It was a bittersweet decision, because Sadie and I were best friends. And this place was our creation. But as I said, it was something I had to let go of.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” she asked as I lay the paperwork before her and took a seat in the chair opposite hers.
“I’m sure,” I smiled, nodding my head.
I watched as she picked up her pen and began signing on the indicated spots. With each signature, I could feel the weight slowly easing off my chest.
This was not a decision I made lightly, but it was the right one.
I had toyed with it for months, and when I realized that drowning feeling was not going away, I knew I had to let go.
After everything was signed and she closed the manila folder, passing it back to me, I stood.
“Dinner on Tuesday?” she asked tilting her head to the side.
“Tuesday evenings will always belong to us at Alexandra’s,” I said with a wink. It was a set date every week at seven. It had been for years. And nothing about the decision I had just made would change that.
I turned around and began walking toward the door of her office with every intention of leaving until something she said stopped me.
“She quit, you know.”
I turned just enough to look back at Sadie over my shoulder. She still remained seated in her chair, leaning back with her arms crossed over her chest.
“The last night you were here, when you saw her with Trevor.” Sadie had been the first person I went to after I talked myself down from beating his ass. She listened to me for ten minutes straight go on and on about her being too fucking good for him and for this place. She didn’t say a word, only listened. I stormed out of her office with so much anger in me, that I went straight home and beat the hell out of my bag for close to an hour.
“She came to me, not more than five minutes after you left. Tears rolling down her cheeks as she admitted that she couldn’t do it.” Knowing that she was crying sent out warning bells in my mind.
“Couldn’t do what?” I asked.
My first thought being that Trevor attempted to force her into something she didn’t want to do. I knew from experience Emery was not the kind of girl to sleep with a guy so soon after meeting them. She was the type of girl who needed the wooing from a guy.
Trevor didn’t strike me as the wooing type.
“She said that she’d tried to be the type of hostess we were paying her to be, but that she didn’t have it in her.” Sadie leaned forward and placed her arms on her desk.
“I think I already knew that this place wasn’t for her,” she confessed. “I spent over a month watching the two of you together. It was so different compared to the other interactions between our members and our girls.”
My chest grew tighter as I allowed my body to lean against the door frame for support as I continued to listen.
“The way you would look at her, and the way she smiled as if whatever it was you were saying to her at the time was the most important thing in the world.” I swallowed past the lump that had now begun to form in my throat.
“Jake, I know that you’ve blamed yourself in a sense for Sommer and her actions.” She stood from her desk and walked around as she rested her hip against the edge. “But nothing you did forced her in to that state, she was already there. And you can’t remain hidden for fear of causing that type of damage to someone else. You have to live.”
“I do live,” I told her.
“Yeah,” she shrugged, “but not without hesitation.”
There was a silence that stretched out over us because I couldn’t argue with her. What she said was true. I had from that moment with Sommer, held back. I drowned myself in work and loneliness because the idea of hurting someone made me fearful of falling in love.
No, Sommer and I were not in love, maybe she thought she was but it was all an illusion. But it was a scary enough experience where I had convinced myself that it was something I never wanted to feel.
The problem was, I think it already had begun to happen with Emery, but I chose to stop it before I found myself in too deep.
“You need to go see her.” I was surprised by Sadie’s suggestion. After all, she was the one that helped me realize I was getting in too deep.
But she was also only being the friend I had asked her to be.
“I knew the moment she came in this office and quit that she felt something for you. When her friend Whitney came to me and said that she had a girl that was just days away from being evicted from her apartment, had no car or even money for food, I hired her on the spot. To me at that point she was just another girl willing to do whatever it took to survive. But when she came to me and told me that she would rather live in a shelter than feel as dirty as she felt at that moment, I knew she was different.”
My chest tightened as I thought of Emery living in a homeless shelter, or worse on the streets.
“She also asked if I would tell you that she hopes you find what you’re looking for.” I looked up at Sadie with a puzzled expression and she looked remorseful. “It was the excuse I used when I placed her with Trevor.”
“What excuse?” I asked.
“I told her that you felt the two of you weren’t the best match for one another.” I could see the regret in her eyes.
But the idea of Emery feeling as if she wasn’t enough for me, was something I had to clarify.
Chapter 11
Emery
I stretch the tape out over the last of the boxes, just before scanning the room. I’d lived in the same apartment in Tampa since I finally left the filth of my parents’ trailer just after high school graduation.
Not that what I now had was better, but it was a small step up. And it was mine.
But the hole I had found myself in was one I couldn’t get out of. With my student loans and no form of income, I had to accept defeat.
Whitney offered to let me stay with her for a while until I was able to get back on my feet and find a job. Did I feel wonderful about mooching off my friend? No.
But I had no other choice.
I placed the tape on the kitchen counter just before walking toward the bedroom to have one last look around. A knock on my apartment door had me spinning back around surprised because I knew Whitney was working and I didn’t really have any other visitors.
Looking through the peephole on the door, to say I was shocked would be an understatement.
Never had I ever expected to find Jake standing on the other side. When he lifted his hand to knock on the door again, the sound made me jump. It was much louder this time.
“Emery, open the door,” the irritation in his voice surprised me because the way I saw it, he had no reason to be upset with me. I however, had plenty to feel frustrated about.
So without further hesitation, I unlocked the door and yanked it open. “What?” I barked. “Why are you even here, Jake? We aren’t a good match for one another, remember?”
He remained frozen in the doorway, in what I could only assume was shock at my outburst.
I was a rumpled mess. I had been packing all day, my hair had not even been combed in over twenty four hours. I was wearing sweats and a tank top, with no makeup but the left over mascara from the day before that I’m sure made me look like the raccoon girl.
But I didn’t care.
I had no desire to impress this ass, not any more.
“She lied,” he finally spoke.
He stepped forward, forcing me to step back further in to my apartment. He pushed the door behind him with his foot and continued to move toward me.
“God damn it, Emery, that was the fucking problem,” he whispered as he fisted his hands at his sides. “I wanted you too much. It wasn’t supposed to be like that. I wasn’t supposed to want you the way I do.”
“Do?” I asked in surprise.
This entire situation now felt like one big pile of confusion.
“Yes,” he said, releasing his fisted hands and steppi
ng toward me, closing that last final distance that remained between us. “I should have said something, but the things I was beginning to feel for you violated everything I’d set up for The Lounge and took the proper measures to avoid. We make it very clear to each member and to each employed hostess that they are to keep things strictly professional. If I go against that, I set us up for failure.”
Everything he said made sense. Had I wished there was another way to handle the situation and the way it unfolded, yes.
“I don’t work at The Lounge anymore,” I don’t know why I felt the need to tell him this. He was part owner so I was sure that he already knew.
“I know,” he said confirming my thoughts. “And I no longer own half of The Lounge.”
I gave him a puzzled, shocked look.
“It didn’t feel right, for many reasons,” he confessed.
“Where are you going, Emery?’ he asked, taking the focus off the questions that were filtering through my mind.
When I gave him a look of confusion, he lifted his hand and motioned toward the boxes that were scattered around the room.
“Moving in with Whitney for a while, just until I find another job and get myself back on track. Maybe enroll in the fall semester and finish my degree, who knows.” Again, the feeling of inadequacy rushed through me. He was an attorney, a successful businessman and I was a college dropout who couldn’t even afford to buy a cheeseburger at the nearest restaurant.
“I think you finishing your degree is a great idea,” he said lifting his hand to cup my cheek. “I saw the light in your eyes when you talked about your dreams of becoming a teacher.”
It had been one of those long talks we had shared on our many nights at The Lounge. He and I never had a hard time finding things to talk about when we were together.
“But in the meantime,” he said, tilting his head as he brought his face closer to mine, “do you think you and I can start over?”
“Is that what you want?’ I asked.
“More than anything,” he assured me.
“I think I’d like that,” I confessed and the smile that covered his lips confirmed his happiness with my answer.
“You’ve just made me a very happy man, Emery,” he whispered just before his lips covered mine.
Epilogue
Emery
I arrived at Jake’s place to find a sticky note taped to the front door of his condo.
Come in and get comfortable.
Over the last week, Jake and I had started fresh. Leaving the past behind, we chose to move forward, with no secrets or contracts between us.
It was refreshing.
I knew I had missed him but until the moment he pressed his lips to mine that day in my apartment, I hadn’t realized how much.
I stepped inside and placed my purse and keys on the table that sat in the center of the foyer, with an arrangement of the most gorgeous flowers placed in the center. The aroma filled the small space and I smiled knowing that it was due to Helena that they were even there. She was his housekeeper and a long-time family friend. She also treated him as if he were just another one of her children.
I hadn’t even made it two steps into the living room before I was gripped by the waist and spun around, with my back pinned to the wall behind me.
And within seconds I could feel him everywhere, all hands and lips. And I whimpered as he devoured me, leaving me little time to register what was happening.
Jake slid his hand into the front of my jeans and within seconds had me screaming out his name as I thrust my hips forward and back, riding out the orgasm that had just left me momentarily speechless.
I had no shame.
All I felt was complete oblivion.
I was such a sloppy mess of need that if he chose to fuck me right there in front of the floor to ceilings windows overlooking the beach behind his condo, I would have helped him take off my pants to speed up the process.
But instead he chose to move to the bedroom where he proceeded to make me lose every last ounce of control I may have still had lingering around in some deep dark place in my mind.
And as I lay there, my stomach pressed firmly into the mattress beneath me from the weight of his naked body still covering mine, I smiled.
Not one single part of me didn’t feel the aftereffects of his touch. Jake was like an animal unleashed. And even when I had reached what I felt was the peak of my pleasure, he proved me wrong, showing me that I could take more.
Because Jake Gunther was a force that I knew I couldn’t withstand.
He had consumed me, and I had never in my life felt more powerful and adored than I did in that moment.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Epilogue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Epilogue
Revealed: A Hype PR and Eye Candy Bookstore Anthology Page 28