Page 68 of Savage

I buried his bullshit as I needed to establish what the hell was going on with Dominic. As I said, after sleeping with Jaxon, I’d already decided to end things, but I had a feeling Dominic was going to beat me to it.

I leaned back against the kitchen counter and waited for him to spill whatever beans he had been saving up.

After the usual niceties of how was your trip et cetera, Dominic confessed and explained that he’d met someone in Paris. I didn’t raise the subject of the photographer who was making a nuisance of himself with the models. At that point, I knew it was him. I remembered how he badgered me for months before I’d finally agreed to go on a date with him. Dominic just didn’t like the word no.

The model's name was Mia and she lived in Kings Lynn. I couldn’t blame him really as he’d no doubt been starved of affection due to me not putting out before he went away.

Once Dominic had left, I felt a sense of loneliness and Jaxon made this worse when I bumped into him on the stairs. He was so distant and spoke to me without even looking at me. “We’re having a party at the weekend. Loverboy can come if you want.” I hated that he suggested I bring Dominic without any trace of remorse. Like he didn’t give a shit.

I explained that we were no longer together which stopped him in his tracks and forced him to turn and look down at me. His face was a blank page.

“I hope you didn’t end things with him because of me,” Jaxon stated in an unfriendly voice. Talk about twisting the knife. Hadn’t what we’d shared meant anything to him?

I lifted my chin. “No. It had nothing to do with you,” I muttered. The words fell between us like barbed wire.

“Good. I’m glad we’re on the same page,” Jaxon said as he turned away. I felt like my heart had been ripped out and was left there on the stairs to bleed out.

Confused didn’t even touch the sides.

I rolled his words around my thoughts. What fucking page was that?

*****

After the discussion with my mother about my father, Daisy had been at an all-time low. I didn’t blame myself for conjuring up bad memories as things had needed to be said.

To soothe the blow, Marcus made a snap decision to take her away again. He owned a holiday cottage in Sheringham by the sea and they had started to spend quite a bit of time there. Daisy said she’d be gone from Friday until Monday, which was probably why the boys had decided to throw a party.

It didn’t overly bother me that I appeared to be seeing less of my mother as it provided me with more opportunity to speak with Jaxon without disapproving looks. Not that I had the chance over the last couple of days, we were like ships in the night. I felt like he was avoiding me.

At the end of the day, my promise about nothing going on between me and my stepbrother was now a lie. Did I feel guilty about that? No. Didn’t they say a woman’s heart is a deep ocean or some shit like that? After the Dominic incident and Jaxon’s last words, mine felt like it had been mauled by a dog. His comment about us being on the same page made no sense to me at all and I hadn’t had the chance to ask him to clarify what he’d meant.

Mum and Marcus left on Friday night after dinner and I spent most of that evening in my room with my nose in a book.

On the Saturday, Jaxon’s music woke me. I swear it was the loudest he had ever had it. Had he moved his speakers out into the hallway, it wouldn’t have surprised me. As usual angry rock music.

When I went down for a late breakfast, I bumped into Chris in the kitchen and he explained that the party would be held in the house due to the weather forecasting rain. Without appearing overly interested, I asked where Jaxon was and Chris said he’d left for the cash and carry to fetch the booze.

I felt like shit, I’m not going to lie. Was Jaxon avoiding me now that we’d slept together? It certainly felt that way but I refused to be the one to make the first move.

At the end of the day, if he wanted to play it that way, I too could pretend nothing had happened between us.

On Saturday afternoon, I did what any other spurned female would do, I spent hours choosing my sluttiest outfit to wear to the party. I also invited Melody as I needed backup, strength in numbers and all that. Most people there would be Jaxon’s mates or colleagues, so I needed someone to talk to. I wondered if the McKenna boys would be there and I texted Amy, but she knew nothing about the party. I invited her of course but she politely declined. Drat, it would have been helpful to have two wingmen, especially one like Amy who took no shit from anyone.

When Melody arrived, we both got ready in my room. I was itching to tell her I’d had sex with Jaxon but the timing felt off.

As we did our make-up and changed, I could hear people arriving and music had been blaring from downstairs for at least the past hour.

Melody wore a fitted black dress and I wore a short denim skirt and a black slouch off-the-shoulder jumper. We both wore toe-post sandals and had painted our toes red. Melody kept asking me questions about Chris and it started to annoy me, the thought of someone else having a love life made me green with envy. Not nice of me I know but what can I say in my defence? I was going through a torturous phase of rejection which had affected my usual pleasant demeanour.

We eventually went downstairs and into the kitchen. It was rammed full of strangers but thankfully I did see a few people I knew. We mingled well and greeted the guests; the boys outweighed the girls thank goodness. I was relieved by that as if I saw Jaxon flirting with someone else, I’d probably burst into tears. Thankfully that skank Lexi with her magic mouth was nowhere to be seen.

I felt so insecure after Jaxon’s silent treatment and didn’t know where I stood. Was I his arch-nemesis stepsister again or had we moved forward into something else? I dismissed that annoying pang of longing.

Melody and I grabbed a couple of beers from the kitchen and went into the main room. Again, there were people dotted everywhere and the connecting doors were open which made the living room into once huge space. The music bled in through an assortment of voices; laughing, shouting and general chit-chat.

A fine film of smoke was in the air, suggesting someone was either vaping or smoking. I was surprised Chris had allowed it, as he hated both habits with a vengeance.

As Melody and I stood there, I witnessed several lingering looks from a group of boys and I started to get my confidence back.

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