Beautiful Brute (Court University 3)

“Wait. You’re going to help her??

??

Fuck me, if I couldn’t help myself and in my frenzy to get pants and shoes on, I passed it off as guilt. I felt guilty for what happened over the weekend. I’d wanted to fuck with her, piss her off, but I hadn’t known about her brother. That had changed things a little. I’d wanted to break her.

But that shit…

Yeah, that was deep shit, and rather than go on with her friend about this, I urged Kit for a fucking address so I could go pick Cleo up. She gave it to me, someplace literally out in the middle of goddamn nowhere. Kit could only give me landmarks outside of the road Cleo was on, and finally getting to my car, an electric blue Madza, I revved it up. I’d bought the thing new shortly after the semester began. Fuck, if I was trying to bus it to and from classes while I’d been down here.

“You’re really going to get her?” Kit asked as I pulled out of my complex’s garage. “This isn’t a trick? Because seriously, Jax, this isn’t a joke. Cleo’s all alone out there.”

Exactly why I was in my car trying to get to her. The only thing keeping my mind off the prick who’d left her out there was because I was trying to get to her. I grunted. “You hear me in my fucking car, don’t you? Does it sound like I’m messing around?”

An air of relief in her voice, but the sigh that followed didn’t sound convinced. “I guess I just thought you’d need more convincing. I called you in desperation. Really couldn’t get a hold of anyone else.”

Well, I didn’t need convincing, already on the road and tapping the location into my phone. Without street numbers it couldn’t get me anything solid, but close enough when Kit mentioned a trail.

God, this fucking Girl Scout.

Kit was apparently spot on with Cleo’s location. Because not only was Cleo exactly where Kit said she’d be when I got there, the Girl Scout was in the dark using her cell phone for light. There were no streetlights out here, the place completely pitch black. I saw nothing but a little glow as I revved closer, pulling onto a dirt car park.

My lights on, Cleo shielded her eyes from them, backing away a little so I could park. She was also half dressed in an outfit that barely covered her ass and a sweater that fell off her shoulders, exposing the flushed state of her neck and arms.

I saw fucking red.

Getting out the car, I slammed the door, stalking up to her, and seeing me, her eyes flashed wide.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she hissed, gripping her little cell phone like she was about to throw a goddamn tantrum. She stomped her little brown boot and everything.

Cute.

She was completely cute, and I’d have noticed it more if I wasn’t so pissed. I growled. “Who the fuck left you out here in the middle of nowhere?” It was freezing, and working my coat off, I attempted to put it around her basically bare shoulders.

She shrugged away from me, doing nothing to help the current state of my rage.

I shot a hand out with the jacket. “Fine. But it’s cold out here, and you need to put this on.”

“I want nothing from you,” she huffed, but her knees… clattered. Folding her arms, she pretended not to notice. “Anyway, I called Kit.”

“Well, Kit’s car doesn’t fucking work. She’s also stuck at work so she called me.”

She made a face like she sucked a lemon. “Why would she do that?”

“I was a last resort.” And even though she fought me this time, I made her put the jacket on. Eventually, she took it, sliding her arms through the holes, and I put out of my mind what a vision it was to see my stepsister swallowed up by my coat. It swam on her, making her all petite looking as it swallowed her up.

Channeling my senses back to my aggression, I folded fingers over my eyes. “Who the hell left you out here? Tell me.”

“No,” she bit out. “No, I won’t. And why should I tell you anything?”

I stalked into her space, breathing the same air, tasting her. Her scent hinted of wine and that same soft sweetness I’d been trying to force out of my head. I’d been trying to sever this girl from my memory like a violent disease since last weekend. Especially since she’d left such an impression the last time.

I’d had her all over me, her trembling limbs looped around me when I’d saved her. She’d held onto me for dear life, like I’d been her life-force and she wanted to fuse herself into me. It’d been like she needed me beyond the immediate sense. I’d obviously saved her…

But that’d been all it was, her need for survival. Even still, she’d gotten so deep inside my head.

And it drove me goddamn crazy.

“Fine,” I growled, then shot a finger toward my ride. “Get in the car then. I’ll take you home—”