Page 22

Eden

No, you can’t lock yourself in a room and avoid all your responsibilities.

Yes, you can have a friend do it for you.

Jayk flicks the lock just as fists slam against the door.

Lucky shouts from the other side, and I sigh, stepping forward to unlock it.

Lucky has slept beside me every night since Cyanide.

He still wakes in a cold sweat, clutching me to him like I’m about to disappear like smoke between his fingers. I’m not locking him out.

But Jayk’s not having it.

As soon as I reach for the door, Jayk tosses me back over his shoulder and then dumps me on the bed. I lie there for a moment, stunned, then sit up with a huff—only for him to casually shove me back onto the mattress.

“Stay.”

I glare at him from my back, shoving my glasses back on.

“Would you like me to sit and roll over, too?” I ask with a saccharine smile.

He shrugs one shoulder, turning to the heavy side table. “Whatever gets you wet.”

I sit bolt upright as he picks the table up, and I try to ignore how his bare arms hardly strain under the massive weight. My cheeks singe with heat.

“It doesn’t ,” I splutter, and he throws me a mocking look, all knowing eyes and stupid muscles andthat mouth and...

Darn it!

I squeeze my legs together.

“Let me in, Jayk, or I’m breaking the damn door down!” Lucky shouts, pounding against the door.

Distracted, I shift toward the edge of the bed, and Jayk shoots me a warning glance.

Then he wedges the side table under the door handle.

I resist the urge to throw a tissue box at him. “Jayk, this isn’t helping. You can’t just lock my boyfriends out of my room!”

He steps back to admire his handiwork.

I force patience. “Maybe we could just?—”

“Try to get in now, asshole,” he shouts to Lucky, and my mouth clicks shut as I muffle a sigh.

There’s a loud bang that sounds awfully like someone throwing themselves against the door, and the wood shudders precariously. Jayk’s self-satisfied smirk fades into a scowl. He looks around, then quickly picks up a heavy chest from the corner.

It only takes a moment before he’s pushing the chest on top of the side table.

Oh boy.

He wipes the dust from his hands onto his tank, then gives me a brief, smug look. “They’re not your boyfriends anymore. You don’t have boyfriends. You have me.”

Don’t strangle him. Your hands are too small, and his neck is too thick.

I lean back and let my fists strangle the bedsheets instead. “You don’t get to decide that for me, Jayk.”

His gaze runs down the length of me where I’m sprawled on the bed, lingering on the surreptitious clench of my hands. A challenge glints in his eye.

My heart putters in excitement, flooding with the remembered thrill of a dozen fights. A dozen chases. Jayk taunting me into a fury that leaves me limp and airy and freed of all that hot, uncomfortable pressure.

Shivering, I unclench my hands. We can’t do that today. I’m channeling Jasper. We need to talk, so I’m staying calm. Reasonable .

I’m not going to slake all the frustrated anger of the last two weeks on his cock.

But a prodding, breathless question tumbles out of me anyway.

“If you’re not my boyfriend... what are you?”

The door shudders again with another collision, but this time Jayk ignores it, sizing me up with speculative interest. He strolls over to the bed, then puts his hands on either side of my hips, looming over me.

And suddenly, he’s very, very close.

Jayk is big and heavy and a little filthy. Here, I can see the lazy scruff on his chin he hasn’t bothered to tidy. The silky fringe of his lashes. Every tide of blue in his eyes.

Even irked as I am by this whole escapade, I’m only human, and I missed him dearly... and the seductive heat of his body is like a siren call.

Tingling all over, I tilt my face toward his.

His lips twist in a slow, mocking curl, every line of his body urging me to come play. “I’m your king.”

“Oh, no ,” I choke out, caught somewhere between outrage and horror. “You did not just?—”

He plants a hard, hot kiss on my mouth. In it, I taste greed and jealousy and a reckless, questing need. When he pulls back, his lips are damp, and his eyes swirl with taunting tempests.

“Feel free to get on your knees whenever you like, Miss Manners,” Jayk drawls.

My hand slaps over my lips, and I stare.

There’s a low flush in his skin, but despite his insufferable teasing, a slight breath of uncertainty sits under the cockiness.

A hesitant question that tells me we really do need to talk, no matter how much easier it might be to let him rip my clothes off with his teeth.

He’s made a statement here.

I need to make one too.

“Jayk—”

The door shudders again, and I suck in air, startled.

Lucky’s voice registers. “We have a sledgehammer somewhere. No, we do. Jayk had one. I’ve seen it. Jasper, he’s stealing her! No, I don’t give a shit if he’s protective of his tools.”

The vulnerability winks out of Jayk’s face.

He glowers at the door, then walks over to the tall bookcase.

“Just let him in,” I urge, exasperated. “Lucky’s allowed in my room, Jayk. I don’t want him taking down my door!”

“Would you stop saying that?” Jayk snipes. He examines the bookcase, looking behind it, then nods to himself, satisfied by whatever he sees there. “This ain’t your room, it’s our room. And they’re not allowed to touch my shit.”

I rub my temple. “Jayk, you just dumped all of Beau’s things out of his room like they were trash. Don’t you think this is a little hypocriti...”

I trail off as he starts sliding the massive bookcase toward the door.

His muscles gleam, finally put to real work, and he lets out a low, rough grunt of effort that makes me swallow.

Twice.

I blink. No . Bad . This is bad behavior.

He threw Beau out of our room, for goodness’ sake. He also moved himself in— without asking. Then he had the gall to toss me over his shoulder, declare to everyone that I was his property, and now he’s barricading me inside with him.

It’s really . . . It’s not . . .

I definitely don’t like . . .

A sneaky, slow heat begins to curl through me, and the sensible librarian in me slaps it down. Bad .

So, so bad , my sexed-up self purrs back, and I sigh, praying for strength.

“I think we need to have a talk about boundaries.”

Jayk pauses pushing the bookcase, quirking a confused brow at me.

“God damn it, Jayk. You can’t just take her!” Lucky shouts, his voice breaking. “She’s not a prisoner.”

My breath catches as it clicks.

Oh, Lucky.

“Jayk—”

His muscles strain as he pushes the bookcase a few more inches. “No.”

“ Yellow .”

He stops pushing instantly, giving me a sharp look, and I bounce myself off the bed.

“I need to talk to them for a second, Jayk. I’ll deal with you in a minute,” I mutter.

Eyeing me, he crosses his arms over his chest and leans back against the bookcase, abandoning his relentless barricading—and he nods at the door.

“Knock yourself out, then, sugar.”

I’m already hurrying over to the door, though there’s not a chance I can open it with everything piled the way it is.

The battering barrage at the door stops.

A moment later, there’s a neat knock.

“Who is it?” Jayk calls mockingly, and I shoot him a scowl.

“Jasper?” I ask through the door.

“Eden?” He sounds tired, and a frustrated resignation burns through my name.

“Can you please just confirm whether you’re okay?

If you don’t wish to spend the night with Jaykob, we’ll retrieve you.

” There’s a pause, and even through the door, I can feel that the frosty pressure has changed. “By whatever means necessary.”

I bite my lip against a blooming smile.

His concern catches me like a soft net after a panicked freefall... but it’s the way he leaves the choice with me, without guilt or pressure. I feel myself melting against the wall.

How is it that Jasper acting the gentlemen has the same visceral effect on me as Jaykob acting like a total brute?

I glance back at Jayk, who’s staring at the door with low, hostile brows.

Jasper isn’t a soldier, but he’d go toe-to-toe with Jaykob if I told him this isn’t what I want. And as entertaining as that might be.. .

“I’m okay here for tonight, Jasper. I think Jayk and I have a few things we need to clear up,” I tell him, and Jayk narrows his eyes at me.

“All right, sweet girl. We’ll see you in the morning.”

His voice is so tender, so absent of the wicked edges I’m used to from him that my forehead falls against the wall, and I sigh softly.

“No, just wait. Stop, Jasper, I need to—” There’s a scuffle of boots, and then Lucky’s voice gets louder.

“Eden, you don’t believe him, right? He doesn’t get to choose for you. I just... I love you.”

The vulnerability in his voice splits me like an opening vein.

I lift my head to give Jayk the most irritated look I can muster, and he just gives me a withering one back.

“Jasper, would you kiss Lucky for me?” I ask huskily.

There’s no immediate answer, but then there’s a soft thunk against the door and the sound of hot, urgent breaths.

I touch my lips, listening like some debased deviant, fueled by every sound.

I hear their clothes shifting together and I know they’re close, locked against one another, their mouths a tangle of lips and tongues.

There’s a low, broken groan that shudders right through me.

“Fuck,” Lucky curses breathlessly a moment later.

My lips tremble under my fingertips. I’m tingling all over, picturing the dazed, dizzy way Lucky always looks at Jasper after a kiss.

“Thank you,” I whisper.

“Of course,” Jasper murmurs back thickly. “I’ll take care of him, Eden.”

I know he will.

I take a steadying breath. “I love you, Lucky. I promise that no one”—I glare at Jayk, who scowls—“can change that.”

Their footsteps fade as they leave, and I send up a quick prayer that Jasper can do more for Lucky than I’ve been able to, then turn to face the room.

I have my own battle tonight.