Beautiful Brute (Court University 3)

I didn’t stop until I heaved a shuddered breath.

Eventually, I got myself together enough to strip off my clothes and scrub up, being extra careful. I was still so sore, but I had to scrub. Jax’s voice was in my head.

God.

My stomach rolled the entire time, but I managed not to throw up again. I tried to make it as quick as I could, knowing Mom, Dad, and Jaxen were waiting for me. I didn’t know what he’d do if I took too long.

Tell them?

Do worse?

I didn’t know what any of this was, nor why he tried to hurt me. I just knew he had, and I was shaking when I finally did turn off the shower. Moving quick, I grabbed a towel, wrapping it around myself. I stepped out and immediately went for my toiletry bag.

I wiped the mirror before opening it up, then brushed my teeth. I gurgled in the shower, but still, my mouth tasted awful.

A heavy breath and I stared at dead eyes in the mirror. They’d been eyes filled with life and excitement just last night. Jaxen had managed to steal that away.

But… why?

How could someone who didn’t even know me be so cruel to me? He’d had to have known who I was last night, right? I mean, I told him my name.

He had to know.

I just summed up that he had to have been crazy, a complete lunatic. It was the only explanation. Normal people didn’t just do things like that to people they didn’t know, and I’d never met the guy before last night.

Yeah, he just must be crazy.

All well and good until I realized he was my stepbrother and I did have to be around him. Heck, we even were taking a road trip tomorrow. I was supposed to drive us both back to campus. Me to start my senior year and him to start his own.

Immense fear racked my shoulders at what that trip may contain, but before I could ralph again, I padded for my birth control pills. I usually took them first thing in the morning. Obviously, I hadn’t been having sex, but I had such bad periods I’d been taking them since high school.

I pulled the pack out, then filled up my rinse cup on the sink. After, I fingered the pack but dropped the whole thing at the sight of extra pills.

Oh my God.

I counted one, then two missed, something I never did, but my routine had been off being home and not at school.

“…my cum’s still inside you.”

Holding my mouth, I ran, then dry heaved over the toilet, remembering how Jaxen and I had broken a condom last night. I hadn’t thought much about it at the time because I’d believed I had been on birth control. It’d even felt good with him inside me, the unrestricted heat of him. I’d actually felt molten inside after I realized.

Only to find out he was my stepbrother.

I let a crazy person come inside me, someone related to the man I called father. There was obviously no blood relation, but still.

But still…

Immediately, I took the pill for today, then sprinted from the bathroom, rushing to my bedroom. I threw on the first thing I could find, a sundress and sandals before towel drying my hair as well as I could. I grabbed my purse, phone, then rushed down the stairs.

The laughter stopped me at the base.

Three voices, my adoptive father, my mom… and Jax. They seemed to be having the time of their life without me somewhere in the house, but I couldn’t let them see me.

I needed to go to the drugstore.

With careful steps, I toed out of the house, then ran for my bicycle. My long-handled Schwinn rested against the tree in our front yard so I took that, knowing if I opened the garage door and got my car, the house would hear. The drugstore was also only a couple blocks away, and I preferred riding instead of driving whenever I could anyway, better for the environment.

I didn’t turn back, peddling as hard as I could. I tried not to think about the fact I could definitely have my stepbrother’s baby for being stupid. Because if I thought about it, even an iota of the thought, I may be sick to my stomach again. He’d screwed me definitely knowing who I was, did that when I hadn’t even done anything wrong to him. Imagine what he’d do if I actually did something to cross him.