Jaden (Jaded 3)

If she had a knife, I wondered if she would’ve used it right then and there. That was how she was looking at me now.

Oh, honey, you just made this so much easier for me, I thought before my entire attitude switched. I forced myself to relax. A new heat formed in me, and I welcomed it, letting it fill my body. I almost sighed. This was Bryce and me. This was our old connection, the attraction I’d always felt for him. I had kept it locked inside me for so long. It was overpowering, and because of that, it was too overwhelming for me.

I did bad things when I let my need go free, but that’s what she didn’t want. So that’s what was coming out.

Bryce felt the shift, and he gazed at me, confused, then I let him see the hunger. His eyes darkened in lust. The response was like throwing gasoline onto burning coals. The flames leapt high in me, filling every inch of me and I wanted him. My blood was humming, the rush building and building, stretching my need for him until I was taking quick and shallow breaths.

The room started to melt away.

There were people there, people I hated. I felt a dark sensation in the room and knew that was the assistant. She was saying something behind her, but I didn’t care. I lifted a hand and placed it onto Bryce’s chest. He caught it, pressed it more firmly onto his chest, and I felt his heart racing.

God.

I wet my lips. Images of us together were on a constant loop playing in my head. As he kissed up my throat in our school’s closet, as he slid inside me when we skipped class, when we had fought and he shoved me against the wall and kissed down between my breasts, so many times when he was above me, moving inside me, as he pinned my hands above my head. He’d watch me. I’d watch him.

I felt that primal connection coming back to me.

I wanted to feel that. I wanted to feel him again.

“Bryce,” I murmured. It’d been so long.

“Stop,” a voice snapped, and I was pulled away. Rough hands gripped my arms, tightening their hold. I felt nails against my skin, and I was shoved backward. Then a face was in front of me, and she snarled, “Get out. Get out of this room,” she said over her shoulder. “Call security, Lupe.”

Wait. I blinked. My chest was rising up and down, almost gasping for air. What was going on? I’d been trying to do something. My focus came back, and I saw the assistant glaring at me. Her hands were still on me, holding me back against the door. Her entire tiny body was writhing now. I could feel the suppressed anger from her, then my own came back, shoving whatever else had been going on with me out of the way.

I swallowed over a lump in my throat and shoved everything down.

Fuck. I’d been messing with Bryce to piss her off. It worked. Too well.

I gritted my teeth. All of that clicked in my head in one heartbeat, then I wrenched my arms up and around, unlocking her hold from me. I snarled, “Get off me.” As her hands fell away, I shoved her back. One good push. She hit the wall by the bathroom.

“Hey!” Bryce shouted from behind me.

I tuned him out, tuned out all those other feelings about him too, and zeroed in on my target. I came in there for a fight—this was it. I wasn’t going to let it get away now.

“Bryce!”

That voice. My anger went up as I recognized his ex-lover calling to him. She sounded panicked, stricken.

She was weak. But she wasn’t my target. The assistant lifted her hand in the air, her fingers were spread out, and I knew a resounding slap was coming next.

I ducked her arm. As she swung through, hitting only arm, I twisted my arm up and around her. Pulling her head down, I cemented my hold, wrapping my other arm around her neck and latching onto my arm. I had her in a headlock.

Her feet, though. She was going to kick at me.

“STOP!”

Guadalupe was next to Bryce, her mouth hanging open. Her hair was up in some up do, and a brief thought to pull it out popped up in the back of my mind. I skimmed a hard look over her and saw the green dress she wore. The cleavage was loos

e, hanging low so there was a good eyeful of her breasts. Only the nipples remained covered. A string of pearls swung down in the cleavage as well. She held a phone in one hand and her purse in the other.

I wanted to rip those pearls from her neck, then I wanted to grab her phone.

Think, Sheldon! I barked at myself, struggling as Guadalupe’s assistant was trying to break free from my hold. She kicked out, landing a good whack at my leg, and I almost buckled. She got the side of my knee. If she hurt my knee, she could really do damage to me, but I wanted Guadalupe’s phone, too.

“Sheldon, what are you doing?” Bryce started toward me.

“Get back!” I maneuvered us so that I was against the wall, still holding the assistant in my headlock. While she kept trying to kick me, I applied pressure and lowered her to the ground. She couldn’t kick as much now.