Page 65 of Deep Throat Diva

“That I decided to look at some commercial property while I was out there looking for my dress. Bottom line, I’m not coming back to Jersey until my face is back to normal. The last thing I need is Jasper asking me a bunch of questions.” She opens her mouth to say something. I put my hand up, stopping her. “Don’t. He’s not to hear a word about any of this.”

“Alright already. Geesh. Trust me. He won’t hear it from me.”

I take a deep breath, placing my head back on the headrest. “Good. Now let’s enjoy our flight.”

“Jasper, baby?” I call out, walking through the door, dropping my bags in the middle of the foyer. Jasper’s Timbs are beside the sofa. When he doesn’t respond, I think he’s upstairs laying in bed with a hard dick in his hand, waiting on me to pounce on it. I start stripping off my clothes, going up the stairs to be fucked down by my man. By the time I reach the top of the stairs, I am only in my panties. I walk into the bedroom, look over at the bed. It is empty; still made. I look into the bathroom. Empty. I walk back downstairs. “Jasper, baby, where are you here?” Walk into the kitchen. Empty. Head downstairs to the basement. “Jasper?” He’s sitting on the sofa with his white-socked feet propped up on the table. “Jasper, baby, what are you doing down here?” Silence. He doesn’t turn to look at me; doesn’t acknowledge my presence. He stares straight ahead. “Jasper?” I call out to him, walking over to him. “What’s wrong?” I sit beside him. Reach out to touch him.

He glares at me, smacking my hand out of the way. “Don’t fuckin’ touch me, yo?”

I blink, blink again. Shocked at what he says to me, at him knocking my arm out of the way. “Excuse me? What in the hell’s wrong with you?”

“What the fuck’s been goin’ on around here, yo? Who’s this muthafucka who attacked you in the yard?” Before I can play stupid and ask him what he’s talking about, he tells me that my nosey-ass neighbor saw him outside as he was coming in and asked him if I ever called the police; if they ever found the nigga who attacked me. Tells him how he had to fight the nigga off of me and tried to chase him down, but he had gotten away. Jasper tells me he played it off like he already knew about the shit and told him no; that the police were still looking for the nigga.

My chest tightens and I feel myself getting dizzy as the color drains from my face. Alicia getting her ass beat in my shop immediately flashes through mind. I’ve seen Jasper heated many times, but I’ve never seen him in that I’m-about-to-black-the-fuck-out mode until now. And it’s scaring me. I stand, shocked and at a loss for words.

“I-I-uh…”

“Yo, don’t come at me wit’ all that fuckin’ stutterin’ bullshit, yo. I wanna know who the fuck put his muthafuckin’ hands on you and why the fuck you ain’t tell me about the shit?”

I scoot back from him, slowly stand up. “Jasper, just calm down for a minute, baby—”

He jumps up from his seat, and yanks me be the arm. “Don’t fuckin’ ’baby’ me, yo. I wanna know what the fuck’s been goin’ on, yo. So you better start talkin’ now before I break ya goddamn jaw, yo.”

His grip on my arm is so tight it feels like he’s about to rip it out of its socket. “Owwww, Jasper, you’re hurting me.”

“Bitch!” he shouts in my face. “I don’t give a fuck about hurting you. You cheating on me, yo?”

“No!” I shout back, hurt and shocked that he has called me out of my name. In all the years we’ve been together, he has never, ever, called me a bitch. As deserving as it might be, it cuts through me. Tears well up in my eyes.

“Then who the fuck is that nigga?”

“I don’t know.” And on cue, the waterworks begin and I start fast-talking as if my life depended on it. Shit, it does! “I swear to you, Jasper, I don’t know who he was or what he looked like. He had on a black mask. I was putting my key in the door and out of nowhere he jumped out of the bushes and grabbed me. He was trying to get me into the house, but I threw the house keys so he couldn’t. I started…yelling and screaming and fighting him. But he was too strong. He-he beat me, Jasper,” I sob uncontrollably. He loosens his grip. The fire in his eyes slowly starts to extinguish.

“I wanted to tell you, Jasper. But I was scared. I know you. And I know you woulda tried to track him down. I didn’t want you getting caught up in anything. I just want you home. I’m tired of being here by myself.” He lets go of my arm. I grab it, rubbing the spot where his hand was. “If Clint didn’t come home when he did, I don’t know what woulda happened to me.”

“Did you call the police?”

I nod. “Yes,” I lie, knowing if I tell him I hadn’t he would want to know why not. And there’s no answer I could give him that would make sense. “But they haven’t found him, yet. He wore gloves so there are no fingerprints anywhere.”

“Is this the same muhfucka who smashed out the shop’s window?”

”I don’t know. I don’t think so. One of the clients said he was a shorter, stocky dude. This one was over six feet, and built more like a basketball player.”

“This shit ain’t makin’ no muthafuckin’ sense. All of a sudden you got mu

hfuckas smashin’ in windows and tryna snatch you up ’n shit.”

“I think it’s two separate situations; completely unrelated. Niggas wilding out doing dumb shit, that’s all. You know these niggas are crazy now.”

“Well, if you know that, then where the fuck was you comin’ from at one in the goddam mornin’, yo?” I open my mouth to speak, but he cuts in, narrowing his eyes at me. “Before you open ya muthafuckin’ mouth to say some dumb shit, yo, you better think about what the fuck you gonna say ’cause I’ma fuck you up if you don’t.”

“I had cramps really bad and had to go out to the store to pick up a bottle of Excedrin and some tampons ’cause I was all out.” The way he’s looking at me I can tell he’s trying to figure out if he should believe the lies that have fallen out of my mouth or not. My tears continue to fall rapidly and unchecked. They’re more real now than they were earlier. Fear and guilt fuel them. “Jasper, have I ever given you reason to doubt anything I’ve said to you? Have I ever played you?”

He narrows his eyes again. His jaw relaxes. “Nah, yo.”

“Then why would I start now? We have too much invested for me to go there with you.”

“That don’t mean shit, yo. There’s a first time for e’erything.”

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