Angry? Evidently, this Elizabeth character knew a side of Jake that she did not. Which Jake was real?
“But don’t forget. Tell him Eliz-a-beth is here. He’ll know what to do.” Then she winked at Jess and turned, sashaying toward the elevator.
***
How could she have been so stupid? So gullible? Her chest constricted; her fists made tight balls. How could she have let herself get talked into coming here? Now she would need to explain to Grandma and to Monica where she had spent the night. Everyone would make a federal case of it. When Grandma realized that Jess wasn’t just out for her morning run, she would get worried and then she would probably call Monica and Andrew and Kelly, and they might even call the police. She should have left a note or something. For God’s sake, she was twenty-six years old. But that didn’t mean her grandmother wouldn’t report her missing. She had never done anything like this before.
Oh, what had she done? She wanted to wake him. To pounce on him. To throw herself on him and to demand an explanation. Instead, she scrambled back to the bedroom, clutching tight at the top of her robe. Seeing him there, the lump under the blankets, she felt a flutter of desire deep inside, which triggered another wave of anger toward him—and toward herself. What had she been thinking? She moved quickly, snapping up her stretch pants. Her bra. Her breath caught. She had let him see all of her....
“Hey beautiful.” His voice was gravely, filled with sleep. “What are you doing? Don’t get dressed. Not yet. Come in here, next to me. It’s warm.”
Her heart beat in her face, in her chest and in her head. “Somebody named Elizabeth came by,” she burst out. “She says you’ll know what to do.”
“She came by here?”
“Yep.”
“Shit.”
That’s all he had to say?
He pressed his palms to his eyes. “She’s early.”
“Is she now?” Jess yanked her shirt from the floor. How could she have been so stupid? So trusting?
“Where are you going, Jess?”
“To leave you with…Elizabeth.”
“Oh, no. No. No. It’s not what you think.” He sat now, his eyes darting around the room, following her every move.
“And what do I think?”
“Actually, I don’t know. I don’t believe in jumping to conclusions.”
“Oh, I forgot how wise you are,” Jess sputtered. “Is that in your little book?”
“Yes, it is, as a matter of fact. So why don’t you tell me what you think?”
“Well, to start with, I think she’s insanely beautiful.”
“That she is,” he said, smiling. Like this was all a game.
“And I think you let me spend the night with you when she spent the night in the airport, coming to find you.”
“That’s probably true, too.” He nodded. “But she and I. We’re not together.”
“Right.”
“We’re not.”
“Who is she then?”
He sighed and raked his hands through his hair. When he didn’t respond, Jess opened the closet door wide and stood behind it, so she could get dressed without him looking on.
“We’re….colleagues.”
“Sure you are.”
“We are. In a manner of speaking.”
“Okay, does she live with you?”
“As a matter of fact, we do share an address. But, again, not what you think.” His voice was muffled, strained. “We do need to have a few minutes, I suppose, Elizabeth and myself. We’ll take care of some important business and then you and I can start our little adventure.”
She peered around the closet door.
“She said you need to be alone to do your business.”
“Yes. That is true.”
“So, if it’s just business, why can’t I stay?”
Jake cleared his throat. “Well, for one, because…because you need to trust me.”
“Jake. I’ve never trusted a man in my life, remember? I think it was one of the many things I told you last night.”
“Okay, I know. But you can trust me, and I am going to take you on the trip of a lifetime, starting this afternoon. After my meeting with Elizabeth.”
The closet door slammed shut.
“Listen, just slow down, Jess. It’s really nothing. It’ll be taken care of in twenty minutes.”
He stood now, fully nude, and approached her. She tried not to look at him, but he was so beautiful. Those herculean shoulders, that smoothly muscled chest, those tanned, well-defined abs. “Just, why don’t you go home and get your things,” he said. “Pack your bags. Get your passport. By the time you get back, Elizabeth and I will be…finished with what we need to do, and she’ll be gone. Trust me.”
“I told you I don’t have a passport.”
“Right, right. Just…get what you need to get. Just, you know… for a while. A weekend maybe. That’s probably all I can be away.”
“Unless Elizabeth tells you otherwise?”
“You really need to stop, Jess.”
“Well, what am I supposed to think?
“I don’t know. But I do know one thing,” he said, looking to her and holding her gaze.
“What’s that?”
“I know that last night was the best night I’ve spent with a woman.”
Okay now he was going to make fun of her? Mock her? She rolled her eyes.
His hands clapped down on her shoulders. “I’m not kidding, Jess. What we shared. What you shared with me. I can’t let you go and not come back. I’m going to have the driver take you and then wait for you. While you pack.”
“No. Don’t.”
He continued as though he hadn’t heard. “And when you get back, Jess, I’m all yours. All of me.” He flashed his most smoldering smile. “Trust me.”
***
Elizabeth
Judging by his text message, Jake was not so very pleased with her sudden appearance.
“Come up. Let’s get this over with.”
She was just doing her job. At some level, he had to understand that. But facing him, back in his suite, it was pretty clear that he wished she didn’t do it so well.
“I’m leaving again. With her,” Jake announced curtly when she arrived.
“Seriously? You can’t come home for awhile?”
“Nope.”
“We never should have chosen you for this project, Jake.” Elizabeth tapped her fingers against the side of her leg. “We should have known.”
He shrugged. “Maybe you should have.”
“But it’s too late to pull you off now.”
He was silent.
“So do you plan to tell her? This woman you’re traveling with,” Elizabeth asked. “That would probably help your situation, if anything were to go wrong.”
“No. I’m not telling her anything.”
“Then can I tell her?”
“Absolutely not. And, Elizabeth, why on earth did you have to give her the idea that we’re together?”
At this, she suppressed a giggle. “Did I cause some confusion for that poor girl? Too bad. She was a cutie, too.”
“You know what you did, Elizabeth. Your little game isn’t funny.”
“Then you shouldn’t have made me chase you down.”
“I don’t care what you do. Just don’t give people the idea that we’re together. Especially not her.”
“Is she important to you, then, this girl?” Elizabeth’s breath was tight.
“Yes, she’s the whole reason I’m here, if you have to know.”
Elizabeth’s eyelids fluttered. “I didn’t know.”
“She is the ‘Girl from the Hallway.’”
Elizabeth swallowed. Well, that changed everything.
Seven
Jess
Still a virgin and still a failure, Jess thought, as the town car rolled silently through the streets of her neighborhood. These homes all looked trim and orderly, but upon closer inspection, they nearly all called out for somet
hing. A fresh coat of paint. A new latch for the gate. Everything was sliding toward decay, she thought. Everything. And here she thought she might have a chance to change things. For just a fleeting moment.
And now they had arrived at her home. After the driver helped her from the car, Jess took a moment to set her face right. She told the driver to go—not to wait—and she patted and smoothed at her hair and hoped like hell no one was home to witness her walk of shame, though she knew better.
Sure enough, she was greeted with the screech of concerned voices and the scent of her life thus far: decomposing blooms, last night’s dishes. The morning’s freedom and lightness had vanished; she felt tight, tiny and heavy again.
“Jess? Is that you?” Monica bleated. “We were so worried!” Monica came into view, her arms folded tightly across her chest. “Grandma called me to say you were missing. Frightened half to death. And now it’s nearly noon and I’ve left you, like, fourteen messages.”
Grandma stood, stooped, behind her.
“I was just catching up with an old friend,” Jess explained. “No big deal, and I forgot my phone.”
“Do you ever take your phone with you, Jess? Seriously. What’s the use of having a phone if you never take it with you?”
Jess shrugged and turned her attention toward Grandma, whose mouth was locked in a tight o-shape.
Monica peeked through the front window. “So who were you with? Whose car is that?”
Jess didn’t look. Why hadn’t the driver pulled away yet?
“Jess. Who were you with last night?” Monica demanded. “Was it Jake Lassiter?” Her eyes bulged when Jess didn’t respond. “Oh my God, it was! But didn’t I tell you that he went home with Kelly’s sister? With the freakin’ maid of honor…”
“No,” Jess mumbled. “I think you got that wrong.”
“I did not.”
“Well, don’t worry. Nothing happened. We just talked.”
“Oh, sure.” Monica licked her lips. “I’m so sure. Jess, I’ve read Jake’s book, like, three times, I know that he is all about carpe diem; live for the damn day. I don’t imagine he sits around all night just talking with high school girls.”
“I’m not a high school girl. I’m a woman he knew in high school.”
“You know what I mean.”
Then it was Grandma’s turn. Her voice was high in pitch, and it startled Jess to hear her speak this way. “Well, I, for one, am disappointed in you, Jess. I thought you had more sense.”
The house felt suddenly dim and small, and there was a rancid scent of things old and decayed and forgotten. She had been so close. So close to a life less… ordinary.
Grandma clucked her tongue. “I’m telling you, you can’t trust those L.A. fellows.”
“He’s not an L.A. fellow, Grandma,” Jess said, “He’s a Denver fellow. You know that. We went to high school together.”
“Yeah,” Monica interjected, “Jess and Jake were doing it in the school hallway way back then.”
“Jessica Madigan!” Grandma scolded.
“We were not, Grandma.”
“C’mon!” Monica said, “You can’t tell me a simple kiss led him to pine after you like that; to write about you like that. I think everyone in the world assumes it’s a euphemism… A single kiss made you ‘The Girl from the Hallway’? My ass.”
“Believe what you want.”
“I will. And, to be honest, I’m shocked that he would want to spend any time with you at all. I mean, you’re a total prude. Probably a virgin. You’re scared of just about everything. Not exactly his type.”
Jess’s cheeks burned. She threw her shoulders back. “The truth is…” she announced, “Jake is taking me away with him this afternoon. I’m just here to get my things.” Heat rushed through her body. Why on earth had she just said that?
Monica was incredulous. “Taking you away with him…where?”
“I don’t know, actually,” Jess said, trying to sound nonchalant. “He wants to surprise me.”
“Jessica Madigan!” Grandma shouted now. “You cannot go away with a man whom you know nothing about. Why… anything could happen to you. Anything at all.”
Monica scoffed. “Jake Lassiter is going to eat you alive, Jess. He’s going to drag you apart. He’s going to chew you up and spit you out.”
Grandma was shuffling toward her now. “Don’t get eaten alive, dear.”
“Nobody is going to eat me alive, Grandma.”
“Well, do take your phone. Check in with us,” Grandma said.
“Yes, make sure to check in,” Monica chided, “So we can come rescue you after he does the chewing and the spitting.”
Jess’s heart was racing. There was no turning back now. “You know what? I’m not even going to take my phone. He’s not going to eat me alive, and he’s not going to spit me out.” She leapt forward and, in one motion, grabbed her handbag and slammed the door behind her.
She paused on the front porch for just a moment, wishing she had packed a bag and wishing she wasn’t still dressed in last night’s pajamas. Then she rushed toward the waiting town car. The driver’s eyes widened and he scrambled to open the door for her, just as Monica and Grandma spilled from the house. Grandma’s white nightgown flipped in the wind, and Monica waggled her index finger. “Don’t go, Jess. Don’t go.”
Once the door clicked shut behind her, all Jess could hear was the soft jazz lilting from the stereo. She watched for a moment as her sister and grandmother gaped their mouths, like puppets she could no longer hear. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back.
“Thanks for not leaving,” she said to the driver, trying to keep her voice from trembling. “I decided to come after all.”
“Of course, miss,” he replied. “I take my orders from Mr. Lassiter, and he specifically said not to leave this property without you. As I’m sure you are beginning to discover, he doesn’t often take ‘no’ for an answer.”
With that, the driver sped away from the curb, leaving Jess to wonder what on earth she had just gotten herself into.
***
By the time Jess arrived back at the hotel, a new energy surged through her. What started as anger had intensified into a vitality, a potency. She felt more powerful than she ever had before. Was it from rage or simple, unmitigated desire? She could see Jake’s body, so vividly, in her mind. The finely sculpted muscles of his chest. The hard line of his jaw. His glinting, soulful eyes.
The car stopped on the circle drive, then, mere inches from Elizabeth, who stood with her wrists and ankles crossed. When she met Jess’s eyes, her mouth curved into an easy, wide grin.
“Just the person I wanted to see,” Elizabeth chirped. “Jake says you two are taking a holiday, and I need to talk to you about a few things before you go.”
“Okay…” Jess felt a knot in her belly.
“I’m on my way back to L.A., and Jake needs to be there, as well. In three days.” She held up three fingers. “Three. Not a day later.”
“Okay…”
“As you probably know by now, the man does whatever he wants.” Elizabeth laughed from somewhere deep inside. “So I’m hoping that you could perhaps…encourage him…to make that deadline.”
Jess nodded and Elizabeth went on. “It’s really fairly imperative that we make this happen. Really quite imperative. And, as you know, Jake can get distracted from time to time.”
“I’ll try,” Jess said, “but I’m not sure I have much power over him.”
“Oh, but you do, sweetheart.” For a split second, Elizabeth’s face took on a forlorn quality, as though she were a very young girl, alone and lost. Then the grin appeared again. “I think you’re about to find that out. So… take care of him, okay, Jess?”
“Sure.”
“And Jess?”
Jess raised her eyebrows.
“Don’t let him drink. Nothing with alcohol. Not even a sip.”
“Why?”
“Well, because. Because that would be bad. Real
ly, really bad.”
Jess’s shoulders hunched and she felt a shakiness in her arms and her legs. “Is there something about Jake that I should know?” she asked. “Something that no one is telling me?”
Elizabeth looked her full in the face for a moment and swallowed. “That’s for him to share with you,” she said, and then she reached out her arm and stroked at Jess’s cheek with her thumb, as though she were an old, wise woman, saying goodbye.
If this day could get any weirder, Jess thought, she didn’t know how.
Eight
Jess
“It almost feels like we’re on the run,” Jess said laughing. She and Jake were sitting on the plane, waiting to embark toward a final destination he had kept secret from her.
“Let’s go with that,” Jake grabbed her hand and tilted his head toward hers. His eyes drifted to her mouth. “All you need to do is relax and enjoy the ride, Jess. All of the arrangements have been made.”
Jess’s stomach slid downwards and she felt a flutter at the top of her thighs. She thought about her conversation with Elizabeth. Did she really think Jess had some kind of power over him? Jake and Elizabeth didn’t appear to be a couple after all, and, this having been determined, Jess felt that same overriding sense of peace, that lightness and familiarity with Jake that she had the night before.
It was a pure, calm energy, but also a buzzing. Electric. She felt it even when he stood nearby, not touching her but close enough that she could feel his presence, his warmth. She liked the person she imagined herself to be when this energy filled her. Feeling it now, she knew she had made the right decision. She would allow herself to feel desired and vibrant. For once in her life, she was going to live for today. Fast and free. Because one thing was sure: being high strung and repressed hadn’t been working so well for her of late.
In the airport terminal, as they waited for their flight, Jake had told her he’d love to blindfold her and make their journey’s end a total surprise, but security regulations stipulated that she personally hand over her boarding pass. “Plus,” he had said, “the flight attendants and the other passengers tend to frown on it when you lead a blindfolded girl around the airport.” He had laughed. “They sure know how to take the fun out of flying.” And then he told her to sit tight with a magazine while he did a little shopping for her in the airport boutiques. “What are you? About a size four…petite?”
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