Captured Boxed Set: 9 Alpha Bad-Boys Who Will Capture Your Heart (58 page)

The fear of having her escape, and
of setting fire to everything around him was enough to will his tired, heavy
body into action.

Jack started getting everything
ready.

Chapter
Four

Two Years
Earlier

Jack hummed a cheery tune,
tapping his fingers on the steering wheel to an offbeat melody he made up as he
drove down to the place where he and Cindy had met.

He
’
d only been seeing her for three weeks, yet he couldn
’
t get enough of her. He didn't even mind that
they hadn't had sex yet.

They
’
d stayed up until three in the morning texting. Jack looked forward
to each message, and he'd grinned like a fool every time he received one. It
was like his first real high school love all over again, only neither of them
were in high school.

Cindy was eighteen; she
’
d graduated a month ago with the rest of her
class, though she wouldn't tell him which school she'd gone to.

Jack was a little older. He was
twenty-three, and what he really wanted to know was if she’d been accepted into
the college she wanted. From her text this morning, written in all caps, he was
betting she did.

Jack never had the chance to go
to college or university because of the "family business", so his
main concern was finding out if there was an art program at that same college
so he could enroll with her.

He pulled up to the quiet spot
on the hill where they
’
d
first met. He'd been skipping rocks when he noticed a girl watching him. He'd
noticed her before, always hanging around the same area.

She never said anything. Never
approached anyone or said hello.

She'd been kind of hard to miss
with all that red hair, not to mention the cut off jean shorts that exposed a
whole lot of her legs, and the tank tops she seemed fond of wearing in the
heat.

He'd grown tired of seeing her
around without knowing her name. When he called out to her she'd jumped a
little and her body went stiff, like an animal about to bolt out of traffic.

How he'd talked her into
staying, and then managed to get a name and a date out of that, even he had no
idea.

The hill turned into a cliff
that overlooked the Pacific, and the sun created all kinds of orange colors which
reflected on the water.

Cindy was already there, the
blue hatchback—something she’d gifted herself for gradutating—was a dead
giveaway in a town where most people drove trucks. Not to mention that she was
the only girl he
’
d seen in
this tiny town with hair like that. The only person he'd seen with hair like
that period.

He pulled up in his own truck
and put it in park. The smells of the grass and salty ocean water on the rocks
immediately hit him. Cindy was already rushing around to Jack. She smelled even
better than the sea air.

He opened his arms and swept her
up in a flurry of kisses and wild red hair. She was always so light in his
arms.

"I got in!" she said,
all smiles as she held up the crumpled acceptance letter in her fist. "I
got in! I got in! I got in!"

"Of course you did,"
Jack said, and he kissed her again.

He was so damned proud and
hugged her tight. Her mouth was soft and pliant against his. Her breasts
against his chest, and her slim arms around the back of his neck that clutched
him tight as she opened her mouth for his tongue to glide inside of that warm,
wet space was exactly how this scene was supposed to play out. There was no way
she didn't belong right where she was, and no way he wasn't going with her.

The kiss didn't get the chance
to become interesting as Cindy quickly pulled back, though she remained in his
arms, her hands behind Jack's neck.

"Are you still coming with
me?" she asked.

"
One hundred percent,
" Jack replied. "Even
if they don
’
t have an art
program, there
’
s got to be
something I can do in Lincoln Peak, or someone I can work for that will help me
get ahead. It's a city. I
’
m
going with you."

He wasn
’
t going to be a hunter. It pissed off his old
man, but his brothers accepted it well enough, and that was all Jack cared
about.

He put Cindy back on her feet.
She wore her trademark daisy dukes, and instead of a tight-fitting tank top,
she had Jack
’
s old t-shirt
with the Superman logo on it. The bottom was tied up so her slim stomach and
belly button were exposed.

It was his favorite outfit on
her. The easier it was for him to get his hands on her skin, the better.

Jack let his hands rest on his
hips and felt the tiny shiver she let out through his fingertips.

His mouth was still warm and wet
from their kiss, and his dick was half-interested already, but he put a lid on
it.

Jack wanted her so damn bad that
his body buzzed. Every time he kissed and touched her, even in the most innocent
ways, left him with severe blue balls after the fact. Never mind how agonizing
it was when their kisses got heavier, when Cindy got brave and put her tongue
in his mouth, or grab onto Jack's hands and place them on her breasts.

Right on, too. No over the top
of her shirts or bras. It seemed it was a favorite of hers, having Jack touch
her like that, and he more than enjoyed the swell of those small breasts
against his hands, and feel of her hard nipples pressing into his palm.

Jack especially enjoyed the
noises she made when he pinched her nipples between his thumb and forefinger,
or when he was able to put his lips around them, gently teasing with his tongue
and teeth.

Her body temperature always
seemed to rise when that happened. A lot. He liked to consider himself
especially skilled for just that reason.

Still, Cindy was adamant about
waiting on the sex part, and he really didn
’
t want to fuck this up by pressuring her.

Besides, it wasn't like she left
him completely hanging. Jack had moaned and thrust into her hand the first time
she'd dipped her palm beneath the waist of his jeans. He came like it was his
first time having an orgasm in his entire life, and he'd felt a lot of her body
heat just then, making him hotter, making him want her even more.

And even without going all the
way, there was something nice about teasing himself, knowing that it wasn
’
t going to go any further. Just enjoying the
touches for what they were.

Right now, however, Cindy wasn't
looking at him with that usual come-and-get-it glimmer in her eyes. Despite the
way his fingertips massaged and circled her hips, she didn't warm up and blush
like she usually did. Her hands behind his neck slid away to hold onto his
wrists in a tight grip, and only then did he notice that one of her legs was
jittering in that nervous energy kind of way.

"What's the matter?"
he asked.

Cindy glanced away from him for
a brief second, and she was biting her lower lip when she looked back at him. "If
you
’
re coming with me,
there
’
s something I
’
ve got to tell you, and you have to promise
that you
’
re not going to
tell anyone else."

"Whatever it is, it can
’
t be that bad."

The way Cindy looked at him, her
red brows raised, lips pursed, sucked all the happiness right out of him. She
was serious, and Jack's brain scrambled to guess what the problem could be.

"You don
’
t secretly have a boyfriend in prison or
something, do you?" Jack asked, trying to make a joke about the whole
thing.

"That would be too easy,"
she said, and her eyes started to shine, like she was on the verge of crying.

Jack finally got serious. "Hey,
what
’
s wrong? It can't be
that bad."

Cindy brushed her fingers
beneath her eyes, banishing the tears. "It
’
s just that...I was so scared you weren
’
t serious, you know?"

"Not...? Of course I
’
m serious. I want to go with you. Why? Don
’
t you want me to?" Paranoia immediately
seized hold of him, and Jack struggled to keep up the smile he'd plastered onto
his lips.

They really hadn
’
t been dating all that long. What if she
thought he was some creepy, clingy loser for wanting to follow her into another
state for school?

"No! I mean yes, I..."
Cindy stopped herself and took a deep breath. She looked up at him with big
purple eyes. "I want you to come with me," she grabbed onto his hands.
"I was just worried that you would regret it. Your family is here."

"And they
’
ll be on the road again in no time," Jack
said. "I
’
m used to
moving around anyway. This time I
’
d rather do it because it means I’m with you."

It was easy to say because he
meant every word of it.

Cindy
’
s smile showed off her white teeth, and while
her eyes were still a little glassy, she got up on her toes, curled her arms
around his neck, and kissed him.

Jack held her close to his body,
arms tight around her slim waist, keeping their stomachs pressed together. He
could feel every curve, and all the warmth that came when they touched like
this. He easily pushed his tongue back into her willing mouth, and she sucked
on it so damned well that it was only inevitable his cock was going to start
taking over. He was already thinking about how warm she was, and how wet she
must be for him, and he had to pull away from her. If he didn't stop now he
wouldn’t be able to in a few more minutes.

"Fuck, we should stop
before I regret this," he said. It was pathetic how he was breathless
already, his dick hard between them and ready to blow at the slightest touch.

When he tried to pull back,
Cindy tightened her hold on him. "It
’
s okay," she said, her mouth a dark shade of pink. Her cheeks
turned a similar color, and her entire body grew even warmer. "I want to
be with you."

Jack
’
s nose flared, and the metal teeth of his jeans’ zipper were
starting to press against his swelling cock.

"Are you sure?" he
asked. His hands tightened on her waist.

This was the only warning he was
capable of giving her.

She nodded, a shy smile on her
lips. "Yeah. I
’
ve
been...practicing. So it wouldn
’
t hurt.
"

"Practicing?" Because
Jack was an idiot, it took him a few seconds to realize what she meant. When he
finally got it, he moaned. "That is so fucking hot."

Thinking about her masturbating,
stretching her pussy for him with some toy—or had she used her fingers? Or
something else?—wasn't helping him to get control over his erection. That ship
had not only sailed, but Jack had missed it by several days.

Cindy was grinning at him now,
her small fingers brushing through the hair on the back of his head, and when
he lifted her up into his arms, she easily curled her legs around his waist. "Right
here. Right now. I don
’
t
want to wait to go anywhere," she said, and it was insanely pleasing to
Jack
’
s ego how needy she
sounded.

"You
’
re eager," he said. "What if someone
sees us?"

Not that it mattered. She'd
asked for it here, so he was going to have her here, and it was going to be
better than all those love scenes in the romance novels his older brother Liam
pretended he wasn't hiding under his bed.

Cindy
’
s blush never left her face, neither did the
heat of her body. "
You weren
’
t the only one who
’
s wanted to do things all this time," she said.

Again, Jack was nearly undone by
how much of an effect her words had on him.