He ignored me. “Where the fuck is Carmen?” He shook the divider curtain to find the nurse.
“I’m guessing this is the effect you have on all the girls,” I reaffirmed stubbornly.
“And your problem is?”
“I’d say you’re more the problem. The entire female population hates you.”
“Oh, Blazey, if that’s what you call hate, I hope that you’re hated just as much as I am.”
Once again I wondered if he knew that Jackson had a massive crush on him. Maybe he did know, but pretending not to know was convenient.
“You know, Blaze, the kind of reaction you get from a girl to your face doesn’t matter,” he exclaimed, pinching my already hurting cheekbone.
“Ow!”
“You have to consider what kind of reaction you get down below,” he finished, putting his hand on my shorts-covered thighs.
I felt my body temperature skyrocket. “What do you mean?”
“Their underwear, Blaze. In the wonderful panties of wonderful girls.”
“Why do you always have to be so crass?”
At that point a breath escaped my lips because his hand was getting dangerously close to my crotch. His thumb nearly touched my boxers as his stare stripped me of every normal reaction.
“Have you ever wondered what kind of effectyouhave on girls, Blaze?”
I nervously shook my head. James stretched my legs out and moved between them. He was provoking me; he knew perfectly well that I didn’t give a damn about what kind of effect I had on girls.
“And”—I saw him lick his lips painfully slowly—“on men?”
My heart sank. I started to feel the thumping in my throat, temples, stomach.
He narrowed his blue eyes, looking like someone about to jump all over me. I parted my parched lips. I couldn’t talk.
“Because you know, I often wonder . . .” He sighed, closing his eyes. The malice in his voice brought me back to that night again. But my thoughts came to a halt as James circled me like a predator taunting the prey he recently caught. I smelled his cologne as he rubbed my neck with his hands.
“Did you talk with Daddy, Blaze?” Fucking trickster.
“No.”
He put his arm on my throat.
Was I supposed to tell him that my dad talked with Jackson? Maybe Jackson hadn’t said anything?
I barely swallowed as the hollow of his arm pushed against my Adam’s apple. He did it gently without hurting me, but I had to close my eyes when he whispered in my ear, “Tell him to watch his back when he decides his next steps.”
“What? What steps?”
“Daddy knows exactly what I’m talking about.”
James tightened his grip briefly, making me cough when he let go.
“And just tell him I told you.”
30
June
