Page 238 of Cross the Line
“Why didn’t you say something sooner? Why… Son…”
My quota for bravery is spent. I’m trying so hard to hold myself together and not spiral into what he must be thinking of me.
What if he doesn’t believe me?
Maybe he thinks I was confused at the time.
Or that I’m lying to protect Jayden…
Fuck, I’ve just told him Presley raped me.
Fuck.
Fuck.
The water I gulped seconds ago burns up into my mouth, flooding it with the sour taste of anxiety. I can’t swallow it back down because the pain in my chest is cinching my ribs, making it so tight my lungs won’t work.
And I can’t breathe.
I can’t breathe.
“Eli,” Connie says somewhere beneath the pounding in my head. “Eli…”
“Hey!” Coach’s voice thunders, snapping my gaze to his. “Look at me, Son. We’re going to nail that bastard.”
I nod, focusing on the bite of my nails in my palms. I need something to ground me. Something to help me breathe. To?—
My heart gongs at the sight of Jayden pushing through the gray curtains separating the galley from the cabin.
Seeing him is the ultimate reset. Instantly, the tension in my muscles eases and my pulse slows. Then his hands grip my shoulders, bringing me chest to chest with him, and the warmth of his body melts the ice in my lungs.
“You okay, Sweetheart?” Sweeping up my shoulders, his palms mold to my jaw as he gives me a once-over. “What happened?”
“Your meeting with Gerry is canceled,” Coach barks in reply.
I see the second the penny drops for Jayden. Awareness dawns on his face, widening his stunning features right before his expression drops.
“I know you’re my boss, but you need to get out. Right now.” He’s holding me, but his glare is on Coach and Connie. “Please.”
She slinks past the curtains with a reassuring smile, giving Coach the moment he wants with the both of us.
“That asshole is done,” he states, punctuating it with a jab of his index finger in the air. “When I’m finished with that cretin, he’s going to wish you’d finished him last night. Nobody messes with my boys.”
Coach trudges toward the curtains, shaking his head and grumbling at the floor. When he pushes through, Jayden’s focus zeroes on me again.
His stare bores into me. Straight to the core of my fear. That suffocating, unrelenting pain of being without him.
“I had to tell him, JJ,” I say, fisting the hem of his polo shirt and pulling him into me. “I had to.”
“No,” he growls partway through an audible swallow. His hands tighten on my face. “No.Please, please, no. Not for me.”
“It’s not for you,” the remark tumbles from my mouth. “I’m doing this for me.”
For us.
“Why now?”
“Because Tomes doesn’t get to win anymore.” Pushing my hands beneath his shirt, I grip his sides. His skin is so warm, so soft,so mine. Jayden’s mine, and… “Presley doesn’t get to take you from me. He doesn’t get to take any more from me.”
