“Under the influence of that substance, a person stays semi-conscious but remembers nothing the next day.”
She stands and trembles, terrified. “It wasn’t my fault,” she says, then whispers, “Do you think it was my fault?”
“Sit down, Jazmina.”
She obeys automatically.
“The part where you were drugged? No. The part where you exposed yourself? Yes. I understand you want to experience life, but if you think you’re grown up enough to go out, then act with responsibility. And more importantly, understand that the world outside your palace isn’t the same. Assaults on college campuses are far more common than you think. If you’re ever in a place like that again, never, and I mean never, leave your drink out of your sight.”
“I opened it myself.”
“But you must’ve left it somewhere.”
“Behind me on a counter,” she says quietly.
“It wasn’t your fault. But don’t put yourself in that position again. You only had a small sip, but the worst could’ve happened.”
“Thank you for being so understanding. I was terrified you’d send me back home.”
“You’re going to tell Kaled everything.”
“What? No! I can’t, Rodrick. He’ll send me back to Rheadur!”
“If you want to be respected as a woman capable of making her own decisions, face up to your mistakes. I haven’t told him yet out of loyalty to you. But I won’t lie to my best friend.”
“I need more time before I can do that. I just got here. If I tell him what happened, he’ll lose all trust in me.”
“One month. That’s the deadline I’m giving you to tell your brother. But on one condition: you stay out of trouble until then.”
She looks like she wants to argue, but then she wisely chooses to focus on breakfast instead.
I’m thinking I’ve handled the situation well when she suddenly fires off:
“I understand almost everything about last night, but not how we ended up in bed together.”
Chapter 16
“Uh . . .that’s not what I meant. It’s just that when I woke up, you and I . . .we . . .”
I try to erase from my mind the image of her in my robe, but it’s useless.
There was no lingerie underneath, and Jazmina had been soft and yielding, clinging to me in the middle of the night. Her scent seems imprinted on my memory, and I can almost breathe it in even now, with a table between us.
“Josephine came with us to my place and she undressed you,” I explain, because I know that’s been tormenting her. “After the doctor examined you, I was worried and didn’t want to leave you alone. You woke up and asked me to stay with you. That’s all.”
“But I was holding on to you when I woke up.”
“I don’t have an explanation for that. I think it’s normal that when a man and a woman sleep in the same bed . . .their bodies find each other during the night.”
“I wouldn’t know. I never . . .um . . .No other man has ever touched me that intimately, except my father or mybrothers. When you picked me up that day, on Vicenzzo’s boat, it was the first time someone outside my family . . .”
I’ve never considered myself a caveman. Since I don’t intend to tie myself to anyone permanently, I’ve never cared who else the women I’ve slept with have been with. But hearing that, that I was the first, hits something primitive in me I didn’t know existed.
“Why didn’t you push me away or scream that day on the boat?”
“You caught me off-guard,” she answers, but we both know it’s a lie. Despite her complaints, she never once tried to get out of my arms.
“Why didn’t you push me away, Jazmina?”