Page 38 of Filthy Commitments
I looked up to find Madison walking toward me and then looked at Asia. “Yeah, just go, Asia.” My jaw was clenched. My body tense. Asia could make up her own mind about things. Yet, she was acting as if she needed me to tell her not to dance with the little prick. And as hard as I was looking at her to get her to understand that, she wasn’t getting it.
She got up and went with him and I was left, sitting alone. Madison came up to me with a smile curving her thin red lips. “Fancy a twirl on the dance floor, Jett?”
I got up, grabbed her by the hand and headed towards everyone else. Moving in right behind Asia and Sebastien, I overheard him as he leaned in close and whispered, “My God, you look gorgeous tonight.”
“Thank you,” came Asia’s reply.
“I’m going to be a bother to your husband tonight. Stealing you away is all I can think about.” His words hit me like a brick.
I don’t recall how it all happened. Pure anger sped through me, took me over and all I knew was that I was looking at Sebastien Greenberg as he was laid out. His eyes were closed and a red bump on his chin was getting redder by the second.
“Jett!” Madison shouted then doubled over and held her stomach. “What the…?” She turned and ran off and I saw Asia grinning like the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland as she watched her run.
I reached over Sebastien’s fallen body, took Asia by the hand and left the room. “Should I even ask for an explanation, Jett?”
“No.” Without saying a word, I took her up to our hotel room, closed the door and leaned back on it. My head was spinning. I wasn’t sure about anything. I’d never been so rash. I’d never done anything like that.
What was happening to me?
Asia
Jett was over the top. I was sure he’d overheard what Sebastien had said to me about stealing me away. But punching the guy out was uncalled for. As much as I didn’t agree with his actions, I had to admit, I was impressed. And I’d done something just as bad myself. The cake I took to Madison had a nice size bite of what seemed to be a chunk of chocolate, but was really a chunk of fast-acting laxative. And it seemed to hit her at just about the same time, Jett hit her brother.
In our hotel room, I stood and watched Jett as he leaned against the door and looked at the floor. “This isn’t working for me, Asia.”
Everything in me stopped; my heart, my lungs, my life. I didn’t know what to say. I found myself staggering back until my legs hit the bed, then I sat on it and tried hard not to pass out. It was over.He didn’t want me anymore.
All I could do was shake my head and try not to cry. I had no idea what I’d done wrong. I didn’t know what I could do to make things right. “I’ll leave.”
“What?” He came to me and got on his knees in front of me, taking my hands. “Why?”
My eyes were clouding with tears. “Because of what you said. This isn’t working for you.” A sob came out of me, and I sucked it back in as best I could.
I was his sub. I wasn’t supposed to make him feel guilty for anything he did. He didn’t want me, that was his right.
“I didn’t mean that. I meant the lie.” He took my chin in his hand and rubbed the pad of his thumb across my lips. “You deserve a real love. You deserve so much more than I’m giving you. Making you lie about a marriage feels wrong to me now.”
I didn’t understand at all. “Why would you be okay with lying to your family? But lying to a bunch of strangers bothers you?”
“I can’t explain it. The wedding just brought things to my mind. Things like you deserving to have a real wedding. You deserving to have a truthful relationship. I took that all away from you, Asia.”
“Look, things aren’t that bad, Jett. I signed the contract. I knew what I was doing. And I feel lucky that you got me. I could be strung up in some dungeon right now, being whipped into submission. Instead, I’m in a lavish hotel with a man who cares a hell of a lot about me. Things could be worse.”
He looked at me with storm clouds in his sea green eyes. “Asia, you’re too good to be true. I don’t know how you do it. You can take my foul mood and turn it all around. Maybe it’s hearing you lie that upsets me so much. I don’t like that it’s me who made you do that. I don’t like that it’s me who’s making you into a liar.”
“Do you feel like I’m a liar, Jett?” The thought irritated me.
He nodded. “You’re all into the act of being my wife. It’s as if you’re actually believing the shit that’s coming out of your mouth. The whole front story. The way you touch me. It all seems so true when you tell it or touch me. You’re a little too good at it. Like it was in you the whole time.” He moved his hand off my face and got up, turning his back to me. “Have I turned you into a liar?”
I didn’t know what the hell to say to that. He paid me to be his fake wife and make people believe his whole story. And I was doing as he wanted me to. “It was you who didn’t think things through, Jett. Don’t blame me for going along with you and saying things you told me to say.”
He spun around with a glare. “Asia, the number one thing I told you was to be quiet. Don’t say anything unless I ask you to. And there you went on a trip down a false memory lane with a fucking stranger. That woman didn’t need to know a thing about us. She’s nobody to me.”
“Okay, I admit, I forgot about being quiet. Fuck, Jett!”
Getting up, I kicked off my shoes and went to the mini fridge to see what kind of alcohol was in it. My brain was pulsing with aggravation. If Jett told me to go left, I went left. If he told me to jump, I jumped. But now the problem was not that I was doing as he’d told me to, but that I was doing it for too damn long.
I was sick of it.
