Inevitable (Stonewood Brothers, #1)

by Shain Rose

Jax whispered so softly that I barely heard it, “Your hair, Peaches, what happened to your beautiful hair?”

That was the day I realized I’d do anything for that girl. It was the day I realized I loved her.

Every run, he kissed me senseless. I didn’t ask him what we were. I didn’t even mention the kisses. I just took what Jax Stonewood was willing to give. I fell madly in love with him. The night he took my virginity, he let me be awkward. He soothed every imperfection and worry I had, like he knew every one of them. He’d found every weakness of mine and made me feel like it was a strength. That night, he told me he needed me. There was a rarity in Jax Stonewood needing anything from anyone. I naively thought that would keep us together.

I was fucking doomed when it came to her. She was the only thing I believed in. She was my heaven and hell.

“That’s evidence that I remember. I remember the first time with you, taking what was mine, is mine, and will always be mine. Fucking you is all I think about.”

Beside that lake, I did the most selfish thing I could have ever done. I fucked her, branded her as mine, and took everything I could, knowing I would break her by leaving her behind that night. I just didn’t know I’d be breaking myself too.

“Yes, well, if memory serves me right, you left me high and dry six years ago. Didn’t return a call or text. Didn’t even send a postcard letting me know we were over. So, forgive me if I don’t want to exchange niceties about what you remember about me.”

“Well, everyone calls me that now, Jax.” She may not have meant it as an insult but her grouping me in with everyone else felt like a sucker punch to the gut. I wasn’t supposed to be everyone. I was supposed to be the only one.

“Falling in love sneaks up on you. You don’t stand at the edge and decide to jump. Someone, probably the person you’re about to fall for, pushes you over the edge with a little gesture, a little hint, a subconscious action. Then it’s all over. You’re falling and humans can’t fly. We don’t get a shot to catch ourselves mid fall. I don’t want to fall for you, and you don’t want to fall for me.”

Jay’s shoulders bunched a little. “You belong anywhere I am, Brey. Always.”

“I don’t want anything to do with you, either.” My stomach dropped, like it couldn’t handle him throwing back my words. “Doesn’t necessarily mean we get a choice. I think we can agree what we have isn’t healthy.” “We don’t have anything.” “We did, we do, and we always will if we don’t try to work it out together.”

“I wonder, do all your friends know how you sound when you’re coming?”

“She had to face everyone and tell them why you left, why she wasn’t good enough for you to stay, why you visited the guy who burned her house to the ground and almost killed her. I had to listen to her cry at night and try to explain why you left. She might not act like it, but she’s still broken.”

Love was an addiction and overdosing on it left bad toxicology reports, destruction, and fatalities.

“Same goes from years ago, Peaches. Don’t apologize for letting me see you.”

“It’s still one of the sexiest things I’ve ever seen in this world and one of the only things I can’t seem to live without. No matter how fucking hard I try.”

“Because I need to know how long it's going to take me to erase every time you were with him from your memory.”

“Yeah, and I love her more than I do my music, my life, and my damn soul combined,”

“It's been years but my body still remembers exactly how your skin feels up against mine.” She licked her lips, “Jax …” “I’m not saying you’re the best I’ve ever had.” The fire lit up in her eyes again. “Are you ser—” “And I’m not saying I’m the best you’ve ever had. But our bodies connect. When I see you, I want to be inside you. I want to fucking own you. Nothing else.”

We owned one another. Our souls were burned together, welded and molded by so much molten emotion that no one—not him, not Jay, not even fucking Frank—could split us up. I knew, because I had tried to split that bond myself.

Your eyes burn with the fire of life, baby. They’re wild, sometimes, like a caged animal when you want to break free of some shit standard you’ve set for yourself.”

“I’ve tried to let it go. To let it go means I have to let you go too. And for some reason, I just can’t seem to do that.”

I make the moments and rules with us, baby.”

“Fine. Logically, I'm territorial of you. Even though it was six years ago since you were exclusively mine.”

Whatever force there is between us, it’ll destroy the fucking world, Whitfield, before it lets us forget about it or be casual.” His words rumbled out of him. “We’re inevitable.”

“Life without really living at all isn’t any way to live.”

“Jay, if we could have forgotten each other, maybe we would have. But she wasn’t ever okay without me. Just like I wasn’t okay without her.”

“Everything she does without me is an act, a fucking way to get through the day. I know it because I do the exact same thing.

“You two are perfect together. He looks at you like the sun on the water.”

“I don’t know another damn soul that has fucked with a person the way you two fuck with each other.”

“If what we have is unhealthy, I don't want to be healthy. I'll take the fucking heart attack."

People who say all is fair in love and war haven’t really loved or fought in a war.