Hidden Fire: Fire, Book 2: Red Hot Weekend (12 page)

“You think the outcome justifies the means?” Jenna demanded of her girlfriend. “You think just coz things worked out the way you wanted them to, the abduction was acceptable?”

“Ah-ha!” Rachel, exclaimed triumphantly. “So things did work out between you and Garreth.” She pinched Jackson’s butt. “See. I knew it would. I told you so.”

Jenna shot her. And Jackson.

“Jenna, for God sake,” Jackson muttered. “Quit that.”

She shot him again. “You were supposed to protect me. Not kidnap me.”

Jackson’s voice was very soft as he answered. “I did protect you. For twelve years. And it made us both miserable.”

Jenna hit him with a steady stream of water. “And abduction made me happy?”

Jack snorted through the drops splashing down his face. “Rachel’s right. If the glint in your eye is anything to go by, it made you real happy.”

Jenna glared at him. “One more word, just one, and I’m telling mum you broke her green platter.”

Jackson froze, his smile dying. “You wouldn’t.”

The glint in Jenna’s eyes brightened. “Try me.”

“Now, now, kids,” Rachel said soothingly.

Jenna shot her. “Not one word from you. You slept with the man I love.”

Rachel nodded, completely ignoring her warning. “If you’d told me you loved him, I’d never have slept with him.”

Jenna gave her an assessing look. Finally she gave a sharp nod. “You realize that’s the only reason I’m not firing my gun right now?”

“Don’t you mean
my
gun?” Rachel asked.

Jenna shrugged. “Possession is nine tenths of the law.”

“The
law
says theft is illegal.”

“I didn’t steal the gun. I simply picked it up from the table.”

“Exactly. Theft.”

“If you’re getting technical, you may as well add assault with an armed weapon to the charges.” Jenna shot her.

Rachel dissolved into laughter. “You’re just jealous because I got to see your man naked,” she taunted.

She shouldn’t have. Jenna shot her again. Then she shot Garreth.

“What was that for?” he asked, aghast, as water slid down his neck and slithered under his collar.

“For sleeping with my best friend.”

“Good one, sis,” Jackson encouraged. “Shoot him again.”

Jenna pulled the trigger, then looked disappointed as water dribbled from the gun and landed on her foot. “It’s empty.”

Garreth reached her in two steps. He wrapped his arms around her from behind and removed the gun from her hands. “I did it for them. And for us. You know that, Jenn.”

“Doesn’t stop me from being jealous.” She sniffed and gave up the gun easily enough.

“You’re the one, Jenn,” Garreth whispered. “Always have been. There’s no need to be jealous.”

“You slept with my friend,” she complained.

“Yeah, and look who she’s sleeping with now.” He held up his hand to gesture to Jackson.

“And loving it,” Rachel said. Her eyes glowed. So did her skin for that matter. The woman looked radiant.

“You better be.” Jackson turned to face Rachel.

“I am,” Rachel reassured him. She scooted into his arms. “Loving it even more than sleeping with you and Garreth at the same time.”

Jenna stilled in his arms.

The bottom dropped out of his stomach. He hadn’t told Jenna. Had forgotten all about it, in fact.

Oh, fuck.

“What did you say?” Jenna asked Rachel. Though she didn’t move a muscle, her body fairly vibrated with tension.

Rachel’s gaze was on Jackson’s face. She seemed oblivious to Jenna’s shock. “That sleeping with Jackson is the best experience. Second only to loving him.”

“Jenn,” Garreth whispered urgently.

She turned to look at him. “You slept with Rachel and Jackson?” Her voice was calm. Way too calm. It sounded exactly the way it had all those times she’d rejected him, when she’d reined in her control and kept her emotions on a tight leash. Only her eyes gave her away. Shock, hurt and pain lurked in their blue depths.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“Jack and I slept with Rachel,” he corrected softly.

“At the same time?”

Garreth nodded.

“Ah,” Jenna said. “I see.”

No, she didn’t. Not if the shock and disbelief on her face were anything to go by.

Garreth’s heart sunk. How the hell could he have forgotten to talk to her about it? She needed to know. He should have been the one to tell her.

Jenna smiled then. An empty, hollow smile. “Anyway, it’s time for me to get going. I’ll just grab my things and be on my way.” And with that, she turned her back on Garreth and walked into his room.

Jenna wished to God she couldn’t comprehend his words. Wished they made no sense. But they hit her with the impact of a cyclone, slamming into her consciousness, blindsiding her. They caught her emotions, lifted them, tumbled them, shook them and then dropped them, so they plummeted back down, leaving them battered and broken.

Garreth. In bed with Rachel
. And Jackson.

Twelve years ago she’d been accused of incest. Accused of an act darker and more unforgivable than almost any other. For twelve years she’d seen herself as a sexual pariah. Not because she’d slept with her own brother—she hadn’t. But because others had perceived her as doing just that.

And now, when she’d finally found love and knew she was loved in return, when she’d finally learned how to acknowledge the real woman she was, and not the statue she’d made herself into,
now
the reality of incest struck true.

She’d fucked a man who had slept with her brother. Jackson and Garreth had been naked, sexually active and in bed, together.

It didn’t get more incestuous than that, did it?

The bedroom door closed behind her.

Garreth.

He must have followed her. Her hands began to shake uncontrollably.

“Jenna,” he said evenly. “You can’t go anywhere. You can’t leave until we’ve spoken.”

“Wrong,” Jenna said, her voice just as shaky as her hands. “I can leave, and I’m going to.” It was oh so easy for her to just step away now and pretend she felt nothing. Just hide her feelings behind a carefully controlled veneer of nothingness. She’d pretended for twelve years. She was used to it.

“Just like you left me in the Blue Mountains, before we had a chance to speak? Before I could explain to you my reasons for sleeping with Rachel?”

Shit, he had a point. She’d run from him then. Sprinted actually. If she’d just stayed, just heard him out, she’d have known from the beginning why he’d done what he’d done. They could have avoided all the pain and hurt, could have been together for the last week if she hadn’t reeled in her emotions and used her rigid control to hide her thoughts from him.

She couldn’t repeat her mistakes. Not after everything she and Garreth had been through.

“This isn’t about sleeping with Rachel,” she said to him. “It’s about sleeping
with Jackson
and Rachel. It’s about incest.” The very thing she never wanted to think about ever again. Oh God. What if this got out? What if people heard about it and started speaking, pointing fingers…?

“You’re jumping to conclusions,” Garreth said. “The wrong conclusions. Whatever happened between Jackson, Rachel and I had nothing to do with incest whatsoever.”

“You slept with my brother. And with me. That’s incestuous.”

Garreth shook his head. “No. I didn’t. And no it’s not.”

“Rachel said—”

“Rachel said
she
slept with me and Jackson. At the same time. That’s a whole hell of a lot different from me sleeping with Jackson.”

Jenna shook her head. “No difference. You and Jackson were still naked in bed together.”

Run
, her defenses screamed.

Stay
, her heart insisted.
Tell him what has you so freaked out. Don’t pretend it isn’t there.

“I slept with Rachel,” Garreth said. “I fucked Rachel. Jackson was there. He fucked her at the same time I did. But at no point did I sleep with your brother. I have no sexual interest in him whatsoever. The only Brooks twin I’m interested in is you, Jenn. You should know that by now.”

Jenna stared at him. Hesitated, and then laid her cards on the table. “You were naked with him. You did things with him.” Her insides squirmed, at the thought of
wha
t he and her brother had done together, at the fact that she was openly voicing her thoughts, and with fear that someone else might find out about it all. “You were naked with me. Did things with me.”

“I made love to you. Not Jackson. Never Jackson. And even if I had fucked him, it wouldn’t have been incest. You have to see that.”

She stared at him, gnawed on her lower lip. Okay, maybe incest wasn’t the right word. Even if Garreth had slept with her and Jackson, she hadn’t slept with her brother. “You’re right, I guess. It just all feels so…incestuous.”

Garreth crossed the room and took her hands in his. His touch burned her skin. His scent made her instantly hot. “I’d say more soap opera-ish than incestuous,” he said lightly.

God, that’s exactly what it was like. A soap opera.

Jenna titled her head to the side. Thought about that. Frowned. Even without the whole incest concern, the idea of Jackson and Garreth involved in a threesome still bothered her. “A soap opera doesn’t sit well with me when it includes you and my brother getting naked together. W-what if someone hears about it?”

It was Garreth’s turn to frown. “Uh, the soap opera doesn’t stop there. There’s something else you need to know.”

“There’s more?” What else could there be?

He twisted his lips, then relaxed them. Then twisted them again. “Rachel wasn’t the first,” he said quietly.

“What?” Jenna recoiled instantly, tried pulling her hands away, but Garreth wouldn’t let them go.

“Jack and I have shared other women.”

She stared at him, aghast. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I don’t want any more secrets between us. Don’t want you to think I’m hiding my past from you. You’ve been dead honest with me. You deserve my honesty in return.”

“M-maybe honesty isn’t such a good thing when it comes to revealing secrets about past lovers.”

Garreth looked at her, bemused. “You’re jealous.”

“Of the women involved in the threesomes with you
and my brother
?”

“Of the fact that I had lovers that weren’t you.”

Jenna harrumphed.

Shit. She
was
jealous.

He linked his fingers through hers, making the very gesture of holding her hands a hundred times more intimate. “Don’t be jealous, sweetheart. You were the reason I indulged in the threesomes in the first place.”

“I was?” Sure. Blame her.

“You wouldn’t have me, Jenn, remember? No matter how many times I came begging, you turned me away. You kept me in a state of perpetual sexual frustration. Kept me hard and aching and empty.”

He held her gaze, didn’t look away. She couldn’t look away either.

“I needed relief. Needed an outlet for my frustration. Needed to fuck someone without worrying about the psychological complexities of it all. I needed a warm body to make me forget the cold loneliness of your rejections.” His eyes were bleak, a reflection of the emptiness he described.

“Jack was the perfect foil. He let me get close to the women physically yet never have to worry about the emotional side of things. Never have to worry that one of us would feel something.” He laughed a hollow laugh. “At least one Brooks sibling gave me some latitude emotionally, coz you had me tied in fucking knots.” He grimaced. “And you’re tying me in knots all over again. Believing the worst of me.”

Jenna dropped her head, ashamed. “I don’t believe the worst of you,” she whispered. “Not anymore, anyway.”

He snorted. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“I jumped to conclusions,” she admitted. “Way too quickly. When I heard Rachel say that about sleeping with you and Jackson… I panicked. I just connected the dots and it all came down to feeling like a horribly incestuous situation. I couldn’t deal with it. Didn’t want to deal with it. I’ve been there before. Been accused of incest. It ruined my life. Made me into the defensive, scared person I am today.” Jenna gnawed on her lower lip.

“And?” Garreth prompted.

“And what?”

“And there’s something else you’re not saying.”

Had he always been this perceptive, this aware of her emotions, her moods? “And I can’t help but fear this will get out. Other people will hear about it. And judge us. Again.”

He squeezed her hands. “They won’t hear about it, Jenn. None of us, not you, not me, not Jackson and not Rachel would ever speak freely about such intimate events. You have to know that. What happened stays between us.”

“But what if doesn’t? What if it somehow gets out? Or worse, gets all twisted up?”