“Why did you want me to come here?”
Instead of answering, Jett just leaned on the armrest of his chair with his chin still captured in his hand, observing me, making me feel completely and thoroughly exposed. I knew I shouldn’t be intimidated, that I should stick up for myself and put my sassy mouth out there, but the intense glare driving from his eyes put me in my place, clammed me right up.
I felt myself unconsciously twist my hands in my lap as I waited for him to say something, anything. He shifted in his seat and then grabbed a glass of amber liquid from his desk that I didn’t notice was there.
Once he took a sip, he rested his arms on the armrest while still holding the glass and looked up at me with those deep blue eyes. “I thought we went over this earlier today. Was my answer not good enough for you?”
Shit, why did I feel like cowering under his deep glare? I was stronger than this.
Mustering all the bravado I had and trying to not turn into a pile of lube from his intense stare, I said, “I wanted some more clarification, because I have been privileged to some new information that contradicts your little afternoon story in the cemetery.”
Ha, take that you ornery fuck!
The man was a stagnant tycoon, showing no tells and waiting to pounce when he was ready. His jaw ticked as he decided how to respond and, I swear to God, he’d made a rule that he counted to thirty before answering because the silence in the room was draining me, an effect he knew he held over me.
“Please, enlighten me.”
Trying not to act like a teenager or an overdramatic boob, I took a note from Jett’s scare tactics and counted to ten before I answered.
I just needed to get this over with, I hated this little standoff we were having. “Did you invite me to be a Jett Girl to seek revenge on someone else? Did you lie to me?”
“And if I did?” he asked, while carefully sipping his drink.
Anger boiled up in me at his lack of compassion, avoidance of the topic and the way he didn’t show the true man I knew, the man that bought me M&M’s on the steamboat, the man that laughed with me on the roof and the man that sent me a bouquet of flowers almost every morning. He was distant and withdrawn and it startled me to see a man I once trusted change so dramatically.
Standing up and shoving my chair away from me, I paced his office. “What is wrong with you? Where is the man I once knew? You used to be kind and gentle, but domineering when you needed to be. I felt protected around you, cared for, and cherished. You’re not that man anymore. You’re so…so cold.”
“Is there a point to your rant?” Jett asked, as he set his glass down and leaned back in his chair as he studied me while rubbing his stubble with his hand.
“Why did you bring me here?” I shouted, not being able to control my bubbling emotions.
“It seems to me like you already have the answers, so why are you invading my personal space and demanding from me something you already know?”
“So, you don’t deny that you’re a liar? That you told me we had some kind of special connection in the cemetery, but you’re just using me in some human pawn game of yours?” My hands were shaking as I continued. “Was this some kind of sick game you decided to play because you are a bored rich man with nothing better to do? Play around with the hooker and see if she finds out the truth?”
He just sat there, silently, not moving a muscle. I wanted to yell and scream in his face, shake his body and find the glimpse of a man I was able to see for a short, but memorable, night. There was no use though, he was not going to drop the façade. I saw it in the way he just stared at me with lifeless eyes.
“Say something,” I shouted, as I threw my hands up in the air, displaying my frustration.
“I have nothing to say.”
“So that’s it, you are not going to defend yourself, tell me your side of the story, tell me why you picked me?”
“I already did and I don’t go around repeating myself, so if you’re not happy with what I had to say, then frankly, I don’t care. That is your choice…to take someone else’s information over mine. I can’t stop what you believe, or who you believe, for that matter.”
I shook my head as I looked at the floor. “Why are you making this so hard?” I said, almost defeated.
Jett stood up, showing off his beautifully sculpted body and walked toward me with such confidence that I felt myself start to shrink in his presence. He owned every room he was present in with such ease that it was hard not to get sucked into his web and do whatever his deep southern voice asked.
“The only one who is making this hard is you, Goldie. You are the one who brought feelings into this arrangement, even though from the start I told you I didn’t do relationships, I didn’t do love.”
“I didn’t bring feelings in here,” I said defiantly as I stuck my chin out, trying to show that I wasn’t in fact lying because the man could crumple me with one touch, one look. Feelings, fuck yeah I had them, but to hell if I would tell him that, give him the pleasure of knowing the kind of affect he had on me.
He broke the silence with laughter. “Please, you’re practically writing out Mrs. Jett Colby all over your drawings.”
Self-centered, arrogant prick!
“Fuck you,” I turned and pointed at him. “Fuck you, Jett. I’m out of here. I can’t believe I stuck around this long.”
“It’s because you wanted me.”
I was about to walk away when I turned around and slapped him across the face. My hand stung like I just put it on a burning pot, but what really got me was the way that Jett barely even moved his face when my hand connected with it. As if he was expecting to be slapped. He was a robot.
“Maybe I did want you at one point, but right now, I would give anything to be as far away from you as possible. You put on such a good show. Made me believe that I was a part of something, that I was actually taken care of for the first time in nine horrid years, but fuck was I wrong. You are nothing more than a sad rich man with nothing better to do with his life than control women, fuck them when you please, and play mind games so they fall for you and you can teach them a lesson about your damn contract. Well, fuck your contract, fuck this club, and fuck you Jett. I am done with you. I will be out of your manipulative grasp by tonight and don’t worry, I will only leave with what I came with, so when you go and pick a new girl to fuck with, you won’t have to invest much.”
With that, I spun on my heel and walked out the door. A part of me rejoiced for standing up to the man that had controlled the thoughts in my mind since I’d gotten here, but then there was a part of me that was breaking in half, melting away with my heart that was left on the floor of Jett’s office.
Before I walked down the stairs, I looked back one last time, to catch one last glimpse of the man that once made me feel like I didn’t have a worry in the world and what I saw burned my soul.
Jett was leaning against his desk with his hands in his hair, staring at the ground. The utter deflation coming off his body was unmistakable and so damn confusing. In one swift movement, Jett picked up his glass of what I could only imagine was bourbon and chucked it across the room, as he spun around and gripped his desk.
I had one foot starting down the steps and one still on the landing, contemplating my next move. I knew I had to leave; I needed to get the hell out of this house that was currently drowning me, but my feet wouldn’t move for an exit. Instead, they walked back to Jett’s office and stood right behind him. My hands reached out and touched his back, making him stiffen at my presence.
“Jett…”
“Leave!” he roared, as he spun around and looked down at me with such malice that I had to choke back a cry. “Fucking leave! Just fucking leave already.”
I backed away as he spat venom at me with the harshness of his words and the hurtful look in his eyes.