by KB Winters
Things between Jessibelle and me were never going to be easy. There would always be a bundle of confusion and questions, and then the problem of hiding ourselves from the people around us. Company policies, HR red tape, and all that. No matter how much I liked her or how intense our chemistry was, there was no escaping the fact that things were always going to be tougher with her than they were with Alana. With Alana, things were easy. Yes, they had also been a lot less interesting, stimulating, or engaging, but they were easy. And, after everything I had been through, there was a lot to be said for having an easy life.
That was why I’d offered Alana a lift back to the city, I suppose. I could have demanded she get out of my house and done everything I could to get Jessibelle back so we could pick up where we left off. But I didn’t. Because something about slipping back into the familiar, even after everything Jessibelle and I had shared, was tempting.
We spent the car ride back to the city in near-silence, because every corner of conversation had already been firmly and completely explored since she’d burst into my house. But my mind was going faster than the car could ever hope to, my thoughts pulsing angrily through my brain as I tried to figure out what I was going to do next.
Eventually, I pulled up outside Alana’s apartment. She had residences across the world, and this was just her home in the city. She often complained she didn’t have a base to call home, and that was why I’d purchased the apartment a few years ago. I wanted to give her a place that could be ours, that she could come home to.
I got out of the car and opened her door for her, just like I always had. It was almost on instinct, without thinking. She smiled up at me, taking my hand and pulling herself to her feet. For a split second, it felt like it had when the two of us were dating, but I pushed the thought from my head. I didn’t need old worn out feelings to clutter up everything else I had going on up there.
I walked her to her door, still not saying a word, and she paused before she went inside. Turning to me, I saw a flash in her eyes, a flash of something I recognized. And then, grasping my face between her hands, she leaned in and kissed me.
It was the kind of kiss that, a few months before, would’ve gotten my pulse racing and my cock twitching between my legs. She ran her nails through my hair, parting my lips with her tongue and pushing it into my mouth. It all happened so quickly, I didn’t know how to react. My hands stayed by my sides, my body not certain how I was going to respond, and then she pulled back, looking at me with total satisfaction on her face.
“Something to bear in mind.” She raised her eyebrows, clearly satisfied with what she’d just done. I knew she was half-expecting me to grab her and pin her against the wall, and take her right there. But I didn’t move. I couldn’t.
Once, a long time ago, I would’ve done just as she wanted me to. I would have carried her into the apartment, thrown her down on the bed and done everything and anything she wanted. But now, I felt nothing. Nothing at all. My body didn’t respond to hers the way it once had. Even though she was one of the most beautiful women I had ever laid eyes on, nothing about her drew me in. Nothing compared to the passion I shared with Jessibelle. My Jessi might not have been perfect. She might not have appeared on billboards and bedroom walls, but she was the only woman who did anything for me, the only person who kept me up at night. Her voice at the back of my head, her touch, the way she closed her eyes and tipped her head forward every time she came. For me, it was Jessibelle—or no one. I didn’t care how easy it would’ve been to let Alana pull me back in, to settle into our relationship because it would’ve been simple. But I didn’t want that. I wanted Jessibelle.
I turned back to the car. I knew where her apartment building was. I could stop by, try to comfort her and explain everything that had gone through my head and tell her it was only her I wanted. Alana’s kiss was still fresh on my lips, but it didn’t matter anymore. I was more sure of that than ever.
I drove across town, far from the fancy part of the city Alana lived in, and toward Jessibelle’s apartment. What if she wasn’t in? Hell, I still wasn’t certain exactly where she lived in that building. But none of that mattered. I felt as though something in my stomach was tugging me toward her, and I knew if I just followed that, I’d end up next to her again. I grinned at the thought, running my fingers through my hair, letting the air whip through it and chase away any doubts that might have plagued me about what I was doing. Yes, there would be a lot to overcome, but I wanted to be with her. Last night, losing myself to her, giving my all to her in ways we’d never experienced before, had only served to underline that point and I wasn’t going to throw it all away over some ex I didn’t want.
It didn’t take long for me to arrive, pulling to a stop in front of a series of identical apartment buildings and trying to remember which one was hers. The third along from the end of the street, or the second? I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel, screwing up my face and wondering if I should just call her and tell her to meet me outside. Hell, I could pull her into this car, drive out of the city, and make love to her in the back seat like we were a couple of teenagers. I grinned at the thought and reached into my pocket to pull out my phone. Yeah, that would do perfectly.
Just as I pulled up her number, I heard another car coming down the deserted street. I turned my head and frowned. The whole place was quiet, and the engine sounded like something fast and expensive. What was a car like that doing at this end of town?
Suddenly, the car pulled into view. It was a fancy model, and it bore two passengers I couldn’t make out through the tinted windows. It came to a stop outside one of the apartment blocks, and a man got out, a man I recognized from somewhere. I slid down a little in my seat. And then he stepped around the other side of the car and pulled the door open for the other passenger.
Jessibelle.
And then, it clicked into my mind where I’d seen him before. In court. He was the lawyer representing the shareholders against Jessibelle. The one she had seemed to share something with, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. The one who had pissed me off just to look at him. The crazy bastard who’d shaken her hand for a little too long and apparently shaken her up in the process. He was outside her apartment building in some expensive car, dropping her off. I wondered where they’d come from.
I watched as she headed over to the door, opening it up and glancing over her shoulder to indicate that he should follow her. He did as he was told, stepping inside, glancing around as though he knew he shouldn’t be there. And then, he shut the door to the building behind him, and I was left sitting out there in the cold wondering what the fuck I’d just seen.
I gripped the steering wheel so tightly, my knuckles were threatening to burst through my skin. I took a deep breath and tried to steady myself, but it didn’t work. Instead, I put my foot down on the accelerator and pulled away. I was driving fast, too fucking fast for this part of the city. I knew it wouldn’t take much for me to get pulled over. But I didn’t give a fuck. I was mad. Mad at myself, mad at Alana, mad at the man who’d just followed the only woman I wanted into her apartment and left me sitting out here in the cold like some kind of fucking idiot.
The wind tore through my hair, but this time it didn’t feel cleansing. It felt painful. I wanted to open my mouth and scream, to yell with fury at everything I had just seen. I could have stopped this, could have kicked Alana out as soon as she turned up, but I didn’t, and now Jessibelle was gone.
And I had no one to blame but myself.
Chapter 22
Jessibelle
Well, that was fun while it lasted.
That’s what I kept repeating to myself, over and over, whenever I thought of Zach and what had happened between us.
I hadn’t heard a word from him since I’d left his house in Atherton the past week, and I couldn’t exactly blame him. No doubt he’d reconciled with that woman, and the two of them were off living out their outrageously perfect lives together. Good for them
. That must have been nice. My heart twisted up into an angry little black ball every time I thought of it, but I kept repeating the words to myself—that was fun while it lasted. I tried to convince myself if Zach was happy, I was happy, but I wasn’t at that selfless part of our relationship yet. No, I still wanted him and the thought of some other woman getting her hands all over the man I had been falling for was enough to make my stomach twist up into a sick mess.
And then, of course, as though things couldn’t get any more complicated, there was Aston. He had come swinging back into my life, promising me the world on a silver platter, if I’d just give him another chance. I turned him down—because of course I would—but what he was offering was undeniably attractive. I mean, he’d told me he would leave the case if I wanted him to. That was a big deal. A huge one. And if I took him up on it, maybe I’d have a better chance of winning my first major court case. That would look good on my record.
As nice as it would’ve been to get rid of him once and for all, I knew I couldn’t lie to his face and let him think there was a hint of a chance between us. That wouldn’t have been right. I would never get back with a man who had cheated on me. That was for sure, and I didn’t want him to think I was gullible or stupid, even if it was in aid of my career. No, I’d just work harder at nailing this case, and I welcomed the distraction for the time being. Anything to get my mind off Zach and Brandon and the whole freakin’ mess my love life had turned into over the last few weeks.
What were the chances both Zach and I were faced with exes wanting to reunite at the same time? It was a weird bit of cosmic symmetry, one I felt was a little too coincidental to be nothing more than a coincidence. So, I threw myself into the case, hoping to pull my mind away from everything that had happened over the last month.
And I finally spotted something, amongst all the papers and complaints and shareholders. A common thread, at last.
Zach’s brother.
Johnathan Rose was a few years younger than Zach. The two of them had grown up together, best friends, and when Zach had gotten sick, his brother had stepped in to help out where he could. But that wasn’t the only thing that had my hackles up.
Every single part of the company that had filed a complaint against Zach had Johnathan as part of their board. Now, that wasn’t such a big deal, but from what I gathered from the shareholders emails, he had a hand in pushing them to make those complaints. Okay, fair enough. Maybe he just didn’t want to put a divide down the middle of the family while he tried to keep the company afloat. That would’ve been all right in and of itself, but there was more. Much more.
I wasn’t sure why no one had thought to do the research on Zach’s brother before now. I guessed because he was part of the family, and most people assumed he had his brother’s and his father’s best interests at heart. But I went deeper, staying up late, vanishing into shell company after shell company before I found what I was looking for.
It didn’t have Johnathan’s name on it, but it had the name of one of the companies he’d started to cover his tracks. A business, as far removed as he could get it from the one Zach ran, that had just filed the patents for new software that would challenge the one Zach had built his company on. If he managed to get the funding to get the business off the ground, it could seriously destabilize what Zach had worked so hard to create. I stared at the name of the company on the page in front of me, wondering how on Earth it got that far. Was I the first to stumble upon this information or were other people aware of it too? Had the shareholders been offered a stake in the new company if they stuck with Johnathan through this?
I glanced at the clock. It was already ten in the morning. I’d been up since four after I woke up with a sharp realization about the case and rolled out of bed to investigate. I should head to the office, or at the very least, call in to tell them I was working from home. I let my head drop back and let out a sigh. My brain was too full of the information I’d just come across for me to be able to focus on anything. I needed more coffee and something to eat before I spoke to anyone human.
As I got to my feet to grab my things and head out for a bite to eat, there was a knock at my door. Who the hell was that? I hurried over to the peephole and peered through it to find Aston looking back at me.
I pulled the door open, irritated. I’d made it clear the night he’d given me a lift back to my apartment that I didn’t want to talk to him or be with him or forgive him and he was wasting his time pursuing any of that with me. But he obviously hadn’t paid any attention to my little speech, judging by the enormous bouquet of roses in his hands.
“Jessibelle,” he smiled at me broadly, and pushed the roses into my hands as soon as I’d opened the door. “It’s so good to see you again.”
“Yeah, well, I’m kind of busy right now,” I snapped, taking the roses because I didn’t know what the hell else to do. “Could you get out of my way? I’m on my way out—”
“I need to talk to you” he said, pushing forward into my apartment and ignoring my protests. “About the case.”
“Well, actually, I’m just doing—”
“I quit the case,” he turned to me, spreading his hands out wide as though I should’ve been amazed at what he was telling me. My eyes widened. I wasn’t sure how to react.
“So, we can be together, and it wouldn’t be a conflict of interest,” he explained, as though I somehow hadn’t gotten that. I shook my head.
“Aston, seriously.” I pointed to the door. “I don’t want anything to do with you. I don’t know how I can make that any more obvious.”
“Hear me out,” he insisted, and I rolled my eyes at him. I hated that he was still fucking up my life, hated that he was still rolling into my world and grinding everything around me to a halt just because he couldn’t see what was blatantly obvious to anyone paying attention.
“I let you take me to dinner, remember?” I pointed out. “That was me hearing you out.”
“Why did you come to dinner with me if you didn’t want to talk to me?” he threw back, clicking into debate mode, and I fell silent. He had a point. I mean, I knew it was because I was freaking the hell out over Zach and Alana getting back together, but I couldn’t tell him that.
“I thought you deserved a chance to talk,” I admitted. “But that evening was it. That was all you’re getting from me. Can you get that through your thick head?”
“I just wish you’d give this a little thought,” he went on, sliding back into patronizing asshole mode, his natural state of being. I dumped the roses on the table next to my laptop and closed it, making sure he couldn’t see the information on the screen.
“I have given this thought, Aston,” I spat back, my patience running dangerously thin. “I’ve given this all the thought it needs, and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that you are the last person I ever want to see. You fucked me over in the worst way you possibly could. Do you get that? Do you understand?”
The words fell out of me frantically, as though I was trying to convince myself as much as him. He had spent so long crushing me under the weight of his manipulation, of his faux-love, and I could feel myself being drawn back in against my better judgement. I didn’t want to fall for him again, and every fiber of my being was repulsed by him, well, almost every fiber. The handful that weren’t were urging me to hear him out and to take him back, because it wasn’t as though I had anyone else waiting for me now. He lowered his eyes to the ground, took a deep breath, and then began to speak, as though what he was saying was of the most monumental importance to me.
“Cheating on you was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.” His eyes went misty. “I see that now. But I was scared about the commitment we were making to each other, so I—”
“So, you stuck your dick in someone else?” I threw my hands in the air. It felt satisfying to lay it out for him. He apparently didn’t have a comeback prepared for my response. He fell silent, and as soon as he did, I heard another set of footsteps. One th
at I recognized.
Chapter 23
Zach
I retreated back into my head, a place I knew I shouldn’t go, but that didn’t stop me from getting obsessed with Jessibelle and that fucking lawyer. My thoughts filled with memories and images of them, wondering what was going on between the two of them. I found myself keeping tabs on the case. It was as much for the good of the company as it was anything else, though I knew I wouldn’t have bothered to do any of it had it not been for Jessibelle’s involvement.
After I dropped off Alana I’d headed back to my mansion just outside of town. I thought I needed some time for myself, and the next stage of the court case wasn’t due to take place for a few more weeks. It wasn’t as if Jessibelle and I hadn’t thoroughly prepared in all the time we’d spent together. It was just whenever I thought back to the points she’d made or the arguments she’d come up with, I thought of her beautiful face, and the way she kissed me, and those memories felt like my heart was being ripped out piece by piece.
But I couldn’t settle down in that big house. I needed some peace, but it wasn’t to be found in those huge empty rooms, beautiful though they were. I wasn’t sure what possessed me when I hopped in my car and headed back to the city, but I knew it was nothing good. I should let Jessi get on with her life, whether she was with that asshole or not. But I couldn’t let it go. I felt I had to tell her I wasn’t with Alana, and that I’d made a mistake in even listening to her and not showing her the door as soon as she walked into the kitchen. I had the feeling that if I’d managed to explain everything to Jessibelle, things might have unfolded a little differently. Yes, I was doing things out of order, but I had to take my chance while I still had it.
I arrived outside her place and saw a familiar car outside. The same one that had dropped her off last week. I hopped out of my car, ran my hands through my hair, and headed toward her apartment.
When I got up the stairs, her door was open, and it was clear I’d arrived in the middle of an argument. I rushed to the door and my heart leaped into my throat. There he was, that asshole lawyer standing there with Jessibelle. My Jessibelle. What was he doing there? Was he hurting her? I’d tear him apart. Then I saw the flowers, a huge bouquet of red roses that were unceremoniously dumped on the counter next to her. Jessibelle looked over his shoulder, and I swear I saw a flicker of relief on her face when she realized it was me. The man turned around, and his jaw clenched when he laid eyes on me.