The reality of my situation hit me hard. I had no choice but to be here. My freedom had been revoked.

“You sure work fast,” I commented.

His vest was off and the sleeves of his black shirt were rolled up. He had big arms and broad shoulders, very well in shape… Just looking at him, I wondered how old he was.

“How old are you?” The question slipped out, and I felt dumb for asking. Talk about random.

“Thirty three,” he answered, turning to look at me. “Why do you ask?”

I shrugged. “Curious.” When I was fourteen, he was twenty two. It wasn’t so bad I’d crushed on a man only eight years older than me. In my head I’d thought he was older.

I took a seat back on the bed and watched him go about the room, organizing things one bit at a time.

“Are you intending on leaving me here alone with a bunch of movies to fight the boredom?”

He stopped unpacking a box and met my gaze. “I’m not intendin’ on goin’ anywhere this weekend. Thought I’d make it more comfortable for the two of us.”

Well then. What do you say to that? I simply gave him a nod and pretended the doona was a fascinating thing to observe. I traced the square patterns while keeping track of his movements in my peripheral. We were going to be here for two days, minimum. Just what was he trying to accomplish by doing this?

“Don’t you have a mega-huge impressive clubhouse where you guys all kick back at?” I asked.

“Yep,” was his vague answer.

“Why didn’t you take me there?”

“Who says you’re not at the clubhouse now?”

My eyebrows bunched up and I studied his face. Mr Serious stared back. No fucking way we were at the clubhouse. Were we?

He grabbed a bunch of movies and threw them on the bed in front of me. “Tell me what you wanna watch. It’s gonna be a good way to pass time if we got somethin’ on that screen.”

I went through the movies, most I’d seen, others I’d wanted to. I shot him a dubious look when I noticed a trend. No way was this guy into this stuff. They were all romance movies, my kind of genre. I’d enjoyed tormenting myself over the years watching love stories with sweet and cliché happily-ever-afters. Looked like I was going to do it again… with a big Jackal by my side.

It wasn’t a matter of choosing what to watch. It was a matter of choosing what to watch first because, judging by the way Remy propped himself on the other end of the bed comfortably relaxed, we were going to be in for the long haul.

*****

“You have to put the car in reverse to back out, Tiny.”

I shot him an irritated look as I sat behind the wheel of our old Toyota four wheel drive. “I know that, Jaxon. Stop repeating yourself.”

Jaxon smiled. “You’re going to be the world’s shittiest driver, you know that?”

“Why?”

“Because you don’t even know how to put it in reverse. Look at you, you’re stalling.”

I smacked him on the shoulder but didn’t admit that he was right. I didn’t know how to drive a manual. I sat behind the wheel and stared long and hard at the stick shift. Why couldn’t life be easy? I’d begged him for an auto. Autos were simple. They fit my dumbass self just right.

“You bought a manual on purpose, didn’t you? Probably doing this on purpose so I don’t ever leave the apartment when we get to Winthrop.”

He chuckled. “Not everything is about making your life a living hell, Sara. I bought the car because it was cheaper than an auto was. Stop stalling and start driving.”

“You’re meant to be telling me how to!”

He proceeded to show me the steps. I followed to the best of my abilities. He had me driving on the outskirts of Gosnells and down the long empty roads in the farming division. He refused to stop, telling me over and over again to try harder, to think about what I was doing, to stop whining about wanting to give up because it was too hard.

I deserved a pat on the back by the end of my three hour lesson. I hadn’t crashed us once which, for a girl who sucked at multitasking with an annoying stick shift, was a massive accomplishment.

The sun was starting its downward dip below the horizon when Jaxon finally took over. He stopped the car on an emergency lane beside a knee high grassy field that bordered a vineyard. When we both stepped out, he took my hand and we waded into the grass, feeling the final heat of the sun before it disappeared. The summer had been a horrid one. We’d been indoors most of it in front of the aircon in the living room. We’d set a mattress down on the floor so we could sleep through the nights without melting.

Lucinda had also taken up space in the living room, sleeping on the couch beside us. There we’d all watch a flick on the television. When Lucinda finally fell asleep at ten o’clock exactly, Jaxon and I would cautiously make out under the covers. It’d been two weeks of epic make out sessions, unable to take a step further because we were in the midst of his mom, and that was just downright wrong.

So many nights I’d feel the hardness of him against me, grinding for some sense of relief. The arousal on his face was enough to have me aching for my own release too. Come morning time, we were bratty, irritable and horny as all hell, but with the weather so disgustingly hot again, it was a damper on our libido.

During our most desperate moments, he’d taken me into the shower and we’d… connect that way. Nothing was hotter than a shower soaked Jaxon licking every bit of water off of me. It was also where I’d first asked to experiment with him.

“Do you ever wanna do stuff?” I’d eagerly asked.

“I always wanna ‘do stuff,’” he answered, laughter in his eyes at my very vague question.

“I mean, did you ever want me to… you know… do more with you?”

He sighed in irritation. “Sara, if you want to try something, just let me know.”

“It’s embarrassing for me. This is still new for me, Jaxon.”

“You can be the biggest wench in the world at times, and yet you can’t be vulgar when it comes to fucking?”

I tensed at his word. “Do you have to make it sound so smutty?”

He grinned, raking both hands through his wet long hair. Fuck, he was sexy. Fuck, I would eat him with a –“I’m a smutty man, Tiny. Now tell me what you wanted to do.”