I spare a quick glance at Greer to see what he was thinking, but his face appears as closed off as her voice. “All of it.”
She remains quiet for so long, I’m unsure if she will answer me. Do I even want to know the answer? I mean who the fuck does that to their child?
“Tell me something, Eli,” she whispers not waiting for a response. “Do your parents let you know how proud they are of you? Express their love for you?”
“Yes.” I have an idea of where she is going with this, and I’m probably not ready to hear it.
“That’s something to treasure, to enjoy, and to bask in.” The wistfulness is evident in her voice. “When I was about five, I knew I wasn’t the obedient child my parents were going to want me to be. I had a hard time sitting still. I used to run my peas through my mashed potatoes and make tracks on my dinner plate. They hated that when we had company over.” She finally turns to face us. “I was the embarrassment, the reason they stopped inviting friends over. They had no control over me, and when I got older, I would hear them whispering to each other. Jet is such a shame; Jet had so much potential; Jet must be a one-off.”
“Baby…” Greer’s hard exterior finally cracks.
“It’s ok. I’ve never fit in with my family. Never been able to conform to what they want. Getting older, I could see the way they looked at my brother and sisters compared to me, and I wanted that. I wanted it so bad I could taste it. So I started behaving as my sisters had. I fought my urge to stand out, to be my own person. For years, I lived as Margo and Sally did. I lost myself, lost my most precious thing trying to fit in the way they did. I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.”
“Lost what?” I ask. The way she says she lost her most precious thing lets me know it was more than just trying to be someone she wasn’t for approval.
“What?” Confusion clouds her distraught gaze.
“You said you lost your most precious thing,” Greer repeats to her.
She looks startled before answering. “There was a boy in Margo and Sally’s circle. He was nice, had this dark intensity about him. I should have known better.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Greer explodes. I understand where her story is going, and he obviously does, too. Gripping his forearm in a tight hold, I try to keep him calm.
Greer
She can’t fucking be saying what I think she is. It’s not possible. She wouldn’t have… Her sisters wouldn’t have… Would they?
The look she spears me with is all the answer I need.
I walk out without saying a fucking thing. Falling snow greets me, cooling my body off but not my temper. I can’t deal with this. It’s fucking selfish as hell of me to do, but I just can’t. She didn’t deserve that.
“I wasn’t raped, Greer.” Her soft words stop my angry strides on the sidewalk. “I did it because I wanted to. I did it because I thought he saw the girl beneath the pomp. I thought he could accept me for me. Foul-mouthed and all. I was wrong. I’m always wrong.”
The tears in her voice are my undoing. I turn, storming back towards her. Rougher than I should have, I grip her ass cheeks and haul her lithe body against mine, slamming my lips onto hers. I own her mouth, her moans of pleasure. I worship her in one of the most fundamental ways I know how—with my need for her. It is all encompassing. Overpowering in its essence. My body craves hers like an addict looking for their next fix.
She is taking over my soul. My train of thought is consumed by her. Her moans of pleasure as I plunder her mouth with mine are intoxicating. Her taste is like sweet peaches ripe for the picking.
Pulling away from her eager lips for a breath was torture. Looking into her eyes, seeing the lust, want, need makes everything else in my life appear inconsequential. All I need is her happiness.
Dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard, yet it sums my feelings up. Her…us…we are perfectly imperfect. The chemistry we all share was immediate, uncontrollable. Like a summer storm in July. It swept in and took complete control of us all.
“That was…” She panted, out of breath. “I’ve never been kissed before.” Her quiet confession rocks me to my core.
“But I thought…” I trail off not wanting to say the words out loud. Just thinking of her with any other man besides Eli and I has me wanting to smash something.
“I did. I have. But kissing was too intimate. It felt like I’d have been giving more than just my virginity. I know it’s stupid.”
“It’s not stupid,” Eli is quick to reassure.
She slowly slides down my body. Looking between the two of us, she takes a deep breath, making her breasts heave up and down in a spectacular show of cleavage.
“Take me home…” she murmurs softly. Finally opening her eyes, she captures us both in a stare so intense I nearly lose my breath. “With you.”
Chapter 3
Jet