“It’s a coincidence. I didn’t know you worked here. I stopped by for a quick meal and saw you.” As much as I wanted to think he was lying, his voice spoke levels of sincerity and his expression remained stoic. Then again, Jasper had mastered acting.
“I really appreciate what you did for my mother. You paid my father’s debt and got me out of trouble from the law, but I think I’ve already repaid you by living three weeks in your house and…” I could feel the heat warming my neck as I said it. “And catering to your needs.” I bit my lip. “If you should know, Jasper, I would never stay with you for your money. I thought I could do what you expected from me; be content with just staying as your mistress, but I can’t do that. I’m sorry.”
“Your hair has grown longer. It looks beautiful,” He complimented with a smile.
“Thanks,” I said.
“I didn’t come here to make you feel bad about yourself. What you did was correct. I just wanted to tell you that I miss you, Kiara.” He dug his hands in his pant pockets, seeming haggard. “You look well, and I’m really happy to see that.”
I stared at him in surprise. It was getting pretty chilly outside; I hugged myself, trying not to freeze my butt and thinking what to make of this conversation. I thought he was going to be angry and ask me to go back to him, but he’d totally surprised me with his words. Jasper stripped off his bomber jacket and placed it on my shoulders. I felt nice and warm, and it smelled like him.
A sense of déjà vu hit me.
Why was he acting so nice?
“I should go,” I said.
He nodded again. His blue eyes did not betray any emotion, and that’s what scared me most of the time. “Take care of yourself, Kiara.”
Still feeling a bit shocked, I watched as he walked away from me towards his car. He opened the door and slid into the driver’s side. I stood there until the car disappeared from the street.
***
“I don’t understand. How did he know you were working here?” Colin asked me the next day while I was helping him in the kitchen.
“He told me it was a coincidence,” I admitted.
“That’s a fat lie,” Colin muttered.
“It didn’t seem that way,” I said, squeezing ketchup on the burger patty.
Colin placed his hand over mine. “I’ve said this before, and I’m going to say it again. If you have any problems, talk to me about it. I can help you.”
I passed him a smile. “Thanks.”
He placed his hand on my shoulder and that’s when Colin’s girlfriend, Sasha, walked in. “What the hell is going on here?”
Colin pulled his hand away from my shoulder like he had touched a hot iron rod. “Baby, it’s nothing like you’re thinking.”
Sasha turned a deaf ear to him as she walked towards and stood right in front of me. She was at least a few inches taller than me which gave her the upper hand. I didn’t really like Sasha. She always had the wrong idea that I had a thing for Colin which was far from the truth.
“You can fool Colin with your goody-two-shoes act, Kiara, but you can’t-fool me.” She said, fuming. She always had a bit of a problem with me. I wasn’t sure why.
“You’re misunderstanding me.” I tried to reason with her.
“He stays out until late, and he gave you his old apartment to live in for free. So, tell me something, Miss Reeves. Are you screwing my boyfriend as payment for his kindness?”
“Sasha! Mind your language!” Colin yelled.
Sasha smacked Colin’s face and stomped her way out of the door. Colin didn’t bother to follow her like I assumed he would. Instead, he turned to face me and apologized.
“As soon as I find a good place, I’ll move out,” I promised.
He shrugged but didn’t protest which told me I needed to find a place soon.
***
I was mostly being careful after that night with Jasper. It’d been a few days since he’d been at the diner. Honestly, when he’d said he missed me, I had the familiar butterflies take flight in my stomach. It was hard to admit, but I was still in love with him. After the attempted rape in the alley, I was always careful when I had to run an errand to the supermarket. I climbed the stairs to the studio apartment quietly. The staircase light was left off. I wondered if Colin switched it off by mistake. My fingers found the button as I clicked the lights on, and my heart almost stopped beating when I saw the man standing near my doorway. The shopping bag I was carrying dropped to the floor.
“Oh my god, Jasper!” I bit back a scream, holding my rapidly beating heart.
“I didn’t want to surprise you like that.”
“Surprise? Jasper, you scared the shit outta me!” I said furiously.
Jasper ran a hand through his hair in frustration. The unruly curls had grown wilder. His other hand was hiding something behind his back. I couldn’t see it. He was dressed casually in an Abercrombie t-shirt and blue ripped jeans. The sleeves of his t-shirt hugged his biceps perfectly. I remembered him shirtless; the amazing set of six-pack abs right there. The expanse of his broad shoulders was blocking me from entering the apartment, and his imposing height made me feel even shorter. He was pure sin, dangerous yet tempting and hard to resist. He was born to ruin women with just one glance. My heart did a quick somersault, and I cursed myself inwardly for feeling this way. If this man begged, I wasn’t entirely sure if I wouldn’t cave in.
“How did you know I lived here?” I asked.
I was starting to feel a little curious and scared about what he was hiding behind his back.
Could it be a knife? Was he going to threaten me?
He shrugged. “Just saw you walking back here yesterday.”
“Are you stalking me?”
He didn’t answer. “I was wondering if maybe we could, you know, start over.”
“Start over?”
“Yeah,” he admitted. “Do what normal couples do; date each other.”
I was speechless. He’d been waiting here outside my apartment for I didn’t know how long to ask me if we could date?
“Why would you want to date me? You don’t even like me. You just like fucking me; that’s the last thing I remember you said.” I was throwing his words back at him.
He sighed. “I don’t deny that. I’ve always liked being intimate with you and I apologize that you felt insulted, but you already know that I’m always honest with you,” he said, and my eyes widened at how he never made an attempt to deny the facts thrown at him. He was brutally honest as always.
“So why are you here? If you’re going to ask me to sleep with you, Jasper, please don’t bother. The money you lent me, I know it’s a lot, but I’m going to try and pay you back even if it means working two jobs. I just need more time.”
That said, I turned towards the door, retrieving the keys from my bag. Suddenly, his hand wound around mine as he pulled me against his chest. His strong arm snaked around my back and the familiar scent of his cologne filled my nostrils. His other hand finally revealed what he was holding.
A bouquet of lovely red roses. The flowers were huge and perfectly bloomed. “These are for you,” he whispered, softly.
I took the bouquet from him because I was a sucker for roses and stuff like that. “Thanks.”
He was still holding me close to him. “I need one more chance, Kiara, to make it right. I want you back in my life.”
I tried to wiggle out of his embrace, but his hold on me tightened. I said, “I can’t give you what you want because we both know we want different things from each other.”
His thumb slowly caressed my cheek and lingered near my jaw. “For months I tried to forget you. I tried to tell myself that it’s okay to move on, but I couldn’t do that,” he whispered in that deep husky voice. “You don’t have to answer me right away; you can take your time.”
He didn’t say anymore after that and made his way downstairs out of the building.
It was exactly what I’d wanted to hear him say, and for months,
I replayed it in my head a lot of times, but I’d been heartbroken before and I didn’t know if I was ready to make another mistake again.
***
Jasper never took no for an answer, I knew that much, and so he continued to show up at my workplace during the evenings and stayed until closing time, watching and waiting, a half-eaten sandwich on his table. His gaze would dart towards me before he moved his attention back to his laptop screen.
It went on for over a week until one day, Colin approached Jasper’s table. I wondered if he had sensed the tension. I followed him. “Is there a problem?”
Jasper’s stare got ice cold, and the softness that I had seen a while ago was getting clouded by menace. “You tell me. I’m just a customer having my coffee.”
Colin tried to match Jasper’s hard stare but I knew Jasper would win this show of epic stare-down. “I noticed how you’ve been insistently trying to court Kiara.”
Jasper barked out a laugh. “Court Kiara? Does anyone even use that word anymore?”
Colin ignored the jibe and continued. “I think she made it clear last time that she didn’t want to see you, and I’ve been noticing you here every single day since then even when she told you off clearly which tells me that you are causing us trouble. I want to know if I need to involve the police.”
Jasper chuckled. If Colin was smart, he would let this go. I placed my hand on Colin’s shoulder to tell him to shut up before it was too late.
“Mr. Davis, I really appreciate you looking out for my girl, but that doesn’t mean it gives you or anyone the right to insinuate that I’m indulging in criminal activity. I was just merely trying to fix the misunderstandings-persuading her.”
“More like stalking rather than persuading. And I do have proof.”
“Colin.” I warned him.
“Are you sure it’s alright, Kiara?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Whatever it is that you need to talk about, take it outside,” Colin said and walked away.
Outside in the parking lot, we stood by his car which was a new shiny red Maserati. I wanted to believe he had brought it to impress me.
“I’m sorry about Colin. He gets a bit defensive sometimes.”
“Are you free Saturday night?” He tried to change the subject all of a sudden.
I was free but I didn’t want to seem too eager. “Guess I will be.”
“Alright. I’ll pick you up at eight and we can go out to dinner,” he was acting bossy again. “I won’t screw it up, I promise.”
I nodded and smiled. “I’ll look forward to it, Mr. Lockhart.”
That night, I received a text from my co-worker, Chloe, asking me to come to a club downtown called The Vault. It wasn’t the weekend so I knew the club wouldn’t be packed. Twenty minutes later, I was dolled up in a short back dress, my hair curled up. I’d watched some makeup tutorials and managed to do smokey eye-makeup. When I reached the club, it was easy to spot Chloe was dancing between two men. She usually enjoyed all the male attention, and I wondered how I ended up with the same type of friends. Kathy had been similar.
Chloe tried to get me to dance but I strictly declined her offer, and instead, ordered a margarita and cheesy nachos. It was past midnight, and I was bored out of my mind even with Chloe trying to make conversation with the loud music blaring in my ears. It was a weeknight so the club wasn’t packed. There were more people sitting on the sidelines watching than dancing on the floor.
I was sipping my margarita when I noticed a tall blonde guy leaning against the wall and looking straight at me. I thought it was a mere coincidence that we happened to exchange glances at the same time, but a while later, I looked again and I noticed his eyes were still on me, serious and intense.
A shiver ran down my body and I looked away. After the third drink, my head felt woozy, and I instantly regretted having so much to drink.
“I have to use the restroom,” I informed Chloe.
“Should I come along?”
“No, it’s okay,” I said, and made my way towards the restrooms.
The restrooms weren’t as bad as I thought if you got past the stink of piss. I walked out of the stall, washed my hands and applied some lip-gloss. When I walked out of the passageway, I was caught off guard by a strong hand that covered my mouth.
A man was dragging me somewhere.
Could it be Jasper?
Chapter Twenty
The man loosened his grip on my mouth as he dragged me out of the club through the back door. I tried to scream, but he pressed his hand back again on my mouth. I got a glimpse of his face when the strong strobe lights reflected on him. It was not Jasper or anyone I knew. He was the same blond man who’d been staring at me a while ago.
We were in an underground cave. The strong whiff of smoke and alcohol almost made me gag. There was a different crowd of people down here, the type you were supposed to stay away from. I saw a woman passed out on the floor. Her eyes were rolled back, and there was another man smoking at the arm of the couch.
They were doing drugs. Why had this man brought me here?
“I’m going to scream,” I warned him.
“I need you to trust me, Kiara,” he said, and pointed at a door at the far end. “We can go outside to the parking lot where there are fewer people and we’d more privacy to talk.” His eyes darted around the room cautiously.
“I’m not going anywhere unless you tell me who you are,” I said, folding my arms across my chest and trying to appear tough even though I was scared from the inside.
“Lucas Johnson sent me here. Does that name ring any bells?”
Of course, it did. How could I forget the man who had helped me, no questions asked.
“What does Lucas have to do with this?” I asked.
“If you follow me, I’ll tell you everything,” he said, and then added, “You have to trust me, Kiara.”
I didn’t have a choice so I followed him out towards the door that had a huge EXIT sign in neon lighting. The curiosity building inside me outweighed the fear I had for this man, even though his method of getting my attention was wrong; although I admit I wouldn’t have talked to him if he hadn’t dragged me downstairs. As the club doors closed behind us, the chaos got quieter. He grasped my elbow, and pulled me towards the corner near a blue Lexus sedan.
“My name is John, and I work for Lucas. He sent me here to warn you about some things.” He came straight to the point.
“He knows where I am?” I asked him, surprised.
John nodded, “And he also knows what Jasper is up to.”
“I don’t understand.”
John glanced around as if making sure we were actually alone, and whispered, “Is he being unnecessarily sweet? Did he tell you that he has changed? Did Jasper ask you for another chance?”
“He did, but—”
John gave out a hoarse laugh. “That bastard is playing you.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because that’s his plan all along. He wants to trap you in an elaborate sketched plan and drag you back to that hell hole.”
“I don’t believe you.” I shook my head.
It was true that Jasper acted indifferently, but he’d apologized for his behavior. He was sweet by giving me roses even though I didn’t appreciate how he’d almost scared the bejesus out of me. I’d seen and felt how he really wanted me to accept his apologies. He’d been trying for almost two weeks straight now.
“He’s using you,” John said.
It was time for me to laugh. I laughed so hard that there were tears in the corner of my eyes. “I’m sorry, what was that?” I asked between laughing. “Jasper is using me?”
John clearly appeared pissed. “Is there something funny what I said?”
“Let me get this straight. You’re saying Jasper Lockhart, CEO of the Lockhart Enterprise, billionaire and owner of hotel chains and resorts is using Kiara Reeves, a nobody, a waitress who works at a diner. Please forgive me if I find that utt
erly laugh-worthy.” I couldn’t control my laughter. Maybe it was the alcohol working its wonders.
“It’s your call. My job was to warn you, and the job is done, but it seems like I may have just wasted my time,” he said.
“In all seriousness...” I continued. “…I find it quite hard to believe that Jasper could be planning to use me in any way. I’m sure there are far more influential women lying in wait for him to spare a minute of time of his day.”
“It would be in your best interest to move somewhere else. Stay low for a while,” John suggested.
“You don’t understand.” I shook my head. “I have a job here, and a place to live. I can’t afford to move anywhere.”
John didn’t seem convinced.
“Besides, Jasper had apologized to me, and he’s trying to fix our differences. He’s trying to change himself.”
A few seconds passed and then he said. “Lucas told me to warn you, I’ve done my job. Goodbye.” He turned on his heel, walked towards his car, a sleek black jaguar, and left me to ponder over our conversation. It was a little hard to believe that Jasper would go to the extent of apologizing and doing things for me because he thought I was useful to him in any way. As far as I knew, Jasper had everything and didn’t need a woman like me by his side. During the numerous parties that I’d posed as his companion, I’d seen beautiful women, single or married, openly flirting with him. Those were the women with high statuses and heavy bank accounts; the kind who didn’t need a man to provide for them.
He surely didn’t need me.
Jasper had paid my father’s debts, and I paid my dues in Jasper’s bed. There was only one reason why he would go all the way to track me down. We all were humans. We make mistakes, and we learn from them. If Jasper had developed feelings for me, I knew he deserved a chance.
***
Jasper
Lucas thought he was really smart, sending someone like John to warn Kiara. What he didn’t know was that I was always one step ahead of him. If Lucas was desperate to fuck my life, so be it. He was going to get what he asked for.
Psycho Billionaire: A Dark Romance Page 14
