Chapter 28: Knuckles and Knockdowns

KARA

My hand wrapped itself around Jason’s, dragging him away from the crowd of curious people. They all gazed at the wounded guy, not paying attention to us as we passed them.

I grabbed a bag of frozen peas from his fridge and made our way up to Jason’s room. What the fuck did the guy say to make Jason so angry?

“Here.” I handed him the bag as we both sat on the edge of his bed. Jason took the cold item from my hands. He winced slightly as he pressed it against his bruised knuckles.

“What happened?” I asked, curiously staring at him in an attempt to read his mood. Jason wasn’t looking at me. Instead, he was staring down at his swollen hand with a clenched jaw.

“Nothing, he was just being an asshole.” I scoffed at his response.

“Obviously—why else would you have hit him?” There was no response.

I shifted, turning my body toward his. “Jason,” I began; this time he finally looked at me. “What’s with all the fighting?”

Every time I’ve seen Jason fight, it’s always because he was standing up for me. Most of them deserved it, too.

Jason sat quietly for a few moments before letting out a sigh.

“When I was about eleven, I came home from school one day to find my house absolutely trashed. This was when I lived on the other side of town,” he explained. I nodded, showing him that he had my full attention.

“I saw blood. I was terrified. I had no idea what was going on. I started yelling for my parents, but I didn’t get a response, so I ran upstairs to see if my parents were home.”

Jason took a sharp intake of breath. I was glad that I was finally finding out some sort of reason behind the fighting, but this wasn’t what I was expecting.

Jason looked pained just thinking about it. The guilt stabbed me in the gut. “You don’t have to tell me…” I trailed off. I didn’t want to put him through having to talk about a traumatic memory.

Jason shook his head. “It’s fine. You deserve to know.” He smiled slightly.

“I found my mom lying unconscious on the floor. I just about passed out myself, but luckily I didn’t. I was just so scared that she was dead. I actually thought she was. She was bleeding pretty badly.”

I was in shock and horror—how an eleven-year-old boy could witness something like that. I would’ve never ever guessed that Jason went through something like that.

“I called the police, and soon an ambulance showed up quickly after. Turns out someone knew that my dad was a pretty wealthy guy and thought it would be a good idea to take advantage of that and rob him.

“Thinking that no one would be home, they broke in. They found my mom and beat her pretty badly, giving her a severe concussion.”

Jason winced slightly, but not from his wound.

That might explain why his dad built his own home instead.

There were knots in my stomach, just knowing what happened.

“I’ve never felt so weak in my entire life. After knowing what happened to my mom, I wanted to make sure that would never happen again—that I could be able to protect her and everyone else that I love.”

Jason’s blue eyes landed on me. My stomach flipped from his intense stare.

“Well, you’re doing a pretty damn good job at it,” I joked, trying to lighten up his mood. Luckily, it worked, and I got a chuckle out of him. “I’m just glad that she’s okay now.” I smiled.

Jason nodded. “Me too. She’s strong. I admire her for that.”

Before I could reply, someone knocked on the door. “Come in,” Jason shouted, and Q walked in along with Jess trailing after him.

“What happened?” Q asked, wide-eyed. Jess looked curious. Weren’t we all, though? The guy must’ve said something really bad to piss him off that much.

“Nothing, he just said something that I didn’t like, and well, you know me.” Jason gave us his million-dollar smile. Now it was my turn to roll my eyes at his comment.

“Yeah, always kicking the shit out of everyone,” Q muttered.

“You know what we should do?” Jason spoke up. We all stared at him and waited for him to continue.

“We should go bowling. Like you two, Milo, Layla, Kara, and me.” Jason pointed to Jess and Quintin. “Maybe even Charlie too.”

“Oh yes!” Jess replied instantly.

“When?” Quintin replied.

“Right now.” Jason grinned. The three of us stared at him, expecting him to say he was kidding, but Jason stared back, waiting for a response.

“Um, in case you forgot, we’re in the middle of a party,” Q replied dryly.

“In case you forgot, I’m Jason Kade.”

Quintin rolled his eyes and scoffed, “Like you’d ever let me forget.”

***

After thirty minutes of kicking people out of his house, we made sure everyone was gone and finally made our way to the bowling alley.

Charlie was there waiting for us with a girl. Of course, being his younger sister, I teased him about it. I could definitely tell that they liked each other, but Charlie insisted that they were just friends.

Sounds familiar.

Charlie threatened me that if I breathed a word, he’d throw water on me while I was sleeping again. That instantly shut me up.

“So there are eight of us—how should we do this?” Charlie asked.

“Boys versus girls?” Layla offered while grinning. Jess, Layla, and I were pretty good at bowling. We would occasionally go on Friday or Saturday nights when we were bored.

“Are you any good at bowling?” I asked Alondra, Charlie’s “friend,” while the boys discussed. She had natural curls and dark brown eyes. Alondra was gorgeous.

Alondra grinned widely. “I was on my school’s bowling team. I love bowling so much. My family and I would go to our local bowling alley and play each other all the time. My dad and I would always win, though.”

I grinned, knowing that she was good.

We could definitely beat the guys.

“All right—boys versus girls it is,” Charlie concluded after the guys agreed that it would be fun to beat us. Like they actually had a chance. “Losers buy food,” he added while grinning at Alondra.

“Deal,” I responded, smirking back at my brother. We were all pretty good at bowling from what I remembered, but I knew that we were most likely going to win.

All it takes is a little distraction.

We all put on our goofy-looking bowling shoes, which I despised, and chose our bowling balls. The one I grabbed was neon green and weighed ten pounds.

The lighter the ball is, the easier it is to throw, and I wasn’t trying to rip my arm off.

The guys began snickering, and I turned to see them all holding Powerpuff Girl bowling balls. I rolled my eyes at them.

“For a twenty-year-old brother, he’s really immature,” Layla said, sitting down next to me.

“Tell me about it.” They set their bowling balls down, and Charlie typed in all of our names into the correct teams. I noticed he put me up first and narrowed my eyes at him. Of course he would make me go first.

“Have fun.” My mischievous brother grinned. I glared at him as I picked up my bright bowling ball and walked up onto the platform.

I took a deep breath.

I swung my arm back and then just as it went forward, I felt someone slap my butt—roughly. I yelped and jumped forward, causing my aim to go horribly wrong and the ball to bounce onto the lane next to ours.

I spun around quickly to see everyone staring at me with different emotions.

The one that caught my attention, though, was Jason, who looked smug. He’s the only one who would do that anyway. He had smacked my bare ass cheek under my dress.

“That’s not fair!” I seethed. Jason leaned back into his seat, wearing a smirk. His legs were spread widely and he had one arm resting on the back of an empty chair.

I rubbed my thighs together. The dress I was wearing made it easy access. I wonder if we could sneak away—

“That’s my sister!” Charlie looked completely uncomfortable.

I snapped out of my fantasy.

Jason shrugged while smirking. “There are no rules, kitten.” He completely ignored Charlie, who was glaring at him.

My brother already knew we were officially dating, so there was only so much he could do at this point.

My eyes narrowed at Jason before I walked over to a nearby rack and grabbed a new ball.

I walked back onto the platform and glanced behind me, just to make sure that he wasn’t going to do anything. My ass was still stinging. I hated that I loved the feeling.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let him do anything,” Layla reassured me.

I nodded as a quick thank-you and focused my attention on the bowling pins. I swung my arm out, and the ball hit the lane with a loud thud before continuing to roll away.

I noticed it went left before slightly curving in toward the center pin.

“Yes!” I shouted as I heard a loud crack and saw all the pins fall over. “Not a strike, but close enough.” I grinned, turning around.

The girls gave me high fives as I sat down, and Q got up to bowl. I didn’t pay much attention because he and Jess kept flirting, so I just stared at Jason, who was giving me his stupid, sexy smile.

I wanted his face between my legs.

~Just wait until it’s your turn~, I thought and quickly looked away from him. Our teams kept alternating. I was waiting for Jason to go up. Charlie put him up last on their side.

Finally, after Alondra scored a strike, leaving the guys surprised, it was Jason’s turn.

“Watch and learn, kitten,” Jason teased and got up from his seat. I watched as he grabbed the bright Powerpuff Girl bowling ball and positioned himself on the platform.

Once his back was facing us, I took my opportunity and ran up behind him.

“Surprise,” I whispered in his ear before pulling his sweatpants down to reveal his dark blue briefs.

I heard our group gasp. Charlie and Quintin burst out cackling.

“What the fuck!” Jason shouted, scrambling to pull his pants up. I sprinted off the lane to get as far away from him as possible.

“Kara!” I heard him snap from behind me. My heartbeat picked up, and I laughed while trying to figure out where to go.

My prayers were answered when I saw the women’s bathroom sign. I sprinted toward it, shoving the door open quickly.

Luckily, there was no one in there, so I didn’t have to embarrass myself. I was panting like I had just lost my ability to breathe.

I nearly died of a heart attack when the door was kicked open, and Jason entered. I had barely caught my breath, and it took one look at him to feel breathless again.

The blond stood at the entrance, staring at me darkly. My pussy clenched in excitement.

Regaining my breath, I finally snapped, “You can’t be in here.” I didn’t think he’d follow me, but clearly I had underestimated him.

Jason laughed humorlessly, taking a few steps toward me. “No one’s going to know but you and me.”