The Keys to Jericho (32 page)

As the sun begins to set, I offhandedly look to the door to be surprised when Kat comes down the deck stairs. Suddenly uncomfortable, I get up and add more unnecessary fuel to the fire, just to keep myself busy and to not gawk at her.

She says something to Dash and takes a seat on one of the wobbly logs, smiling and talking to him as she rocks it back and forth. Kat looks happier now than she did hours ago. From the other side of the pit, with the firelight on her face, she looks luminous, but it’s not from anything I did, which saddens me more.

Kat and Dash continue to talk, but I still can’t make out what they’re saying because of Rio’s grating phone conversation with his keeper on the other side of me, and due to the crackling of the fire in front of me, yet I watch them like a hawk through the flames. Dash hands her a bottle of beer and she takes a long swig, and I’m again reminded of how her lips tasted. I haven’t told Dash or Rio about our kiss, but I don’t plan to tell them. They don’t need to know.

I don’t know if it’s selfishness, the beers I’ve had, or how sexy she looks, but when Dash gets up from his seat to go into the house, I hastily grab another beer from the cooler, and walking over to his chair, I drag it with me, setting it behind Kat. She stops rocking and stiffens as I sit down, straddling her. Twisting to the side, I put my beer on the ground and reach for the bag of marshmallows.

Leaning forward onto her back, I hold out the bag of marshmallows to Kat, but she shakes her head, her ponytail swishing against my chest. Keeping close to her, I sigh and drop the bag to the ground. Resting my hands on the tops of my thighs, I glance over at Rio, who is now poking at his phone, just as Dash returns. “Hey, Jericho. What’s with the chair stealing?”

“Finders keepers.”

He stares at the way I’m sitting with Kat, and in the diffuse light, I see the warning look he shoots me before taking a seat next to Rio. They both watch us, whispering something to each other, but then seem to lose interest. When they both go back to playing with their phones, I take the open opportunity. Lowering my head, reveling in her scent, my lips unintentionally sweep against her ear as I whisper, “I’m so sorry, Kit Kat.”

Being so close to Kat, I hear her curtly inhale, but she doesn’t reply. However, she seems to relax because she starts gently rocking again, which rocks me with her, putting me on a fast track to a hard-on. I need to back away from her, but I can’t. I have already laid everything out to her, so to try and hide it now is just pointless, unless she gets up and leaves.

But she doesn’t.

Astonishing me, Kat puts her arms on my legs, using me to push closer and more firmly between my legs.

Holy fuck. She’s encouraging my erection.

Other than her quiet rocking, she doesn’t say anything or make it obvious what she’s doing to me. With each sway forward, her ass grinds into my cock. Keeping an eye on Dash and Rio, I brokenly sigh into her hair. She stays firmly against me, and for a moment, I wonder if she’s aware of what’s happening, but when she shifts her back, causing me to softly groan next to her ear, and she does it again, eliciting the same response from me, there’s no fucking doubt that she knows exactly what she’s doing.

Realizing this, I scoot forward in my chair, pressing into Kat more, ever watching Dash and Rio, since she’s essentially jacking me off in front of them. Her fast heartbeat and breathing lifting her chest with mine is the only hint I have that she’s turned on. With their attention focused on their phones, I’m taking a risk here with Kat against me.

Keeping my chest on her, I pull my hips back and Kat stops rocking, probably assuming I want her to stop. I reach down to my long, cotton shorts, and push down the front of my waistband, freeing my dick, which is thrumming from the friction. Still watching the other two sitting at a fair distance, perpendicular to us, I slide up Kat’s tank top, exposing her skin. Pulling my shirt to the side to cover me, I lean steadfastly onto her again. When my cock touches her back, I clamp my teeth on my bottom lip, while her responding gasp is loud. Dash looks over at us, but when he doesn’t see anything bothersome, he looks back to his phone.

Kat slowly starts rocking us again, rubbing my cock up and down in a rhythm along her skin. I turn my head towards the house as my eyes close, and my mouth falls open, huffing quiet, discordant breaths over the back of her head. My cock leaves a slight, damp trail, slickening my movements over her.

I thought I’d never feel her skin like this, and it’s too much. The closer I am to coming, the harder and faster I need to stroke, and my hands become fists as I struggle to not grab her tits and push her tighter to me still, but I have to remain aware of our audience. I can’t rock out of rhythm, and we can’t rock too much in a rhythm, either, or it will be evident what we’re doing.
We
. Amid my balls tightening and the deep tingling moving up my shaft, I still am in complete awe of her doing this to me.

I clamp my lips closed and pant through my teeth as I feel my orgasm speeding forward. Before it reaches the head, I yank my waistband up and my dick jerks against Kat as I come in my underwear, instead of onto her, my shorts being the barrier between us to avoid the mess that would be hard to hide.

Shifting back slightly, she thankfully stays, because I really don’t want to explain my still-existent hard-on to Dash and Rio. As I use my forearm to swipe the sweat from my forehead, Kat silently sits, not saying anything still, but then again, I don’t say anything to her in return. Aside from my apology, we haven’t said a word to each other since this afternoon.

We sit together, while I slow my breathing, and until my hard-on subsides, but before I can stand, Kat does. She says to Rio and Dash, “I’m going to get a shower and go to bed. Can I take anything into the house before I go?”

Dash says, “No, we’ll get it. Jared starts the fires, Rio puts them out, and I clean up.”
Kind of symbolic in a way.
“There are towels and anything else you might need in the bathroom closet.”

“Okay. Night.” She waves at them, still avoiding looking directly at me. Christ. I just got off on her and she acts like nothing happened.

I watch her go up the stairs and into the house in a hurry. I need to follow her, but not wanting to tip off Rio and Dash any more than I probably have, I gingerly sit back in the chair, putting my ankle over my knee. The stickiness of my orgasm clings to me, but compared to the horrible feelings I experienced this afternoon with Kat, I’ll take the cum she prompted from me sticking to my crotch any day.

CHAPTER 17

Rio looks from me to the door, and then skeptically eyes me again. “I take it you two made up?” I pick up my beer and shrug.

As I take a drink, Dash apprehensively asks, “Did you apologize?”

They both wait for my answer as my gaze falls to the bottle in my hand. “We talked.”

Rio says, “Well, whatever you said to her must’ve worked.”

Dash loudly sighs and stretches his arms over his head. “I’m glad.” As he gets comfortable, he hesitantly laughs. “You and Kat looked suddenly…cozy.”

“We’re fine.” Shifting forward, I dangle my beer between my legs, staring at the fire.

“So, you did talk?” Rio asks.

Outwardly engrossed with the fire, I nod, idly spinning the mouth of the bottle with my fingers. They again wait for me to elaborate, but I don’t.

Dash’s laugh is more assured this time around. “Well, I thought you were going to have sex with her in front of us.”

I glance at him and bitterly grumble, “Shut the fuck up.”

Setting his phone down, Dash jumps to his feet, and walking over, he grabs the bag of marshmallows on the ground, next to my chair. “Why is she going to bed so early? It’s not even 11:00.”

“Rough day,” Rio replies, his blue-eyed gaze darting to me as he walks past us. “I’ll be back.” He heads up the stairs, leaving me to feel worse about my actions earlier, before
and
after I seemingly exploited Kat for a climax.

Dash takes a roasting fork and spears three marshmallows, alternating watching his task and Rio going into the house, as do I. He says, “She didn’t even tell you goodnight. Are you sure she’s okay? You’re not hiding something, are you?” When I give him a piercing look, he appends, “I hope you’re telling us the truth and you
are
friends with Kat again.”

I’m annoyed that he and Duquesne have noticed so much, and I tensely reply, “We are.” I would think her jerking me off would constitute as a peace treaty of sorts.

Returning to his seat and leaning forward to roast his marshmallows, nearly mimicking how I’m sitting, he says, “I don’t know how much you talked, but she needs to tell you something. I doubt she already has.”

Perplexed, my eyebrows pinch and I shake my head. “Tell me what?”

He shakes his head back at me. “
I
can’t tell you that.”

I frown at the mouth of my beer bottle before I take a drink. “Then why in the fuck did you mention it?”

“Because you need to know.”

Rapidly swallowing my beer, I impatiently spout, “Just tell me then!”

Pulling out the metal stick, Dash inspects his marshmallows, but since they’re not charred and on fire, he shoves them back into the flames. “Nope. Kat has to be the one to tell you.”

I grit my teeth and grip the neck of the bottle tighter. “You’re really pissing me off, Calder.”

“I know.” Dash grins as my glower intensifies; however, he turns down the mirth when he says, “Jericho, I’m not joking, though. It’s why she was so upset earlier after your outburst.”

I nod because I know what he’s referring to. “Yes, I’m still helping her get a license.”

He blows on the marshmallows ablaze and laughs. “That’s not the reason why.”

Watching him inspect the charred globs, I sigh and tug on the bill of my hat. “We’re still friends, too.” I hope so, and she didn’t think I was just using her for a cum opp.

Dash pulls a bloated, black and silver puff off the stick. “Dude, you really
don’t
get it.”

I lift my beer, swigging it back as I think of a reply to that. Kat wouldn’t keep anything major from me. She said no secrets. Not anymore, at least. Finishing off the bottle, I set it on the ground and reason, “If it were serious, she would’ve told me.”

With a glutinous mouthful, he says, “If she had told you, I don’t think you’d be so calm about it, but it would explain this afternoon.” I frown at him for the jumbled reply. I guess that means he escaped seeing me not calm ten minutes ago. Did Kat tell him about her crush on me? If she didn’t, I’m not going to be the one enlightening him. I don’t want to open that up for Dash and Rio to pick apart.

“Why? Is it going to piss me off?” Fuck. I’m going to be fixated on finding out what it is.

Jostling the bag, Dash drops a marshmallow on the ground. Picking it up, he hurdles it into the fire with another laugh. “Piss you off? Not sure, but then again, I don’t know. Probably. You won’t know how to deal with it.”

I nonchalantly shrug. “Maybe she told me and I’m fine with it.”

He adamantly shakes his head. “Nope, because you would
not
want to be talking about it right now. You’d hide the hell out of that.”

Beyond irritated, I demand, “Dash, if it’s serious, you’d better fucking tell me.”

“I told you,
I can’t
.” He takes a drink of his beer and frowns. “I doubt if she’ll ever tell you now, but you still need to ask her. You only have so much time left in Annapolis.”

I sneer, “So? Now, why are
you
being so fucking mysterious?”

“I’m not. It’s just obvious to everyone, except you.”

“What the hell is
obvious
?”

“What I can’t tell you.”

I impatiently snap, “Fuck. If it’s so obvious, does Duquesne know?”

He casually shrugs as he eats marshmallows from the bag. “Yeah, he knows, but not because he was told.”

“And
that
implies…?”

Dash shakes his head between bites. “It means that he knows from watching
you
.”

Exasperated from this horrific conversation, I heave a vigorous sigh. “How can he figure out something about Kat from watching
me
?”

He dubiously angles his head, giving me some kind of pitying expression. “Jericho, because it’s
your
secret, too.” Shit. Did Kat tell him about what I said or suggested last night? Or
did
he see me getting off on her?

Glaring at him, I shake my head. “I’m three seconds from committing your murder. This conversation has made no fucking sense. Are you drunk?”

He swiftly grins. “Still sober.”

Footsteps pound off the stairs and I look to see Rio. I also subtly peer up to Kat’s room again and see the light is off, disappointing me because I want to check on her, too. Though, I don’t know what I’d say to her, since she seemed uncomfortable with me after our—or my—incident.

Dash asks, “How’s Kat?”

Rio says, “She was getting ready to take a shower. She said she’s tired, but didn’t say much else.” He and Calder exchange a look, putting me on alert.

Dash’s grin returns. “I was just telling Jericho that Kat has something to tell him.”

Rio smiles, but warily asks, “Oh, yeah?”

Restless, I sit back and put my ankle over my other knee, and edgily ask, “What is it, Duquesne? Tell me.”

He laughs as he picks up his beer and sits down. “No way. Not going there.”

I glower at them and bite, “So, you both think this is damn funny?”

Dash says, “Just funny that you don’t see it from either side.”

Rio says to Dash, “He doesn’t
want
to see it.”

I brusquely ask, “You know what
I
find funny, Duquesne? That you are otherwise awkward around the opposite sex, so why is that you and Kat are now chummy? Is she part of your family now, too?”

Rio crosses his ankles and shrewdly smiles. “That’s a possibility.”

Dash eagerly nods and says to Rio, “She could always marry your cousin Vince.”

I doubtfully spit, “The zookeeper?”

Lowering his beer, Rio coolly shrugs. “He’s available. I think he’d appreciate her.”

I agitatedly laugh. “Yeah, and she’d appreciate him smelling like ostrich shit.”

Dash pounds his fist on the arm of his chair and yelps, “He could teach her how to drive one of those golf carts!”

Rio grins. “Or how to drive a stick.”

Dash laughs. “Yeah.
His
stick.”

I snarl, “Fuck, no.”

Rio’s grin turns up a level and he glances at Calder. “Ok. How about she marry
you
, Dash?”

Dash appears to contemplate that, tilting his blond head side to side. “She has a nice rack. That’ll be good for when she pops out my babies soon.”

My mouth drops open. “What the fuck?”

Dash smiles at my horror. “I haven’t even asked her out. I guess I could. We’re friends and all.”

I grip the arm of my chair and seethe, “The hell you will.”

“What, Jericho? You’ve known her since eleventh grade. So? You haven’t stayed in touch with her. I have since college,
and
she’s single.”

I think I bent the chair with my grip. “I don’t care. You’re not dating her.”

He puts his hand up. “Wait. I can’t date Hadley. I can’t date Kat. I can understand Hadley, but why
not
Kat?”

I growl through my teeth, “Because like I’ve already told you, I said
no
.”

Rio interjects, “Jare, you haven’t dated Kat, haven’t had sex with her
or
even have an interest in her, so the Bro Code doesn’t apply.” He turns to Dash and punches his arm. “I say ask her out, Douche.”

I angrily retort, “And
I
say you’re asking for a body bag.” Kat said we had been dating this week, but that’s something else I’m not sharing with them. They’d make it into a huge joke right now, and I’d have to commit two murders.

“Wow, Jericho. You’re awfully jealous for being
only
a friend.”

I insistently snarl, “I’m
not
jealous.” I internally wince as I steal my dad’s word. “Just concerned.”

Dash looks confused. “About me? That’s a first.”

“About
her
, you prick.”

Dash laughs. “Because I’m
so
hazardous to her health.”

“No, but if you ask her out,
I’ll
be hazardous to your health.”

Rocking his beer bottle on the arm of his chair, Rio mutters, “Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt, Jare.”

Reaching my limit with them, I snap, “Okay. I’m done. I’m tired of both of you, too.” Far from tired. I won’t be able to sleep. As I stand, since my pubes are glued to my legs and junk, the hair pulls at my skin, and I try not to make a face. “I’m going to bed.”

Dash says, “Just remember which room is yours, Jericho.”

I scowl. “Fuck you.”

“Buy me dinner, show me the goods, and then we’ll talk.” He ridiculously grins at me and I have to turn my head so I don’t laugh. Idiot.

I still hear them laughing as I stomp my way up the steps, and open the sliding door. Fuckers.

I head upstairs to get a change of clothes and to take a shower. Walking into the room, I turn on the light and going to my suitcase, a gray box propped against a pillow catches my eye. I pick up the box of condoms with a Post-It note reading,
Watch those swimmers! Love, Dash and Rio.

“What’s this damn shit?” I ask out loud, looking around my room, like they’re going to suddenly jump out of the closet or from under the bed.

I don’t need their approval or even them knowing what I’m doing with Kat, if we even do anything more at this point.

Taking the box to the hall, I whip it into Dash’s room, knocking it off the dresser with a clatter and then a light thud.

When I’m done with my shower, I creep down to Kat’s room and stand at her door, listening for anything, but it’s quiet. I deliberate knocking, but ultimately decide against it. Hoping for tomorrow to be a fresh start, I sigh as I run my hand into my damp hair, flicking water into the air as I go back to my bedroom.

Unsettled, I turn on the reading lamp, sitting on the nightstand, and tear down the blankets, tossing extra pillows onto the floor. Flopping onto the bed, I put my hands behind my head and stare up at the dimly-lit ceiling, reminding me of watching clouds with Kat at the park, or rather, me watching her, watching clouds at the park.

The things Dash and Rio said are assaulting my mind, making me too jumpy to sleep. Kat will
not
be dating Dash, but if I warn her that he may ask, she’ll take that as me sounding jealous. And I’m… Shit. I have no right to be possessive of her, but Dash will
not
be laying any kind of fucking claim on her. Because even if it’s unknown to them and…temporary…I already have. The day I met her.

A knock on my door, jolts me out of my daze. Sighing, I warn, “Just so you know, I have my lighter with me, so enter at your own risk.”