“I doubt we’ll know each other long enough for me to use your name much.”
“That would make me sad, Shaft,” she says, her voice soft, using the name on my cut. I look down at my name and wish it hadn’t been there. Her calling me by that name is wrong.
“Don’t call me that,” I all but growl at her.
“It’s your club name, isn’t that what your friends and family call you?”
“That’s not you. Don’t call me that,” I tell her again.
“Oh. Okay, right. Thanks for the ride. I’m sorry to bother you,” she says, the hurt in her voice is clear, making me feel like a real asshole. I’m biting my tongue to keep from explaining—especially when she starts to walk away with her head down.
“Aubree! You’re late. I been waiting for you, babe.” Babe.
I watch as some jock with a jacket on like football players wear comes running towards her and just like that my will for pushing her away is gone.
“Bree,” I growl, and it is a growl. A fuckin deep growl, and it’s the only thing that’s keeping me from cutting off the high school Casanova’s hand when he dares to put it on her shoulder. Heat bubbles in my chest, it’s a raw feeling, one I’m not used to. It isn’t quite anger, but I don’t want to say I’m jealous either. She stops, her feet stumbling a little, and then she turns around. My chest constricts.
“Everyone calls me Aubree,” she says, her eyes, a mixture of brown and green looking at me confused.
“I’m not everyone. Especially not to you.”
Her head tilts to the side just a little and she studies me. “I get it. You’re special,” she says, and those cherry lips once again lift into a smile.
I nod, my lip twitches wanting to say something smart. However, I respond, “Something like that.”
“Okay, Jax,” she says, and I find myself laughing, something I never do.
“Everyone calls me Shaft.”
“I’m not everyone. Especially to you,” she throws my words back at me.
“That’s it baby girl. That’s it exactly,” I tell her because I can’t stop myself.
“We better go,” football jock, mutters, putting his hand on Bree’s back.
“I’ll be here to pick you up when you get out, Bree,” I tell her, and I don’t think it’s my imagination that happiness vibrates from her at my announcement.
“It’s over in three hours,” she confirms with the hint of a smile.
“But we have a date, remember? A bunch of us are going to meet up at the diner and go to—”
“I’ll be here,” I tell her interrupting the asshole who doesn’t have a shot with her. He’d bore her to tears. She needs a man. A man like me.
“Okay Jax.” She smiles and then walks away.
I don’t know what the fuck I’ve got myself into, but I’m not sure I give a damn either.
Chapter Six
Bree
“Where’s your bike?”
“The sun’s going down, you’re not dressed to ride,” Jax explains as he helps me in his truck. I settle in and I reach up to grab the seatbelt, but I’m too late. Jax already has it and he clicks me in. The snap of the seatbelt seems overly loud in the cab of the truck. I look at him and his face as he tests the seatbelt.
“I could have done that.”
“I wanted to,” he says and for a minute our eyes hold. An electric hum vibrates in the air between us.
“Okay,” I tell him, I’m not about to object. If he’s going to touch me, I’m more than okay with it. He closes the door, and a minute later he’s behind the wheel starting up the truck.
“I do like your bike, though,” I tell him.
“I don’t normally let others ride on it,” he says and immediately I worry that’s why he’s in the truck now. I shrug it off. Something passed between us before I went into my test. I know it did. I couldn’t have imagined the connection we had. I hold onto that, until we’ve been riding for at least five minutes, and he still hasn’t spoken.
“I really like your name. It’s unique,” I tell him lamely, trying to jumpstart the conversation.
Silence.
“What did you do today?” I try again.
“Work. Like most other adults,” he grumbles.
“Is something wrong, Jax?” I question. I watch as he shifts his hands on the steering wheel and the skin goes a pale white as he tightens on it. I swallow, definitely sensing a difference in the Jax now and the Jax from before.
“No,” he barks. Yeah, definitely something has changed. It makes me sad. I don’t know what I hoped for, but I definitely wanted to continue getting to know him. Now, instead of waking up parts of me I hadn’t felt before, he seems to be freezing me out.