Not only are you not over him, you were sorely tempted to accept his offer.
“I don’t have anything to say to you, Jack. I’ve told you several times, I don’t want to see you again.”
His sigh could have carried all the way to her without the aid of the telephone. She could feel her heart breaking at that sound, but she had to put an end to this now, for both their sakes. He needed to move on and get back to his nice, safe, ordered life, and she had a career to focus on. They had no common ground where they could meet, anymore.
“I have to go,” she said and pulled the phone away from her ear. As she pressed the disconnect button, she thought she heard a sob through the phone. Her mother stood nearby, looking at her with sympathy and a touch of sadness, and her dad was leaning against the doorframe watching her.
“Why do you keep rejecting him, Charlotte?” Ed asked.
“What? Why are you asking me that? You know what happened in Vegas.”
“I do, but I also know that man loves you.”
She scoffed. “You don’t know what you’re talking about Dad, trust me. Jack does not love me. He just wants to have sex with me. He said exactly that to me in the hospital.”
Her dad sighed and stood in front of her, “I don’t know what you talked about in the hospital but I do know what Jack told me at your wedding.” He took her shoulders and waited until she looked him in the eye. “He told me I didn’t have to worry about you because he’d look after you. He said he loved you and always would.”
“Well, he never told me that. Why would he say that to you?”
“I have no idea. He did keep glancing at you and he kept his voice lowered, almost like he didn’t want you to hear. I thought that was kind of strange but, let’s face it, your whole fucking wedding day was strange for us.”
She smiled at him and gave him a hug. “Thanks Dad. I appreciate the pep talk. I can’t be with him unless he can tell me those things himself, though.” She handed the phone to Sharon and headed for her room. Another week of crying in bed didn’t sound so bad.
***
Two days later, Nikki burst into her room. She was waving a piece of paper that looked like a print out from the internet. “Tell me you haven’t been online,” she said, gasping for breath.
“Nope, I was asleep until you crashed in here. What’s wrong, this time?”
“It’s nothing. Reid called me and insisted I come down here to make sure you knew it was nothing.” She glanced at the clock. “It’s eleven in the morning; why are you still in bed?”
“Because I can do whatever I fucking want. Now, what’s nothing?” She sat up and snatched the paper out of Nikki’s hand as her eyes ran down the print. “What. The. Actual. Fuck?”
“Reid said it was a lie. He hasn’t been anywhere near her. They think she paid a couple of sources to plant the story, knowing you’d probably hear about it.”
Charlotte screwed her eyes shut and rubbed her hand across her forehead. She thrust the paper at Nikki. “You know what? I don’t give a fuck. I don’t care what he does or who he does it with. Cindy is welcome to him.”
“Charlotte, the story isn’t true.”
“I don’t care if it is or isn’t. Why can’t this all just go away? He tells me in the hospital that we should have meaningless sex. Instead of getting the message when I leave, he’s harassing me by text. Now she’s doing it from the other side of the world through the media. I refuse to participate in their drama. Meeting Jack Fawkner was the worst bloody thing that ever happened to me!” Charlotte slumped onto her pillows and pulled the covers over her head.
A deep voice from the hallway felt compelled to defend itself, “That’s not fair. Most of our time together was magical.”
Charlotte and Nikki froze as Nikki turned toward the door and Charlotte hid under her covers, hardly believing her ears. “Reid!” Her friend screamed as she launched herself into his arms.
“Hey, baby. I couldn’t stay away. Between you and the kangaroos, I’ve been enchanted.” He laughed as Nikki kissed him all over his face, and Charlotte heard them stumble into the hallway. She could just imagine what her mother thought of that. Before she had time to consider the front door banging open and closed, the covers on her bed were gently tugged down. As they slipped off, she came face-to-face with Jack’s concerned face.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey. You shouldn’t be here.”
“I know. I’m not very good at following orders, it turns out.” He traced a finger down her face. “I had to see you—I’ve been worried sick.”
She sat up and leaned against her pillows. “Jack, you should go. I meant it when I said I wouldn’t sleep with you.”
He looked startled. He’d expected a better reaction, obviously, especially in light of the instant connection between Nikki and Reid. “I’m not leaving.”
She pushed the covers off and struggled to stand up. “Then I will. I’m not doing this with you again. I told you: I’m done with you and the contract.”
“Fuck the contract, Char. I didn’t come here because of a stupid agreement we made.”
“Can you please stop calling me that? I don’t know why you think my name can somehow be shortened. You don’t even say it right—I’m not char-grilled, like meat. It’s a shhh sound.” She stood with her arms crossed, glaring at him. The edge of his lip twitched and she narrowed her eyes, daring him to laugh at her.
“Will you stay here long enough for me to explain why I’ve nicknamed you that?”
“If you make it quick.”
“Like you have so many places to be.”
“Don’t fucking tempt me, Jack. I will throw your ass out of here, if you push me.”
“Okay, sorry.” He looked down and glared at the floor. “This is not going at all how I imagined.”
“That’s because you’re an idiot. You thought I’d see you and fall at your feet? After the fucking stupid offer you made me?”
“Well, it sure worked for Reid. What the hell has gotten into him? He hasn’t screwed anyone else since he came home before Christmas. I think he’s serious about her.”
“At least someone knows how to love. Let me ask you one thing: why did you even propose to me properly in Paris? Why did you buy me a giant engagement ring? Why carry me over the threshold when we got married? You made me think this might have meant something more to you than just a contractual agreement; you had me labouring under that impression this whole time. I kept waiting for you to tell me it meant more to you than just good business. Now I know you just wanted to get some.”
He closed his eyes before he answered, and she had a moment to examine his face. He seemed older, somehow, like the last six months had taken its toll. She’d thought it was just the hospital lighting making him look like that. Considering what she looked like each day when she looked in the mirror, Charlotte felt a tiny jolt of sympathy for him, but she snapped her mind down on that feeling straight away. Softening toward him would do no one any good—it would just hurt more when she eventually made him leave.
He opened his eyes and pierced her with his gaze. “Can we go for a walk?”
“Why?”
“I just… um… I feel like we have a lot to talk about. We’re squashed in here, in what appears to be,” he looked around the room, “your teenage self’s bedroom. I’d like to take a walk, so we can have a long talk and sort out our differences. If you still want me to go at the end of that, I’ll leave. I promise.”
“You’re on. It sounds like it’s the only way I can get you to go. Give me a minute,” she said as she stepped into the bathroom. Charlotte glanced at him as she turned around to shut the door and saw him drop his head into his hands.
***
Emerging a few minutes later, Charlotte was fresh-faced with her hair brushed and her teeth cleaned. While she’d performed those small acts of grooming, she’d cringed that it had been several days since she’d cleaned her teeth; she’d barely been out of bed since the
day he’d sent the text messages. Charlotte crossed her fingers that she wouldn’t have such a negative reaction after this visit. Deep inside, she worried she might never recover from today.
Leading the way out the back door, she took him toward the creek that flowed at the rear of her parents’ property. She knew every corner of these grounds, having played here every day as a child. They could walk for an hour before they’d hit any fences and need to turn around.
This is where I wanted to bring him to experience the laid-back Aussie lifestyle. Too bad he ruined it before we could come.
“Well, Jack?” she said after he’d been silent for several minutes. “Speak.”
“Are there any snakes out here?”
“That’s the first thing you have to say?” She sighed and continued, “Of course there are snakes, it’s summer. Don’t worry; you’re wearing rock star boots. Snakes can’t bite through those.”
“Oh. I wondered why you put boots on when it was so hot. Is there anything else deadly out here that I should know about?”
She glanced at him and shook her head as she blinked in disbelief. “I think there’s an old bull next door. As long as you stay out of his field, you’ll be fine.” She stopped and turned to face him with a frown. “Is this what you came here to say?”
“Of course not, Char… um… Charlotte. I haven’t been to Australia before, though.” He glanced around him nervously. “Everyone says every creature that’s outside here can kill you. I didn’t consider that when I asked to go for a walk.”
“Go back, then, if you can’t take it,” she said as she continued in the direction of the creek. “I think you can safely assume that, as usual, the only thing in the vicinity that wants to kill you, is me.”
He laughed without a touch of humour as he hurried after her, “I could guess that by myself. I don’t want to go back, definitely not on my own, anyway. Just point out anything that might bite me, okay?” She smirked at him and waited for him catch up to her. He took her hand, but she shook it away. Jack was silent until they reached the tree line and entered the bushland that signified the creek was nearby. Once the trees covered them, he turned and stood in front of her. She kept her gaze firmly on the puddles at the edge of the creek.
“Look at me please, Charlotte.”
Startled by his tone, she looked at him before she realised she’d given in. He stepped close and folded his arms around her. As she tried to wiggle out of his grip, he whispered in her ear, “Please don’t pull away. Please.” She stilled, waiting for him to relax his grip so she could slide out of it. He kept a firm hold on her, though, as if he knew she might flee at any moment. “Okay. Let me start with the basics. That press release is false.”
“I don’t care.”
“Well, it’s important to me that you heard from my own mouth that it’s not true. The minute I saw it, I knew I had to come. I couldn’t have you hating me more than you already do. So, that’s the first thing.
“Second, I proposed to you properly, because I wanted you to have the memories of that day. I wanted you to have an engagement ring that your friends could coo over, just like any newly-engaged woman would have. I was worried that you might leave, so I got you to agree to move up the wedding date. I thought, once we were married, the rest would take care of itself. On the day I freaked out that I forced you, I wanted you to tell me you loved me, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell you first.
“I carried you over the threshold, because you do mean much more to me than just an agreement we made. You’d become my best friend, my confidante—the person I trusted to have my back and set me straight on matters of household employees and how to treat them.” He watched her face as she tried not to smile at his last point. “I miss you, Char. I miss your smell; I miss never having a clean business shirt, because you’ve worn them all to bed. I miss holding you in the dark and your hand on my chest. I miss your company and your foul mouth.” She snickered, but kept gazing at the creek. “The house is empty without you there. No one flashes me in the pool, annoys me for coffee, or sings in the shower. Mrs. Jones glares at me every time she sees me, now. Last week, she even reprimanded me for being such an idiot and treating you badly. She said writing you love songs and singing them to the world didn’t make up for my shitty behaviour. You’ve ruined her, by the way, and she’s going to have to go. I can’t have my staff berating me.”
“Don’t you dare,” Charlotte whispered, still not meeting his eyes.
“I want you back. I need you to come home with me.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
She finally stared up at him and Jack could see the anguish in her eyes. He’d done that: he’d put that pain in those perfect, blue eyes, and he’d never forgive himself. A single tear tracked down her cheek, but he dared not raise a hand to wipe it away. He still wasn’t sure if she’d run away from him if he released his grip.
“You want to know why I call you Char?”
She nodded, but she didn’t look away, this time. He felt a tiny glimmer of hope that he could salvage this, so he slipped his hands from her waist and took her hand in his. He’d missed holding her hand. He moved them gently in the direction of the creek again before he spoke.
“I call you that, because you’re white-hot. Everything about you is fiery: your temper, and your passion for life and being yourself. It’s contagious and dangerous all at once, just like now. You’re gone and the heat has gone out of my days. I live in one of the hottest cities on Earth, and I’m left with the burnt remains of a flame that was blindingly bright, but that isn’t there anymore.” He dared not look at her as he continued, “I shouldn’t have started calling you that. You’ve definitely left me burnt and blackened.”
“Wow, you should write song lyrics—you have a certain way with words.” She let a small smile touch her lips as she looked at him, and he could see some of her old humour returning.
“Not to push the envelope, but please tell me that smile means you’re not going to send me on my way with nothing but a tissue to dry my tears?”
“Don’t push your luck just yet, buddy. I’d forgotten what a drama queen you are, that’s all.”
He grinned at her and then laughed out loud. “I’ve barely had drama in my life until you arrived. Since I’ve met you, I’ve punched out a talk show host, been robbed at knifepoint, been practically molested, got myself hitched, destroyed my band, incurred a million dollar debt by cancelling two concerts in Vegas, been shouted at by my housekeeper, asked a woman to have my baby instead of just admitting I loved her, fallen off a stage, faked my need for a next of kin at the hospital, and lost my mind over photos of myself on the internet.” He looked down at her amused face, “Does that about cover it?”
“It seems accurate enough. You left out how you discovered that you can go out in public and be normal without an army of bodyguards to hold your hand. Oh, and that you got dumped, because you were being a dick.” She frowned as she looked up at him again, “I don’t know if I can stand a life with you, Jack. It’s only been eight months since we met, and you’ve been insane the entire time.”
“Yes, well there’s a reason for that. I was sexually frustrated.”
She doubled over, laughing at him, and he had a flashback to the day they’d discussed his mother’s sex tape. “You fucking idiot,” she said when she could finally catch her breath. “After the ridiculous baby discussion, you were about to get laid so hard that you wouldn’t have been able to walk for days, but you let Cindy into your room before I could get there, and we all know what happened after that.”
“I’m truly sorry for that. I was weak and I should have sent her away. I didn’t know how you’d taken my suggestion the night before, though. I was so horny for you, and she was just there—”
Her fingers shushed him. “Enough. I don’t want to hear about it, anymore. Why did you really come here, Jack? Why was it so important for you to make me understand that the press release wasn’
t true? You’re going to have to tell me, if you expect this to work.”
“I thought I did tell you. Just then, in great detail.”
She sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time since they’d met in August.
He’s such an idiot. Does he think I’ll go home with him, sleep with him in his bed again, and take up where we left off, without a promise of more?
As he gazed at her, searching for the answer she wanted, she saw the light go off behind his eyes and a giant smile spread across his hips. “For someone who writes love songs, I’m pretty fucking stupid, aren’t I?”
“Uh huh.”
Jack pulled her close and moved his mouth until it was just inches from hers. “I love you, Charlotte Shipton—Char.” He finally kissed her ever so lightly, raining tender kisses all over her lips as she felt the last few months of misery melt away. “Please come home with me, baby.”
She sighed against his lips and tried hard not to cry. “I’ve waited a long time to hear those words from you, Jack. I love you too.” She squealed as he picked her up and whirled her around as he laughed and kissed her all over her face. A startled bird flew from the tree above them and they suddenly heard voices calling their names.
Pushing through the trees that had sheltered them, Charlotte smiled and waved at Nikki as she held Reid’s hand and dragged him across the field. The look on his face said he was having the same thoughts about the wildlife that Jack had endured on the walk over.
“What are you guys doing out here?” Charlotte called as Jack slipped his arms around her waist and tucked his chin into her hair.
“You won’t believe it, Charlotte,” Nikki called with an excited lilt in her voice. “Reid and I are getting married!”
From behind her ear she heard Jack’s voice, “What. The. Actual. Fuck?”
The End
I hope you loved reading Contracted For Love. This book was meant to be a standalone novel but as you can see Nikki and Reid appear to have other ideas about that! I suspect the pants-less Fergus has his own story brewing too – wouldn’t you love to know why he was missing his pants that day in the recording studio?
Contracted For Love: Famous Love Series Page 20