Never too Late To Learn

Meg took a moment to process everything he had just said. It was all becoming very real very fast. The weekend had started off as an escape from her mundane life, with some casual sex thrown in there. But now, she was here for entirely different reasons. She could die this weekend, and she had to accept that. It was a lot easier to accept than it would have been for a normal person. God, her therapist would have had a field day with all of the thoughts running through her mind at the moment. She took a deep breath and nodded. “I can do that.” In all honesty, she knew that she could. She had never quite been up to this level of challenge, but lying and acting were two things she was tops at. That and dealing with pain.

The last time she remembered being shocked by pain was the time that she had earned the long, curved scar on her stomach, and that was only because she had not seen it coming. She was mentally prepared for almost anything at this point. 

“Two years ago I won a fight and…acquired” he said shifting his weight, looking up at the ceiling, “territory that is mine at the end of it all. The world as you know it is run but nine people at the top. Illegal goods can generally find their way through us. There is rarely something that happens that I don’t know about in southern United States and Eastern South America. The point is the other people that have coins that that hold meaning like mine does, we don’t cross territory unless we have too. China is coming in and I am not a fan of China. She’s a general bitch.”

“Only because she turned you down Jackie” Valarie said smugly in the corner of the room as she threw a paper ball at her cousin.

“I wasn’t the only one she turned down” he said harsher than he intended. Valarie stuck her tounge out as she jumped off the counter in the hotel.

“Yeah, and now she’s your problem. You know she has temper and doesn’t understand anything like Dao did. Just get rid of her and fast. She’s hurting business here.”

“Working on it. Can I go now?”

She nodded and pulled a pair of jeans up her long legs. She had to root around in her bag a little to find a shirt that would work for a long weekend but, eventually, she found a long sleeve brown shirt that would hide most stains. She pulled the fabric over her head and stepped around the room to look at what Jack was doing. Staring at an empty fridge, apparently. That meant that breakfast was out of the question. Oh, well. She had done plenty before on an empty stomach. 

Her question caused him to snort as he stood up and looked down at her, ready to give her one of the most honest answers he could think that he ever gave her when it came to his family. “You act like you don’t know anything they will eat you alive. If you don’t want to be used, you see how Valarie acts; she doesn’t do that because it’s fun. She does that to stay alive. You don’t have to accept our fate but fake it like your life depends on it. Act like dying doesn’t faze you. Act like the feeling of hot metal against you skin is just foreplay. Your skin craves the touch of a knife. Fake it. No one here admires the dainty female act. Take care of yourself. Someone touches you and you don’t like it, punch them and shove them away. Okay?”

“Remind me why we didn’t do that earlier?” she questioned. Meg would not tell him this, for fear of his ego, but Jack was better than anyone she had been with in a long time. She felt thoroughly fucked and rested at the same time. The rested factor might have been from the fact that she were out of the school for the in months. She arched her back, then sat up in the bed to look around the room for her clothes. Her uniform shirt from last night had been destroyed in the battle, and the idea of a skirt did not appeal to her for the day ahead. Meg grabbed the red sheet and wrapped it around herself so she could grab the bag that she had ditched y the front door on the night before.

“You were dating someone. I was in limbo. You jumped to another guy. I went the single life. So by all accounts, this whole delayed sex thing is entirely upon you.” He looked behind him and give her a smirk as he stretched his arms over his head, pulling on his arms behind him. “My hands are clean in this matter at least. Might be the only thing” he chucked, turning around to walk into the kitchen. There was no food per usual since he had not been staying here in ages.

Then suddenly the idea that Meg would find out everything, or at least part of him that he had kept hidden from everyone, including her. His family was not one to spill their secrets but something was always bound to come up. More so since they had not always been living in Chicago for his entire life. He was there until he was six and left, coming and going between there and South America for his entire life till he got caught for some bullshit charge and sent to the same school as Meg.

The first thing that Jack noticed when he woke up to the sunlight the streamed into his room was how physically sore he felt. Not sore he corrected himself, Stiff. Sleeping on his back all night did nothing for him as he slowly sat up, listening to the bones in his body pop in protest or cheering him on as he moved. Had it really been that long since he had sex like that? The answer was yes as the last time he had sex anywhere close to that slowly came to mind. Decent sex since it had been outside but this was topped due to the fact he was in his home. Where he could do what he wanted where he wanted without a care.

 Raising his hands over his head, the glimpse of his arm bands came in sight and he smiled as the images of outdoor sex were replaced with a poem his dad always told him. His one tribute to his dad on his skin to remind him that the world was full of wonders and he needed to be in the middle, not at the extreme.

I want to live forever he told his dad once. Never to die, never to be afraid that something I would do would kill me. He was sixteen and was invited back to his father’s home in the city on natural terms. You could never live with yourself for that long. Jack knew his dad was right. It was that sense that he could die any more that gave him exactly what he needed to stay alive as his hand rand down his arm subconsciously over the tattoo and many scars that decorated his arm.

She smirked at fact that the one thing the man probably did want, other than copious amounts of cash, was now hours away from school with someone else. Someone that she had been lusting after for months. Jack had actually been the spark for many of their explosive fights, the way he and Meg would spar for fun, their constant drinking together, really anything they did. The man was not known to show his jealousy, but he definitely had it. She bit her bottom lip to stifle the smile that was threatening to show. This was exactly what she needed. A distraction. Jack had always been the perfect man for the job, and now was no different.

Her head tilted back with the feeling of his skin against her cheek, welcoming the first skin to skin contact of the night. “Hmm, yes,” she commented halfheartedly, her grip tightening her on his shirt. She grunted quietly as she was shoved against the door, her nose wrinkling quickly in frustration from the fact that he had taken control. She liked to be in control, but so did Jack. It seemed that this would be a quite a fight. But, quite honestly, the best fight she had ever been a part of. Her abdominals flexed as his fingers curled into her hips and the soft fabric of her shirt moved against her skin. The smile that she had hidden became full as he untucked her uniform shirt. She would be so glad to finally have that thing off.

The past was so carefully left behind him as he unbuttoned the last button on her shirt. There was no past to him anymore, only the now. And now he was going to do the one thing that was well overdue.

The second and third button.

“Hmm, not yet,” she murmured distractedly. “Reminds me a bit of my family so far.” She picked up a trinket and put it back on the table it belonged. Her gaze flitted back to him and she smirked, knowing how very far off that statement was. “Then again, our families are quite different.” Meg had taught herself how to fight for self-defense and fun, whereas Jack had been taught by family, most likely out of need. Or so she assumed. “Except, you know, the size thing.” Meg eyed the bed in the room and smiled to herself. If things went her way, they would definitely be using that later. She walked over and sat down on the edge of the red bed spread. Leaning down, she started to unlace her knee high combat boots. First thing to go.

He dropped his bag by the door and let out a relaxed sigh, happy to be rid of the weight.  He needed just a week of doing nothing at a spa. A spa sounded nice but expensive on time, something which he did not have. “Believe me” he said, shaking his head a bit as he looked at the floor, lifting his head as he talked, “They are nothing alike.” Pausing for a moment he looking back at her, “Trust me on that.”

Turning around he faced her as he leaned against the door. Crossing his arms as he raised an eyebrow at towards her as she started to move towards him. He knew that walk. The same one that every girl uses when she knows she is about to get something she was wanting. The full sway of the hips to the slow walk towards her prey.

A small smirk crawled its way across his face as he let her drag him forward a bit. She was the one that always kept him in line yet here she was pulling him to the side that he wanted to be on. If she was going to be the one breaking the rules then he saw no reason to stop her. Months of being close to her every way but sexually, being on her leash for the sake of someone no longer in his life, someone was going to pay for months of abstaining from his second favorite activity.

Placing his hands on her hip bones, he pulled slightly on the fabric, feeling it stretch towards him. “Whatever shall we do Megara?” he said quietly against her check, feeling her skin against his for the first time that was beyond platonic.

Jack smiled as he tightened his grip on the fabric and spun her around, pushing her back against the door. “Do you have any idea how we should spend the time?”