THE STORY CONTINUES
“He
can have me?” The words were
enough to pull Keesha Ward away from A.J.’s side.
“Where the hell do you get the nerve to think that you have the right
to give me away?”
Jason
stared impassively at the irate woman. “You
belong to me,” he replied evenly.
Keesha
poked a manicured nail directly in the center of Jason’s muscled chest.
“I don’t belong to anyone, you arrogant jackass!”
Her
declaration ended in a shriek as Jason swept Keesha up across his left shoulder.
“Yeah, you do.” He
turned around and carried her – kicking and struggling – back toward her
car.
“Hey!”
A.J. cried, “You can’t just-”
Jason
spun around and sucker-punched A.J. in the mouth. Caught off guard by the unexpected action, the other man went
flying back against the stone wall.
Resolutely
Jason continued on to the car. He
opened the door and unceremoniously dumped Keesha onto the front seat.
Neither her protests nor the blows she aimed his way seemed to register
with Jason.
It
also did not register that he sat behind the wheel of a speeding automobile.
During his short existence, Jason Morgan had never driven a car.
Some after-effect of the accident that took Jason Quartermaine’s memory
and simultaneously created Jason Morgan was enough to deter him from steering
anything other than his motorcycle.
“Stop
this, Jason!”
Keesha
was thrown against the car door as Jason wrenched the wheel and sent the car
flying into a nearby parking lot. The
sound of squealing rubber filled the air as he stamped on the brakes and brought
the car to a shuddering stop.
“He
took my life!”
Jason’s brilliant blue eyes burned with anger.
“A.J. took my life…I’m not gonna let him take anything else.”
The
angry words were the first true sign of emotion that Keesha had ever seen from
Jason Morgan. He was normally so
stoic and impassive that Keesha had fallen into the same trap that others who
encountered him had. She had
forgotten he was only human.
“What
are you saying, Jason?” Keesha
was genuinely curious. She
rightfully suspected that this might be her lone opportunity to interact with
the man so successfully hidden behind Jason Morgan’s unemotional façade.
“The
divorce is final in three months,” Jason replied, turning back toward the
steering wheel. “Just stay away
from A.J. that long.”
“Please.”
That
single word hit Keesha with the force of a blow. It was the last thing she had ever expected to issue forth
from the mouth of Jason Morgan.
As
the young woman pondered his request, she felt a strange sympathy for the man
seated so rigidly beside her. The
confusion and raw emotion of sorting out the legalities of her life with this
new Jason had been hell for her. And
throughout it all, she had not stopped once to think of what it might have been
for him.
“Three
months…” It wasn’t too much
to ask, Keesha acknowledged. “Alright.
Three months.”
Jason
gave Keesha the second shock in as many minutes. “Thank you,” he replied quietly.
He
started up the car and turned it toward the apartment complex where Keesha
lived. They rode in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.
Keesha
could not help but notice that an atmosphere that should have been awkward and
angry between them now somehow felt comfortable and right.
She risked a quick glance over at Jason Morgan and wondered if he had
noticed that fact as well.
