Page 17 of Trial of Deceit (The Family’s Oath #1)

Chapter nine

N ightmares.

They were a rampant plague every time she closed her eyes.

Her brother’s frantic eyes. His shaking head, and trembling body. His mumbling into the gag, pleas falling on regretful ears as she covered him in dirt.

Ashari wondered how long it took Romar to die. A slow, painful, lonely death.

Sure, she was disgusted by Romar hitting on her, but she would’ve forgiven him eventually. She would’ve even told him to run and hide if she’d known Jediah would’ve gone after him.

And now it was too late.

Nature was probably feasting on his body already.

Charlie’s, too. Would she at least get a better burial?

It was unsettling that the answer would never be known.

She’d gone a whole month without eating. Whenever she managed to drag herself to the bathroom, she saw how much weight she’d lost, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.

Death was better than being trapped on Jediah’s estate.

But even death seemed to fear him. She couldn’t die unless he wanted her to.

Wiping the back of her hand across her face, Ashari wasn’t surprised to not feel wetness. She was out of tears to cry.

In the distance, she heard loud hollering.

What was happening?

She dragged herself out of the bed. Her knees buckled, and she grabbed onto the nightstand. She heaved a big breath before letting go, her steps wobbly and her vision hazy as she approached the door.

She laid a hand on the door, then exited. Blinding sunlight greeted her, and she raised a hand to her face to block it. From the corner of her eyes, she saw the two guards who’d been there since the first night she came.

Ashari took slow steps toward the window, her eyes gradually adjusting to the light. She held onto the window sill and looked down at the gathering in the backyard.

Bryony pounded her fists against Jediah’s chest while he stood rigid. “You said you’d love her!”

“I never said that,” Jediah replied. He kept his hands in his pockets as he looked toward the window, causing Ashari’s breath to hitch. A tiny smirk crawled on his face, but it faded quickly as he looked away.

Ashari watched as a man placed a stylish pink vase on a pillar. Her eyes narrowed. “A pastor?” she asked, her throat stinging. “Oh, my God… It’s an urn.”

Bile raised up in Ashari’s throat as she quickly stepped back. She almost lost her balance, but she managed to remain standing. Her back pressed against the wall beside the bedroom’s door. Her chest heaved, and she closed her eyes.

“Jediah…” she muttered, her tone laced with venom.

She moved a hand off the wall, balling it into a tight fist. She unclenched her jaw and looked toward the guards.

She pushed herself off the wall and took steady steps toward them, ignoring the sting in her knees.

“I’d like two bowls of strawberries topped with coconut flakes and a coloring book. ”

One of them nodded and moved away. Ashari studied the face of the woman guard who remained, then she returned to the room. She sat on the desk chair, thoughts swirling in her mind until the door opened minutes later.

It didn’t close, so she looked over her shoulder. Her eyes widened at Jediah. “What are you doing here?” Ashari hissed.

“No bad Patois anymore?” Jediah asked.

“Answer. Me,” Ashari gritted out.

“This is my home,” Jediah replied, placing the bowls on the nightstand. He tucked a box of crayons beneath his arm before flipping through the pages of the coloring book. “Wa yu wan’ this fa?”

She shook her head in disbelief. “That’s all you have to say?”

He stopped flipping through the pages to look at her. “Wa yu wan’ mi seh? You’ve been offered food, clothing, and a safe place to sleep. You refuse to eat, and you smell awful.”

Her shoulders slumped a little, and she pushed away a bad feeling surging up her throat.

She slowly got up, her steps unsteady as she approached the bed.

She lowered herself onto it, picked up a bowl, and reached for a strawberry.

She bit into it, her eyes closing while she almost moaned at the sweet burst of flavor filling her mouth.

“Ashari, zero,” Jediah’s voice came from beside her, and she stiffened. When did he sit?

She moved the strawberry from her mouth. She licked the stickiness from her fingers while Jediah watched, his lips parting slightly. His amusement baffled her. “This is a game to you, isn’t it?”

Jediah swallowed. Then, his eyes darted from her fingers to her eyes as he grinned. “Yes. And I always win.”

“You won’t this time.”

“What will you do, Ashari?”

“I told you already. Kill you.”

He clicked his tongue on the top of his mouth as he laid the coloring book and crayons between them. “That’s not very nice of you, agent. Killing civilians don’ go against your oath?”

“Stop taunting me,” she hissed, and he smirked. She sneered before taking another bite of the strawberry, finishing it in big bites.

Jediah quietly observed her. She realized he wasn’t going to leave, so she didn’t say anything. She grabbed the coloring book and a crayon from the box. She found a page of a popular cartoon from her childhood, and began tracing the outline with a black crayon.

“Yu naa go ask whofa funeral mi did deh?”

“Your fiancée,” Ashari answered after biting into the last strawberry. “I heard how many times you two left in the past weeks and came back, laughing late at night.” She stopped coloring to look at him. “Why’d you kill her?”

He tilted his head to the side. “Why would I kill my fiancée?”

“No one can come close to you unless you allow them to.”

His eyes narrowed. “And you’d know, huh?”

She didn’t answer.

“So, yu think yu close to me?”

“Yes.”

Jediah scoffed, grabbing a crayon and looking at the book. He started coloring on the other page. “Don’t flatter yourself, Ashari Payne.”

“Don’t flatter myself?” she mocked.

“You have perfect hearing.”

She watched him for a while, her brows crinkling as he colored. “I shouldn’t flatter myself, yet you’ve been drooling for my attention.”

Jediah’s hand froze. He made no other movement, and Ashari smirked.

“Look at me, Jediah,” she said, and he obliged. “Tell me again that I’m just flattering myself,” Ashari coaxed, tucking a finger beneath the strap of her top. She pushed it off her shoulder, and Jediah gulped. Her smug smirk stretched.

Jediah’s grip on the crayon tightened. His chest moved faster than normal. Goosebumps rose on Ashari’s skin as she moved to the other strap, then slowly tugged it downward. She tucked her fingers into the neckline of her blouse, and pulled it down until the dark circles of her areolas peeked out.

Jediah shuffled around.

“You don’t want me?” Ashari pressed. “I’m not the reason you’re getting hard?”

His lips parted, but no sound came out. His tongue darted out to wet his bottom lip as Ashari’s breasts sprang free. Jediah’s eyes hooked onto Ashari’s hardening nipples. “Can I touch you?” he asked in a breathy whisper.

“Tell me I’m not flattering myself,” Ashari said while playing with her nipples.

“You’re not,” Jediah rushed out. “I want you. And I want you to want me.”

Ashari smirked, then released her breasts. She went down on all fours and crawled toward Jediah. His breath hitched. His eyes trailed from her breasts to her eyes, his eyes a pool of lust and forbidden desire. His mix of cologne and tobacco was a spell too intoxicating for her to resist.

Jediah lay back as she straddled him. Ashari placed her hands on either side of his body, then leaned forward, ensuring her perky breasts were in his direct field of vision.

“Ash,” Jediah breathed.

“You want me to want you?” Ashari asked, rolling her hips as his dick throbbed below her.

“More than anything,” Jediah confessed. His eyes darted from left to right, unsure which of her breasts to settle on. “Please, let me touch you,” he begged.

Ashari smirked as she continued to watch his indecisiveness. She moved her right hand from his side and used her index finger and thumb to pinch her right nipple. Jediah shuddered, then went rigid.

Ashari stopped playing with herself. She looked between them, and her brows lifted. She scoffed before looking at him. “Your desperation’s pathetic,” she said and crawled off him.

Jediah snapped out of it. His head leaned off the bed, and his eyes widened at his soiled crotch.

“You should go see a doctor for premature ejaculation,” Ashari teased while fixing her blouse.

Jediah’s eyes snapped to hers. Rage built inside his eyes. “And you should go see a steel brush and commercial grade soap.”

“Your insults won’t work. Clearly, I can get whatever I want,” she said with a chuckle while glancing at his crotch that he didn’t bother to conceal. “But you’ll never have me.”

Jediah paused returning to his original position. He looked at Ashari. The small smirk that appeared on his face made her laughter stop. “I’m a patient man, Ashari.”

She scoffed. She watched as he continued to move about. “Aren’t you going to clean yourself?”

“Unless you’re offering to lick me clean, not right now,” Jediah said and grabbed a crayon. He continued coloring.

Bile rushed to her throat. She quickly grabbed a strawberry and took a big bite, satisfied as the sweet taste washed away the nausea caused by Jediah’s lewd words. After the strawberry was done, she grabbed another and resumed coloring.

“I wanted to clean myself… but you only have a bath tub.”

“So?”

“I’m scared of tubs…” she whispered, and he stopped coloring. His brows came together as he looked at her, causing Ashari’s jaw to clench. Why did she confess that to him?

“Why?”

“You don’t care. Why’re you asking?”

“Because I care,” Jediah replied. His intense stare made her breath hitch. “About why you a stink up mi house.”

Ashari released a ragged breath. Jediah smirked before looking at his coloring. It was almost complete and beautifully done, while she hadn’t moved from the outline.