Another six painkillers and he’s good to go.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
At approximately two AM, Lachlan quietly slips out of the Estate after handing over to Carrigan for the next few hours.He offers only minimal explanation.The same vague excuse he uses on the rare occasions he leaves for a few hours to be alone.Tracking Jules isn’t easy at first but then, strangely enough, when he checks the old tracker, the bracelet, he finds it roughly thirty miles away at a frat house.‘Clever boy,’ he whispers to himself.
Lachlan hums along to the radio on the drive there, makes short work of the trip, feels almost manic but in a good way.
Definitely a good way.
He’s given Jules almost exactly four hours.
That’s a good thing, he knows it.
He parks up outside the towering student house, assessing.A tall black security fence surrounding the property is all sharp iron bars and spikes clearly intended to keep drunk students from wandering in or out the wrong way.Bass rolls through the night alongside bursts of laughter and flashing coloured lights that strobe intermittently across the upper floors, visible through the windows.It looks like a nightmare to Lachlan.
He bets that Jules islovingit.
After ten patient minutes waiting in the car, he sees movement.
Jules is climbing over the high fence.
Lachlan gets out, scanning around for immediate danger, but finds none.The party rages on.The main gates are locked, which is why Jules is scaling the spiked fence.He jogs over, poised to call his name when Jules yelps and falls.The jog bursts into a run and Lachlan is there in seconds, kneeling beside his crumpled form.‘Are you hurt?Jules, are you injured?’
Jules is laughing, breathlessly beautiful, it’s full belly laughter and Lachlan has never seen it before.He can’t catch his breath he’s giggling so hard.Jules has on eyeliner, shimmer, lip gloss, although it’s messy and he smells of cheap cologne, sweat and… something else.‘Bodyguard,’ he pants, tears in his eyes from laughing.‘Did you see… me fall?’
‘Yes, I definitely saw you fall.’Lachlan is all business, but that beautiful laugh is something he’ll cherish forever.It’s like Jules is beingtickled.‘Show me where it hurts.’
‘I c-caught my thigh on the spiky bit.’
‘Christ,’ Lachlan complains, seeing a red stain spreading beneath tight blue denim.‘That’s a pretty dangerous area to snag, kid.’
‘Not a kid,’ Jules tells him with breathy, gleaming joy.‘Not anymore.’
‘Uh huh,’ Lachlan intones, very focused on the wound.‘I need to see it.Back of the car is pretty spacious.Come on.’
He helps Jules into the back of the SUV and locks the doors once they’re both inside.The windows are fully tinted, impossible to see through from the outside even with the interior lights on, which they are.Lachlan drops the front passenger seat flat to give himself room to turn while Jules remains sitting upright in the back, flushed from alcohol, adrenaline and the climb over the fence.‘This is nice,’ he says, looking around.
‘Just a car.Can I see it?’
‘OK, yeah.’Jules wriggles out of his jeans, talks while he does.‘Bodyguard, I had so much fun!I met this guy.He wasso dumbbut gorgeous, and he danced with me for like an hour!’Jules winces when he peels off his jeans revealing a bloody patch on his innermost thigh that worries Lachlan instantly.‘Then we were making out in his room and oh my God it was such a mess, this guy was aslob,and he tried to lie and tell me it was someone else’s room, but I saw a picture of him and his dad, so I know he was—’
‘I’m gonna need to stitch this,’ he tells Jules seriously.
‘—lying to impress me or avoid embarrassment for the mess, but it was actually so cool!I loved it being all messy and trashed and his gross socks were just everywhere, and he was whimpering these little noises, and he just keeps saying,“It’s not my room I promise”and I couldn’t stop laughing but then I did stop laughing when I saw his dick because that would be really cool andthen—’
‘Jules!’
‘Sorry what?’
‘I need to stitch your thigh.’
It doesn’t sink in right away.‘You… what?Sorry.’
‘I have to stitch it here and now or your father will find out.’
Jules sobers but the joy doesn’t fade.‘OK, sure.I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t be sorry, it’s fine.I have a whole med-kit.’
