“What? When?” I all but shrieked.
“From your laundry, the first time you had me over for dinner. Polka dots. Sexy as fuck.”
“Oh my God, I wondered where they went.” My face heated. “Why the hell did you want my underwear?”
His gaze went all dark and dirty. “So I could smell your pussy while I rub one out.”
I went from flushed to nuclear.
Jesse laughed. No, he laughed his ass off.
I slapped his arm, mortified.
“What was I supposed to do?” he said when he pulled himself together.
“Not steal my dirty undies.”
“It wasn’t my fault. You’d just worked me up to the point I thought my dick would snap off. Then I saw them in the bathroom.” He shrugged. “In my defense, I didn’t know they were dirty until I had my dick in my hand and pressed them to my face. It was just dumb awesome luck.”
Now I was getting turned on again. The mental image he created had me clenching my thighs. “You’re a sick man, Jesse Thomas.”
“And you love it,” he said.
I did.
He grinned, seeing it written all over my face. His nostrils flared and he squeezed my butt again. “I need to leave before I take you back inside and fuck you again.”
One hand on my ass, the other cupping my jaw, he laid one on me.
Then his eyes caught mine. “Later, Bambi.”
He sauntered around his truck and climb in and I waved to him as he drove off, then headed back inside.
Thankfully it was nice and warm in here, because the temperature had dropped outside. I quickly disinfected the table, unable to hold back the smile as I did. Then I hustled back to the front. I’d rounded the counter, jiggled the mouse to wake up the ancient computer so I could finish checking in the books that still needed to be put away, when someone walked in.
I glanced up.
The book in my hand dropped, hitting the desk, the sound loud in the silence.
“Hello, Lila.”
“W-what are you doing here, Jarod?” My ex stood inside the door, a wary look on his face.
“Your mother sent me to check on you. You haven’t been answering her calls, she’s worried. I told her I’d talk to you.”
My back straightened and anger shot through me. “My relationship with my mother is none of your business.”
His mouth twisted cruelly. “I’m glad I came. Or I wouldn’t have seen the reason you’ve been distancing yourself from your family.”
Dread shot through me. “You need to leave.”
“You always were a wild one, Lila. I tried to guide you, keep you on the right path, but that wickedness was too strong, even for me.”
My stomach twisted and churned. “That’s bullshit, and you know it.”
“Cussing as well? Your mother won’t be happy.” He slid a hand into his pocket and moved closer.
I stood my ground.
His gaze moved over me as he ran a hand over his hair. I caught site of the purity ring on his finger. He still wore it. He followed my gaze and held up his hand, flashing it to me. “Yes, you tempted me into sin with your shameful lust, Lila, but I still believe in saving myself for my future wife. And what we did, it barely counted…it was nothing.”
He took his shot, trying to hurt me.
Fear over what my mother would do when she heard about me and Jesse, along with anger over Jarod coming here, trying to absolve himself of the part he’d played the night we had sex, had me shaking.
“You’re right, it was nothing,” I said.
His mouth tightened and his nostrils flared. “Are you having sex with that guy, the one I saw you with?”
“That’s none of your damned business.”
“You’ve let him between your thighs, haven’t you? Did you beg him to fuck you like you did me?”
I flinched, noting how his breathing had grown heavier, the hunger in his eyes. He was getting off on this. I glanced down and felt sick to my stomach. He was hard.
“Why did you volunteer to come here, Jarod?”
“Because your mother…”
“Bullshit,” I said, purposely cussing again. What did it matter now, the damage was already done. He’d say what he wanted about me and there was nothing I could do. “You were hoping you’d come here and I’d still want you, didn’t you? That I’d sleep with you, and you could blame me again for tempting you?”
He flushed an ugly crimson. “No…no, that’s not…”
“You’re standing there with an erection, Jarod. Your eyes have barely left my breasts since you walked in.”
He sneered. “What do you expect when you act like a whore? Just how many men have you fucked, Lila?”
I hadn’t given him the reaction he wanted and that pissed him off. “Again, none of your business. But we can definitely scratch you off the list, because honestly, those sad three seconds of you jerking and gasping on top of me, then crying like a baby, were definitely not fucking.”
He advanced, fury in his eyes. “You’re a damned slut. You want it. You wanted me. I’ll give it to you properly this time.”
“No, you won’t,” I said, letting him hear the anger in my voice as I shoved him back.
He flinched, startled, like he truly believed I’d just lie back on the desk and let him have his way with me.
He took another step toward me.
I lifted my hands to ward him off. “If you dare touch me, my boyfriend will beat the shit out of you,” I said, fear pounding through me.
His nostrils flared. “He’s not here.”
“He’s a biker, did you know that? You lay one finger on me, and he’ll hunt you down and kick your ass. I can promise you that. He’s good at hunting people,” I said, shaking harder. “I’ve seen him beat a man bloody. It wasn’t pretty, Jarod. All it takes is one word from me.”
He stood there, breathing hard, red and sweaty and angry as hell. “You did this to me,” he hissed.
“No. You did it to yourself.” I picked up my phone and clicked it on, showing him the screen. I hovered my thumb over Jesse’s name. “Leave or I’ll call. He works just down the street. He can be here in minutes.”
Shaking with rage, Jarod took a step back. “I’ll let your mother know why you’ve been ignoring her. That you’ve turned into a whore just like your sister.” Then he turned and stalked out.
I put down the phone and gripped the edge of the desk, fighting back tears.
He was wrong about me, about everything. I knew that, I did. But my parents wouldn’t feel the same way. They would never forgive me after this.
They were terrible parents. The way they’d treated Kate and me wasn’t something I would ever forget. But they were still my parents, and yes, I wanted their approval, despite it all. My ridiculous dreams of being a family again one day, after Jarod spoke to them, would never happen.
I wouldn’t have parents anymore.
And it hurt. It didn’t matter what they’d done to me. It still hurt.
The look on Jarod’s face, the horrible things he’d said echoed through my mind, and that hurt as well. He was nothing to me. But they still cut.
Dread filled me. He’d tell everyone his twisted version of my life, the people from our church, people who I used to think of as friends.