Fabricating Jada

  Lifting my head, I gave him a sidelong glance. "Because you're happy they've lied to everyone in order to make your image look better?"

  "No. Frankly, I couldn't care less about my image. But I will say I don't regret coming to get you because it was the right decision. You belong here."

  I shrugged at his non-apology. All the fight in me was gone. "It's all irrelevant now. I'll always be a joke and now every detail of my life and my parents' lives will be public knowledge."

  "I told her to shut it down and do whatever she had to, to fix it."

  Tears streaked my face. "It's not going to matter. If she denies it now, it will just make people wonder more. It will look bad for you. I just need to go away and wait for it all to die down."

  Jesse's hand streaked down my back and rested above my hip. "Why are you always running away? The Jada I know fights back. She stands up for herself. She's not a coward who ducks and runs at the first sign of trouble."

  I scoffed. "Then I guess that proves you don't really know me."

  He grabbed my thigh and lifted it over the bench then pulled me toward him. I was in-between his massive thighs as his hands rested on mine, staring up into his heated gaze.

  "I know you. I know you want to create things with your hands more than you want to breathe. I know you chew on your cheek when you're trying to not react. I know when I push you—it lights a fire inside you that burns so hot you glow. I know how talented you are and how insecure you are about your abilities. I also know you put your needs last over those you love and care about."

  My stomach fluttered with nerves. I didn't know what to think, or how to respond. So, I kept quiet and dropped my gaze from his. If I looked at him any longer, I was afraid he'd try to kiss me again, and I wasn't emotionally ready enough for that.

  Jesse wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest. I hesitated for a moment, before I returned his embrace. Taking a deep breath, I allowed myself to sink into him and squeezed my eyes closed.

  We didn't say anything. Just sat there, wrapped around each other. It should have been confusing. It should have felt awkward, but it wasn't. Something about having him in my personal space felt right.

  I was naïve. Call me stupid or ignorant. Call me what you will, but I had no idea what would happen as I tried to walk to my bus to get home. It was after seven when I walked out of the shop, with my backpack slung over my shoulder.

  The screams started immediately. People I'd never seen before called my name from the other side of the gate. Cameras clicked, flashes snapped, everything turned to chaos as I stood there in shock. My feet were rooted in place. The screaming got louder.

  "Jada! Over here."

  "Jada! How long have you and Jesse been sleeping together?"

  "Are you pregnant with his baby? Is that why he decided to settle down with you?"

  "Jada!"

  "Hey, Girl! Over here!"

  "Show us your tits!"

  The door behind me swung open with force as an arm wrapped around my waist, and I was pulled backwards, inside. Where it was safe.

  As soon as the door shut behind us, the arm released me. I sank to the floor and tried to catch my breath. "What the hell was that?" I asked and squinted up at my savior. My eyes hadn't adjusted to the lighting yet, and everything was still cast in shadow.

  "DeAnna's fucking mess," Miguel said as he squatted in front of me. "Are you okay?"

  I shook my head. I didn't know what I was, but I did know I wasn't okay.

  "I'm going to kill her. Where were you going?"

  "To try to catch the late bus home."

  He tsked at me. "You can't walk around like a free bird anymore, Valley … it's not safe."

  "I can see that."

  "Come on," he said as he offered me his hand and pulled me to my feet. "Let's go figure out how we're going to get you home."

  As we reached the bottom of the stairs that led to Jesse's office, we could already hear the shouts.

  "I don't give a flying rat's ass what you were trying to do, DeAnna. This isn't a game. This is her life that you just fucked up and you need to fucking fix it."

  "How am I supposed to magically fix this Jesse? You started this shitstorm this morning!" she yelled back.

  "I didn't go get her to start shit. You should have just kept quiet about the entire thing and tomorrow someone else would have taken the headline, but no. You just had to fucking throw gasoline on it."

  "You don't think anyone would have noticed that she was living with you? I know you asked her to move in!" Dee's pitch grew higher with each word.

  Miguel glanced down at me over his shoulder and raised a brow. Maybe he was surprised she knew. I wasn't sure.

  "Well excuse the hell out of me for trying to do something to help her. She has nothing and wants this more than anyone I've ever met. Why wouldn't I offer her a safe place to sleep so she can pursue this?" he yelled.

  DeAnna scoffed. "Why do you give a shit, Jess? You never have before."

  "How about it's none of your fucking business?" he said in an almost growl.

  I hated that they were fighting because of me. But at the same time, she'd caused this situation, so my guilt wavered a bit.

  "Come on, let's get up there before they start throwing shit at each other," Miguel whispered.

  We took the stairs cautiously, and Miguel walked in before I did. "While you're trying to kill each other, I thought you'd like to know there's a mob outside and there's no way for Jada to get to her bus."

  Jesse's head snapped in DeAnna's direction. "Nice going."

  She sank into a chair and chewed on her bottom lip, which had lost its red shine. "I never meant for any of this to happen. I saw an opportunity and took it before I thought about the consequences." Her blue eyes darted to mine. "I'm so sorry, Jada. I messed everything up, including your friendship with Carter."

  I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the wall. "She did that all on her own." I wasn't ready to forgive her yet and tell her it was okay. I guess I wasn't that big of a person to be able to forgive and forget. It was too fresh.

  "How do we do this? You know they're going to follow your truck, Jess," Miguel said matter-of-factly.

  Jesse rubbed his eyes and reached in his pocket, pulling out his keys. He tossed them to DeAnna. "You get to drive my truck. Take them on a wild goose chase and then come back here and switch out vehicles."

  She groaned. "And why do I have to do this?"

  "Because this is your mess. I'll take Jada home in your car since your windows are tinted and no one will know who is inside." He left no room for argument.

  "You should call the guard shack in your development too," Miguel offered.

  Jesse gave him a tight nod and picked up his phone. Their earlier fight seemed to be behind them. "Rick, it's Jesse."

  His face twisted into a sneer as he listened on the phone and made grunts in return. "I don't care what you have to do, but keep those leeches out of there. Call the cops if you have to."

  He hung up and met my gaze. "Call your parents and let them know they need to turn off their house phone and not to answer their door. If we need to hire them security so they're not harassed, we will."

  "This is crazy. All of it." I shook my head in disbelief.

  "Welcome to being a celebrity," Miguel muttered.

  I was on the floor in the backseat of DeAnna's Mercedes along with Jesse. Both of us were on our sides, Jesse's arms were wrapped around me from behind as he pulled my body flush against his. If it had just been me back there, I would have fit fine. I was pint sized, but Jesse was a wall of a man and had no business being scrunched up in the floorboard of a car. As DeAnna pulled through the gate that led to the road, the reporters and paparazzi went crazy, knocking on her windows, beating on the hood and trunk—as if any of that kind of behavior would make her want to stop and talk to them.

  Miguel decided to take Jesse's truck on the wild goose chase since he could more easily pass f
or Jesse with a hat pulled low than DeAnna could. Their builds were similar even though Jesse was bigger. He pointed out they'd see Jesse through Dee's windshield even though the windows were tinted. It made sense. And that was why we were folded into pretzels on the floor.

  The smell of coconut swirled around me, and I tried to stifle my giggle.

  "What's so funny?" he asked

  "You smell so fruity."

  His breath was hot on my neck, making me shiver. "Are you making fun of me?"

  I snickered. "No."

  "I think you are, but I also think you secretly like the way I smell." His voice was low and raspy against my ear.

  Everything in me melted and my breathing became heavy. Jesse moved his hand down my thigh and rested it right over my bottom. "Are you touching my butt?" I whispered.

  He squeezed. "Oh, is that what that is? My hand must have slipped."

  "Mhmm." I didn't really mind, but I wasn't going to tell him that.

  DeAnna interrupted our whisper-fest. "We have two vans following us. Stay down."

  She jerked the car from lane to lane, throwing us all over. Each time we shifted, Jesse's arm tightened around me as he braced against the door with the other. He was careful to not touch my bad arm, but the bumps of the road made me wince each time we hit one. "I got you," he whispered right against my cheek. My skin was on fire. Everywhere he touched, came alive with desire.

  The car jerked hard to the right, and I stuck out my bad arm to brace against the seat and wanted to dry heave from the pain. My body went rigid. I should have realized with Jesse's grip I wasn't going anywhere, but it was an instinctual reaction.

  "You okay? I felt you tense up."

  I let go of the seat and laid my arm on top of his. "I'm okay. Just more pressure than I should have used." I sank back into his embrace and used each time we moved as an excuse to snuggle closer. As if that were even possible. Something about his protectiveness over me had melted my resolve a bit. It wasn't that I wasn't attracted to him, because I was. And it wasn't that I wasn't interested in seeing how our chemistry could play out … I was scared.

  Scared of not being taken seriously. Scared of only being looked at as a hood ornament and not for my worth and what I could offer the world.

  Jesse showed a side of himself that I'd only seen glimpses of before, and it made me wonder how much of that was who he really was, versus the jerk he kept on display.

  Little did I know from our hiding space that when he told DeAnna to take me home—he hadn't meant mine.

  I heard the hum of a garage door as we pulled into a dark space. I didn't have a garage. My pulse thrummed in my throat from nerves. Where the heck were we?

  I strained to lift my head to see over the center console, but the door hummed again, sinking us into darkness compared to the light outside. As I propped myself up on my elbow to get a better look at my surroundings, I slipped, sending the sharp point into a wall of flesh.

  Jesse ground out an, "Ooff."

  Turning as much as possible, I laid my hand on his scruffy cheek. "I'm so sorry. Did I hurt you?"

  He grunted in response.

  "We're here," DeAnna said once the humming stopped.

  "Where's here?" I asked.

  She turned in her seat to face us. "Our house."

  Our house? It didn't make any sense to me. Whose house was our house? Still trapped in the pretzel of Jesse's muscular hold, I struggled to free myself. He held tight longer than he should have. My nerve endings danced when what felt like his nose brushed against the length of my neck. "What are you doing?" I whisper-hissed with the need to get away from him, no longer trusting myself.

  "Nothing. Trying to get up."

  DeAnna clapped her hands as she got out of the car and leaned back in. "Come on, get out so we can go inside. We have damage control to handle."

  She opened the door near our feet for us to scramble out.

  "How are we supposed to do this? I don't even know where I start and you end."

  His large body vibrated under me as he laughed. "I'm going to turn us so I'm on my back and you're on top of me and then unwrap my arms. Support yourself and push against my chest. I'll lift you as you go, and then you can crawl down me to get out."

  "Okay," I agreed on a harsh breath. My heart raced as my cheeks flushed pink, just thinking about everything he said. Heat spread throughout my body at the thought of my hands touching his beautiful body.

  The next thing I knew we were moving, rolling just as he'd described until he was on his back and I was lying on his chest, propped up by my hands on either side of his head, looking down at him, still wrapped in his embrace.

  "Hi," I breathed. It took intimate to a whole new level.

  "Hi, yourself," he replied with a hint of a smirk.

  I lifted a brow and fought against my own smile. "Is something funny to you?"

  He shook his head slightly as his smirk grew. "No."

  Our lips were mere inches apart. Everything in me screamed to close the distance and hold his mouth captive. I glanced at his pouty, perfectly kissable lips just as he licked them and sucked in a breath.

  "Are you waiting for Christmas or do you like being on top?" His rough rasp pulled me out of my haze as my eyes darted to his.

  "You're a pig," I snapped, mentally smacking myself for getting caught up in the moment.

  Bracing myself as best as I could with a throbbing arm, I began my descent down Jesse's massive frame. Each spot I placed my palms flexed underneath my touch. My gaze flicked to his, to make sure I wasn't hurting him. "This okay?"

  He grunted. Typical Jesse. A grunt was considered an answer. If you've never climbed down the body of someone else in a non-sexual manner, especially when you were incredibly attracted to them … it is a difficult task to say the least. Just as I thought I had a steady rhythm, my shin slipped off of his and my knee landed right on his junk.

  Jesse groaned in pain as I scrambled down him quickly and out of the car. For whatever dumb reason, my instinct was to touch the spot I'd just accosted and apologize.

  "Oh, gosh. I am so sorry. I didn't mean to do that," I said as I reached forward, covering his hand, which covered his groin.

  His head lifted off the floor. "If you wanted to touch my dick, all you had to do was ask. You didn't have to knee me as an excuse to touch it," he rasped.

  I yanked my hand away and sneered at him. "You're the biggest pig that ever walked the earth," I snapped and marched away from the car and into the house. As if I knew where the heck I was going. It was away from him and that was all that mattered. Every time we seemed to have a moment and I let myself feel anything, he'd open his mouth and ruin it … proving everything I thought I felt was only in my head.

  The door opened into the massive kitchen I'd only had a glimpse of the night of the party. Granite countertops covered the huge L-shaped white cabinets and oversized island in the middle. Seeing the space without all the bodies, I could appreciate the Mediterranean style of the house along with the dark wooden flooring.

  DeAnna sat at a stool on the opposite side of the island with her iPad open, scrolling through what I assumed was the media-crap-storm she'd created.

  A moment later, Jesse came in behind me, walking with a slight limp. DeAnna glanced up at him and frowned. "What happened to you?"

  His eyes darted to mine, making me cringe. "Nothing. Here," he said and handed me my backpack. I'd forgotten all about it being in the front seat during my need to escape.

  "How bad is it?" Jesse asked as he crossed to the fridge and pulled out two bottles of water. He twisted the cap off, took a sip and then held the cold bottle against his groin. My eyes followed the movement, and my mind went to how I'd reached out to touch his bulge in the car.

  Clearing his throat, I looked away. He'd caught me staring and from the heat creeping up my neck, I'm sure he could tell what I was thinking about, too, since he could read me like a worn copy of a Hot Rod Magazine.

  DeAnna clicke
d her nails on the counter and sighed. "Well, it looks like they already know who you are and where you live. God, they didn't waste any time, did they?"

  The color drained from my face as I braced myself against the nearest counter. They already knew where I lived? That meant my parents were going to become the next targets. The reality hit me hard. It wasn't only the media who would know where my house was, Jesse would, too. He'd know I lived in a trailer park. There'd be no hiding the poverty of my life anymore. I slid down the counter until my bottom hit the floor.

  Jesse squatted in front of me, offering me the other bottle of water. "Take a drink and then breathe. It'll be okay."

  "Be okay? How is it going to be okay? I'm not like you. I don't want the public to know anything about me. My personal life is just that, personal. And you exploited that," I snapped. Even though I was eye level with him, I'd meant the last part for DeAnna.

  "It's fine. We can have your parents do an interview with the reporter of our choosing and they can confirm your whirlwind romance. This will be good," DeAnna said, as if she hadn't heard a word I just said.

  My parents. Oh, gosh. My parents. I scrambled past Jesse to grab the backpack I'd dropped a moment before. My phone was stashed in it somewhere. It vibrated as I dug through my stuff, trying to find it. It stopped just before I hit answer.

  Fourteen missed calls from my parents. This was bad. So very, very bad. I needed to call them back and explain, but the inner teenager inside me shrank into a ball.

  "Do you want me to call them?" Jesse offered in a soft tone. One I was sure only I could hear.

  I shook my head. "No, that would make it worse."

  I sighed and sank back against the cabinet by the sink and hit call. Jesse did the same. Oblivious to anything going on around her, DeAnna rattled on about her plan to exploit my family further. Jesse's deep baritone cut through the air, dismissing everything she said.

  On the fourth ring, my mom answered. "Jada? Love, is that you?"