“I…never…want to see you touch her again,” Jackson growls.
Jude glares at Kayla. “Have to have your boyfriend fight your battles, huh?”
“He isn’t my boyfriend.”
“We all know what your problem is, Jude,” Jackson sneers.
Looking at him, Jude snorts. “And what’s that?”
“You like her. You like her so much it makes you lash out. The problem is, she doesn’t like you back, never has and never will, and that is what bothers you. She’s so far out of your league. You try and tear her down any chance you get because you’re angry she rejected you.”
Kayla adds, “I knew that was it. Of course your ego would be bruised. You think you can have any girl in this school, but you’re just a loser. I have better taste in guys than to waste my time with you, and you can never tempt me to feel otherwise.”
“I don’t like you,” Jude snaps. “How could I like you? Why would I like you?”
“Because she’s intelligent, beautiful, and funny. Stop wallowing in the rejection and deal with the fact that she just isn't that into you,” Jackson snarls.
Kayla grabs Jackson’s arm. “If that is what's causing the bug up your ass, Jude, get over it.”
“That isn’t my problem,” Jude says, eyes narrowing in anger. “If you tell people that, I promise—”
Jackson snatches him by the shirt. “You promise to what, leave her alone? I think that’s what you were going to say, because if you’re thinking otherwise, you’re going to have a really bad day.”
“Come on, Jackson,” Kayla whispers. “Leave him alone. He’s an idiot. We have better things to do.”
“Yes, we do,” Jackson retorts with a very suggestive tone.
Jude glares at Jackson with his nostrils flaring. “So she’s giving it up to a guy who ultimately doesn’t want to date her. There’s a surprise.”
“You know what? Her lips are super soft, and she is a fantastic kisser. And let’s not forget how sexy she is. Does that make you jealous?” Jackson whispers as he shoves Jude against the wall. “I had her body pressed against mine last night, and it took everything in me to step back and respect her, because that is what she deserves…respect. If you had shown her some, you may have gotten further than you did.”
“Jackson,” Kayla hisses. “Shut up!”
He releases his grip on Jude and steps back. “Come on,” he mutters, grabbing her hand. “Let’s go.” Jackson looks at Jude one more time. “You bother her again, and my fist is going to get really acquainted with your face. I won’t worry about expulsion then.”
“Is that a threat?” Jude replies, his voice shaking.
“Yes, yes it is,” Jackson answers with a steely voice before turning and pulling Kayla back down the hall.
She runs to keep up with him. “Hey, I’m a lot smaller than you, slow down!”
Jackson turns around. “Sorry.”
“You promised you wouldn’t tell anyone,” Kayla groans.
“And I won’t, but I can guarantee it got under his skin, and I figured you wouldn’t mind that.”
Thinking about it for a second, Kayla says, “Good point.”
“Anyway, I’m not embarrassed by it. I’m sorry that you are,” he murmurs, turning to walk away.
Kayla darts after him. “I’m not embarrassed by it,” she emphasizes. “I told you what my fear was.” He doesn’t respond, and they walk in silence to class. The bell rings just as they enter the room. Kayla is relieved they aren’t late.
Their teacher stands in front of the class. “All right, today is the last day to work on your paper. I’ll give you passes to the library, if needed. Remember, this is a big part of your grade, so put the proper effort into it. All right, get started.”
Reaching down, Kayla pulls her binder out of her bag. With a smile, she retrieves her essay and waves it at Jackson. “I am so going to own you after we get our essays back.”
Jackson smiles and holds out his hand. “Let me read it.”
“No, you can read it when I win the bet. We’ll exchange essays then. That’s how we will find out who wins.”
He smirks. “Sounds good to me. Maybe you will finally see how a proper essay should be written.”
“Whatever,” Kayla says, leaning forward. “You are so full of yourself.”
A wicked grin passes over Jackson’s face. “I could say something grossly inappropriate and twenty shades of wrong.”
“You're horrible,” Kayla exclaims with disgust.
“So bashful. Wait until you get to college. You’ll blush for the entire four years.”
Glaring at him, Kayla says, “I am going to go hand in my essay and ignore you.”
“If I didn’t think I would get suspended for sexual harassment, I would slap you on the butt as you walked away.”
Kayla giggles. “Don’t you dare touch me.” Jackson just wiggles his eyebrows as she playfully glares at him. She walks up to her teacher and sets her essay on his desk. “Here’s my paper. I’m all finished.”
He smiles. “Very good. I’m looking forward to reading it. I’m not surprised that you’re getting along with Mr. Blakely. His paper was excellent as well.”
That makes Kayla frown. “That’s good.”
“What are you two going to do for the rest of class?”
“I have no idea. Go to the library?”
Her teacher nods and grabs his book of passes. Bending over his desk, he writes out two passes. He rips them off and hands them to Kayla. “Here you go. Don’t get into any trouble.”
“We won’t, thank you.” She smiles and spins around to return to her desk. She bends down and picks up her backpack. “Come on, we’re going to the library.”
Jackson raises an eyebrow. “Who says I want to hang out with you?”
Kayla just looks at him. “Seriously? Fine, stay here. Stare at the wall for the next hour.”
With a mischievous glint in his eyes, Jackson grins. “All right, I know you just want me near you. Can’t control yourself.”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
He stands and follows her out of the room. “So what language do you want to learn?” Jackson asks as they make their way to the library.
“I don’t know. I’m just going to embarrass myself with any of them.”
“How about a sexy language like French?”
Laughing, Kayla says, “A sexy language, huh? So I can whisper inappropriate comments to you.”
“Oh, baby, I can’t wait.”
Kayla giggles and shakes her head. “No, I think it would be cool to learn Russian. I mean, it’s not something people usually learn as a second language, and I think that would be cool.”
“Fine, I’ll teach you Russian then. We can start when we get to the library.”
“I can trust you with this, right?”
With a perplexed look, Jackson responds, “What do you mean?”
“You aren’t going to teach me to say things that actually mean something else and are totally horrible, are you?”
Jackson puts his arm around her shoulders and pulls her against him. He laughs and kisses the top of her head. “I’m not that mean.”
A little shocked by his proximity, Kayla tenses and whispers, “I just wanted to make sure.”
“I think I’m taking this jerk thing a little too far.” Jackson sighs with a chuckle.
“See, it is possible for us to get along and be friends.”
Jackson suddenly lets go of her and backs off. “I guess.”
“I don’t get you,” Kayla says. “It’s like half of you wants to be my friend and the other half wants to flee because you hate me.”
“There isn’t a single part of me that hates you, Kayla. I just have to be careful about how close we get.”
Kayla rolls her eyes. “Whatever, Jackson. I can resist jumping your bones.”
“That’s what you say, but I know the truth.”
With a groan, Kayla walks into the library.
The rest of the day is uneventful. She and Jackson brainstorm for their story during creative writing. They haven’t really figured out a plot yet, but they decided what animals would be on their fictional planet. They spend much of their time talking about Jackson’s life abroad.
Finally, it’s the end of the day and they are sitting in front of Kayla’s house. “Thanks for the ride home,” she sighs. “I appreciate it.”
“Do you have your key this time, or do I have to scale your house again?” he inquires with a grin.
“No, I have it,” Kayla says with a laugh.
Jackson smiles. “At least if I need to sneak into your room at night, I know how to get inside.”
“How very Edward Cullen of you. Like you would climb in my window anyway. That would break all your stupid rules.”
“You never know, I may be in need of a good time.”
Kayla makes a gagging face. “Yeah, the last thing I would do is have some heated make-out sessions with you in my room.”
“Mmhmm, that’s what you say.”
She opens the door and looks at him. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Mr. Ego.”
“All right, text me if you need a ride.”
“I kind of threw your number across the house, I don’t know where it went,” Kayla bashfully mumbles.
Jackson bursts out laughing and pulls out his cell phone. “Okay, what’s your number? I’ll text you in the morning, bright and early.”
“555 – 1323, if you just send me a message, I’ll save your number that way.”
“Yeah, but then you may just overload my phone with texts.”
With a groan, Kayla says, “Doubtful.”
“All right, then I’ll send you a message. Have a good night.”
“You too. See you tomorrow.”
“Bye,” Jackson says.
Kayla gets out of the car and shuts the door. She waves at him as he drives away. Shaking her head, she turns and goes into her house. “I have no idea how to feel about him,” she finally mumbles to herself.
Chapter 4
That night Kayla sleeps fitfully. Suddenly, she shoots up, but she isn’t in bed. Kayla scrambles to her feet, her eyes frantically searching her surroundings. She’s in the middle of the woods. She hears a branch snap and spins toward the sound. All she can hear is heavy breathing amongst the trees.
Kayla takes a couple steps back. Her heart nearly stops when a mountain lion slinks out from behind a bush. “Oh please, no,” she sobs. The cat slowly makes its way in front of her. Kayla clenches her eyes shut and starts to pray under her breath. After a minute, she opens her eyes, but instead of seeing the mountain lion, the mastiff from the library is sitting ahead of her. “What in the…” she says softly.
The dog just sits there and stares at her. Kayla doesn’t know what to do, so she returns its gaze. Unexpectedly, the dog gets up and walks over by her. Kayla presses herself against the tree. She lets out a sigh of relief when the dog nudges her hand with his nose. Reaching down, she hesitantly pets it. The dog pushes her more, making Kayla laugh, but before she can do anything else, the dog turns and runs off. Kayla takes a deep breath; the shock of being in the woods slowly leaves her body.
She stares at the area where the dog ran off. Slowly, she walks over to the trees. A little nervous, she steps behind the trunk. What she finds makes her jump. “Jackson!” He turns and looks at her, but doesn’t say anything. “What are you doing out here? Better yet, what am I doing out here?”
He remains quiet as he steps up to her. Kayla stares at him in disbelief. Jackson reaches up and puts his hands on the sides of her face. Slowly, with heat in his eyes, he bends down to her. Kayla closes her eyes when their lips meet. The kisses are slow, and it makes every nerve inside of Kayla ignite. She runs her hands up his chest. Then before she knows it, they are pressed up against the tree. Kayla gasps but that doesn’t stop Jackson. He reaches down and pulls her against him. When his lips move to her jawline and then down her neck, Kayla says, “Jackson.” He doesn’t stop. “Jackson, wait,” she murmurs again. His hand reaches up the back of her shirt. “Jackson,” Kayla finally yells.
She bolts upright in bed, gasping. It takes her a minute to get her bearings. Kayla can still feel the press of his lips. She shivers a little when a cool breeze passes her, and she notices her window is open. Kayla scrambles over to close it, but what she sees outside startles her.
The dog is standing under her window. Before she can say anything, the mastiff turns and runs away. “What is going on?” Kayla breathlessly whispers.
It takes her a while, but she finally falls back asleep. Before she knows it, her phone is screaming for her to wake up. Grabbing it, Kayla rolls over in bed. The clock says 5:45. She squints her eyes and opens the text. It says: Good morning. Need a ride?
“What in the hell, Jackson,” she groans.
Texting back, she writes: IT’S QUARTER TO SIX IN THE MORNING! Are you crazy?!
The response is: I’m a morning person. Want to get breakfast?
Giving up, she calls his phone.
He picks up on the first ring. “Yes?”
“Are you insane? It’s too early in the morning to be up.”
Jackson laughs. “Nonsense. I want to go out for breakfast.”
“Then go,” Kayla mumbles, practically falling back asleep.
“I don’t know where to go. It’s six a.m.”
Kayla sits up and yawns. “You aren’t going to let me sleep, are you?”
“Probably not. Be ready in a half-hour.”
Running her fingers through her hair, Kayla says, “Yeah, that’ll happen. Give me forty-five minutes.”
“I’ll be outside your house in a half-hour, hurry up,” Jackson commands. “See you soon.”
After he hangs up, Kayla falls back on her bed. Then she remembers the dream. She shoots back up and covers her mouth. “Oh my God.” The images make her blush really hard. “How am I going to even look at him?” She shakes her head and gets up.
Thirty-five minutes later, Kayla quietly closes the front door. She left a note for her parents on the coffee maker, explaining she went out with a friend. Kayla may not have mentioned who that friend was, but her parents don’t usually ask questions.
Jackson is sitting in his car, tapping his hands on the steering wheel in time with the music. Kayla opens the door and gets in. She turns to him and glares. “Do you have any idea how tired I am?”
“Whine, whine, whine. I’m buying breakfast. Stop complaining.”
“I didn’t sleep very well.” Kayla sighs, setting her bag down.
There is silence as Jackson looks at her. “Wake up dirty again?”
She expels a breath. “No, weird dreams.”
“Were they at least good dreams?” Jackson asks, pulling away from her house.
“Depends on who you ask.”
Not paying her any attention, Jackson asks, “Where are we going?”
“There’s a diner a few blocks away from school on Hickory. They have awesome breakfasts. I’m totally getting French toast.”
“I have no idea why they call it that. So tell me about these dreams.”
Almost spastic, Kayla snaps, “No!”
A little wide-eyed, Jackson replies, “A simple, calm no would have sufficed.”
“Nothing I want to share. How did you sleep?”
“Good. I, too, had very odd…vivid dreams, but unlike you, mine were very enjoyable.”
Kayla’s face heats up. “Good for you.”
Looking at her out of the corner of his eyes, Jackson says, “Why are you turning a nice shade of red?”
“I’m hot,” Kayla spits out, rolling down her window.
“You’re weird,” Jackson states, rolling his down too.
With her gaze out the window, Kayla asks, “If I’m weird, why did you invite me to breakfast?”
“I wanted to go out, and eating by myself is lonely.”
“I thought you didn’t want me to get attach
ed.”
Jackson groans. “This isn’t a date or a week in Paris. It’s breakfast.”
“I sure hope a date for you isn’t going to a diner at six thirty in the morning. Not very romantic, if you ask me.”
He shakes his head. “A romantic morning would be a picnic looking at the horizon and watching the sun rise. You know, strawberries, food you can feed each other.”
“Wow, this sure isn’t a date. I feel like I’m getting gypped.”
“Do you want to get breakfast and watch the sunrise in a nonromantic kind of way? I won’t feed you food. I have my limits.”
Scoffing, Kayla says, “I wouldn’t want you to touch my food anyways. I have no idea where those hands have been.”
Jackson laughs. “I wash them regularly.”
“That’s good to know. So speaking of dating, any girls at school catch your eye?”
“There are a couple of cute girls, but nothing I would get serious about.”
Kayla just nods and puts her hand out the window. She feels the air rushing by with her fingers. “So…” she says. “Tell me something about yourself that I don’t know yet.”
“I’ve never had a girlfriend my parents approved of,” Jackson replies. He looks over his shoulder to change lanes. “Which makes it difficult to date.”
“The academy has a lot of reputable girls from good families. You’re bound to find a girl who meets their standards. Give it time. They’ll approve.”
He laughs. “I’m going to tell you something, but you have to promise to not take it the wrong way and let it go to your head.”
“What?” Kayla asks, horribly curious.
“You would be the only one they would approve of.”
Straightening, Kayla squeaks, “Me? Why me? They don’t know a thing about me.”
Jackson sighs. “It’s who you are that matters to them.”
Really confused, Kayla says, “My family isn’t royalty or anything.”
“Your family is important to them.”
“My dad is a botanist and my mother is his assistant. How in the hell is that important?”
Jackson looks thoughtfully out the window. “It’s your family heritage. I promise, I’ll explain it someday. Just leave it be for now.”