Being a Jett Girl

  “That’s not necessary,” came that deep southern voice from the opening of my room. I heard Babs gasp but I didn’t turn to see who it was. His voice and aura ate up all the air in the room in one fell swoop.

  “You have some nerve coming up here,” Babs defended me.

  “Save it, Babs. You’re excused.”

  “To hell I am. I’m not leaving her with you.”

  The irritation in Jett’s voice grew. “Have you failed to remember who makes the decisions around here?”

  “Nope, pretty sure I remember it’s a giant dickhead who walks around thinking he’s better than everyone.”

  “Babs, I’m not fucking playing around with you. Leave,” he gritted out, sending chills through my bones.

  She hesitated before she leaned down to me and said, “I’ll have a machete on hold if you want to use it.” A small smile played at the corner of my mouth as I nodded my head into my pillow. I might just need that machete after I was done with him.

  “Shut the door,” Jett said as I felt him come closer.

  I coiled up farther, as small as I could go because right now, I didn’t want him near me, touching me. His touch was deadly to me. With one touch, he had the ability to make me forget all his past transgressions and do whatever he wanted.

  The soft click of my door rang through the room, letting me know that I was fully alone with Jett now. The bed dipped as he sat down next to me, but I continued to look away. I didn’t want to see him and I didn’t want him to see me like this. I was a pathetic mess.

  From the touch of his hand to my back, I recoiled away from him, trying to stay as far away as possible. I needed to avoid his heated touch; it was the only way I would be able to stay away, to keep my distance.

  “Goldie, please talk to me.”

  The only noises escaping me were the little sobs that wouldn’t stop, that kept drenching my pillow until it felt like the entire thing was soaked.

  “Goldie, please…”

  Nope, nothing was coming out, even if I wanted to. I completely lost it. Everything came tumbling down as I cried harder into my pillow. The strong confident woman I once was, was long gone and in her place was a meager woman whose life revolved around a man’s touch. There were glimpses of the real me every once in a while but there was something about Jett that made me crazy, that made me into a different person that needed him so damn bad that if I didn’t get all of him, I turned into a repressed, pathetic mess.

  Jett’s weight lifted off the bed and his footsteps retreated. More tears fell as I thought about how easily he was giving up. He could have at least fought a little harder, maybe explain himself. But that wasn’t the stoic man’s prowess, nope he walked away when things got tough and he never opened himself up so why would he start now?

  I sucked in a deep breath as I prepared for a long night of overthinking everything I did to deserve such treatment and trying to decide what to do in the morning.

  Just when I was gearing up for a long night full of tears and heartache, Jett’s silhouette stood in front of me and what I could see from my vantage point was he’d lost his tie and jacket and unbuttoned his shirt, revealing his smooth and muscular chest. He wasn’t playing fair.

  He sat down on my bed, and slid down next to me so our faces were inches apart and our bodies were feeding heat off each other.

  His hand gravitated toward my hair and put it behind my ear, revealing my bloodshot eyes. Luckily, Babs was nice enough to wipe my makeup off so I didn’t look like a crazed melting lunatic. I was still in my dress but my shoes were on the ground, along with my purse and phone.

  “I’m so sorry you had to hear me say those horrible words earlier,” he spoke softly, as if it actually pained him for what happened.

  Irritated with him, I tried to turn away but his strong hands stopped me.

  “Please just listen to me, Goldie.”

  Not saying anything to him, I stayed still and waited for him to continue. I was actually interested to hear his reasoning, to see how he dug himself out of this hole.

  Pressing his hand against my face, he made me look at him and that’s when I lost it because I wasn’t looking at the strong man who dominated the bedroom and exuded confidence everywhere he went, no, instead I was staring into the eyes of a confused and lost man who looked like his heart was breaking in half.

  I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to will the image out of my mind but there was no use, it was engrained in my mind, he was engrained in my mind.

  “Goldie.” His voice rang out tight, as if a vise was closing in on him. “Please look at me.”

  Mustering all the courage in my body, I opened my eyes and stared into his pools of deep blue that were laced with regret.

  He exhaled and gripped my face with both hands.

  “You’re fucking annihilating me right now. Seeing you like this, it’s gutting me, little one.” I tried pulling away but he stopped and looked down at my neck. His fingers grazed my necklace as he swallowed hard. “You’re still wearing it.” His gaze went back to my face, showing a broken down man, it was too much to take in.

  “Goldie, I want you to know that what you heard was so far from the truth. I can’t get into it too much because I will not allow you to get wrapped up in my fucked-up world but that man I was talking to would do anything to bring me down and he saw my weakness, he saw right through me and I had to deflect him, make him think differently.”

  “Your weakness?” I croaked out, my eyes growing heavy from crying for too long.

  “You Goldie, you’re my weakness and he saw that.”

  “How?” I sniffed.

  Caressing my face gently, he said, “By the way I held you, looked at you, worshipped the ground you walked on. He saw it all and he fucking called me out on it.” Jett pulled away, frustrated with himself.

  “What does it matter?”

  Turning back toward me, he answered, “Because he is dangerous…”

  I huffed and tried to turn away again but he stopped me and pulled me back in his direction.

  “I’m not fucking kidding,” he warned. “He is a desperate man who would do anything and I mean anything to get what he wanted, even if that meant harming you. He wouldn’t think twice about it.”

  The concern in his eyes made me realize that he was serious and not bullshitting me for his own benefit.

  “Does this have to do with Lot 17?” I asked, trying to piece everything together.

  “I don’t want to get into that right now.”

  “That means yes,” I interrupted.

  Ignoring me, he continued, “What I want to talk about is what you heard and how everything about it was a lie. You’re everything to me, Goldie. Slowly, you have widdled your heart into mine and have stolen every part of my body. You own me, Goldie, and there is no one that I want more, no one that I want to hold more and no one that I want to wear my necklace more than you.”

  A stray tear trickled down my cheek as I blinked away others.

  “Why is it so hard?”

  Rubbing my face with his thumbs, he said, “Because my life is so messed up that I just had to drag you into it because the moment I saw you in the cemetery, I couldn’t walk away. So now you have to deal with my bullshit emotions, my inability to be the man that you need and horrible people in my life who want nothing but my money and power.”

  “You’re so much more than that,” I confessed, as I watched the strong man I once knew continue to crumble into a pile right in front of me. No wonder he kept this side away from me for so long, it was gut-wrenching to see him so emotionally drained.

  Shaking his head, he pulled away a little and looked at something over my shoulder, like he was contemplating. “There is so much you don’t know that I’m terrified to tell you and I know you need to know, to understand me, but I can’t, I just can’t, especially with everything that is going on.”

  “I understand that but you not telling me is slowly tearing me apart. If you only warned me toni
ght, I could have been prepared for what you said.”

  “I didn’t think I would run into him there,” Jett stated agitated with himself. “He wasn’t supposed to be there.”

  “Well now that I know, I can be prepared for next time.”

  “There won’t be a next time,” he stated without hesitation.

  I sat up and looked down at him. He avoided all eye contact with me.

  “What do you mean there won’t be a next time? Don’t you have other events you have to go to? Don’t you have some more ass kissing you have to do?”

  “Yes, but you’re not going.”

  “Because of one asshole?”

  The bed rocked as Jett sat up straight and looked me dead in the eyes. “What are you not getting about this? He is a dangerous man, incredibly dangerous and has no problem getting rid of someone to get what he wants. I swore I would do anything to protect you, to keep you safe and I will live up to that. You’re not to go to any events and you are to stay in the club until further notice.”

  “You have got to be kidding me. You can’t keep me here like a prisoner.”

  “I’m trying to keep you safe.”

  “By secluding me from the world? You can’t do that, I’ll end up hating you.”

  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 kic
k 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.

  “So, you guys can go back to what you were doing,” she said while she licked her lips, enticing me to bring her up to the Bourbon Room. That’s what she did every damn day of my life.

  “Don’t you have some practicing to do?” Kace asked, noticing the letter as well and helping me out because right now, I was seconds away from grabbing Goldie and dragging her upstairs.

  “Shock alert, Kace doesn’t want to have any fun,” Goldie said sarcastically as she waved her hands in the air.

  Looking over at Kace, I saw the irritation start to bubble. The man had a short fuse. The tension between Kace and Goldie would get bad if I didn’t intervene so I grabbed Goldie’s hand, pulled her in for a sweaty hug and gave her a kiss on the head.

  “Get out of here, little one, before he explodes,” I whispered into her ear, making her chuckle.