Until You (Fall Away Series)(35)

She doesn’t love me. She can’t.

“Always you. Always yours. Now, take it,” she orders.

I can’t stand the hunger anymore, and I seize what’s mine. I eat up her sweet lips, and we melt in sweat and heat and want nothing except to dive into this dangerous urgency for each other.

I want it all. All of her.



“Are you okay?” a voice, strong and clear, broke through.

I blinked and found myself still in the bathroom, forehead resting on the shoulder of another girl. My eyelashes felt thick, and there was a blur.

What the f*ck?

Was I crying?

Jesus Christ. Motherf*cker!

“Are you okay?” she asked again.

Standing up straight, I looked down at the girl I’d been about to have sex with. Brown eyes stared back at me.

Nausea rolled viciously through my stomach, the alcohol shifting my body from a pleasant fog to agony.

“No, I’m not okay,” I muttered and turned to grip the sink ledge. “Just go on out. I feel sick.”

“Do you want me to get someone?”

“Just go!” I shouted, and she slipped out the door quickly, while I closed my eyes and hardened every muscle in my body, willing the sickness to disappear.

But after a few seconds, I was f*cking done. Here I was, holed up in the bathroom, practically in f*cking tears. And why?

Out of control. That’s what I was. Always out of control.

Picking my toothbrush out of the holder, I jammed it down my throat and emptied everything I’d eaten today into the toilet. Most of it was the alcohol of the last four hours, and it burned like hell as I gripped the sink to the side and leaned over, wrenching.

“Jared, you okay?” someone burst in.

“Goddammit!” I yelled. “Can’t people just leave me the f*ck alone?” I spit up the rest of what was coming up from my stomach and looked over at whoever was at the door.

Shit.

“Jax,” I started but couldn’t finish. He was shrinking away.

He didn’t speak again. Only looked away and backed out of the bathroom, closing the door.

And in that moment, I was no better than our f*cking father.

I knew the look on his face. I’d seen it before. Hell, I’d even worn it myself. Too scared to meet my eyes. Leaving as quietly as you came. Trying to remain off the radar of the drunk lunatic.

I gargled some mouthwash, yanked off my T-shirt, and collapsed against the bathroom wall to rest. I needed to calm down before I apologized to him. He couldn’t see me like that again.

I stayed there a minute or two, trying to get my head straight and my stomach to settle.

But as I stood up to leave the room, the entire house went dead. Lights out, music off, and all I heard were the loud barks of pissed off partiers.

“What the hell?” I felt my way out the bathroom door and to my bedroom.

Stumbling over the shit on my floor, I found a flashlight in the bedside table and switched it on.

It wasn’t storming out, and we paid our bills on time. Why the hell was the electricity out?

Walking over to the window, I saw the Brandt’s porch light on, so I knew it wasn’t the neighborhood.

And then I saw Tate.

No. I zoned in on her like a bullet.

Her silhouette was behind her curtain, and I knew. I f*cking knew what she did.

Powering down the stairs and through the drunken *s falling and laughing around my house and yard, I darted out the backdoor, hopped on the AC unit and jumped over the fence.

The key her father left me to watch over the house was still on my key ring, so I dug it out of my pants and charged through the back door, not caring if she heard me.

She’d find out soon enough that I was in the house, anyway.

God! I can’t believe she cut the f*cking electricity to my house.

My blood swirled like a cyclonic wind inside of me, but believe it or not, it felt easy. This was where I was strong.

Was I supposed to be in here? No. What would I do or say when I got to her? I had no idea. But I wanted this fight.

Swinging myself around the bannister, I barreled up the stairs and caught sight of Tate darting back into her room.

Was that a bat she was holding?

Yeah, that was gonna help. She wasn’t safe from me, and now she knew it.

I swung her door open in time to see her try to make her escape through the French doors. “Oh no, you don’t!”

Turning around to face me, she tried to raise the bat, but I was on her before she even got ready to swing. Snatching it out of her hands, I charged into her space, hovering but not touching. Wave after wave of heat washed over me from the inch of air between us.