Page 55 of Signature Of You

He trailed down the steps and the short distance across the grass, stopping a few inches from me. “Don’t do that.”

My brows pinched as I peered up. The sun reflected behind him, but Jaah’s body acted as a shield, protecting me from the intense blaze. “Do what?”

“Act like you don’t know how to be around me or that you’re uncomfortable.”

“I am uncomfortable.” I stepped around him, heading to the porch and climbing the three stairs until I reached the deck and settled on the edge.

My feet rested on the step below me. After tossing my gloves beside me I pushed my arms between my knees and stared out into the yard until I felt him approach. He didn’t climb the stairs to join me, only leaned his back against the wood railing, propping one foot on the last step.

“So you’re uncomfortable with me now?” His eyes traveled over my body, lingering in places that communicated his thoughts. He’d seen me naked, touched every inch of me, but now I was uncomfortable.

“I’m sure you know why?”

Our eyes met. Mine weary, his blank and unreadable which made me more uncomfortable.

“Which is why we need to talk.” His voice was gruff with a sharp edge to it.

“There’s nothing I can tell you that you don’t already know. I’m sure you read those articles.”

“One but it didn’t give me what I needed.”

“What do you need, Jaah? All the sordid details? The reasons why? I’m not giving you or anyone else that satisfaction.”

“That’s not what I need, Cadence.”

“Then what do you need because there’s not much else.”

“The truth. I want answers yeah, but I want the truth and I’m not going to find it reading those fucking articles. I’m here asking you. I want you to tell me what they’re leaving out. What they don’t want people to know. The truth.”

I sucked in a sharp breath and released it slowly. “I don’t want to go back there. It doesn’t matter. Not to you or anyone else.”

“It matters to me and you don’t have to tell me everything but if you want to you can. I just want to know what they did to you.”

I cringed with the memories of what they had done. That night had been blocked for so long it felt like a distant memory, an urban legend of sorts.

But every time I allowed myself to travel back to that night it felt real again. And it hurt because I couldn’t wipe it clean.

“I was at an industry party and drank too much. Things got out of control and things happened. There are plenty of videos out there if you want to see.”

“I’ve seen one and I know that dead, lost look in your eyes wasn’t from drinking too much. It was more. You were…”

“High, zoomed up. Yeah I was but not because it’s what I do or what I wanted. I don’t do drugs. Never touched the stuff but that night plenty of them ended up in my system. And if I’m being honest I can’t tell you what happened that night. I don’t remember. There are only small flashes of me with them…” I kept my eyes fastened to his. “There was more than one. I don’t remember most of it but things happened. If I didn’t remember my body did.”

Frustration and raging violence consumed every line of his expression. So angry.

“They assaulted you.”

“According to everyone that was there, no one forced me to do anything.”

“That’s not what I fucking asked. I don’t give a damn what lies they’re telling about that night. I said I want the truth. What’s the truth, Cadence?”

“I never agreed to anything and if I did, I wasn’t in the right space to do so.” I looked away until he called my name.

“And you didn’t fight because you knew no one would believe you.”

“You’ve seen what they said about me. Some of it’s true, but most of it isn’t.”

“What part is true?”

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