A Beauty Dark & Deadly (A Dark & Deadly Series Book 1) (18 page)

“He doesn’t come to town all that much because everyone assumes he committed the murders even when he was found not guilty,” Emmy corrected.  She tilted her head up in order to look down at Linda.  “No one will even give him a chance.”

“A chance?”  Linda took a step forward so they were less than a foot apart.  “You want to give a murderer a chance?  What is wrong with you?”

“There’s nothing wrong with me.  I’ve actually spent time with Jason and I think I can say I know him better than anyone else.  Why would you choose to listen to people who’ve never even met him over a girl who’s lived with him for the past month?”

Linda looked as if she was about to argue and then something akin to realization spread across her delicate features.  “Oh,” she said, dragging the word out longer than what was necessary.  “I get it.”

Emmy pushed her brow together.  “Get what?” she asked.  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Stop playing dumb, Emmy,” Linda said, her voice flat.  “It’s not a good look for you.  This whole living situation with Belmont, the fact that you’re defending a known murderer, it’s all so clear now.”  Emmy couldn’t reply.  She still wasn’t sure what Linda was trying to say and was getting frustrated because the girl just wouldn’t spell it out.  “You’re sleeping with him.”

Emmy would have laughed at the suggestion had Linda not been so serious.

“That’s it, isn’t it?” she continued.  “You’re sleeping with him and that’s why you’re defending him.  I knew you were weird, but I didn’t think you were twisted.  I mean, not only did he kill the guy, but he’s got the face only a mother could love” –

Emmy didn’t know where it came from.  It amazed her how fast it happened and her mind didn’t catch up until after the fact.  She wasn’t even a violent person and yet, somehow, Linda had made her so furious that she couldn’t help but sock her across the face.  It was only when her hand started to throb did she realize it had actually happened.

Linda let out a startled scream, her hand immediately going up to cover the side of her jaw.  “I see he’s already rubbing off on you, you whore,” she said in a low, dangerous voice.

That was when Emmy heard the loud murmurs, the new rumors that would be spread throughout Tahoe in an hour at the most.  People didn’t even attempt to hide their staring now, not after what she did to Linda.

She had to get out of there.  Now. 

After grabbing her cart, she all but dashed out of the grocery store and only allowed herself to breathe after reaching the familiar sea-foam colored car.  She knocked on the trunk, hoping Jason would understand she needed him to open it.  Once it popped open, she all but threw the bags in and shut it before sliding into the backseat flushed, out of breath, with her hand throbbing.

“What happened?” asked a bewildered Jason as he proceeded to start the car and back out.

“I’ll tell you back at home,” she replied.  She was trying to drown out the pain that she didn’t even notice that she had used the term home as though she belonged there instead of ‘the cabin.’

---

Emmy still wasn’t offering any explanation so once the groceries were all put away, Jason took a seat at the round dining table and looked up at her through the lenses of his bottle cap glasses.  Before he could open his mouth to ask her again, he noticed her cupping her hand, holding it tentatively.  It was swollen, red.  Something had happened to her.  Something had happened to her to the point that she had to punch somebody in the face.  His blue eyes immediately snapped back to her face, wanting to make sure she wasn’t marked or in pain anywhere else.  From what he could see, however, she was okay.  She didn’t seem to be favoring one leg over the other and her breathing looked even.

“What happened?” he asked.  He tried to keep his voice gentle, but there was a firmness that all but demanded she answer as honestly as possible.  If anyone had hurt her, he wanted to know so he could take care of it.

“Oh,” she said, glancing down at her hand.  Jason stood up and headed to the roll of towels, prepared to wrap ice cubes in it and help her soothe her wound.  “It’s nothing, I” –

“That isn’t nothing,” he said, indicating the swollen hand.  He took her other one and gently tugged her over to the table.  When she reached his recently-vacated chair, he placed both hands on her shoulders and eased her down before turning to the freezer for some ice.  “So?” he asked over his shoulder.

“It’s embarrassing,” she murmured, but even her voice revealed she knew she wasn’t going to win this battle.  “Okay, well I was finished with my shopping and five feet from the exit when I ran into this girl I went to college with.”

“Ah,” he said as though that explained everything.  Once he had the paper towel bounded together, he put a squirt of water on it and then knelt down.  Without waiting for her permission, Jason took her wounded hand in his and placed the ice on her knuckles.  She gasped when it touched her, and though her intuition was to pull away, he made sure she didn’t.  “Go on.”

“I, uh.”  A pause.  Jason looked up at her, wondering what caused her to stop.  He was surprised to find her watching him with an intensity in her eyes he had never seen before.  “We were friends, actually, but as it so often is with girls, a boy came between us.  I told her I liked this guy Cody and I was almost certain he liked me, but almost immediately after that, I hear she and him are going out, and from then on, I didn’t talk to either of them.  It’s silly, I know.  So high school.”

“So you punched her in the face as a way to get back to her for stealing your crush?” he asked.  She giggled because he sounded so convoluted when he was confused.

“No,” she said, shaking her head.  “I’m not a violent person.  At all.  My grandfather taught me how to throw a punch back when I was in sixth grade one Christmas, just in case, but I don’t like fighting except in hockey, and even then, I tend to get worried about both players, whether or not he’s from my team.

“Anyway, do you remember the time I went to the store for you?  Where you asked about it, and I said I defended you?”

“Of course.”  How could he forget it?  It had been one of the kindest things anyone had ever done for him in a long, long time.

“Well, she was there.  And she was the person I defend you to.  Not that no one else was saying anything or giving me odd looks, but she was the only one who actually had the courage to say it to my face.

“Today wasn’t any different.”  A pause.  “Well, that’s not true.”

“Obviously not,” Jason said with a tiny smirk.  He continued to hold the towel against her knuckles.  Every now and then, he would lift the ice up and blow on her hand.  “You socked somebody this time.”  He had been hoping his teasing would make her smile, but she looked at him with such a serious expression on her face that he almost thought he had offended her.

“No, it’s not only that.”  She bit her bottom lip, knitting her brows together.  He knew that look; she was trying to string the right words together and needed a little time to do so.  “It’s us.”

Jason licked his lips, an anxious habit, and managed to look her in the eyes.  Instead of seeing them guarded like he expected them to be, she looked almost... shy.  It was an expression he never expected to see and he found it endearing.

“Us?” he asked in a soft voice as to not scare her away. 

She nodded her head.  “I know you now,” she explained.  “A lot better than I did then.  I can handle people whispering about me and looking at me like they feel sorry for me or they think I’m crazy or for any hidden marks on my body that you may have caused.  I can deal with that.  But for some reason, Linda just made me snap.  She said some things about you and I nearly got into a shouting match with her over it.  And then she said that we -  Well, there’s no need to repeat it, but I wound up socking her in the face.  And then I ran out of the store.”

Jason watched as her face turned pink to a shade of crimson, darker even than his tomatoes. 

“What did she say that set you off?” he asked.  He didn’t want to push her, but curiosity was getting the better of him. 

“I, it’s…”  He knew she wasn’t going to tell him but something in his expression stopped her.  He didn’t think it was possible, but she flushed even more and looked away.  “She said we were sleeping together.”

“Oh.”  So she was upset someone thought she was sleeping with him?  It was a suckerpunch in the gut, but he understood her point of view.  If the whole town thought she was only defending him because they had a sexual relationship with an alleged murderer, he could rationalize feeling the need to punch someone due to the damage it did to her reputation.  “Yeah, I get where you’re” –

“That’s not it.”  Her words were fast so they jumbled together, but Jason was able to decipher them.  He picked his eyes up from her knuckles – her hand was about half the size of his – in order to meet her eyes once again.  “I mean, I don’t want people to think we’re sleeping together because we aren’t.  And I’m not that type of girl.  I don’t go around sleeping with guys I’m not in a relationship with.”  He wasn’t sure why she felt the need to clarify, but he was glad she did.  “She just said some stuff about you, along with the statement.  That was insulting.  And I was insulted.  For you.  I had been standing there, listening to her talk about you – a person, by the way, she doesn’t even know –and I just lost it.  I lost it.  I have no idea what came over me, but I socked her in the face.  I probably won’t ever be allowed back into that store because everyone started talking after I did it.  Not just whispering, but talking.  Sorry about that.  The store, I mean.”

“There are plenty of grocery stores in Tahoe,” Jason assured her, but her words were still sinking in.  He needed a moment to wrap his head around them.  “So…”  He pressed his lips together, tilting his head slightly to the side.  “You punched someone in the face.  For me.”

Emmy let out a shamed whisper, tucking her chin down so her hair fell into her face.  He was certain if he hadn’t been holding onto her hand, she’d be burying her face in them.  “I’m sure you hear this a lot in a much different context, but I really am not that girl,” she said through a mumble.

Jason couldn’t help but smile.  Without even realizing it, he began to trace designs into her skin with his fingertips.  She rubbed her lips, her eyes descending to watch his ministrations.  When he became aware of what he was doing, he stilled, unsure if he had crossed a boundary.  Then, a miracle happened.  With delicacy he wasn’t aware any human was capable of possessing, she squeezed her fingers around his.  She closed her eyes, muffling a groan of pain, but she didn’t let go until after a few seconds.

He wasn’t sure what he was doing at that point.  He extended his torso so his knees were keeping him up in order to look Emmy in the eyes.  She looked back, not breaking contact even when his index finger resumed tracing her skin.  He was so close to her that if he turned his head to the side, his lips would be pressed against hers and hers would be against his, not his neck, but his lips, and if he pushed his lips, he’d be kissing her, actually kissing her.  When her tongue slid out of her mouth to dab her bottom lip, to moisten them, he nearly did it too.

But he hesitated.  He couldn’t.  Not yet.  He wanted to kiss her, more than anything.  But now, he would wait.  For the right moment.

Instead, he reached up with his free hand and cupped the side of her neck.  Her skin was warm and as soft as it looked.  He extended his fingers up so he could feel the silky strands curl around them of their own volition. 

“That boy,” he said, his voice softer, huskier, as though they were clogged in the back of his throat and he needed to force them out because she needed to hear them.  “The one you had a crush on?  He’s mad, daft, a downright idiot for going with her when he had you standing right in front of him.” 

Gently, he used those fingers in her hair to push her head towards him so he could rest his forehead against hers.  His nose was long, pointed, and perfect hers was short, petite, a smooth slop that turned up and somehow they fit when his bridge brushed hers.  It was an odd piece in their puzzle, bridges of noses touched together in such a way that felt right, together, a match.  He would have closed his eyes to relish it if he wasn’t saying something serious to Emmy. “You were the right one, Emmy.  Yo
u
ar
e
the right one, and he’ll regret it for the rest of his life.”