Chasing Rhodes (Rock Falls #1) (15 page)

Jackson leans in to give me a hug when, all of a sudden, he’s ripped from the booth by his shirt.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Jackson?” Greyson booms. He looks fucking livid, and he has Jackson by the back of his shirt. They are fairly evenly matched, but I wouldn’t want anyone to go head to head with the rage in Greyson’s eyes. Before Jackson can even answer, Greyson’s fist connects with his jaw.

Jackson puts his hands up in surrender and starts to shake his head, blood dripping from his split lip. “We were just talking, man. Calm down.” I know he’s trying to deflate the situation, but his words seem to do nothing.

“Don’t you ever fucking touch her again!” He’s attracted the attention of the other people in the bar, and I’m so embarrassed. He’s completely overreacting. “She’s mine now. Do you understand me?” He’s shaking Jackson now.

“Cool it, Greyson,” Jami says, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Stay out of it, Jami,” Jay says, pulling his hand away. He must notice that Greyson looks ready to snap too. “This doesn’t involve you.”

“I said do you fucking understand me, asshole?” Greyson shouts, his face less than two inches from Jackson’s now, and when he pulls back his fist like he’s going to hit him again, I fly out of the booth.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Greyson?” I scream and shove my way to stand between the two men. At least, in my high heels, I’m closer to their eye level than I would usually be.

He doesn’t answer me, just continues to glare at Jackson over top of my head.

I place my palms firmly on Greyson’s chest and push. “Let it fucking go! He’s not even fighting you back. You’re acting like a jerk!” I say, pushing his chest again.

“Maybe I should go,” I hear Jackson say from behind me, and I spin on my heel quickly to face him.

“No. This is Jami’s birthday. You are one of his best friends. You’re not going anywhere. You should stay and enjoy whatever is salvageable of this night.” My temper has gone from a simmer to a boil and I’m ready to lay into Greyson, but I won’t do it in front of all these people and ruin Jami’s night. “You,” I say, pointing at Greyson. “Outside.”

He doesn’t move. He’s still just standing there like some macho jackass with a point to prove.

“Outside, Greyson, NOW!” I’m shouting now.

He turns on his heel and starts to walk out of the bar. I let the girls know that I’ll be back and stalk after him. When I get outside, I see him leaning against the wall.

Before I can even open my mouth to give him a piece of my mind, he looks up and glares at me. “You let him fucking touch you. You let him fucking touch you and you probably liked it!” he shouts in my face, and any chance I had at keep a lid on my rage is long gone.

My fists are clenching and unclenching at my sides. “I’m going to give you one chance, Greyson. One chance to take that back,” I say through gritted teeth.

“No fucking way! I saw the way you were looking at him. You fucking wanted each other.”

That is it. All I saw is red.

“You listen here, you fucking jackass. I don’t know what crawled up your ass and died, but this shit is fucking ridiculous! You’re acting like an overgrown ape.” He goes to speak, but I cut him off with my hand. “Oh no! Don’t you dare! You had your chance to talk and nothing but a pile of shit came spewing out of your mouth. So now you’re going to listen to me!” My chest is heaving with exertion and I can feel my heart beating in my head. “What you saw was us having closure. What you saw was me being able to make peace with a broken part of me, a broken part of me that you healed. Or at least you had until you came barreling in there with whatever the fuck kind of alpha-male bullshit that was! I don’t love him. I don’t want him. You’re the only one I fucking want.” I’m pushing my finger into his chest now. “You need to get a grip, Greyson. I said I’d fight for you, but I sure as shit am not going to stand around and be a punching bag for you to work out your insecurities.”

“Hannah, I—”

I put my hand up, cutting him off again. “We’re done talking about this tonight, Greyson. I’m going back inside to celebrate my friend’s birthday—that is if there’s anything left of it—and you’re going to go home.”

“But, sweetheart, I can—”

“Don’t sweetheart me. Don’t use that now because you know you fucked up. Go home. I’m too pissed off to talk about this anymore. I’ll call you in the morning.” I turn to walk away, and he grabs my elbow.

“You said you missed him. I saw you.” All the fight has left his body and he looks defeated.

“I did,” I say honestly over my shoulder. “I miss my friend, Greyson. I don’t miss my lover. You’re the only one for me now. I love you, but you need to go home and figure out if you can handle that.” With that, I turn on my heel and make my way back inside the bar.

I hope Jami didn’t get in trouble. I would feel absolutely terrible if I ruined his birthday. I know he wouldn’t care and he’d never be angry with me, but I still feel bad. The blood is still pumping quickly through my body as I’m trying to settle down. I’m pushing my way through the crowd, almost to the table when a girl comes barreling past me, almost knocking me on the ass. I go to yell at her to watch where she’s going, but when I notice who it is, I stop. Jami’s girlfriend thing—or whatever she is—is barreling through the bar headed toward the exit.
Well, fuck me. Now what’s going on?

I shove my way through the rest of the crowd and stop short when I see what’s unfolding in front of our table. It is now Jami who has some poor bastard by the scruff of the neck, and the bouncer is trying to pull Jami off of him.

As I get closer, I can hear the bouncer say, “You need to go. This whole group, all of you. You need to leave.” Jami doesn’t seem to be going anywhere willingly, and as if finally just realizing that his friend is going too far, Jay steps in.

“That’s fine. We will leave. C’mon, Jami. Let’s get out of here,” he says, pulling a reluctant Jami away from his sparring partner.

As we are escorted from the bar, no one says a word. The only thing Beth does is give me a wide-eyed look as if to say, “What the fuck?” We call two cabs—one for the boys and one for the girls. As we’re waiting, you can cut the tension between Lennon and Jami with a knife.
What the fuck happened in there?
I feel a little better that I’m not the only one who was centered around drama tonight, but at the same time, I’m worried about what happened. The first cab arrives and the boys tell us to take it. We hug them goodbye—well, everyone except Lennon and Jami hug—and we head for home.

As soon as we’re alone, Beth starts to speak. “Well, that night sure went to hell in a handbasket pretty bloody fast.” She sighs, blowing her hair off her face. She’s sitting in the middle of the cab’s backseat, eagerly looking between Lennon and me. “Well…who’s going to go first?” she says, and neither of us speaks. “Well, I’d go first, but nobody punched anyone for me tonight, so I don’t have anything exciting to say.”

“Greyson was being a macho, possessive asshat, so I told him to go home and deal with the fact that I love him.” I sigh, face-planting into my hands.
Tonight was a disaster. I wasted what was arguably the hottest outfit I had on a piece-of-shit night.

Lennon lets her head slide down onto Beth’s shoulder. “Jami threw a fit when some guy I was flirting with made a joke about taking me home. He just flipped out, completely lost his shit. I’ve never seen him like that before. And then his girlfriend flipped out because he flipped out over someone touching me and not her, and then we got kicked out,” she lets out in almost one long breath.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Beth says.

Lennon and I both mumble, “What?”

“Somebody’s little barroom brawler is sitting on our front steps.”

I groan because I know it has to be Greyson. We just left Jami and Jay in town, so there’s no way they could be here by now.

I lift my head and look up at the steps, confirming my suspicions. There he is, sitting on the top stair with his head in his hands. He hears the cab pull up and stands. We pay the cab driver and get out, making our way across the driveway.

“Nice right hook, Hunnam,” Beth spouts off before unlocking the front door and going inside, Lennon trailing behind her.
Fucking Beth.

I’m still standing on the bottom stair, and he’s standing on the top. We’re just staring at each other. He makes no move to speak, just runs his hand over his hair in frustration. I’m tired. I’m emotionally drained, and I don’t have it in me to hash this out with him.

“I thought I asked you to go home, Greyson. I don’t want to do this tonight.” I sigh, slipping off my heels and holding them in my hands.

“Hannah, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” he says.

Well I guess we’re going to do this then, whether I want to or not.

“You’re sorry for what part, Greyson? The part where you punched someone who did nothing wrong? Or the part where you basically called me a whore? Which one of those parts are you sorry for?” I question.

He takes a step down and winces when I back down a stair to stand on the driveway. “I’m sorry for all of it. I’m sorry for everything I said. I just lost it when I saw his hands on you, and when you smiled at him, it felt like someone turned a knife in my heart. It’s not an excuse. I know that. But it hurt like hell, Hannah.”

“I already told you nothing was happening. We were just talking. We were even talking about you for crying out loud.” I’m not yelling or shouting now. I’m just talking. I don’t have any more energy left for fighting.

“I know. I heard what you said outside the bar. I should have stopped to think about it, but all I saw was red. I couldn’t focus on anything else. That smile is mine, Hannah. You’re mine and that scares the shit out of me,” his says, his eyes pleading.

“You can’t lash out or disappear every time you get scared, Greyson. It’s not healthy and I can’t do that kind of relationship again.”

He takes another step down, and this time, I don’t move to back away from him. “I don’t know how to do this, Hannah. I’m trying,” he says, moving down another stair. There are only three between us now.

“You need to communicate with me, Greyson. I’m not a mind reader,” I state.

“I can work on that. Can you forgive me for being a jealous asshole?” He takes two more stairs.

“Don’t make light of this, Greyson. I’m not capable of being with another man whose mood swings give me whiplash.” I’m dead serious. I know he’s trying, but a girl can only handle so much. I won’t go to that place again—not even for him.

“I’m not, sweetheart.” He reaches out and puts a finger underneath my chin, lifting it up so my eyes meet his. “I love you, Hannah. Do you forgive me?”

I close my eyes and sigh. “I forgive you, Greyson, and I love you too.”

He takes my mouth in a hard kiss, tangling his fingers into my hair. “I’m going to make it up to you, sweetheart. I’m going to show you how much I love you,” he says between kisses. I nod and let him lead me inside, going straight to my bedroom. He closes the door behind him and turns around. “Put your heels back on, Hannah.” I slide my four-inch pumps back on. “Did you wear this for me?” he asks.

“Yes,” I whisper.

“You look amazing, sweetheart.” He takes a step towards me, reaching around to untie the top of my halter dress behind my head.

The silky, green dress pools around my feet and I’m left standing there on display for him. He undoes the clasp of my strapless bra and it quickly joins the rest of my discarded clothing on the floor. He palms my needy breasts in his rough hands and I squeeze my thighs together. He kisses from my ear to my collarbone and then down onto my chest, sucking one of my nipples into his mouth as he pinches the other.

“Ohh fuck, Greyson,” I moan, threading my fingers into his hair.
I fucking love it when he sucks on my tits. It drives me insane with lust.

“Sit down on the bed, Hannah,” he demands. “Spread your legs wide for me, sweetheart. I want to see that pink pussy.” My panties are soaked. He kneels down between my knees and guides both of my legs onto his shoulders. “Goddamnit. I can smell how wet you are for me,” he says, running his nose along the seam of my white silk thong.

I start to play with my breasts as he teases me through the thin barrier. I’m shamelessly grinding myself onto his face, begging for him to touch me.

“Please,” I gasp. “I’m begging you, Greyson. Please touch me.” My words are his undoing.

He grabs the sides of my flimsy panties in his fists and rips them from my body.
Jesus Christ! That was fucking hot.
He uses his hands to spread my lips wide as he licks a path from my asshole to my clit. I start to squirm. That man knows exactly how to use his tongue. He nibbles on my clit and shoves two fingers inside me. My hips buck off the bed, and he uses one of his arms to press them back down. I’m lifting my hips to meet his face, and I can feel the stubble of his jaw as he licks my furiously. Then he curls his fingers up to hit that perfect spot inside me and I crash headfirst into my first orgasm. He pulls his mouth away from my pussy and my legs slide off his shoulders. I move to climb up the bed, but he stops me.

“Grab the backs of your knees, Hannah,” he says. “Pull them to your chest.”

I grab my knees with weakened limbs and pull them up, spreading my pussy open for him. He hasn’t stopped fucking me with his fingers. Even when I came, he never pulled them out. He sits up taller on his knees and braces the hand that’s not inside me on the bed.

“You’re going to come again for me, sweetheart, and I’m going eat every last drop of you.”

I moan like a bitch in heat at his words. He turns me into an entirely different person when we’re in bed. He is still fully clothed as he pushes a third finger into my wet heat and starts to punish me. I really shouldn’t call it punishing because it feels fucking fantastic, but it’s the only way I can think of to describe the brutal force with which he’s banging me.

“I’m going to come again!” I scream, and he drops lower onto his knees again, licking every drop of come from my pussy just like he said he would.

He undresses himself and climbs into bed, dragging my satisfied body against his. When I feel his hard cock pressing into my backside, I turn around to face him, dropping a kiss on his chest.