Forcing Gravity (39 page)

I
finally
gasped audibly, and
sank to my knees
.
Jase’s
arms were instantly around me, holding me back against his chest, as I fought to breathe.
The tears started to flow freely, as
I tried to put together the pi
eces of what had just happened.
I could hear the noise from the party
so close by,
but that noise was soon drowned out by m
y sobbing and gasping for air.
My lungs constricted, and I felt like if I could just stop crying, I could breathe normally, but the tears kept coming. My entire body shook from a combination of the crying, the utter fear that consumed me
,
and
the
cold and wet
from the grass that was biting into my bare knees.
 

I closed my eyes, tryi
ng to push out the memory of Carter’s
hands on me, his breath on my neck a
nd his hands clasped around my wrists
so tightly that I knew I woul
d have bruises in the morning.
I gag
ged when I remembered
how he’d kissed me and touched me. T
he thought of what had almost happened would have made me sick if there had been an
ything left in
my stomach.

“You’re okay. You’re okay,” Jase chanted softly in my ear. “I’m here. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

And t
hose were the last words I heard before I blacked out.

-
1
8
-

I opened my eyes to sunlight streaming in them and blinked a few times in confusion. I wasn’t in my bed, and I wasn’t in Ethan’s bed. The angle of the light was all wrong. Where the hell was I?

Then panic flooded me as
memories of the previous night raced back to me at full force, and I froze where I lay, terrified to look around.
But then I remembered Jase coming to rescue me, and I relaxed infinite
ly
. But I still had no idea where I was. What had happened after I’d blacked out? Why couldn’t I remember?

My head was pounding, and my body felt exhausted.
I took a deep breath, and decided I needed to first figure out where I was, and then I needed to figure out
how to get out of there. I
needed to call Ethan.
I needed to find a phone. Mine was in his car.

Shit!
My phone was in his car. Did he even know where I was? He was going to kill me once he found out what happened. No, scratch that, he would kill Carter, and that might not be bad thing.
Fucking asshole.

God dammit.
This sucked. I closed my eyes again. I was so pissed off at myself for getting into such a bad situation. I was not usually that careless.

A
knock on the door startled me
and pulled me out of my head
. My eyes snapped open,
and I sat up quickly against the headboard
b
ehind me.

“You’re awake,” Jase said, just as I realize
d it was his room that I was in, and I
stiffened
as
more memories from the night before came back to me.

“Do you think you can stand, Logan?”

We were outside
Carter’s house
when Jase had asked me that. He had carried me to his car
after I’d passed out
. I’d nodded my head, and he’d set me down on the ground, but I’d clung to him, my hands gripping the front of his shirt, not wanting him to leave me.

“Get away from her,” Ethan yelled sternly as he tore out of the house with Henley following close behind him. “Get the fuck away from her.
Now.
”

“She’s okay,” Jase said, and I was aware of his arms going around me. I was so tired, I just closed my eyes and leaned my head against his warm chest, inhaling his familiar scent, so comforting and so reassuring in that moment.

“Like hell she is,” Ethan fired back, his voice even closer. I felt him try to tug me away from Jase.

“No, Ethan,” I mumbled, holding tighter to
Jase’s
shirt.

“Logan, come on,” he insisted. “Shit, you’re really out of it.”

“I think he might have slipped her something,” Jase said.

“Who?”
Ethan growled.

“Carter Jackson,” Jase said.

“No way,” Ethan said, and I could hear him getting territorial. Carter was his friend. “
He
wouldn’t do that.”

I opened my eyes to see Ethan advance on Jase, but Jase just hugged me closer and twisted me away from Ethan.

“It’s not the first time he’s done it,” Jase said, and I wondered
how he knew that. Had he deciphered the same thing I had from Carter’s comment?

“Shut up, Jas
e
,” Ethan said, glaring at him.

“He didn’t slip me anything,” I mumbled.
“I just drank a lot.”

I was fairly positive that Carter hadn’t put anything in my drink. If he had, I wouldn’t have
been as coherent the whole time, and I probably wouldn’t be standing. I was just really drunk.

I watched Henley come up next to Ethan, her eyes going wide as she drank me in. I think she was
noticing that I had grass stains on my knees
and
was
shoeless. She’d been hanging back, observing the guys, but now she was interjecting herself into their unproductive argument.

“Lo, what happened?” she asked, smoothing my hair back from my face where it had fallen across my cheek.
“Where are your shoes?”

“Carter,” I told her.
“Pool house.”

“What did he do?” she asked.

“What did he do?
!
” Ethan
repeated
,
his voice roaring.
“Did he hurt you?”

Henley shushed him and swatted his arm.

I felt the tears prick my eyes as I
remembered what had transpired in the pool house and what Carter had almost done.

“
He didn’t do anything, right Logan
?” Jase
asked,
his voice so close to my ear and so comforting. I completely forgot I wasn’t supposed to like him anymore
, but then again, he had rescued me
.

I shook my head and whispered, “Almost
, but no
.”

I’d been a willing participant until Carter had tried to take things too far.

“Son of a bitch!”
Ethan roared. “I’m going to
fucking
kill him.”

“Ethan, he’s not a good guy,” I mumbled.

“Fuck him,” Ethan said, turning around to head back inside.

“I just want to go home,”
I said to no one in particular, although Ethan was my ride.

Ethan spun on his heel and came back to where I was standing, but I could tell he was conflicted. He wanted nothing more than
to level Carter in that moment, but he wouldn’t leave me.

“I’ll take her home,” Jase volunteered.

“No way,” Ethan countered
. “I’ll take her home.”

“I’ll take care of her, Ethan,” Jase said, and I could hear the insistence in his voice. He wanted Ethan to know he wouldn’t hurt me
, and
I knew he wouldn’t
.

“Fuck that,” Ethan spat. “After what just happened, and what you did a few years ago, no way am I letting her leave with you.”

“He didn’t do anything wrong,” I said, my voice sounding weak, and I felt Jase stiffen.

“What?” Ethan
asked
,
his attention now focused on me.

“Jase got to me in time,” I insisted. “He’s a good guy. He didn’t do what you think he did. He’s good.”

“You
believe
me,” Jase whispered, and I nodded against his chest.

“
You’re a good guy. I
don’t believe that you could have done that
to someone
.”

“I didn’t,” Jase said
,
the relief palpable in his voice
, as his whole body went slack
.

“Bullshit,” Ethan said, but there wasn’t a lot of force behind his words.

“Ethan, I wasn’t there. I swear. Amanda
Berlin
was a good friend of mine, and I was talking to her in her room before it happened, but I left right before.
Her boyfriend came in, and he
thought something was going on between us, and he . . .
” He let his words trail off, and I looked up at him just as his face fell. “Shit.”

“Fuck,” Ethan said, and I think they realized the same thing in that moment, because they both looked at each other.

“Carter Jackson was her boyfriend,” Jase said.

Ethan nodded in confirmation
, looking a little bewildered by what he’d just figured out
.

“I’m going to fucking kill him,” Jase seethed
, and I knew he regretted the fact that he hadn’t hit Carter harder than he had
.

“Not if I get to him first,” Ethan said. “He hurt Logan.”

“
I got a few punches in, but I’d happily go back for more
,” Jase said.

“Okay, so why don’t you boys go kick his butt or whatever, and I’ll call Logan and me a cab,” Henley suggested, and I thought her idea sounded perfect. Although, it would mean leaving Jase, and I suddenly didn’t want do that.

“I w
ant Jase to take me home,” I mumbled
. “Ethan can go kick Carter’s ass.
Kick him in the nuts for me, will you?
”

“
I’ll take her home
,” Jase said
automatically.

“What?” Ethan asked, in confusion.

“I’m tired,” I said, “and I don’t want to be here anymore. I just want to go home. Please.”

“You need to go to the police,” Henley said.

I shook my head. “And tell them what? That I had too much to drink, willing followed a guy into his pool house and he attempted to
have sex with
me
against my will after I started hooking up with him
? It’ll be his word against mine, and he’ll deny it.”

“Logan,” Henley insisted, “
if
you don’t report him, he’s just going to do it again.”

“But he didn’t do anything that I didn’t let him do, and I got away before he could do anything else. Please. I’m fine. I just want to go home.”

“I think you should go to the police, Logan,” Jase said. “But you don’t have to go tonight, okay?”

“I just want to go to sleep,” I muttered, my eyelids so heavy.

That was the last thing I remembered before I woke up in
Jase’s
bed the next morning.

“How did I get here?” I asked
him
, my voice sounding scratchy
,
as he came to sit on the bed next to me.

Jase looked down at me, his bright green eyes flooded i
n the light that streamed in his
bedroom window
. In them I could see a mix of concern, relief
,
and a little bit of cautiousness that I was sure stemmed from the fact that I was in his bed and had been snubbing him for the past month
.

“You fell asleep in my car, and I didn’t know
how
to
get you into
your dorm, so I brought you here. I hope that’s okay.”

I nodded, as I kept my gaze on him. He looked so concerned.

“Do you remember what happened?” he asked.

I sighed. “Yeah, I do, but I wish I didn’t.” I hugged my arms around myself, as I thought back to the night before once again. I was incredibly lucky, and I knew it.

A tear slipped down my cheek, and Jase reached out with his thumb to brush it aw
ay. “You’re okay,” he soothed
. “I’d
never let anyone hurt you.”

I took a deep breath in an attempt to center myself.
“
How did you know where I was?” I asked, remembering how he’d come into the pool house with the blond guy.

Although I had feared when I first saw him
there
that he had an ulterior motive, I was pretty sure he’d arranged to be there so he could stop Carter.

He cringed. “Owen
, the other guy who was there,
asked me if I wanted in on some
female
action with him and Carter, and I
just
knew he was talking about you since I’d seen you go into the pool house with Carter. Logan, it took everything in me not to level him right
when he asked
, but I knew I’d never get into the pool house without him. He had the code, and I knew I had to get to you.
I was so afraid I wouldn’t get there in time.
”