They were brothers, after all.
As if thinking along the same lines, Jake was already out of the bed and tugging on his pants. No underwear. No socks. Just the pants.
Skipping the shirt, he strode toward the bedroom door and said, "Wait here, okay?"
I almost protested. After all, I wanted to be there for him. But probably, Jake had the right idea.
This was a brother-to-brother thing. And, as much as I'd like to help them resolve things, odds were pretty high that I'd only get in the way.
Still, I wasn't going to just lay around naked either, so when Jake shut the door behind him, I crawled off the bed and threw on the same clothes that I'd been wearing earlier.
I'd barely finished buttoning my blouse when the sounds of yelling made me pause in mid-motion.
Oh, crap.
It wasn't Joel.
It was Bianca.
Her voice, high and shrill, echoed off the walls. "Where is she?"
Unwilling to let Jake handle this alone, I scrambled toward the bedroom door and flung it open wide, just in time to hear Jake say, in a surprisingly calm voice, "None of your business."
But already, I was striding toward them.
At the sight of me, Bianca shrieked, "You!"
I stopped and glanced around. "Me?"
"Yes, you! You gave her my address, didn't you?"
I blinked. "What?"
Through clenched teeth, Bianca said, "Did you, or did you not, give Claire my home address?"
"Ohhhh," I said, as realization dawned. "Is Claire the girl from the convention center?"
Bianca looked like she wanted to kill someone, me in particular. "As if you didn't know."
"I didn't know her name was Claire," I said, surprised to realize that I'd never even asked her name.
But I had given her Bianca's home address, because, after all, fair was fair.
I looked to Jake, whose gaze was drifting between me and Bianca, as if assessing the need for some sort of intervention.
Funny, I didn't think one would be needed.
For too many reason to count – the amazing sex, the sight of Jake standing there shirtless, and yes, most of all, the fact that we were now officially engaged, I couldn’t seem to make myself care that Bianca was throwing yet another hissy-fit.
By now, it felt like old news.
I gave her a cheery smile. "Sorry, I figured you'd like the surprise."
She was still glaring daggers at me. "Well, I didn't."
"Oh well. You win some, you lose some."
Bianca's voice rose to a new crescendo. "She slapped me!"
I gave a half shrug. "Eh, she slapped me too. That's the way the cookie crumbles, huh?"
Jake's head snapped in my direction. "Someone slapped you?"
I waved away his concern. "Yeah, but it turned out okay."
From the look on his face, he wasn't so sure.
A sudden gasp made me look to Bianca. She was staring, horror-stricken, at my left hand. In a voice quivering with anger, she demanded, "What. Is. That?"
I looked down and spotted, of course, the ginormous engagement ring, glittering on my finger. I gave it a little wave, watching cheerfully as it sparkled under the overhead lights. "Oh, this?"
She was eying the ring like it might jump from my finger, and bite off her face. "Yes. That."
Awful or not, I couldn’t help but giggle. "I dunno," I said, letting my happy gaze land on Jake. "You'll have to ask my fiancé."
But she never did. Instead, with a string of profanity, she turned and stomped out the open condo door, and then, slammed it shut behind her.
As for me, I looked to Jake, expecting to see a face filled with amusement. Instead, I saw a face – the face I loved more than life itself – filled with obvious concern. "If someone hurt you," he said, "I need to know."
The darkness in his eyes hurt to see. I loved him. And I wanted him to be whole and happy, just like I felt.
So I wiped that darkness away with laughter and kisses, and the promise of a lifetime of more where that came from.
Because Jake was mine. And he was going to stay mine. Forever.
The End
What's Next?
Joel's Story
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Sometimes, the Place You Belong Isn't Where You Began...She's a poor girl from Hamtramck. He's a billionaire bad boy from Detroit. They should've never crossed paths. But when they do, thanks to Chloe's latest housesitting gig, the collision of sparks, secrets, and misunderstandings leaves both of them yearning to belong exactly where they shouldn't – with each other.
© Copyright 2016 by Sabrina Stark
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.
Jake Forever (Jaked Book 3) Page 27