But it was Mal’s idea.
So they both sat there with two full shakes in front of them because Archie didn’t fuck around with halfsies.
The taste test was done, and Jag had discovered that Mal was right.
The syrup option was seriously better.
As they slurped between the two, Jag asked, “Your mom okay with all the stuff?”
From Mal: Slurp. “She freaked out at first.” Slurp. “Went into the school and lost it on the principal.” Slurp. “He stepped up surveillance of the Harris brothers.” Slurp. “They were suspended today.”
Jag turned from his shake to Mal. “They fucked with you again?”
Mal shook his head even with the straw still in his mouth.
Slurp.
He then let the straw go and looked up at Jag.
“There’s a girl. She’s in a special needs class. She’s super pretty but she sees letters backward or something.”
“Dyslexic,” Jagger told him.
“Yeah. That. They mess with her too. Mostly because Aaron likes her, and she thinks he’s a dick. The more she puts him off, the more Aaron pulls shit with her. They messed with her today. Since teachers were on high alert about them because Mom lost her mind, they were caught.”
“Allan in on it?”
Mal put the straw between his lips, shook his head and, slurp.
Then he said, “No, I wasn’t there. I didn’t see what they did. But I figure it was a guilt by association thing.”
“He ever in on it?” Jag asked.
Mal shifted the glasses in front of him while shaking his head again. “Allan’s quiet. Get him away from Aaron, he’s not a total asshole. But twisted props to him, he never leaves his brother hanging.”
Jag didn’t have any brothers who were dickheads, either of the blood or of the cut.
But he suspected, he got fucked repeatedly because of their damage, it’d eventually begin to get old.
“I should probably tell you not to cuss,” Jagger noted.
Mal shot him a smile. “You probably should.”
Jagger smiled back but said no more on that subject.
Instead, he said, “You walking with the store crew here after school like I told you?”
Mal got instantly serious.
“Yeah, but I don’t blame them, Jagger,” he said. “No one wants to be a target of those jerks.”
“There’s safety in numbers,” Jag pointed out.
“Maybe.” He shrugged. “Maybe not. But I get not wanting to take chances with that.”
“I don’t get that, bruh, because you look out for your own. Even if you get your ass kicked doing it, or someone dogs you, it doesn’t matter. You take your brother’s back.”
Mal lost interest in his shakes and stared at Jagger.
“Same goes for you with them,” Jag continued. “It sucks, they’ve been messing with you. But if their focus shifts, Mal, to one of your bros, or one of the girls, you back them. You with me?”
“You’re like my dad, but white and a biker.”
“Way you talk about your dad, I’m gonna take that as a compliment.”
“You should.”
They stared at each other.
Jag smiled first this time.
Mal returned it.
Then they went back to their shakes.
* * * *
“There’s, like, one thing sexier than watching you bond with Mal.”
It was late evening and they were out on Archie’s fire escape.
They’d ordered in from the Ethiopian place. They’d eaten it.
And now, she’d made some cocktail with prickly pear syrup.
It was sweet as fuck, and after a double dose of chocolate shakes and a heavy dinner, he wasn’t going there.
So he had a beer.
He also had his girl sitting between his bent legs, resting back against his body.
“What’s sexier?” he asked.
“Your face when I suck you off.”
At her words, he squeezed her hips with his thighs.
She shifted in his arms so she could look up at him.
“Have I ever told you how handsome I think you are, Jagger Black?”
Well…
Fuck.
He wasn’t sure any woman had said that to him straight out.
But Archie saying it, like that, the way they were out on her fire escape, with her so goddamn pretty, right then, and all the time.
“No,” he replied, his voice on that one word weird, hoarse.
“I think you’re super fucking handsome, boyfriend,” she whispered.
“I think I need you to suck me off right about now, baby,” he whispered back.
“First, I need to know if your folks don’t eat anything. I’m going to the grocery store first thing tomorrow, after you leave and before the shop opens.”
“Ma isn’t picky,” he shared. “Hound will eat what you put in front of him, avoid what he doesn’t like, but heads up. He’s a meat and potatoes guy.”
“Gotcha.”
Jagger trailed a finger down her hairline, in front of her ear, and along her jaw.
And while he did, he felt his gut grow tighter and tighter.
Archie, who didn’t miss much, didn’t miss that.
“Jag?” she called.
He held her jaw in the palm of his hand and looked into her eyes.
“It’s a miracle,” he said.
Her black eyes warmed, her beautiful face grew soft, and she asked, “What?”
“If your mom was even one percent like you, how your dad got over losing her enough to move on.”
Her eyes instantly filled with tears.
“Hey, hey, hey,” he chanted quietly. “I’m sorry, baby. I shouldn’t have—”
“That’s the most beautiful thing anyone ever said to me.”
A tear stroked down her cheek.
Jag caught it with the apple of his hand.
“I hope I’m a lot like her,” she said. “I try to be.”
And I hope I’m a lot like Graham Black, but I have no idea if I am, and I never will.
“Honey,” she called.
When he refocused on her, he saw she was watching him closely.
“You’re you, and I don’t know her, but she’d have to be whacked not to think you’re the best thing ever created,” he told her.
Humor lit her features as she replied, “She wasn’t whacked.”
“Then there you go.”
“You think I’m the best thing ever created?”
“Don’t fish, you know I think you’re the shit and have since the first minute I laid eyes on you.”
That got another expression lighting her features.
“Can I go down on you now?” she asked.
“Absolutely,” he answered.
She laughed and it was half chortle, half giggle. This meant it was half sexy, half cute.
While doing it, she pushed up his chest to kiss him.
And when she was done doing that, they went inside.
* * * *
He was curved over her, moving inside her, Archie on her hands and knees under him, Jag on his knees, one of his hands laced with hers in the bed, the other one between her legs, fingers toying with her clit.
She was breathing heavy.