Misbehaving(13)

My momma didn’t raise an idiot. Sure, there were a lot of things in life I didn’t know. Like algebra, for instance. I sucked at it. But men—I knew men. I had been watching my mother manipulate them for years. Jason wanted to be normal. Fine. I’d treat him like any other guy.

“No, you’re not Jax,” I replied. I glanced over at Dewayne. “Get me a beer, please.”

I didn’t miss the way Dewayne’s pierced eyebrow lifted in surprise. I never said please. At least, not to him. That had been for Jason’s sake.

“Time to dance, island boy,” I said, shooting Jason a wink and walking toward the crowd, not waiting to see if he followed me. I had no doubt he would.

Suddenly a guy stepped in front of me and grabbed my hips. It was Will Fort, Hank’s best friend. “Hey, sugar, coming to see me?” he asked. I had only used Will once to make Hank mad. Wasn’t worth it. Will had one too many screws loose.

“Keep dreaming, Fort,” I replied, taking his hands off my hips with a shove. He stumbled backward and bumped into another couple. It wasn’t that I was that strong, it was that he was already that drunk.

He just cackled with laughter. The amusement on his face made me want to slap him. “I can play rough, sugar. Hank said that’s how you like it,” Will slurred.

I opened my mouth to tell him where I was going to kick his balls when a new hand settled on my hip. Startled, I turned to see Jason glaring at Will. This hadn’t been expected, but it sure was a nice turn of events. I was surprised he even cared.

“It’s probably best you step back and leave her alone. From the look in her eyes, the rough she’s planning on sticking you with is gonna leave you crumpled on the ground.”

Will shifted his gaze to Jason, and I could see the surprise in his eyes. It was obvious Jason wasn’t one of us. I mentally cringed. I needed to get Jason away from Will before he said anything humiliating. Normally, he went for jokes about my momma.

“Let’s go,” I said to Jason, turning to face him and move him back into the crowd.

Jason went willingly, but his eyes never left Will as he backed away. I liked the protective streak, but the truth was, even drunk Will could have beat his ass. Guys like Jason didn’t have the skills to take on a guy who had grown up being beaten by his father until he was old enough to start hitting back.

“Friend of yours?” Jason finally asked when we were deep enough into the crowd that Will was no longer in sight.

“Small town. The locals all know each other,” I replied, which wasn’t exactly true. But I didn’t want to give Jason a history lesson on my life.

There was a good chance Will would alert Hank to my being here with a guy. Hank still hadn’t paid me back for bashing his truck, and I wasn’t in the mood to face him. Especially with Jason here to see it.

“This was a bad idea,” I told him. “I have a better one.”

Jason didn’t reply, but he was curious.

“Can you swim, island boy?”

A crooked grin tugged at his lips. “Yeah.”

“Good,” I replied, grabbing his hand and pulling him through the bodies until we were at the door. “I know a place a lot less crowded.”

JASON

When Jess had asked me if I could swim, I hadn’t anticipated this. I wasn’t one for breaking the law.

I watched as Jess climbed a tall iron gate, and I considered the stupidity of what I was about to do. She knew I had a direct line of sight up her skirt, and she was using that to her advantage. Glancing back at the empty beach house, I wondered if this was a common thing with locals. This obviously wasn’t her first time doing something like this.

“You coming?” Jess asked as she threw a leg over the fence and grinned down at me. I wasn’t one to back down from a dare, but then I’d never been dared to scale the fence of a house that wasn’t mine. “Don’t let me down,” Jess said, and began her downward climb on the other side of the gate.

I glanced around to make sure we weren’t drawing attention before I reached up and grabbed ahold of the cool metal. The trip up was much easier than Jess had made it look, but she’d been wearing a short skirt and boots. Which, to be honest, was the selling point to this whole thing. It was hard to tell those legs no.

When my feet hit the ground on the other side, I turned to see Jess standing by the pool, dipping her toes into the water, wearing a pair of hot-pink panties that did little for coverage and a matching bra. She lifted her eyes and shot me a teasing grin. “Come and get me,” she taunted before diving into the water.

Knowing those pink strips of satin that did so little to cover up her centerfold body were nice and wet was all the incentive I needed to strip. Glancing up at the house in front of us, I really hoped she was right and this place was actually a rental that was currently empty.