[UNEDITED]

        I pulled up outside Erin’s house, quickly wiping the tears away from my eyes. I had never cried in front of a girl, not even when one of the ones I slept with told me that they were pregnant, so I wasn’t about to break a habit of a lifetime.

        I walked up to her front door and, at the moment I was about to knock, I heard something which me pause for a second. Erin was arguing with someone and she was crying. He had never heard Erin cry so, whatever the argument was about, it had to be something serious.

        “You left me for my brother. My fucking brother and now you come back here, telling me you love me and that it was a mistake?” I heard Erin shout.

        Oliver. That piece of shit who told her that he was gay and sleeping with her brother.

        “Please, baby, he forced me. I never realised until now how stupid I had been,” he pleaded with her. I hoped that she had more strength than to take him back after all the wrong he had done to her.

        “Did my brother dump you? Did he get bored with his new toy and that’s why you’re back here?” Erin replied and I laughed to myself. There was the Erin I had come to know, the girl who had an answer to everything and could silence even the loudest of people with just her words.

        “No. I left him. I love you Erin, let me show you,” I rolled my eyes at his response and decided that now would be a good time to make myself known.

        I knocked on the door and waited for an answer, surprised when I saw that it wasn’t Erin who answered the door, but a tall and skinny guy. He looked good so it was no surprise that Erin’s brother had gone after him, but that still wasn’t any excuse for what he did to her. He treated her like she was nothing and now he’s back, begging her for forgiveness.

        “Can I help you?” he snapped, his eyes spotting the suitcase beside me.

        “Jason,” Erin’s voice said from behind the twat who stood between the two of us.

        “You know him?” Oliver sounded shocked that Erin had dared to speak to another man while he was gone. When we first met, she told me that she wasn’t going to sit around and complain about being single, she was just going to enjoy her new found freedom in the best way she could.

        “Oh. She knows me in more ways than one,” I chuckled.

        “You’ve slept with her? You slept with my fucking girlfriend?” Oliver shouted, making sure he got right into my space like it was going to make me back off. I had to laugh at his lame attempts because, even though he may have been taller than me, I could be sure that I had more muscle. If I had to fight him, then I would still be able to kick his arse.

        “I do believe Erin is single and can therefore sleep with whoever she sees fit,” I shrugged and, out the corner of my eye, I saw Erin smirking at me.

        “I was gone for, what? A month and you’re already sleeping around like the slut you were when I met you,” Oliver sneered over his shoulder.

        “A month? Try closer to a year Oliver. Shows how much I really mean to you,” Erin snapped, walking over to him and pushing him out of the front door before pulling me in next to her. “He’s a better fuck than you ever were.”

        “Erin, baby--“

        “Don’t fucking call me that. I’m not your ‘baby’ anymore,” Erin shouted. I put hands on her shoulders and I could immediately feel the stress leave her body at my touch. She began relaxing a little as I moved my hands across her shoulders, moving the tension out and showing her that Oliver wasn’t going to touch her while I was here.

        “You can’t seriously tell me he’s better in bed than I am?” Oliver laughed, almost like it was some sort of joke.

        “If you stick around for long enough, you might just find out how good he is,” Erin smirked and then slammed the front door closed, her body falling against the wall as she let out the huge sigh of relief she had clearly been holding in since she saw me at the door. “Thanks.”

        “For what? That was all you,” I chuckled.

        “If you hadn’t have turned up when you did, then I probably would have disappeared into the bedroom with him. He’s a real smooth talker when he wants to be,” Erin muttered, the smile disappearing from her face as she moved from the hallway and into the living room. “How did you know I was here anyway?”

        “I went to your office and they told me you had already left. I figured this was the only place you would come,” I smiled. I took the seat beside her and pulled her into my arms, wrapping them around her as I allowed her to silently cry to herself.

        I may be a little fucked up when it comes to women, but I knew when they needed a hug and for someone to be there for them. They didn’t even want you to say anything, they just wanted you to be there for them without judging them or making a comment about how ugly they looked because they had been crying.

        “Being with you makes me feel safer than I ever did when I was with Oliver,” Erin muttered after a couple of minutes.

        “It does? How come?”

        “Do you promise not to walk out and leave me if I tell you?” she said, sitting up so that she was looking me directly in the eye. I had a feeling she was about to tell me something she had never told anyone before and I feel honoured that she wanted to share it with me. I wasn’t usually the person people went to when they had a problem.

        “I promise,” I smiled at her.

        “Well, when I met Oliver for the first time, I was working in a strip club. He came in with a group of people who were regulars and they always requested me as their personal stripped for the night. I hated all of them because they were nothing more than a bunch of pigs, but they tipped well at the end of the night, so I never complained,” Erin paused for breath, her eyes not meeting mine as she carried on with her explanation. “On Oliver’s fifth visit to the place he requested that I give him a personal lap dance only, when we went into the room he had paid for, he told me that he just wanted to get to know me. He said he hated how his friends treated me and he wanted to get to know the person behind the mask. He actually wanted to get to know me.”

        “It sounds like you two got off to a sweet start. What happened?” I asked, quickly realised what I had said and tried to revive myself before she thought I was trying to pressure her into something she didn’t want to really talk about. “Sorry. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

        “No. It’s fine,” Erin smiled at me as she moved her body so that she was leaning against me, her head on my shoulder and my arm wrapped around her body. “He was lovely in the beginning. He got me out of the strip club, which meant I no longer had to have sex with all the animals who walked in there and thought they owned my arse. He moved me in with me and he looked after me, he showed me that there was more to the world than taking my clothes off for a living, he was even the one who helped me realise I wanted my own business. Then, something in him snapped, and he changed. He was constantly accusing me of sleeping with other people or of going back to the strip club to please people other than him, he even raised his hand to me a couple of times.”

        “He never?” I asked in shock. I don’t understand how a man could ever hit a woman. It was the lowest of the low and, if you ever did it, then you should be shot where you stood.

        I know I’m no Prince Charming when it comes to women, but even I know there is a line you never cross with them. You never hit them, you never degrade them and you never make them feel like they are the least important person in the world when you are supposed to love them.

        “No. He never actually hit me. He used to vanish for three or four days afterwards though, always coming back stinking of alcohol and covered in blood,” Erin sighed. I had heard enough about this guy now to judge him as being an arsehole and definitely not worthy of Erin’s love.

        “He’s a fucking dick. You don’t deserve to be treated like that, not when you are one of the most amazing women I have ever met,” I said. As soon as the words left my mouth, I mentally slapped myself for saying something like that.

        We were just two friends who slept together whenever we wanted to, no strings attached relationship. I could have walked away from this months ago, but I didn’t want to leave Erin and I don’t think she wanted me to leave either. We were holding each other together in our own ways. In the last nine months, she had become something special to me and, without her around, I probably would have lost my mind a long time ago.

        Everyone seems to think I am still getting over Charlotte and, sure I may still love her because she was my first real love, but the truth is I think I am over her and I am falling for Erin.

        “Would now be a really inappropriate time to tell you that I think I am falling for you Jason Parker?” Erin’s voice came out as barely a whisper and it took me a moment to digest what she had just said.

        “Would now be a really inappropriate time to tell you that I think I am falling for you too, Erin Brooke?” I laughed slightly as her eyes met mine.

        “No,” was all she replied before I felt her lips on mine. It wasn’t hurried like it usually was when we kissed, it was slow and there was something romantic about the entire thing. I would have taken things a whole lot further, if the sound of my phone ringing didn’t interrupt the two of us and ruin the moment.

        I looked at the caller ID, seeing that it was Chloe who was calling me, which I was surprised about considering she told me that she never wanted to see me again. Well, her words telling me that she hated me were more than enough to tell me that she didn’t want to see me again.

        “Sorry. It’s my sister,” I chuckled nervously as I pressed the green button and held the phone to my ear, hesitant about what was going to happen. “Hello?”

        “Uncle Jason. Help,” Amanda’s voice cried down the phone, each one of her sobs ripping my heart from my chest.

        “What is it? What’s happened?” I asked quickly.

        “Mummy and daddy. They won’t stop shouting. Please come and help me,” Amanda continued to cry and, as I listened carefully, I could hear the faint sounds of shouting in the background.

        I understand that Chloe and Matthew have problems which they need to deal with, but they shouldn’t be dealing with them in front of Amanda. She was a child and there were some things which she never needed to see, they were better kept for a time when your child wasn’t around.

        “Where are you right now sweetie?” I finally asked her.

        “In the living room. Mummy and daddy are in the kitchen, all I can hear is shouting and banging,” she replied. From her tone, I could tell that she was terrified of what was going to happen and I knew I needed to be there for her. If her parents were going to kill each other, then someone needed to be there to tell her it was going to be okay.

        “Right, I want you to go in my bedroom and lock the door. Don’t open it until I get there,” I stated as I stood up from the sofa, making sure I had my keys as I walked towards the front door. Erin looked at me like she had done something wrong, but there were some things which were always going to be more important than having sex with a highly attractive female.

        “Please hurry Uncle Jason. I’m scared.”

        “I know. I’ll be there soon, I promise. I love you Amanda,” I smiled to myself. My niece was always going to be my undoing because she was so damn cute, there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her or to keep her safe. If there was one thing in this world which I hadn’t fucked up, then it was the love which I had for my niece and no one was going to take that away from me.

        “I love you too,” were the last words I heard her say before the line went dead. I knew that no harm was going to come to her while Chloe and Matthew were in the house, but they had still forgotten about their daughter and were arguing like it was just the two of them. “Sorry. I have to go.”

        “Why?” Erin asked with tears in her eyes again.

        “That was my five year old niece. My sister and her husband are arguing because of me which means my niece is scared, because of me. I need to help her,” I sighed as I opened the door and walked to my car. “I’ll be back.”

        “Promise?”

        “I promise.”

        So, what do we think of Erin? Do we like her? Do we think she's a bitch? Do we think Charlotte is going to make an appearance and ruin it all? To the side is Jena Malone, who plays Erin in this book, I personally love her but you might not.

        Also, fun fact for you, for almost half this part I kept writing Matthew instead of Jason. I almost didn't notice that I had either until I checked it before posting it #awkward

        I thought I might also post the ages of the charaters in this book for you all. Just so you know them and there's no confusion.

        Chloe Jenkinson ~ 23 / Matthew Jenkinson ~ 24 / Amanda Jenkinson ~ 5 / Jason Parker ~ 30 / Erin Brooke ~ 29 / Charlotte Simpson ~ 26 / Braydon Sanders ~ 22 / Marcus Thomas ~ 23

        Spot the two returning characters from that list. Love El xox