JAX (The Beckett Boys #2) - Olivia Chase Page 0,71

was asking for the dress back. Normally, I’d have hurried back to my room then handed it over, but some combination of alcohol, being left, and the strange hurt feeling I had when watching Jacob bend that girl over a garden bench made me feel reckless. I dropped my purse, then twisted to unclasp the dress. It dropped to my feet and, with a quick smile, I stepped out of the puddle, then snatched it up to hand it to Piper.

“Thanks for letting me wear it,” I said. I felt myself cooling— literally and figuratively. Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe they didn’t understand how many “being safe in college” type brochures I had read. Maybe this was all a big misunderstanding. I took a breath and slowed my anger down.

Piper smiled, lips tense. “Glad you had such a successful evening.”

“It was fun,” I said. “I really did have a nice time. Why’d you leave without me, though?”

Piper shrugged. “You looked like you had things under control.”

“Yeah, but still. Can you just tell me next time? Please?” I asked, trying to let kindness shine through my words.

Piper looked annoyed, then tossed the dress into the door of her open bedroom. “I’ll try to keep that in mind. Calm down, New Lily.”

I licked my lips, then nodded and walked down to my bedroom. It was still unpacked, though I’d had time before the party to make my bed up. I knew I should wash my face, but I needed a moment alone. I hit the lights and, still in my bra and panties, curled up onto my bed in the darkness.

Calm down, New Lily. Piper said it in a way that baited me, begged me to demand I be called by my actual name. It hadn’t worked, though— one, because I could tell it was bait, and two, because I couldn’t stop thinking about the face of the one person who not only knew my name, but perhaps had even sought it out.

Jacob Everett.

I took a deep breath at the thought of him— of gray blue eyes and dark hair and the way his muscles looked against the fabric of his shirt. I was from south Georgia, so I’d seen plenty of boys who considered themselves football gods…but Jacob Everett was the only one I’d ever seen that managed to pull me into his orbit so quickly and completely. I didn’t even care about football, after all, but there was something about him…was it the way the other people at the party so clearly worshipped him? Was it the fact that he’d looked at me, asked about me when someone as confident and sexy as Piper was sitting beside him?

I smashed my face against my pillow, and reminded myself that despite all that, Jacob had been out in the yard doing god-only-knew-what with the pretty black girl. I bit my lip and wondered what it was like to be that girl, to so happily bend over and invite Jacob to take her right there, under the night sky.

I found myself clenching the muscles between my legs at the thought, wondering what it would be like to let Jacob into my most private areas. The smallest of moans emerged from my lips as, for a moment, I allowed myself to think of his hands sliding between my legs, pushing them apart.

Don’t be stupid, I scolded myself, forcing my eyes open. I wouldn’t even know what to do if Jacob wanted me— I certainly wouldn’t have had the nerve to hike my dress up and bend over, no matter how well I could imagine myself doing exactly that.

But what does it hurt to imagine it? I thought, and blushed at my own brashness. Jacob Everett had asked after me, but it wasn’t like it would ever become anything— so why not have a little fun with the memory while it was fresh? I reached for my phone and Googled Jacob’s name. A million photos popped up immediately— Jacob in football gear, at press conferences, signing autographs. I scrolled along them until I found a candid photo of him walking off the football field, I assumed after a workout— it looked to be late afternoon, and sunlight was bouncing off the sweat-slicked muscles of his abs, so defined I wanted to run my fingers along them. There was a girl beside him, a pretty petite thing in a sports bra, and it looked like she was laughing at something he’d just said. I carefully