Jezebel's Lion(16)

They stared at each other in silence until her parents came in. Her mother raised her eyebrow at Jess as she saw the situation. Sighing, Jess knew this wasn’t going to get sorted out with Travis and Zeck tonight. “Hi, Mom. Travis and Zeck were just leaving.”

They turned their gaze on her. Zeck nodded and walked away. Travis followed and paused at the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Jess.”

“See you tomorrow.” As soon as they left, the tension left the room, too, and Brandon stood and threaded his fingers through hers.

“Come on, Jezebel. We’ll meet your parents at the restaurant.” Jess followed Brandon out to his car. She hoped things got easier.





Chapter Four



Dinner with their parents had gone surprisingly well. Even her dad had been on his best behavior, not that she expected any less from him. The Prides were a well-known family. They had money, influence, and Jess’s dad said they had power. Jess had overheard her father say a couple of times when her brothers had had Carl and Tyler over that he never understood why the Prides lived so modestly when they had their hand in everything and had so much wealth. Jess’s father was a lawyer and made a good living. He had made partner a couple of years ago, and her mother had been a nurse for several years before Jess was born.

Jess was the baby of the family, and with two older brothers she was Daddy’s little girl. Jess knew that her father was struggling with the situation.

When the dinner had come to an end the Prides had taken over and told Brandon and her to have fun at the movies and that they looked forward to seeing her on Thursday night at family games night.

Jess now stood in the cinema line with Brandon looking at the options of what they could see. Brandon held her hand, and every now and then his thumb rubbed over her skin.

“What do you want to watch? I’m happy to see whatever you want.”

Jess looked up to see two action movies, one girlie romance, a drama, and lastly her favorite, two horror movies. Jess went to horror movies with Zeck and Travis. It was a thing they did. “I’m easy, as long as it’s not the girlie movie. I’m not into those.”

Brandon chuckled. “I’m not into those either. How about we see one of the action ones? I haven’t seen either of them.”

“Sure, sounds good. The one with the adventure in I’ve heard is a great movie. I’ve read the book that goes with it. It’s the first in a trilogy though. That won’t bother you, will it?” Jess got her money out of her purse ready to pay.

They were next up to get tickets. “No, it will be perfect. That’s the one we’ll see.” He looked down at her and frowned. “What are doing? No way am I letting you pay. This is a date. I’m paying.” He shoved her hand away from the ticket lady as they came up to the booth and told the ticket woman the movie they’d chosen.

Once they had tickets they walked hand in hand towards the cinema. Jess enjoyed the feel of his touch, and for once in her life she didn’t mind the attention she got for being with Brandon, and he was getting attention. The females couldn’t seem to keep their eyes off him, and even some males were eating him up. As they lined up Jess suppressed a groan as Mac Fierce came up to them with a huge smirk on his face, and a pretty junior whose name Jezebel couldn’t remember was on his arm.

“Pride, it looks like we’re going to see the same movie.” Mac winked at her. “Who have we got here?” He reached for her hand, but Jess avoided his touch. Mac was a douche-bag, a hot one, but still one. His brows furrowed at her avoidance of him.

Brandon chuckled. “My mate is a good judge of character to stay away from you, Fierce.”

Jess smirked at Mac. “He is in a couple of my classes. Mac has a short attention span.”

Brandon’s chuckle turned into a deep loud laugh. Brandon gathered her to him so her back was against his chest. He leaned down and kissed her head.

Mac was studying her. He had no idea who she was. Jess knew he wouldn’t recognize her. Mac hung out with the gorgeous, popular people. He’d never glanced her way.

“You have no idea who I am, do you?”

Mac’s eyes narrowed, and she could see the cogs working overtime as he tried to figure out who she was. His date didn’t seem happy that he was giving a lot of attention to her.

“Maccie, she’s the fat chick in drama group. She hangs out with two guys all the time. You know, Kelsey calls her ‘Jell-O Jezebel’.”

Jess shrank back from the words she’d heard many times. She didn’t mind hearing them. She was used to them, but she was embarrassed Brandon had had to hear them. He growled, and Jess felt him tense behind her. Jess noticed Mac’s eyes widen.