All Pepped Up (Pepper Jones) (2 page)

Madeline is standing
by him in her stupidly sexy white bathing suit, brushing her boobs against his chest. She looks silly with everyone around her fully dressed. A hot tub’s visible through the screen doors, but her unwillingness to put on even a towel makes her appear desperate. Like her body is all she has to offer. And Jace isn’t even paying attention to her assets. He walks right past her toward me.

“Pep, what happened?” He strokes my cheek.

I shrug. “Someone bumped into me and spilled their drink. It’s no big deal.”

“Who was it?”

“I don’t know. No one I knew.” He’s protected me from so much already – frequently to the point of overkill – at times, I’ve wished he’d back off. I want to handle Madeline and her friends on my own.

“We can go home if you want, but I’m sure Remy’s older sister has clothes you can borrow. She’s away at college.”

I don’t want to go home anymore. I want to show Madeline that she didn’t ruin my night. Besides, Jace hasn’t been out with his friends in a while, and we were having a great time.

“Remy!” Jace calls over to the pool table where Remy is flirting with Serena
– or is it Emma? I get them mixed up.

Remy ditches her and walks
over to us. “What’s up?”

“You got any clothes Pepper can borrow? Maybe something of Amelia’s?
”

“Yeah, no problem. Come on up.”

Remy leads us up a couple of flights of stairs, explaining that his sister has more clothes than she could fit in her dorm room at college. We walk into her room and my jaw drops when I see the walk-in closet.

“She’s a little bigger than you, but I’m sure you can find something th
at works. Go at it.” He gestures to the walk-in before heading back to the party.

Jace watches me as I sort through the hangers. “Here, take off your dress and I’ll rinse it to try to get the stain out.” His voice is tense, and I follow his order without protest.

When I stand before him in nothing but leggings, cowboy boots, and my favorite lacy push-up bra that actually makes it look like I have cleavage, I expect some sort of reaction. He’s seen me in a bathing suit, but never in my underwear. Jace just clenches his jaw, takes the dress from my hand, and stomps off to the bathroom.

Maybe it’s because I’m already upset, but I have to swallow down another set of tears that burn to spill out. His rejection hurts.
Especially after what Madeline said.
He needs to spice things up a little with you, but he’ll get bored. He always does.

Maybe he’s already bored. We kiss a lot, and there’s plenty of touching, but
our clothes always stay on. Maybe I’m just not experienced enough, not sexy enough, and that’s why he never takes it further.

He’ll get off on whatever little game he has going with you and when he’s had his fun, he’ll be back in my bed.

I yank a white tee shirt off a hanger and pull it over my head. It’s loose-fitting and hangs off one shoulder, exposing my lacy bra strap. It reaches mid-thigh, and looks sexy with my leggings and cowboy boots. Well, maybe not Madeline Brescoll-sexy, but you can see the outline of my purple bra through the thin material, and that’s pretty scandalous for me.

I spin around when I catch Jace checking me out in the mirror. I might not have much more time with him, and I wan
t to make it count. Keep him un-bored for as long as possible.

“Thanks for rinsing my dress,” I whisper
when I approach him. He watches me apprehensively as I run my fingers down his chest, feeling the firm planes and then the muscular ridges of his abs before letting my hands settle on his belt buckle.

He sucks in a breath. “Pepper, are you going to tell me why you were so upset? It’s not like you to get
all bent out of shape from someone accidentally spilling on you. What happened?”

Jace knows me well enough
to recognize the signs that I was crying.  “I don’t want to talk about it,” I murmur. Standing on my tiptoes, I reach up to kiss his ear and along his neck.

“Pepper.” My name sounds like a moan. Jace grasps my hi
ps, lifts me up and places me a foot away from him. He puts his hands on his hips. “Stop distracting me. I want to know what happened. I’ll make it better.”

“You already did. See
?” I gesture to my outfit. “Don’t I look nice?”

“You’re gorgeous
, Pepper. Always. And just so you know, don’t think you can wear anything like that unless I’m around.”

I suppress a grin.
At times like this, his protective streak is sweet.

Jace’s jaw ticks, his giveaway that his temper is brewing. “Well?”
he asks.

“Well what?”

“What happened to make you upset?”

I sigh. “Jace, I’m over
it, okay? Sometimes I need to fight my own battles. This is girl stuff.”

“Girl stuff?” Jace asks doubtfully. “What, you think I can only handle guys?”

I place a hand on his chest. “You’ve been with a lot of girls, okay? And, since you’re so amazing and all, the girls who didn’t get to keep you are going to be a little bitchy, that’s all. It’s nothing I can’t handle.” I sound more confident than I feel. If only this was as simple as a scorned girl. Perhaps it is. But it’s hard to shrug off a girl – no, a woman – like Madeline Brescoll.

Jace steps closer and lifts me up so that my legs wrap around his waist. “I won’t get involved if you don’t want me to.” He kiss
es the tip of my nose. “For now,” he adds.

I tilt my head to
the side and raise my eyebrows.

Jace starts walking out of the closet and
toward the queen bed. “Girls can be brutal. I’ve witnessed it. If I hear about more bitchiness toward you, I’m not gonna let it happen.” He leans down, placing me on my back, and hovers over me. “But you can’t let them get to you, Pep.” His green eyes search mine. “It’s only ever been you. No matter what other girls say, you’re all that matters. It’s always been like that. I’m gonna keep trying to show you.”

“Al
l right,” I whisper. But Emma’s voice echoes in my head.
Jace likes to love and leave but not with Maddie. He always wants another piece.

When his lips meet mine, I decide I’ll simply make him want me too. I arch my back and press myself to him,
grasping his shoulders tightly and urging him against me. If he’s surprised by my aggressive response, he doesn’t show it. He responds by catching my lower lip with his teeth.

I glide my hands
down his sculpted back and slip my hands beneath the band of his boxer briefs. I’ve never done this before and it feels amazing to be this close.

I hear Jace’s ragged breathing in my ear as I kiss and nip at his neck, and it emboldens me
to continue. If it feels this good to touch his bare skin here…

I slide my hands up and around to the front of his pants and quickly open the button and pull down the zipper. I’m nervous, and I know if I think about it too much I’ll chicken out. My hands slip underneath his boxers and Jace freezes. I can’t even hear him breathing. I take him in my hands.

“Oh!” I gasp as I let my hands glide up and down. It’s… bigger than I expected. “Jace?” I ask shakily.

“Yeah?” He sounds like he’s in pain.

“Um… does it… you know… fit?” I bite out. I scrunch my eyes in embarrassment. But seriously, it’s hard to fathom how it could possibly work.

I feel Jace’s chest vibrate with laughter. “Yeah.”

I run my hands over the soft skin. “Ah, fuck,” Jace grunts and jerks his hips a little. “Pepper.” He says my name like he’s in agony before rolling to his side, slipping out of my grasp and putting distance between us.

He breathes heavily for a moment. “I can’t think when you
’re touching me like that,” he says finally. He sounds like he just sprinted the length of a football field.

“Is that a good thing?”
Although I already know the answer.

“Well, it feels amazing, but I don’t like
losing control with you, Pep,” he says quietly. “You were just upset, and then” – he runs his hands through his jet black hair and down his face – “ahhh… I want to be good for you Pepper. I don’t want you moving faster than you’re comfortable with because of what some bitchy girls said.”

I swallow. He knows me too well. “You’re right
, Jace. I wanted to prove to myself that you wanted me. I wanted to make you want me. I mean, I liked it. Touching you was…” I laugh and look at the ceiling. “Well, I want to do it again. But maybe we should stop tonight. We’re here to hang out.”

He
holds my head in his hands and turns me so I’m facing him. “Don’t ever doubt that I want you. I do. So much. But I want to do it right. I want this to last. I can be patient with you because I want all of it, all of you, over and over again. There’s no need to rush.”

“I know I’m being silly. I don’t like being a girl who needs her boyfriend’s constant reassurance. I’ll try not to be so high maintenance.”

“Believe me, you are not high maintenance. I wish I didn’t have the kind of past that makes you doubt me, or us, or yourself. But I’m gonna try to protect you from it as much as I can.”  We gaze at each other for a moment longer. “I just need a sec before we go down there, to uh, calm down.” Jace glances down at his open pants. “That should be all the proof you need,” he says with a smirk.

“I don’t know. You were able to stop
, after all. Maybe I should follow through to make sure there’s no mistake about who you want,” I say, trying out a mock-seductive voice. I’m kidding, of course. Sort of. Jace’s hooded eyes seem to be taking me seriously. The fire that started burning is still aflame, and I need a bucket of cold water dumped on me if I’m going to move from this bed any time tonight.

Jace grabs my hands and brings them over my head as he rolls back on me.  He leaves my hands
locked above my head as he devours me with a scorching kiss. But he quickly breaks the kiss and hops up from the bed with a growl. “Woman!” He backs away from the bed as he tucks himself in and buttons his pants. The bulge is still evident and I grin. “What you do to me!” He groans as if I was torturing him. And perhaps I was. My confidence, in that area of our relationship at least, is restored.

I jump out of bed.
“Ping pong?” I ask.

A doubles match is going on when we get back downstairs, and I fin
ish another beer while we wait our turn. It looks like others are waiting to play winner, but they give us the paddles. Jeez, I could get used to this kind of treatment. I’m feeling a little buzzed from the two beers, and probably from the earlier make-out session, but I’m actually pretty good at ping pong and I want to give Jace a decent game.

“I got winner.” I hear Wesley Jamison’s voice as he heads our way.

Wes’s arrival turns a few heads, mostly female, and I’m happy to have some of the attention taken away from Jace. Wesley is tall with a powerful lean body and striking good looks, like Jace, but not quite as devastating. His blonde hair and easy smile sets girls at ease, another difference from Jace, whose dark features and piercing green eyes put most girls on edge. In a good way.

The three of us have hung out a few times over the last couple of months. He was one of the first to learn about Jace
and I. It’s surprisingly easy to fall into the comfortable friendship we’d had before high school started. Before Wes and Jace had some sort of falling out that I never heard the explanation for.

Wes lifts me up in a hug when he reaches me. “What’s up, Pep?”

“Hey, Wes. You weren’t up to no good, were you?”

He laughs. “I’m always up to no good.” But he knows what I mean.

Wes and Jace were dealing drugs until a couple of months ago, but as far as I know, they managed to cut themselves off from that world entirely.

“Al
l right, Wes, get your hands off my girl,” Jace calls from the other side of the table.

Wes shakes his head at Jace’s comment but complies.

Jace and I play point for point and it appears he’s actually trying, though I wouldn’t put it past him to be faking it to humor me.

“Damn, your girlfriend’s got skill
s,” Ben says from the sideline.

I know it’s not my skill
s or the close match that draws the crowd, though. Halfway through, Jace tossed his shirt to the side. He smirked at me and I knew he was trying to mess with my concentration. I’m on my third beer, and I’m actually starting to break a sweat. So with alcohol-induced boldness I roll up the oversized tee shirt above my belly button and tie it off to the side. I can play this game too.

It’s not my bare stomach that distracts Jace, but his annoyance that others are seeing it. But hey, when your boyfriend has
six-pack abs, perfect pecs, and the biceps of a quarterback, you have to fight back with what you can. And I know jealousy is a weakness of his. It doesn’t come from any insecurity – definitely not that – but from something far more painful he’s buried deep. I might be the only one who sees it, though I expect my Gran understands Jace’s demons too. And perhaps Wes.