He rounded the pool just as Haley found her glasses and put them on.
“You were fucking playing me?” he demanded, making her frown.
When she didn’t answer, he continued. “Your friends were right. This was a fucking game to you?” he yelled at her for the first time since he’d met her, not caring that he’d made her flinch.
“Did you brag that you brought me to my knees and kept me panting? Was this payback for all the bullshit that I put you through over the years? Did you even care about me?”
“You think this was a game?” Haley asked, wiping away tears that Jason wouldn’t let affect him. She was upset? Too fucking bad, because he was pissed. She’d played him so fucking well.
“You’re actually yelling at me when you just took my virginity to prove something?” Haley demanded, shaking her head in disbelief.
He froze.
A virgin?
She’d been tight, but...
“Oh, God…”
“I didn’t want to make the same mistakes that my sisters and cousins made. I didn’t want sex to be meaningless. I just wanted it mean something,” Haley said, clearly trying to fight back tears.
Just like that, all the anger inside him drained away. He moved to pull her into his arms only to have his hands weakly slapped away.
“You were so damn eager to prove something that you didn’t even stop to think about what you were doing,” Haley said with a sad shake of her head.
“Baby,” he said, keeping his tone gentle, “if I had known you were a virgin, I would have done this differently, but I can’t regret it.” He took a steadying breath. “I’m in love with you, Haley.”
“Ow!” he said when his little grasshopper kicked him in the shin. “What the hell was that for? I told you I love you and you kicked me?”
“That’s for being a jerk! You wait until you screwed up to pull out the big guns? How about telling me that and making love to me because you love me and not because you felt you had something to prove?” Haley demanded, shaking her head in disgust.
He nodded solemnly as he reached out for her again. “That sounds reasonable. Let’s go inside and I’ll do this right.”
“Are you crazy? You think I’m going to let you touch me after what just happened?” she asked, blinking up at him.
“I’m really sorry about this,” Jason said, reaching for her again as the first tear rolled down her face.
“No. You actually thought that I would ever hurt you like that? When have I ever done anything to make you believe that I could do something like that? It should have been more than obvious that I loved you, Jason,” she mumbled, wiping frantically at the tears streaming down her beautiful face.
Jason felt his heart break as he watched her. “Haley, I’m so sorry.”
Haley ignored his apology and he couldn’t say that he really blamed her. “You were so busy trying to prove something that you didn’t think.”
“What are you-”
“Jason, I’m not on birth control and you didn’t wear a condom,” she said, cutting him off.
“Oh, shit,” Jason mumbled as her words hit. He’d fucked up in so many ways tonight, he wasn’t sure where to start, but he knew which fuck up was the most important.
“Oh, shit is right,” Haley snapped, opening the sliding glass door and stepped inside.
He’d never forgotten to wear a condom before. Not once. He licked his suddenly dry lips. “Haley, we have to talk,” he said, even though he had no idea where to start or what the hell he was supposed to say to make this right.
“You should have thought about that before,” she said, turning her back on him.
“Haley, please don’t do this.”
“Just leave me alone, Jason,” Haley said, her words broken by a sob as she closed the door and locked it.
