Page 90 of Two Chambered Heart

“Don’t be ridiculous, I’m not putting a tampon in my nose.”

She ignored him. “I saw it in a movie. It really works. The first time my ex hit me in the face, I had a terrible nosebleed, so I tried the tampon trick and voila, sopped up all the blood. Brilliant, really.”

She fidgeted with the machine, completely oblivious to the impact that her causal mention of domestic abuse had on Jason. He felt a surge of rage towards the man coward enough to hit his girlfriend. “See, this is why we need women’s health reform. Why the fuck should I have to carry change around to access a tampon? Who even has change anymore, anyway? It’s so fucked that companies can make millions on periods.”

She pulled a bobby pin from her hair, exasperated, and started picking the lock on the metal compartment. She bit her lip, brows creased in concentration and ear pressed up against the thing. When the lock clicked, she grinned, pulling it open and getting a tampon out.

“Super plus?” she laughed.

“I’d hate to see nostrils as big as a vagina that needs super plus.”

“Hey! I use super plus on heavy days, and your brother says I have a perfect pussy. Would you disagree?” she asked with mock sweetness.

Jason raked his gaze over her silver-clad body, all toned muscle and tanned skin, and she shivered under his attention. Then he looked up into her luminous eyes, freckles almost hidden under her makeup. He knew the game she wanted to play. They’d been going back and forth for a while now, but he wasn’t in the mood. He was stressed and already feeling too exposed. Maybe he was as bad as her ex.

“Can’t remember,” he shrugged.

“Fine. Lucky for you, they have small ones. Here.” She lobbed the paper-wrapped tampon at his head, and he caught it out of the air, ripping the package open. He went to push the cotton out of the applicator, but she stopped him.

“You do that once it's up to your nose, idiot.” He pulled his hand away from her as she made to take it from him.

“Stop fussing. That’s Kay’s job.” He lifted the tampon back to his nose and did what she’d said.

“He is kind of a mother hen, isn’t he?” she grinned.

“He’s the only reason I’m still alive.”

She gathered the bloody napkin and paper towels and threw them in the trash bin. “He says the same thing about you.”

Jason didn’t have a response for her. He hadn’t kept anyone alive. Kayden had kept himself alive, and Jason had killed their sister. He turned and looked at himself in the mirror. He did look like an idiot, the tampon hanging half out of his nose with the string dangling.

She crept up behind him in his reflection.

“I feel like a clown,” Corey said, looking at herself.

Jason caught her eye in the mirror. “Why?”

“All this makeup, I feel ridiculous. I never wear this much.”

“You look fine.” She looked more than fine.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re being an asshole tonight.”

For some reason, it was easier to hold her gaze with the mirror between them. “I’m not being an asshole, sweetheart. Iaman asshole.”

“No, as much as you like to pretend, that’s not actually who you are. Assholes don’t donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to women’s health organizations with zero self-interest.”

“Don’t delude yourself by adding morality to actions that have none.”

“I’ve seen enough of you to know you aren’t a villain, Jase.”

A dark laugh escaped him at her words. She was looking at him earnestly, still holding his eyes, cheeks heated in anger or from alcohol, he didn’t know. But she was wrong.

He closed his eyes and shook his head, breaking their connection. He poked at the cotton in his nose. It felt heavier, more saturated.

“What’s wrong?” she tried, voice softer.

“Nothing.” He needed her to stop prodding him or he was going to really bite back.

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