Page 33 of Break

My chest squeezes under the weight of his gaze. He shakes his head. “I could fucking grovel. I could beg for your forgiveness. I could say I was a stupid kid, but does it change anything?”

“Maybe a real apology would. Unlike Knox breaking into my place or Dimitri cornering me,” I scoff as I fix him with a warning glare. He'd better not try anything like his friends did, but what can I expect from them? They’re bound by their desire to stir up trouble.

Jaxon leans his head to the side, then takes a slow breath. “I’m sorry it happened the way it did. I’m not sorry it happened. I’m not sorry you came on my cock. I’m sorry you disappeared after. And I’m sorry I didn’t beat your father’s face in earlier.”

I blink at him as I try to process his words. Did he just say he wasn’t sorry about some things?

“That’s your apology?”

“I mean every word,” he says, his eyes dragging me deeper and deeper. “Every fucking word, Hope. So how about you tell mewhat you need, and if you tell me, ‘Leave me alone,’ I’m going to prove why you don’t want that.”

My heart lodges in my chest. One of the biggest, strongest men I know just asked what I want. What I need. It’s the bare minimum. I know that. It’s nothing at all in the grand scheme of things, but the earnestness that flashes across his gaze before he hides it softens some of my sharp edges.

“I want you to listen to me, Jaxon. I want you to understand how much you hurt me. All three of you,” I whisper.

His hand strokes over mine, then he pulls me closer, until my breasts are balancing on the table. I swallow, forcing myself to continue because he needs to hear my words. He needs to hear my paine . “Every time you saw me flinch. Every time you mentioned how easy I was. Every time you saw him put me on his lap.”

Jaxon frowns as his eyes train on mine, his brow furrowing in thought. “You’d turn your face to his shoulder. We thought you were embarrassed. I know it’s not an excuse, that’s just…”

“He was my father and he was touching me like that. That’s reason enough to stop it. I was embarrassed. I was humiliated. I was hurt, and I knew if I cried or said no or fought, he would just…”

“You will never deal with him again. He will never touch you again, Hope. Never. I can’t erase what he did, but trust me. He won’t make the mistake of touching you or eventhinkingabout touching you again,” Jaxon snarls.

I’d be stupid to think that he did it for me. It wasn’t. Maybe in small part, it was because Jaxon heard my no and acted whenI couldn’t. In a bigger way, it was for him, for Dimitri, and for Knox. Because they see me as their toy, their possession.

I lean back as I remember that. Something hot laps at my stomach, anyway. As much as I shouldn’t want to be theirs… I shouldn’t be okay with their thinking that about me… but maybe there are worse things in life than having three men who now want to protect me, even if on some level, they want to hurt me too.

“Go play. I’ll check the box,” I whisper.

Jaxon stands, then pauses. “Get Jared in line. Knox looks at him like he’s the next punching bag he’ll break.”

“Maybe I like the way he looks at me,” I whisper, knowing that I’m toeing a line. A very guarded line.

Maybe I just want to see how they react.

Smirking, he shakes his head. “No, you don’t. He doesn’t notice how fake your smile is. He’s too focused on your ass. Which is very distracting, by the way.”

Jaxon walks away, whistling as if he’s never known the sting of an insult or an ounce of pain. The song he whistles is stuck in my head until after their scrimmage. I should be there, should be on the field, but I’m second up to bat, not first.

The lead athletic trainer is there. I just have to stay at my post, so I clean everything, go over my reports, make sure everything is in line until I hear some cursing.

“I don’t need a fucking emergency room. There are doctors on staff here for a reason!” Knox’s voice is beyond pissed. It’s dark and lethal. Which means he’s going to be dumped on my table.

So much for a few days of peace being my new norm.

Nineteen

KNOX

Yeah, I’m playing it up a bit, but my ankle definitely hurts. Pain pulses through my foot, curling my toe with every pulse of my heart. It throbs and feels like it’s growing by the second, and taking my shoe off was clearly a mistake. I take off my jersey, my padding, and throw my helmet at something.

“It’s not my fault!” I yell at the athletic trainer as he tells me to be morecareful.

“Sure, sure,” he says.

I want to wipe that smile off his face. I grit my teeth. It’s to see Hope. I need to see Hope, and she keeps scurrying away from me. She sure as hell won’t let Dimitri get more than a few seconds of her attention.

Hope comes out in her normal uniform, but her hair is in a braid today. God, I could wrap it around my fist so easily, tell her it’s my cock that’s hurt and it needs CPR or a good groping to make sure it’s not broken. She couldn’t refuse that, could she?

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