Jaquelyn woke the next morning earlier than usual, and even though she was awake, she lay for a few moments. The body that was with her all night was gone, as she expected, and she was left even more confused and upset than before. Sitting up, she allowed the covers to fall away from her upper body. She blinked and stared at the wall, her head buzzing with so many thoughts so quickly she couldn't even grasp hold of one of them to put it into words.
"I hope you don't mind, but I used your shower." What? She whipped her head towards the voice that snapped her out of her thoughts. "Good morning." He said when her eyes finally settled on him standing by her window.
"Your still here." And shirtless.
"I thought I might explain my actions to you..." He watched her as she started to cover her body, then exasperated shoved the covers from her body. Stepping out of the bed, she walked towards the adjoining bathroom.
"Yes, you do owe me an explanation." He grinned at the view of her backside. The sound of the shower and them the sink turning on almost drove him to follow her into the bathroom, but he decided to give her some space.
"Would you like to make the bed?" He called through the door. Hmmph, he had the slight hint of a Southern accent.
"No!" She hollered back, "Just strip it."
As she scrubbed her body her mind slowed to a reasonable pace...Should I be mad? Should I hit him? Why is he still here? And the nerve of him to be standing in her room with no shirt on, showing off all his muscles! And using my shower! Not that I would have noticed if he hadn't told me-But still! He raped me!!!! Even if you like it, it's still rape. Isn't that what Stabler said on that episode of Law And Order:SVU one time? Or maybe it was some other detective show. Whatever... She stepped out of the shower and toweled herself off. When she was done, she wrapped herself loosely in it and walked back out into her room. He was standing there looking at the pictures on the dresser.
"Excuse me." She said reaching towards the top drawer. Stepping to the side, he watched her drop the towel and slip on a pair of panties. He grinned at her again as she searched for more clothes. She was uncannily comfortable around him. When she finished dressing, she turned to study him. Her head cocked slightly to the side as she surveyed his face, her eyes came to rest on his. He was calm under the scrutiny of her gaze. He had no desire to hide anything from her.
"What's your name?" she questioned, eyeing him closely as if she were looking for facial ticks or other signs that he might have been lying.
"Michael." He responded plainly.
"Your full name."
"Michael Robert Collins."
"How did you get in my house?"
"Through the front door."
"Did you disable the alarm?"
"No. I just put the code in."
"And how did you get the code?"
"Oh, from your ex."
"What????" Her ex? Her crazy ex? Well that made sense. But why would he do that knowing how afraid she was of living alone? Why would she give someone the means to break into her home and possibly harm her? "You knew Taylor?"
"Yes."
Jaquelyn swallowed and sat on the edge of her stripped bed. She muttered to herself, things Michael couldn't really understand, as she stared into her lap. Why would he do that to her? She knew the breakup was not a mutual one, but surely he wasn't driven to such extremes to get back at her. Sitting down next to her, Michael inhaled deeply preparing to explain the messy situation.
"He wanted you back, and he felt like this was the way to do it. He hired me-"
"Wait." Jaquelyn held up her hand, cutting him off."Some guy comes to you, asking you to break into someone else's home and you just went along with it???? Unbelievable! You're a piece of work, you know that????" Her brow furrowed as she glared at him.
"Would you like to hear how it happened or not?" He cocked an eyebrow at her and after a few seconds took her silence as a yes. "He came to my office with this proposition, stating that the two of you had a messy break-up based on a couple misunderstanding and that he wanted you back. So he tells me this plan that he has hatched up cantered around some supposed fear that you have of living alone..." She nodded in confirmation, "And he said he just wanted me to break in, break a couple things, steal something to make it look like a robbery, and leave. After all this, he knew you would be vulnerable, so he was going to call you a couple days later just to check up on you, and you would come running back, desperate from him to protect you from future attacks."
"So that doesn't explain how you ended up fucking me?" She said snappishly. Her eyes peered into his again, despite the harshness of her tone, there was certain vulnerability in that look.
"How could I resist?" He grinned sheepishly at her, sliding a finger up her thigh. Jaquelyn turned her back to him and crossed her arms, hurt that he didn't take her question seriously. She knew rape was about control. And this man might have held control over her at some point, but only to get what he really wanted. Which was, well that part she didn't really know? He wrapped his arms around her and smelled her hair, the light scent of her orange-infused conditioner faintly wafting up his nostrils. "You know," he began as she started to pull away, "Not to creep you out or anything, but I had to watch you once I accepted the job. I didn't watch you shower or pee or change or anything, but I watched you coming and going, when you went to restaurants with your friends, or they came to visit. And I became quite smitten by you. I can see why you left Taylor. You're much too good for him."
"But," Jaquelyn twisted back around to face him, though she was still looking down, "that doesn't explain all this...why did you have to..."
Michael picked up where she left off."Because," he lifted her chin to stress the seriousness of what he was about to say, "You don't like white boys."
"What????" She pulled away surprised at his response. "How do you know that?"
"You and your friends talk very loudly." His smirk was bothering her immensely. Though she couldn't help but groan, knowing that he must have heard one of her best friends, who just so happened to be white, trying to convince her to date white men. "And you seemed very adamant about attitude on interracial relationships."
"No." She started to explain, "I don't care if other people do it. I have a white friend that exclusively dates white men, and I could care less. But it's not for me."
"Well, now you see why I did what I did. I assume that was your first time sleeping with a white man?"