Beautiful Brute (Court University 3)

And I had so much more in store.

I was going to ruin what he had. What he built.

And it’d start with his ho of a stepdaughter.

How easy it would be for me to crush this fucker where he stood? To tell him exactly what me and his precious little stepdaughter had been up to. How she was all over me?

And how she was just as much of a slut as his wife.

“I think we should call it a day, Dad,” I stated, completely mocking him before wetting my lips. “I’m sure you got some girls to get back to.”

After all, he’d brought them, hadn’t he? Made sure they were here with us during a weekend to get to know me. That’s what he’d actually said.

And I’d fallen for that shit.

Rick’s eyes twitched wide at that last statement, but as I didn’t feel like expanding on it, I left his ass on the green. I took the last golf cart, getting in.

“Jax… Jax, can we talk?”

I peeled away, not even giving this guy another thought.

He could walk his ass back to the resort.

Chapter Fourteen

Cleo

Kit had to ditch me for tennis the followi

ng morning. She had a tendency of eating dairy when her body definitely didn’t agree with it and had been up half the night with the most epic case of diarrhea. I knew because I’d heard it, and rather than make her get up this morning, I let her sleep. Mom told me she’d meet me at the courts as she and Dad had been talking about something before I left. I hadn’t heard much, but I had heard Jaxen’s name.

It hadn’t been the first time.

They’d gone to bed talking about him, whispers in their room. I’d walked in to say goodnight to them last night. I’d been with Mom and Kit all day. We’d had a fun-filled day with the spa, shopping, and then the beach, but I hadn’t seen Dad all day. He’d made good on his promise, doing his own thing. I assumed with Jaxen and those other boys.

He’d appeared more than tense when I came in, his smile forced. Mom had had her hand on his shoulder.

“Goodnight, baby,” Mom had said, but something told me I wasn’t supposed to be there. It’d been the way she looked at me.

And the way my adoptive father barely did.

I’d received a hug from him, both of them before heading off to my area of the suite, but something had definitely felt weird about the exchange, off. I started to close the door, and that’s when I heard Jaxen’s name. There’d been no context really. Just his name.

In any sense, their exchange really hadn’t been any of my business. But the fact that they’d been speaking again about him this morning did set a worry in my gut. I wanted to know what was going on, but then, I kept hearing Jax’s voice in my head.

“Not everything is about the goddamn Girl Scout all the time.”

I was well aware not everything in his life was about me, but if he’d done something, something regarding my family, I wanted to know. I was basically on autopilot by the time I got down to the tennis courts. Several people were already there, a few girls around my age and an older couple. The girls played at the first set of courts, and I studied my phone, waiting to hear something from my mom.

Mom: Baby, it’s going to take a little longer than anticipated for me to come down. Why don’t you see if someone needs a player for doubles or something?

It’d been known to happen, and though I wasn’t shy about approaching a group, I did wonder what was up.

Was this still about Jax?

I started to text her back before a shrieked and startled, “Watch out!” shot from my right. Next thing I knew, a tennis ball had sideswiped my face.

I jumped, stumbling back, and a girl with a dark ponytail and wide eyes approached me. She wore a black tennis outfit that exposed her navel, her hair almost as dark and coal-toned as her outfit. She also had pretty pale skin, definitely not a local and obviously on vacation. The thing was, her hair and skin tone made her look like some kind of majestic princess, a freaking-the-hell-out princess as she dropped her tennis racket and sprinted over to me in her white tennis shoes.