I'm Your Bully (Bully Book Series 1) (3 page)

The one thing that stood out in Jax's mind was that she hadn’t snitched on him. As much as he was an asshole to Emma her whole life, she could have told her daddy that a strange boy had broken into her room just now. That he had tried to blackmail her into letting him touch her secretly sexy body.  She endured her father’s drunken tirade, and Jax hadn’t seen Emma once look out the window where he had sat just outside. 

She had protected him. 

Jax narrowed his eyes as he watched Emma close her door, and come to the window.  She saw him sitting in the tree, and slowly shut the window, and then pulled her curtains closed.

+

Working the checkout counter wasn't an exciting job, but Emma was comfortable there.  She liked talking to some of the older customers, and blushed when the old men would come in and flirt with her.  She thought that they were just being nice, trying to get a shy young girl to smile.  She always felt panic when her old classmates came into the store.  They would either try to get her to sell them beer, ignore her, or make it plain that they thought she was a loser working at the local store, and not in some college paid for by mommy and daddy. 

She began checking out the next customer, not really paying attention when a greeting card rolled up to the register. 

Emma picked it up and smiled as she said, "You picked a good one, it’s very pretty."  It was one of the more expensive cards the store sold.  Someone with some artistic talent had created an abstract layering of paper.  The top of the card had a little pair of glasses on it and under it said, “I’ve searched without seeing, and seen without searching.” 

Her smile faded quickly when she saw it was Jax standing at the register, looking like he had all the time in the world.   

"Hey Jax," she said slowly.  Now the card with glasses made sense. 

"You think I have good taste, huh?"

"It’s very pretty, and no I don’t." She ran the card through and did her best to not look at Jax. Emma had also done her best not to think of Jax ever since he’d crawled through her window. But the smell of him, the weight of his arms wrapped around her waist as she sat between his thighs haunted her mind.  Even now she suppressed the memory of his deep voice, the brush of his lips as he had struggled with her on the floor.

"How do they smell?" he asked.

“What?” Emma had no idea what Jax was talking about when he brought forward a bouquet of roses he’d been holding behind his back.  Jax’s long dark hair slid into his eyes as he gave her a look Emma would have guessed he practiced in the mirror to get just right.  Emma asked if he had and Jax ignored her with an arched black brow and handed the flowers over.

Emma brought the flowers up to her nose, and inhaled the sweet scent.  "They smell better than the ones you rigged with a joke water squirter in the 7th grade," she said dryly. 

"Consider them a peace offering for last night."  He leaned against the counter looking like a male model for some hip brand of clothing all the rich kids were wearing. 

Jax made everything look good, Emma thought. He wore a black leather jacket with a white t-shirt underneath that fit his heavily muscled form perfectly. Emma let her eyes slide over his chest to the red dragon design on the t-shirt that stretched across it. The tail of the dragon slid down his waist over ribbed abs and into his jeans. His clothes cost more than she made in a week. Emma had always thought he was one of those rare guys that was almost too pretty as a kid. The nature of maturity had added a masculine edge to him now, Emma would like to say he’d grown uglier as he aged, but he hadn’t.  Countless girls sitting next to Emma in class had written his name in their notebooks in high school.  Emma was pretty sure more than a few hearts had graced those margins too.  She hadn’t written anyone’s name in her margins.  Not one heart.

It was a shame God had created such perfection and gave it a personality like Jax’s, Emma sighed and said, “No," she simply handed them back to him, “you still have my glasses.”

Jax straightened with a sigh, "Listen, can we talk?"

+

Jax wanted to get her alone so he could explain himself.  Not that he was sure what he was doing, but Jax just couldn’t get her out of his mind.  Last night Jax had dreamed of Emma standing by his car all wet from washing it, her nipples easily seen through the wet material of her shirt.  She was wearing crazy tiny shorts in his dream and when she bent over to start washing his car, he had instantly gone hard. 

In his dream his friends disappeared.  Jax slowly approached her, his stride intent.  Emma playfully bent over, her shorts barely covering the flesh of her bottom as she dipped the large sponge she had been rubbing the car with in a bucket of water.  Taking the sponge, she held it up over her blond head, and squeezed the water out letting the rivulets of water rush over her head down her now transparent shirt.  Her nipples were hard and he could see right through the material that covered her.  Dark little areolas set high on her breasts, perfect just perfect.  The dream vision of Emma gave him a coy look, and then she threw the sponge at him.  Jax stopped when it hit him square in the chest with a wet thump, before it splat on the ground at his feet.  He watched as Emma’s hands slid caressingly over her breasts.  His dream morphed into the image of Emma on her knees before him, her hand stroking his throbbing flesh, her lips dangerously close to his dick. 

Groaning Emma’s name aloud, Jax’s eyes had sprung open.  His hand was moving under his blankets as he’d grasped his straining cock.  By the time Jax had shot cum all over his belly he had been completely awake and totally unnerved.

His friends would laugh at him if they knew he was sniffing around “Uggie” Emma but he couldn’t seem to help himself. 

"I've got a five minute break coming in the next hour. If you seriously want to talk to me I’ll ‘see’ you then."  Emma shoved the flowers at him again hitting him in the chest reminding him of the wet sponge she’d thrown at him in his dream. Some of the flowers burst on impact causing petals to float around them as if suspended in the air.  Jax slowly slid his hand over hers as she tried to pull away, trapping her hand under his. Emma inhaled a breath and held it.  She didn’t want him to feel her pulse racing.  Emma broke eye contact with him, diverting her eyes away from Jax’s face.  Holding her hand clasped under his for just a few seconds longer than necessary, she tried to tug away from him again.  Jax took his time, slowly taking the flowers from her.   

Jax stood there at her register, not moving just looking at her before he grabbed the card, slowly saluted her, and left the store. 

+

Emma didn't see him at her break. She wasn't really all that disappointed in fact she was relieved.  She went through the rest of her day jumping every time the sliding doors of the store opened. As the hours passed, Emma began to relax again. Jax had obviously already lost interest because he hadn’t shown up like he had threatened.  Jax was being his usual cruel self by plotting some sort of joke at Emma’s expense making her think he was going to actually show up.  Show up and … do what? The rest Emma hadn’t figured out yet. Perhaps he enjoyed the thought of keeping her on her toes.  Scared he would show up, worried about what he would do next. Jax was so unpredictable.

She hoped Jax would lose interest in whatever scheme he had going.  Life was already complicated, and Emma really couldn’t handle Jax on top of everything else.  Whatever Jax had planned for her was bad. It was always bad when he was involved.  Emma mindlessly checked people out in her line the rest of the day, her thoughts consumed by Jax.  Emma came to the conclusion by the end of her shift that Jax had just been bored so she probably wouldn’t see him any time soon if she was lucky.  She would just have to get her glasses from Jax later.  Much, much later.

The day wore on until it was time to go home and Emma quickly collected her things from her locker at work. She'd been asked to cover a girl’s shift that had gone home sick so she’d worked an extra four hours.  After twelve hours on her feet she was ready to crash. It usually took fifteen minutes for her to get home if she walked quickly.

Rounding the corner of the building, Emma slung her purse over her shoulder when something big smashed her into the side of the building.  A solid wall of muscle surrounded her.  The smell of man and clean soap filled her nostrils and she pushed against Jax’s hard chest.  He was so big and solid. She tried to ignore how his firm chest felt under her hands through his thin shirt.  His body was big and warm, his heat radiated into her palms. 

Looking up into his devilish grin, she yelled, "What the hell, Jax!" 

Jax was smiling down at Emma pressing her into the wall, one big hand holding the bouquet of flowers from earlier that looked even worse than before.  Half of the roses were now hanging at an awkward angle, the stems bent in all directions.  Emma shoved at him but Jax didn't budge.  In that moment he reminded Emma of an overeager Golden Retriever happy that his owner was finally home. Scratch that, she thought, he looked more like a Rottweiler looking at a juicy steak.  Emma’s heart began to beat a little faster.  How could someone feel excited and irritated all at once, she didn’t know, but Emma felt both simultaneously around Jax.

Maybe Jax sensed she was getting a little unsettled by his intensity because he said, "Happy to see me?” and changed his expression to a mischievous smile that beamed at her.

She squinted up at him, "Do I look happy to see you?" 

"I'm guessing you thought I was blowing you off right?” His smile was big and bright.  Too bright. Emma looked at his eyes and saw trouble.  He was smiling but his eyes looked … worried? What would Jax have to be worried about?  She watched as he brought a hand up to her face as if he was going to touch her, but he hesitated and dropped it. 

“I didn’t have to guess, Jax, I knew you weren’t going to show up.” Emma said it slowly like to a child who just didn’t understand how the world worked. 

“I had to get back to class, so I couldn’t meet you earlier and then I came back and you were still working so I waited to walk you home." He was still smiling that charming smile at her, the one that made her want to forget he was a jerk, and probably up to no good.

Dread crept into Emma’s belly as she looked past him trying to see if his friends were around to witness this. 

"You've been out here for how long?" she asked suspiciously. 

"Just a couple of hours," he shrugged one of his big shoulders acting like she should be completely impressed with his patience. 

"Are you turning into a creepy stalker?  'Cause it seems a lot like something a creepy stalker would do."  Emma again moved to get out of his hold but he kept her there not hurting her, just caging her with his body.  Ignore the muscles, the smile, and the clean scent of him, she commanded herself.  He wasn't her friend.  Jax was planning something at her expense, Emma just didn’t know what. 

+

"Would you mind if I was your stalker?” Jax was trying to be charming but this girl wasn’t buying it.  The grin he was faking was starting to hurt his face. “Some girls get off on that kind of thing you know."

He knew he was taking the wrong tactic when all she said was a snide, “Nice,” and tried to shove him away.  The more she pushed him away the more he wanted to be right where he was, annoying the hell out of her.  Sure he was an adult.  Sure this shouldn't feel like some teenage crush, but at the moment he was getting that suspicious butterfly thingy in his stomach or maybe a little lower if he was honest with himself. 

All of a sudden Emma shoved at him hard. When Jax didn't let her go she started to look like she was going to cry or be mad, he wasn't sure which.  Maybe she was already mad.  Emma’s face was getting all red and scrunched up and honestly Jax wasn’t sure what to do to appease her.  He was used to not actually caring if a girl got upset with him.  He almost couldn’t believe he was here, caging little Emma with his body, and enjoying it.  She would probably be scared if she knew the thoughts he was having right now.  Naked thoughts.  Naked dirty, filthy thoughts that made him want to smile.  Thoughts of his head buried between Emma’s thighs.  Thoughts of what she would look like bent over the hood of his car.  Jax was pretty sure those thoughts shouldn’t be in the head of the guy who basically told everyone in high school this girl was the ugliest person he’d ever seen.  It shouldn’t matter, but it did because he was starting to see things he couldn’t before.  Things Jax liked about Emma.