Perfect Ruin

9. Unapologetic

Boom.

    That's the sound of my heart exploding when Jax 'Deadbeat' Deneris emerges from the shadows, his robe draped over him, hood covering his head. Lights immediately fall upon him, illuminating his figure but not his face. He keeps his head low, his eyes invisible, as he prowls along the ring.

    Hands reach for him, hands that should be mine, all mine, and I can't keep the jealousy to a slow simmer, it masks my face and wraps around my clenched fists. Braydon looks at me and laughs, then places a hand over my shoulder to keep me from shredding all of those people who dare to touch him.

    "Look at you," she says. "Never thought I would see the day that you'll get possessive over your boyfriend."

    Boyfriend. Damn, Jax is my boyfriend. It's been a month since we've started actually dating and I'm still not used to the fact that he's my all mine.

    But I love it.

    I love how caring he is towards me—only me. I love that I'm the only one that gets to see that side of him, the angelic part of him, the part of him that coexists with his devil side. And as much I adore the fact that he's sweet and amazing with me, I often also crave his devilish part of him, the roughness and intensity that comes along with the man who won't stop until he gets what he wants—and that is his victory.

    "He definitely brings out the worst in you," Braydon jokes.

    "He does," I say, folding my arms across my chest. My eyes never stray from Jax. "But I don't mind."

    "He's changing you, you know," she says. "You're different. Tougher. Stronger."

     I nod. It's true. The past month, Jax has been training my ass off. Now that I've mastered the beautiful art of punching the living shit out of a punching bag, we've moved onto offenses and defenses. I got to admit, I'm pretty damn good at both. I particularly love it when we have to role-play and Jax pretends to be the offender and I get to kick his balls when he tries to attack me.

     Pretty sure I could hold myself well if I ever get attacked now. Behold, Sienna Lane, the testicle killer.

    "I'm not only tougher and stronger, babe," I tell Braydon. "I'm bitchier too."

    "Definitely." Braydon snorts. "Speaking of being a bitch, you haven't talked to your sister in three weeks."

    I groan. Fuck, I hate talking about this. Jax hasn't mentioned it because he knows that talking about my sister upsets me. But I guess that message hasn't gotten to Braydon yet.

     "That's not true. I only talk to her when I need to."

    She frowns. "She told me she's really sad that you guys aren't talking."

    "It's not my fault that we're not talking. She still hates me for dating Jax."

    "Maybe if you talk to her about it, you'll sort things out."

    I roll my eyes. "You sound like my dad."

    "Again, another person you haven't talked to in a long time," Braydon says. "Damn, are you boycotting your whole family?"

    "Basically, yeah." I say. "Look, Bray, I could give two shits about Beth. If she wants to talk to me about it, she will. I don't owe her anything."

    It's true and Jax already told me so. He said that I wasn't in the wrong in this situation and Beth should be the one to be the bigger person and apologize, not me. Why should I? She's the one being petty in this situation.