I would have known if I was a virgin. Doesn't it hurt when you lose that shit? I think back to our first time—well, the first one I can recall. There was a touch of pain, but he said it had been a while. I'm sure that’s why.
"You're really not fucking with me," Joey says with defeat before he drops down onto the mattress. His shoulders sag. "I'm going to die down here. Alone."
When he looks at me, I feel a rush of guilt. “Okay.”
"Okay, you'll help me?" He perks back up, ready to use me. That’s what it is, after all. There wasn’t a lot of softness when he talked about us growing up together. I mean, if anything, he sounded like a freaking jerk.
"I can talk Sal into most things?—"
"No,” he barks, cutting me off. “You can't let him know you know I'm here."
"I can't lie to him." Any perkiness he had leaves him instantly. I don't know what to do, but I'm running out of time before my husband comes searching for me. Then he’ll know all of this.
"Test him," Joey suggests. "Now that I told you the truth, go watch him and see for yourself. The man barely knows you."
My husband loves me, and even though there’s a pit in my stomach right now, I know it’s all going to be okay.
"All right," I agree.
"Go before he catches you down here and we're both chained up."
I can't fathom Salvador chaining me up down here. He might tie me to the bed, but that would only be for a sexy punishment.
It can’t hurt to try to test him. It’s not like I’ve got anything to lose.
I suppose Joey’s fingers might disagree.
Chapter 12
Salvador
“There you are,” I say to Jema when I find her in the bedroom. She’s stretched out on top of the covers with a book and wrapped in a robe. “Did you have a bath without me?”
“I was tired of waiting.” She smiles at me as I bend down and place a kiss on her lips.
“I’m sorry I’m late. My meeting ran over and then I had to make some calls.” I take a seat on the edge of the bed as my fingers lazily stroke against her bare thigh. “What did you get up to today?”
“Well, I was in the garden for most of the day, but then I had a memory come back.”
The surprise of her statement makes my finger still. It’s only a heartbeat before I recover and go back to tracing the soft skin across her hip.
“That’s great, kitten,” I say, trying to put some enthusiasm into my voice. This was bound to happen at some point, and I’ve been waiting for it. “Tell me everything. What did you remember?”
“I don’t know. I guess it wasn’t a full memory exactly. It was more like an echo of a memory from when I was young. Maybe you could help me remember it. You know how much it hurts my head when I try to chase the thoughts.”
“Of course, what do you want to know?”
“It was something about my childhood. Can you tell me about it? Maybe about my parents and where I grew up?”
“I’m so sorry, Jema,” I say, and I can feel her body tense under my touch. “You grew up in foster care. I tried looking into your parents, but there wasn’t any information on them. You were dropped off at an orphanage when you were a baby, so there wasn’t any history.”
This is mostly true. After interrogating Joey, he gave up everything on Jema. Once he told me she was in the foster system, all it took was bribing the right people to get her file opened. I found out her parents OD’d in a drug house when she was a baby. The fire department found her, and she was turned over to the State. She bounced around in foster care after that, and that’s how she ended up getting mixed up with Joey. Telling Jema her parents don’t exist seems kinder than telling her they didn’t give a fuck about her.
“Oh, that’s good, I guess.” She seems weirdly relieved by this news, and when I look at her, she continues. “I mean, that they aren’t out there missing me.”
“Is there anything else you want to know?” I realize that I’m pushing it by asking her this because I don’t actually want her to remember that she’s not mine. She is now, but I have a feeling she’s not going to be pleased that I’ve tricked her into it.
“How’d we meet?”
