JAX (The Beckett Boys #2) - Olivia Chase Page 0,68
black girl with legs for days. A moment later he was chatting with an ice blonde pixie queen.
It was actually amazing, now that Jacob’s looks weren’t totally disarming me, to watch the way girls zipped in and out of his circle. One would instantly replace another, so that it looked almost like a conveyer belt of girls being funneled toward him. Other football players—without Jacob Everett’s charisma (or, to be fair, his smile)—chatted with girls as they arrived or departed, clearly content to be members of the court even if they couldn’t be royalty in their own right.
“So. What’s your name, honey?” the bartender asked.
“Sasha. I’m the New Lily,” I said.
“Oh!” the bartender said, looking alarmed.
“What?” I asked, going still.
“New Lily!” Piper’s voice broke into the conversation. She was clearly a little tipsy, as she linked her arm through mine. “You can’t just hang out at the bar all night,” she told me. Come on!”
I shrugged at the bartender, who had a cautious look on his face now— but there was no time for me to ask what that was all about, because Piper was dragging me to the other room, toward Jacob Everett’s couch.
Jacob Everett was something of a lightening rod; all energy and light and power shooting toward him. Piper pulled me along behind her; Kiersten was nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t until Piper had wrestled me over to the edge of the couch that I realized we’d taken the place of the girls I’d been watching adore and admire Jacob Everett just a few moments before. And so the scholar becomes the subject, I thought, wanting to roll my eyes at myself for becoming one of the many conveyor belt girls.
“Having a good time?” Piper asked, very deliberately keeping me one space behind her on the conveyor belt.
“Yeah, yeah. The bartender is really nice,” I said.
“Never say that again,” Piper said, her voice carrying just enough edge to be serious. “How do I look?”
“Gorgeous— but your lipstick is smudged,” I said, actually impressed that it wasn’t more smudged given how hard she’d been kissing Adams.
“Dammit,” Piper hissed, and rustled through her purse to reapply. As she did so, the conveyor belt moved a bit. A cute redhead moved along, and suddenly, Piper was sitting beside Jacob on the couch, sparkling, shining. She looked tiny next to Jacob Everett, who immediately wrapped an arm around her and tugged her close. It wasn’t so much romantic as it was possessive, and seeing him do this dimmed the glow around Jacob— at least, as far as I was concerned.
“Hey, Piper, baby,” Jacob said, leaning against her a little. “So you finally made your way back here to see me.”
“You’ve got a line, Jacob,” Piper said teasingly. She kissed him on the lips, lightly, and while Jacob allowed it, he didn’t deepen the kiss either. Piper leaned in even closer and played with the edges of her hair.
“I got the third game in the lottery,” Piper said, sipping on her drink.
“Oh yeah? Florida. Should be a good game. For us, anyway,” Jacob said.
“Yep. So. I’ll be there. If you need anything,” Piper finished, letting the final words roll around in her mouth a bit. The eyes of the nearby girls flashed dark for a moment, and even if I hadn’t learned what Piper was implying, there’d have been no denying the jealous wave that rippled through the room.
My feet were starting to hurt in Kiersten’s shoes; I lowered myself down to the arm of the couch, trying to stay as far from Jacob’s orbit as possible without totally abandoning Piper. Jacob and Piper continued to chat for a moment, just long enough that I relaxed a bit, even started looking for an in in the conversation two nearby girls were having (it wasn’t easy— they were talking about local bars, which I knew absolutely nothing about).
“So, tell me something, Piper,” Jacob said, turning his head so that his voice— it was a solid, strong voice— hit me full on. I startled when I turned and was struck again by Jacob’s gray-blue eyes on me, so much closer this time, and so much more disarming when paired with his voice. He lifted an eyebrow at me. “Tell me about this new girl.”
Chapter 3
“That’s the New Lily. Her name’s Sasha,” Piper said with more than a hint of dismissiveness in her voice.
“I already know her name. But why is she a mime?” Jacob asked without pulling his gaze away.