Summer Heat (Cruel Summer #1)(23)

“Hey!” He grabbed my stick. “Let’s remove all weapons first,” With a flick of his fingers the marshmallow was off and on the graham cracker with chocolate and pressed together in a sandwich. “Here, this will make it better.”

I took the gooey sandwich and glared. “Speak.”

“I wouldn’t be all commanding and shit, just gets me hard.” He ran a hand over his buzzed head.

“Gross!” I almost threw my s’more at his face and kicked some dirt for good measure.

“What?” He fell over laughing his green eyes sparkling with mischief. “I’m all about the honesty. I like a bossy woman, so just be polite and we can still be friends with benefits.”

“We aren’t—”

“Just making sure you’re paying attention. Yes, I put you in that class, and yes, it was the only option. And you’re going to be fine.” He sighed and glanced over at Marlo. “You’re a lot like him, you know.”

“Do you want me to hit you?” I took a bite and moaned a bit then wiped the stickiness from my lips.

“Are you trying to continuously turn me on? I love a good hit, and no.” Jackson’s easy smile was making me at least feel better. He was nice to talk to, as long as he kept his hands to himself and his penis inside his pants with the zipper shut up nice and tight. “I’m just saying Marlo’s fucking focused… and you’re the same way. You both would have been generals in another life, and that’s probably why you fight all the time.”

“Well…” I took another bite and looked down at the dirt. “We don’t fight all the time… he’s just easily provoked.”

“And you’re what? A tame little de-clawed kitten?” Jackson wrapped an arm around me and squeezed, I could feel the warm tight muscles beneath his shirt. “Marlo doesn’t set people up to fail… he sets them up to succeed.”

Defeated, I hung my head in shame. “He’s still an asshole.”

“And you’re… perfect?” Jackson whispered so only I could hear. I looked up into his bright green eyes. “Mmm, thought so.”

He pulled his arm back and grabbed his drink from the ground then took a nice long sip.

The fire felt good, soothing in a way.

We both drank and ate in silence.

I could feel Marlo’s stare.

I shivered.

And then someone sat down next to me.

“Hi!” Jen held out her hand. “I mean we met earlier, but I wanted to formally introduce myself to the woman who makes Marlo growl in his sleep.”

“Most animals do.” I laughed taking her hand in mine. She was cute, like the girl next door who makes homemade cookies for her crush and falls in love with the first boy to give her a Band-Aid for her scraped-up knee at the age of six.

“So.” Her freckles were cute, her strawberry blonde hair had the perfect bounce. A sliver of jealousy stabbed me in the chest. She was with Marlo a lot.

I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. The marshmallows were clearly too rich.

“A bunch of us are headed to the lake to skinny-dip since it’s such a nice night, wanna come?”

“Skinny-dip!” Jackson jumped to his feet and peeled off his shirt. A glaring six-pack met me at eye level, and then he touched the top button of his jeans.

“The only way you’re going to keep your dick safe is to keep it tucked away, Jackson,” I said in a warning voice.

He just laughed and started sprinting toward the water, followed by another ten or so people, Marlo included.

My heart caught in my throat as he threw the shirt over his head and disappeared into darkness.

“Come on! Only a few girls are going, the others are too nervous.” She winked. “I’ll be with you, we’ll change on the other side of the dock and get in that way so Jackson can’t see any nakedness for his nighttime daily recap.”

I burst out laughing. “Yeah, you won me over with that one.”

“He’s just…” We both stood, she looped her arm in mine like we were best friends. “Complicated. Jackson’s…” Her face fell a bit.

“No way!” I gasped. “You and Jackson?”

“Once.” Her blush was pretty; it transformed her face into something from girl next door to underground sexpot within seconds. Interesting. “It was… amazing, but he’s just…”

“A player?” I finished for her.

“Yeah,” she admitted, tucking her cropped hair behind her ears. “And I’m such a tomboy, I have more guy friends than girls because A, girls are mean, and B, girls are mean.”

I laughed at that. “They’re the worst. I would know. I used to be one of the mean ones.”

“I figured.”

Her honesty surprised me. I wasn’t really sure what to say.

“Don’t take that the wrong way, it’s just… you’re too pretty, too confident not to be, plus that and I kind of heard a few things from Marlo that made me wonder if you were one of the girls he pined after during high school.”



“I want you,” he whispered against my neck. “Please…”

“Marlo…” My shirt was off. His was on the floor somewhere. We locked eyes. “This is a bad idea.”