Page 95 of A Dark Duet

He gives me a cute grin and he seems genuine in his invitation. I think about it for a minute and think of asking Giselle to come along with Nate. It would be harmless, and it would give me a sense of normalcy. I haven’t hung out with Giselle since Jaden and I broke up. She has invited me to go out with her and Nate, but I felt I wasn’t ready and needed to be alone. I also didn’t want her asking me where I worked or where I was staying. My apartment looks like Halloween, and she would just be worried about me.

“I’ll tell you what. If I can get my best friend to come along, I’ll go.”

He gives me a smile showing straight white teeth and his cheeks turn bright red.

“Really?”

“Yes, but you have to promise not to expect it to be more than just a couple of friends hanging out.”

“Got it,” he says. We exchange numbers and I let him know that I will call him if Giselle and Nate agree to come along.

Briana

There is a resounding knock coming from the front door of my apartment. I’m scanning my room to find the bat I keep just in case some crazy person knocks on my door. I am well aware that working at a dance club half naked can attract weirdos. Hence, the reason I like riding the motorcycle in case someone tries to follow me back home.

No one knows where I live, and I prefer to keep it that way. The knocking continues and I suddenly get nervous, I’m not expecting a visit from anyone. Taking a brave look through the peephole, I sigh in relief.

Opening the door, Jaden barges inside, crossing the threshold as I step back with a gasp with my hands gripping the bat. He raises a brow.

“Really? A bat.” He chuckles.

“What do you want?” I snap, walking back to my room.

“Well, for starters, answering the door dressed in nothing but a T-shirt and a bat is not very effective against an intruder.”

“I wouldn’t have answered if you were someone else. How did you find me? No one knows where I live. Not even Giselle.”

“I followed you. Obviously.”

He walks through my apartment into my bedroom and begins scanning my dark room with the black-painted walls, black furniture, and black sheets. Crossing my arms over my chest after putting down the bat, I face him standing at the foot of my bed.

“Black, huh?”

Rolling my eyes, I quirk a brow.

He smirks as he takes four steps closer, looking down at me. His presence and cologne permeate my bedroom, making my stomach jump in anticipation. Biting my lip, his eyes track my reaction and he lowers his head so that his lips are close to my ear.

“Come with me. I need to talk to you outside.”

“Not happening. Whatever you need to say, say it and get out.”

He thinks he can just come inside my apartment like nothing happened. Like he didn’t throw me out of his life over his fighting career and his massage therapist. He can go fuck himself.

He tilts his head to the side. “You were always so feisty,” he says, scratching his brow with his index finger. His full lips and angular jaw are so perfect you could draw a silhouette with the features of his face. He is breathtakingly masculine. All male, he could make any woman drop to her knees and worship him and his cock.

Let’s just say Jaden Cyprus’s cock is perfection. It takes me a while to fully adjust to his length and impressive girth. Just thinking about how he loved to take me against the shower wall of the old apartment has my nipples straining under my T-shirt at the memory.

He pushes me back so I’m lying over the sheets on the mattress, and my chest begins to rise and fall. “What are you doing?

“Trust me. I’m not here to hurt you. I would never hurt you, Brie. It’s me,” he says, hovering over me, holding himself with his elbows caging me. My legs open wide to accommodate him between my legs. He lowers his head as he positions himself between my thighs.

His gaze travels slowly up to my face as he leans close, his lips close to my ear and whispers, “I met with Ethan. He most likely has this place bugged. I can’t discuss more right now but I need you to trust me. Remember my promise to you?”

He moves his face so he can look me directly in my eyes. I nod my head, letting him know I do remember his promise that he would always protect me. My eyes flutter, holding back tears as I try to hold back a sob, remembering that promise he made while he was inside of me, making me his. Before he threw what we had, including my love, away.

Because he may have cared and wanted to protect me, but Jaden never told me he loved me. He never let me in. He closed a part of himself off from the world, including me, because I was never good enough to be his everything. It was just pity he felt for an abused woman. He just never knew how deep and sinister that abuse went. If he ever found out how bad and disgusting the things that they did to me when I was seventeen, I’m sure he would be disgusted with himself for even having sex with me.

In the three years I had to think about the way he ended things, I realized it was for the best. I’m broken and a man like Jaden doesn’t need to be with trailer trash like me. He should be with an heiress or a model. Someone with a good social status that doesn’t have freakish nightmares. He could never love someone like me. Sometimes, we end up becoming the thing we hate the most. In my case, I had to dance for money like a stripper and let every rumor I fought back home come true. I had to let a man touch me for money because I didn’t have a way to pay for my studies. I was afraid that I couldn’t pay for my classes in time, and they would drop me from the program I worked so hard to get into. I had to use my body to get myself out of the hole I put myself in.

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