by C. R. Ellis
“Are you mocking my beloved Red Sox?” I asked, mouth agape and hand flying to my chest.
“I would never!” She gasped, though a wicked gleam in her eyes told me otherwise.
“You’re so going to pay,” I declared just before I started tickling her, though only a fraction as forcefully as I would’ve normally. She squealed beneath me and tried to wiggle free, but there was no way I was letting her get away this time.
Chapter 15
Jade
Yes, yes, yesssss. Victory is mine! I was hoping my antics would lure Emmett on top of me so he’d make good on his promise of what would happen next time his hands were on me. I no longer cared about the dull ache still spreading through my limbs. Being in Emmett’s presence was the perfect antidote to the effects of whatever was slipped into my drink last night. I had questions about what had happened to me, and I was actually shocked at how little freaking out I had done about the whole ordeal. Emmett, I suspected, had something to do with that. The revelations, the truths he gave me, weren’t meant to be a distraction, but they were.
In the best way possible.
Emmett leaned over me and let his hands stroke my skin in what felt more like a ticklish caress than a true tickle, while his lips found my neck and trailed a path of kisses across my throat. It was the perfect balance, his deft fingers moving in a torturously meticulous pace, and his lips, my god those lips, owning each inch of skin they covered. I moaned when his stubble grazed my jaw, which only spurred on the movement of his skillful fingers. I could smell victory, and it smelled a lot like Emmett’s cologne. I had him right where I wanted him.
Until I didn’t.
I regretted the slight, involuntary grunt of pain as soon as it gurgled from my throat. Emmett wasn’t even putting any real weight on me; his body was hovering over mine, and his fingers were feather-light as they came alive and danced across my skin. I twisted around in faux protest, causing his elbow to connect with the inside of my knee.
“Shit!” Emmett’s forehead wrinkled with guilt as his eyes softened with regret once he was settled at the far side of the couch. His chest heaved as he tried to get control of his breathing. “Are you okay? Shit, Jade. I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”
My eyebrows pinched together. I sat up and adjusted the shirt now dangerously close to revealing the color of my panties. “What? Emmett, I’m fine. Just knocked my knee against your elbow. Nothing to worry about, I’m not made of glass.”
“But you were hospitalized less than twenty-four hours ago, Jade. I shouldn’t have gotten carried away.” He rubbed his hands over his face before lacing them together behind his neck.
I inched toward him and reached to untangle his fingers. I smiled at him, hoping to elicit one of his own killer smiles. “I know, Emmett. But I’m a lot stronger than I look right now, promise.”
His lips lifted slowly at the corners, pulling into the smile I had hoped for. The smile that did inexplicable things to my heart. “I know, pretty girl. You’re a helluva lot stronger than I am.”
My head tilted in confusion.
“Jade, I’ve never been as absolutely terrified as I was last night when Harrison called. I couldn’t stop picturing you, limp and unconscious in some shitty alley. I had all kinds of images flying through my head. And then when you were in and out of consciousness after I got to the hospital…”
I crawled into his lap and cupped his face between my hands. “Listen to me, Boston. You are the reason I’m not freaking out about last night. Is there a chance I will eventually? Sure. But right now, you and the strength you’ve given me since you got to the hospital are what’s holding me together. So, don’t for a second think you’re anything other than the picture of strength, Emmett Sinclair.”
His hands moved to my hips to hold me in place, and his head dipped forward until our foreheads touched. “How the fuck did I ever think I could walk away from you?”
I was searching for a response to his question when a particular image from what he’d said about last night made me freeze. “Harrison found me in an alley?”
He-Who-Sees-Everything picked up on my panic and angled my body around, pulling me into his chest until I was nearly swallowed up by his embrace. Angling his head down, he sighed into my hair before meeting my eyes again. “Yes. The alley behind the club.”
“Was there…was I alone?”
Emmett’s limbs went rigid and a vein in his neck throbbed. He sucked in a calming, deep breath. “You were alone. Harrison saw you inside the club and only lost sight of you for a couple of minutes before realizing you went out the back.”
“Why did I leave the club?”
I leaned back and searched Emmett’s face. I knew he didn’t have the answers I needed, but all the unknowns were starting to overwhelm me.
“I wish I knew, Tiny,” he replied, shaking his head and looking tortured, like he was also desperate for answers.
“I guess I could call Nicole and see if any of them remembers seeing me with anyone in particular.” Only, I had no desire to relive any part of last night. I shifted in Emmett’s lap and sank my back into his broad chest, which felt like the safest place I’d ever be. “Maybe tomorrow. I just want this, just you, for the rest of today. Is that okay?”
“Jade, that’s more than okay,” he assured me, brushing his lips against the hair falling over my ear. “You have me, pretty girl. I’m here.”
I’d been dead-set on holding him to his promise about making me scream his name next time his hands were on me, but this, just being held in Emmett’s arms, was enough. His embrace was comfort and strength; the way he held me, like I wasn’t breakable, but like I was the most valuable thing he’d ever held, brought an indescribable peace over me.
As long as I have this man’s arms around me, nothing can touch me.
The feeling of invincibility from being held by a man who was finally willing to strip away all the secrets between us was strange and foreign. The strength in his embrace promised he’d tear down the Great Wall of China if it came between us.
I didn’t know what the future held any more than Emmett did, but I knew I wanted him in my life. Realistically, I knew the deck was stacked against any kind of real future between us. He lived in Boston. I lived in Austin. We both had ties to our own cities that wouldn’t be easily severed. I loved my life in Austin, and Forget Me Knot was so much more than just a job; it was the labor of love that I had built from the ground up with my best friend. And Emmett had John and Emily and his own career in Boston.
As crazy and inexplicable as my feelings were, I couldn’t stop them. I wanted lazy Sunday mornings starting with breakfast in bed and ending with tangled sheets on the floor. I wanted can’t-wait-till-we-get-upstairs-to-have-you passion that meant making love in the living room, foyer, kitchen, and hallway. I wanted adventures to invigorate my soul and fuel the fire in my heart. A fire that’s been tamed for far too long.
And I wanted all of it with this man.
“Care to share with the class?” Emmett’s lips grazed the shell of my ear as he spoke.
“What?” I asked, angling my head and body around to see his face. I begged my stomach not to react when his lips tilted up and revealed a dimple deep enough to probably drop panties in two seconds flat.
“You were so relaxed I almost thought you were asleep, but then you went rigid.”
I paused, unsure of how to explain the outrageous thoughts racing through my mind. Nope. Not happening. I was not about to reveal all to Emmett right now. Not unless I wanted to find out just how quickly he could bolt out of this apartment. He’d already given me so much more than I could’ve hoped for; I couldn’t risk taking things any deeper.
“I was just thinking.”
“About?”
“How crazy the last twenty-four hours have been.”
He dipped his head, brushing his lips against my forehead, and moved his hands to cup the base of my neck. “I promise we’ll get answers, Tiny.”
&n
bsp; I leaned back and shook my head. “I don’t mean about what happened at the club, Emmett. Sure, I have questions. But I mean about you. Would you have changed your mind about seeing me again if Harrison hadn’t been in the right place at the right time?”
The fabric of Emmett’s t-shirt stretched even tighter across his chest as he inhaled. His hands gripped my neck a little more firmly, just enough to prevent me from pulling away. “No. But not because I didn’t want to or didn’t think about you. God, Jade,” he breathed, eyes closing and sucking in another lungful of air. I reached up to run my fingers over the crease now branding his forehead. “These past two weeks, I couldn’t go a single fucking hour without you invading my thoughts. Without missing what having you felt like. But I was willing to live with the memories and torture myself with the what if game, as long as you were safe and off my brother’s radar.”
“What changed?”
I watched the lump in Emmett’s throat bob as he swallowed and wove his fingers through the blonde locks now extending in every direction. When he finally brought his eyes back to mine after letting them roam to the ceiling, there was an edge of fear in them.
“Emmett?”
He pushed off of the couch and crossed the living area, coming to a stop in front of the floor-to-ceiling window showcasing a breathtaking view of Central Park. Gaze focused somewhere down below us, he asked, “Do you remember asking for me at the hospital, when you were in and out of consciousness?”
“I think so. But I don’t know why I would’ve been asking for you…” My eyebrows drew together in confusion as I thought back to last night.
“I do,” he called, finally turning back to me. Before I could get up to go to him, Emmett walked back over to the couch and dropped to his knees in front of me, rooting his hands to the couch on both sides of my legs and keeping his eyes trained on mine. “Will was at the club last night. And I haven’t been able to prove anything, but he is the one who slipped something into your drink.”
“But how would he know who I am? And why would he try to do something to me if you weren’t even going to see me again?”
“He knows who you are because, when they came to Austin, he got his hands on a picture of us from the security cameras, and I lost my temper with him when he implied some shit about what could happen to you because of being with me. So he knew you mattered.”
My stomach knotted. I knew from everything else Emmett told me his brother was insane, but I wasn’t entirely convinced he was responsible for last night. “Jesus. He has serious issues. But that still doesn’t explain why I was saying your name.”
Emmett’s head shook back and forth slowly, and his hands moved to grip the outside of my thighs. His eyes captured mine, pulling me into their vortex of sky and ocean blues. “You were saying my name because he probably wanted you to believe he was me. Jade, Will and I are twins.”
Emmett’s words filled the air between us and bounced around in my brain until missing pieces of last night fell into place. I remembered seeing a pair of blue eyes from a table in the back of the club. I remembered feeling hands wrap around my waist. I remembered seeing a familiar face, partially cast in shadows of the night as he pulled away a mask and flashed me a dark, sardonic smile before walking away. I remembered the pain and confusion about how Emmett could be so cold.
After what felt like decades, my lungs finally did their job and filled up with air again on a sharp inhale. I was almost afraid to look at Emmett—afraid I’d only be able to see him as the mirror image of the man I’d encountered last night.
But when my eyes flitted back to his face, he was all I saw. He was still Emmett. The same sweet, spontaneous, fun-loving, completely captivating man I’d met by chance just a couple of weeks ago. The wavy blonde hair falling effortlessly into place, the curl of his lips as they melted into a smile he seemed to reserve only for me, the ocean eyes forever intoxicating me with their sincerity, were all Emmett’s features. Not his brother’s. They might be identical twins, but not even their matching attributes were enough to make them equal in any way.
When I looked at Emmett, all I saw was a man who would bring me the stars just to give me the peace he thought I needed from them. Little did he know, he brought me more peace than the stars ever could. To me, he was the stars.
The smile stretching across my lips threw Emmett for a loop. I quickly shook my head and covered his hands with my own. “I told you—you’re not your family. If you're worried he’s what I see when I look at you, don’t. You might have identical DNA, but you’re total opposites in every way that matters.”
I pulled my hand free from his so I could skim his cheek with my fingers, gently tracing over the stubble. He shook his head and leaned into my touch before pulling my body against his so we were chest to chest – Emmett planted in front of me on his knees while I was perched at the edge of the couch, angling my legs so he could fit between them.
“You, Jade Elizabeth Preston, are incredible. I tell you there’s a ninety-nine percent chance my identical fucking twin is the person responsible for sending you to the hospital, and you still manage to calm and reassure me about the situation, while still looking at me like you always have.”
“And how’s that?”
“Like I’m more than the shell of a man I’ve been the past four years.”
“You are more than a shell of a man, Emmett. And I’ll keep looking at you this way until the message sinks through your ridiculously thick, annoyingly attractive head.”
My comment elicited a cheeky grin. “I think that was a compliment. Of sorts.”
I rolled my eyes. “You would only hear the part about your looks.”
Later, as I blissfully drifted in and out of sleep, I followed through with my promise to continue reaffirming the declaration I’d made. My body instinctively inched farther into his as soon as awareness crept over me in the form of two strong, bronzed arms wrapping themselves around my waist.
“Emmett?”
“Yeah, Tiny?”
“I’m glad I threw a stick at a stranger in a kayak.”
I was nestled into his embrace in the little spoon position, and I felt the bottom of his jaw shift with a smile. “Assault with a deadly weapon has never felt so good.”
A sleepy laugh bubbled from my throat as I smacked his arm.
“You’re more. More than your family, more than the shit you’ve been through in the past, more than what you’ve let yourself become over the last four years.”
I felt his contented sigh and the brush of his fingers as he swiped hair away from my face so he could lean over and plant a kiss on my forehead. “You make me want to be more, Jade.”
I woke up in Emmett’s bed with Emmett still there this time. He couldn’t have gotten up if he wanted to, anyway; my legs tangled with his and my arm stretched across his chest. Apparently I morphed into some kind of starfish overnight, attaching myself to him like my life depended on it.
“Good morning, pretty girl,” he whispered, planting a kiss against my hair. It was all I could do to keep my jaw from falling at Emmett’s just-woke-up, deliciously sexy morning voice.
“Morning,” I squeaked through a smile. “Um…did I sleep like this all night?” I tried to peel myself off of him, but his arms rooted me in place. Fine by me.
“Nah, not all night. You started talking in your sleep a few hours ago, so I pulled you over to me. You finally settled down when I held you against my chest, mumbling something about hearts being soothing to listen to.”
“Oh, God,” I groaned. “Stage five clinger alert. Sorry.”
“Jade,” he called, low and gritty. I was quickly realizing first-thing-in-the-morning Emmett brought his sexiness to new, uncharted heights. I angled my head up to study his face. Jesus. Even his hair, sticking up and out in all directions, was blindingly sexy. “Don’t. You needed me, and I got to hold you, got to do something to help ease your mind. Don’t minimize that or try to take it back. I’m not going anywhere. O
kay?”
I nodded.
“You hungry?” he asked, shifting to his side to put us face-to-face.
I nodded, realizing my full appetite was back and I was ravenous. “What time is it, anyway?” There was a hazy glow of sunlight coming through the windows, muted by the setting of the blinds.
“Eight thirty-five,” he replied, checking his phone on the nightstand.
“Emmett, today is Monday! You’re late for work,” I shrieked in a panic, throwing the comforter back and bolting up in bed.
I expected him to jump out of bed, but he just leaned back into the cushioned headboard and ran his fingers through his wild mop of hair. “Relax, Tiny. They can survive without me for a day.”
“But you never take a day off. Harrison told me you live, eat, and breathe J.S. Innovations. I’m not going to fall apart if you leave for a while, Emmett.” I hated the idea of not having him here, but I refused to be clingy and needy after half a second of knowing him.
“Harrison said that, huh?” he asked, a brow arching in question. I was about to defend Harrison when he pressed a finger to my lips to silence any more protests. “He’s right. I haven’t taken a single day off of work since the accident. But that’s because J.S. Innovations was all I let myself live for. Now, I wanna live for more.”
My brain knew more did not necessarily mean me. But my heart did a double take and pounded against my ribs at the implication and the look in his eye.
“Well if you’re going to play hooky from work, we better make the most of your time.”
He licked his lips and dropped his eyes to my neck. “Oh yeah? What’d you have in mind, pretty girl?”
Chapter 16
Jade
Despite our playful mood, Emmett kept a careful, calculated distance from me, insisting I take it easy until I was feeling one-hundred percent. Even with numerous assertions I was fine already, he wouldn’t cave. I was sure some part of my brain, deep down, appreciated that he was more concerned about my well-being than about his appetite for sex, but I also couldn’t help but question his desire for me. With a narrowed gaze, he pulled me into his body so there was no mistaking his desire for me. But before I could so much as brush a hand against his growing erection, he was gone, locking the bathroom door and muttering something about a cold shower.