Page 37 of You’re Mine

“It’s not your fault,” is my gentle reply. “No one knew. Sure, some people suspected, but Dad made sure no one knew for sure, and threatened anyone who wanted to tell. He was so powerful, and no one in Lenville was willing to cross him.”

Jace shakes his head, his shoulders slumped.

“But I wasn’t anyone, Haley. I was your boyfriend. I should have protected you. I should have known that something wasn’t right.”

This time, my heart breaks.

“You were a kid yourself. It wasn’t your fault. My dad knew how to get into my head, and I did whatever he wanted for years. One of my few acts of defiance was dating you and I’ve never regretted it.”

He looks up, agony in his face.

“Is that why you didn’t want to see me after that first time?” he asks hoarsely. “I wanted to talk to you Haley, but you ghosted me. You were never available, and you never even left the house. I know because I watched the manor every available minute,” he laughs bitterly. “I was a full-time stalker.”

But wait. What is he talking about?

“You tried to find me?” I ask in a small voice, hoping against hope.

He nods again, dropping his head once more into his hands.

“I couldn’t get in touch with you for weeks, Haley. I thought you were ignoring me because our first time together was too much. I thought you finally realized you were too good for me, and oh god, I thought you didn’t want there to be an us anymore.”

I shake my head.

“Oh, Jace. That’s not true. I wasn’t ignoring you. The night after we …” Trailing off, I look down at my hands, too nervous to turn my eyes back up towards Jace. “The night we were in your truck, my dad caught me sneaking back in. He questioned me, and for some reason, I talked back to him. He was insulting you like he usually does, but that night, I couldn’t take it anymore. I said things I had never dreamed of. Herb got so mad, and he hit me harder than ever before. It was so bad that I blacked out, and the next couple of weeks, I couldn’t even get out of bed. My dad locked me up in a random room in the house and kept me there, and by the time I got to a phone, you didn’t answer. I tried and tried, but there was no way for me to contact you. I never ignored you Jace. If anything, I was calling your name desperately while I was locked in the room, hoping you’d save me.”

The expression on his face is thunderstruck, and his entire body is still, yet vibrating with rage.

“Jace?”

“That fucker,” he rages. “I’m going to murder him.”

I finally get the courage to get out of my seat and sit next to his massive bulk on the couch. I don’t touch him, but I want him to know I’m here.

“Don’t apologize, Jace. You didn’t do anything wrong. Herb is a master manipulator, and he manipulated two kids seven years ago. He’s the bad guy, not you.”

Jace shakes his head in a mix of anguish and fury.

“It’s not that. I left Lenville because I thought you didn’t want me anymore. I thought I’d scared you away, and you’d finally up and left me.”

“Scared me away?” I was never afraid of Jace. There’s nothing he could have done to make me not want him. He shakes his head with misery.

“I thought I was too rough with you. After I dropped you off at home, there was …” He takes a deep breath. “Your first blood was on my cock, sweetheart, and I realized that taking your virginity in the back of my truck the way I did must have been brutal. I knew I was big, and I knew I liked it rough, and still I… still I was brutal.”

But Jace didn’t do anything to me I didn’t want him to do, and I tell him so.

“Oh, Jace. You didn’t scare me, and you never could. I loved every second of being with you. I wanted to be with you for the rest of my life, and our night together was wonderful. I saw stars, and felt the earth shake in your arms. If I could have gotten out of bed, I would have looked for you all over the world. But I was locked up in that room without my phone, and I thought you didn’t want me anymore. By the time I got out of the room, you’d disappeared entirely.”

The feeling between us is of stunned astonishment, but also grateful relief and intense attraction. Is it possible? Were Jace and I separated through evil influences that we couldn’t control? Did he want me all along, the way that I want him? Suddenly, I have to know what I mean to this man, and am determined to find out.

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