Inevitable (Stonewood Brothers, #1)

by Shain Rose

“Now, you have my number. Let me know what times work best for you to study. And we’ll probably have to find a more secluded place than this café.”

We spent two hours going over material that I’ll admit was as boring as shit. But I’d be damned if I didn’t enjoy working through it with her.

“What the hell, man?” “I just did your chores and studied with Aubrey. You owe me.” He shot up off the couch. “You what? What time is it?”

“It’s noon? I told your ass to wake me up at eight!” he yelled. He stomped into the kitchen and back again. “You saw her? Is she pissed?”

“Calm down. She’s taken care of. I helped her with her class like I said.” “You helped her?” He eyed me. “You helped her? Ha!”

“You act like I can’t be cordial to your high-and-mighty princess.”

“The past is the past. She doesn’t need apologies. I’m going to help her through the rest of the class.”

“That’s impossible, man. You don’t know what you—” “We’re adults, Jay. What we had when we were kids is irrelevant.”

“At least for once they said she was leaving me for someone and not the other way around.” What the media didn’t realize was that Aubrey was really leaving me behind. They

Then Rome was in the picture and suddenly I was damn close to buying the magazines just to figure it out.

“Jay, he was all over her at your graduation ceremony.” “Man, that’s none of your business and you know it.” “Fine. Do you trust him with her though?” He sighed. “She’s like my baby sister. I don’t trust anyone with her. She trusts him though.”

“Well, I don’t know why she picked you two. Katie is ...” I trailed off. There weren’t words to describe her. “Brutal.” Our eyes met. I could see there was an unspoken agreement there. Katie was a fierce best friend, the only one I would want for Aubrey.

“That’s rich coming from you. What’s your latest sugar daddy’s name?” She rolled her eyes. “Just ’cause the men I’m with can provide for me and you can’t provide for any woman ...”

“Fuck you, Brey. Get your shit together. This is a fucking bad idea, and if Rome is the only one who agrees with me, so be it. Jax is a bad toxicology report waiting to happen. You were addicted once and the next time you get addicted, you won’t survive it.”

“No. You don’t get to answer the question about closure.” She poked his chest again. “You don’t have closure. You used Brey as a distraction. You keep using every woman you sleep with as a temporary closure that just leaves a larger, gaping hole afterward—”

“He does what he has to do. Everyone has their demons.”

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

“Where are you?” His voice sounded soft, quiet. “The librarian is trying to kill me with her glare. Seems phones are frowned upon here.”

“Fine, but next time you decide to arrive with tea, try to do it without scaring people into injury.”

“I’m not on TV or in a magazine right now, so I think jeans are fine. I’m sure you don’t always wear black.”

I didn’t answer because nothing mattered but his hand rubbing my hip slowly. Soothingly. Nicely. Just like he used to do. Each circle would dip under my shirt and then cause my jeans to ride a little lower. “Peaches, your hip okay?”

“Sweet Sin,”

“When I get as close to you as I did a second ago and I’m tempted beyond reason, it’ll always be what I call you.”

“You want to talk about my Sweet Sin album and tour, I’m happy to, babe. Calling women on my tour ‘Sweet Sin’ is basically a damn memorial to you anyway. I named my album and my tour after you.” “It’s a memorial to me when you call them a name you once called me and then make out with them in front of millions of people watching on TV?”

“It meant a little something to me when my ex called other women a name he’d only used when he couldn’t resist me the night before he left. Not only did you use it with them, you used it the same way.”

“Aubrey, before you know it,”—he didn’t even make the effort to glance up from my work for the reprimand—“you’re going to hurt that pretty face of yours by glaring at me. So, stop it.”

Aubrey: Studying with your brother and I haven’t killed him yet. Jay: I’m surprised... contemplated it every day since he’s been here.

“You just think because you’re so damn brilliant that everyone else is too. Then, when they can’t see your logic, you can’t be bothered. Your logic is so obvious to you that you can’t fathom anyone else having another opinion or idea. Rolling Stone thinks you’re so lethal and dominating and blah, blah, blah.”

“You’re not any of those things. You’re just an arrogant ass who can’t see past his own views, who can’t help anyone else to understand. I mean, would it kill you to elaborate for once in your life? To answer one godforsaken question? I mean, really—”

He pushed me and I let him. Somehow, he irked me just enough to get under my skin, to move past my manners and let the raw, unhinged side out of me.

“I love your sass, woman, I actually miss it. Can you believe that?” His eyes twinkled. “But give me a chance to defend myself.”

“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.”

“Let yourself fly a little. Playing it safe won’t get you anywhere in this class or in life.”

“And no suit again, I see. Guess I’m just not good enough for those TV clothes.”

The woman was a magician, and chai tea was my favorite even if I wasn’t going to admit it to him. It tasted of memories, sweet and so painful, and I normally avoided it.

His fans begged and begged him to. Instead, he would just repeat to any inquiry that investing was his true passion and he wanted a quiet life.

Was he still with the woman all the magazines said he was with? Were they exclusive? Did he love her like he loved me? Had he ever really even loved me?

Winner: Library at 1? Aubrey: I think I got this assignment handled. Going to take a rain check and work on it alone today. Winner: I guess I’ll go into the city to work then.

Jax leaned onto the door and looked me up and down. He did it as slow as the Big Bad Wolf had when he’d looked over Red Riding Hood.

“Cinnamon. I swear, I am addicted to it.” He ran his hand through my hair on the other side of my face and I felt him fiddling behind my head. My hair fell out of its bun in waves. “Come to dinner with me tonight. I’ll take you anywhere you want.”

“Busy doing what? Working on the assignment you’re supposedly working on now?” he said, stepping toward me again. My anger slipped as his eyes twinkled. "Just dinner, Brey."

"You want me to dump her?” He drawled the questions as if it was all a joke. “So, you want this to be a date? Not just working through things and being friends anymore?"

I didn’t care whether she would mind or not. Because I did. That was the real problem.

Rome: Just left a married woman’s house. You don’t want to know ... Can we reconsider not hooking up anymore? :-P Aubrey: Throw me to the curb and get served. You’re on your own. Rome: Cold, woman, real cold.

As his tennis shoes hit the pavement, his calf muscles took the impact gracefully. Every stride was fluid. His muscles stretched and bunched, drawing my eyes to them along with every other part of my body. The way he ran reminded me of how he moved doing other things. Things I shouldn’t be remembering.

“Let me know the next time you’re going to run outside looking that good. Can’t have you going alone.”

“Jax, we should get up,” I whispered. I just knew. He gave me that calculating look and then mumbled, “Fuck it.” I. Just. Knew. His lips crashed down onto mine. As I gasped, he shot his tongue in my mouth, reclaiming it as his like he’d never lost the title. He staked his flag on the territory and not even I could fight the war and win. We weren’t equal opponents here. It was predator meets prey. I couldn’t survive because he’d already ripped me open.

He tasted like he used to and of so much more than he used to. This was Jax grown-up, primed, and aged perfectly. His hand snaked up my shirt, and finally I realized where we were and what we were doing.

When I pulled a small cardholder out of my sports bra while we stood in line, his smirk turned wolfish, “What else are you hiding in there?” I glanced around. “Shut up.”