Tortured Sinner by Tessa James

Claire - 29

I’m just finishing up in Jared’s closest when the door to the dim bedroom creaks open. For a second, I assume it’s Johnny, coming to help me do our detective work, but instead, my gaze settles on the six-foot-something, stinky-foot-smelling guy who this room belongs to.

I freeze, unable to speak or do a thing.

Come on, Claire, remember the plan.

“I… uh.”

Jared places his fingertips on the door and clicks it shut. He turns his attention to me, a devious grin on his face. “Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

With each step he takes toward me, I slink the opposite direction, until I back myself up against the wall and can go no further.

“I heard you were asking around for me.” He creeps closer.

“I was looking for…” But I don’t get the chance to finish.

Jared advances and throws one hand up on the wall beside me, his foul breath assaulting me with the proximity. He inches his body up to where it’s nearly touching mine. “I’m right here, baby.”

I cringe at the mental image he’s forcing into my head with his implications.

“I’m not interested,” I manage to say.

“And I don’t care.”

I weigh my options. Clearly, I can’t escape to my left, because his arm is in the way. If I bolt right, I have to side-step his desk and somehow make it to the door without him catching me.

“Thinking about going somewhere? So soon? You just got here.” He slams his other arm up to block all of my paths.

His arousal grows against my leg, and I realize I only have one route out of here. If I’m going to make this work, I have to play the part.

I relax my body, giving myself a better vantage point. I place my hands on his shoulders to brace myself for what I’m about to do next. I draw my leg back, ready to blast it forward and into his man parts.

His eyebrows raise, telling me that he’s buying right into it, thinking I’m going to go along with what he’s suggesting.

The doorknob rattles, implying Jared had locked it when he came in.

There’s a loud crash, and the door nearly flies off the hinges, but I’m already in full motion, blasting my knee straight into Jared’s crotch.

“Fucking bitch,” Jared yells, more distracted by my assault than everything else.

Johnny rushes in, his body a blur as he makes his way across the room, snatching Jared from his cowered position and pinning him against the wall with his hand around his throat.

Johnny tilts his head toward me. “You okay?”

I nod, holding my arms to my chest and backing away from that side of the room where I was trapped. “Yeah.”

“What the fuck, man?” Jared chokes. “We were just having some fun.”

Johnny slams Jared into the wall, squeezing his fingers tighter around his neck. “Didn’t really look like it.”

Jared grasps at Johnny’s arms, trying to pry him off, but Johnny has a death grip on him. It’s like there’s an unbreakable surge of anger coursing through Johnny.

Jared easily towers over him but he's no match to Johnny's adrenaline-induced strength.

I inch forward, placing my palm on Johnny’s shoulder. “Hey…”

“See, she’s fine. Let me go.” Jared attempts to rationalize with him. His words are choppy under the pressure around his vocal cords.

Johnny shakes his head. “No. Not fucking cool.”

“Dude, she was in my room, what do you expect?” Jared should really keep his mouth shut if he knows what’s best for him.

Johnny’s other hand clenches, and I realize shit is about to get way worse between them. As much as I’d love for Jared to get what’s coming to him, there are too many witnesses here to cover up for Johnny again.

Neither one of us can afford a repeat of the Griffin situation.

“J…” I come around and into Johnny’s peripheral. I place both of my hands around his eager fist. “Come on. We need to go.” Once I get his attention, I remind him, “It’s not worth it.”

Johnny seems to snap out of it, releasing Jared with one final shove. “If you ever so much as look at her, I will end you.”

Jared gasps for breath and rubs at his neck.

I maintain eye contact with Johnny and drag him toward the exit. The second we’re almost clear of the room, the idiot opens his mouth again.

“You’re a dead man, Jones,” Jared calls out.

But Johnny doesn’t bother stopping. “Fucking try me.”

We push through the crowd that had gathered in the hallway, a collective murmur in our wake. If we were trying to fly under the radar, we epically failed.

The worst part of it all, we didn’t find what we came here looking for.

Johnny grips my hand firmly and guides us around the drunk people scattered about.

I glance behind us, scanning to make sure Jared isn’t coming after us. My sights settle on another room, the door ajar enough for a person to barely squeeze through.

My breath catches and Johnny senses it immediately.

He snaps out of his stupor and focuses on me. “What is it?”

“Over there.”

He follows my direction, spotting the white sneakers with black stripes sitting right next to the nightstand in the foreign room.

We might not know who they belong to, but we can officially rule one person out. And if anything, I call that a huge win.

“Hey.” Cora grabs my arm to stop us at the bottom of the stairs. “Everything okay?”

I fight to hide my reaction to the impact of her fingers on my bruised skin. I may have fooled her, but Johnny notices the way my body tenses.

“Yeah,” I yell over the loud music. “I’m not feeling so great. We’re going to get going.”

Cora narrows her gaze and throws her hand on her hip. “If you two wanna be alone to bone, just admit it. We’re all adults here.”

Johnny places his hand on my lower back to guide me away from the people behind us trying to make their way through. He scans the faces like he’s waiting for a possible threat.

“Yeah,” I laugh. “You caught us.” I’d say anything to get her off our trail at this point. I need to get Johnny out of here before he explodes in a fit of rage.

She giggles and shoves me lightly. “Fine. Get out of here, then, lovebirds.”

I waste no more time, weaving my fingers through his, and waving a final goodbye to Cora on our way out the wide front door. I have to nearly drag him to get him to follow.

His mind is obviously distracted by thoughts of going back in there and ripping Jared’s head off.

I exhale once we’re about a block away and the chaos of that frenzied street dies down behind us. “Are you okay?” I glance over at Johnny.

He shakes his head, his dark brown hair swaying with the movement. “Claire, I’m…so sorry. I shouldn’t have put you in that position.”

I cut him off. “You didn’t. I did, remember? It was my plan, not yours.”

Johnny stops completely, turning to face me. “Did he hurt you?” He places both hands gently on my cheeks and studies me over intently.

“No.” He scared the shit out of me though, but I won’t dare admit that. “I had the situation under control. If you recall, I kneed him in the nuts.”

Johnny sighs. “Yeah, you did.” He still doesn’t seem convinced, which I don’t blame him.

“You promised you wouldn’t treat me differently,” I remind him.

“Claire…no man in their right mind wouldn’t be freaking out in this same scenario. That guy was triple your size. He could have…”

“But he didn’t. I stopped him. You stopped him.” I have to start taking care of myself. I can’t rely on the Johnny’s of the world to always come to my rescue. I will learn to stand up and stop people from pushing me around and trying to take advantage of me.

The days of the weak Claire are a thing of the past.

Johnny runs his thumb along my cheek, something he does often. It sends a chill down my spine every time, but in the best of ways.

It’s strange to think that we only met a few weeks ago, and now, we stare into each other’s eyes like we’ve known each other our whole lives.

There’s this sense of familiarity, of home.

I feel something with Johnny I’ve never felt before…safety.

With him, there’s security—a safe haven I didn't realize I was longing for until he gave it to me. And with that, it gives me strength. Courage to be a stronger and more capable version of myself. I’ve always been weighed down by others, but with Johnny, it’s a completely different story. He feels like the strong foundation I’ve always needed to stand on my own.

“I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you.” His emerald gaze melts into mine. “That’s what I’ve been trying to avoid all along.”

"What do you mean?" Although, I think I have an inkling to what he's going to say next.

“Since I met you, I’ve been…”

“Pushing me away,” I answer for him.

“Yeah…I couldn’t put you in any danger.” He tucks my hair behind my ear. “But it’s sort of impossible to stay away from you.”

“The feeling is mutual.” I recall how difficult it was to avoid him—how no matter what I did, I couldn’t get him off my mind.

“I wanted you to hate me, so it would be easier for you to stay away.”

A loud group of boys cross the street and pass behind us.

Johnny continues once they’ve gone. “I just didn’t realize how badly that would suck. And no matter what I did, whether I thought it was for the good or bad, I still kept hurting you. I thought I was protecting you from me, from trouble, but it seems like you’re a magnet for it anyway.”

“What about what I want?”

He lowers his voice. “You shouldn’t want me, Claire. I’m no good for you.”

And yet, if anyone asked me what the best part of my life was right now, I’d say him.

“You’re wrong.”

Johnny gently grazes his fingers along my covered forearm. “This, this is my fault.”

I pull my hand from his grasp. “No. Not in a million years. That was going to happen with or without you, and honestly…” I stumble on the thought of my next words. “I’m not sure I’d be alive if you hadn’t stepped in.”

The depth of which Griffin was willing to take things had crossed my mind a few times, but I had always shoved it aside, given him the benefit of the doubt. Someone who was once kind and thoughtful could never be capable of such destruction, right? But I was wrong.

Griffin was a monster. A cold-blooded sociopath. And not like the romanticized villains in the movies where the heroine ultimately realizes he’s the one for her. He’s the gross, ugly one that everyone wishes would meet their timely demise and get the hell off the show. Griffin has gone through life doing everything selfishly and for himself. He’s sick and twisted and there is no way he could ever earn his redemption.

Johnny, on the other hand, has done pretty much everything he has for the greater good, or what he assumed was the best choice. He’s perceived as the bad guy when in reality, he is the most self-sacrificing person I’ve ever met.

Griffin is just a wolf in sheep’s clothing, his layers being peeled back to reveal a disgusting excuse for a man.

“But you are alive, you’re here, and I was an idiot for leaving you alone tonight like that.” Johnny can’t seem to stop beating himself up for my decision.

“Hey.” I place my hand along his jawbone, my fingers grazing under his ear. “We’re in this together, okay? And that means we share the burden from now on. What happened tonight, it was a minor hiccup. No one’s fault. We knew going into it that there might be risks. We’re both fine, and things might have got a little rocky, but we managed to score a huge win with those sneakers. Let’s focus on maintaining that momentum.”

“We were quite the team, weren’t we?” Finally, he shows a bit of optimism.

“Hell yeah, we were.” I ignore the next set of rowdy college kids passing us and lean in, brushing my lips onto Johnny’s.

His kiss is slow at first, gentle and sweet.

I pick up the pace and deepen the intensity, not giving a shit who might be walking by at this very moment. The only thing on my mind is the taste of Johnny.

He matches my tone and weaves his hands through my hair, pulling me closer to him. He trails his fingers down my neck and along my back, landing on my exposed waist to drag me in. His touch is like fire, igniting my soul.

Johnny relaxes, breaking away and resting his forehead along mine to catch his breath. “You’re…incredible.”

Suddenly, I’m realizing Cora might have been right after all. And when I glance around at our whereabouts, I’m desperately wishing we were capable of teleporting. We’re at least a five-minute walk away from getting any kind of privacy to continue what we’re doing.

"Your place or mine?" I say, weaving my fingers through his and dragging him in the direction of our complex.