"Is that ...?" her voice was breathy, low.
"My phone," I confirmed. I was going to ignore it, and began the steady rhythm again, Juliet immediately relaxing into me again and her hand gripping tighter. I heard myself grunt in pleasure.
But my phone didn't stop. As soon as it quit ringing, it would begin again, and finally, with a frustrated groan, I rolled over and reached for my pants, in a heap on the floor.
I picked up the phone, intending to turn it off and throw it back to the floor, my cock and Juliet’s wet heat driving me back to the moment before. But when I saw my mother’s name on the screen, I knew I had to answer.
"Mom?" This couldn't be good.
Chapter Thirteen
Juliet
My entire body was a fiery line when Jace rolled away from me to answer his phone. I was thrumming in a way I never had with Zac, a way I didn't think I ever had before, and I was more than eager to find out what would happen if I gave myself completely to Jace, if I gave into the overwhelming desire I felt to have him, to be owned by him. I wanted to feel him inside me, to feel the security I experienced with him wash through me, push away all the uncertainties in my life.
But the phone wouldn't stop ringing.
And when Jace answered, "Mom?" I knew our night had ended.
His face telegraphed his concern immediately, his eyes going wide as his big hand clenched around the phone.
I watched him, pulling myself up to sitting and pulling my nightshirt over me from where it had been dropped at the head of the bed.
Jace was listening, nodding along to whatever his mother was saying. "I'll be right there," he told her, and my selfish heart sank.
A moment later, Jace was dressed and standing beside me. I'd put my nightshirt back on, blown out the candles and switched off the music, as Jace told me apologetically that he’d have to go. I felt like a fool, even though I knew that were it not for the phone call, things would have gone exactly as I wanted them to. Still, the cold harshness of real life had spilled into the quiet room where my fantasies were playing out, and in the light, they looked silly and gauche.
"Sorry," I began at the same moment that Jace said, "I'm sorry." I felt like I needed to apologize, but I didn’t know why.
We laughed, each of us sounding nervous now. So strange, when a moment ago, we'd been touching each other in the most intimate way possible.
"Hey," Jace said, stepping near enough to me that I could feel the heat coming off his chest. His arms wrapped me and the insecurity lessened, dissolved. "I'm really sorry about this. My mom needs me, and I have to go."
"Your brother?" I asked, wishing there was something I could do to keep him with me, selfishly wishing Jace would just send Chad or one of the other guys from his security company.
"I'm not sure," he said. "Some men came to the house, scared my mom pretty bad."
My selfish thoughts disappeared as worry replaced the want inside me. "Go," I told him, realizing I was holding him up. "I'll be fine."
He took another long moment to look down into my face, and then he leaned in and kissed me softly. "I'll be back," he said, and it felt like a promise that we'd continue what we'd started. I hoped so. I was in much too deep to just walk away. I wanted him. I wanted to know him. I wanted to continue feeling like he saw something in me that no one else had ever taken the time to see, something real.
Jace let me go and a moment later I heard the door in the kitchen. I looked around Jace's room, and then sighed, collecting my things and heading to my own cold empty room at the end of the hall. The timing was off, as always. Jace was my bodyguard, and I'd just made a deal with Ryan to pretend to be my boyfriend. A man like Jace deserved better than the complicated mess I could offer him.
I spent a long night in my room, not sleeping, just listening to Elvis snore and thinking about what a tangled disaster I'd made of everything. Maybe going home would be good. Seeing my sister and Gran might help me put things in perspective.
Maybe I should forget the way I felt about Jace, let him do his job and stop putting myself first.
In the soft diffuse light of morning, I felt worse than I had the night before. Jace hadn't returned, and Chad was in my kitchen when I finally dragged myself down for coffee.
"Morning, Ms. Manchester," he said, peering at me over the tabloid he was reading.
"Hi Chad," I said, trying not to sound hostile. I wasn't fond of the blond bodyguard. But then again, he wasn't Jace, so it was inevitable he'd fall down in the comparison. Chad just gave off a creepy vibe. "Jace isn't back?"
"Not yet," he said. "He called an hour ago, asked me to take his place today."
My heart dropped in my chest. Was his mother hurt? I wondered if I should call him, see if I could help. "So he'll be gone all day?"
Chad raised an eyebrow over the magazine, cocked his mouth into a half grin. "You sound pretty disappointed," he observed. "Anything I should know about what goes on in here when I'm sleeping outside?"
Yep. It wasn't the comparison, I just didn't like Chad. "Are you supposed to speak to clients that way?" I asked him, adopting an offended tone and crossing my arms.
The grin dimmed a bit and he shook his head slowly, as if he'd already answered his own question, and was judging me. “Of course not. Sorry.”
"Chad?" I said. "I think I'm fine in here today. You can just be outside, okay? I'll call you if I need you."
The grin fell completely, and Chad dropped the magazine to the table. "Supposed to have one guy in the house," he said.
"Not today," I told him, my tone still icy. "I want to be alone."
"Uh, okay," he said. "I'll let the guys know. We'll get an extra guy on the doors then."
"That's fine." I watched while he stood and lumbered back out the side door, relief washing through me when he was gone.
The day crawled by as I tried to look at the pile of scripts my agent had messengered over, but my mind was at war with my heart and it made it hard to focus.
There were a million reasons why I shouldn't feel the way I did for Jace, not the least of which was to protect him. He didn't need to be dragged into my messy life, with vengeful exes and fake relationships, the press watching my every move. There was little chance we could keep any real relationship a secret, and Jace would surely lose his job if we were found out, since the firm he worked for made it clear that fraternization compromised security and had each of us sign an agreement.
There was also the little matter of Ryan, who was supposed to be my boyfriend now. If the press fell for the Ryan scenario, and it turned out I was dating Jace, there'd be another scandal, and would feed right into the story Zac was trying to sell—that I'd been unfaithful to him first. That I was just a whore, an easy slut.
It wouldn't be fair to anyone to continue letting my heart push me at Jace. I needed to cut that off before anything really happened. Anything else.
I was in the den watching television with a glass of wine when the security radio blared with Chad’s voice.
“Miss Manchester? Jace is on his way in. Just didn't want you to be alarmed.”
I picked up the radio, feeling slightly guilty about judging Chad earlier. Maybe he wasn’t so bad. “Thanks,” I said, pushing the button on the side to talk.
I went to the kitchen, where I knew Jace would come in, and my heart lightened when Jace's familiar smile greeted me through the glass. But then I remembered what I'd decided today, and I pushed my heart back into place.
"Hey," I said, opening the door. "Did you lose your key?"
He looked tired and it took everything I had not to put my arms around him. "No, I just didn't want to scare you. Figured I'd announce my entrance. Chad said you've been alone in the house all day, so having someone suddenly appear might freak you out."
He was always thinking of me, of how to take care of me. All the more reason I needed to protect him now. "Thanks," I said.
"You okay?" He asked, those dark eyes watching me closely as I moved to th
e counter, refilled my wine glass and sighed.
"Yeah," I said. I couldn't look at him. I knew my resolve would shatter and I’d throw myself at him again. "Everything okay with your mom?"
He didn't answer and I risked a glance at him. The worry I saw written across his face was almost more than I could take.
"Jace?" I moved toward him, forgetting my resolve. He needed me.
He snapped back to himself, the easy smile crossing his lips again. "Yeah. I just ... I need to figure out how to get her moved. To a better neighborhood, somewhere safer."
"She's okay?" Every horrible scenario I'd ever heard about flitted through my mind.
"Just scared. Some guys came looking for my brother. Broke into the house. Threatened Mom. I guess Jarred owes them money." Anger and sadness shot through his eyes, and my heart ached.
I held the wine glass out to him, and he shook his head lightly. "Can I help?"
He shook his head again.
"Have you found your brother?"
"Not yet," Jace said, and it was more like a sigh. "And if those guys find him first, I probably never will," he said.
I couldn't imagine how I’d feel if Tess was missing, in trouble. He must be terrified, but like always, he stood there strong and stoic. "What can I do?"
"Nothing, Juliet. This isn't your problem." His voice was tired, and his eyes were sad.
“I could pay an investigator, or—”
“No.” Jace cut me off before I could even finish, his voice hard. “We’re okay. We don’t need charity.”
That hurt a bit, I hadn’t thought of it as charity. I wanted to help, but Jace was too proud to accept anything I could give him. I also wanted to wrap myself around him, to comfort him, to take comfort myself, but Jace looked tired. "I'm gonna do the perimeter check and then go to bed."
"Of course," I said, disappointment flooding me even though I'd just decided today that it would be for the best if we didn't get any more involved than we already were. I watched as Jace locked the kitchen door, and then moved into the dining room. I turned, heading back for the television. I knew I wouldn't sleep again, so I did my best to lose myself in Younger, my latest TV addiction.
Despite my resolve to stay uninvolved, an hour later I found myself with Jace's file and the telephone at my ear, giving Jace's mother’s address to the man on the other end.
"Okay, Ms. Manchester. So we'll monitor the place, and I've got a couple other guys out looking for the brother."
"Thank you," I told Paul, the proprietor of the other security firm I'd been referred to when I'd hired the company Jace worked for. I couldn't call Austin, Jace’s boss. So I did the only thing I could think of. "Call me if you find anything?"
"Will do. How long till they move, you think?"
I stared at the open laptop, at the picture of the little Brentwood cottage I'd bought last year as a getaway when I'd needed to escape Zac for a night. "I'm not sure. Soon, I think."
"All right. We'll be in touch."
"Thanks." I put the phone down and sighed. Maybe inserting myself wasn't the right thing to do, but I couldn't be to Jace what I wanted to be, couldn't have him be anything for me. So I could be a friend, I figured. My money could help ease the situation that had creased his face with worry and brought sadness into those dark kind eyes.
Maybe, if I knew everything was okay with him, I'd be able to keep myself away from him.
Maybe.
Chapter Fourteen
Jace
Seeing the fear in my mother's eyes had drained me, and hearing her refuse to use my money to get a hotel room, at least for the night, had possibly broken my heart. By the time I left the little house, having filed the police report, installed a new lock on the busted front door and reinforced the windows, Mom looked exhausted. I'd sent her to bed and waited up, watching the news at a low volume until I was sure she was all right. If Jarred did come back, he wouldn't have the new key. But I was beginning to lose hope he might come back at all, and anger was replacing worry. How could he do this to us?
I'd left Mom sleeping with all the lights on and a note telling her I'd see her tomorrow. I had offered to stay all night, but she’d insisted I go back to work.
When Juliet had answered her door, seeing her beautiful face had felt like a relief. It had felt like coming home. And that wasn't something I could let myself get used to. Whatever we had, whatever might be happening between me and America's sweetheart—well, that had an expiration date. She had her own problems to attend to, and Ryan McDonnell was going to be the guy to help her do it. I was the paid help, and I needed to remember that.
She'd looked disappointed when I'd let her know I was heading to bed.
But I couldn't worry about that. Not now.
I woke to the sun streaming brightly through the windows of my room, and a madly buzzing phone.
The number wasn't one I knew, but with everything going on in my personal life I couldn't afford to screen calls. I answered, trying to sound awake. "Hello?"
"Jace Morgan?"
"Yeah. Who's this?"
"Captain Andrews. LAPD. You got a brother? Jarred?"
Relief and worry spiked through me, forcing me to my feet. "Yes sir." My military background kicked in. The guy on the other end of the phone was probably just a regular guy, but putting the title of "captain" before his name when he'd identified himself had me seeing captain's bars and getting ready to salute.
"We've got your brother in custody. He's not in good shape though. Can you come down to First Memorial Hospital today?"
"He's in custody at the hospital?" I asked, feeling like this guy probably thought I was a little slow. I'd expected to hear Jarred was in jail. Not the hospital. Any anger I’d felt at my little brother dissolved.
"Yeah, he got beat up pretty good."
"I'm on my way," I told him. "Anything else?"
"Nah, just come down here. We'll fill you in."
I didn’t know what to feel as I pulled on my jeans and grabbed a shirt from the back of the chair in the corner. I had no idea what I was going to find at the hospital, but I knew I couldn’t call my mother until I knew how Jarred was.
I'd have to ask Chad to cover for me again today. I was shoving my wallet and phone into my pocket as I came out of my room and nearly ran Juliet right over. She was just passing my door, dressed in yoga pants and a tight tank top that distracted me from my worries momentarily. God, she looked good.
"Hey," she said, her voice soft and light. "Everything okay?" She must've read the worry on my face.
"I'm not sure, actually. They found my brother."
Her eyebrows lifted hopefully. "Oh?"
"He got beat up. He's in custody but he's at the hospital. I need to go."
"Of course. Go. Want me to come?" Her hand was on my arm, and we were both looking down at her slim fingers laid across my skin.
I thought about having Juliet with me. It would feel good to have her at my side. Having someone else in it with me would be nice. But if that someone was Juliet ... I could already see the photographers, the regular people turning to stare. "Probably not a great idea. Thanks though," I told her.
She let me go, sighing lightly. "Of course. Yeah." A cloud passed over her face before she managed to pull the smile back into place. "Take whatever time you need. Call me if you want," she said.
"Okay. Thanks." I turned, heading down the stairs ahead of her. It felt awkward to just walk away from her, like there should have been some more official goodbye. But what? A hug? A kiss? All the things I wanted were impossible where she was concerned. It was better this way.
At the hospital, I gave my brother's name and was directed up to the third floor. His room was easy enough to find, it was the one with the police guard sitting outside the door, a sight that made it clear exactly how much trouble my brother was in. I identified myself and the guy radioed someone, the captain, I guessed. I was directed to wait.
"Can I see my brother?" I asked.
&nb
sp; "Captain said you see him first." The guard sat back down and pulled his magazine back in front of his face.
I tried to tell myself Jarred must be okay—stable at least, and settled into a chair to wait. It wasn't long before another cop appeared, this one tall and thin with an air of authority that told me he was in charge, and after chatting with the guard, he turned my way. "Jace?"
I stood. "Yes sir. Captain Andrews?"
He shook my hand. "You know much about what's going on with your brother?"
"Not a lot," I said. "Can I see him?"
"Just a minute." He waved back at the chairs. "Just want to make sure you know he's in a lick of trouble."
I hadn't heard anyone use the term "lick" that way since I'd been a little boy in the south. It plucked at the chord of sentimentality that had been strumming inside me since I'd been thinking about my little brother, about better days. I squinted at the captain, waited for him to continue. "Yes sir."
"Officers rolled up on him running last night. A few guys behind, chasing him with pipes, boards. We got a couple of the other guys—your brother basically collapsed in front of the cruiser. Guys must not have gotten a chance to search him before they started beating the shit out of him, because he was carrying a good amount of heroin."
"Shit." I squeezed my eyes shut. Jarred had been arrested once before for possession. But this was more serious.
"We gotta charge him with trafficking. That wasn't for personal use."
"What's that mean?" I asked. "Jail time?"
"Depends on the judge. If it's a first offense, could be lighter, but the minimum is gonna be at least five years."
Maybe that'd be long enough to get him straight. If he could survive in prison. Shit. This might kill my mother. I didn't have an answer to the cop's statement, so I just let the news sink in. "Can I see him?"
"Yeah."
"There gonna be bail?" Everything inside me cringed at the idea of having to scrape together what would surely be thousands of dollars.
Happily Ever Hers Page 7