A warning.
“Um… I…”
He straightened to his full height, then strode toward her with heavy, booted steps that had her backing up on instinct. Every thud against the tile reverberated through the quiet apartment.
“What is this shit?” he shouted, grabbing the thin strap of her sundress as he reached her. The pop of threads snapping combined with his aggressive approach had her jolting like she’d caught a live wire. “Benny and Grant will be here in five fucking minutes, and you’re prancing around half naked.”
Stale, beer-laden breath exploded across her face as he invaded her space.
“You hoping one of them will notice? You gonna try to fuck one of my friends right in front of me in my own goddamn apartment?”
Her jaw dropped. “What?”Never in a million years.She shook her head so hard the room spun. “No. God, Jase, how can you even say that to me?”
Words tumbled out at a rapid clip, fear pushing them faster than she could think. “I’m not even going to be here. It’s Rylee’s birthday party. Remember? I mentioned it to you the other day. I told you her friends were having a little party for her at La Rosa Roja.”
The slap came so fast and so suddenly that shock overrode the pain. Her head snapped to the side, and the copper taste of blood flooded her mouth. She froze, blinking twice before the sting made itself known, blooming across her cheek in a fiery blaze of pain and humiliation.
Her ears rang.
Her chest constricted as a sob lodged in her throat.
“You telling me you’re going out looking like this? Dressed like a fucking slut?”
“N-no.” She could feel the side of her face swelling, and a trickle of blood running from her lip where his palm had smashed it into her teeth. “I-it’s just a sundress.”
Wrong thing to say.
He slapped her again. This time, she felt the agony on impact and couldn’t keep from crying out.
“Just a sundress?” Jason shouted again, grabbing her strap. This time, he yanked, severing the material in half. “Look how fucking easy it is to rip this shit off you.”
He grabbed her upper arms and shoved her against the nearest wall so hard her head hit with a loud thunk. Bright spots exploded behind her eyes.
“There’s only one reason you wear a dress like this, and it’s to get men fucking hard. You fucking around behind my back, whore?”
“No.No!”
This had escalated so fast and gotten so out of control that she could barely process the bombardment of shouting, pain, and fear. Her brain scrambled to keep up, throwing thoughts like lifelines she couldn’t catch. “I just… I just wanted to look nice. For the party. That’s all.”
Her voice shook.
Her hands shook.
Everything shook.
Wrong thing to say, again.
He lifted his hand, and she flinched with a whimper. “Please don’t hit me again.” A choked sob left her as his palm slammed into the wall next to her head instead, close enough she could feel the rush of air against her ear.
“Shut the fuck up and don’t even think about telling me what to do right now. No woman of mine is going to go out looking like a damn streetwalker.”
Her heart raced, and she trembled against the wall as she shook her head. “N-no. Of course not. I won’t go. I’m so sorry. I-I don’t know what I was thinking.”
She pleaded with her eyes, staring up into his menacing, stormy gaze.
You’re doing it again. You’re giving him complete control over you.
He grunted. “Jesus, you’re a dumb bitch.”
