All I Ask of You

Chapter Three

Blinding rage consumed Jackson . How dare he speak to Lisa that way? How dare he think about her like that!

The worst part was not that he had invaded Lisa's space, but the fact that he had made her happy. That jerk Ian Rickler had made his Lisa smile and laugh.

Jackson could not wait to sink his sleek knife into the intruder's body. All he wanted now was to slowly torture and kill this Ian person for daring to be near Lisa. Lisa was his and no one else was supposed to show any interest in her. Apparently, it was time for him to claim her.

He watched her sleep for a few moments, a smile across her pretty face, before he slipped out of the room. He had work to do.

"So, will you go out with him again?" Cynthia badgered Lisa the following morning.

Lisa groaned loudly before responding. "Last night wasn't a date!"

"Sure it wasn't. I saw how happy you were. It's been years since I've seen you that happy! Ever since—"

"Cynthia, don't bring him up." Lisa cautioned her friend, her playful mood broken at the mere mention of Jackson.

"I'm sorry, Leese. I keep forgetting how much—"

"Just stop, okay?" Lisa begged, turning her back to Cynthia. The memories were flooding back.

Him, smiling at her in line after he defended her via a check-in lady at the airport. His startling blue gaze and warmth it held when he smiled and joked with her. His pretty features distorted with rage as he shook her helpless body in the bathroom and later threatened her with a knife. The lost, hurt look as he gazed up at her from where he lay broken on the floor.

"Lisa, where are you going? Practice is about to start!" Cynthia called after her, chasing her through the crowded back halls.

"I just need some air," Lisa yelled back over the growing din and confusion of other dancers. "I'll be right back!"

Lisa continued to push through the crowd, fighting her way to an exit. Everyone was rushing to the stage now and she hurriedly trying to leave it. A familiar voice shouted her name from behind her.

"Lisa! Where are you going?" Ian called, chasing after her.

"I need some air," she snapped back, the bitter memories worsening. Her head was spinning and pounding.

"Are you avoiding me?" he questioned, grabbing her arm tightly, stopping her progression to the outside.

"No, but right now I really need some space!"

Angrily, Lisa ripped her arm loose of his grasp and spun around.

"Lisa!"

Lisa ran now as the tears began to fall from her green eyes. Her small body shook with sobs as she tried to console herself as well as come to terms with what had happened to her. She had been ignoring the past and the complex emotions tied to it for far too long.

She would never be rid of her blue-eyed demon. He had changed her for both the worse and the better. No one could undo what he had done to her and she was crazy to think otherwise.

She was damaged goods and Ian was wasting his time trying to help her. He deserved someone who was more stable. Even Cynthia was too good to have her as a friend. Knowing her complicated their lives and Lisa knew it. Life was hard enough without them having to look out for her all the time and worry about her fragile emotional state.

Lisa sank down onto the floor with her back against the wall and sobbed openly. She was so focused on letting everything go that she did not hear the soft footsteps.

"Who hurt you, Lisa?" a smooth voice asked quietly and Lisa's eyes shot upwards immediately.

A slender man with short-cropped light-colored hair and dark eyes looked down at her. Lisa sighed with relief. Jackson was not standing in front of her.

"I'm fine," she croaked.

"You don't look like it," he responded, then sat down beside her. "What's troubling you?"

Lisa sighed yet again and looked at him questioningly. "Do you really want to know?"

"If it will make you feel better…then yeah."

She half-smiled at him and before long, she was spilling her entire sob story to the kindly man sitting beside her. He was familiar looking, but she could not remember his name. She was so emotionally exhausted that names no longer mattered. All that mattered was that someone cared and was willing to listen.

"I'm sorry," he whispered at the end. "I had no idea."

"No one really does," Lisa said sadly. "Everyone knows pieces of it but you're the only one that I've ever told the whole story too."

"I feel honored that you trust me enough to share this."

"What's your name? I can't seem to remember it," Lisa asked.

"Alex, Alex Turner," he said, then offered his right hand to her.

Lisa smiled and shook his hand. "It's nice to formally meet you, Alex Turner."

"It's nice to meet you too, Lisa Reisert."

"How did you know my last name?" she inquired, suddenly nervous.

"Oh, I've heard people yelling at you. They tend to call you by your last name more often than your first."

"True. I've never understood that."

"Me too. It always makes me feel like I've done something wrong," Alex replied.

Lisa smiled. "I'd never really thought about it that way."

"Not that you'd ever be in serious trouble with authority. You're fair too kind and listen really well."

"You make me sound like a doormat!" Lisa laughed.

"If you are, then you're the prettiest doormat I've ever met," Alex said seriously. "But I highly doubt that you are of doormat quality."

"Well, I should be getting back to rehearsal before they send the calvary," she said regretfully. "Thanks again for listening."

"You're welcome. I'm always around with an open ear or two if you need them," Alex responded, helping her to her feet.

"I'll keep that in mind, Alex. Bye," Lisa said, waving to him as she left.

"Bye, Leese," he whispered after her.

Author's Notes:

Sorry that it took so long for an update. My life ran away with my writing time.

-BregoBeauty-