JASON and KEANNE (9 page)

“Shut up, Reid,” Jason gritted out. He didn’t care if Reid was joking. He simply did not like hearing another man taking notice of Keanne’s looks.

  Nathan asked Keanne, “How do you find college so far?”

  “It’s exciting…but a little terrifying too, sometimes.”

  The model smiled and his intimidatingly serious face changed in that instant, turning into something almost ethereally beautiful that even Keanne was left blinking. “If you need anything---”

  Seeing the wonder on Keanne’s face, Jason interrupted smoothly, “Keanne will let me know if she needs anything.” He shot his friends a warning look. “Let me say it loud and clear. Keanne is off limits.” His arm went around her waist, the possessiveness in the action unmistakable.

  He expected his friends to make jokes, but instead they congratulated him and Keanne warmly.

  “I’ve always known she’d make the perfect girlfriend for you when she grows up,” Jaike confided in him happily.

 
Fuck.

 
Girlfriend?

  He looked at Keanne.

  She was smiling, but sensing him looking at her, she met his gaze, her own eyes steady.
Do what you will. I can take it. I’m a big girl.

 
Ah, that was his Keanne.

  Brave to a fault, more so than he had taught her to be.

  “We are only going out. She is not my girlfriend.”

  The laughter died on an awkward note.

  Keanne’s heart almost died at his words, but she kept her smile in place and her tone remained light and teasing as she said, “Don’t blame me. I’ve done my virginal best to seduce him into making me his girlfriend, but so far…” She pouted.

  The atmosphere lightened again. Impossible for it not to when Keanne had said the only perfect thing to say and that was the truth – without painting Jason or her in a bad light.

  And his friends got it, even though Jason’s lingering feelings for Lilac made him the only person who appeared not to have understood the message behind her words.

  She was willing to wait until Jason stopped loving Lilac and allowed Keanne to take her place in his heart.

  The rest of the night proceeded smoothly. When Jaike excused herself to go to the restroom, Keanne volunteered to accompany her. Inside the ladies room, Jaike smiled at her and asked simply, “What is it that you want to know?”

  She turned red. “Was I that obvious?”

  “Only to me, because I’m a girl. Men are a lot denser and insensitive.”

  Keanne started tentatively, “I just need you to understand that I’m not expecting any answers. If you think it’s going to be like a betrayal to Jason, Nick, or Lilac---you don’t need to answer me.”

  “I understand.” And, Jaike thought sadly, she probably understood this girl more than Jason did.

People like the Christakos twins – like Derek Christopoulos and the rest of their friends – people like them never understood how crippling insecurities could be. All of them had been BBFs – a term coined to describe their group and was short for boys with billionaire trust funds. As one of the much-envied BBFs, they would never truly have a taste of feeling constantly out of place and not knowing how they would fare when compared to other people.

  Keanne asked painfully, “Did he really love her? You saw them together. And you’re in love. So you must know…was it truly love?”

  Oh.

  She had expected Keanne to ask if Lilac was more beautiful or if Lilac had truly loved Jason and not used him like many nosy people assumed. But she should have known better. Keanne was so young and yet her eyes were old. This girl knew how it was to be hurt, dreadfully, and because of that she knew how it was to love, truthfully, without holding anything back.

  “I’m sorry, Keanne, but yes. He did---no! Don’t lose hope!” The words came out in a rush because she saw how Keanne had lost all color. “Listen to me, Keanne. You told me I should know, and I do. Because I love Derek. And he loves me. So please, please believe me when I tell you that Jason did not love her in the way Nick loves Lilac…the way I love Derek, or…or the way you love him. He didn’t love her the way I know he can love
you
.”

  The words gave her hope again, but there was a part of Keanne that just wanted to let go. It was so hard, fighting for the right to love him day after day in the years they had known each other. Sometimes, she wondered whether she was just being stubborn when she should have just moved on.

  “Sometimes, I’m scared. So much. That one day he’d wake up and tell me he’s tried his best but he just couldn’t love me.” Keanne bit her lip hard, trying to control her tears. “That would hurt so much. Because…because I never had to try to love him. I just do.”

  “Oh Keanne.” She drew the younger girl in her arms and hugged her tightly. Jaike was not the most affectionate individual, but there was something about the sincerity in Keanne’s words that called out to her. Jason had never spoken about Keanne’s past, but she and the others knew by reading between the lines that Keanne’s childhood had been less than perfect.

  She had been like that, too, and for such a long time the scars had turned her into an emotional coward. But Keanne…she was different. She was like…Derek, not letting anything keep him from fighting for the person he loved.

  “Derek never gave up on me, you know. I was such a bitch to him from the start, but he never gave up on me and I’ll always be thankful for that. I don’t think we’d ever be together if not for him. I think…Jason’s more like me now, so if you really love him and I know you do…you have to find a way to hang on and keep loving him until he understands that you’re not going anywhere.”

  Keanne felt like a burden had been taken off her shoulders, Jaike’s words giving her a more concrete reality to dream of. If Derek and Jaike had made it against all odds, surely…surely she and Jason could make it too?

  “Thank you, Jaike,” she said, suddenly feeling shy.

  Jaike grinned. “Now, now, don’t go shy on me. We girls have to stick together – especially when we’re
still
outnumbered.” A mischievous look in her eyes, she told the younger girl, “And just to cheer you up, I’m going to share with you one little tidbit so that you know what’s different between the Jason who’s with Lilac…and the Jason who’s with you.”

****

Jason tried not to look perturbed when he saw Jaike coming back from the ladies’ room –
alone.
“Did Keanne stay behind?”

  Jaike appeared surprised at the question. “Oh, she’s not here yet? She bumped into a friend in the ladies room. I think some of her friends are here...maybe she stayed at their table for a while or something?”

  Seeing the way his friend’s gaze became chilly, Derek asked, “Were they all girls?”

  “I don’t think so?”

  Jason got up without a word.

  “You should have lied,” Derek scolded her gently when his friend left.

  Jaike surprised the whole table by giggling.

  “What’s so funny?” Christien asked curiously.

  “Nothing.”

  A sly look entered Reid’s eyes and Jaike tried not to grimace. Trust the Prince of Darkness to be the first to catch on.

  Before she could tell Reid off, Derek whispered into her ear, “You giggled.”

  “Errr…yes?”

  “It was sexy as hell and now I’m turned on.”

  She half-twisted around to gape at him. “Derek!”

  The passion in his gaze made her want to sigh, and the determined look on his face succeeded in making her shiver. Suddenly, it felt like the collar around her neck burned, as if it had been heated by her desire.

  “Now, Jaike. Before I touch you here.”

  She shot to her feet. “I think I need to, umm, go to the ladies room again.”

  Derek stood up, too, his movement more lazily graceful than harried. “I will accompany her.”

  His friends groaned, making Jaike blush.

  “Just because she giggled, Derek?” Nathan asked incredulously.

  Jaike groaned.

  “Wait until you’re in love, gentlemen, and then you’ll know.”

What the hell did she think she was doing, talking to strangers when she didn’t have a damn thing under her dress?

  It didn’t matter that she probably knew the guys surrounding her. Jason didn’t know them, and that was all that fucking mattered. It didn’t matter that no one knew she didn’t have panties on. Jason knew, and that was what fucking mattered, too.

  When Keanne only continued laughing and chatting with the other guys, not even glancing his way when he was standing just a few feet away from her and glaring murderously at her back, Jason’s temper snapped and he stalked towards her.

  “Keanne.”

  The hairs on the back of her neck stood at the ominous tone of his voice even though she pretty much wanted to cry and laugh at the same time. Jaike had told her that Jason had never been really jealous over Lilac, except for the one time that he had been drunk.
That had to mean something
, Jaike told her. So if he was to act jealous now when made to believe she was flirting with other men, surely that had to mean something, too?

  And it did. She didn’t care what it really did mean, but all she knew was that it was a good thing. A person only got jealous over someone he – she – loved…right?

  When she was sure she had schooled her expression into something that would not betray how happy she was, she turned around, her smile welcoming. “Jason, I’d like you to meet---”

  Someone accidentally bumped into the guy to her right from behind, which shoved Archie straight into her breasts.

 
Merde.

  Keanne’s gaze flew to Jason’s. “No---”

  But it was too late. His blue eyes had turned into ice, his rage the cold and precise kind. She knew it meant he was thinking very clearly, and he was focusing every bit of his impressive intelligence in figuring out how to best destroy the man in front of him.

  “Jason, no, you don’t understand---”

  When Archie straightened, Jason’s fist greeted him, and the other man promptly fell flat to the ground.

  Someone in the crowd shrieked in surprise.

  “Oh my God!” Keanne fell to her knees. “Archie, are you---what the hell are you doing?” Keanne struggled ineffectually against Jason’s hold as he hauled her back up.

  “You don’t have panties,” he hissed to her in French.

  Oh, oh,
shit.

 
This was just getting worse and worse. She prayed fervently that there were no hidden reporters in Christien’s club – or at least that no one around had been lucky enough to take a snapshot of her most private parts.

  “Why are you flirting with these men?” His voice was lethally quiet.

  She looked at him a little fearfully. “It wasn’t like that.” Had she really wanted Jason to be jealous? She was so stupid to wish for it. Maybe she wasn’t as mature as she had hoped to be. Never again did she want to see the look in Jason’s eyes now – he looked fit to commit murder…because of her.

  She wanted her gentle Jason back, the white knight everyone ran to. He might have a dark side, but that had only been a secret between the two of them and something she didn’t want anyone else to know.

  “Answer me,” he snapped when he saw a frowning Christien making his way towards them. He knew he had little time left before he had to fix the mess his jealous rage had created.

  “They weren’t...I wasn’t…”

  “Don’t lie!”

  “They are
gay
!”

  Jason’s jaw dropped.

  She had a hard time meeting his gaze. “I just wanted to know if you would be jealous over me,” Keanne whispered. “I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry. I won’t do it again.”

  Jason waited for the fury to hit him. For such a long time, he had witnessed how Karla Niall ran circles around his twin, playing the cruelest games in an effort to keep Nick jealous and perpetually interested in her.

  Watching Karla and Nick together had been painful, and he had once vowed to himself that he would never leave himself vulnerable to a woman who played games.

  Wasn’t it the same now?

  He looked at Keanne again, who seemed as if she was about to make herself sick with fear. She looked like she was about to throw up any second as she stared at him with misery in her eyes. It was clear that she would never do it again, not even if she herself was eaten alive by jealousy…

 
Ah.

 
His face marginally softened.

  Silly girl.

  Keanne had wanted to know if he would be jealous over her – if there was enough space in his heart for him to be jealous when they both knew that most of his feelings were still tied up with Lilac.

  Christien had reached them now, but he didn’t care. He didn’t want her suffering because of him. He said quietly, “I will always get jealous over you, Keanne.”

  He watched her try to speak several times, and his heart did a little twist at the way his normally feisty and talkative little doe was unable to say a word after what he had revealed.

  Finally, she seemed to give up and touched her heart. Three times.
I love you.

 
He inclined his head in understanding because he really was beginning to accept it. Maybe, maybe Keanne really was in love with him. He shouldn’t be fucking happy about it, but he was.

  Christien asked dryly, “Are you two done looking at each other like lovesick fools?”

  Keanne gave Jason’s friend her best lovesick expression as she once again fluttered her lashes.

  Christien laughed.

  Jason wondered if Keanne knew how rare that sound was. Although he was the most charming among them, the most urbane and civilized, Christien was probably the coldest among them, too. It was very rare for him to warm to a person so easily, and the thought had a thunderbolt of jealousy striking his heart and making his chest ache.

 
Well, fuck me
, Jason thought. Keanne really didn’t have anything to worry about. As it was, it seemed like he was fated to be jealous about every little thing that had to do with her and another man – and it didn’t seem to matter even if the other man was one of his closest and most trusted friends.

  “Do not thump me just for laughing at your girl’s joke,” Christien said in the same dry tone.

  He was about to answer when he saw Keanne’s smile falter.

  And then she said lightly, “You forget. I’m
not
yet his girl. But I will be soon, right?” She looked up at him and fluttered her lashes once more.

  With all his heart, he wished he could tell her that he wanted her to be his girl.

  But he couldn’t.

  Not just yet.

  If he was to give himself to Keanne, she deserved to have him completely, with his heart intact and beating only for her instead of halved between her and another girl.

  And so all he could say was, “Soon.” But he touched his heart, too, reminding her of their bond – something that he and Lilac never had.

  Her smile slowly came back in full force. “Soon,” she agreed softly.

  “That’s all well and good, but I’m afraid you won’t be his girl
tonight.
” Christien’s gaze moved down, where poor Archie was only starting to regain consciousness. “We need to fix this first, and that means a ride to the police station in case this gentleman decides to file charges.”

  “I won’t,” Archie said from below.

  Keanne started to kneel down again, only to be stopped by Jason, who pointedly looked at her legs.

  Oh, right. She didn’t have panties on.
Merde
. Having no panties was such a pain. No wonder actresses and pop stars often found themselves subjected to humiliating snapshots of their private parts.

  Jason and Christien helped Archie up. “I apologize for hitting you,” he said gravely. “It is my fault and I understand if you do change your mind about pressing charges.”

  “Nah, it’s all good. Your girl here explained to me about her wanting to see if you had the green-eyed monster in you.”

  Jason said sardonically, “I’m afraid you can personally answer that now.” He took out his wallet and gave Archie his business card. “I am in your debt.”

  Archie grinned. “I know who you are, of course, so this card is worth getting knocked out cold.” He frowned. “Although my jaw still aches like hell.”

  Jason winced.

  “I’m really sorry.” Keanne moved to hug Archie, but Jason swiftly pulled her back to his side, his arm going around her waist. Archie might be gay, but he still had a man’s body and no way was Jason allowing Keanne to hug any other man but him.

  Keanne looked up at him in exasperation. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “You wanted to know if I can be jealous.
Right
?”

  “But he’s
gay
!”

  “Since the day I was born,” Archie said cheerfully. “But I really don’t want to have another taste of your guy’s fist, so I think that’s my cue to leave.”

  When Archie left, Jason looked at Christien pointedly. Right now, all he wanted to do was kiss Keanne. The sooner they were left alone, the better.

  “I know you want me to leave. I can see it in your eyes. Unfortunately, I have a message to pass on to you.” Christien switched to Greek. “Your twin called. He needs you to talk to his betrothed because she’s just found out about what you did.”

  Jason nodded shortly.

  Christien smiled at Keanne before leaving and she made herself smile back. When Jason’s friend left, she said tonelessly, “He didn’t know I can speak Greek.”

  “No. He did not.”

  “Talk to Lilac then---” When he started to speak, she shook her head. “I know it’s important. So talk to her. And then…and then we can talk.”