Page 26 of Ashley
She nodded. "I have three roommates."
"Three?" James's voice was incredulous, and she colored then, but not with the heat the man had been sending through her willing body for all the right reasons. This was for all the wrong, bad, and judgment filled reasons she'd sworn not to play into when she'd stopped dancing. Her family had judged her, and then her so-called friends she'd made as a dancer, with only Natasha treating her the same. Now James was looking at her in the same pitying look, and it angered her more than any of the others' disapproving looks ever had.
"You should go," she rasped, yanking her shirt down and nodding at the door. "This was a mistake."
His body went rigid, and he turned on his heel to face her entirely. "What?"
She cleared her throat and avoided his searching gaze. "I said, I think—"
A loud thump against her door made her shriek in shock, her hands clamping over her mouth as she stared wide-eyed at the door.
James turned, once again, this time to face the door, and his stance widened into what Ashley supposed could only be described as fighter's. She swallowed past where her heart was now hammering in her throat and couldn't help but tremble when Xander's voice called to her through the door.
"Baby, are you home?" His voice had a sing-song quality to it, and she scooted back, further up her bed, trying to put as much distance between her and the man on the other side of the door as she could. James took a step forward and the floorboards creaked beneath him at the motion, prompting Xander to slap his hand against the door once more. "I knew it! Come out and play, baby. I can hear you."
"Who the fuck is that?" James rasped out, hands curling into fists as he stared at the door looking like he was ready to fight an army. Ashley wished she could communicate that Xander wasn't necessarily an army, but he was a man, and he was a man who had frightened her on more than one occasion.
"My roommate," Ashley whispered. "He scares me," she confessed.
He nodded once at her and then looked back at the door before he was in motion, and Ashley could only stare open-mouthed when James yanked the door open to reveal a glassy eyed Xander.
"Woah, who are—" Xander began scrambling back a foot when James moved forward, invading the other man's space. He caught him around the jaw, fingers tight on his skin as he slammed him back against the hall.
"Shut up," he growled, leaning close and twisting Xander's head to the side when the other man's eyes moved pleadingly to Ashley where she now stood in the doorway. "Don't look at her," James ordered, squeezing hard. "Keep your eyes on me."
"Yeah, sorry, sorry," Xander apologized in a soft voice Ashley had never heard before. It was interesting to see how Xander behaved, now that there was another man involved. Her roommate had always been handsy, always lingering when he shouldn't, and never quite taking the hint when Ashley asked him to leave her alone, but now he was as docile as a lamb.
"Get your stuff," James said, looking over his shoulder at Ashley. "I'm going to have a little talk with…" he paused and looked back at the man who was struggling to breath in his hold, "what the hell is your name?"
"Xander," he choked out with a wince when James tightened his grip.
"I'm going to have a nice chat with Xander, honey. Get what you need for a few days. Take your time, and take whatever you want."
"I…" Ashley's hands twisted in her shirt, but then James was frog marching Xander away from her room and down the hallway and she was left with two choices. She could listen, or she could defy James. And she didn't want to defy him, not when he had just been playing her body like an instrument, not when she now understood that the look of disapproval hadn't been directed at her but at Xander. She nearly tripped over her own feet in her haste to get a bag together and practically flew into the bathroom, swiping her necessary items before she rounded the corner and walked back into the living room. Nothing could have prepared her for the sight of Xander hunched over on the couch sitting still and shaking as James stood watchfully over him. Sarah was pressed up against Xander, and the pair was doing their best to look anywhere but at James, who was glaring at them.
"Are you ready?" James asked, not looking away from her roommates.
She nodded, patting the bag over her shoulder. "I am."
"Good girl. Give it here," he said, holding out his hand to her, and wordlessly, she crossed the room to him, her bag outstretched in her arm. When he took the bag from her and reached for her hand, she pulled back with a shake of her head. James tilted his head to the side and spared her a quick glance.
"What is it?" he asked, concern softening his features.
"I should leave Lily a note," she explained, darting into the kitchen and grabbing the notepad they used, to scribble a hasty message to her missing roommate.
Staying at a friend's. Call me if you need to get away.
She folded the note and then hustled down the hallway and slipped it beneath Lily's door. The other woman had always been polite and kind to her, if a little on the quiet side, and something told Ashley that she might not be home for a while despite James' words of a few days. Hopefully, Lily would reach out to her and she could help her spend a night anywhere but in their apartment with Xander and Sarah. If anything, the note would let Lily know that she was fine and there was no reason to worry or call the police on her behalf, both things Ashley would do if their roles were reversed.
"All good?" James asked. He was standing beside her apartment door and looking every bit the part of a fallen angel. The lamp her roommates had turned on only served to accentuate the scar that ran down the side of his face, rather than light the room. He was the embodiment of war, and they all knew it, but that didn't scare Ashley, instead, it excited her because he washers.He was light and dark, and right now, that darkness was saving her and she was grateful for it, so she walked toward him with a smile on her face.
"I'm ready to go," she told him and slipped her hand into his before they left her apartment without a second look back. Her future wasn't there in that broken down walk up. It was somewhere out in the magic of an Indian summer night, somewhere James could teach her, somewhere she could grow into the woman she wanted to be, which meant she only had one direction to go—forward.
