Lahat ng Kabanata ng I Want Her Bare, Always: Kabanata 131 - Kabanata 140

Charles I spent almost an hour convincing myself not to come. Then I spent another thirty minutes trying to convince myself that maybe Emily was right… Jax needed space and time.She needed a chance to sit with everything I had thrown at her without me hovering around looking guilty and miserable.Unfortunately, I had never been particularly good at giving people space, especially when those people were Jaxen.I tried distracting myself earlier. I went back to the hideout, checked on Brad, annoyed Fernandez by asking too many questions, and nearly got kicked out because apparently standing over a recovering patient while carrying enough emotional baggage to sink a ship wasn't considered therapeutic.Then I called Ivan. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a terrible decision.He picked up on the second ring. "Did she stab you?" Ivan asked immediately.I frowned. "No.""Throw something at you?""No.""Tell you to get lost?""No.""Then why do you sound like someone buried your dog?""

Charles I should have listened to Emily.Actually, I should have listened to Jaxen.Better yet, I should have stayed back, checked on Brad, annoyed Ivan, argued with Emily about using my credit card for things she definitely didn't need, or even sat with Nathalie and listened to her complain about how her tea tasted different in New York. There were plenty of things I could have done tonight, and yet somehow, I found myself parked across a restaurant like some divorced forty-year-old man trying to catch his wife cheating.It was embarrassing. Worse, I knew it was embarrassing. But that still didn't stop me.I watched as Jax climbed out of the car and adjusted her jacket before looking around briefly. She looked nervous, which almost made me feel better because maybe this wasn't something she wanted to do either. Maybe she was only here because she genuinely needed information, and maybe I had been acting irrationally for the last hour.Then the restaurant doors opened, and out came D

Jax I honestly didn't know what I was expecting when I agreed to meet Damiano.Maybe answers, or closure. Or maybe just someone who existed before all the madness started, someone who knew me before I became Jaxen DeLuca, the girl who got kidnapped, manipulated, lied to, and somehow ended up working for the devil himself.Unfortunately, the person sitting across from me was Damiano, and Damiano had the attention span of a goldfish whenever he wasn't talking about himself."So," I said, leaning forward slightly while watching him play with the straw in his drink, "do you remember anything from when we were teenagers?"Damiano frowned dramatically and rested his chin on his hand as though I had just asked him to solve world hunger."Of course I do," he said confidently."Really?" I asked, feeling a little hopeful."Absolutely.""Then tell me."He sat up straighter, looking unusually serious. "You wore braces.""I never wore braces.""Oh.""You had curly hair.""I've always had straight

Jaxen The next morning felt heavier than the night before, which was saying something because I hadn't exactly slept much. Most of the night had been spent staring at the ceiling, replaying conversations, arguments and revelations until my head hurt. Finding out Martha was alive had been enough to shake me, but seeing Charles look genuinely miserable before he left only made things worse because I hated that some stupid part of me still cared.Eventually, I gave up on sleeping, pushed the blanket aside and dragged myself out of bed. The smell of freshly brewed coffee drifted through the apartment almost immediately, followed by the faint sound of humming. Curious, I walked toward the kitchen and found Martha already there. She moved around the place comfortably, opening cabinets without hesitation and reaching for things as though she had lived there all her life. She noticed me standing at the entrance and smiled warmly before wiping her hands on a kitchen towel and sliding a mug to

Jaxen I remained in the sitting room long after Damiano disappeared into his bedroom, my fingers loosely wrapped around the mug of tea he had made for me. It wasn't bad tea. In fact, it was surprisingly good, which annoyed me because Damiano seemed to excel at random things nobody asked him to be good at. One minute he was joking about me fleeing to Spain to become a mysterious woman with twenty cats, and the next minute he was brewing tea that tasted like something sold in expensive cafés.I lifted the mug and took another sip, allowing the warmth to settle in my chest. For the first time in weeks, there was no Charles staring holes into someone, no Emily trying to play mediator and no Martha giving me advice wrapped in sweet grandmotherly wisdom. It was quiet, and although quiet used to scare me, it felt oddly comforting now.A few minutes later, Damiano emerged from his room wearing a black jacket and running his fingers through his hair. He looked like someone preparing to go som