SWNOVELS My Ex-Boyfriend’s Brothers: Chapter 2
I cleared my throat. “Jackson, this job is going to be difficult as it is. You can’t make it harder by being trashed the entire time.”
He still hadn’t taken his hand out of the crate of whiskey. “What makes you think I’m going to make your job harder, Bubbles? Haven’t I always been a perfect gentleman around you?”
There was nothing gentlemanly about the way he’d looked at me from the first day I’d met him until right then. I put my hands on my hips and flushed as his eyes followed my hands. “Jackson.”
He raised his eyebrows at me. “Bubbles.”
I inched closer as I watched him slowly extract a bottle of whiskey that cost over a thousand dollars. “It’s been years now. Are you ever going to tell me why you call me that?”
He grinned and his white teeth appeared wolf-like through his dark beard. His deep brown eyes moved up and down my body again and then they locked in on mine. “Your laugh. It feels like bubbles when I hear it. Maybe butterflies. I don’t know. Bubbles fits you better.”
I was full-on red. I looked down at my feet and let my hair fall in front of my face. I needed a moment to think. I didn’t get that moment, though. With me distracted, Jackson held the bottle of whiskey over his head and started making his way around me. Like a moth to a flame, I instinctively reached up to grab the bottle, despite Jackson being half a foot taller than me. I knew I’d fallen into a trap when his smile turned even more wolfish and he wrapped his arm around my waist.
I was so caught off guard by his touch and the warmth of his body against mine that I stumbled. It might not have been so catastrophic if Jackson had been steady. He wasn’t. He stumbled when I stumbled and we both went down. He managed to pull me on top of his body so I didn’t take the full force of the fall but my dress couldn’t handle all the movement. A loud rip filled the air and I froze on top of Jackson with my mouth wide open and my eyes filled with horror.
Jackson started to look down but I found the ability to move and put my hand under his chin so he couldn’t. He grunted. “That was your dress, wasn’t it?”
“Yep.” I could feel a lot more breeze than I’d been able to before the terrible sound. “Nice to see you again after all these years, Jackson. How’s the family?”
He shifted and sank his teeth into his bottom lip when he gripped my side and touched bare skin. “Oh. That wasn’t naked a few minutes ago.”
I dropped my forehead to his chest and groaned. “Will there ever be a time that I don’t make a fool of myself in front of you? Just close your eyes while I see how bad the damage is.”
“Not going to happen. I’ve been trying to steal glimpses of you for a very long time. If you think I’m going to miss this chance, you’re nuts.” He shifted and rolled over so he was on top of me. My back was on the cool wood floor for barely a second before Jackson lifted us both to our feet. He carried my weight like I was the size of CeCe and it occurred to me that I’d been with men who weren’t very strong.
His words finally registered once I was standing in front of him and he tried stepped back to look at me. “Hey!”
He smirked. “Yes?”
I moved with him, making sure to keep my body pressed against his so he couldn’t see me. I was sure that outside of the dress, my stomach was out and probably bigger than ever after being pinned inside hell for the last few hours. “You weren’t trying to steal glances. Stop being ridiculous.”
Jackson held my arms and took a giant step back. We looked down together and I cringed. My dress had turned into a potential button-down number due to the full slit up the middle. I was exposed from my heavy breasts to my tiny white thong and beyond to my painted toenails. The soft curve of my belly was out, my navel dip as present as ever, and I was humiliated until I looked back to Jackson’s face to see his reaction.
I’d turned men on before. I wasn’t so hideous that no man had ever wanted me, nor did I think that. I’d just gotten softer since my breakup with Brad. The expression of hunger on Jackson’s face was that of a starving man, though, and I wondered if my eyes weren’t seeing the same thing as his. He’d always playfully teased me and I’d always taken it as just that, playful teasing. There was nothing playful in his expression right then, however.
“Jackson?” I tried to pull my dress back together to no avail.
“Bubbles. I think you should come to my cabin so I can give you a robe to wear.” His voice was rougher than ever as he looked north of my tits again. “I don’t think you should walk across the resort like this.”
I nodded jerkily. I didn’t want anyone to see me. Him seeing me was more than enough. “How do I get there without everything hanging out?”
He pulled his shirt over his head and quickly tugged it over mine. Without giving me a chance to look at his bare chest, he tossed me over his shoulder and grabbed the bottle of whiskey. I didn’t bother to say anything about the whiskey. It felt like small fish after I’d just flashed him my tits.
I stared at his ass as he walked. “This is a new level of low for me, Jackson.”
“Weird. It’s a new high for me.” He cupped the back of my thighs and squeezed. “Did I ever tell you how glad I was that you and my idiot little brother broke up?”
My own bubbles erupted in my stomach at his words. I’d always found Brad’s older brothers attractive but I’d never allowed myself to think of them like I was thinking of Jackson right then. I felt like I’d been dropped into an alternate reality. “Um… No.”
“So fucking glad.” He walked so quickly that I bounced against his shoulder. His solution to that was to lock one of his arms over my back and the other across my thighs, pinning me solidly to him. “Are you dating anyone?”
My mind reeled. “No.”
“Good.”
By the time he carried me into his cabin and put me down, all my blood had rushed to my head. I pressed my thighs together at the sensation of that blood rushing down to my core. I wasn’t sure if I felt like passing out or spontaneously orgasming.
His duffel bag was in the chair next to his bed and there was no other sign that he’d been checked in for very long. The updated log cabin was modernized with everything anyone could ever want and it’d been styled to feel luxurious and cozy. Jackson looked so out of place that I almost wanted to laugh.
“Take the dress off and we’ll see if my shirt is long enough on you so you don’t need pants.” He didn’t bother pulling another shirt on. He leaned against the arm of one of the leather wing-backed chairs and watched me.
“I’ll change in the bathroom. Thanks.” I scurried into the only private space in the cabin and leaned against the door as soon as I closed it behind me. I was going to lose my mind. Jackson was sending strong, strong signals but I wasn’t sure I was reading them right. Jackson Heath was sex on a motorcycle with his tattoos and bedroom eyes. He might’ve just been trying to help me out.
Or maybe he wanted to eat me up, just like his eyes were saying he wanted.