Enemies

by Tijan

Joe: Reeves called me. You’re good. Stone. My heart jumped up in my throat.

was just to the back door when a hand grabbed my wrist. “I don’t think so.” I was pushed against the building.

The first thought and emotion that flashed through me was finally! Finally, he came for me. Finally, he sought me out. Finally, he remembered me. Finally, he cared.

“Got a call earlier.” “I’m sure you did.” I was resigned.

He shifted closer, lowering his head so he was peering at me eye level. “Got a call saying that the girl with the blue hair, that I hadn’t looked at her close enough.” He touched my hair. “Apparently, none of us had looked at her hard enough, but why would we? Different hair. You’ve lost weight. More pale.” He skimmed me up and down, a sneer tugging at his lip. “What the fuck have you been doing to yourself?”

Anger surged up and I smacked his hand away. I seethed, “You don’t get to stand there and judge me.” His eyes flashed again. Hot. “Yeah?” “Yeah.” I was in his face now because fuck him. My body was craving him. My heart was aching for him.

“You don’t get the right to sit up on your high horse and judge me on the ground. You don’t get that right, Mr. I’m So Fucking Talented and I have the whole fucking world at my feet. Mr. My parents’ marriage might be a sham and unhappy, but we got a house and we got land and we got money to insure we never have to go cold or hungry. You don’t have that right because you might have shitty parents, but you still have paren—” His lips were on mine. God.

I shoved him back. “Get off of me!” He was right back, his hands in fists, hitting the building beside me. He snarled, “Why? Goddammit, tell me why. One fucking good reason!” “Because you’re not the long game.” He flinched, as if I’d slapped him. And to hell with it. “Because I could fall in love with you, and I know that you don’t love me. You’ll never love me. I’m a body you think fondly of, and if you care anything about me, give me that much honesty.”

I spoke another truth, one I needed from him. “Let me hate you.”

I needed his rejection, because then I could walk away, once and for all. “I served your mom today.” He tensed, but looked at me. A wall came down over his face.

I was going to make him hate me. I was going to make us enemies, once and for all.

“You said you didn’t look hard enough, but she did.” I raised an eyebrow. “She looked me in the face. She looked me in the eye. She saw my hair, and guess what her reaction was? She was disgusted by me.” He drew in a shuddering breath. His head lowered, his eyes were closing.

I was right there, right in his face. “I was beneath her. I was the dirt under her shoes, the dust on her expensive furniture, and you know what’s funny? I’m so used to it, that’s what I prefer now. I can’t remember when she tried to teach us to cook. I don’t remember that woman anymore.”

“Dust.” A low warning from him. I didn’t care. My breath was on him. I knew it was and I was doing everything I could to make him snap. “That woman back then, she hadn’t been the waste of space that she’s become now. Does she even mother you? Is she proud of you? Does she see a trophy son? Are you the reason she stays in their pathetic marriage? Drinking. Driving drunk. Lying about it. That’s just the stuff she did to destroy my family, what’d she do to destroy yours?” His hand flashed out, wrapping around th...

I was going to torture him. I would haunt him. I would say the words that he only thought, but never wanted to hear out loud. I would give him that gi...

“She’s an alcoholic, Stone.” “Shut up.” “She hates her life.” “I said to shut up.” “She hates your father.” He started to look away. I grabbed his face, holding him in place, and I leaned forward, pressing a soft kiss to the side of his mouth. “Do you wonder if she stays with him for his money? Or is it really just you? If he didn’t have the money, if you didn’t have the notori...

I kissed the other side of his mouth. “Do you wonder if she would’ve left you with him long ago if you guys were poor? If your family would’ve changed places with mine?” “Jesus,” he grated out, starting to pull away. I was on him, both my hands locked behind his neck. He couldn’t get away from me. I was a leech on him now. I was sucking the will ...

“What about your father?” “Stop.” He reached behind him, took my hands, and thrust me off of him. I hit the wall, and I felt alive. Maybe for the first time since being in his arms....

I leaned forward, dropping my voice to a whisper. “Be honest. You got the call from Colby and what? You couldn’t leave because of your parents? I’m right, aren’t I? You were with them, catering to them, giving them the royal treatment, and you knew if you left to come for me, your mother would have questions. She’d want to know the answers, and I bet you anything that you couldn’t come to me at the stadium because Mother Dearest would’ve had a fit. And I bet you even more that she hates that you made your father pay for my schooling, that you made them both pay for my parents’ funeral costs, that they had to pay for all of that because your mother is one twisted sick piece of fu—” His hand wrapped around the back of my hea...

It was a boulder balancing on the edge of a cliff and I was going to knock that fucker completely off. “Did you know that your dad gave me a ride home one night ...

“I was working at your parents’ supermarket and my car wouldn’t start. It was the beginning of November, so temps were bad. Mom was already in Hospice by then. We knew the house was going on the market for a short sale, so I didn’t want to bother my dad. But your dad saw me walking home and he pulled over.” “Dusty,” he clipped out. He started shaking his head. “If this is a lie, I swear to God…”

“You know when you meet someone and they want you? But you don’t want them? It’s plain as day to you. They might not say anything to you, but it’s in their eyes. They track you everywhere you go.”

I leaned into his left ear and murmured, “That’s how your father was the whole ride home. He could barely watch the street. He kept looking at me, his eyes running the length of my body. He liked what he saw. He wanted what he saw. He wanted more than what he saw. He wanted to touch me. He wanted to taste me. I can’t help but wonder now, like father, like son?” He yanked on my hair, whipping my head back. “You are such a bitch.”

“Hey…oh!” Bass ripped through the air as the back door of the Quail opened. Joe stood there, taking us both in. “Uh. Sorry.” He started to close the door, but paused and grimacing, he looked back. “I need Dusty to come in and work. We’re slammed.”

Stone moved his mouth to my ear, the one closest to where Joe was standing. He spoke in a normal sounding voice, “Take your hand off my dick.” “Shit.” From Joe. I did so, releasing him, but my thumb ran over his tip as a parting goodbye. “Pull your hand out of my pants.” I did so, half-laughing as I felt his hand flexing to cup the back of my head. “Now.” He nipped at my earlobe with his teeth. “Zip me up.”

I moved so I could use both hands to close his pants. Once I was done, Stone pulled my head back to his and he had one last hot and demanding kiss for me. Releasing me, he stepped back. “She’s all yours.” He was staring right at me as he said those words and I got the message.

He was done.

I ran a hand down the side of his face, smoothing his hair back. “You’re going to be so tired for tomorrow.” “I don’t give a fuck about how tired I am,” he grated out. His eyes flashing hot and fierce. “I do.”

He grasped my hand before it would’ve fallen away. “I don’t have words for you right now. Colby sent me the article. I was sleeping. I didn’t hear my phone go off, so he called me. I was starting to chew him out, but he told me to stuff it and check my texts. Said I would want to know as soon as possible. He was right. I read that article and the next thing I know, I’m in my truck, heading over here. I don’t remember leaving the house, or the drive over. I was just here. I was in a blind panic. If you got hurt? If you were taken away from me?” His voice cracked. “Stop. Sssshhh.”

“If anything had happened to you.” He cut himself off. “Something already did happen to you.” He looked up, his eyes haunted. “If I was the cause for that…” I shook my head,...

I loved him. I knew it then.

“I’m fine. Everything’s fine,” I murmured against his lips.

He held onto me, framing my face, searching me. “I left you before. I gave you space. I’m done with that. Fuck whatever you think. Just fuck it. Fuck this enemies shit between us. That’s done. Got it? I’m not walking, not again. I can’t—” I ...

STONE

I wish it was POV the whole time.

I sat on the edge of the bed the next morning, actually just five hours later. I needed to go. I needed to go to my home, start my day. I needed to head to the stadium. I needed to get ready. We had a game tonight, but as hard as I tried, I couldn’t leave. My ass wouldn’t leave that fucking bed and I couldn’t stop watching her. She needed sleep. Not me. I was fucking wired. This asshole, some asshole, hurt my girl. Because that’s what she was. Mine.

She was no one else’s and I should’ve shut that shit down long ago. I knew why she walked. I got it, and a part of me wondered if she was doing the right thing, but fuck that. No more. I was done staying away. I was done keeping quiet and not making her talk. We needed to talk. Talking. Shit. We barely talked. We fought, then we went to bed. That’s how we communicated, and I was trying to tell her all the ways I care...

Except I couldn’t make myself leave her room. I couldn’t even get off the bed, and I needed to get off the bed. I’d be fined so damn much money if I didn’t show, but every cell in my body was screaming at me to curl back in her bed, pull her...

Her. Me. Our bed. Yeah. It wasn’t my bed anymore. It was ours. She just didn’t know it.

“She had a stalker.” “What?!” the girl squawked, bolting upright.

“It’s why she came down here. A stalker.” The QB 1 sat up, suddenly all serious and yeah, he better be. I clipped my head at him. “You’re here. You’re here when I can’t be. That piece of shit is dead, but there might be others. Her name, her face, it’s getting out there. And she’s mine. I ain’t keeping quiet about that anymore. She’s going to get more attention, more focus, and that brings haters. Bitch catty women and dirty perv assholes. Sick fucks, too. She and I haven’t talked, she doesn’t know the lengths I’m going to, but I’m going to them. If she stays here, and if she chooses, I’ll be here most nights, but I’m going to try to get her to my house. But if she stays, you’re on duty. Got it?”

The QB nodded. “Got it.”

“What is going on here?” “Good. I’ll have a guy parked out front all day. He’s her ride. She ain’t walking anywhere alone today and tonight. There’ll be a car of her own here by end of the day.” I bit out and turned for the door. “I got a game, then I’ll be back to either sleep here or collect her for my place.”

Things were different today. Everything was different. I was staking my claim and I wasn’t going away. Hell to the fuck no.