Page 38 of Consequences

“I’ve never had anyone care about where I am or who I’m with. Not even growing up. I could have been abducted or joined the circus, and I don’t know that my parents would have even noticed.”

The sadness in her tone hits Undertaker deep in his chest, and he hates how neglected she’s been. “It’s not as glamorous as you seem to think.”

“I want someone who doesn’t care that I can eat a medium sub and a bag of chips. Someone who doesn’t look disgusted when I order a burger instead of a salad for dinner, and who doesn’t mind that I have zero desire to run on a treadmill for hours a day to achieve some perfect figure.”

Shaking his head, he rubs a hand down his face. “You’re barely legal to drink. I’m thirty-eight. Do you realize I was sixteen the year you were born?”

“And I’ve basically been on my own since I was eight. Trust me, I don’t have much in common with people my own age.”

“Jamie—”

“You don’t find me attractive enough to date,” she says and backs up. “That’s okay if that’s what it is. I just thought that… Never mind. You were really kind, and I think I may have mistook your kindness to mean something more.”

He reaches out to take her hand, but she moves out of his grasp. He doesn’t know what to say.

“Don’t worry about it,” she answers as though he voiced the thought aloud. “It happens enough that I can bounce back pretty easily. Just… Maybe we can pretend I didn’t say anything?”

Fuck!“It’s not that,” he calls as she walks towards her car. The car he knows she has because he’s kept tabs on her.

“You like skinnier girls, don’t you? You think I’m pretty enough, but I’m not someone you want to take to bed. I get it.”

“It has nothing to do with you. You’re sexy, and if things were different, I’d pursue this. You. But you don’t understand what being with me means. A relationship with me isn’t glamorous. It’s not always fun.”

Jamie turns and tilts her head. “What do you mean?”

Running his tongue over his lips, he sighs and walks closer to her so he’s not shouting. “I mean it when I say I’m a possessive, obsessed asshole in relationships. There’s this whole psychological thing that the army shrink told me about, but basically, there’s no changing me. I’m not adaptable in a relationship.”

Smirking, she looks up at him with big, doe eyes. “I want to know what you mean. I have this idea, but I would like to learn it firsthand.”

“You say that now—”

“I want to know what being someone’s entire world feels like,” she says. “I’ve been invisible for so long, and when you look at me, it feels different. I’ve waited my whole life for someone to just glance at me the way you look at me.”

He snorts. “Your whole life? Baby doll, you’re only twenty-two. You have plenty more life to experience.”

“I got myself to and from school, making my own lunches, when my dad left. I did my own laundry, got my own groceries from the corner store, and cooked my own meals. Every night, I came home to an empty house, made myself dinner, didmy homework, brushed my teeth, and put myself to bed. I’m basically a forty-year-old at this point.”

Laughing at her comment, Undertaker reaches out and runs his hand over her hair before he can stop himself. “Before you think you’re ready for this, I think I should explain a few things. Others have thought it sounded great, too, but it quickly changes when it becomes real.”

“Explain it to me.”

Her hand reaches out and rests along his side, and he sucks in a breath at the touch. She’s so close to the area of his body he’d love her touch, but he can’t let her. Not yet.

“You’ll basically lose your independence. If I call, I need you to answer or call back within five minutes. I get to pick your friends. When you’re my world, I expect to be yours as well. There’s just us and the club. No one else.”

“I don’t really have a lot of friends, so that’s not quite the threat you think it is.”

“Books and TV make it sound sexy, but the truth is, it’s a compulsive need for me to be in control. To know where you are because I have to know you’re okay and not with anyone you shouldn’t be. I’m what many would call a walking red flag.”

Her tongue slips out and runs along her bottom lip as she steps even closer to him. “I don’t think it’s a red flag for me. I think I can handle it. And the reason I believe that is because I know that I’ve never felt the way I do when I’m near you. It’s intense and new. Something no one has ever made me feel before.”

“And what’s that?”

“Safe,” she whispers.

Just like that, she found his weakness, and he pulls her to him, kissing her. Hands on her face, he deepens the kiss and toys with the tongue that taunted him just seconds before. He tastes her, and he fucking loves it. Jamie and gin.

Her arms wrap around his neck, and he lifts her up, moaning as she wraps her legs around his waist.

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