Page 75 of Reckless
My hands went beneath his shirt, feeling the muscles residing there. His flat, defined abs, his sculpted pectorals. I ran my fingernails down his bare chest, feeling him shudder beneath me as I picked up speed with my hips. I felt his cock twitching in his pants every now and then, like the dick was asking to be freed. Alas, freed it would not be. Not today.
Maybe I was overdoing it, but a part of me wanted to make him come in his pants by dry-humping him.
Eh, it was a worthy goal, I think.
I ground against him with vigor, rubbing myself along him, wishing there were no clothes between us to hinder the sensations. Archer moaned against my lips, his hands finding my hips and helping me keep a steady pace. His hips rocked every few moments, and eventually I had to stop kissing him just to breathe as I rubbed myself along him.
My clit was getting stimulation from the bulge in his pants, so it felt good for me, too. I didn’t think I’d orgasm, but that was fine. For once, this wasn’t about me.
Archer began to tense beneath me, and I took it as a sign to go at him harder, faster, to grind my hips along his length as viciously as I could. His chest rumbled with a groan, and I watched as his eyelids slammed shut. The fingers on the hands holding my hips squeezed as he came, and I kept my pace up until I was sure it was over.
“Oh,” he whispered as I rolled off him, “damn.”
I propped up my head on a hand, grinning at him. “See? Taking things slow can be fun.” At least his mom didn’t interrupt us that time—although we did miss a good chunk of the show. But that was fine. I knew Archer was only interested in it because I was. No way in hell that boy would be caught dead watching something like this by himself.
“You,” he said, turning his head to look at me, dimples appearing on his cheeks. Those damned dimples got me every single time. I was weak to them, really. “You’re going to be the death of me.”
I knew he didn’t mean it like that, but I hoped he was wrong. I didn’t want to be the death of him, or anyone else. I wanted everyone to be alive, safe and healthy. Was that so wrong?
“Don’t say that,” I told him, leaning my cheek against his chest, listening to his heart beating rapidly inside it.
“I mean it. It might sound stupid, but…I’ve never wanted anyone as badly as I want you. All of my life had been about trying to avoid Brittany, and then giving in to her every command because of the dirt she had on my family. I never let myself feel. I didn’t want to,” he said. “And then you came. You came and you ruined me, Jaz.”
I blinked, suddenly feeling so very tired. “I didn’t ruin you.”
“You did.”
“I didn’t mean to,” I murmured. I didn’t mean to ruin anybody. That was never my intention…until these Midpark kids tried to ruin me. Then it’d become tit for tat. I never came here with my eyes on destroying everyone here, making everyone realize that just because they had money didn’t mean they were safe. Really. All of that was just accidental, I guess.
“But you did.” Archer sighed, his racing pulse slowly getting under control. “I’m not complaining, but I know some people would.” He didn’t let his statement linger there—because there was a lot to unpack in what he said. Some people, namely those who’d died and the family members of those people, would do more than complain. He plowed on, “Now, uh, can I change? My boxers are a little wet.”
I blinked, innocence radiating off me. “Whatever do you mean, Archer?” If anyone could pull off sounding like an angel and acting like a devil, it was me. I had the sweet voice down pat.
He grinned, and I rolled off him, letting him get up, grab a new pair of jeans from his dresser, and disappear from the room. I assumed he went to the bathroom to change, and all the while, I couldn’t stop smiling to myself.
This was actually not a bad little date, if that’s what it was. Maybe it was just a hangout session, but I rather liked thinking it was a date. My mom would kill me if she knew I was seeing multiple guys at once, but I didn’t care. This was my life, and I was going to fight for it. Whoever the hell had it out for me had another thing coming if they thought I’d sit down, roll over, and show them my stomach.
No, I liked my life, and I’d fight like hell to keep it.
Chapter Twenty-Three – Jaz
The next week passed without many incidents. Even though I couldn’t hang out with Bobbi outside of school, I still told her all the gossip of my life. She was acting more normal now, as was everyone else in the school. Even though terrible things had happened, everything somehow found a way to return to normal.
Normalcy wasn’t Midpark’s strong suit, apparently. Kidnappings, blackmail, framed murders…the list went on and on, and frankly I was shocked at how used to it everyone was. For a town that claimed it never saw any crime or hardship, there definitely was an awful lot. But, in the end, I supposed that could be because of the money floating through this town. These people didn’t bleed red; they bled green. Wealth was the backbone of Midpark and even a few of its neighboring towns, like Hillcrest.
Hmm. Mom mentioned trying to apply for Hillcrest, see if I could get any scholarships or something. My grades weren’t stellar, and I didn’t have a whole lot of extracurriculars. Never got into clubs or anything like that, never did volunteer work or anything that wasn’t paid. I didn’t think I could get a scholarship to Hillcrest even if I tried.
Plus, you know, the window of time to apply for that sort of thing was closing, if not already closed. With everything that had been going on, college had been the last thing on my mind. It was like, deep down, a part of me worried that I wouldn’t live that long.
Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to. I desperately wanted to survive. I mean, who knew? Maybe things seemed calm right now because they actually were calm.
Or, and this was more likely, perhaps this was just the lull before the storm. The calm before things really turned to shit.
Yeah, I really hoped not.
But, alas, hoping for something did nothing to change reality.
I sat in my last class of the day, wishing time would speed up so I could go home. I had a lot of homework to do. For whatever reason, it seemed like every teacher today had decided it was a good day to assign multiple chapters and even papers. Ugh. Writing was not one of my strengths.
