HIDDEN CREEK FOREVER: a hidden creek high novel Read online

  HIDDEN CREEK FOREVER

  a hidden creek high novel

  Jaxson Kidman

  Contents

  Welcome to

  HIDDEN CREEK FOREVER

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  Want more #hch?

  Did you join the #hch group?

  More from Jaxson

  Welcome to

  I knew one thing for sure…

  … the bad boy in my bed was forever the bad boy in my heart.

  * * *

  Written by Jaxson Kidman

  HIDDEN CREEK FOREVER

  WES & AIRA BOOK 4

  READY TO LEAVE HCH FOR GOOD? #check

  THROWING MY MIDDLE FINGERS UP ON MY WAY OUT THE DOORS? #check

  MAKING SURE EVERY BITCH WHO DESERVES IT PAYS? #check

  FINDING OUT ALL THE TRUTHS, EVEN THE ONES I MAY NOT WANT? #triplecheck

  And here I thought I could finally get away from my past.

  But nope.

  It’s like a f*cking revolving door.

  And to top it off, I’m at a funeral saying goodbye to someone I never thought I would have to say goodbye to.

  The lines of ‘right’ and ‘fair’ no longer exist.

  It’s every guy, girl, and rotten whore for themselves in this town.

  And my plan is to make it out alive.

  And I hope it’s with the right person holding my hand…

  Prologue

  (or maybe something like the end)

  So this is where we make it.

  So this is where we break it.

  So this is where we fake it.

  So this is where we… where we…

  What?

  I didn’t write poetry or lyrics or whatever the hell it was that floated around in my head. It was nothing but a stupid distraction. Because the feeling inside me wouldn’t go away. At least not at the moment. And why would it? We were all finding our way out of a cemetery. The final goodbye to someone you’d never see again. Someone you’d expect to see again.

  That was the worst feeling. The part of waiting for those little moments here and there, knowing they were coming, but maybe just not knowing when.

  “Aira, are you okay?”

  The sweet, soft whisper of the voice made me smile.

  All I could do was nod.

  There was too much weighing on me to have an actual conversation.

  Take.

  Lake.

  Wake.

  Cake…

  I slowly grinned.

  So this is where we cake it?

  No, that wasn’t going to work.

  That sounded worse than everything else I had been trying to come up with.

  I forced myself to turn.

  Just enough to see the cemetery again.

  It was weird because I felt like we had been walking for a long time, meaning there should have been some serious distance between us and the casket. But there wasn’t. There wasn’t at all. It was right there. Too far away to touch, of course. But still very visible.

  Those remaining… well, those were people I didn’t even know.

  Those were people who knew a different side to the story even though we all shared the same ending.

  I began to move away from the casket, swearing I wasn’t going to look ever again. Soon enough this would just be a memory and nothing more than that.

  But as I looked around, a feeling of guilt came and went. It was maybe a few seconds. And then it was nothing. Just an empty, nothing kind of feeling. Because each set of eyes that met mine had the same look and feel that I had.

  Wanting to ask, ‘how did this happen?’ yet that answer was like a blanket forcing us all together. A kind of togetherness I don’t think any of us wanted.

  To be honest, there was only one person I wanted hugging me at that moment.

  So this is where we make it.

  So this is where we break it.

  So this is where we fake it.

  So this is where we take it.

  So this is where… the end is.

  Chapter 1

  Aira

  I hugged my pillow as I sat on the biggest towel I had ever seen in my life.

  That should have made me smile. At least for a second, right? Like, watching Wes roll out the gigantic towel. I mean it was like the size of ten normal beach towels. And it was super thick. It was like a blanket more than a towel, but it was made for the beach.

  Why did that matter?

  It didn’t.

  Thinking about the towel - with is blues and oranges and total beach vibe pattern - that was just a way to clear my head.

  Even as I hugged my pillow, I just wanted to clear my head.

  I put my nose against the cloth and took deep breaths, smelling sleep.

  Crazy, huh?

  But I could smell sleep.

  It made me want to get up and go back to bed.

  I loved sleeping in Wes’s bed.

  Oh, another thing I really love too…

  A drink.

  Or more than one drink.

  Which I had.

  Or had had.

  Had had…?

  I laughed. But nothing was actually all that funny.

  I reached for my cup and knocked it over.

  Liquid spilled to the sand.

  And I didn’t even care.

  I just wanted to sit on the beach and do nothing. For a long time. For a really long time.

  Next to me my phone buzzed over and over.

  I had it flipped over but I knew it was Kailey, Nova or one of the others.

  Trying to check up on me because I was now the girl with the father who burned his own house down. That was the only truth that seemed to matter. My father set the house on fire and took off. Mom was in the house. I was in the house. Mom was able to get out right away. And the only reason she didn’t care about looking for me was because I wasn’t supposed to be home.

  Either way, my father…

  “Hey, darling, what can I get you?”

  I turned my head and looked up.

  There was Wes.

  Weslee frickin’ Jackson.

  Standing in his sexy as fuck ripped jeans and a black hoodie with the hood pulled up.

  It was plenty dark outside but I had studied his face so much since we got together that I could see every feature as though it were the middle of the afternoon.

  He was my protector.

  The only one who seemed to understand me.

  The one who loved me.

  No matter how hard things were between us at times.

  Wes inched forward and slowly moved down to the towel. He was behind me as he spread his legs and wrapped them around me, pulling me against his body. The most comforting spot in the world.

  It was dark and the only sound was the ocean.

  The soothing sound of the ocean.

  I put my head back, still holding my pillow.

  Wes put his hands to the blanket and leaned back just a little.

  He knew the cliché bullshit words wou
ld piss me off so he didn’t say them. Which was good to not hear for once. Bad enough I had to deal with Mom still at Julia’s. Or deal with Julia herself. Or deal with Miss Carson. Or any of the other nonsense waiting for me on a daily basis.

  “It’s like they change every night.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “The stars. Look up. It feels like it’s different from last night.”

  “Do you not pay attention in class?” I asked.

  “Hell no,” Wes said. “I thought you knew that.”

  I laughed. I shook my head. “Wes…”

  “What?”

  “They don’t change. But things move. And then if it’s clearer and darker you see more stars.”

  “Smart and beautiful,” he whispered.

  “Yeah. Maybe I can be a professional star person.”

  “I’m not sure that’s the title.”

  “I’ll make it my title then.”

  “Own it,” he said.

  “Hell yeah,” I said. “Bitch, you want to see stars, come find me.”

  Wes laughed.

  His chest bounced and rumbled.

  Now that was soothing.

  “Better yet, darling, if you want to see stars, then you come see me,” he said.

  “Oh yeah?” I asked.

  I turned and faced him. Like I was crawling up his body. My head swirled a little but I knew what made me feel good. What made me forget things.

  The second our lips touched everything was gone.

  I sighed into Wes’s mouth as I moved my legs so I could straddle him right there on the beach. I put my hands to his shoulders and hovered over him for once. He simply put his head back and let me kiss him.

  Mygod… that’s so hot…

  My being in control.

  Knowing that without notice Wes could just grab me, take me and control me. Have me and love me.

  I kissed him harder. When our teeth touched, it made me gasp because it was a weird sound and feeling. Wes quickly moved his left hand from the towel and touched the back of my head. He then guided our amazing make out session. I was still hovering over him but he was leading the way.

  My body pressed harder against his.

  That deep need and crave that only Wes knew how to unlock.

  He sat up straight and placed his other hand to the middle of my back.

  Now he was in complete control.

  I broke our perfect kiss on purpose so I could look up at the stars.

  Wes’s tongue gently kissed down my neck.

  I could see stars. I could feel stars. Whatever that meant.

  I sucked in a breath and felt Wes as he grew into the moment.

  My right hand moved from his shoulder down between us.

  His hands grabbed at my ass and he made a super-fast move, putting me on my back on the towel.

  I giggled when he did.

  This was when I felt really alive again.

  Like things were really going to be okay.

  Then again, why weren’t they going to be okay?

  The crap of someone coming after me was taken care of. I knew who burned down my house. I was living in Hidden and spending all my time with Wes. Anyone who got in my way at Hidden Creek High got a slap or a punch. Just depended on my mood.

  Wes put his hands to the towel again and now he hovered over me.

  He bent his elbows and came down for a kiss.

  Then he straightened his elbows to get away.

  I grabbed his shirt and pulled him back down.

  “Aira,” he said with his lips to mine.

  “Wes,” I said back.

  “I can’t save you from what’s been done. But I’ll make sure nothing else hurts you.”

  “Why do you think I’m here?” I asked. “It’s not for your good looks.”

  “I thought it was for this…”

  He drove his hips against me and I instantly bit my lip.

  My phone started to buzz over and over again.

  I turned my head.

  Sometimes I thought about throwing it in the ocean.

  Yeah, right.

  Wes kissed my neck and hit a ticklish spot.

  I jumped and screamed with laughter.

  So he did it again.

  I clawed at the back of his shirt.

  “Stop it,” I cried out as I laughed.

  “Nope,” he said.

  He went for the same spot and nibbled at me.

  I yelled even louder, thrashing my head left to right, kicking at him, laughing so hard that my stomach started to hurt.

  Wes then made a growling sound and did it again.

  I hurried to pull up his shirt and I dug my fingers into his sides.

  How the fuck does he have muscles on the side of his body? Ugh.

  I dug and wiggled my fingers and Wes didn’t move an inch.

  “What is wrong with you?” I cried out as I kept laughing.

  He paused. He put his lips to my ear. “I’m not ticklish.”

  “Liar,” I said.

  “Try me.”

  His body was pressed tight to mine.

  We were that close… I felt his hardness against me. I was more than ready for him. Yet my fingers were trying to find a ticklish spot on his body.

  But there wasn’t one.

  “Ugh, I hate you,” I finally said.

  Wes laughed as he rolled to his side.

  I moved to my side and faced him.

  “I am a liar, you know,” he said.

  “Oh?”

  “I am ticklish. Somewhere.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Is this where you insert some kind of stupid sexual reference to your-”

  “You said insert,” Wes said with a wink.

  “Exactly.”

  “No. Seriously. The back of my knees.”

  “What?”

  “The back of my knees,” he said. “I’m ticklish there. Why? I don’t know.”

  “That’s weird.”

  “You asked.”

  I hurried to reach with my left hand down to the back of his knee.

  Wes laughed, bent his leg and pulled, putting me on top of him.

  He was so quick and smooth with those kinds of moves. Able to take something serious or flirty and turn it into this.

  My hands rested against his chest.

  When I looked down at him, my hair fell forward.

  He reached up and slid his fingers into my hair.

  That was deadly to me. Like… heart-racing-panties-coming-off-I’m-gonna-ride-you-until-I-forget-who-I-am kind of deadly.

  I exhaled a breath and saw the grin climb across his face.

  He knew what he was doing.

  My phone buzzed again and Wes moved his head.

  He had rolled right on top of it.

  “What the fuck is this?” he growled.

  “Kailey or Nova,” I said. “Or one of the others. Checking up on me. I haven’t gone for a run with them in a little while. So they-”

  Wes looked at my phone and then handed it to me.

  He sat up again and we were in the position where we first started.

  “Sorry, darling,” he whispered.

  “What?” I asked.

  He kissed my left cheek. “I have to take you home.”

  * * *

  “I didn’t mean to mess up your night,” Julia said.

  She was on the deck, smoking a cigarette. I had the taste of Wes lingering in my mouth but I asked Julia for a cigarette, knowing I was going to lose that amazing taste.

  I hated to see Julia smoking. Just as much as she hated to see me do it. But there was nothing she could do about it.

  We were both technically adults. Even though she was older than me.

  I wished Wes would have brought me home on his motorcycle. So I could hear the engine growling off in the distance.

  Being away from him flat out sucked.

  And the only reason Julia needed me…

  “When did she start?” I asked.

&
nbsp; “Noon. On the dot.”

  “She make some kind of stupid comment about it being noon?”

  “Yup.”

  I lowered my head. “I’m sorry, Julia. That you got sucked into this.”

  “I wouldn’t trade it, Aira. You want to be here so be here.”

  “Weren’t you the one telling me to ditch Wes and leave?” I asked.

  “Everyone is going to tell you to do that,” Julia said. “That's the smart thing to do.”

  “So I’m stupid?”

  “No. You’re in love. And that makes you do crazy things.”

  “What’s Mom’s excuse?”

  “She’s just a drunk,” Julia said.

  We both snorted and laughed.

  “That was mean,” Julia said.

  “No.”

  “Yeah. Imagine what she feels right now.”

  “What? That her husband almost killed her and her daughter?”

  “Aira…”

  I put out my cigarette and went inside to face my mother.

  This was all becoming a routine with her.

  She was on the couch, sitting on the edge, a tissue stained black from her mascara in her hand.

  “You’re home,” she whispered.

  “I’m here. Julia called me.”

  “I just needed to know you were safe,” Mom said.

  “I’m safe here,” I said. “You know that.”

  Mom looked at me. “I don’t know much of anything anymore.”

  I swallowed hard. “You should get some sleep. I’ll get a blanket for you.”

  Mom nodded and slowly fell down to the couch. I pulled a blanket from the top of the couch and covered her.