Page 33 of The Leader

When she returned to the living room, Tommie gave her a knowing smirk.

“Don’t even,” she warned him.

He held up his hands in defense. “Sure, these lips are sealed. Speaking of lips, yours are a bit, um…red and puffy. Maybe you should put some ice on them.”

She threw a magic marker at his head, making him laugh. She plopped down on the couch next to him and grabbed her phone from the coffee table.

“So, you got married, huh? And didn’t even invite me. I’m hurt.” There were a thousand questions in his eyes and she couldn’t blame him.

“It was a kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing,” she said, not ready to tell him yet about the conditions of her marriage. “I promise to tell you all about it. Later.”

He cocked a pierced eyebrow. “Kind of like you still have to explain disappearing to Europe all of a sudden?”

“You don’t know the half of it,” she grumbled, while making another attempt to reach her sister.

“Everything okay?” Tommie looked concerned, probably mimicking her own face.

“It’s Carmen. I haven’t seen her in weeks and can’t get a hold of her. Other than a few texts now and then, that is. I know something’s up with her. In fact, I think”—it wasn’t easy to say this—“that she’s being abused by her husband. A husband who I caught with another woman on my wedding day.”

Tommie winced. “Sounds like a classy guy.”

“I just don’t understand why she stays with him. Why any woman would stay with a man that abuses her.”

“Sometimes people don’t really have a choice.”

“There’s always a choice,” she argued.

He shrugged, not meeting her eyes. “Maybe she doesn’t feel like she deserves anything better.”

She looked up at the strange tone of his voice. He was staring at his computer screen.

“Um, it seems as if you’re speaking from experience,” she said carefully.

Another shrug. “It was a long time ago.” When she gave him a look, he huffed. “Okay, not that long ago. Five years, to be exact. I had just come out of the closet and my family basically ostracized me. All I had was my boyfriend. My ex had loose hands after he had a few drinks. Abuse doesn’t start on the first day, you know. It’s like a disease, a parasite, that takes more of a hold of you every day. First, you tell yourself that it was an incident, that it will never happen again. Then, the second time, when he begs you for forgiveness, you convince yourself that forgiveness is a part of love. Aren’t we taught that love conquers all?

“By the time things escalated, I had no one to fall back on. I actually believed him when he told me that he was the only one who would ever want me. When your own parents don’t speak to you anymore, the two people in the world who are supposed to love you unconditionally, it makes you think about if you even deserve to be loved. Either way”—he took a deep breath—“it took me two broken ribs and a visit to the emergency room before I dumped his ass. Took me a long time to recover from that.”

Jazzy was speechless. She’d had no idea. Five years ago, they hadn’t even met, and she liked to think that if they had, she would have been there for him. Now, she felt like shit for judging her sister for staying with her husband. “I’m truly sorry to hear that.” She kissed his cheek and put her head on his shoulder. “I wish I could have been there for you.”

He sighed and hugged her back. “You are now.”

After Tommie left, Jazzy started feeling restless. She was still horny, and no Gio to be found. Determined to take care of her little problem herself, she went to their bedroom, in search of her favorite toy.

“Looking for this?”

Startled, she jumped up. Her eyes narrowed as she saw Gio wave her bullet vibrator at her.

“What did I say,bella? You can have my cock after dinner. Seems someone is in for more punishment. Or perhaps”—he eyed her vibrator—“for a different lesson.”

Now what did that mean? And why did it get her all hot and bothered?

He sat on the edge of the bed and patted his thigh. “Get over my lap.”

“I’m kind of sore already,” she complained.

“I’m not going to pinken your ass any further. I have something else in mind.”

Apparently, he did have a heart after all. She skipped over to him and bent over his lap.

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