Chapter Eighteen: Taken
A week later and James is showing uncharacteristic kindness toward Kendall. While she isn't sure what happened, she is becomes aware of how James is allowing her more time at home with Jackson and the girls. He stops keeping her from school and, though he does demand regular visits from her, isn't so covetous of their time. She likes to think it means he trusts her more, though she isn't sure why she wants to have his trust to begin with. Whatever the reason, though, she is hornier than ever.
That is the double-edged sword. She is grateful for her time with her family, and she feels almost normal when she is around them, but she has only had two visits this week, and those visits housed the only orgasms she experienced. As a woman now used to multiple orgasms nightly, she feels like she is going to tear herself masturbating before she is going to find relief outside of him.
Outside of arousal, she is deeply happy in a way which she couldn't quite understand. Jackson is still kind, the best friend she has ever had, and she loves him dearly and appreciates his love in turn. The girls are growing healthy and have a kind father to care for them. Her mother is closer to her now, giving her the physical and emotional intimacy that she lacked throughout her own childhood, and James gives her something else. The pleasure he gives is unlike anything else she has ever known, and while it frightens her sometimes, it has also connected her with her body in a way which she has never experienced. She truly loves how she looks, and she loves how she feels when she is with James.
Over the weekend, she and Jackson continue packing for the big move. They have everything ready except for what was necessary to keep out, and they are now putting away clothes, leaving only what they need to wear out. While they are packing, Jackson finds her tank-tops and shorts, her slut-uniform as she thinks of them, and lays them out on the bed. "What are these," he teases, a grin on his face, and he sniffs one, recoiling at the scent. "And what is that smell on them?"
Kendall, unsure of how to respond and feeling flushed with embarrassed arousal, laughs and shrugs it off. She knows that it should worry her, that even Jackson, as trusting as he is, shouldn't be so oblivious, but his good-natured grin comforts her and makes her feel safe. James would have threatened her for having a secret to begin with, but Jackson trusts her even in the face of her infidelity. It should shame her, but it only makes her feel good, like she has finally given her heart to someone good for once.
"Why haven't I see these before," he asks and he lifts one of her thin tank tops and stares at her through the fabric. "These are so thin you could see everything through them."
Kendall approaches him with a smile. Right now, she is wearing a similar tank top with an oversized tee on top and a bra underneath. Her short-shorts are hidden by a pair of loose jeans that fit her strangely and hide her figure. These clothes are meant for James, and though Jackson has found them, he will never see her in them. They are her slut attire, and when she is with Jackson, she is a woman, a person with a whole being and not a slut.
Even then, she winks at him, allowing him the daydream. "You never know, you might."
Jackson, blushing, returns her smile. "Oh?" He sets the tank top down and approaches her, moving forward with a gentle confidence so unlike James' violent possession and jealousy. "And when will I find out?"
Giggling, Kendall shies away from him. Her two lives are colliding right now, and she isn't sure which one is producing these feelings of arousal within her. She is smiling, and it is a smile meant for Jackson, but at the back of her mind she feels like it is a cruel trick. She wets her lips as he stops in front of her, and she stares him in the eyes, her cheeks warm. If she were to kiss him or allow him to kiss her, then it would be their first kiss in a few weeks. She stops him with a hand on his chest and whispers to him, "When we're married!" Then, she kisses him on the cheek and flits away while he groans.
"You're such a tease," he says, and he returns to pack her clothes. He breathes in the scent of the tank top before folding it. "It's strange. They smell weird." Kendall's pussy moistens as she watches Jackson, but she tries hard not to stare or draw his attention to her growing arousal. "The shorts and tank top smell the same. It's kind of musty, I guess, or sweaty. I don't know, but it's hard on my nose. Smells kind of like your mother's house, I guess. You always come home smelling like this after you visit her."
"I don't know." Kendall shrugs. "I never wear them, really. Too revealing. They're just something I kept from few years back, like jammies at bedtime."
"Weird. They look brand new." Jack says it casually, without suspicion, and tucks them into Kendall's clothes, and Kendall has to bite back a laugh. She will visit James later tonight, and she will come home reeking of him like she always does, and Jackson still has no idea. She looks forward to it, even as she is enjoying spending time at home.
When this all started, when James had come back into her life, Jackson had brief periods of jealousy which seemed very out of place for him. Kendall did not think about it too much. Her own guilt has distracted her from his shortcomings. Besides, he is right to be jealous, all things considered. Still, he seems to have grown past it, and the extra time she has been given to be at home with him and the girls has helped to mend the relationship with James has put so much strain on.
Spending time with Jackson always reminds her of why she likes him to begin with, and while her marriage to him is meant as a punishment now, Kendall isn't sure that it will be the punishment James thinks it will be. In the worst case scenario, James will give her the best sex of her life while Jackson will be kind, good, and faithful to her in his own deserving way.
In the end, though, she knows that his kindness will never really compare to James' sensual cruelty. She goes to get his laundry and is reminded of the stark difference between the two men. Even breathing in the smell of his dirty laundry, she finds that Jackson's clothes, while smelling like him, are lacking. James' scent is powerful, robust, and it sticks to everything. Jackson just smells like a man.
She works with him in silence for as long as she can and then excuses herself. Jackson walks her out. "Going to see your mother?"
Kendall smiles and nods as they stop beside her car together. She allows him a kiss on the cheek but keeps her lips for James, should he ever want to use him. At this point, it seems unlikely to her. His intimacy and affection seem to belong exclusively to her mother, but Kendall wants to be ready just in case. Besides, it feels to her like leading Jackson on.
"And my new dad," she admits, her cheeks warming as she thinks of him. She fully expects to lick his feet when she gets there, and she is excited to do it.
Jackson smiles to see her smile. "What's he like, anyway? You always bring him up, but you've never really told me about him."
Kendall smiles as she lingers by her car. Jackson has taken polite interest in her James as her father before, but she has always avoided an answer and he never pries. His interest is not in getting answers out of her, because he suspects no infidelity. Instead, he is trying to show support for the rekindling of her relationship with her mother, which has long been a source of strife for her. Jackson, always kind, knows about the distance that her mother always kept her at and is glad to see that shrinking.
This is part of why Jackson is so permissive toward her behavior. He understands her hurt and is willing to endure lonely nights to see it healed. If he has to be called a cuck as a joke that he hates, he figures it is worth it. His relationship with Kendall will always heal, he reasons, but they only have a short amount of time to mend her relationship with her mother.
The sad truth, however, is that Kendall's relationship with her mother is good, and her late night trips are for James and not Paige. She, of course, still thinks of James as the one who brought her family together, but she cannot find the right way to explain that to Jackson. So, she simply tells him that she has a new father-in-law in the making and leaves it at that.
She shrugs. "I don't know. There's not much to say. He's a real man." She blushes as she says it and avoids his eyes, hoping the sleight didn't land. Jackson is good but lacking in key ways. "A manly man. He's big. Likes beer and watching sports, and mom is crazy about him. So is Oliver."
Jackson stares at his feet, and Kendall can tell the blow landed. She knows he is comparing himself against an imaginary older man that he imagines James to be. If he knew the truth, she thinks, he would be openly weeping. He chances a look into her eyes and says, "He sounds great. You seem kind of smitten with him, too."
Forcing a smile onto her face as cruelty takes over, Kendall cocks her hips to one side and glares at him. She likes Jackson, even loves him most of the time, but she doesn't like this. While he has the right to be jealous, she doesn't want him to be. She doesn't want the two parts of her life to slip into each other, to collide, and the jealousy he feels when she is with him is jealousy that spoils their limited and already colorless time together. "What's wrong, cuck? Worried you might be replaced?"
Jackson frowns and can feel anger rising in him. He takes a deep breath and reminds himself of her trauma. "Kendall, please, I've asked you not to call me that. The girls are starting to say it."