“I’ll cope with it,” Jaxon instructed him, not taking his eyes off of me. “Don’t fear about it.”

Chuck shot one final glare in my route, after which stalked off as soon as extra, leaving me alone with Jaxon. I crossed my arms over my chest and stared up at him.

“What are you doing down right here?” he demanded, shaking his head. “You need to – it is advisable get again to your room. You’ll be able to’t wander round down right here.”

“Why not?” I protested. “It wasn’t like I used to be doing something. I wasn’t going out anyplace somebody may have seen me-“

“As a result of Chuck isn’t precisely enthusiastic about having you right here within the first place,” he replied, shaking his head. “And in case you can at the least maintain out of his line of sight, you’ve received a greater likelihood of him letting you keep.”

“What, he calls the pictures round right here?” I demanded.

“He’s the boss,” Jaxon shot again. “And he’s the one who decides what occurs round right here. You need to do not forget that.”

I knew he was proper. I knew I ought to simply associate with the foundations that have been being laid down in entrance of me. However, fuck, I had by no means been good at that. I had by no means been good at simply enjoying together with all the things I used to be instructed.

“And so he will get to talk to me like that?” I demanded.

“He will get to talk to you nonetheless he desires,” Jaxon replied, his voice agency. “That’s the way it works. I do know you’re in all probability used to having all the things the best way you need it, with your loved ones and all, but-“

“Oh, you assume that’s the way it labored?” I replied, snorting on the considered it. “Yeah, no. I by no means received to determine how issues have been going to go. I at all times needed to simply play together with no matter they needed from me. Whether or not I believed it was a good suggestion or not.”

“Actually?” he replied, frowning, sounding stunned.

“After all,” I sighed. “You assume my dad was going to danger letting me do something I needed? What if I introduced disgrace to his title? Or affected all of the donors he was counting on to maintain his marketing campaign ticking over?”

He cocked an eyebrow.

“I figured he was doing it with household cash,” he muttered. “I didn’t notice that…”

He trailed off. I pressed my lips collectively.

“Yeah, that’s the way it’s at all times labored,” I murmured, dropping my gaze down. I hated admitting it. Hated admitting that I had allowed them to dictate precisely how my life was going to go for therefore lengthy, and that I had been so prepared to associate with it till I’d heard the information that they have been going to promote me off to that Lombardi man.

“I didn’t know,” he replied.

“You assume that this marriage ceremony was the very first thing?” I identified. “They’ve at all times used me any method they might. My brothers, they get to do no matter they need – they each went to college, and my father helped them arrange a enterprise collectively, doing tech session or one thing. However he wanted me shut. Preserving me round so he may make himself look good, make it look as if he was this adoring household man. Individuals like that. Individuals reply to it.”

I used to be stunned on the vitriol within the phrases I spoke – I hadn’t realized how a lot of it had been backed up inside me until that second, how a lot of it I had finished my greatest to disregard all this time. I couldn’t imagine how a lot I had allowed my household to get away with, how a lot I had simply allow them to use my complete life. Now I used to be out, now I may have a look at it from a brand new route, I felt as if I used to be capable of see how twisted it was. The double requirements they’d utilized to me versus my brothers, realizing that holding me locked up and hidden away would serve them effectively in the long term, once they may promote my physique and soul to the very best bidder.

“I simply can’t stand being in that room all day,” I admitted. “It seems like…it seems like I’m trapped once more.”

“Hey,” he murmured to me, his hand coming to my cheek, guiding my gaze again in the direction of him. “That’s not true, all proper? It’s not the identical because it was earlier than. Not by a protracted shot.”

My breath hitched in my throat as I stared up at him. His contact, God, his contact, it felt as if it was lighting up each inch of my physique without delay, although I ought to be holding again, although I ought to have identified higher. His eyes have been blazing with sincerity as he regarded down at me.

“You’re secure right here,” he instructed me. “And also you’re free. If you wish to stroll out that door, you are able to do it, any time you want. You hear me? You don’t have to remain. No one’s making you.”

“I do know,” I breathed. However the fact was, I didn’t wish to depart, I didn’t wish to go. The considered being out on the streets, all by myself once more, it scared the hell out of me – however, past that, the considered being away from him felt downright unattainable. I couldn’t lose this. I didn’t know precisely what I used to be feeling, however when he touched me, when he checked out me the best way he did, it was as if each fiber of my being was lighting up in response to the feeling.

“You certain?” he requested. We have been standing just some inches aside, his hand on my cheek, his thumb resting simply an inch or so from my lips. It might have been really easy, so rattling simple, to only lean in and kiss him, however I knew that might have been loopy…

Or, at the least, that’s the final thought that crossed my thoughts earlier than our lips crashed collectively.

The electrical energy that coursed between us as quickly as his mouth met mine, it was…it was all the things. My complete physique was alight with want, my complete system spinning helplessly uncontrolled as I reached as much as seize his face. I had by no means been kissed like this in my life, not by a person, not after I may really feel the stubble grazing in opposition to my cheek, a reminder of simply how shut we have been – my lips parted and he slipped his tongue between them, deepening our embrace, a low growl escaping from someplace deep inside him, as if this was what he had been ready for all alongside…

After which, suddenly, he pulled again. I gasped, my mouth transferring again to his virtually on intuition for one more embrace, however he stepped away from me, his fingers dropping again all the way down to his sides. I may really feel each inch of me screaming for extra, screaming for his contact, screaming for all the things he may give me – however, judging by the look on his face, I knew he wasn’t prepared to provide it to me.

“You want to return to your room,” he instructed me, nodding in the direction of the steps.

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