Fighting Ever After (Ever After #3) (6 page)

When it was
time to head over to Princess’, the weather was shit and I didn’t feel like
riding the bike through it, so I grabbed the keys to Ace’s Impala. He was gone
and my car was in the shop having the AC fixed. I’d been to Chris’ dad’s house
before for barbecues and stuff, so I was pretty sure I could find the house
right next door. After a quick pit stop at the store to pick up the things on
my list, I drove out to Needham and found the house I was looking for. I’d
never paid much attention to it the other times I’d been in this neighborhood
that screamed suburbia. There was no parking directly in front of her house, so
I parked just down the street. When I walked up, I could see Jax sittin outside
on the porch at Dr. Cross’ with Bas and Chris. I cut through the driveway
separating the two houses and slipped inside the open gate, but none of them
were paying enough attention to see me walking up.

I could hear
Bas being the over protective big brother, offering to skip the birthday party
to stay with Jax, which would mean I’d come for nothing and I’d have to turn
right back around. I was pleased when she argued with him and tried to convince
him he couldn’t skip it without upsetting Lissa.

“She’ll get
over it,” he tried to tell her. We can marathon Tony
Jaa
movies and it will be just like old times when you were lame and never went to
parties on the weekends and I stayed home to hang out with you because I felt
sorry for you.” So Princess hadn’t been a
partier
in
high school, not all that shocking, but I was surprised that she would be into
foreign martial arts movies. I didn’t know many girls who were. Correction, I
couldn’t think of any who were, but maybe that was because I didn’t usually
take the time to discuss movie preferences with them.

 “You
were just as lame as I was,” she retorted, “and we can have another lame movie
night when your girlfriend doesn’t hate me.” Before he could argue with her
anymore, I decided to speak up.

“I’ll have a
movie night with you Princess. I like Tony
Jaa
movies.”

Their heads
whipped around in surprise and I just grinned back at the two of them. Princess
was trying to kill me with laser eyes and Bas wasn’t pleased to see me standing
there either. This was going to be fun. “You guys can take off now, I’ve got
this handled. I even come bearing gifts.” I held up the sack I was carrying and
even opened it so Princess could get a peak at what was inside. Apparently the
key to her heart, or at least getting her to not hate me – as much – was junk
food.

They turned
their angry looks on Chris. “I thought you said Ace was going to stay with her
tonight.” Bas said.

“Did I? I’m
pretty certain I said Kyden. Ace had that family thing to go to with Danny and
his brother.” I wasn’t sure who Bas wanted to hit more, me or his brother, but
right now it was looking like Chris. “Okay, okay I might’ve said Ace, but only
because I knew if I said Kyden you’d flip your shit.”

 “Damn
right I would. I’m not leaving her with him.” For fuck’s sake, did he think I
was going to chop her into little bits? What was he so worried about? Okay, I
knew the answer to that, but it wasn’t like I was going to force her to do
anything she didn’t want to.

 “Relax,”
I told him, “I’ll be on my best behavior. I promise I won’t touch her . . .
unless she begs me to.” I grinned, and Bas took a step toward me. Chris reached
out and stopped him.

 “Let
it go. He’s just kidding. He really did promise not to pull anything.”

 “
Right,
and you believe him?”

“Hey, I’m standing
right here and I’m perfectly capable of resisting him,” Jaxyn finally spoke up
for herself. It was cute that she was so sure nothing would happen between us.
I’d seen the looks when she wasn’t so busy trying to convince herself and
everyone else that she couldn’t stand me. She was attracted to me, and that’s
all I needed. It didn’t need to be anything else between us.

“That’s not
what I meant Jazz. I don’t trust
him
.” I probably shouldn’t smile. That
would be wrong.

“Well then
trust me. We talked about this, Bas.”

Now I was
curious just what had been said.

“Look man,
you and I both know that if Connor showed up, he can handle him,” Chris said,
and Bas actually seemed to consider it. I guess my reputation as a hothead was
good for something. They both knew I could handle myself if I needed to.

When Bas
looked at me questioningly, I reassured him. “I’d never let him touch her,” and
I meant it. Regardless of what the rest of my intentions were, she would be
safe with me, even if she wasn’t safe from me.

“I still
don’t like it,” Bas sighed, but I could tell he was giving in to the idea.

 “Just
go. It will be fine. Have a good night, please. You can text or call me as many
times as you want to check up on me.” Jax promised, but he still acted
hesitant. “Seriously Bas, if you don’t leave now, I’m going to have to punch
you for being stupid and blowing it with the one girl who seems to want to put
up with your crap.”

“Yeah, yeah,
I’m going. Just be careful,” he finally relented.

“I will.”

“Love you
Jazz.”

“You too.”
It was interesting to me how close their relationship was,
but I believed Chris when he said they’d never been together. It was clear how
much each one meant to the other though. The idea of having a close female
friend like that intrigued me. Bas brushed past me on the way to his car,
making sure I caught the warning look he was giving me. Chris was right behind
him, heading off to his date. Then it was just the two of us standing there, me
grinning up at her on the porch, her scowling back at me. My smile didn’t waver
and she just sighed before climbing down the steps and cutting through the
yard, tossing a “follow me” over her shoulder.

She stopped
with her hand on the doorknob and spun around to face me with a stern
expression. She was trying to act tough and it was fucking cute. “Don’t touch
anything. No flirting or dirty jokes. In fact you should probably just not say
anything at all.”
Really fucking cute.
When she
finally opened the door, I could tell she was still reluctant to let me inside,
so I just stepped in right past her. As I did, her hand shot forward and
snagged the bag from mine. “I’ll take these.”

 “Hey,
I bought them.”

“And you’ll
get some.
Maybe.
If you’re nice,” she said shutting and
locking the door behind us. I followed her toward what I assumed was the living
room, taking in everything around me in the entryway. I stopped to look at a
series of pictures lining the walls.
Ha.
There it was – Princess in
pigtails with a crooked grin, just like I’d imagined. Only the real thing was
even cuter. There were several of her all through grade school, and a couple of
her and a woman who was so clearly her mother.
Jax’s
mom had been hot in her day. Except for the eyes and the crazy hair color, the
woman I was looking at could have been
Jax’s
twin. I
didn’t see any pictures of her Dad though.

“Just you and your mom, Princess?”

“Mmhmm,” was
all she said before leaving me standing in there the hallway. When I stepped
into the living room, she was sitting on the large wrap around sofa, dumping
her loot out on the coffee table.

“Oh sweet
baby ninja turtles, you got spicy queso and strawberry milk!” I just chuckled
and plopped down beside her. Chris really was right. She went nuts for junk
food. “And peanut butter M&M’s!” She exclaimed like she’d just found a
hundred dollar bill in the sack. I owed Chris a thank you.

“You can’t
buy me with candy, just so you know.”

“Did it at
least get me any points?”

“Maybe a few.”
I’d take ‘
em
. I
reached forward to open the bag of M&M’s, but my hand was swatted away.

 “Wow,
you really weren’t kidding about not sharing.” Since she was hoarding the food,
I stretched out on the couch, making it so she would have no choice but to sit
close to me. She looked over at me.

“You’re
welcome to the chips and Twizzlers. I might even let you have some of the
cookies, but the M&M’s are mine.” Didn’t she know that only made me want
them
more.
I watched her get up and walk over to a
shelf filled with movies. She slid one out and popped it in the DVD player
before she rejoined me on the couch. She grabbed a
Twizzler
and peeled it slowly, popping it in her lovely mouth piece by piece. I had to
look away. I tried to focus on the movie she’d put in, some comedy, and not the
heat I could feel coming off her body, pressed so close to mine.

When the
movie ended, I needed to get up and put some space between us, even if only for
a minute, so before she could, I walked over and picked out the next one –
a  thriller
I hadn’t watched in a while. When I sat
back down, I left a little more room between us, but throughout the movie, out
of the corner of my eye I kept seeing her steal glances at me. She was making
it difficult to behave myself, especially since I really didn’t want to behave.
The next time she did it, I looked over at her and she quickly jerked her head
away. She kept her eyes on the screen after that, but I didn’t. My eyes kept
drifting to her, and every time they did, her body stiffened slightly. She was
forcing herself to look ahead and not at me.

When the
credits rolled, neither one of us made a move to turn it off or put in another
movie. Her eyes were closed and her head was tipped back, allowing me to openly
take in each detail of her relaxed expression. Her chest rose and fell steadily,
her lips just slightly parted, exhaling soft breaths. If not for the way she
clasped her hands at her sides, I would have believed she was asleep. I
presumed this was her attempt to ignore me, but that wouldn’t do. I thought
about grabbing the bag of M&M’s that was still sitting on the coffee table,
sure that would get a response from her, but then I had a better idea.

“I’ll play
you for them.”

“What?” Her
eyes popped opened and she looked over at me in confusion.

“Do you have
a deck of cards?” I asked.

“Yeah . . .”
she answered somewhat reluctantly, her eyes inquisitive eyes boring into mine.

“Go get
them,” I told her, and she did. When she came back, she handed the deck to me
and I asked her, “Do you know how to play poker?”

 “We’re
not playing strip poker,” was her immediate response.

I laughed,
“That’s not what I was going to suggest, but I like your idea better,” I said
without reservation, making sure she could see just how much the idea appealed
to me. Shockingly this earned me yet another glare. I had to think about
whether I’d ever actually received a smile from her. Nope, I don’t think I had.
As cute as her frown was, I knew her smile would be something, and getting one
from her, a real smile, became my new goal. “Fine, no strip poker, but you
still
haven’t
answered my question. Do you know how to
play?” She shook her head, and that put a wrench in my initial plan. I picked a
new game that I was sure she would know how to play, because every kid learned
this one at some point. “Okay then, we’ll play war for the M&M’s.” I didn’t
really want her M&M’s, but I was tired of just sitting here, watching
Tv
while she tried to pretend I wasn’t here. This would be
more fun, and I could mess with her a little.

 
“War?
That could take forever to win, and isn’t it kind of
childish?”

“You’re the
one who doesn’t know how to play poker, but we’ll fix that later,” I told her.
“I wouldn’t feel right stealing all of your M&M’s on your first time, so
we’ll play war and every time one of us wins a war, we get the number of
M&M’s on the card.” She didn’t appear to be going for it. “Are you scared
of losing to me?” Yeah, I resorted to taunting her like an adolescent. I might
as well have flapped my arms and balked at her. I grinned because she didn’t
strike me as the type to just take it. I already knew she had a feisty side.

“Fine.
You’re on,” her tone was challenging and her eyes were full
of fire.

I dealt out
the deck and we started the game, laying down cards, our hand shrinking and
growing as we won and lost, until we had our first war.

“Ready to say goodbye to your precious M&M’s?”
I taunted some more.

“Not a
chance, lay ‘
em
down.” We both laid three cards face
down and then played one face up. “Ha!” she cried once she saw that hers was the
higher card. She claimed her stack of cards and her candies. So far she was
coming out ahead, but I wasn’t worried. I was about to lay down my next card,
but my eyes caught on the way her lips parted so that she could slowly place
each piece of candy, one by one into her mouth, making cute little groaning
noises as she sucked each one. Amusement danced across her features as she
gloated, but I doubted she would find it so funny if she knew the effect her
little show was having. I was imagining her using that sweet mouth for
something much naughtier, and wondering if she would make those sounds when I
was pressed between her lips.