His face contorted from my statement, as if I slapped him.

“You don’t mean that.”

Blowing out a heavy breath, I grabbed his hands and said, “Jett, you out of anyone should know that I’m a free spirit, that I need my space, my time with my parents in the cemetery. You can’t keep me in here. It’s not fair.”

Jett rolled on his back and stared up at the ceiling. I could see that he was trying to figure out what to do from the crease in his brow. I took that moment to scan his body. His shirt was parted just enough to show off his bare chest and stomach and his belt was undone, making my mind start to create an image of what was below the fabric of his pants.

“God damn it,” he muttered as his hands ran up his face. I watched as his chest muscles flexed with each movement, enticing me.

Wanting to relax, I went to lie down when he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his chest. Reluctantly, I pressed the palm of my hand against his heart, making him intake a sharp breath. His other hand, curled around mine that was pressing against his chest and his lips found the top of my head.

“Please tell me you forgive me, please, little one.”

The way his voice cracked made my heart leap in my chest. How could I deny him my forgiveness when he was clearly so torn up about what happened? I couldn’t.

“I forgive you, Jett.”

Squeezing me tighter, he pressed another kiss against my lips and then looked down at my dress.

“Can you please take that off, I really need to feel your skin against mine.”

I lifted up and turned my back to him so he could undo the zipper. He understood my cue and undid the back. Within seconds, I was lying down next to him in only my thong and bra. He saddled me up to his side and ran his hand that was wrapped around me, under my thong and gripped my ass. Not in a sexual way but more in a way that he didn’t want me floating away. His other hand entwined with mine and he brought the joining to his lips where he placed a gentle kiss.

My exposed skin pressed against his, where his shirt fell open and we just lay like that as I drifted in and out of consciousness, relishing in the feel of Jett against me.

In the midst of falling in and out of sleep, I heard Jett mutter to himself, “I will find a way, Goldie, no matter what, I’ll protect you.”

I curled in closer, wrapping my leg over his and gripped him, afraid he would leave in the middle of the night, but he never did. We spent the entire night holding on to each other and borrowing strength from one another as he fought our demons through the night.

Chapter Twenty

“Delirious”

Jett

“Seriously, dude, you need to work on your knee blows. You barely touched me,” Kace said as he played with the water bottle he was holding.

“Bullshit, you buckled over and started crying.”

“Fuck you, I didn’t cry. You wish I did. You were the one on the verge of tears. I saw the glisten in your eyes.”

“Glisten? You’re such a girl. Now put your damn hands up, I don’t have all day.”

“Testy today. I thought you made up with Goldie,” Kace said as he put on boxing pads and held up his hands. It was our daily workout, one that was always at odd times because of my schedule but I made sure to meet up with him every day when I could because if the girls were working out, I needed to as well. Plus, it was nice to spend time with Kace, even though most of the time we got on each other’s nerves.

“I did.” We started dancing around the room as I punched Kace’s padded hands, throwing upper cuts, hooks and kicks. “I’m just on edge, all right?”

“Have you heard from him?” Kace asked as he continued to move.

“Not yet, but I expect to shortly. It’s not like him to wait so long to make contact. I don’t think I threw him off too much.”

“Right hook,” Kace said, instructing me as to what he wanted. “You probably didn’t. You haven’t been able to throw anyone off since Lo’s gotten here. It’s been all over your face how much you care about her.”

Plastering a sequence of three right hooks in a row, I finished up and then took off my gloves, shucking them to the side.

“I know, fuck. What was I thinking?”

“You couldn’t have kept her and hidden her at the same time. You know that. You had to take her out, you had no choice.”

He was right, there was no way I was going to be able to get away with being Goldie’s and then not take her with me when I had to attend such mind-numbing events.

“I know.”

Squatting down and then lying on my back, Kace kneeled next to me and started counting off as I warmed up with some crunches before I got into the heavy stuff.

“So if he does contact you, what are you going to do?”

“I have no clue,” I huffed out as I continued to do sit-ups.

“She cares a lot about you,” Kace stated as he handed me a ten pound medicine ball then stood in front of me. “Whatever you do, you have to talk to her about it because being the evasive ass you are is not going to fly with her. You can’t get away with that now.”

“Like I don’t fucking know that. I swear to God you just like to stand there and point out the obvious.”

“Isn’t that what friends are for?”

“Obviously,” I grunted, now tossing the ball at Kace from over my head when I sat up. As I went back down, he tossed the ball back at me.

“Your dad is such a dickhead. He clearly knows that he’s not going to get what he wants so now he’s using all the options he has.”

“Once again, thank you, Captain Obvious.”

“Fuck off.” Kace chuckled.

Whenever we were working out, Kace was always in his element, he was relaxed and fun. It was when he had time to himself that he started to brood and think about all his past transgressions, the demons that constantly floated above his head.

Once I hit my mark, I sat up and held on to my knees while Kace handed me a bottle of water.

“Push-ups.”

“You just love bossing me around, don’t you? I bet your old and tired ass couldn’t do push-ups anymore.”

I knew that was far from the truth but I loved pushing his buttons.

“Get fucking real.” Kace tore his shirt off and stretched his arms. Copying the cheesedick, I did the same.

Like clockwork, Kace got into position and nodded to me to do the same. Sucker.

Side by side, we did push-ups, with our shirts off, trying to up the other as we huffed out. Upping the ante, Kace went to one-handed push-ups so I did the same, cringing from how sore I was from the entire workout before the apparent push-up contest. We both switched arms and tried not to laugh at each other. Kace would try to kick my leg when he got the chance and I would do the same but we didn’t give up.

It wasn’t until we both saw a pair of high heels standing in front of us that we stilled and looked up.

I could pick those legs out from anywhere. Standing in front of us was Goldie, in her Jett Girl attire and mask. She was sporting a giant smile as she tapped her foot and waited for us to finish.

We stood together and brushed off our hands as we tried to play off what we were doing wasn’t a pissing match.

“Oh, please, don’t let me interrupt you two,” she said as she perused my body with those blazing blue eyes of hers through her mask. It boosted my confidence to know that her eyes were only closed in on my body, especially since Kace was standing next to me with his shirt off as well.

Clearing my throat, I said, “May we help you, Lo?”

Her nose twisted from me using her Jett Girl name. It was weird to me too but around everyone else, that was what I called her, no exceptions.

She held out her arm and handed me a letter. “Jeremy had to bolt so he asked me to give this to you.”

Without even having to look down at the note, I knew what it was. Casually, I took it from Goldie and thanked her.