Loving His Broken Luna

Chapter 19

Renee coiled in on herself.

… What did he just say?

“It couldn’t have been that bad,” Jason lightly protested. “I’m a good guy.”

Still, Renee shook her head.

“Is it the atmosphere? Being in here?” he asked, slightly amused. “Do I burn your flame?”

… That mind reading activity of his could go to hell.

“Why are you doing this?” Renee asked, instead of letting him in.

“I think you know,” Jason purred. “I’m after a specific amount of information,” his smile reached his eyes this time.

… Her secrets.

The shade that secured her heart began to burn.

… He can’t have them!

Renee’s frown deepened. She filled her mind with fragmented feelings. None too telling but all too important to resist.

“You want my secrets?” she whispered carefully, pronouncing every last word.

Jason, however, couldn’t find the words to challenge her back. His attention flipped here and there, unable to settle on what it was she was telling him.

Renee pushed away from her place at their table and slapped his hand, disjoining the droplet from his finger.

“I’m a mistake,” she growled, her face in his. “I live with that.”

Renee shoved away from him only to be caught. His fingers wrapped around her forearm carefully. His actions to resettle her in place.

… Control.

“Surely, you know what that is,” Renee bit out.

In her anger, she could marginally see the way his eyes caught the sharpened edge of her words. There was no time to double back… or for that matter, to even go that far.

He used her needs against her. He made her feel safe, and then what did he do?

“That’s all you’ll get from me, Jason,” she fought back the tears that threatened her existence.

Jason quietly recalled the miniature droplets she sprayed all over the table and what he could from the stitch work of his clothes.

“No human,” he promised as money for their meal appeared out of nowhere. “We’re only just beginning!”

Before Renee could question him, Jason jerked her alongside him. He gathered her coat, tapped her plate and watched in horror as her pancakes lifted one by one off of the plate.

“Always a pleasure, Barb,” he hurried out.

“Leaving?! Already?” Barbra questioned, unsure of what to say.

“Late for school,” he replied icily.

It was a tactic he would use to end a conversation, Renee learned over the last four months of their pairing. His popularity knew no bounds and could put anyone back on the shelf. And that’s exactly what happened to Barbra.

Renee cautiously looked back for her. Barbra’s worry matched her own. s**t.

What did she know that Renee didn’t?

Renee did her best to plant her feet on the ground. Anything… anything in the world to slow him down.

“Jason,” she gasped. “Please, Jason,” her need for this to change had her grasping at straws.

The humiliation of his public display snapped her persona like a twig. What did Brittany say? What did Barbra mention? Did he… like her?

“I’m sorry!” she whimpered, giving him more to collect.

His body language behind her stayed strong like a stone wall. He’d heard a lot of this before. Her new thing is to apologize but she’s sure it doesn’t mean what he wants it to. Well, sort of. He doesn’t quite know when to quit, and she does have her breaking point. So many of them in fact.

“Jason, please,” she begged again as he covered her shoulders with her jacket in the waiting area. “Take them, too.”

Only, he opted out. Tired from her games, no doubt.

“Only the truth will do,” he grumbled beside her.

“How can you tell?” Renee frowned.

Jason matched her frown, unamused by her in the least.

“Take it…” she urged.

“It’ll be clear and true like an unearthed aarthikatta crystal,” he claimed.

Renee dashed her eyes. Why’d he have to speak in tongues? It wasn’t human, what he claimed.

“And that other one? You believe that was pure?”

“Your innermost thoughts usually are,” Jason huffed as he struggled to push her through the door.

“Why do you care about what happens to me?”

“We’ve been through this…”

… Yeah, his reasons.

… But not all of them.

… Was Barbra right?

… Probably not by the way he was still manhandling her.

“You have the roots of the problem then,” Renee sputtered. “Unlike the rest of my peers, I have to be the rock for my family. If I’m not, everything falls apart.”

“You come from wealth, Renee. None of that makes sense.”

… “it’s not shared with me,” she swore under her breath. “Follow Bruce around, or Karri for that matter.”

“Can’t…”

“They won’t tell the truth either, actually,” she stopped dumbfounded by her own statement. “They won’t tell you anything…” Renee mumbled. “Like I’m not even here.”

To her numbed surprise he stopped forcing her along. His hand that gripped her so tightly, loosened and fell into hers.

The reality of what she protected sat high upon her tongue.

“I’m not…” she mumbled.

“You’re here…” Jason promised. “I’ve got you.”

Renee’s lips tightened, desperate to keep all she’d been holding in.

Jason circled her, shielding her from onlookers. His body heat certainly was a surprise, enough to reclaim her attention. Renee looked up at him then, his eyes dark lit and brooding. The gray swirl licked the outside of his irises while a deep yellowy gold threatened to escape.

“J-Jason?”

His eyes jerked around to be sure no one got involved.

“What’s happening to you?” she quaked.

Only, instead of answering her, he gathered her up into his arms.

“Do not fight me,” he warned.

Jason pulled shadows from thin air to cocoon them. It felt odd, like being covered in silky sheets; nothing she should have the right to feel.

His attention stayed on her, listening in no doubt. It was the truth though. Why else would he do this?

Before she knew it, her backside met the passenger seat of his car. His body felt heavy on hers. Warm, so warm… she waded there, tempted to keep him there.

Renee squirmed just so, awakening him from his transition. His eyes caught on her overly aware being. The rise and fall of her chest. The way she butterflied her legs open to accept him.

“When did you want to tell me?” she whispered.

Jason’s eyes flicked up to hers from where they had been anchored between them. He looked deeply into her eyes, searching her… for what? She didn’t know.

“Never,” he assured her, then blinked effortlessly into his seat. “This didn’t happen.”

“Right,” her body complained.

It was the first intimate action she had that didn’t seem forced. Like he could have possibly wanted her.

… That’s ridiculous.

… No one wants her.

“Can you stop doing that?”

While his question was more like a statement, for a brief moment Renee wondered what it was about.

“The belittling you do to yourself…”

Renee’s daze wore off in an instant.

“You can hear my thoughts?”

Renee’s blush crept in while her blood went cold. What?

“I don’t like it.”

“Didn’t you say my innermost thoughts are correct?”

Jason grumbled at her mention as he leaned forward to turn on his engine.

“Not those,” he answered defensively.

Before she could add to their conversation, her pile of pancakes appeared in her lap.

“Eat.”

“We’re not going to talk about what just happened?”

Jason lifted his eyebrow at her.

“What is there to talk about?” he questioned.

“Oh, I don’t know, what this breakfast was really about? Or what you actually are? Because you are certainly not the vampire I took you for.”

That stopped him.

“That’s what you think I am?” Jason asked, shocked. “You think I’m a vampire?”

“Not when you ask me like that,” Renee grimaced.

“You were ready to accept me as one, there, between your legs,” he argued.

There wasn’t much to retaliate with. Their first meeting didn’t really go as the guidance office would have hoped. There, she would have at least had things spelled out for her. But she ran.

“I thought you knew what I was and that’s why you ran,” he added.

“If you could read my mind before, why didn’t you?” Renee followed.

“I didn’t think you’d withhold. You’re always so giving with Bruce…”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“You know exactly what!”

His volume, his anger, it sparked her fight or flight mode. While she knew it was Jason and not her mother or father, his tactics won her out.

“I don’t, actually,” Renee fought herself from crying.

“Yeah? Then why did you take his side yesterday? I came to protect you! Me!”

“They would have beat me, okay?”

It slipped. Her truth echoed within the cabin, the effort it took repeatedly bashed him in the face.

“How can you say that and want to go home?”

“There’s nothing for you here. Your job’s complete. You can go get your report done and forget…”