Fighting Temptation (Men Of Honor) (18 page)

“Margaret, who is this boy and where have you been hiding him?”

“This is Julia’s Jaxson,” Margaret replies happily.

“He is not my anything!” I can’t help but chuckle at Julia’s growl. She looks over and glares at me.

“Why not? He’s handsome Julia. You have to hold on tight to men like him,” one says, winking at me.

Ok, that’s a little uncomfortable.

Julia smiles when she notices my discomfort and puts her arm around my shoulder, “Well Gladys, looks like it’s your lucky day, because it just so happens that Jaxson here is single.”

I glare at her, what the hell is she up to?

“Oh really?” Gladys says eyeing me like I’m a fucking treat or something.

“Yup and I promise to bring him here more often for ya. I should bring him on your dance nights, he loves to dance Gladys.”

Oh she’s going to fucking pay for this. She damn well knows I hate to dance. I look over at Margaret hoping she will help me, but she just looks amused as hell.

“You like to dance?” Gladys asks excitedly.

“Uh, actually no.” Her face drops making me feel like a dick. Jesus! I never thought the day would come that I’d have to worry about hurting an old lady’s feelings by shutting her down. “It’s just that I’m not a very good dancer is all.”

Her face lights back up, “Oh honey, don’t you worry. I can dance well enough for the both of us,” she says giving me another wink.

Jesus, is this lady for real?

Julia grabs the side of my face now, “Oh don’t listen to him, Jaxson’s just being modest. Believe me this guy has some killer moves.”

That’s it! I grab the back of her head and kiss the fucking smirk right off her face.

“Atta boy Jaxson,” Margaret cheers.

Julia gasps when my lips land on hers and it makes my dick painfully hard. She’s frozen at first and does nothing to kiss me back. But when I lick her lips she moans and opens for me. I plunge my tongue in her mouth and become intoxicated with her taste.

Fuck me! She tastes even better than I remember.

“Oh my!” someone says at the table, making me remember we aren’t alone. I pull back slowly and stare at Julia’s heavy lidded gaze. Shit! I just meant to press a hard kiss to her mouth, not maul her in front of everyone. Julia’s gaze starts to tighten with anger but it doesn’t hide the need I see in them.

“What the hell are you doing?” she whispers harshly, pushing me away.

“What? I was just demonstrating some of my killer moves you were telling them about.”

Margaret snickers, “Come on you two, food’s ready.” The three of them get up and start making their way to the food table.

“Wow! I gotta tell you, I’d like to see what that guy is packing.”

What the fuck! Did I just hear that right?

“Don’t you ever do that again Jaxson,” Julia says angrily, shoving her finger in my face.

I grab her wrist and pull her to me, “Then next time think twice before you play games with me. When you challenge me like that, Julia, all it does is make my dick hard. I thought you learned that in your room this morning.”

“You are so infuriating,” she glares at me with a mixture of anger and lust.

“Admit it Julia, you liked it and you want more,” I know I shouldn’t push her anymore but I can’t resist.

She looks down at my hard dick through my jeans and smirks, “You seem to be the one affected Jaxson.”

“Don’t tell me that if I shoved my hand up that dress of yours right now I wouldn’t find your panties soaked.”

Her eyes flare with heat but she tries to hide it behind her smirk, “I guess that’s something you will never find out,” then she stands and adds, “Take your time to settle down before you come and get your food.” She walks away but looks over her shoulder smugly at me. It makes me want to take her to the bathroom and show her just who’s in control.

Shit! The woman is testing my limits and I haven’t even been around her for 24 hours. Clearly it’s going to be harder to restrain myself than I thought. I need to keep a clear head, I’m trying to fix the mess I made, not screw it up more. I look over at her in line and stare at her ass when she bends over to grab something for Margaret.

I’m so fucked!

The drive home is filled with silence. We left shortly after eating, I wanted to get out of there from Gram’s knowing smirk. I shift in my seat feeling restless and cross my legs to try and stop the throbbing that’s happening between them. I need to change my panties they are so wet. I’m pathetic! Why does he have to have this strong of an effect on me? It doesn’t help that it’s been a long time since I had an orgasm. Justin is the only person I have slept with other than Jaxson. That was almost 2 years ago, and for the man being a med student he had absolutely no idea where a woman’s clitoris was located, or maybe he just didn’t care. I dated him for 9 months in hopes of getting over Jaxson. It didn’t work of course, but at least I wasn’t alone, the company was nice.

I get pulled from my thoughts when we pull up to my house and see Cooper’s truck out front.

“He’s here already?”

“I texted him and told him we were on our way back.”

I’m a little annoyed by this since I told him I would call Cooper when I got home. Cooper gets out when we do and I’m happy to see Kayla follow behind him.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” she asks coming up and hugging me.

“Not too bad, my ribs are sore today but my head feels better, surprisingly.”

“Good,” she gives me a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. Before I can ask her about it Cooper breaks in.

“Can we talk about last night Julia?”

“Sure come in,” I take them in the house and get everyone a drink then we sit down together at the table.

Coop lets out breath, “Ok tell me what went down last night. Jennings is saying it was an accident and he’s demanding for me to arrest Jaxson for assault.”

Panic seizes my chest.

“It was kind of an accident… or not,” I shake my head in confusion, “I don’t know Cooper, I have never seen him like that before. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. He was so angry when we left.” I relay the rest of the events from that evening, up to when I told Wyatt I no longer wanted to see him. I feel Jaxson tense when I tell them about Wyatt grabbing me and calling me a cock-tease. I pause and take a breath, “He said he was going to show me how good we could be together. I knew he was going to kiss me. I started screaming and tried to pull away. When you guys showed up he finally let me go and I fell.”

I look over nervously at Jaxson. He’s looking straight ahead, his expression hard as stone. His hands are clenched in fists and you can feel the anger rolling off him in waves.

I look away wearily, “The thing is Cooper, I have no idea what he’s talking about when he said that I’ve been playing head games with him. I’ve barely had any contact with him. That was only the third date we ever had. I ran into him once in a while when I was going to school and it was by chance when I would come back to town. He would always ask me out and I always politely declined. It wasn’t till a few months after I got back from Germany that I ran into him again, and when he asked that time I said ok,” I shrug feeling guilty now, knowing I should have kept declining.

Kayla leans over and grabs my hand, “You didn’t do anything wrong, so don’t you dare blame yourself for any of this.”

Cooper breaks in, “Julia, you have grounds to press charges. You wouldn’t have fallen and gotten hurt if he hadn’t forced you there to begin with.”

I glance at Jaxson nervously again. He narrows his eyes as if he knows what I’m going to say next.

“I’m not pressing charges,” I say quietly.

“Fuck that!” Jaxson slams his fist on the table making me jump, “yes you are!”

“Don’t yell at her like that!”

“Kayla stay out of it!” Cooper says sternly.

“Then you tell him too, this is Julia’s decision and hers alone! I will not let her be bullied into anything.” Kayla and Cooper are glaring at each other, you could cut the tension with a knife it’s so thick.

I drop my head in my hands.
Lord this is all my fault
.

“Julia, I think you should reconsider,” Cooper says more calmly.

“She doesn’t want to fucking press charges because of me. She thinks if she doesn’t then he won’t, but you’re wrong baby.” Jaxson’s tone softens and he turns my face towards him. “If he wants to press charges he will, no matter what you do. Don’t let him get away with this Julia.”

I swallow thickly and hold my tears at bay, “I don’t want anything to happen to you because of this.” I turn and look at Cooper now, “Couldn’t you talk to him Cooper? Tell Wyatt that I’ll drop the charges against him if he drops his against Jaxson?”

“No!”

I ignore Jaxson and continue talking to Cooper, “Trust me, Wyatt won’t want me pressing charges, especially right now. He told me his dad is running for Mayor. With the campaign starting up soon he won’t want bad publicity.”

Surprise flashes in Cooper’s gaze, “He said his old man was running for Mayor?” I nod. “Fuck that’s the last thing we need… You’re right though, it’s leverage.”

“Goddamn it I said no! I don’t give a fuck what happens to me. She’s pressing charges!”

“Well I do care and it’s my decision!”

Jaxson stands up, shoving his chair into the wall, and starts pacing.

“Look just calm down. Julia’s right, it’s something that we can try.” Cooper puts up his hand to silence Jaxson’s protest then turns to me, “I think you need to consider putting a restraining order on him at the very least.”

I look at him in shock, “A restraining order?”

“The guy thinks he’s in love with you, Julia. If you have had as much contact as you say you have then that shit’s not normal.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary Cooper, I think putting a restraining order on him will just make the situation worse in the end.”

“Listen Julia, when I questioned him, the shit he said made me nervous. He’s not right in the head, I’m telling you, you need this. I have no doubt he will not leave you alone unless you do.”

“I’ll fucking kill him if he goes anywhere near her,” Jaxson says with terrifying calmness.

“Jesus! I did not just hear you say that!” Cooper says, distressed.

I drop my head in my arms, “I just want this over with.” Kayla gets up, moving beside me and rubs my back. “Ok,” I mumble under my arms. I lift my head so they can hear me better. “I’ll put a restraining order on him. But first I want you to try to get the charges dropped against Jaxson.”

“For fuck sakes!” Jaxson shoves his hand roughly through his hair.

Cooper nods at me, “I will.” He looks over to Jaxson, “You need to come to the station with me and do an official statement. Kayla has given one and I will too. We have a strong case to get the charges dropped either way but we can use Julia’s for leverage.” I feel much better after hearing that but I can tell Jaxson is not happy about it.

“Julia shouldn’t be alone right now. She’s still healing.”

“I’ll be fine on my own Jaxson.”

“I’ll stay with her for a while,” Kayla says cutting in.

“You don’t have to.”

“I know, but I want to. We can catch up, maybe watch a movie while you rest.”

I smile, “Sure that sounds good.”

Cooper stands up now, “Alright let’s go.”

Jaxson walks over to me and hands me my pain pills. “Take these, I know you’re hurting.”

I roll my eyes at his bossiness, “I’ll be fine. I can take care of myself. Now go with Cooper and cooperate or I’ll be forced to call Gladys for your punishment,” I say, biting back my smile.

Jaxson glares at me, “You’re such a smart-ass,” he catches me off guard when grabs me and plants a hard kiss right on my lips.

“I told you to stop doing that,” I try to sound angry but it comes out breathless.

The arrogant ass just smirks knowing his effect on me and walks away.

“Who the fuck is Gladys?” Cooper asks as they walk out the door.

“Ya goodbye to you too,” Kayla mutters under her breath.

I look over at her and see an expression full of hurt. I grab her hand, “Is everything alright?”

She lets out a breath, “Ya it’s fine, Cooper and I have just been butting heads lately.” She smiles trying to reassure me but it doesn’t reach her eyes again.

“I hope it isn’t because of Jaxson and I?” I ask, feeling guilty.

“No! Really it’s fine. Let’s go pick a movie. Wanna watch it in your room?”

“Sure.”

I can tell she doesn’t want to talk about it. She turns to go into the living room but I grab her arm quickly. “You know I’m always here for you right? You can call me day or night.”

“Ya I know that, thanks Jules,” she hugs me tight and I wince a bit.

“Shit sorry! Are you going to take the medication?”

“No! I don’t feel I need them that bad.”

We pick Dirty Dancing which is a favorite of ours, then make popcorn and walk upstairs to my room. We snuggle down in bed and half-way through the movie Kayla turns to me.

“We should go out dancing one night, it’s been a while. We can make it a girls night and invite Grace too.”

“Ya that would be fun. Let’s do it soon. Grace could use a night off, she’s been working herself into the ground. I saw her the other day and she looked ready to fall over.”