Page 41 of Redeeming Violet

“Thanks for taking care of her.”

“No need. It’s …complicated.”

He barked out a laugh that held no humor. “I bet it is. I’d like to tell you to treat her right or I’ll beat your ass, which I will by the way, but…” He stopped a moment and cleared his throat. “Fucking kills me to say it, but I think you know her better than me. Fucked isn’t it?”

“That it is. There’s plenty of time to get to know each other. Since I’ve met her, her only concern has been you and the other names. You would’ve been proud. She didn’t cower when Zane gave her shit. She spoke her mind to a big badass team guy. When she met with the POTUS she held her head high and refused to budge from what she knew to be right. I was so fucking proud of her. And then she had to face the woman that was kidnapped because of the intel she provided, and she stood tall. She saved Jasmin’s life and you saw her earlier - she was ready to do it again. Your sister is no wilting flower. She can handle herself. I’ll admit, when we met, I wasn’t real thrilled to be protecting a leak. I gotta tell you, I tried to fight it. I pushed everything I’d been feeling away. I had a shit ton of excuses as to why being with her wasn’t a good idea. I’m still not sure if it is. But I’m taking the shot.”

“You don’t say…” He shook his head and smiled at his smartass comment. “I’ll let you get back to her. Later.”

With a lift of his chin he made his way to the company SUV Zane left for him to use.

I didn’t wait for him to pull away. I took the stairs two at a time and prepared for the talk Violet and I needed to have.

“We need to talk.”

I watched as the smile faded from her pretty face and her ass plopped back into the seat she’d been in earlier.

Well fuck! That was not how I wanted to start this conversation.

Chapter Twenty-One

Violet

I was beginning to hate that statement. The last time he’d said that to me it had ended our sexy fun times. Not to mention, I was pretty much floating on cloud nine after getting to spend time with my brother. I didn’t want anything to spoil my mood.

“Don’t tell me if it’s bad news,” I told him. His body stiffened before he caught himself and uncoiled his muscles.

“It’s nothing bad. Well, I hope it isn’t. We need to talk about something you said the other day. It should’ve been addressed sooner, but I wasn’t sure what to say exactly.”

“Okay,” I drew out the word now, uncertain I wanted him to continue.

I’d enjoyed getting to know him, even if it was only on a friend level. I was now worried I’d said something to offend him.

“You said you knew the score. I think I was clear that what we’d shared wasn’t meaningless to me, but we were interrupted before we could finish our conversation.”

Damn, he was going there. I scrambled, trying to come up with something to say that wouldn’t make me sound like a fool, but was coming up short.

“Violet?”

“Yes?”

“Look at me please.” He waited until I lifted my gaze from my fingernails and I met his eyes. Damn, he had sexy eyes. “You said you understood it was meaningless.” He said the last word like it left a bad taste in his mouth and he continued. “Is that how you feel? It didn’t mean anything to you?”

Suddenly I found my manicure more interesting than looking at the disappointment Jaxon hadn’t tried to mask. I picked at my cuticles and weighed my options. I had been doing that a lot lately, picking the lesser of two evils because there was no right answer. I could lie and tell him it meant nothing and keep my heart and sanity intact, or I could tell the truth. The truth, however, would open myself up for heartache and rejection. He was waiting, and the longer the silence stretched between us, the more uncomfortable it became.

“I see,” he said.

Without looking up I corrected him. “You don’t see.” I took a breath and jumped. “I said those things because I thought that’s what I was supposed to say, and I didn’t want to hear you say them to me. So, I said it first.”

“Why did you think that’s what you were supposed to say?” he asked.

“Because I’d never had a one-night stand before or whatever that was. I didn’t know what it was, I still don’t. When you said we needed to talk, I panicked and told you I knew what the score was.”

“So… it wasn’t meaningless to you?” he asked slowly.

He was going to make me say it. “No, it meant something.”

“Thank fuck.”