Page 30 of King of Jokers

He grabbed me by the waist, throwing me down onto the bed, the sun beaming through the windows, making it supremely obvious it was no longer night time.

“No rules means our arrangement has no more limits, right?”

“Mmmmhmmmm,” I answered, the promise of chaos already making my skin prickle. But maybe in a good way.

“Excellent,” he said before speaking against my lips. “Because I am going to F-U-C-K you while the morning light sweeps across your face in the most beautiful of ways.”

I grinned against his mouth, opening to tease his tongue with my own, before gingerly wrapping my arms around his neck. Rules like this were definitely meant to be broken.

“Okay, so about that goal?” Jack was lathering sunscreen into my back and I rolled my eyes, thankful he couldn’t see my face.

“Urgh. I hoped you’d forgotten.”

“Here,” he handed me the sunscreen and moved to sit in front so I could return the favour.

I took my time listlessly gliding the cream over the contours of his back, both enjoying the task and determining which I would admit.

“My 2025 goal is to send my manuscript to a publishing house.”

He swung around, his face alight with pride. “Win, that’s awesome. Andy’s fiance Arna works in the industry and apparently she reads constantly. Want me to ask her?”

“That would be good actually. I have no idea where to even start so if you wouldn’t mind.”

“She will probably use it as an opportunity to finally meet you. She was super pissed when she heard you’d come to stay and she hadn’t met you yet.”

“Why?” I was confused. No one ever wanted to meet me, especially anyone from Jack’s world. I was always the painful plus one he thrust into situations where everyone wished I wasn’t there.

I tapped his back indicating he was thoroughly protected from the UV and laid back on the poolside recliner.

“What do you mean why? Because you matter to me. I’m fairly certain she thought I made you up for a while until Andy confirmed he had in fact met you before.” He shook his head but I could see the warmth on his face. These were his friends and he cared about them. As much as it made me happy he wasn’t alone I couldn’t help the little bit of jealousy which crept in. Jealousy at the time and attention which used to belong to me but was now spread with a circle of people I didn’t even know.

“I know I always say no because I am a socially inept loser, but I would really like to meet your friends one day.”

He walked to the edge of the pool and stretched. “There is nothing I want more than for you to meet them all. They would love you. Especially Arna, Marlee and Felicity. You would definitely need earplugs because they are loud as fuck, but you would love them.” He dove into the water, surfacing at the edge near my feet. “Come on, get in.”

“I can’t,” I said pressing the button on my phone so I could see the time. “It’s only been eighteen minutes since we ate.”

“So?”

“You have to wait thirty minutes after eating. That’s the r–” I stopped, slapping a hand over my mouth and jumping up.

“That’s what?” He asked teasingly.

“Argh, nothing. I just need – urgh nevermind.” I added forcefully which made Jack laugh and splash water at me. God. These ingrained bullshit things were so natural to me. I needed to be more careful otherwise he was going to win and my life would become unplanned.

I dipped my toe in, testing the temperature. Maybe I could stand heretesting the waterfor twelve more minutes.

“Just get in, would you?” He called with raised eyebrows.

“Fine,” I huffed, diving into the pool and surfacing next to him.

“What’s your goal?” I asked, realising he hadn’t told me his.

“To do a handstand for ten seconds.” He said, dipping below the water as his legs suddenly appeared. I laughed as not even two seconds later his feet collapsed as gravity brought him back to the surface.

“That was terrible. And it doesn’t count. Proper answer.”

“Hmmm. My goal for this year…” He paused, his lips pulling to one side in thought, “My goal is to forgive myself for a stupid mistake.”

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