Chapter 5 ACTING TOUGH

ADRIANNA

CHAPTER FIVE

ACTING TOUGH

Going anywhere with Jackson Dune was a bad idea.

I'd had my fair share of bad breakups. And whatever the fuck had happened with Jackson ranked up there. I was going to put it in the number two spot. The number one spot would always be taken.

Maybe I was actually following him because of my most recent breakup though. No one would blame me if I slept with Jackson to forget the last year of stupidity I'd let myself go through. To let myself believe for so long that I could do nice and normal.

Except me. Would I forgive myself?

Jackson had gotten under my skin.

Like a virus, and I was so fucking sick.

Jackson grabbed keys off of a hook by the kitchen and then veered toward the exit. I glanced over my shoulder once and realized that no one else had even seen us leave. I'd been friends with Heidi and Emery for almost two years now, but the whole Dune family thing was a bit over my head. Strangely, it felt like Jackson was the only one who noticed that. Or maybe he didn't, and he just wanted to get in my pants. I rarely could get a good read on him.

"Where are we going again?" I asked.

"I didn't say."

He shot me that panty-melting grin, and my frown deepened.

Warning alarms were going off in my head. I should stop this. I should go back to the party and enjoy my time with friends. I didn't have to do this with Jackson to have a good time.

But I walked out the door anyway.

He jangled the keys in his hand, absentmindedly flipping them around and around on the key ring. I didn't see his shiny red Alfa Romeo. A fucking beautiful car that I had fallen in love with on sight. Not its owner, but definitely the damn car.

Jackson swung me toward Jensen's giant truck.

"Um...what are you doing?" I demanded.

"Going for a drive."

"You are not fucking driving! You're drunk."

His face split into a smile. "I'm not driving. You are."

He threw the keys to me, and I caught them, one-handed.

"You want me to drive this huge truck? Does Jensen even know we're borrowing it?"

"Eh, don't worry about him. He won't care." He popped open the driver's side. "Need a boost?"

"I don't want to steal his car, Jackson. Grand theft auto isn't in my repertoire."

"You want me to drive then?" he asked, reaching for the keys.

I held them back, out of his reach. "Definitely no."

"Then, get your ass in the truck."

Jackson didn't give me a chance to argue; he hoisted me up and set me down in the driver's seat. I didn't even know how he'd managed it. I wasn't a small person. Short, yes. Thin, no. I'd never in a million years been Heidi's size. Not that I gave two fucks. This was who I was, and I liked it. But, damn, Jackson had to have biceps for days to lift me like that.

"Jackson," I said softly. My voice was a knifepoint.

"Hmm?"

"If you ever touch me again without permission, I'll gut you like a fish."

He laughed and trailed a finger down my exposed leg. "Sure thing, Anna."

I clenched my hand into a fist to keep from slapping his endearingly handsome face. "Why am I doing this?"

"Because you're intrigued. Now, let's go."

Jackson jogged around to the other side of the truck and jumped into the passenger seat. I couldn't believe myself, but I turned the truck on and slammed the door shut.

All I kept asking myself was, Why? Because, seriously, why?

"Don't make me regret this," I told him.

I put Jensen's truck into reverse and backed out of the lake house. I was glad that I drove a giant Tahoe, or I wasn't sure how I would have managed. The roads at Ransom Canyon were narrow. Luckily, most people were inside or on the lake, and we were the only idiots driving back up the canyon wall.

The winding road cut into the mountain face made me nervous as hell. It was bad enough when Landon had driven down it. This was a whole new level of unease. We certainly didn't have canyons like this in Ohio. Truly, we didn't have much in Ohio. Not where I was from.

Jackson guided me around the face of the canyon, and I was so busy concentrating on not falling off of a cliff that I hadn't noticed that we had come to some empty gravel parking lot.

"Right here," he said. "Now, turn it around and back up to the edge of the cliff side."

"Uh...how close?"

"I'll tell you when to stop."

He didn't do that until I thought I was going to drive straight over the edge.

"It's fine. There's a chain," he said when I refused to move another inch.

"A chain isn't going to stop this truck."

"Ah, come on, babe."

He hopped out of the car, and I counted slowly to ten before following after him. I couldn't believe I was doing this. Why am I at an abandoned parking lot on the top of a canyon with Jackson Dune?

"This is what you wanted to show me?" I asked incredulously.

He'd pulled down the latch on the back of the truck and dropped a blanket over the bed. He sat down and patted the seat next to him. "Over here."

I bit back a snarl and took his offered seat. "What are we doing?"

He put his finger to his lips and then pointed out in front of him. I resisted the urge to bolt. He wasn't being a total shit even though he was clearly drunk. I didn't forgive him for pulling me into the lake or all the other stuff that had happened, but I had agreed to come up here. I could at least give him the benefit of the doubt before he fucked everything up and drove me mad.

With a sigh, I turned to face forward, conscious of his leg pressed up against my thigh and our shoulders almost touching. An electric current seemed to radiate between us as I tried to focus on everything but his body next to mine.

But what I saw was a perfect, unimpeded view of the canyon below. A crystal-clear blue lake was dotted with boats, Jet Skis, and a few tubes. From this height, we couldn't hear the screams of excitement and adrenaline, but I could sense it. Houses dotted the lakeshore, gliding evenly up the canyon walls. Some were as large as the crazy mansion on the hill, as obtrusive as the steel house that had taken decades to build, and others were as small as a tiny one-bedroom, completely hidden and tucked away in the trees.