Beautiful Brute (Court University 3)

Not a lie. I was supposed to be hanging out with my mom and Kit this weekend. Not to mention, me and water didn’t necessarily get along. It just wasn’t my favorite thing at all.

Jaxen being there only made it worse.

I believed his friends would genuinely keep him in check, but what would happen after this was all over? Just the thought of it made me sick, and even if I had a good reason to put myself into the ring of fire, I’d be hard-pressed to say this was it. My stepbrother was a psycho, mad. He absolutely hated my guts.

And the feeling definitely wasn’t far off from mine.

He wasn’t my favorite person, and being stuck on a boat with him? I wouldn’t put my enemies through that if I had any.

December ripped that dark hair of hers down, and picking up her bag, she threw it on her shoulder. “If you do already have plans, that’s fine, and you really don’t have to go. In fact, I get it if you don’t want to, but I think you should. It’ll be good for him.”

“How so?”

“I’m not sure actually,” she said, peering off in that direction. “I just know Jaxen Ambrose is one of my closest friends. He’s a good guy, but he hasn’t been so great since we’ve come down here. You obviously scare him.”

“I scare him?” I shook my head. “I think you’re wrong about that.”

“I don’t.” She smiled at me. “And you should come. It’ll be a good time, and Jax will get over that you’re there.”

Again, I think she was wrong about that. I huffed. “He hates me.”

“That’s the thing, I don’t think he does,” she said, surprising the hell out of me. She smiled again. “I just think he thinks he does.”

Chapter Fifteen

Cleo

“Have you lost your mind?” Kit blasted into the phone. Apparently, she was up and going because now she yelled at me. “Cleo… you hate water, and now, you’re stuck in the middle of the ocean with your stepbrother and his hotter than shit friends?”

Okay, she was being slightly melodramatic.

I mean, I wasn’t in the middle of the ocean.

Jax and his friends had sailed us just off the coastline. We were currently in the harbor, and I felt safe enough.

Enough.

Huffing, I believed maybe I had lost my mind in taking December up on her offer. I guessed… I didn’t know. I allowed her to get into my head a little.

“He thinks he does…”

I mean, what did that even mean? How did someone only kinda sorta hate you in their mind? There was hate or there wasn’t. No gray and Jax definitely ebbed more toward the “hate me” category.

I’d met the gang at the dock after they all left, and not only had my stepbrother not looked at me the whole boat trip thus far, he’d made sure enough space was between the pair of us that a small planet could probably be inserted into it.

That was saying something considering we weren’t on a huge vessel.

Jax’s friends had secured us something moderately sized. Not in the yacht category at all, but easily the largest sailboat in the harbor. As it turned out, all the guys had sailing experience and took turns. Knight took the majority of the time. But I think he only did that so he could cuddle with Greer around the ship’s wheel. He also let her wear his hat, which I found cute. He’d worn an actual captain’s hat after the boys had gone back to their rooms and changed, and Jax’s buddies and their girls had given him a huge hard time about that. I’d enjoyed watching their comradery. Enjoyed being a part of their good time. The only downside had been my stepbrother, who currently treated me as if I had an incurable disease. His friends had been doing well by him.

They kept me away from him.

The girls had literally swept me off to the one side of the boat while the boys played cards on the other after we’d anchored. Eventually, I grew tired of the deliberate separation and came down here below deck.

Kit hadn’t been awake when I came to ask her to go with me. She’d still been sleeping off her epic night of diarrhea, but I needed a buffer. It was either that or a way out of my situation. I thought maybe my mom would help out in that department.

“I actually think it’s a good idea,” she’d said when I had asked, hoping, praying for a way out. She’d touched my arm. “Your stepbrother needs a good time.”

Dad had been working at the time, also unusual. He was supposed to be hanging out with Jax all weekend, but not only had he been in the suite under a ton of work, he’d advised the same.