They’re all the same. Men. They control you the first chance they get. Then they try to seem cute and fun and sexy by being a little kinky and making you wear their cum to work.
Okay, that’s one specific man.
And I just ran face-first into him.
“Hey.” Jake’s voice comes out breathy and surprised. “You alright, baby?”
“Don’t call me that,” I grit out, then push past him to head for the only bathrooms in the area.
Jake shuffles after me to catch up and touches my shoulder. “What’s the matter?”
I wheel around with my finger out. “I didn’t tell you to talk to him. I didn’t say I wanted you to block his number. I specifically said that would make things worse.”
Jake grimaces and sighs, making his hands into regretful fists, one of which he puts over his mouth. “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t see you so upset like that. He was torturing you.”
“And you,” I say, poking him in the chest, “were controlling me. And you know for a fact that it’s exactly what he did to me.” My voice breaks and my lip trembles. “You knew, Jake. And you did it anyway.”
“I was trying to help,” he tries.
I shake my head. “That’s exactly what he would say. Everyone thinks I can’t run my own fucking life!”
I’m drawing attention from the smattering of people at the market, but I’m beyond caring.
“I don’t think that,” Jake says, trying to touch my shoulder.
I pull my arm away from him. “No! You told yourself you were the hero, that you could handle my life for me because I’m too weak to take it.”
His mouth opens and shuts like he’s choosing his words carefully. “Sometimes when you’ve been abused?—”
I step into him. “You had better shut your fucking mouth right this second, Jake Warren. You don’t know my life.”
“I’m trying to,” he pleads, and his eyes glisten while he breathes hard. “I want to.”
I set my jaw. “Bri can help me bring the horses in and out until she leaves.” I wipe sweat from my brow. “I’ll figure out something else from there. Maybe Caleb will help me. Or I’ll just do it alone. I’m the only person I could ever rely on, anyway.”
“Darcy,” Jake begs. “Please don’t do this. I’m sorry.”
“I feel so stupid. I thought you were different,” I whisper. “I don’t want to be with someone who can’t trust me to handle my own life. You invaded my privacy.”
Jake looks like I knocked the wind out of him.
“I’m so sorry,” he says, his eyelashes resting on his cheeks and his jaw flexing. “I never want to make you feel how he did.”
I consider believing him. The man in front of me is so different from the man I left in Raleigh, a tender soul. But everything is so jumbled in my head that it’s hard for me to separate what Jake did from how Rob was. Because Rob went in my phone too. He did it for different reasons, but he did it all the same. I press my fingers to my temples to try to slow my racing thoughts.
It’s not working. I can’t shake the feeling that Jake is just as dangerous as Rob was.
Jake gently squeezes my upper arm and I want all these dark voices to be wrong. I want that unique brand of comfort that Jake provides: the calm safety of his arms around me and his heart thudding under my ear. But the safety has been breached, and I’ve never felt more let down. I was the fool to hope it could be different.
My voice quivers when I deliver my last words. “You know, earlier I told you to be more disappointing. What I should have known was that you’d already disappointed me.”
THIRTY-ONE
JAKE
Let’sreview where I am.
Boy sees girl. Girl eyefucks boy.
