Page 25 of Fight for You
As if I brought him out of dark shadows, his head turned in a flash.
I jumped.
“I’m sorry, Jordyn.” He stood on his feet so quickly that I had to force myself not to jump again.Remind me not to get on his bad side. Not a counterattack in the world could save me. He muttered, “I don’t … I don’t murder.”
“Jamie, what are you talking about? The man’s not dead.”
A crack sounded between us. He went through each knuckle.
“That’s a bad habit,” I told him, taking his hands into mine. I lifted his fingers to my mouth and kissed each knuckle individually. Just when I placed a finger to my lips to pop it in, Jamie pulled away.
His voice was gruff. “I don’t. We can’t.”
“Seems to me you don’t do a lot of things. You don’t murder. Which is fine. I understand the difference between killing a man to defend me or you.”
Jamie seemed stuck, like he was on another planet. I pulled out of my bra. Maybe that was the disconnect between us? As a fellow assault victim, the sight of my clothing could’ve triggered him. Though the wet bite marks had long faded during our walk home, he might still see that.Good thing the homeless guy’s bite didn’t leave a bruise. My heart hurt for Jamie. Yes. More for him than me. I was used to it. I slipped out of my running shorts. Then I glanced down at myself—everything was on display, and I mean everything—and then looked him in the eye.
The issue was that he lookedmein the eye.Okay, so where are we? “You don’t murder. The guy’s probably licking his wounds in that alley still. But what’s this otherdon’t? What do you mean ‘we can’t’?”
“I murdered a man when I was fifteen. I used a baseball bat. He’d snuck on my—MacKenzie land. Had beef with Brody’s girlfriend. Brody and Justice are married now.” Jamie shook his head as if realizing that fact was irrelevant. “I thought he was there for me. To take me back.” Jamie scrubbed a hand over a jaw I didn’tmind nibbling on. “Couldn’t go back. Didn’t feel bad about that. But when I was sixteen. …”
My stomach knotted. Had he killed someone else?
“The guy’s name was Hector. He was a landscaper in Barstow. I stole his truck. Pretended that I’d become a landscaper to cut the lawn at Willow’s place. Her sister’s home. Ended up building a swing set in the middle of the night. Scared Willow.” Jamie took a deep breath. “I wanted to keep Camdyn, my brother, from her. Protect her. Protect the baby. Hector”—his eyes darkened with guilt—“he was old, didn’t have any family.”
My head tilted.Willow?A sister-in-law? As greedy as I was for Jamie, this wasn’t the conversation I wanted to discuss. But he deserved my full attention.
“It doesn’t justify my actions, but I wasn’t in a good place.”
The ache in my chest bloomed. Jamie was broken, like me, and just wanted to protect Willow’s baby. In Jamie’s world, playgrounds were dangerous.
“I promised my family and myself that I would be more accountable from that day on,” he murmured, reaching for a towel and handing it over.
I took it, meeting his gaze—those beautiful turquoise eyes drowning in pain. But I saw past the guilt.
Pride surged in me.
I dropped the towel like I needed to reclaim something. Control, maybe? I didn’t like this part—where we actually saw each other. Where we cared. Because then he’d say goodbye, and I wouldn’t be ready for that.
I stepped into the tub and slid down until the water wrapped me the way I imagined Jamie’s powerful arms could. A moan escaped my lips. This time, I wasn’t trying to tempt the saint. Instead, I reveled in how gentle the lavender-and-vetiver-scented water soothed my skin—skin that had been used to enact too many fetishes for too many men. Waterlapped my collarbone as I peered up at the Marine I craved with all of me.
“You could’ve just had all this.” I smirked as if it didn’t cost me everything to tease him. But I guess the smirk also offered him a way tobowout of the room. If he … wanted to.
“You’re beautiful.” Jamie laughed softly. “I’ve just never been sexually attracted to anyone. Ever.”
I blinked. “Oh?” The air between us thickened. Not uncomfortable, just honest.
Jamie didn’t look away. He waited.
I swallowed and let his truth sink into my spirit like a stone in a still pond. “Thank you for your honesty. Takes guts. Maybe I choose to believe that means you—being asexual—haven’t met someone whose mind you want to lose yourself in yet.”
Jamie tilted his head. “I don’t think that’s what it means.”
“Okay, listen,”—I offered a small smile—“maybe my track record with men doesn’t make me the best person to speak on this, but I do read a lot. Like a book junkie.”
“You stole my iPad—that I conveniently left out—five weeks ago. We weren’t talking then, so I assumed it was best not to offer. Heh. Don’t think I don’t know about the ebook purchases.” He laughed gently. “I’m listening.”
“You know about that?”Dang. My palm planted against my forehead.No wonder it was so easy. He’d used the same code for my birthday for the iPad. I’d plugged in the email address I had created when Katlego allowed me certain freedoms no one else had. I’d already gotten the emailed clean bill of health from the clinic I went to on my first day free.
