Page 98 of Trustfall

Jaxon’s eyes drift over me as I press closer. I feel like a lion tamer, waiting for the right moment to lunge.

“The thing about abuse is…” I hesitate for a moment, letting my words sink in. “It’s cyclical. Your father abused you. You abused me.”

Hurt people hurt people.

“I never?—”

“Hit me,” I finish for him. “I know. There’s more than one way to skin a cat, Jaxon. What you did to me—” But I don’t finish my thought. He doesn’t deserve to hear all the ways he broke me.

“Do you have a point here?” he says, snapping out of his daze and returning to the smug facade I walked in on. “Or are you just trying to stall? Or maybe…” His grin widens and then he barks out a laugh. “Are you trying to connect with me? Emotionally? My daddy kicked my ass a few times, and now I’m supposed to sympathize with you and let your little boy toy out of jail? So you guys can ride off into the fucking sunset? Is that it?”

I purse my lips but keep them shut.

“I have news for you, Princess. That’s not how our story ends. I told you, there is only one way to get your precious boyfriend out of prison, and I meant it. Marry me, and I’ll drop the charges. I have a judge willing to do it tonight. He’ll be free by morning.”

“No.”

“No? Interesting. I would have sworn you would do anything to save him.” He shrugs his shoulders. “But I guess you’re the same selfish little cunt you’ve always been.”

I know what he’s doing and it’s not going to work. I still haven’t shown all my cards yet, and I’ll be damned if I let my anger get the best of me.

“I will fight like hell to get him out, but I won’t sacrifice my freedom.”

“Oh no? How about your dignity?”

I gulp down the glass shards in my throat as he shifts forward, placing his elbows on his knees. “Let me fuck you right here, right now, and I’ll drop the charges. Simple as that. You’ll have to make it convincing, though. None of that fake shit you pulled when we were together. You’ll have to scream so everyone in this fucking place can hear my name on your lips.”

“You know I would never do that,” I say calmly. He’s trying to rattle me, but he’s going to have to try harder than that.

Jaxon shrugs and picks up a crystal carafe filled with brown liquid sitting on the coffee table in front of him. He fills a rocks glass, bringing it to his lips before tipping it back and downing it in one go. “Yeah, but it was worth a try.”

Something clicks in my head.I never forced myself on you.He didn’t. But his father did. Force himself on women…

“It wasn’t just you,” I say, sitting down in the chair opposite him.

His eyes snap up to mine, but his face doesn’t give anything away.

“Your mom?” I guess. “And you knew about it. You heard it. How old were you when you realized what was happening?”

“Shut the fuck up,” he snaps as he slams the glass onto the table. Surprisingly, it doesn’t break, but I almost jump out of my skin all the same. “You don’t know shit about my mother.”

“Is that why you go for older women?” I taunt.

His face twists into a snarl, and the cut on his eyebrow starts to bleed a little, dripping down his face. He wipes it with his thumb and stares at the blood for a moment before rubbing it back and forth with his forefinger.

I swallow, ignoring the disturbing gesture.

“Do you love her? Victoria?”

Realization paints his face, and that sadistic grin makes a reappearance.

“I’m not capable of love, Princess,” he says, wiping the blood on his fingers off on the table. “You, of all people, should know that. She was just a fuck. A good fuck…but a fuck, nonetheless.”

Yeah, I do know that. Despite all the times he swore up and down he loved me and everything he did to me was out of love, I don’t think I ever really believed it.

“But you care about her,” I say. “That’s why you hid it from me last night when I asked you about the bruise. You didn’t want her to get caught up in any of this.”

“We have common ground,” he says vaguely. But I know exactly what he means. Marshall Astor is intense. And that’s out in the open. I can only imagine what it’s like to be married to him. What he’s like behind closed doors…

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