“No,” Layton growled, “but I’m not about to call her out in front of company. Don’t be an arsehole, and keep your comments to yourself. She isn’t a damn kid anymore.”
Regret washed over Lochlan’s features when Layton, as usual, got through to him. He was too stubborn to apologise to me, though, and while I appreciated my brother’s support, I was still humiliated. I excused myself from the table and hurried up to my room. I tried to close the door behind me, but Lavender was quick to follow and stopped me from doing so.
“I’m okay,” I whispered.
She didn’t say a word, only hugged me as my tears fell.
“He didn’t mean it,” she said, and squeezed me tightly. “That was just not something a brother would ever want to know. He was angry, that’s all.”
I nodded. I didn’t blame Lochlan for saying horrible things about me. I thought them about myself too.
“It’s not like he’s lying, though,” I murmured.
Lavender pulled back and scowled at me. “You aren’t dirty, and you aren’t a bloody tramp. Do you understand me?”
“But—”
“No ‘buts’,” she said, cutting me off, her tone harsh. “No one is perfect. You’ve made some mistakes, but that doesn’t make you a bad person.”
I swallowed. “Thanks, Lav.”
“I’m serious,” she pressed. “Hear me clearly.”
I sighed. “I do, but the mistakes you mentioned, I don’t want to make them anymore.”
“Then we’ll cut off the source to those mistakes,” she said with a firm nod.
I raised my brows. “And what is the source?”
“Alcohol,” she said.
I blinked. “Yeah, nothing good has ever come from me drinking.”
“You use it to drown your sorrows, but we’ll find a new way for you to do that.” Lavender kissed my cheek and gave me another hug. “We’ll figure this out together. I’m right here with you; I’ll help you up if you fall.”
“I love you, Lav,” I said, and held her tightly.
Lavender gave me a squeeze in return. “I love you too, even if you are a pain in my arse.”
I laughed, and just like that, she eased the tension out of the room. She was right: I’d eventually find a new way to deal with getting over Kale, and this time it wouldn’t be something to just help the pain for a few hours.
“Do you want me to come with you?” Lavender asked as she dropped me outside of the apartment complex that I vaguely remembered being in last night.
I shook my head. “I’m just getting my phone and then going home. I’m not sticking around to chat. I’m too hung over for speaking at any volume.”
Lavender snorted. “Okay, I’ll call you after I get off work.”
We both worked part-time at my nanny’s café to help us avoid dipping into our student loans until absolutely necessary. We already owed our lives to debt, and we didn’t need our casual spending to be a problem for us, so we got jobs to give us some extra cash.
“Love you,” she shouted.
I winced at the volume of her shout and mumbled, “I love you too.”
I closed the door to Lavender’s car and waved as she drove off. When she was out of sight, I turned to face the apartment complex, and without a second thought, I walked up the steps and searched the names next to the apartment numbers. When I spotted Jensen’s, I pressed the button next to his name. A few seconds passed before a tired voice spoke through the intercom.
“Hello?” the voice grumbled.
I cleared my throat. “Hi, it’s, uh, Lane Edwards. I’m here to pick up my phone from Jensen.”
“Yeah, I’m Jensen – come on up.” The voice had suddenly perked up. “I’m on the third floor in apartment three-zero-three.”
I had a bad feeling as soon as the door to the apartment building opened, but I shook it off and walked inside. I had to get my phone, and that meant I had to go inside to do that.
Suck it up, I told myself.
I took the stairs to the third floor instead of taking the elevator; it was really small and made a weird noise when the doors opened. I envisioned getting stuck in it, and that thought alone had me walking up the stairs of the building not five seconds later.
When I reached the third floor and found apartment three-zero-three, I knocked on the door and waited. The door opened pretty fast, and the lad to open it smiled at me like he was very happy to see me. I inwardly cringed because I knew why.
I had flashes of my body rolling around with his during the early hours of the morning, and it made me feel sick with myself.
“Hey,” I said, forcing a smile. “Can I get my phone from you real quick? I’m late for work.”
I wasn’t on shift today, but Jensen didn’t need to know that.
He nodded and gestured me into the apartment.
“Yeah, of course,” he smiled. “Come on in. I’ll go get it for you.”
I hesitated for a second or two, but against my better judgement, I stepped into Jensen’s apartment and allowed him to close his apartment door behind me.
“Do you want a cup of tea?” he asked as he walked down a hallway that I knew led to his bedroom.
I shuddered. “No, thank you.”
I just want my phone so I can leave.
“Here we are,” Jensen announced a minute or two later.
I looked in his direction and exhaled a relieved breath when I saw he did in fact have my phone in his hand. I reached for it when he neared me, but I frowned when he held it up in the air, out of my reach.
“I have to get to work, Jensen – give me my phone,” I said flatly.
“Can you not give work a miss?” he asked, sounding hopeful.
Was he joking?
I snorted. “No, I can’t, sorry.”
His brows furrowed. “But you had fun last night.”
I was sure I did, but it didn’t mean I was sticking around for round two.
I felt my cheeks flush. “I can only remember bits of last night. I was pretty wasted.”
He stepped towards me, a grin playing on his lips. “I’ll happily remind you of what you can’t remember.”
Alarm bells began to sound in my head.
“No, thank you,” I said, and looked towards the front door.
Jensen laughed at me like we were playing a game of cat and mouse, and I’d definitely got stuck with being the mouse.
“Come on,” he teased. “I want to hear you cry out when I make you come again.”
I swallowed bile, not liking hearing someone I barely knew talk about me in such a way.
“I’m leaving,” I said firmly.
He moved fast, and before I could get to the door, he blocked it with his body.
“Jensen,” I said in a warning tone, even though fear was seeping into my pores. “I would like to leave, please.”
He raised an eyebrow and said, “Why are you being so shy? You weren’t last night when my cock was in your mouth.” He winked then. “Best head I’ve ever gotten, by the way.”
My stomach lurched as I tried to push by him.
“Keep the fucking phone,” I spat. “I’m leaving.”
I ran for the front door, but Jensen roughly pushed me back by the shoulders. I fell backwards and landed on the floor with a loud thud. I yelped in pain, but fear drove my body to instantly put itself back up into a standing position. Jensen was on me before I
got fully upright, though, and he brought me back down to the floor like a pile of tumbling bricks.
“Get off me!” I bellowed, and swung my hand, connecting my fist with his face.
Jensen’s face jerked to the right, and it caused him to curse out loud.
“Fucking bitch!” he shouted, and fisted his hand in my hair, forcing my mouth to his. “Just give me one kiss,” he growled, and pressed his lips to mine. “Just like last night.”
I reacted with my teeth and bit him, causing him to tear his mouth from me and roar, “You fucking cunt!”
I saw the movement of his hand too late but felt the moment it connected with my face. I cried out, and white dots spotted my vision as pain erupted. I lifted my hands to protect my face because biting Jensen sent him into a frenzy of throwing punch after punch at me.
I tried to defend myself, but he landed every hit he threw.
The tang of metal attacked my taste buds, and blood filled my mouth.
I tried to scream, but all that sounded was a disgusting gurgle as blood gushed from my nose and ran down my throat. I noticed then that Jensen had stopped hitting me, but it was only because I heard him telling me to do something.
“Open your legs or I’ll cut you,” he growled.
Cut me?
I felt light-headed, and his voice sounded like it was coming from all directions. I looked up at him, and I could see him as plain as day, hovering over me, his breathing rapid as the sweat beaded his forehead. It confused me, because my face, arms and chest were throbbing like he was still hitting me.
The pain was immense.
“Please,” I spluttered. “Please . . . don’t.”
He shook his head. “It’s too fucking late for that now. All you had to do was kiss me! You made me hit you, you made me!”
I watched as he began to unbutton his jeans, and I saw he had an erection. It scared me enough to scream bloody murder.
“Help me!” I screamed as loud as I could and fought against Jensen when he tried to cover my mouth with his hands.
I heard a female voice shout outside of the apartment, and hope filled me.
“Help me!” I cried out once more. “Help!”
“Shut the fuck up!” Jensen bellowed, but he jolted with fright when a large bang sounded on the front door. Once, twice, then on the third bang a crunching noise filled the apartment as the door was kicked open.