Page 13 of Jamison's Story

I can’t stop the little laugh the bubbles up hearing that and my brow lifts at him curiously.

“What? Oh, you think that’s hypocritical of me since I want to sleep with his sister more than I want food to eat or air to breathe?” he teases, and I blush furiously at the look in his eyes. “Well, the difference is, I don’t fool around, never have, never will. I’m looking for one woman and one woman only to be in my bed, and that woman, will carry my name, my commitment to her for life.”

“Are you…no, you can’t…Jamison?” I stumble through the words, not sure I can even begin to comprehend them right this minute.

“At our sixteenth birthday party, all of my friends were talking about how they wanted to do my sister. I could have thrown the lot of them through a window for daring to say that, but then I realized that I’d been thinking about some of the girls in our grade similarly and it hit me that I was being a jerk for doing it. That any of them could have, maybe not a twin brother, but a brother that would do to me what I’d do to any guy that touched my sister, tried to talk her into bed with them because they just wanted sex. It stopped me, made me think of what our dad said to us boys about sex, and I told myself to wait. To finish high school first and then if I met someone in college or afterwards, then I’d reevaluate things,” he says, shocking me entirely. “Only most of the girls I met saw money signs when they looked at me, rather than me, and I dated less and less. Being an apprentice takes up a lot of time, so I focused on work and stopped dating. I haven’t met anyone that’s made me change my mind, made me even want to go out on a date, until I saw you, Nat. One look and I knew you were mine, meant to be mine, and I’d do whatever it took to prove to you that you could feel the same.”

“You’re seriously saying that you’re…a virgin,” I get out, staring into his gorgeous blue-grey eyes that make me melt.

“Yes, baby, I’m a virgin. The only one that’s ever touched my cock is me. Other than in movies, and I don’t mean porn, because it didn’t feel right to watch it if my sister was in the room next to mine,” he adds making me giggle slightly, “I’ve never seen a woman naked until you yesterday. Never touched a girl over or under their clothes as well.”

“You are seriously too good to be true Jamison Cartwright.”

“I’m completely real, baby girl, and it’s all for you. I promise,” he says, dropping a kiss onto my lips before finishing up the egg mixture.

“Thank you,” I whisper, giving him a kiss when we’re sitting at the table.

“You don’t have to thank me for feeding you Nat. As your man, it’s my job to make sure you have food, are taken care of,” he adds, and I smile even more.

“My dad always demanded my mom thank him when he cooked for us,” I admit after a bite that makes me moan with how delicious it is. “If she didn’t, he’d get mad, storm out, and we’d hear about it for days. It wasn’t until this stuff with Craig and talking to the therapist that I realized how toxic that was, but this…it’s really sweet that you cooked it for us.”

“Get used to it because while I may not be the best at making dinner, I am pretty good with breakfast stuff. Probably because I live alone and unless you get take-out every morning, it’s not as easy to find others to join you for that meal as it is for lunch or dinner. I feel weird if I’m eating somewhere alone, probably because growing up I was never alone and even in school, Jasmine and I ate together all the time. So I make breakfast pretty much every morning before I go to work, and I like variety, so I know how to make pretty much everything breakfast related. The only thing I don’t like is poached eggs,” he adds, his nose wrinkling and god it’s so hot.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had one so not an issue there,” I promise. “I like the idea of having breakfast with you every day. At school, I’d end up sitting alone at a table because most of the people I knew didn’t get up or have classes at the same time. It’d be nice not to be alone first thing in the morning.”

“It will be, baby,” he agrees, giving me a soft kiss. His eyes grow more serious, and I sigh hearing his next words, “What did you mean by Nick feeling guilty about the accident?”

“He and my dad were fighting that evening. I remember hearing Nick tell him to go to hell and a door slamming. He wasn’t home by nine when I went to bed and in the morning, I woke up to find my sister’s boyfriend and his mom in the house with her. I guess when Nick wasn’t home by midnight, my mom made my dad go out to look for him with her. They hadn’t gotten Nanci or Nick cell phones even though they were seventeen and eighteen, so they couldn’t just call him,” I explain, seeing the understanding in his eyes of the rest without having to say it.

“They were out looking for Nick when the accident happened.”

“Yeah, he was fine. Mike’s dad found him at his friend Levi’s place, brought him home just after I woke up, and they all told me that Mom and Dad were in an accident that night, were dead. Mike’s parents had us all pack a bag and we went back to their place. We never spent the night at our house again. I think that’s also why Nick didn’t fight Mike’s parents when they said they would look after Nanci and me so he could still go to State. I think he thought if I lived with him I’d blame him more, but honestly, I don’t…never did. They could have called around, Mom knew all of his friends’ numbers, rather than go out, but…”

“But what, baby?” he asks pulling my face back up to his.

“I think they were probably fighting, and she wanted to be out of the house, so they didn’t wake me up doing it again,” I admit. “Some of their fights got really loud, I’d wake easily and then couldn’t get back to sleep. Usually I’d end up in bed with them, and when that happened, they were so nice and loving. I don’t know how Nanci came out so unscathed by things really. She and Mike would occasionally disagree, but they never fought fought. They didn’t raise their voices or scream at each other. I used to think that they didn’t really love each other, didn’t have any passion because they seemed so tame compared to my parents, but now…after everything with Craig, I’d give anything to feel like this every day.”

“Like what, Nat?” he asks lifting my chin up to see him better.

“Comfortable, secure,” I offer as I bite my lip, trying to explain it. “You kiss me, and it floods me with heat that those peppers never could. You touch me and wake everything within me. Then you add onto it by saying you want to feed me, take care of me, and I can’t begin to not want that. Even last night when you were pushing me to tell you about Craig, you never once raised your voice or got mad at me. Never threatened me that you’d walk away if I didn’t tell you, answer you…it’s hard to believe I could have love and passion without anger and violence.”

“Believe it, baby girl, because even if I get angry, I can promise it’ll never be at you. It might be at a situation I don’t like or agree with, like when you were scared to tell me the truth about Craig. I hated that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me. Even knowing we just met, I wanted you to trust me to make it better, which wasn’t fair to you, but I’d never take it out on you. Especially now, knowing the type of relationship you had modeled, mixed with what I’m guessing is your brother and sister never really explaining that it wasn’t normal to fight, verbally and especially not physically when you were old enough to start dating,” he says, and I nod. “I will love you, emotionally and physically with every ounce of my being, but it will never come from a place of violence or ultimatums. I will never try to use my emotions or yours to guilt you into doing something you don’t want, I swear.”

“Thank you,” I whisper, stopping him when it looks like he’s about to tell me to stop doing it again. “You don’t know how good it feels to have someone promise you kindness. Time to come to terms with what’s happening, when my life has always seemed to revolve around having to accept things. Not having a say in anything that happens. I need you to know what that means to me, but I honestly don’t have the words to express it other than by saying thank you right now.”

“I’ve got you, always, know that. Even if it takes you longer than just getting Craig dealt with to come to terms with us, I’m not going to leave you. Even if you won’t let me give you my last name in the coming year, I still won’t. I can’t, because I know enough for both of us that this is meant to be, we are meant to be, and I’m never going to give up on it, okay?”

“Yeah,” I sigh, letting him hold me until his phone goes off with a message, saying Detective Taylor and Kayla are ten minutes away.

Chapter 8

Jamison

I pull Natalie into my side as we sit down, Kayla taking the end of the couch, leaving the chair for Detective Taylor. The smile on Kayla’s face says she sees more than she said when I introduced them, but I’m glad she’s keeping it to herself for now.

Hearing about Natalie’s parents’ relationship, I understand how she ended up in this situation with Craig. Hell, it makes me even prouder that she stood up for herself, saw that he was the problem and broke up with him. She might think Nanci and Mike’s relationship didn’t give her anything, but deep down I know it did. Showed her that you didn’t have to be in a constant cycle of abuse, even if it was just verbal.

I never understood the guys and girls at school that would fight, break-up, then make-up all in the span of a day. Probably because Mom and Dad never really fought. Oh, they had disagreements over the years, but it was honestly on minor things. Nine times out of ten it was also due to Dad’s reaction to some guy hitting on her or eyeing her. Occasionally on what to do with one of us if we were in trouble for some stupid reason. Those times, they sat down and got the full story from us, then they discussed things between one another before they’d let us know what they were going to do.

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