Stronger with You (With You Trilogy)
Read Stronger with You (With You Trilogy) Online
Authors: R. J. Sable
Stronger with You
By R. J. Sable
Text copyright © 2013
R. J. Sable All Rights Reserved
To the people I’ll never forget and never want to.
To H for never letting time difference, miles, or memories come between us. Hairy hooters forever.
Table of contents
Chapter 1
Saturday, 5th January 2013
I watched the two of them circling each other, each coated with a thin layer of perspiration which gleamed underneath the afternoon sun. Their expressions were ones of deep concentration as they watched each other, unblinking. I grimaced as Jason ducked to avoid a blow that barely missed him.
I can’t watch this.
I covered my eyes with my hands but it was even worse being able to hear their anguished grunts and the sound of fists meeting flesh without being able to see that they were okay.
Craig tackled Jason to the ground and they grappled on the lawn. My heartbeat quickened and I sent up a silent prayer that neither of them would get seriously hurt. I wanted to kick the two of them for putting me through this, but of course I wouldn’t. I winced every time one of them took a blow and breathed a sigh of relief each time they missed.
I felt two, long, gangly arms wrapping around me from behind and was momentarily distracted from watching the two of them beating on each other to turn around and greet the owner of the lean limbs. I didn’t have to check who it was first. I’d know his cologne anywhere.
“Alex!” I grinned, pulling my best friend of seven years into a rib-cracking embrace.
“Jellybaby!” He giggled, spinning me round and pulling me back into him before planting a loud, lip-smacking peck on my lips.
I’d known Alex was back home but I just assumed he’d be too busy unpacking and recovering from jet lag to come and see me.
A loud
thwack
drew our attention back to the two muscly men who were still lying in the grass breathing heavily. Craig had landed a pretty harsh blow to Jason’s jaw and I jumped up to make sure he was okay.
“What the fuck, Jamie?” Jason looked furious as he shoved Craig off of him and made his way towards us.
“Easy, Reed,” Craig warned, grabbing Jason’s arm and pulling him away from Alex.
I appreciated it seeing as my boyfriend was aiming murderous looks at my best friend.
“Did he just kiss you?” Jason asked me, pushing Craig off and sounding very angry, and very confused.
I could hear the hurt in his voice and it upset me but I still had to fight to stop myself from giggling. “Yes,” I nodded, glancing over at Alex. He seemed amused and admittedly a little cautious as his eyes scanned Jason from my side.
Jason’s normally dirty blond hair was darkened with sweat and clung to his forehead. His exquisitely sculpted body was strained from the physical exertion of fighting which made all his abs pop beautifully and had the muscles deep inside me tensing in the way they always seemed to when Jason was around.
I was distracted from ogling my beautiful specimen of a man as he made another lunge for Alex and Craig had to tackle him to the ground again. I shot Alex an apologetic glance. He looked entirely perplexed as he hid behind me.
“Jason, please,” I pleaded, frowning as I recognised how quickly things were going south.
“This no longer looks like sparring,” Ian announced, jogging over from the patio to pull Craig away from Jason.
“What’d Jason do this time?” Danny asked when he and Rick joined us, eyeing Craig and Jason with apparent amusement.
“Alex kissed Jelly,” Craig grinned impishly, looking back and forth between Alex and me.
“I warned you to cut that shit out, Alex,” Ian frowned and Alex noticeably shrank away from him, understandably disinclined to receive another Carter-family warning about our relationship.
Jason was staring at us all as though we were insane as he knelt in the grass where Craig had tackled him. His facial expression was still angry but a look of utter bewilderment was threatening to take over. No doubt he was wondering why my brothers weren’t kicking Alex’ ass for kissing me.
Kneeling down next to him, I put my hand on his. “Jason, this is my best friend Alex,” I said softly, gesturing up towards him.
“Just because he’s your best friend, doesn’t mean it’s okay to kiss him, Jamie,” he said through clenched teeth, his eyes dark with anger and hurt.
I went to protest but Alex got there first.
“I’d be more than happy to kiss you as well if that’ll even things up,” Alex said sweetly, fluttering his eyelashes.
I was not oblivious to the round of chuckles this elicited from my brothers.
“Hands off, Alex. He’s mine,” I warned him playfully.
“Fine,” Alex sighed with an exaggerated pout. He ran his fingers nervously through his carefully styled, light brown hair, adjusting the strands that refused to stay in his well-practiced coiffure of choice.
“You could have given him a heads-up, Jelly,” Craig laughed, pulling my bewildered boyfriend up from the grass.
I shrugged. I hadn’t really seen the need; I didn’t introduce my friends by name, gender, and sexuality. Besides, it wasn’t like Alex went out of his way to hide who he was, he was pretty comfortable with himself. He wasn’t always, but he got there eventually.
“Oh,” Jason said as realisation dawned, earning an amused chuckle from my brothers.
“Jelly never mentioned quite how… well let’s just say she undersold you,” Alex winked at Jason and held out his hand.
Jason shook Alex’ hand, looking no less bewildered.
“If you don’t stop hitting on him, it’ll be me you’ll be running away from instead of them for a change,” I pointed to my brothers and gave Alex a teasing grin.
“Ooh! Feisty, I like it!” He grinned, looking decidedly shocked. “What happened to you while I’ve been away?”
I blushed awkwardly at the reminder that I’d changed, and the reasons why. I knew he was joking but the fact that he could tell I was different hit home hard. Alex had taken a gap year and had been travelling around the states for the past few months. We’d e-mailed a little but some things were just too personal to put down in e-mails and I didn’t want to burden him whilst he was away having the time of his life.
“I’ll fill you in later,” I smiled, deciding already that he really didn’t need to know all the gory details. I noticed my brothers looking particularly uncomfortable and took pity on them by changing subject. “I’m so glad you’re back, Alex!”
“Me too, I missed you!” He grabbed my hand in his and pulled me over to the chairs so that we could talk.
Craig and Jason broke off their sparring to sit with us on the patio, drinking copious amounts of water and towelling off.
“I didn’t realise you fought as well, Jason,” Alex addressed him, turning his head to me and mouthing “that’s hot!” with a wicked grin on his face.
“I don’t really, not like Craig does at least,” Jason shrugged.
“May that bruise on your jaw serve to remind you of that little fact,” Craig smirked, shoving Jason playfully.
“I was distracted!” Jason scowled, nodding his head in my direction.
I smiled as the two of them bickered. They’d become a little better friends over Christmas. They were the same age and had a lot in common but I was surprised that Craig had been able to get over the fact that Jason was my boyfriend, especially considering how protective he and the others were over me. Craig still got aggressive whenever our PDA was too much for him but he managed to rein it in most of the time.
“Sorry, Jason,” I pouted, knowing it usually caused him to forgive me. I saw the smile that graced his lips before he returned to his disagreement with Craig.
“Can we go inside, please? I’m freezing.” I crossed my arms across my chest and shivered slightly for emphasis. I was wearing several layers, including Jason’s hoody, but it was January in England, after all.
I followed Craig into the lounge but hesitated when I noticed Matt was in there surrounded by paperwork. I was about to suggest we go sit in the den but Craig and Jason had already thrown themselves into the sofa. Jason pulled me onto his knee and I watched Craig’s face turn tense momentarily but he recovered, choosing not to comment. Alex sat down on the futon in front of us and crossed his legs under him.
I took a second to appreciate the subtle changes in Alex since he’d been away. His normally pale skin now had a lovely caramel twinge thanks to his months in the sun. It complemented his looks perfectly and made his pale blue eyes appear impossibly clearer. Alex was fairly skinny, especially when he stood next to my brothers, but he pulled it off and he knew it.
“I don’t understand why not, you’re good,” Craig urged, drawing my attention back to them.
This wasn’t the first discussion they’d had about this. Craig thought Jason should return to MMA.
“I’m not interested, Carter,” Jason replied with a sigh, I could tell he was growing uncomfortable.
“Don’t you miss it?” Craig asked.
“A little,” Jason admitted.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“I’ve moved on.”
I could feel Jason growing tense and understood his discomfort. Jason had given up fighting because of his brother. Even though he missed MMA, he wasn’t willing to mess up his relationship with Ben for it.
“Your current competition not enough for you?” I teased Craig in an effort to rescue Jason.
“Nope,” Craig grinned. “It gets a bit boring,” he added with mock complacency.
“I’d be happy to remedy that if you lot don’t keep it the fuck down,” Matt grumbled from the other end of the L-shaped sofa.
Now it was my turn to tense up. Craig and I both knew that Matt wouldn’t stand a chance against Craig, but we also knew that Karl would kick his ass if he had a go at Matt.
“Sorry, Matt, what you working on?” Jason intervened smoothly.
“Lesson plans,” Matt grunted.
“I didn’t realise P.E. lessons needed planning,” Alex chimed in, thinking out loud. I doubted he realised he’d just insulted Matt’s chosen career.
Matt scowled at Alex and put down the papers he’d been reading. “What the fuck do you mean by that?”
“I… eh… nothing. Sorry, sir.” Alex squirmed nervously in his seat.
“He didn’t mean anything by it, Matt. He just didn’t th-”
“I wasn’t talking to you, Jelly,” he cut me off with a heated glare, gathering up all his paperwork and standing up.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Alex said quietly, standing up and taking a few steps back, away from Matt.
Matt closed the distance between them with a few long strides. “If you’d actually taken part in any of the lessons instead of pretending to be asthmatic then maybe you’d know a little more about the subject,” Matt growled, his face very close to Alex who cowered under his icy glare.
I watched nervously, praying for Alex’ sake that he wasn’t planning on a smart aleck comeback. He lowered his gaze and mumbled another apology. Matt seemed satisfied and stormed out of the room.
