All Pepped Up (Pepper Jones) (6 page)

I see Ryan heading upstairs with Lisa and my frown deepens. Even Ryan went from his ex-girlfriend
, Kate, in California, to me pretty quickly. And now Lisa.

“I’m ready for bed,” Jace tells me
after drying off.

“First I want another glass of that white wine.” I walk up the stairs without a glance in Jace’s direction. Based
on the tone of his voice, I know he’s giving me a look that says he wants to go to bed, but not to sleep. But I can’t look at him right now. I don’t feel entirely justified in being angry, since I have no idea what the secret is that they’ve kept from me. Still, just the thought they’ve kept any kind of secret for this long is deeply disturbing.

As I make my way to
the fridge, the feel of gazes weighs on me, and I realize I didn’t put the swim trunks back on or grab a towel. I’m just strutting my stuff, Madeline Brescoll-style. Groaning inwardly, I open the fridge door, wishing I could hide inside it. I immediately spot the bottle of wine I was drinking earlier because someone taped a label to it that says “Pepper’s wine”. How did
that
happen?

Shutting the door, I turn
to reach in the cupboard for a wine glass but am blocked by a firm, wet chest. Jace holds out an empty glass with his eyebrows raised.

As I pour myself a generous
cup, he wraps a towel over my shoulders. Even without it, I already feel less exposed with him behind me, blocking the view.

He takes me upstairs to one of the guest rooms and turns on the shower. I lean against the door, and we watch each other in the mirror.

“Are we going to take a shower together?” I ask. We’ve never been naked together before. This would be… huge. I gulp the wine.

Jace’s eyes darken. “Do you want to?”

I nod. My emotions are a mess right now. From Jace’s mom, to track season apprehension, to whatever secret the boys are keeping from me. But watching Jace in his swim trunks, his jet black hair wet and tousled and those eyes boring into mine, all I really want right now is him.

“Bathing suits on or off?” His voice sounds hoarse.

I take another gulp of wine and place it on the bathroom counter before untying the back of my swimsuit and letting it fall to the floor. My back is to him but he can see me in the mirror. He moves closer as I reach for my bottoms. “I’ll do it,” he whispers. He pulls them slowly down my legs, and the heat from his hands leaves tingles. I step out of my suit and see myself completely naked in the mirror.

Jace’s hands roam back up my legs, over my hips and stom
ach, and cup my breasts. He lets out a shaky breath before pulling my hair to the side and nuzzling my neck. Of all my body parts, it must be my neck he loves the most. He’s always putting his face there to breathe me in and kiss me. Or maybe he just knows how much it affects me.

I sink into him, feeling him through his bathing suit. Moaning as he massages my breasts in his palms, I reach behind me and tug on the waistband of his suit. He lets out a chuckle.

I turn around and tug the shorts down, watching in fascination as he springs free. Just like last night, I can’t hide my shock. It’s just too much. His shorts drop to the ground and he steps out of them. Without thinking, my hands reach for him, and wrap around the thick length.

He lets out a groan and his eyelids fall closed. “I thought we were taking a shower
.” I hardly recognize his voice, and I grin at the power I have over him right now.

He walks backwards
toward the shower, and my hands slip. I follow him in and lean my head back under the showerhead. It’s a huge shower with glass doors and a granite bench.

Jace watches me as he runs a bar of soap over his body.

“What was bothering you?” he asks.

I pour some shampoo into my hand, wondering how to respond. I can’t concentrate right now. When I start to scrub it through my hair, Jace begins to run the soap over my stomach and legs, and then I really
lose all ability to think clearly.

“Jace.” My voice is needy.

“What had you upset, Pep?”

He stops soaping me and turns the full force of his eyes to mine.

I sigh. “I don’t feel like talking about it.” I can’t lie to this boy. He knows me too well.

“Was it running? You can talk to me about it, Pep.”

“That’s part of it, yeah. But really, I’ll sort it out.” He looks hurt that I’m not opening up, but he does the same thing to me all the time. “Just make me feel better for now?”

He shakes his head, but resumes soaping me as I rinse the shampoo out of my hair.

We don’t say anything when we step out of the shower, or when he dries me off with a towel.

“That was the best shower I’ve ever had,” Jace
announces.

“You haven’t even kissed me yet,” I say with a pout.

Jace lifts my chin and takes my mouth in his. His tongue slips inside as he lets the towel drop between us. This is dangerous. We are completely naked. And it sends a thrill through me. I take a step closer. I can feel his body an inch from mine, but we aren’t touching.

He pulls away. We a
re both breathing heavily.

“Let’s put some cloth
es on,” he says through a ragged breath.

“Jace. Why?” I want his tongue in my mouth again. And his body against mine.

He raises his eyes to look at me.

“I want you. You obviously want me. Why are you putting on the brakes?”
I ask. My body is on fire. I’m ready for this. And I’ve always wanted Jace to be the one. We have our own bed and everything.

Jace
shakes his head. “You’ve been drinking, and you were upset about something that you won’t talk to me about. And we’re at a party. It’s not right.”

“Not right for who
m?” I ask. This is the same conversation we had last night, but I need more of an explanation.

Jace’s face suddenly ta
kes on a pained expression, and he steps back. “Wait. This would be your first time, right? You didn’t –” He stutters. “With –” He can’t finish. I’ve never seen him this shaken.

I sha
ke my head quickly to put him out of his misery. “No.”

His expression
immediately relaxes.

“But Jace, you’ve done it a lot. With a lot of different people. So if I’m ready, what’s the problem?”

Jace takes a bathrobe off of a hook and hands it to me. He walks into the bedroom and pulls on a pair of sweat pants. “Put that on.” He points to the robe in my hand and I let out an exaggerated sigh as I comply.

“It’s a big deal for me to sleep with you
, Pep, even though I’ve slept with other people,” he says as he makes his way to the bed and lies down on his back. He pats the spot next to him and I curl up at his side. “There’s no rush. I’m so fucking happy to be with you. To be your boyfriend. Hell, of course I want you. But we should wait for a better time. When there’s nothing else between us.”

I sit up to look at him. “What’s between us?”

He clenches his jaw. My heart starts to race. The secret. “Nothing between
us
,” he forces out. “I just meant, we only let people know about us yesterday, my mom showed up this morning, and you’ve got something on your mind about running, or whatever it is you won’t talk about…”

I stare at him. So he isn’t going to tell me. Yet. I’ll
wait until tomorrow. And if he doesn’t say anything, I’ll force it out of him.

***

I wake to a pillow being thrown in my face. “Huh?” I peek out from under the covers to see Wes standing over the bed wearing nothing but flannel pajama bottoms and a goofy grin.

“Rise
and shine, sleepyheads!” he says with way too much enthusiasm.

I thro
w the pillow back at him, and he uses it to beat Jace over the head. A muffled growl is the only response.

“What time is it? And why aren’t yo
u ever wearing a shirt?” I ask as I sit up and brush the hair out of my face.

“I c
ould ask you the same,” Wes says with a smirk.

I gla
nce down. A blanket covers the essentials, but I must have kicked off the bathrobe I’d fallen asleep in at some point during the night.

Jace leans up on an elbow and glares
at Wes. “Get outta here, man,” he says grumpily.

“No way. The three of us are
going out to breakfast. I’m too hung over to sleep. And I’m not fixing something to eat here. Everyone will want some.”

“How many people are still here?” I ask, pulling the bedcover up
to cover my shoulders.

Wes shrugs. “
Looks like everyone stayed. It’s still storming out there, too, so who knows when people will get outta here. Let’s go to Hal’s. I need something greasy.”

Hal’s
Diner certainly knows how to do greasy.

“What? Are we taking a snowmobile?
” I ask with a frown.

Wes laughs and Jace lets out some sort of grunt as he buries himself deeper into his pillow.

“There’s a Hummer in the garage. It’ll drive in anything.”

Wes lingers in the room and opens the shades to let in some light.

“Are you gonna get outta here so we can change or what?” I ask.

“You’ll just go back to sleep. I need to supervise and make sure you get up.”

“Jeez, you’re persistent.” If I hadn’t heard the conversation last night, I’d be pretty confused about Wes’s eagerness to get breakfast. Especially when I have no doubt there’s plenty of others he could recruit in our place to accompany him. “We’ll meet you downstairs in ten minutes.”

Wes eyes me skeptically but I stare him down with enough authority that he leaves our room
a moment later.

There are two approaches I c
an take to waking Jace, who’s never been a morning person. Before he became my boyfriend, I’d shove him and annoy him into waking up. I’d get an awake Jace, but a grumpy one. However, now that I’m his girlfriend…

I snuggle up
close to his warm body and start kissing his back, making my way up his shoulders and neck. I can feel his smile as my lips make their way to his mouth.

“Morning,” I whisper. My hands slide down his back and along the band of his boxer briefs. Jace pulls me to him and nestles his head in my neck.

His hands roam around the sheet I’m wrapped up in. “Are you naked underneath this?” he asks gruffly.

“Maybe,” I say with a smile.

In one quick movement, Jace flips from his stomach to his back, and rolls me on top of him.

He’s awake now
, that’s for sure.

Jace brushes the hair out of my face before giving me a scorching kiss. But even as I feel him stir beneath me, he pulls away. I’m getting used to it.

“So I heard something about Hal’s?” he asks.

“We’re meeting Wes downstairs in five minutes.”

Jace sits up and I wrap my legs around his waist before he stands and walks us into the bathroom. The sheet is still around me as we brush our teeth, glancing at each other every few seconds with goofy grins. We haven’t woken up together like this before, and I’m not sure I’ll ever want to wake up alone again.

I feel
amazing this morning, even having gone to bed upset. Maybe it’s because I know that I’ll find out whatever they’ve been keeping from me today. Or maybe it’s the blizzard outside. Snowy days always make me feel warm and cozy. But I’m pretty sure it’s simply that Jace is here, right next to me, and he’s mine. 

His dark hair
’s been styled in a faux hawk for so long now that it falls into a sexy mess without any effort on his part. Jace’s olive skin maintains a glow throughout the year, even when his summer tan has faded. I watch his back muscles flex as he reaches down to pick jeans up from the floor and pull them on.

He ca
tches me watching and gives me one of his smiles that make me melt. Every. Time.

“Get your clothes on
, Pep. I don’t want Wes barging in here and seeing you naked.”

Ten minutes later we
drive down an empty main street. The piles of snow along the sidewalk indicate that the roads were plowed at some point that morning, but with the snow still falling, they remain slick.

A few folks
sit at the counter when we enter Hal’s Diner, but the place isn’t packed like most mornings. We slide into a booth and the boys order coffee while I get an orange juice.

No one says anything as we sip our drinks. We all look
out the window, watching the snow fall. If I didn’t know better, I might mistake it for a comfortable silence.

When the food arrives – we
all ordered the $4.99 special of two eggs, bacon, toast, and a pancake – I catch Wes and Jace in some sort of silent exchange. It’s what we used to order years ago when Jim would take the three of us here. I could never finish mine back then, and if I wasn’t so wound up with curiosity this morning, I’d probably scarf the whole thing down in minutes.