I couldn't believe Emmett and the way he was acting. If he didn't want me dating Rafael he didn't have to try and come up with some outlandish plot to bring his ex into it to tell me some story to try to get me to turn on him.
I thought back to our kiss, the gentle passion that swam in my veins from the steady action of it and brought my fingers to my lips as I slid underneath my covers in bed.
Maybe Rafael was just the rebound that I needed, not someone to get serious with but someone to tread the waters with to help me fully recover from the betrayal and prepare my heart for a real love, the love that I truly deserved in life.
I spent the night tossing and turning in bed, the nightmares leaving me alone but sleep was following suit, and by three in the morning I called it quits and ventured into the kitchen to grab a midnight snack.
There like out of a scene from a horror movie, Emmett stood in the corner of the kitchen with a cup of what smelled like potent coffee in his hand while scrolling through something on his phone.
"Shit, you scared me," I announced as his head snapped up from what he was doing and focused his eyes on me.
He pocketed his phone and raised an inquisitive gaze upon me, the unspoken question hanging deftly in the air.
"Couldn't sleep..." I trailed off, not used to Emmett being so silent.
"Same."
Well, this was awkward.
"Look, I'm sorry about what happened earlier and how it all went down, I might've been more harsh than I should have, I just have been going through a lot recently and I just snapped."
He started forward, coffee long forgotten as he set it on the counter.
"You aren't the one who needs to apologize. I realize how that must have looked walking into it, but I was wanting to tell you the story of how I knew Rafael before you guys went on your date and he twisted things in his favor, but I should've handled things differently too."
My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. I knew he must have been angry with Rafael because of how he had gone hime with his ex all those years ago, but I wondered why it was still so ingrained in him to be so full of rage.
"So, that wasn't the whole story is what you're saying then?"
He sighed, a hand in his hair and the other bracing himself against the counter behind him. I was close to him, but not close enough to see his eye color through the moonlight. The lights were off and it gave the room an intimate and guarded feel, almost like we could tell each other our deepest secrets and it wouldn't be real because we couldn't see each other fully.
"If you're having to ask then I know for sure he didn't tell you the full story. I can tell you what really happened, if you want to hear it and not be in denial, that is."
I rolled my eyes but remembered that he couldn't see me.
"I can...keep an open mind. I did only just meet the guy, although I could say the same thing about you."
"True, although we met a few years ago first."
"Semantics. So, go on. Tell me your story."
I hopped up on the island bar behind me so that he was directly in front of me but with him leaning back against his own countertop it gave us some much needed distance...distance that I needed in order to think when I was around him even though it mortified me to think that I was affected by him after all the things he'd already done to me in our short time of knowing each other.
"Well, I'm sure he told you his dad owns the Seahawks. I was supposed to be on the team that season but when we went out partying one night, Marnie, my ex, let it slip that she wanted me to be with her for college and I guess he got that word out to his recruiters and cut me out of the season. I was pissed, mainly because it wasn't my decision, it was just all talk on Marnie's end, especially since I had just found out that she'd cheated on me so it made the burn just a little worse.
"I went out later in the week to find him at our favorite spot and there he was, doing line after line of coke right out in the open and so I called him out on it. He told me that I was worthless and we exchanged a lot of heated words and he punched me out and I went down hard. He told me that he could have anyone he wanted and grabbed Marnie even though she said she didn't want to leave with him. She said she wanted to talk to me about her cheating and make it up to me but he slipped something in her drink. I could tell she wasn't herself but I had all his guys continuously pushing me back down to the ground so I couldn't get up. I was in the ER that night for four hours getting stitches on my head where they'd busted my skin open.
"Marnie called me the next morning to pick her up and I found her walking on the side of the road away from his apartment in her dress that was ripped to pieces and no shoes, her purse was gone and she couldn't remember anything that happened at all from the night before. I had to bet the one to take her to the hospital to get a rape kit done and they found the date rape drug in her system. We told the police who did it and who drugged her drink but they were probably paid off because he was never arrested, charges were never even filed."
When Emmett was done telling his and Marnie's side of the story I wanted to go to the bathroom and wipe the disgusting feel of his lips off of my mouth.
"What the- how did you let me leave with him in the first place?!"
"That's exactly what I'd been asking myself the second you walked out the door with him. He didn't do anything to you, like what he did to her?"
"No, all he did was kiss me but that was it...So, are you going to do anything about it?"
"What, that was years ago and the police obviously didn't want to cooperate then so why should we expect them to want to help out now?"
"Maybe because my dad might sort of kind of be a detective in the local precinct...granted he's in the homicide department but-"
"Oh my god, I've been trying to get this guy for so long you have no idea how great it would feel to finally be able to put that chapter of my life to bed with him in jail."
"Yeah well it won't be easy. I'll have to actually pick up the phone to face the music with my parents, but if it means getting justice for what he did to an innocent woman and assaulting you then it would be worth it. Guys like that can't just get away with it because they're rich. There has to be a balance..."
I knew the words coming out of my mouth were from me but they almost hurt coming out, knowing that I would have to speak to my mother sooner or later.
Emmett's story hit me harder than I thought it would, but I figured it was just because of the similarities that it shared with my own past, powerful men getting away with acts that they never should have been able to commit in the first place if only someone would have stood up for the innocent ones...
I used to be the innocent one, the victim, until I took back my power. I never stood up to the person who hurt me but maybe I could find some of my own justice in taking down someone like Rafael...I could get justice for another innocent girl who was harmed because the system and bystanders didn't do what they should have done in the first place.
Emmett jumped down from his spot on the counter and edged closer to me, a question in the shadow of an expression on his face.
The moonlight slanted through the window and his blue eyes pinned me to the spot, so when he was closer than a whisper of air I didn't back away from him, even though he was above eye level even with me being up on the counter.
"I have a confession..."
"Oh?"
"What I said those nights ago, here in the kitchen..."
"What, you want to take that 'bet' back? You think that if you apologize and become the knight in shining armor with Rafael that I'd suddenly want to sleep with you and you would then laugh and take the bigger room for yourself?"
Confusion swam in his face but I wasn't backing down from my statement.
"No, that's not what I was going to say, I-"
"No, I want the bet to stay in place, that way when I win I can rub it in your face just like you'd do to me if you won. But the rules might need a little tweaking."
"The rules?"
"Yeah, you said if I fell into your bed, then you'd win and the bigger room was yours. But on my terms, if you fall into my bed, then I win and you have to do my laundry for three months too."
The atmosphere turned electric and my hand came up to his face of its own accord. I had no idea what I was doing, but I wanted to have fun while doing so.
"I think you've got yourself a deal..." he trailed off, voice husky as I brought my fingers across his cheekbones eliciting a sharp intake of air from him.
"Good. Better make sure I keep my hands off of you then, wouldn't wanna lose so early would you?"
I pulled my hand back from him sharply and escaped from the kitchen, leaving him following after me with his eyes but I was already in my room with my door shut and my heart hammering in my chest, my brain wondering what the hell I had just started.