He’d kissed me… and I’d begged him to make love to me.
The universe owed me some good karma in the future after all the shit it had put me through lately.
Sensing my impending meltdown, Jason backed up, giving me some space. My eyes adjusted to the darkness, revealing the extent of his injuries. I reached for him instinctively, ghosting my fingers over the dark bruises around his eyes. He leaned into me, exhaling a shaky breath.
“Why, Jason? Everything you’ve worked for…” my voice trailed off, the weight of what had happened on Friday night settling over us.
“For you,” he whispered.
The words were like a gunshot to my heart.
Two little words I’d never in a million years expected to hear.
“Me?” I choked out, my eyes searching his for any signs this was a joke. That it was all a part of his cruel game.
“We should probably talk.”
“Talk… you broke into my house in the middle of the night… to talk?”
“I was supposed to wait.” He raked a hand through his unruly brown hair, letting it fall haphazardly around his face. “Had it all planned out and everything. But I was lying in bed, trying to ignore the pain, and I couldn’t wait another second longer. I had to see you now.”
“You did?”
I’d spent all weekend fretting over him, greedily absorbing any minute details Hailee would feed me.
Jason nodded, a small uncertain smile lifting the corner of his mouth. He winced at the involuntary action.
“It hurts?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe. But not as much as it hurts knowing I might have screwed things up between us.”
Us.
He thought there was an us still?
Maybe I was still dreaming, stuck in some beautiful nightmare.
“Is this real?” I asked quietly. He leaned in, cupping my face, brushing his thumb over my lips. Raw desire blazing in the depths of his eyes. “Does this feel real?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure.” I could barely think straight with the way my heart was galloping in my chest, crashing against my ribs looking for a way out.
“What about this?” Jason moved closer, his lips touching mine.
“I’m still not sure, you should probably do it again. Just so I can be certain.” I fought a smile and he chuckled, the sound like a salve to my battered heart.
Slowly, he threaded his fingers into my hair, tilting my face ever so slightly to align our mouths at the perfect angle. “Jason,” I pleaded, desperate for him to kiss me, to show me this was real. But he hovered there, staring at me with such intensity I thought my heart might explode. His eyes were dark and hooded and filled with so much emotion, I couldn’t breathe.
I couldn’t do anything but wait.
“You are the single most important thing in my life, and I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry,” he said with complete conviction.
Then he kissed me.
But it wasn’t just a kiss at all.
It was Jason willingly handing over his heart. With every press of his lips, every stroke of his tongue, he silently told me everything I’d so desperately craved to hear from him as his mouth moved over mine. He might have been the one in control, setting the pace, but I was the one with the power. It simmered between us. An unspoken admonition. He was apologizing to me through actions, not words, but the ball was in my court regarding what happened next.
“Jason, wait,” I said, physically forcing myself to break the kiss.
He dropped his forehead to mine, letting out a pained groan. “Hey,” I said, sliding my hands gently against his cheeks, forcing him to look at me. “I’m here, I’m right here, but you’re right, we should talk.”
There was so much we needed to figure out. Things I needed to know before I let him off the hook.
“I can come back later,” he started to pull away, “when it’s—”
“Jase?”
“Yeah, Giles?”
“Shut the hell up and lie down with me.” I shuffled over to make room for him and threw back the cover. His brow went up but his expression quickly softened.
“You’re sure?”
“Get over here before I change my mind.” My parents were sleeping right down the hall, and I didn’t want to think about what my dad would do if he found me with a boy in my bed, let alone a Raider, but I wasn’t about to give up the chance to have Jason here like this. In my bed, heart on his sleeve and ready to talk.
He kicked off his sneakers, his hoodie going next, before slipping in beside me. We lay on our sides, facing one another. “What did you mean, you did it for me?” I asked.
“Thatcher knew you were someone to me. He sent me some messages, threatening to come at me through you. So I distanced myself.” His eyes shuttered. “Pushed you away.”
“I see.” I shuddered thinking about everything we’d been through the last few weeks, everything he’d put me through.
Jason pulled the covers up around us, refusing to let me escape from the conversation. “But it didn’t matter because he knew the truth and he already had his ace card up his sleeve,” he hesitated, guilt swimming in his eyes. “He had some images of us, down by the lake that day.”
“No!” Panic flooded me, embarrassment flaming my cheeks, as my thoughts shot off in a hundred different directions.
“I’m so fucking sorry. I still can’t figure out how he got them, but he threatened to make them viral unless I agreed to meet him.”
“He has images… of me. Us?”
“I’m going to go to the authorities. It’s gone too far. I realize that now. I will do everything in my power to make sure he doesn’t release those photos.”
Tears pooled in the corners of my eyes. I wasn’t a slut. I didn’t sleep around or date guy after guy after guy. But I’d done things with Jason… things I didn’t want anyone to know about, let alone see. “Oh God, if my parents—”
“Hey, hey,” he pulled me into his arms, tucking me against his solid body. “It won’t come to that, I promise.”
Hands pressed against his chest, I closed my eyes and inhaled a shuddering breath.
“I’ll fix it, Felicity, you have my word.” I didn’t just hear the words, I felt them. Jason meant every single one. He’d done all this for me, to protect me. It was a lot to process.
Suddenly, a thought popped into my head. “What about Aimee?” I craned my head back to look at him.
“Aimee is no one.”
“Jason…”
“She was someone, once upon a time. But that shit was over a long time ago.”
“She’s Thatcher’s sister?” He nodded, his fingers tracing up and down my spine, making it difficult to concentrate. “You were together?”
“You really want to know this stuff?” he asked, and I gave him a weak smile, nodding. “I hadn’t seen or spoken to Aimee in months until yesterday.”
“Oh, that makes me feel better.”
“Good, I don’t want you to ever worry about other girls. There is no one but you.”
“Jenna?” my brow rose accusingly.
He snorted. “A means to an end.”