Page 12 of Saved By the Rogue

"I’ll deal with it," Jaxon told him, not taking his eyes off of me. "Don’t worry about it."

Chuck shot one last glare in my direction, and then stalked off once more, leaving me alone with Jaxon. I crossed my arms over my chest and stared up at him.

"What are you doing down here?" he demanded, shaking his head. "You should – you need to get back to your room. You can’t wander around down here."

"Why not?" I protested. "It wasn’t like I was doing anything. I wasn’t going out anywhere someone could have seen me-"

"Because Chuck isn’t exactly excited about having you here in the first place," he replied, shaking his head. "And if you can at least keep out of his line of sight, you’ve got a better chance of him letting you stay."

"What, he calls the shots around here?" I demanded.

"He’s the boss," Jaxon shot back. "And he’s the one who decides what happens around here. You should remember that."

I knew he was right. I knew I should just go along with the rules that were being laid down in front of me. But, fuck, I had never been good at that. I had never been good at just playing along with everything I was told.

"And so he gets to speak to me like that?" I demanded.

"He gets to speak to you however he wants," Jaxon replied, his voice firm. "That’s how it works. I know you’re probably used to having everything the way you want it, with your family and all, but-"

"Oh, you think that’s how it worked?" I replied, snorting at the thought of it. "Yeah, no. I never got to decide how things were going to go. I always had to just play along with whatever they wanted from me. Whether I thought it was a good idea or not."

"Really?" he replied, frowning, sounding surprised.

"Of course," I sighed. "You think my dad was going to risk letting me do anything I wanted? What if I brought shame to his name? Or affected all the donors he was relying on to keep his campaign ticking over?"

He cocked an eyebrow.

"I figured he was doing it with family money," he muttered. "I didn’t realize that..."

He trailed off. I pressed my lips together.

"Yeah, that’s how it’s always worked," I murmured, dropping my gaze down. I hated admitting it. Hated admitting that I had allowed them to dictate exactly how my life was going to go for so long, and that I had been so willing to go along with it until I’d heard the news that they were going to sell me off to that Lombardi guy.

"I didn’t know," he replied.

"You think that this wedding was the first thing?" I pointed out. "They’ve always used me any way they could. My brothers, they get to do whatever they want – they both went to university, and my father helped them set up a business together, doing tech consultation or something. But he needed me close. Keeping me around so he could make himself look good, make it look as though he was this adoring family man. People like that. People respond to it."

I was surprised at the vitriol in the words I spoke – I hadn’t realized how much of it had been backed up inside of me till that moment, how much of it I had done my best to ignore all this time. I couldn’t believe how much I had allowed my family to get away with, how much I had just let them use my entire life. Now I was out, now I could look at it from a new direction, I felt as though I was able to see how twisted it was. The double standards they had applied to me versus my brothers, knowing that keeping me locked up and hidden away would serve them well in the long run, when they could sell my body and soul to the highest bidder.

"I just can’t stand being in that room all day," I admitted. "It feels like...it feels like I’m trapped again."

"Hey," he murmured to me, his hand coming to my cheek, guiding my gaze back towards him. "That’s not true, all right? It’s not the same as it was before. Not by a long shot."

My breath hitched in my throat as I stared up at him. His touch, God, his touch, it felt as though it was lighting up every inch of my body at once, even though I should be holding back, even though I should have known better. His eyes were blazing with sincerity as he looked down at me.

"You’re safe here," he told me. "And you’re free. If you want to walk out that door, you can do it, any time you like. You hear me? You don’t have to stay. Nobody’s making you."

"I know," I breathed. But the truth was, I didn’t want to leave, I didn’t want to go. The thought of being out on the streets, all on my own again, it scared the hell out of me – but, beyond that, the thought of being away from him felt downright impossible. I couldn’t lose this. I didn’t know exactly what I was feeling, but when he touched me, when he looked at me the way he did, it was as though every fiber of my being was lighting up in response to the sensation.

"You sure?" he asked. We were standing just a few inches apart, his hand on my cheek, his thumb resting just an inch or so from my lips. It would have been so easy, so damn easy, to just lean in and kiss him, but I knew that would have been crazy...

Or, at least, that’s the last thought that crossed my mind before our lips crashed together.

The electricity that coursed between us as soon as his mouth met mine, it was...it was everything. My whole body was alight with need, my whole system spinning helplessly out of control as I reached up to grab his face. I had never been kissed like this in my life, not by a man, not when I could feel the stubble grazing against my cheek, a reminder of just how close we were – my lips parted and he slipped his tongue between them, deepening our embrace, a low growl escaping from someplace deep inside of him, as though this was what he had been waiting for all along...

And then, all at once, he pulled back. I gasped, my mouth moving back to his almost on instinct for another embrace, but he stepped away from me, his hands dropping back down to his sides. I could feel every inch of me screaming for more, screaming for his touch, screaming for everything he could give me – but, judging by the look on his face, I knew he wasn’t willing to give it to me.

"You need to go back to your room," he told me, nodding towards the stairs.

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