Jason's Princess: A King Brothers Story (18 page)

“Here, Julie. Let me show you your room.” She said which irritated the hell out of Jason.

“Mom, I can show her.”

“I know, dear, but I want to show her where all the linens and things are,” she said with a conspiratorial smile that Jason didn’t believe for a second. “I took the liberty to put your clothes away for you, Julie.” His mom was apparently going to chaperone them this evening.

He would have to do something about that.

It turned out that his mom was working in his favor, though. She had put Julie in the spare room across from his suite.

Thank God
!

She winked at him when she left them alone in Julie’s room, which was a basic guest room with her own private bath. There were four of those in this wing of the house. His bedroom was like a one-bedroom apartment minus a kitchen. There were three rooms like his in the house, the other two belonging to his brothers.

“Holy cow, this house is ginormous.” Julie walked up and down the hall and then returned to her room. It had a large queen size bed, a desk, dresser, night stand and armoire plus a full entertainment center. The bathroom, he knew was luxurious. “This room is bigger than half my house. How is it that I never knew how big this house was? I’ve been here a dozen times.”

“Because mom didn’t allow any girls in this wing when we were living here.” He smiled at her and grabbed her around the waist. “Do you want to see my room?” he waggled his eyebrows at her. She laughed out loud and followed him to his room.

He opened the door to find it just as he had left it the last time he was here. He followed Julie’s expression as she took it all in. He knew the second she spotted the pictures of her that he’d kept through the years. He had them on his nightstand, some on a dresser and in the sitting area. Seeing them now through her eyes kind of made him look like a stalker.

Damn
.

“What are you doing with those?”

“Josh let me have them,” he said quickly.

She crinkled that sweet forehead of hers, “Why would you want them? Some of these are really old, Jason. I don’t understand.”

Shit. Time to come clean
.

He took a big breath and led her to the small sofa. He urged her to sit next to him and looked her in the eyes. “Do you remember the first time we met?” He watched her eyes go round.

“Yes. You all got in a huge fight and got kicked out of Fun Park.”

“That’s right. What else do you remember about that night?” He waited patiently while her face went blank. He knew that look; it was the one she used when she didn’t want him to know what she was feeling.

“That was also the night I met Billy. What does that night have to do with you having all these pictures of me, Jason?”

He looked at her for a second, contemplating his next move. Today had been overwhelming with drama and revelations. He wasn’t sure how she was going to react to yet another bombshell. He didn’t want the peace that had grown between them since this whole thing began to pass away, but he knew if he didn’t tell her how he felt it would just end badly anyway.

Screw it
. “That was the night I fell in love with you, Jujyfruit.” He watched her carefully, preparing for the volcanic eruption that was sure to explode in his face. But she gave great blank face when she needed to. He waited some more.

And waited.

“WHAT?!” she yelled as she hit him in the chest with a tiny, elegant fist.

Before he could grab her hand she jumped up and made her way to the door. He quickly got up and spun her back around. He had to duck, as the momentum brought that tiny fist back round to hit him in the face. He grabbed both of her arms behind her back.

“Settle down, will you?”

“That was the
meanest
thing you have ever said to me, Jason King! Why would you say something like that tonight? Did you think I would laugh? Do I look amused right now?”

She was breathing heavy and her big brown eyes filled with tears and spilled down her flushed cheeks.

Damn it, he hadn’t expected anger. He pulled her to him but she fought him. He held her tighter and whispered in her ear. “I’m not lying, Julie. Calm down and let me explain.”

He was rocking her as she struggled and cried into his chest. Finally, he felt her relax and her arms went around him and knotted in his t-shirt.

He shuffled them back to the couch and sat down with her in his lap. She began to struggle again.

“Stop it, Jujyfruit. I need to get this out in the open once and for all. Have you ever known me to lie?” He knew he had her there because he never lied. She stopped and shook her head.

“Say it,” he commanded.

“No,” she whispered.

“No what?” he clarified.

“No, you’ve never lied to me.” She whispered.

He sighed. “No. I have never lied to you.” He squeezed her hand and took a deep breath, almost relieved at what he was about to finally admit to her.

“The night we met, Billy and I had made a bet. I mostly agreed to the bet because he had been pestering me all day about the double date I had had with some girls who weren’t in high school. When I say ‘double date’, I mean that I had been with two women at once.”

Her face was a picture of horror so he quickly explained.

“Both had agreed so don’t give me that look. Back then girls came easy for me and I took advantage. I was 16 going on 17, big for my age and full of raging hormones. If I wasn’t fighting then I was…” Chagrinned he admitted, “…looking for women.”

She looked completely disgusted. He guessed that she really didn’t know that much about males. He had to get this over with as quickly as possible before she bolted.

“I’m not sure I want to hear any more of this, Jason.” She began to squirm off of his lap. He let her get as far as the cushion next to him but he didn’t let go of her hand.

“Anyway… there had been all kinds of girls at the football game paying attention to me and Jarod. Billy had gotten a couple of numbers but I guess the girls didn’t think he measured up and he took exception to it. He was always jealous. Coming from a rich family, he thought he was entitled to respect, or at least the kind of respect his small, immature brain thought he deserved. If my brothers and I got the attention he thought was his due, then he would create situations that guaranteed to put him in the spotlight.”

“He would do that to me too, Jason. He didn’t want anyone talking to me without his approval. I thought it was love.”

“Well, as to that, when we got to the Fun Park that night I saw you before I saw Josh. I knew he had met you and Lauren at school because the two of you were all he could talk about. He had some idea that he was going to have two girlfriends at the same time like I did.”

“Camille said something about this to Lauren and I while we were touring her craft room. I still can’t believe Josh would’ve thought that,” she giggled; thank God.

“Of course he would.” Jason explained. “Anyway, I was curious about his new ‘friends’ so I tried to see the two hot chicks he kept talking about at the game but I never ran into you guys. I knew he would hit the Fun Park afterward, so I talked Jarod into going with me. I didn’t have to do much convincing because he was just as curious about the two of you as I was. Billy was too. He was actually pissed that he would be competing with ‘another Jason’, as he put it.”

She rolled her eyes. “Jason, you do seem to have the reputation as the ladies man. The guys talk about your exploits everyday while I’m serving them. You don’t date women but you are never without companionship. Am I right?”

No way was he going to let her distract him from his purpose tonight by talking about his no-love life. He grabbed her cheeks with his hands and kissed her long and deep. When he was finished he looked her in the eyes and said, “Just listen to the story, sweetheart. No more interruptions, alright?”

She merely nodded, looking a little dazed.

Good
.

“As I said before, you were the first face I saw when I stepped through that door. You were smiling that beautiful smile of yours and laughing at something Josh was saying. By the time I got close enough you had turned your back to me so you hadn’t seen me yet. Since I was always messing with Josh I thought it would be funny to steal you away from him. So I decided to tease him. But that made you mad, didn’t it?”

She nodded. “I didn’t know who you were and you were so much bigger than us. I didn’t like the way that Josh was yelling for help until I realized he was laughing and that you were his brother.”

“When you didn’t speak to me after he introduced us I figured I’d blown it, so I got a little pissed. Girls ALWAYS spoke to me, Julie. They went out of their way to speak to me. When your eyes met mine, my heart beat so hard I thought it was going to break a rib or two. You were the prettiest thing I had ever seen. You didn’t giggle or act like I was a prize to be won. The fact that you were looking at me as if I was scum only made me more curious about you. So, I decided to play it cool.”

“I figured you thought I was a baby.” She said quietly. Then she surprised him with, “I dreamt about your eyes for a solid three months after that night, even though I was dating Billy by then.”

“Really? Because I haven’t stopped dreaming about you.”

CHAPTER 17

HONOR-BOUND

Jason dreams about me?

She thought back to that night and how she couldn’t get him out of her head. Billy had been very straightforward with her, He’d showed an interest in her like no other boy had before. To her young mind, she thought that meant something, not really understanding boys at all. As hard as she’d tried, though, she couldn’t stop thinking about Jason King.

“So what about the bet?” she asked to stay focused on what he was trying to tell her.

He inhaled a big breath, expanding his chest. “Billy is shrewd. I tipped my hand when I walked away from you, making you a perfect prize for his game. His goal was to steal any girl that I found interesting that night, and you definitely captured my attention. When you began to talk to him, I wanted to punch anything that moved. When the kids from the other school started picking a fight in the arcade, I was honor-bound to put a stop to it. And because I was so mad at Billy for stealing your attention, it was a great release of frustration. I got carried away.”

“What do you mean, ‘honor bound’ to fight?”

“Not to fight, exactly.” He readjusted his position on the couch, turning to face her. “Jujyfruit, you’ve met my dad. What do you think he taught us? To stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves. We learned early that if he ever found out that we were picking on the weak we would get a beat down; if we let others pick on the weak, we would get a beat down. Period. He taught us that real men didn’t prove themselves by starting fights but by stopping the ones who would hurt those smaller and weaker than us in order to gain power, money or popularity. He taught us to fight for people who can’t fight for themselves. Jarod, Josh and I take that very seriously. Unfortunately, Billy was one of the biggest power-hungry cowards around. I’m sorry I didn’t protect you from him.”

She thought about what he was saying. Billy had acted funny all along but she was young and so in love with the idea that an older boy was paying attention to her that she did anything Billy asked her to do. She’d never been impressed with his wealth because his family had never treated her as an equal. They treated her like she was trying to climb their social ladder, only in their eyes she didn’t quite come up to scratch. They felt that she was someone who was completely beneath their son, and they knew that it was only a matter of time before he came to his senses and found a woman equal to their social status.

But the Kings always made her feel welcome. She and Lauren had made fast friends with Camille and laughed their heads off at Josh and Jarod. Sometimes even at Jason, but he was usually too serious to goof around with; now she understood that he hadn’t disliked her like she had thought. His disgruntlement was born out of an unrequited love that she knew nothing about.

“Did you hate me? When I was here with Josh, I mean.”

“No, it was just hard. I was in college by the time you guys were juniors. You were still dating Billy while he dated anything that moved on the college campus. That’s when I started hating him and started worrying about you.”

“You worried about me?” Her heart was pounding a mile a minute.

He cleared his throat and swallowed. Then his green eyes focused intently on her face. “I knew the kind of trash he was with when he wasn’t with you. I didn’t know how… safe he was being with you, if you know what I mean.”

She felt herself blush from head to toe. God, had they practiced safe sex back then? Billy had insisted she get on the pill because he hated condoms. He was her first and only lover, so she thought that’s how all men felt about it. She’d refused to believe that he was with anyone else. She cringed remembering the embarrassing conversation with her mother and the appointment with the doctor.

Clearing her throat she answered quietly, “I was on the pill, so no. Not very safe at all.”

Sucking in a deep breath, he admitted, “That’s what I thought.” He shook his head in disgust. “I knew how he was. I should’ve known he would be that way with you. Whenever he wanted to brag about the two of you together I would shut him down. I couldn’t bear hearing about the two of you together.”

“What do you mean?” she screeched. Billy discussed their sex life with Jason?
Oh my god
. She wanted to crawl in a hole and never come out.

Jason pierced her with those deep green eyes of his that seemed to know her private thoughts.“You
know
what I mean. Billy was not honorable in any way, Julie. He talked about all of the women he was with to whoever would listen, even about you. Understand?”

She was beginning to understand a lot of things; most importantly that she was probably the stupidest woman on the face of the planet and a horrible judge of character. She was such an idiot.

Finding it difficult to look him in the eyes she loved so much she asked, “Why did you ask for my picture if you knew how stupid I am?”