen before I jump in the shower. Once I’m dry, I pull on my leather jacket and slip into a pair of jeans before I stroll out the door.
As I’m heading towards campus, I replay the events of last night in my head. I can’t believe I said that shit to her. Maybe I can get her to come over if I tell her I have something that needs to be done on her car. She is always interested in anything that has to do with that piece of shit. Yeah, that could work.
When I get to campus I throw my car into park and head towards Aubrey’s dorm. As I come up to her building I look up to see that the light in the window of her room is on, so she has to be awake. While I am still looking up at the window I slam into someone before I can dodge them.
“Shit. Sorry, man,” I say before I look down to see who I just bumped into.
Cole gives me a short nod and walks away without a word. Did he just come from Aubrey’s dorm? And wasn’t he wearing that too tight shirt last night? Shit. I spent last night beating myself up about what I said, trying to get the possibility out of my head that Aubrey really did take him home. Seeing him this morning is like a punch to the gut.
I don’t know if I want to run to Aubrey and beg for her to forget about all of the shit that I said last night or knock Cole out for even daring to get near her. I decide the latter will probably just land me in even hotter water with Aubrey, which should be impossible at this point because it seems to be boiling right now.
