Page 98 of Forbidden Romeo

He tries to lean in close as he passes, but I take a long stride away from him and point him to the seating area. Jack merely shrugs and follows his instructions. It takes me a minute to secure the room back up with all the locks again. Undoing them hadn’t seemed as hard.

“Are you okay?” Jack asks.

I turn to see him watching me quite carefully—despite the fact he’s swaying a little in his seat on the couch.

“I thought you were Padraic,” I snap.

“Pffft… No, I’m not Padraic. I’m protecting you from Padraic.”

I walk over to the couch slowly but stay a good meter away from him. “Well, you did an excellent job of protecting me tonight.”

“Did something happen?” he asks.

I falter, “No, but–”

“Then we’re good!”

The anger I feel rising inside of me begins to peak. I grab a glass from the side table and march into the bathroom to cool down.

What the hell is he playing at? There are too many things at stake for Jack to run off to drink himself stupid like this. How the hell am I supposed to survive this situation if this is what he’s like?

I feel like a prize idiot. Waltzing into this entire situation, believing that the sweet, romantic, possessive, charming man I met at the theater could maybe fall in love with me. That despite all odds, we could make it through this together. How could I be so stupid?

I grab a box of pills from the medicine cabinet. No, from now on, I’m looking afterme.There’s no use relying on Jack when he keeps disappointing me at every hurdle.

With my newfound resolve, I storm back into the room.

“Drink this, take this,” I say, dropping the pills and a glass of water into his hand. Jack seems to think I want to hold them, so he reaches for me. I snatch my hands away quickly. “... and don’t fucking touch me.”

Jack offers me a mock salute. “Aye, aye, captain.”

I restrain myself until he’s swallowed all the pills before trying to question him again. “Where have you been?”

“Here and there. Oh! Spoke to Padraic about the fight.” He continues drinking as if that isn’t vital information.

“And?” I press.

“No getting out of it, I’m afraid. I even begged him, you know, didn’t want you to deal with all this on your own,” he says a little wearily. “Then there was this whole spiel about how I pushed him to do it and how I need to learn some respect and how he’ll kill you if I don’t play his stupid little games.”

What? “What?”

Jack just keeps on sipping. “I think he thinks I like you, you know.”

My mouth opens and closes a few times before I finally shake myself into an actual response. “It seems there were a few of us suffering under that misapprehension.”

“Don’t be like that,” Jack whines. “Can’t we just go to bed?”

I stare at him in disbelief. “You’re on the couch or the bathtub. I do not care which.”

“Chroí, please.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“I’m sorry if I’ve upset you.”

“You just told me Padraic threatened to kill me! How do you think I feel?”

“Tell me about it,” Jack says, downing the rest of the water and holding it up pensively. “I think I need to be soberer for this conversation.”

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