Beautifully Shattered (The Beautifully Series Book 1) (29 page)

I become trapped by his
predatory gaze. It feels as if I’m being drawn towards him. I’m
vaguely aware of my feet moving in his direction. Jax attempts to
step around Connor, but freezes in his tracks. It takes a few seconds
for my mind to work again. I flick my gaze away from Jax’s face to
see Kohen seething. With no thought at all, my fake smile is in place
and I march over to him. As I near him, I hope that he doesn’t lose
his temper in front of the guys. That would be stupid on his part. I
sigh in relief as his begins to relax. He takes a deep breath and as
he exhales, all the earlier tension leaves his body. He pulls me into
him. I don’t hesitate as I kiss him on his lips.

This kiss is unlike any
of our past ones. It’s possessive, forceful, jealous even. I feel
badly that I’m the reason why he’s acting like this. If I could
get over my unrequited love, then we wouldn’t be in this position.
As I hear footsteps retreating, Kohen squeezes my hand until I yelp
into his mouth.

“Do I need to remind
you who you’re dating?”

I shake my head. “I
don’t know what you’re talking about.”

His eyes darken and I
know I need to say something to lighten the mood. I do not want to be
the reason to ruin my brother’s party. I swallow my fear and hold
his hand again.

“I’m here with the
only person I want to be with.”

He gives me a charming
smile, but underneath it hides something darker. I can relate. I’m
not as well put together as the world thinks I am, either. He folds
his arm around my shoulders and leads me over to my brother.

Logan stands near Jax’s
car, with the passenger door open. It takes a second to realize that
he’s waiting for something . . . me. For some reason, I know I’ll
be riding with Jax back to Connor’s. My suspicions are confirmed
when he waves his hand for me to get in. The one time Jax decided to
drive one of his many cars and I’m forced to ride with him. Kohen
stiffens beside me but luckily he doesn’t say anything. I think
it’s because of my brother’s presence.

“There’s no room
for you in Connor’s car with all the presents so Jax offered to
drive you over,” Logan explains when I make no move to get in.

“I can take her.”
Kohen says.

“I thought you had to
be at the hospital . . . five minutes ago.” Jax leans over the
center console to talk to us.

I give Kohen a quick
kiss on the lips to stop his protest. Jax is right, he’s late. He
reaches behind me and shakes Logan’s hand.

“Happy birthday,”
Kohen says.

Logan nods. “Thanks.”

Kohen gives me a hug
before helping me into the car. He closes the door with more force
than necessary. As I watch him climb into the cab in front of us, my
anger emerges. My hands shake at my side with barely controlled
temper. I’m fed up with the games Jax likes to play. Jax has no
right to treat Kohen like he did today. Kohen isn’t the problem
here; he is.

“You could have at
least said goodbye to him.”

“I’m sure the
boyfriend doesn’t mind.”

Uncomfortable silence
fills the rest of the ride. I hold my breath as much as possible
because his scent wafts all around me, invading my senses. Thankfully
the ride doesn’t take as long as usual. When he parks in an empty
space, I sigh in relief.

I jump out so fast that
I nearly fall flat on my face, but I catch myself on the doorframe
just in time. I don’t wait for him. I stride to the elevator and
press the button, urging it to hurry up. Since I’ve run out of all
my luck today, Jax strolls up, ignoring that I’m trying to ditch
him. He waits with me for the elevator to arrive.

When it does, we both
enter. His arm brushes against mine and I fight with everything in me
not to react. I bite my lip in agitation from my traitorous body. The
tension in the air intensifies. It’s now a mixture of anger and
sexual tension. I hold my clutch up to my chest as a barrier and a
way to keep my hands to myself. When the bell chimes, signaling we’re
at the penthouse, we both exhale the breaths we we’re holding.

I run into Connor’s
as fast as my feet can carry me without falling on my face. Connor
sets a beer bucket on the coffee table when I enter. Yes, an actual
beer bucket, heaped to the brim with ice and beer. There’s a stack
of action-packed movies on the table. Of course he has the poker
table set up in full view of his flat screen television. It’s
perfect!

Logan walks in with his
hands full of junk food. I rush over to him and take the precious
food out of his hands.

“Sit down, it’s
your birthday!” I give Connor my no-nonsense look. “He shouldn’t
be doing anything but having fun, Connor!”

Immediately I take
charge of the evening. I order Jax to put a movie on and line all of
our presents on the poker table. Connor attempts to help him, but I
shake my head. He smirks and moves to take the seat that I saved for
Jax, the chair furthest away from me. I shake my head again, but he
ignores me and hands Logan his gift. As Jax comes to the poker table,
he pauses mid-step when he realizes that he’s going to sit next to
me. I’m the only one who notices, since I’m the only one paying
attention to everything he does.

I glance at my brother,
wondering if I can play sick so I can go home. That thought leaves as
quickly as it appears. There’s no way I’m ditching just because I
have to be near Jax. I can handle anything he throws my way. I scowl
in Jax’s direction. His eyes sparkle, as if he just read my mind,
and I know that will take a lot of self-control to avoid a scene.

Jax winks at me as he
takes his seat. His leg brushes against mine. I suck in a breath and
frown at him. Our stare down is broken by Logan tearing through the
blue wrapping paper. His face lights up when he sees whatever is
inside.

“Thanks, man!”

He springs up and gives
Connor a hug. Not a one-arm man hug either, a real hug. He must
really like it.

“Well, are you going
to show us what he got you or not?” I ask.

“Concert tickets to
Cheap Trick the second weekend of November!”

I jump out of my seat
so fast the chair falls to the ground.
Please
say we’re all going,
I chant in my head. To my relief
Logan, holds out four tickets! All thoughts of Jax are momentarily
forgotten. Until he picks up the chair. It doesn’t escape my notice
that Jax moves my chair closer to his. I eye him, wondering what his
game is, but he doesn’t give anything away.

“I think this present
is more for Adalynn than me,” Logan says, distracting me from The
God I’m forced to sit beside.

“Oh shut up. You’re
the one who got me into them when we were little.”

When Logan picks up
Jax’s present, Jax fidgets in his seat. I watch him from the corner
of my eye, not wanting him to catch me staring. Hmm . . . What can be
in the bag? Logan’s mouth drops open as he removes an old shirt. He
sits there, immobile.

“An old shirt? Really
Jax you couldn’t get him something better than one of your old
jerseys?” Connors asks him.

I agree with Connor. I
mean, come on, Jax has more money than anyone I know. Anything else
would have been better than that. Still silent, Logan slowly turns
the jersey around so I can see it better. My breath catches. Holy
shit.

“Is that really his?”
I ask Jax.

Connor gulps loudly. He
seems ashamed from his comment earlier as he studies his beer with a
forlorn expression.

Jax looks more than
uncomfortable as he runs a shaky hand over his face. “Yeah . . . if
you want something else, I’ll get you anything you want . . . I
just . . .”

He stops his rant when
Logan sweeps him into the biggest bear hug I’ve ever seen. Can Jax
even breathe? Composing himself, Logan sits back down and traces the
number twenty-three on the back with his finger in awe.

“How did you get
this?” Logan and I ask at the same time.

It’s our dad’s
jersey from when he played soccer in college. The one signed by
everyone on his team the last year he played.

“I went through your
storage in California. Found it and brought it back . . . I thought
you would rather have it then it being kept somewhere in a box,”
Jax explains.

WOW! I’m speechless
and so is my brother. I don’t know what’s in storage since Logan
dealt with all that, but I can only imagine there are millions of
boxes everywhere. Give or take. I don’t even want to think about
how much time that took. It’s incredible that he did that
especially with his work schedule. He is an amazing friend to my
brother and I think I just fell in love with him a little more.

“When?” Connor
asks.

Jax shrugs. “I’ve
had time lately and I wanted to give you something meaningful. Not
that Cheap Trick tickets aren’t.”

“Thanks man,”
Connor says sourly.

Jax winks and I can
tell Logan is getting all choked up.

“I don’t...I
don’t...even—”

“Don’t even worry
about it. Happy birthday,” Jax says.

Knowing my brother
needs a mood-lifter, I hand him his present. Naturally, I wrapped it
in the brightest shade of neon pink wrapping paper I could find.

“Really Addie? They
didn’t have any other color?” Logan accepts the box from my
hands.

Giving him my cheesiest
smile, I say in a sing song voice, “Nope, they only carry this
color. I know it sucks!”

“Oh I’m sure that’s
why, not because you’ve enjoyed giving me presents wrapped in pink
since we were kids.”

“Why break
tradition?”

We smile at each other.
Logan tears into it and slides the lid off of the box. He picks up
one frame after another, not saying anything. He sets each frame on
the table and stares at them. I hold my breath. The guys can now see
exactly what I got him. They look at the pictures, to Logan, to me,
and back to Logan again. It’s eerily quiet and I can hear Logan’s
heavy breathing from across the poker table. When I glance up, my
brother blue eyes are pinned to my face.

I can feel how much
pain he’s in now because of me. I can’t believe I’m such an
idiot. Of course he doesn’t want a reminder of everyone that isn’t
here on his birthday. I open my mouth to apologize, but stop when I
see his eyes glistening with tears. Crap! I’m the worst gift-giver
in the history of the world. I really thought he would love this. I
turn away from him, and run though ideas to flee without being
insensitive.

Emotions . . . I can’t
do them.

Logan slowly stands and
makes the few steps around the table to me. Bending down so we’re
at eye level he whispers, “Thank you.”

He says it so earnestly
that I immediately feel better.

“I can’t put into
words how much this means to me, sis. I love it.” He folds his arms
around me. “I’m so lucky to have a sister like you.”

I hug him back just as
fiercely. “That’s good since you’re kind of stuck with me.”

Logan excuses himself
to use the bathroom, but I think it’s more to rein in his emotions
than anything else. Connor glares at Jax and I.

“What?” we ask at
the same time.

“Maybe next time you
two do a themed gift, let me know, okay?” he jokes.

I don’t find it
funny, but I laugh alongside Jax anyways. I was thinking the same
thing earlier when Logan opened Jax’s present. He bumps his
shoulder against mine. He’s being playful, hopefully attempting to
sweep whatever this is between us under the rug. That’s what I’m
going to believe he’s doing, anyways. I’m tired of fighting with
him. So he slept with me and then fled.
Wouldn’t
be the first time.
I give him a small smile so that he
knows I’m done with all the hostility between us.

It’s almost three in
the morning when we’re all more than ready to leave. We’ve played
way too much poker and drank even more. Thank goodness for taxis, or
we would all be crashing here tonight. Logan leaves his gifts except
for mine. He refuses to keep them here and retrieve them in the
morning with the rest of the presents. Drunken logic, got to love it.
I peer at Connor and Jax with my head held high. It there was a
competition for best present, I so would have won. They both know me
too well because they shake their heads at me.

Connor says, “You
cheated with pictures!” at the same time Jax says, “It’s not a
competition, Ads.”

“Obviously since I
blew you guys out of the water. You’re just mad, Evans, because
you’re a sore loser. Bring your A game next time, Chandler,” I
taunt them.

We all laugh as we make
our way to the lobby after saying goodbye to Connor. I stop in my
tracks when I notice only one taxi. I stand next to my brother,
glaring at Jax.

“Why is there only
one taxi?” I ask him.

“We’re going to
share a taxi,” Jax says as if it’s obvious.

“You and me? Why? You
don’t live near me.”

“We’re gonna make
sure you get home safely,” Logan says.

“You two do realize
I’m not a child, right?”

Logan sighs loudly.
“Get in the car, Addie.”

I really, really do not
want to be crammed in a taxi with Jax. That does not sound like a
good time to me especially in my drunken state. I’ll do something
to embarrass myself. I know it.

I stomp my foot. “No!
I can get home all by myself. Thank you very much.” The words
jumble together. Stupid alcohol.

They both laugh at me.
Screw them! I will not ride with Jax. I refuse! Jax’s eyes widen
and he shakes his head in frustration. Logan stops laughing and
stares at me and then Jax in question. Crap! Stupid alcohol, I said
that out loud. I can only stare open-mouthed at my brother, hoping
that he doesn’t piece together what’s happening with his little
sister and best friend.

“Why can’t you ride
with Jax? What did he do?” He asks the other question to Jax,
stepping closer to him.