The silence dragged out until Simon sighed. “I have to get to work, but think about what I said.” He stood up, attaché case in hand. “I do wish you all the happiness in the world, Kelly. You deserve it.”
She called his name as he started to walk away and he paused to look back over his shoulder.
“Why were you waiting for me to arrive this morning?” she asked as she stood up.
He gave an embarrassed grin. “I wanted to apologise for my behaviour when I met Jake the other night.”
Kelly frowned. She had no idea what he was talking about.
“When I suggested his desperate love for you wasn’t returned because you didn’t tell me about him.”
“Oh, that.” She hadn’t given a second thought to Simon’s snarky remark. She’d had much more important problems on her mind than his lack of tact. Apparently he still felt he had a greater impact on her life than he actually did.
“Yes, that.” His cleared his throat. “I guess I wasn’t prepared for how I would feel when you moved on with someone else. We were together for a long time. It’s strange, seeing you on another man’s arm. It was a bit of a shock to the system.”
She smirked. “Tell me about it.” For the first time in many months they shared a laugh, and it was nice, companionable. They would never be friends, but she was glad the negativity that had kept them bound to each other was gone. They were both truly free to move on with their lives.
“You know he looks like me, don’t you?” Simon commented as they slowly made their way back toward the elevator. “Or rather, I look like him. He’s rougher around the edges, of course. And he could use a haircut. But the resemblance is there. Even Nadine commented on it.”
As far as Kelly was concerned, Simon’s pleasant, clean-cut appearance couldn’t hold a candle to the raw temptation that embodied Jake Caine. But hey, if he and Nadine wanted to believe Simon was in Jake’s league she wasn’t going to be the one to disabuse them of the notion. Considering there was a time when she would have happily skewered Simon’s ego with a verbal kebab stick and called it a job well-done, she thought her behaviour was exemplary.
“Maybe that’s why you and I never quite made it work the way we wanted too,” Simon said as they neared the small gathering of people waiting for the elevator. “Maybe, in some way, you were waiting for him to come back all along.”
Chapter 28
Kelly didn’t plan to yell at Jake the moment he opened the door. Truly, she didn’t. But she’d spent the entire day stewing over their current situation while trying desperately to concentrate on getting some work done. Then, once she’d been able to leave, an accident on the freeway meant it took twice as long to drive here as it should have. She’d spent the whole trip trying to come up with a speech to explain what had been going on in her head the day she’d made the impulsive decision to seduce him. By the time she stood on his doorstep, pounding on the front door with a closed fist, her thoughts were a tangled mess. The moment she laid eyes on him she immediately said the first thing that came to mind.
“I have to talk to you and you’re going to listen!”
Jake stood there for a moment with his mouth hanging open. His lack of motion scared her. What if he’d already given up on her? What if he’d decided she wasn’t worth the trouble? The possibility alone made her want to cry.
Instead, she pushed past him and stalked down the hallway to the living room where she stood with her arms crossed and waited for him to join her.
He got as far as the end of the hall before he stopped, his hands tucked into his pockets. He’d removed his coat and tie. The long sleeves of his white shirt had been folded up to reveal strong forearms, and the first three buttons were undone. He looked so freaking gorgeous she had trouble remembering what she’d come here to say.
Lowering her gaze to the floor, she cleared her throat and began to speak. “I put a lot of time and effort into my relationship with Simon. I believed I was building a future with him and that made me feel safe and comfortable. It was an easy relationship. That sounds boring, I suppose.” She grimaced. “Actually, boring is probably an appropriate word.” She swallowed, her fingers twisting themselves into knots. “The point is, I realise now I never loved him the way I should have. I’m as much to blame for the end of that relationship as he is.”
Jake pushed away from the wall he’d been leaning against and came to stand in front of her. “Why are you telling me this, Kelly?”
“Because I want you to understand. When Simon told me he’d gotten engaged I was upset, but only because I’d wasted so much time on a relationship that was going nowhere. We should have ended it years ago.
“Then you walked through the door and it felt like my whole life went into a tailspin.” She gave a self-deprecating laugh. “You are the only man in the world who has the power to overwhelm me just by being in the same room. I guess I figured if I could control you, and our relationship, it would make me feel empowered or something. So, yes, I did use you, but it never had anything to do with Simon or anyone else. From the moment I saw you again, everything has been about you.”
She glimpsed a multitude of expressions flitting across his face but none seemed to take hold. Then he asked, “Did it work? Did you feel empowered?”
A sound escaped her throat, low and husky. “Oh, yes.” She sobered, knowing she had to tell him something he wouldn’t want to hear. “I can’t say I was in love with you that day, because I wasn’t. I was neck deep in lust, yes, but it wasn’t love.”
Jake took another step forward, his head tilting to the side. “And now?”
“Now you make me crazy,” she cried out, throwing her arms in the air. “You’re pushy and arrogant and so freaking hot.” She slapped her hands on his chest, as if to push him away, but once they settled there they lingered instead. “You moved interstate just to stalk me—”
“Court you,” he interrupted.
“You won’t leave me alone,” she continued, as though he hadn’t spoken, “even when you’re not actually there. I can’t get you out of my head.”
He covered the hands that had started to absently stroke his chest, with his own. The smile curving his lips was all smugness and joy.
“I tried not to,” she told him. “I swore with every beat of my heart I wouldn’t let this happen—not again.”
Lowering his head to hers, their mouths a breath apart, he murmured, “Kelly, sweetheart, you’re babbling.”
“I know,” she said with a laugh. She could feel the heat of his body so close to hers, could smell the sunshine and musk of his scent. Her heartbeat quickened in trepidation at the leap she was about to take. It waited for the moment of free fall.
“I love you, Jake.”
He kissed her then, his arms coming around her, enveloping her in warmth. The torrent of emotion that had been held in check from the moment he’d come back to town moved full force through her body and it threatened to make her hyperventilate.
“Can you feel it?” she asked, her hands fisting in his shirt as she pulled him closer. “Because apparently I suck at saying it and I want you to feel it because it’s true. I love you, I do. I—”
Jake cut her words off with another kiss. This time, when he released her, he pressed his forehead against hers, his hands cupping her face. “I feel it,” he whispered. “Thank you.”
She pressed her hands against his chest when he would have continued the kiss. “We’re not done talking.”
“Sure we are.” He moved his body closer, until they were chest to chest. “I love you, you love me. We can sort the rest out later.”
He continued to follow her until she bumped into the wall at her back. Her breath came in short gasps. “You’re trying to seduce me. It won’t work.”
A broad grin split his face. “It worked for you.”
“That was different.” She put a hand out to stop him from coming closer. He looked down at it, placed his own over it. Using his fingertips, he began caressing
the back of her hand in slow circles. “I wasn’t expecting to have all these emotional ties and feelings.” She said the word as if feelings were a disease she’d caught, which didn’t feel too far from the truth.
“Ah, that’s right.” He head tilted back in amusement. “The only thing we were going to share was some steaming hot sex.”
She cringed. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Still smiling, he lowered his head to rub his nose against hers. “And not remotely possible.”
Her eyes drifted closed and she breathed in the essence of him, seeking to imprint the memory of his nearness on her brain. “I know that now.”
“I knew first,” he teased and she couldn’t help but smile.
His cheek brushed against hers as his fingers tucked her hair back behind her ear. Their bodies were so close, almost touching, if she ached her back she’d be able to press her breasts into his chest. The proximity alone made her nipples ache and other lower places throb with need. But despite the wants of her body, there were still issues her mind wouldn’t allow her to forget.
“There’s one more thing we still need to sort out,” she said as she sidestepped him and moved away. She needed the extra space to keep her brain functioning. “You came back here with a head full of fantasies about how perfect your life with me would be. That’s something else not remotely possible. I’m a real person, Jake, and so are you. We’re both going to screw up sometimes and our life together will not be perfect. I need to know you can deal with that without having some bubble burst inside you.”
Jake cringed as he backed away. “I know, I’m a total idiot,” he confessed. “Wait here a minute.” He disappeared down the hallway, only to return a few moments later with a blue velvet ring box in his hand.
Kelly’s heart threatened to climb out through her throat.
“Don’t panic.” He held his hands up in a defensive move. “I’m not about to ask you any life-changing questions. But…” He handed her the box.
She opened it with trembling fingers, gasped when she saw the diamond ring inside. It was stunningly beautiful, with a rectangular cut and a clarity that dazzled. A part of her wanted to slip the ring on her finger and refuse to give it back. Thankfully her logical brain had more sense—but only a smidgen. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered reverently.
“I bought it the day I got on the plane from Sydney.” There was no reverence in his voice. In fact, if anything, he sounded kind of appalled he’d done such a thing.
The box closed with a loud snap, but she didn’t hand it back. “You were pretty sure of yourself, huh?”
“To the point of lunacy,” he said with a smirk. “The ring isn’t the worst of it. I bought this house for you. I told you to decorate it in any way you wanted because I wanted it to be your home too.”
“What were you going to do?” she asked. “Move me in with the rest of the furniture?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
Kelly burst out laughing but Jake just hung his head, his face flushed with embarrassment. “I’d convinced myself I could waltz back into your life, sweep you off your feet and be engaged within a couple of months. I wanted it so bad I didn’t allow myself to think of any other eventuality.”
“Wow,” she said, thinking of all the turmoil and drama of the past four months. “Such meticulous planning. I really screwed that up for you, didn’t I?”
“You really did,” he agreed with a nod. “And thank God you did. If the shit we’ve gone through has taught me anything, it’s that I don’t care about having the perfect life or the perfect family half as much as I thought I did. I just…” he took her by the waist and drew her close, “I just want you. All of you, exactly as you are.”
“So you haven’t given up on me?” she asked, voicing the one concern that had given her the chills as she’d approached his door.
“Given up?” He pulled one of those faces that suggested perhaps she had a few screws loose. “I was deep in planning mode, trying to figure out my next move. Haven’t you figured it out yet? I will never stop fighting for you.”
Kelly couldn’t help but smile at his choice of words. “Good, because I’ll be fighting right alongside you.” She looked at him warily as she lifted the velvet box back into his line of sight, then chuckled when he winced. “I’m going to give this back to you. But,” she emphasised, “I want you to take excellent care of it because I have a feeling I’ll be wanting it back someday… sooner rather than later.”
He took the box from her hand and slid it into his pants pocket. “You bet.”
“In the meantime,” she said as she glanced around the room, “I happen to think my belongings would look right at home here in your newly decorated home. And I do so love the style.”
His eyes closed and he dragged her against him, wrapping his arms around her as he buried his face in her neck. “Just so you know, once you’ve moved in I may keep you prisoner for a while. I’m not taking any chances this time. I love you too much to let you go again.”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” she said, her heart full of love for this wonderful man who fought so hard for her. “This time, Jake Caine, you and I are going to last forever.”
Jake grinned as he kissed her. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
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Also by Rebecca Raine: Our Little Secret (Finding Forever, Book 1)
How does a sensible, modern woman indulge in a three-way relationship without getting all tangled up?
Julia Hearst is a practical, responsible accountant with no tolerance for salacious thoughts in the workplace. Even if those thoughts, inspired by her two incredibly hot gay employers, are running rampant through her own head. Julia is ready to embark on a new job and leave all these lusty feelings behind.
Long-time lovers, Derek Carrigan and Scott Mason, have always known they were meant to share their lives with a woman. As far as they’re concerned, they found her the day Julia walked in looking for a job. Now she’s leaving, and will no longer be under their employ, it’s time to make their move.
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Excerpt from Our Little Secret (Finding Forever, Book 1)
Chapter 1
“All I want for Christmas is those two hunks naked and slathered with whipped cream.”
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The other woman continued staring out the door, toward the conference room on the far side of the hall. “Maybe I’ll add a cherry on top, just so I can have the pleasure of scooping it up,” she added, her tone dark with mischief and lust, “with my tongue.”
This Time Forever: Second Chance Romance (Finding Forever Book 3) Page 16