The Perfect Guy: A Romance Novel Page 14

  I threw my hands in the air in defeat. It was obvious he would never listen to me. I decided that it was up to him if he wanted to believe we would get married because the only way he would get me into a white dress and down an aisle was if he sedated me and then chained me to the alter so that I couldn't run away. Then he would have to drug me with heavy medicine to make me even say yes.

  "I believe Jennifer made herself quite clear that she doesn't want you. Why don't you just leave now and everything will be fine," James continued in a controlled voice.

  "Just shut up, will you!" George screamed, but that was his mistake. James's entire face hardened and he grabbed George's arm in a hard grip that caused him to grunt with pain.

  "I'm afraid you're not giving me a choice." James started to drag George toward the front door, and he only turned to order me to stay where I was. Of course I didn't listen. I had to know what he was going to do to George and also make sure that he wouldn't kill him, so when the oak door didn't close completely, I leaned in close so that I could hear.

  "What the fuck are you doing here, Carter? Do you want to blow everything?"

  "Shut up, Masen! I am tired of waiting. It's been four months without a single word! How the hell are we supposed to know how things are progressing?"

  My eyes widened with disbelief when I realized that the two men talked as if they knew each other. I couldn't understand what they were talking about, but I was starting to fear it.

  "It's not my job to keep you up to date, okay?"

  "Not us, but since you haven't talked to your aunt either, we've been left in the dark for too long. That was not our agreement."

  "I don't care about the agreement. Just let me do my job my way and don't interfere, or you can forget the entire thing," James threatened, and my heart was beating so fast at this point I feared it was going to burst from my chest.

  "You can't do that. We have a contract! You break it, and we will sue you," George insisted, but it only caused James to chuckle evilly.

  "The day you find a lawyer that will be willing to prosecute me in an affair like this, I will personally deliver a check that will cover whatever costs you feel to have lost. Now, I think it would be very wise of you to leave. I won't hesitate if you force my hand."

  George did not reply to that, and I never heard him leave, but moments later, I heard tires screech outside as he fled.

  I didn't even try to hide the fact that I had eavesdropped. I could feel that I was finally close to the answer I was looking for, and I wouldn't back down for anything, so when James opened the door to go back inside, I was standing only a few feet away, glaring at him with my arms crossed.

  "If you cherish your genitals, you better speak now," I said, and for the first time ever, I saw genuine regret shine in his eyes.

  CHAPTER 18

  THE TRUTH

  It felt like an eternity passed while James seemingly weighed his options.

  For the first time ever, I could see every emotion as it passed over his face: anger, regret, defiance, sadness, and lastly acceptance. I knew that he would tell me everything then. I could feel it.

  “Jennifer,” he started, but I didn’t like the tone of his voice. It sounded as if he would try to delay it like he’d done from the very start, and I was tired of that now. This entire thing would end right here, right now.

  “No! You don’t get to weasel your way out of this one. I want the truth from you right now.”

  He closed his mouth with a snap and studied me for a few seconds before he slowly nodded and crossed the hall and opened a door further down that I knew led to the backyard. It was snowing outside, and my dress wasn’t exactly warm, so I hesitated at first, but I knew he wouldn’t tell me anything as long as we were in hearing distance of anyone walking out from the festivities in the auditorium.

  I went out on the stone steps, but I made no move to walk further. My heels were not made for walking on ice, so he could forget it. I stood underneath the glow of the lamp situated next to the door and hunched against the cold. The shawl I had around my shoulders didn’t provide any protection at all against the biting wind.

  When James shrugged out of his jacket and handed it to me, I wanted to refuse it at first, but my body’s needs won over my pride, so I took the offered jacket and stuck my arms through the too-big sleeves. Then I looked at him and waited for him to start talking.

  When he’d been quiet for almost a minute, I sighed loudly. “You might as well get it over with. I won’t leave this spot until you’ve told me everything.”

  He looked at me from the corner of his eyes. “It will hurt you.”

  “I don’t care. I want the truth. I deserve it,” I said and left no room for argument. “Why and how do you know George?” I asked and tried to keep the shivering out of my voice. It had nothing to do with the cold. I just felt incredibly uncomfortable knowing that the man I hated and the man I desired knew each other.

  James buried his hands in his pockets and leaned against the brick wall before he started talking. He didn’t look at me once, but I had a feeling that it had nothing to do with shame.

  “The first thing you need to know is that I’m not unemployed. I work freelance with a very unconventional profession.”

  “Which is?”

  “I’m a manipulator. I receive missions, mostly from my aunt, where I am supposed to manipulate an object to either receive a certain piece of information or to make them desire a certain person. Sometimes, it’s to change the objects values and morals for a more desirable personality.”

  His explanation was sterile and robotic, but even if his voice was detached, my chin dropped, and I gaped at him. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Was this man for real, or was I in some really bad reality program? I even went so far as to look around for the cameras in the dark, but I couldn’t find any.

  It took a few seconds, but eventually it sunk in, and I knew he wasn’t lying this time.

  “So you brainwash them?” I asked in a whisper.

  “Yes,” he admitted, and his voice was completely steady.

  “Have you brainwashed me?” My stomach was fluttering, and I felt very nauseous.

  He bent his head forward and took a few deep breaths. “I’ve tried, but you are the first mission I’ve ever failed.”

  “Why?” I blurted out. I didn’t want to know, but I couldn’t take it back now.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Some would say that it’s because you are a strong woman with your morals set in stone, but I’ve dealt with women like you before, and they were no problem.”

  A thought tried to enter my head, and when I let it, everything exploded.

  I had no idea if anything this man had ever told me was true—he was a manipulator after all—and he could even have lied about lying, all for the sake of shaping me into whatever form he wanted from the lump of clay he saw me as.

  But I had a feeling that I was on to something now. I was about to unveil the mystery of James Masen.

  “That’s why you’ve been at this program before, isn’t it?” His silence was my confirmation. “And this aunt of yours, she works here, doesn’t she? There’s no other explanation to your strange authority around here.”

  Slowly, every piece fell into place. How my acceptance to this program happened without me having the smallest clue, why Mrs. Kellen was the one who met me when I arrived, the feeling I got that it wasn’t a coincidence that James became my volunteer, his dodging of my questions when I wanted to know something about him, the strange messages he’d received a few times in my presence.

  “It’s Mrs. Kellen, isn’t it? She’s your aunt,” I stated as I felt that I already knew. This entire program was corrupt. No one inside of these walls could be trusted. Were the teachers in on it? The students? The other volunteers? Had all of this been a big game played with me as the main target?

  Tears filled my eyes when even more of the puzzle was solved.

  It was all my mother…and Geor
ge obviously if his conversation with James had been any indication. My mother sent me to the program, and she had always been a master mind, a manipulator in her own class, so George could have only been a sort of pathetic side-kick or something.

  It was all her. I could feel it.

  “Oh god,” I moaned pathetically and let my arms hang with hands heavy as lead by my sides. “I am such a fucking fool,” I mumbled to myself and then let the jacket fall from my shoulders so that it landed in a heap on the stone floor.

  All of my energy left me, and I went inside.

  I didn’t turn around, but I knew he wasn’t following me as I made my way to my room, and I felt so relieved by that fact. If he had made the attempt, I would have had to use some of the self-defense my dad had taught me when I was younger, and with my despair and anger still coursing through my veins, I’m sure I wouldn’t have shown him any mercy.

  I sat on the bed for a few silent moments, but I knew I had to get away from this place, and I had to get away tonight.

  I started to cry as I began to pack. The realization that my life for the last four months had been a lie was just too much for me to handle. Everything felt hopeless. I cried for my own pain, and I cried for all the people I’d gotten to know here, but now I could never trust that they were truly ever my friends.

  I cried because I was going to miss Peter and Jessica, the two people I’d gotten closest to.

  I contemplated leaving a phone number for them to reach me on, but I felt too distrustful of every person here, so I couldn’t even do that. I wanted to believe that the students hadn’t been in on it, but how would I ever know that?

  When my clothes were changed and all of my things packed, I left my room key on the nightstand and left.

  Seth stood by the front entrance and smoked a cigarette. Before, I would have commented that smoking was bad for him and probably cracked a joke with the young man, but I couldn’t do that now.

  Suddenly, I felt afraid that he wouldn’t let me leave if he saw my bag. If he was in on it, what was to say that he wouldn’t refuse to get my car?

  He turned when he heard me, and his familiar smile spread over his face. “Jenn, are you enjoying the party?” he asked me, but then he saw my casual clothes and the suitcase in my hand. “Is something wrong?” He left his post and started to walk up to me.

  I shook my head. “No, I’m just going to visit a friend in town,” I lied smoothly.

  He didn’t believe me; I could see that, but he didn’t push me for more. “Okay, I’ll get your car,” he simply said and walked toward the garage.

  It didn’t take long, but when he offered me my keys, I could see that his entire face had changed. He looked very sad all of a sudden, and his eyes were blank.

  When I’d taken the keys from him, he threw his arms around me and crushed me to him. “I’m going to miss you, Jenn. Good luck with whatever you’re doing,” he said and let go of me. Obviously, he knew I was leaving and not coming back.

  I didn’t allow myself to cry, but I smiled at him. I refused to believe in that moment that Seth had any part of this sick scheme. He was too youthful and kind to me.

  I hadn’t talked to him much, but I had always made an effort to have a conversation with him before I asked him to get my car.

  He was just a kid with a passion for cars. He would never participate in a plot like this.

  “Thank you, Seth. Good luck to you too,” I said and then climbed behind the wheel.

  As I started the engine, I saw James come through the doors. Our eyes met for a second before I drove away from the school grounds.

  James wanted to tear his hair out by the roots when he watched Jennifer drive away, and it wasn’t because of his recently admitted failure or for the fact that he’d revealed everything to her.

  It was because he let her slip through his fingers.

  He knew, deep down, that he had handled everything with Jennifer completely wrong. Even after their talk when he had kissed her, it was wrong even though the kiss had filled him in a way he had never experienced before.

  He desired Jennifer. He wanted her in a way he had never wanted a woman before.

  Other times, it had mostly been simply because the woman first said no, and James always had to have whatever he’d been denied. He couldn’t take no for an answer, probably a trait left after having been an only child who always got his way with his parents.

  This time it was different, though. Jennifer had been open to him at first, but then denied him farther down the road as she got to know him, and while his old desires had flared their head, he had convinced himself that she was just another mission.

  She had also lost some of her allure when it appeared as if he would succeed with his manipulations.

  But the monster inside couldn’t be kept caged any longer when he’d seen that fire in Jennifer’s eyes when she learned the truth of his nature. He had already almost tasted her mouth, and he had tasted her skin in the classroom. This time he had to claim her lips.

  The kiss had fulfilled his every fantasy.

  It had been passionate, fiery, fierce and right in so many ways. When it had been cut short by her slap to his face, he hadn’t even felt the pain. He was still lost in the haze that it had put on his brain. He hadn’t even registered how he manhandled Jennifer in order to reunite their mouths.

  James had always been possessive. It was a part of his nature, and he enjoyed to practice his dominance in the bedroom with his female conquerings, but he had never, and would never hurt a woman physically unless she wanted it. He had too much respect for them because he knew and acknowledged that women were very much needed for the society to work.

  That respect was mostly reserved to those women strong enough to also acknowledge that they only needed themselves to get somewhere in the world, though. Women like Jennifer. James couldn’t stand women like his own aunt Esme and her friend Renée Braun who only cared about appearance and social status.

  He knew that it was very strange that his work meant that he had to turn women like Jennifer into women like Esme and Renée, but it was the only thing he knew how to do well. He had been so young when he first found out about his little quirk and that he could naturally make people want to do things for him, and when Esme first offered him a job to do exactly that, he hadn’t hesitated.

  She paid him well and James was greedy from the start. He also liked to see how far he could go with his talents.

  Jennifer had been the first mission ever where he’d created personal attachments, and he couldn’t figure out for the life of him why he’d chosen to fall for Jennifer of all the women he’d been with.

  Why did it have to be her who finally succeeded with what women all over the state had believed to be impossible?

  James decided that he wasn’t going to reveal to anyone that Jennifer had left. She deserved much more than that after the way he had treated her, but it was all he could give right now.

  He went back inside and walked to his room while his guilt rose like sour bile in his throat.

  Becca slammed the mouse down on the mat in frustration when she couldn’t find a single speck of dirt on anything revolving around The Perfect Partner Program.

  It was probably because she didn’t have the best googling skills that she didn’t find anything, but it was frustrating nonetheless.

  She had been searching the net for a week without result. Only testimonies from happy couples who’d found their way back to each other after participating in the program.

  The principle and her husband, the founder, came out squeaky clean as far as Becca’s knowledge stretched as well.

  She also tried to find anything on James, Jenn’s volunteer, after she’d found on the listing of this year’s program that his last name was Masen, but she hadn’t found anything there, either. The listing didn’t provide a picture, and there were just too many James Masens in the country for her to really pin down exactly who she was looking for.

  B
ecca rubbed her tired eyes and cast a glance on her desk clock. It showed 2:30 AM the 25th of December. It was Christmas Day, and she had barely noticed.

  She turned slowly in her chair and looked at the beautiful Christmas tree that she and Solomon had decorated together and the few gifts that lay underneath it.

  She hadn’t been a very good wife during the last seven days, but her worry for her friend had over shadowed everything else, and Becca felt so guilty when she thought of her husband lying in their bed, and she wasn’t there with him.

  She frowned at her own stupid behavior and decided that she would forget her searching for Christmas Day, and if she did not hear anything from Jenn, not even a Christmas call, she would take it up the day after because Christmas Day would be all about Becca and her Solomon.

  Feeling satisfied with that decision, Becca turned off the computer and went up to her bed and husband.

  CHAPTER 19

  GOING BACK HOME

  The reality of my situation finally got to me when I crossed Ohio’s state line, and I began to cry.

  My vision got so blurry that I had to pull over and do some breathing exercises for the sake of me calming down. I was a hiccupping, sobbing mess, and no matter what I did, the tears just kept coming.

  I had felt betrayed when I was sent to Ohio, but that didn’t even come close to how I was feeling now. Back then it was only Mother’s betrayal, and a tiny bit from Dad, but now it felt as if everyone surrounding me had conspired against me.

  Jessica.

  Peter.

  Leah.

  …

  James.

  It felt strange since we hadn’t been on the best terms when the truth finally came out, but James’s betrayal hurt the most. I’d always known that he was hiding something, and I believe that eventually, I could have accepted anything he told me, because I was drawn to him in a way I’d never been to anyone before. Deep down, I’d wanted it to work between us.

  I just refused to accept that the chemistry between us had been a fraud. No matter how good of an actor you are, you can’t fake real chemistry with a person not participating in the play.