Abbi Glines - Misbehaving

“What, it’s not my good looks?” I asked, teasing her.

She started to say something and noticed the amused look on my face, and her shoulders relaxed. “You’re hot, island boy. I’ll give you that. So it’s the whole package. Just stick close to me because Tiff is only one of many.”

I nodded and she flashed me a real smile. The kind that made her eyes dance with amusement. “Come on. My friends are right over here,” she said.

I followed her through the crowd. I noticed Rock first. He was sitting at a table facing the stage. Beside him was Dewayne. No sign of Preston or Amanda. I took an easy breath. I could deal with Rock and Dewayne.

Although, I was a little nervous as to how Rock would react to this. I didn’t want to piss that dude off.

My secret would be out after Rock told Jess who I was. She already saw me as a rich boy who was out slumming it. I wasn’t sure her knowing that my brother was Jax Stone would change her view that much. Her not knowing had seemed important to me at first, but now I wasn’t sure she’d change like most girls did once they knew. I was used to girls going from interested in me to obsessed with me the moment they found out who my brother was. Having Jax as a brother normally got me any female I wanted for all the wrong reasons.

I’d know soon enough. If Jess began acting like one of Jax’s crazy fans and getting clingy, I was out of here. This would be our test. I really didn’t want this night to end. I had hopes Jess wasn’t a Jax Stone fan.

JESS

How did he do it? One sexy, amused grin from Jason and I was completely over being ready to bitch slap Tiff. I wanted to thread my fingers through his, but I didn’t want to scare him off. He seemed to be waiting on me to do something stupid. Or mess up. He didn’t have to say anything—I could see it in his eyes.

“That’s my cousin Rock and one of his best friends, Dewayne,” I told him, not wanting him to think I only had guy friends. Even if that was true, it didn’t sound good. In reality they were Rock’s friends. I had flirted with most of them and pissed off all their women. Except for Rock’s wife, Trisha. She loved me. And then, of course, Amanda. She had never judged me or looked down on me. At school she had always gone out of her way to speak to me and act as if we were good friends. Then a little over a year ago she had decided to take a trip on the wild side and came to me for guidance. Our friendship had been cemented then.

Rock’s eyes met mine and he smiled, and then they shifted to Jason and his smile faded. Was it because he was so obviously not from around here? I would have thought he’d be happy to see me with someone so clean-cut. Actually, anyone other than Hank should have made him smile.

Rock stood up, and I wondered if I should step in front of Jason. Before I could decide what to do, Jason stepped up beside me. “Rock, Dewayne, good to see you both again,” Jason said with a familiar ease. I froze.

This didn’t make sense.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Dewayne said with a loud laugh.

Rock’s frown turned to a scowl. “Want to explain this?” he asked Jason.

“I’m the Porsche,” he replied simply.

Rock’s eyebrows shot up, and he looked at me, then back at Jason. He ran a hand over his shaved head. “Why didn’t I think of that?” he muttered.

I opened my mouth and was about to ask what the hell was going on, when Dewayne let out another hoot of laughter. “Motherfucker! That’s priceless. And you didn’t say a word about it the other night.”

The other night? I turned to Jason, and he gave me an apologetic smile. He knew who I was? He was with Rock the other night? How?

“I should be pissed that you didn’t say anything, but I’m kinda glad you didn’t,” Rock said. “The Porsche has been the only thing in that story that makes Jess look innocent.” He sat back down on his stool.

Finally I found my voice. “What are y’all talking about?” I asked, slamming my hand down on the table to get their attention.

Rock stared at me like I was crazy, then looked back at Jason. The question in his eyes only confused me more.

“She left the bat in my car. I took it back to her tonight. We ended up here. We haven’t really talked about much else. We haven’t even gotten as far as last names yet,” Jason explained to Rock, then glanced back at me as if he was waiting on something to click with me.

“So you didn’t know she was my cousin until the other night?” Rock asked.

“Didn’t have a clue,” Jason replied.

Rock sighed and nodded at me. “Dude, she’s not gonna take this well. You should have told her before she waltzed in here with you.”

I was done trying to read between the lines. “Who are you?” I demanded.

Jason opened his mouth, then closed it. How hard was it for him to tell me how he knew Rock?

“Meet Jason Stone, the only brother of Jax Stone, sweetheart,” Dewayne announced loudly.

“Seriously?” Rock said, glaring over at Dewayne.

“What? He was taking for-fucking-ever to say it. The suspense was killing me,” Dewayne replied.

Me, on the other hand—I just stood there and stared at Jason. How had I not seen it? He looked so much like Jax. I had seen Jason in tabloids and on television with Jax. He’d been seen with Star at the music awards. Everyone had talked about Star moving from one Stone brother to the next. Before that, I’d seen him in some tabloids with a girl from one of Jax’s newest music videos. They had been pretty hot and heavy at a club. I couldn’t believe this.

“I should’ve recognized you,” I said.

Jason shrugged. “I’m not Jax.”

Although his tone was void of any emotion, I could see it in his eyes. He was testing me. He hadn’t told me who he was because he assumed I would treat him differently. Truth was . . . he was probably right.

My momma didn’t raise an idiot. Sure, there were a lot of things in life I didn’t know. Like algebra, for instance. I sucked at it. But men—I knew men. I had been watching my mother manipulate them for years. Jason wanted to be normal. Fine. I’d treat him like any other guy.

“No, you’re not Jax,” I replied. I glanced over at Dewayne. “Get me a beer, please.”

I didn’t miss the way Dewayne’s pierced eyebrow lifted in surprise. I never said please. At least, not to him. That had been for Jason’s sake.

“Time to dance, island boy,” I said, shooting Jason a wink and walking toward the crowd, not waiting to see if he followed me. I had no doubt he would.

Suddenly a guy stepped in front of me and grabbed my hips. It was Will Fort, Hank’s best friend. “Hey, sugar, coming to see me?” he asked. I had only used Will once to make Hank mad. Wasn’t worth it. Will had one too many screws loose.

“Keep dreaming, Fort,” I replied, taking his hands off my hips with a shove. He stumbled backward and bumped into another couple. It wasn’t that I was that strong, it was that he was already that drunk.

He just cackled with laughter. The amusement on his face made me want to slap him. “I can play rough, sugar. Hank said that’s how you like it,” Will slurred.

I opened my mouth to tell him where I was going to kick his balls when a new hand settled on my hip. Startled, I turned to see Jason glaring at Will. This hadn’t been expected, but it sure was a nice turn of events. I was surprised he even cared.

“It’s probably best you step back and leave her alone. From the look in her eyes, the rough she’s planning on sticking you with is gonna leave you crumpled on the ground.”

Will shifted his gaze to Jason, and I could see the surprise in his eyes. It was obvious Jason wasn’t one of us. I mentally cringed. I needed to get Jason away from Will before he said anything humiliating. Normally, he went for jokes about my momma.

“Let’s go,” I said to Jason, turning to face him and move him back into the crowd.

Jason went willingly, but his eyes never left Will as he backed away. I liked the protective streak, but the truth was, even drunk Will could have beat his ass. Guys like Jason didn’t have the skills to take on a guy who had grown up being beaten by his father until he was old enough to start hitting back.

“Friend of yours?” Jason finally asked when we were deep enough into the crowd that Will was no longer in sight.

“Small town. The locals all know each other,” I replied, which wasn’t exactly true. But I didn’t want to give Jason a history lesson on my life.

There was a good chance Will would alert Hank to my being here with a guy. Hank still hadn’t paid me back for bashing his truck, and I wasn’t in the mood to face him. Especially with Jason here to see it.

“This was a bad idea,” I told him. “I have a better one.”

Jason didn’t reply, but he was curious.

“Can you swim, island boy?”

A crooked grin tugged at his lips. “Yeah.”

“Good,” I replied, grabbing his hand and pulling him through the bodies until we were at the door. “I know a place a lot less crowded.”

JASON

When Jess had asked me if I could swim, I hadn’t anticipated this. I wasn’t one for breaking the law.

I watched as Jess climbed a tall iron gate, and I considered the stupidity of what I was about to do. She knew I had a direct line of sight up her skirt, and she was using that to her advantage. Glancing back at the empty beach house, I wondered if this was a common thing with locals. This obviously wasn’t her first time doing something like this.

“You coming?” Jess asked as she threw a leg over the fence and grinned down at me. I wasn’t one to back down from a dare, but then I’d never been dared to scale the fence of a house that wasn’t mine. “Don’t let me down,” Jess said, and began her downward climb on the other side of the gate.

I glanced around to make sure we weren’t drawing attention before I reached up and grabbed ahold of the cool metal. The trip up was much easier than Jess had made it look, but she’d been wearing a short skirt and boots. Which, to be honest, was the selling point to this whole thing. It was hard to tell those legs no.

When my feet hit the ground on the other side, I turned to see Jess standing by the pool, dipping her toes into the water, wearing a pair of hot-pink panties that did little for coverage and a matching bra. She lifted her eyes and shot me a teasing grin. “Come and get me,” she taunted before diving into the water.

Knowing those pink strips of satin that did so little to cover up her centerfold body were nice and wet was all the incentive I needed to strip. Glancing up at the house in front of us, I really hoped she was right and this place was actually a rental that was currently empty.

I dropped my jeans and shirt over the closest lounge chair before turning back to see Jess watching me. The tip of her tongue peeked out as she licked the water off her bottom lip.

Hell. This might be worth the possible trouble we could get into. I saw her shiver and decided it was probably best that I dove on in. I needed some cold water at the moment.

When my head broke the surface, Jess was treading water and grinning. “I have to admit, I didn’t think you were gonna do it. I was afraid I might be swimming alone,” she said, then moved closer to me.

“I almost didn’t,” I told her honestly.

She tilted her head and a long lock of hair fell over her shoulder. “What changed your mind?”

I glanced down at the water. The pool lights illuminated her body. I could be a gentleman and lie, but I decided Jess wasn’t the kind of girl who wanted the proper response. She wanted the truth. “Those panties,” I replied.

Jess’s eyes went wide, and then she threw back her head and laughed. There was no teasing, coy act. It was refreshing. The girl knew she was sexy as hell and she liked it. She used it.

When she looked back at me, there was a wicked gleam in her eyes as she moved closer to me. The water was only six feet deep, so my feet were still touching the bottom with ease. I let her do this. She seemed to be sure of what she was doing, and I liked the show.

“Normally, I do this naked,” she said in a whisper.

“I wouldn’t have complained.”

She put her hands on my shoulders to hold her up. “You want me naked? Then finish undressing me.”

As tempting as that was, I wasn’t taking the bait. I had done the meaningless sex thing. One-night stands with groupies weren’t something new to me. I just didn’t want that with Jess. Something was off in her eyes. Sure, she was throwing herself at me with an open invitation, but there was this silent pleading there, almost as if she was begging me not to.