Make You Mine by K.T. Quinn

26

Jayce

A flash of lightning split the night, illuminating Charlotte’s beautiful face. Her eyes went cross-eyed as she looked down at the shotgun pressed underneath her chin. “Um, Jayce?” she squeaked as rainwater streamed down her cheeks.

I lowered the shotgun and sighed with relief. “The fuck are you doing, Peaches?”

“I was hiding!” she protested. Then, everything came out in a rush. “From the fight in the bar. Then when you drove away I was afraid of scaring you, and I thought I might be safer with you than at the motel, and I kind of wanted to see where you lived…”

I wanted to be mad at her, but I didn’t have it in me. Not after what we’d both been through tonight. The rain came down in sheets, plastering her silky hair to her head. I took her hand, helped her down from the truck, and said, “Let’s get the hell out of this mess.”

We rushed inside, and I closed the door behind us. Charlotte had a cut on her cheek that was bleeding into the rain moisture, but before I could say something, she gasped.

“This is where you live?” she asked while looking around. “A barn?”

Her eyes scanned the room, starting in the kitchen area to the left with the gas range and stove. Her gaze swept across the partition wall which housed my closet, past the queen-sized bed with my big down comforter. The bathroom, and the loft area above it which could be accessed by a ladder. String lights criss-crossed the rafters and filled the room with a soft amber light.

“It’s a renovated barn,” I said defensively. “I have running water, air conditioning, and look.” I tapped my boot on the ground. “Laminate floors.”

She gave me a curious look. “You know, my Momma always used the phrase raised in a barn as an insult, but this is nice!”

“It could be worse.”

Charlotte walked into the room, leaving a trail of water behind her. She gazed around the bathroom toward my workshop. “You work with metal?”

“I was a welder, once upon a time,” I said. I didn’t like talking about my work.

She grinned at me. “I’ve learned more about you in the last twenty seconds than in the past week!”

I suddenly remembered why I was here, and what had happened. “You’re just going to ignore all that mess back at Flop’s?” I growled, meaner than I intended.

“I’m not ignoring it…”

I was frustrated in a way that confused me, but I couldn’t help but snap at her. “Why’d you have to engage Carl? You could’ve walked out of the bar.”

“Me?” she said, incredulous. “I’m not the one who brought a shotgun into the mix.”

I set my jaw. “I grabbed it in case the situation got bad. Which it did. Your welcome, by the way.”

“And all I did was slap an asshole who grabbed my ass. I wanted to leave, but I didn’t want to make it obvious that I was running from him.” The anger drained out of her face. “Jayce, he saw us at the cemetery. He knows.”

“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. “I heard him gloating and figured that’s what he meant. Come here. We ought to get that cheek cleaned up.”

She touched her cheek and looked at the blood on her finger as if she didn’t understand. “He hit me.”

“I saw.” I pulled some bandages and alcohol wipes out of my bathroom drawer and went back into the room. She was still standing there, shocked. And also dripping water all over the floor.

“You need fresh clothes.” I fished around in my dresser and came out with an extra long shirt that I used when I was painting, and a baggy pair of shorts. “These will do until your clothes dry. Bathroom’s over there.”

She took them and went to the bathroom without a word. I was pretty sure she was in shock now that the whole thing was over. She had that faraway look in her eyes that meant her brain had shut itself down for protection.

I cursed myself for snapping. I needed to be more gentle with her. She’d had a shitty fucking night.

I sat on the edge of my bed and waited. Charlotte hadn’t closed the bathroom door all the way, and through the crack I could see her reflection in the mirror. She pulled her shirt over her head, revealing the same full breasts I’d seen in her text message the other night, although held up by a bra this time. I tried to look away, but then she shimmied out of her jeans and gave me a glimpse at her magnificent ass. Her white cotton panties were jammed up inside her cheeks, leaving nothing to the imagination. I knew I shouldn’t look, but I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

I wanted her. I wanted her more badly than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.

She walked out of the bathroom slowly. She had squeezed the water out of her hair, but it still hung wetly down her back. My big shirt was just long enough to cover her panties, but it left her legs bare all the way up to the tops of her thighs. Her skin was creamy and smooth, begging to be touched…

“I gave you a pair of shorts,” I said. My throat was dry.

“They’re too big. They fall right off. The shirt is good enough until I’m dry.”

I jumped up and took the shorts from her. “Here. Sit down.” I put a hand on her back and led her over to my table. She dropped down and stared straight ahead while I dabbed at her cheek with an alcohol wipe. I tried my best not to look at the sliver of her panties peeking out from underneath the shirt.

“That doesn’t sting?” I asked with a smile. “You barely flinched.”

“It doesn’t hurt as much as a biker trying to extort me for sex,” she said softly.

“He can’t hurt you anymore.” I peeled open a Band-Aid and placed it on her cheek. “I promise.”

“Is it true?” she asked.

“If Flop and I are able to take care of it tonight, then yeah. There’s a good chance we’ll get out of this mess.”

“No,” she said, looking me in the eye. There was an expression behind her beautiful eyes that I couldn’t place. “Is it true that… you’re falling for me?”

I started to laugh as if it were a joke, but then I froze. She was in the bed of my truck. She heard everything I said on the way home. When I was berating myself.

“Well?” she said, sitting very still. Nothing moved but her mouth. “Aren’t you going to say anything? Jayce?”

“Not much to say.” I ran my thumb across the edge of the Band-Aid to wipe away a droplet of blood that had smeared on her cheek. Her skin was warm and soft. “No offense, Peaches, but I’ve got more important stuff on my mind tonight.”

“I am, too,” she blurted out. “I have feelings for… yeah. The same as you, I guess. It scares me. I shouldn’t feel this way, but Jayce…”

I held up a hand. Don’t make this harder than it has to be, Peaches.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said firmly. “We can’t do anything. Now, more than ever, we’ve got to lay low. One mistake means the Copperheads will kill you.”

But she was shaking her head while I spoke. “They know. We have nothing to lose.”

“We have plenty to lose. I’m taking care of Carl. Don’t worry.”

“What if you can’t?” she demanded, eyebrows furrowed and a fire in her eyes. Even with her hair matted to her head and her mascara running, she was beautiful. The kind of woman who entered a room and caused everyone to stop what they were doing to stare. “What if you can’t take care of it, and the Copperheads find out? What if they’re going to kill me to get to you regardless?”

I stood and walked to the sink to pour a glass of water, if only to give myself time to think. I’d been through so much shit. I’d seen so much shit, terrible things no man ought to see. It was the reason I’d quit the Copperheads. And then what they’d done to Theresa, and threatening me every day, making me feel like there was a freshly-dug grave waiting for my body.

I’d been walking around like a dead man all this time. Like there was a number over my head, the number of days I had until Sid killed me, and it was slowly dwindling to zero. I’d accepted it. After Theresa’s death, I didn’t even mind. My fate was sealed, and there was nothing I could do about it.

But Charlotte made me want to fight back.

She made me want to live.

I stood in front of the sink, my back to her, and drank my glass of water slowly. Hoping that each gulp would bring me closer to clarity about what I should do.

I finished my glass without an answer.

When I turned around, Charlotte was standing a foot away from me. Smiling at me with those pouty lips, her eyes full of hope.

“You don’t understand,” I found myself saying automatically.

“Jayce.” Her voice was soft. “We’re alone. We—”

“No!” I roared. Not out of anger, but despair. “Can’t you see what they’ve taken from me? How Sid has carved a chunk out of my soul by killing my sister? Do you know how that makes me feel, Charlotte?”

She put a hand on my chest. Her touch was cool and soothing. “Jayce.”

I trembled with frustration. With fear. I didn’t like being afraid, but that’s what I was, no matter how much I didn’t want to admit it. For the first time since Theresa died, I was afraid of losing something.

Charlotte.

She was right. We might not be able to fix the situation with Carl. Tonight might be our last night alive. And if that were the case, I didn’t want to regret never having her.

I want to bury myself into her, I thought, giving her every inch I have.

Looking at her in the dim lights of my barn, hair soaked and a vulnerable smile on her face, I felt all my walls come crashing down.

And I gave in.