“Jackson, you can’t be serious about Alec. He’s my fiancé, he-”
He snatched my chin, roughly tugging it to make me look at him.“Does any part of me looklike I’m not being serious? I mean it, Kiera, if I find out you’vefucked him, and Iwillfind out, I won’tjustsharethatvideo with Alec, but I’ll send it to every single person in your life. Your hairdresser, Karen? She’ll get it. The woman who waxes your cunt, Veronica? She’ll get it.”He shifted closer, so closethatwhen he spoke, his hot breath brushed against my lips.“Shall I tell you who else will get a copy of the video?”Words stuck in my throat, and all I could do was gape back at him, bewildered as to how he knew so much about my life.“Every. Single. Teacher at Billie’s school will get a copy. Can’t imaginethatwill go down well at such a prestigious school, will it? So I’ll ask you again. Do you understand?”
I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth to stop it from shaking as tears threatened to fall. Jackson may have deserved a chance to repair the damage I’d caused, but this? This wasjustdownright cruel.
Knowing I didn’t have a choice, the words were barely a whisper when they left mymouth.“I… I understand.”
“Good,”he sneered, releasing my chin.“Now get the fuck out of my car. I’ll be in touch.”
He didn’t need to tell me twice. My entire body screamed at me to get the hell away fromhim. Getting into my car and speeding home, I sincerely debated driving to collect Billie and relocating to the other side of the world, where we couldn’t be found.
Chapter 8
Kiera
Bythe end of the following week, I was a nervous wreck. Every time I left the house, Icouldn’t stop looking over my shoulder, convinced Jackson was going to appear out of thin air and demandsomethingfrom methatresulted in giving him more material to blackmail me with.
The worst part? A pang of disappointment would streak through me when he wasn’t there, and I found myself questioning my sanity. Why the hell did I want to give Jackson more ammunition to use against me?
Because even though Jackson hated me, I had his attention back.I refused to acknowledge that thought.
I couldn’tevenescape my paranoia at home. Each time the doorbell rang, my stomach would clench with nervous anticipation, only to find a delivery driver on the doorstep.
I lived in an entirely different city from Jackson, and I didn’t know if he knew where I lived. But he’d managed to obtain so much information about my life, right down to the name of the woman I regularly visited for a bikini wax,thatit wouldn’t have been a surprise if he had found my address.
On top ofthat, I’d developed a strange feelingthatI was being watched inside the walls of my house. I didn’t know what specifically made me feelthatway, but with every passing day, my paranoia worsened.
The only thing I could put it down to was the phone Jackson had given methatI carried everywhere in case he messaged. Whether it was in a pocket or a purse, it felt like I was carrying a ten-ton stone instead of an innocuous device.
Whenever it vibrated with an incoming message, my heart would leap into my throat, dread seeping into my bones at what he wanted, only to find he’d sent a meme of something ridiculous.
He was taunting me, and I was helpless to stop it.
Jackson had the worst timing, too. He somehow managed to send most of his messages at the most inappropriate time, as if he knew the last thing I needed rightthenwas him bothering me. Like the night Alec pounced on me while we were watching a film and attempted to shove his fingers into my shorts.
My phone had vibrated in my back pocket, and when I made my excusethatI was on my period and needed to go to the bathroom—cue Alec losing his mind—it was to find Jackson had sent a picture: a screenshot from the video of him fucking my throat at the party.
Accompanying it was a message reminding me of his rule not to sleep with Alec.Easy to do when Alec thought it wasthattime of the month. Not so easy when I’d usedthatexcuse for the month.
Thenthere was the other time when I’d invited the girls round for dinner and drinks as Alec was working late. Jackson had sent another picture, this time of himself standing outside Donna’s house. He didn’t include a message, but the threat was clear. A reminderthatif she ever invited me to a party again, and I went, the consequences would be severe.
With the knowledgethatBillie would be home in two days, my anxiety had spiked to a whole new level. What the hell was I going to do if Jackson messaged me when I was spending time with my daughter? I couldn’t abandon her because I was at his beck and call whenever he felt like having his cock sucked.
Or whatever else he planned on doing to me.
I’d been looking forward to Billie coming home for weeks; she was the only thingthatkept me going. But now, I couldn’t help but wish her school term wasn’t coming to an endjustyet.
Damn Jackson for making me dread my daughter coming home.
Lost in the chaos of my life, I couldn’t focus on the movie Alec and I had supposed to be watching until the end credits started rolling. I glanced over at him, surprised he hadn’t spent most of the movie feeling me up like he usually did.
A smirk curled my lips at finding him struggling to stay awake, his lids almost closed. Maybe I wouldn’t have to fight his advances tonight after all. He hadn’tseemedallthattired when he first got home from work, so I suspected the entire bottle of wine he’d drunk at dinner had something to do with it.
He hadn’t offered me any of the wine with our dinner, knowingthatI didn’t like red wine, but had spent the entire meal braggingthatit was an expensive brand, and a client of his had gifted him the bottle for helping them with their investments.
I’d refrained from rolling my eyes on countless occasions, stopping myself from reminding himthathe’djustdone his job as he downed glass after glass.
Poking him in the side, he grunted as his weary eyes found me.“You ready to head to bed?”
