“That’s right,” I say before I hurry upstairs. I can hear Cam and Waylon talking from his bedroom and wonder if I’ll need tothreaten them to be quiet so Jackson and I can sleep. That would probably make me feel better, but Waylon must notice me and goes, “Good night!”
“Good night, strange child.”
“You’re so weird,” he calls back.
“Thank you,” I say, then I head to my room and shut the door when I see Jackson coming. I consider holding myself against it so he can’t come in but quickly cave.
“Why’d you shut the door on me?” he asks as he lets himself in.
“Because you havefeelingscrawling all over you and theydisgustme.”
Jackson does some odd hand-waving thing that means he’s being sarcastic. “Oh, so disgusting! Better take my shirt off to get rid of all of those feelings,” he says before he whips it off and throws it.
“That’s better. Significantly better,” I tell him. “But the lower half is still suffering.”
“Of course it is,” he says as he drops his pants. When he walks past me to the bathroom, I make sure to smack his naked ass, pleased with the sound it makes.
We brush our teeth while I eye him to make sure he’s removed all of those disgusting feelings he wanted to talk about, but the instant he spits out the toothpaste and grins at me, I know it’s a losing battle.
“I’m going to go stroke my guns or I’m afraid I’m not going to make it,” I decide.
“That’s so sad,” Jackson says, following me over to the bed where he gets a book and I get a gun. I pet it for a bit, which makes him laugh.
“Stop! Emotions aren’tthatbad,” he declares as he grabs me and pulls me into a hug.
I grudgingly put the gun down while he pets my head.
“There, there. You’ll make it. I promise.” His pats turn into weird pets that occasionally involve my eyes and nose. It’s not the most pleasant, but I still find myself loving the attention. When did I become such a sucker?
“I’m not so certain that I will make it,” I grumble as I lean into him, kind of enjoying the affection.
“Well, I am,” he says. He draws me in tighter, pulling me close while he kisses my cheek and then kisses a line up to my forehead. “Is this making you feel better?”
“A little bit,” I mumble.
Jackson trails kisses down to my lips then smiles at me. He knows that smile can sucker me into anything. Instead of lying here limply, life slowly returns to my body as I wrap my arms around him.
“I guess I’m going to make it.”
“Yeah?” he asks.
“Just because you’re sexy. It’s like you’re refilling my battery,” I say before I pull myself closer to him, tucking one leg between his and my head against his shoulder. I close my eyes while he rubs his hands over my back.
“I love you. I would do anything for you. I would take on the world’s tallest fence for you. But the real question is… would you burn down the fence in the front yard for me?” he asks.
“You’re so handsome and sweet and lovely. I just adore you,” I say, really feeling like that should erase the traitorous words that just came out of his mouth.
“I would move mountains for you. But would you move that fence for me?”
Why is he talking such nonsense? “I would take down an entire army for you,” I assure him.
“But what about The Fence?”
I reach out and cup my hands over his eyes. “Go to sleep, sweetie. I think you hit your head in the tube thingy and need to recover.”
Jackson laughs as he pulls my hand down and kisses my fingers. “I don’t think I did.”
I just play dead, deciding that this is my only hope. Jackson doesn’t seem to think it is because he grabs my sides and bites my neck. It makes me squirm and my eyes shoot open.
