Page 38 of Tempted

Chapter Thirteen

“Why the long face gorgeous?” Jason stared at Jasmine over the rim of his coffee mug.

Jasmine placed her cup down with a sigh, abandoning all pretense of drinking her tea. “I guess I have a lot on my mind.” That was an understatement, but she didn’t want to burden him with her problems. Over the past few weeks, Jason had become someone she considered a friend.

Between her job and her visits to Star, she barely managed to squeeze time in to sit for his painting, but she discovered she liked Jason very much. He was funny, warm, kind, and Jasmine couldn’t remember the last time she’d ever felt she could relax the way she did with him. Jason had come into her life at a time when she desperately needed a friend and she was glad to know him, but she wondered if he’d be so nice if he knew everything about her.

He raised a dark brow, his green eyes flashing with concern. “Do you want to talk about it?”

She circled the rim of her cup with her index finger to give herself something to do. Not making eye contact with him, Jasmine shook her head. “No. There’s really nothing to tell.”

“Obviously there is, or you wouldn’tlook so glum. You might as well tell me, because I’ll keep asking until you do?” He grinned.

“You won’t give up will you?”

“Nope,” he said with emphasis on the ‘p’.

“I don’t want to unload all my issues on you.”

“It’s not like I don’t have an ulterior motive for you to open up. As long as you continue to look sad, I can’t paint you, so I’m hoping if we talk you can get whatever it is off your chest so I’ll get some work done.”

She smiled with a shake of her head. “Ah, I see. Okay Sigmund Freud. What do you want to know?”

“Obviously, I’d like to find out what’s bothering you. I don’t know what it is, Jasmine, but ever since I’ve met you, there’s been this hint of sadness about you, but today it’s much more prevalent, not to mention the bags under your eyes.”

“Gee, thanks,” Jasmine muttered.

“I didn’t say it to be unkind, but I’m guessing it’s from a lack of sleep, right?”Jason reached across the table and took her hand in his. “Please. Whatever it is, you’ll feel better when you share.”

The gentle persuasion of his tone was her undoing. A sob tore from her throat. Then another. And another.

Jason jumped out of his seat and the next thing she knew, Jasmine was being hustled out the coffee shop. He escorted her to his car where she continued to cry as he rocked her back and forth in his arms for several more minutes.

Stroking the back of her head, Jason murmured words of comfort in her ear. “It’s okay. Let it all out.”

Once the tears subsided to sniffles, and Jasmine regained her ability to speak, she pulled herself out of his embrace with a sniff. “I’m sorry. I just made a fool of myself didn’t I?”

He shook his head. “Not at all. We all need a good cry sometime.”

Before she could stop herself she blurted out the first words that popped into her mind. “I was in prison for 18 month for 1st degree assault and child endangerment.”

Jason froze. Jasmine knew how that must have sounded, but there was no way to soften it. In the eyes of the law she was a criminal.

“Now you hate me don’t you? I’ll understand if you don’t want to use me for your painting anymore.”

Jason remained silent.

Jasmine closed her eyes against the censure she knew would soon appear on his face. He was her one ally and to lose him now would hurt. “I’ve said too much. Look, I’ll get out of here. You don’t have to take me home.” When she placed her hand on the door handle to get out of the car, he grasped her shoulder.

“Don’t go.”

“I think it would be best.”

“Why?”

“Because you want me to.”

“I never said that, Jasmine. I’m just shocked. I mean, I certainly wasn’t expecting to hear you’ve been in prison at least not for a violent crime or any other offense for that matter. But now that you’ve blurted it out, you may as well tell me everything, because you don’t really strike me as the assaulting type.”

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