The Debt: The Complete Series (An Alpha Billionaire Romance)

by Kelly Favor

  And Raven understood better than most, what his words would do to someone who’d actually lived the things he’d so casually dismissed in that video.

  Scrolling through news articles, Raven saw that he was already getting blasted by the media, and there was talk of Jake losing many of his sponsorship deals. After all, his whole media presence was based upon this family-friendly, non-controversial image. Now he’d turned himself into a very unlikeable figure, a guy who despised people that had reached the lowest point in their lives and felt no other way out than to end it.

  He sounded like a bully. And bullies were considered just about the lowest of the low at this time in history.

  Raven got in the shower and tried to just let all the tension go away.

  What was happening with Jake wasn’t her business. He could take care of himself just fine, she told herself. She, on the other hand, was still in plenty of trouble.

  And then there was Skylar. What would happen to her if the biopsy of the mass on her cervix came back positive for cancer?

  These were real problems. Jake Novak’s public relations debacle wasn’t a real problem. And the way he’d made fun of people who had tried to take their own life because of bullying—it made her angry the more she considered it.

  She wanted to call him out on his remarks. It reminded her of all the people from her past and the way they’d once talked about her. The callous, cruel nature of people who’d never been on the receiving end, only on the giving side.

  Remembering those people from her past was upsetting. She’d tried to leave it all behind when she’d left home at seventeen and now here she was, forced to relive it yet again thanks to Jake Novak’s irresponsible rant.

  The longer she thought about it and replayed Jake’s comments in her mind, the angrier she became. Getting out of the shower, Raven put on one of the hotel bathrobes, since she didn’t have any new clothes to change into (yet again!).

  But she didn’t really care. Leaving her hotel room, still soaking wet, she cinched her robe tight and strode down the hall until she reached his room, banging on the door loudly.

  Eventually, she heard him muttering inside, and then his footsteps approaching. When he opened the door, he was wearing only his boxer shorts and nothing else.

  His body was so hard, muscles etched and cut as if he was made from stone, skin tight with just the slightest glistening of sweat around his chest and abdomen.

  The almost nakedness of him surprised her, but she refocused on her anger.

  “What’s up?” he asked, blinking, as if he’d been sleeping already.

  “I watched the video,” she told him.

  “What video?”

  “You know what video. The one that everyone’s freaking out about.”

  Jake stood in front of the door, one arm outstretched, blocking the entrance. His eyes were bloodshot. “Raven, let’s talk about it tomorrow.”

  “No,” she said, not caring that he was tired anymore, not caring that he’d helped out her friend far more than he’d needed to, not even caring that this scandal was probably playing havoc with his already overburdened mind. “I don’t want to wait until tomorrow,” she said.

  His lips tightened and then he dropped his arm and stepped to the side, making way for her to enter his room. “Have it your way, then.”

  “For once,” she said, walking briskly past him, trying not to feel silly in her puffy hotel bathrobe. She was angry, she liked the feeling of self-righteousness—the confidence it was giving her.

  Jake folded his arms, making his biceps flex and appear even bigger, as he stood there and waited for her to speak. “Well?” he said. “Say what you have to say, already. I’m tired.”

  “You’re tired?” she said, sneering. “You’re tired?”

  “Yeah, I am. It’s been a damn long day.”

  “Well I’m tired of your bullshit.”

  Jake shook his head and turned away from her. As he walked, he chuckled a little bit. “Okay,” he laughed.

  “Don’t walk away from me,” she said.

  “I’m getting a drink, Raven. You want something? Water?” he asked, making his way to the fridge.

  “No, I don’t,” she snapped. He was trying to lull her with his kindness, trying to take the steam out of her, but she refused. She was angry as hell and Jake wasn’t going to charm it out of her.

  He grabbed a bottle of Evian from the fridge, opened it and took a few loud gulps. “I’m still waiting,” he informed her.

  “That video of you is disgusting,” she said.

  “Great. Anything else?”

  “How dare you judge people who’ve attempted suicide, or succeeded? Who do you think you are?”

  “I was a kid,” he replied. “That video was made years ago when I was in the heat of my second tour in Afghanistan. I resented that other people my age were going to college, having fun—I even resented their depression. I was an idiot. So what?”

  “So what?” she said, throwing up her arms. “So what? Is that your brilliant public relations campaign? Because if so, you need a new angle.”

  Jake slammed the bottle of water down on the bar and crossed back in front of her. A vein pulsed in his forehead. “I didn’t ask for a lecture about public relations from a twenty-one year old ex-waitress.”

  “Don’t forget social media coordinator,” she taunted.

  “Why are you doing this?” he asked her. His eyes searched hers. “Don’t you think I realize how bad this is? I haven’t answered my phone in hours. I’ve got so many texts and voicemails that I’ve got not memory left in my cell phone to store them.”

  “Oh, boo hoo,” she said. “Am I supposed to feel bad for the megastar with too many voicemails?”

  “No, I didn’t say that.” He ran a hand through his hair. “It seems like you’re trying to kick me when I’m down, Raven.”

  “You don’t know what it means to be down, Jake.” She glared at him.

  “What did I do to you?” he asked. “Did I send that video to you? Did I ask you to watch it? I don’t get it.”

  Raven felt the red-hot rage boiling over as she thought about what was really making her so angry about what she’d seen him say on that YouTube clip. She turned away from him and cinched her robe tighter. “You know, I was one of those people.”

  “One of what people?”

  “I was one of those people you so casually insulted. I was bullied in high school.” She turned back around and faced him. “I don’t think you could have made it through what happened to me.”

  “Raven, I don’t have the first clue what happened to you,” he said, his voice weary, his eyes tired, his expression suddenly haggard.

  “I know you don’t.” She pointed at him. “Look at you. You’re great looking, with a hot body—athletic, strong—not afraid to fight if you have to. You think everyone should be able to be like you, Jake. Well I’ve got a newsflash. Most people weren’t born with those kinds of gifts. And women can’t just kick someone’s ass who makes fun of them.”

  “I don’t see what any of this has to do with me,” he told her.

  “You scoffed at people like me. You said that we’re losers because some of us couldn’t handle the constant humiliation and harassment. As if you even had a clue what it was like for anyone.”

  Jake shook his head and walked back to the bar. “Raven, you’re tired. It’s been a long day—“

  She followed him. “No, I’m not letting you brush me off this time.”

  He turned around. “Stop following me. I’ve had enough,” he said, the vein pulsing again. His eyes were haunted, glaring at her with intensity that she didn’t even understand.

  “Oh, you’ve had enough? You feeling bullied, poor little wittle Jake?” she said, her sarcasm even more cutting now.

  “It’s not my fault that those things happened to you,” Jake said. “It’s terrible that you were bullied, but that’s got nothing to do with me.”

  “Yes it does, Jake. Y
ou don’t think you bullied me into being your escort? I did everything I could to get out of it, but you and your powerful friends forced me into this. You’re still nothing but a bully, and I’m glad—I’m glad you’re getting hurt now.” The more she said these things to him, the angrier she seemed to get. Raven tried to give each word maximum impact, seeing how it hurt him as she flung her accusations.

  Jake’s jaw twitched and his eyes seemed to get suddenly glossy, as if a film had come over them. “Well if it makes you feel good, then that makes me happy,” he said.

  “Liar.”

  “It’s true, though.” He smiled, as if it had only just occurred to him. “I mean, everything you just said is true, and I know it.” He shook his head, laughing more. “I am all of those things. I’m a bully, I hurt people, I take advantage. And I deserve what’s happening to me right now. I deserve for the truth to come out, all of it. I’ve always known that someday this would happen and I’d lose all of this.”

  Raven was taken aback. She hadn’t expected this reaction. His anger she could handle. His defensiveness, his trying to charm her. But this raw display of emotion wasn’t part of the plan, and she didn’t know what to do. “Why are you like this?” she said. “Why are you all of those things you just said about yourself?”

  Jake turned away from her, put his hands on the bar. She could see the muscles in his back locking, and then her gaze moved inadvertently down to his ass, the way it looked, and she suddenly imagined herself walking over and holding him from behind, feeling his back, moving her hands around to his chest and stomach.

  The thought had come out of nowhere, and it was out of place, knocking her even more off balance.

  “Nobody knows anything about me,” Jake said, still not looking at her. “Nobody realizes that I hate the music I perform, that I don’t even like the movies I’m in. This whole thing is one big lie, Raven. Who I am is not the guy people see on TV, not the man giving funny interviews on Good Morning America. I’m someone else entirely, and the person I am is not anything good.”

  There was a lot of pain in his voice, more than she knew what to do with. She felt some of her anger beginning to drain. She realized that her anger was mostly about her own past. Yes, his comments in that video clip had hurt her, they’d stung. But after the way he’d taken care of her and Skylar today, the things she’d said to him just weren’t fair.

  “You’re not a horrible person,” she said finally.

  He turned around again and looked at her. “You don’t know a damn thing about who I am. What you said about me before was all true.”

  “I think I saw a little bit of who you are tonight,” she said, walking closer to him. His back was pressed against the bar now, and he folded his arms. “Today was just more show,” he said. “More of me being Jake Novak, the great protector and defender of life.” He grimaced. “That wasn’t really me.”

  “I think maybe it was you, and maybe that scares you more than if you’re just this awful guy you like to think of yourself as being.”

  “Raven,” he said, looking away. “Don’t do this.”

  She came closer to him, wanting desperately to touch him now. She walked right up to him. “Jake,” she whispered. “Look at me. Please.”

  He finally met her gaze and there were tears in his eyes, still unshed. “Raven, I can’t. I can’t give you anything.”

  “But you already did. You gave me so much, today. And I repaid you by attacking you. It wasn’t fair.”

  “You know,” he said, his voice choked, but a bit of laughter coming through. “You know, when I first met you, I remember thinking to myself that maybe I could just ask you out, just treat you right—not do all of this shit that I ended up doing to you.”

  “Why didn’t you just ask me out then?”

  “Because I knew that I’d only hurt you worse, Raven. The darkness inside of me is never going to go away. You should really stay away from me.”

  She reached out to touch his face, and he grabbed her hand before she could.

  “Jake, what if you just tried for one second?” she asked him.

  His hand gripped her wrist. “Raven, this is not going to work. I have too much hate inside of me.”

  “Why?”

  He shook his head. “I can’t go there. I just—I can’t.”

  “That’s okay,” she said, thinking of how she hadn’t told him everything either. There were things in life that were too dark and frightening to look at straight on. Sometimes it was better not to shine the light too brightly. She’d learned that the hard way.

  “But you could still let me touch you,” she said, reaching out with her other hand, the one he wasn’t grabbing.

  He grabbed that one as well. Now he had both of her wrists. His eyes looked into hers, and she saw all of the pain right on the surface, but she didn’t look away from it. She met it, and as she did, she saw something transform in his eyes.

  The pain seemed to fade to the background, and now there was a hunger there, a burning desire, and his bare chest was heaving. “Raven,” he whispered. “You should go before…before something happens. I can’t stop myself.”

  “I don’t want you to stop.”

  Her bathrobe was slipping open, as the belt loosened around her middle. Jake pushed himself against her, and she was naked beneath the robe, her bare skin was being touched by his bare skin.

  His legs intertwined with hers, his body against hers, hot and solid and strong. He pushed his head against hers, so that his lips were just an inch from her lips. His hands stopped gripping her wrists and instead they gripped her robe on either side, pulling it apart.

  “Jake,” she whispered, a shuddering breath.

  Her nipples were stiff, between her legs was moist and ready. She was so hot and turned on by him and she didn’t even understand how things had changed so quickly. One moment she’d been furious and lashing out, cutting him with her words—and the next she was dying for his kiss, dying to feel his hands all over her bare skin.

  “Raven, please,” he said. “We shouldn’t do this.”

  “Why not?” she asked. “I’m not afraid of you.”

  “That’s a mistake,” he told her.

  She put her hands on his chest and slid them down to his stomach. Then she slid one hand down further, clutching his hardness, wanting to stroke him, to take it out and slide it into her mouth, even though she’d never done that before.

  “Don’t,” Jake said.

  “You’re so hard,” she said, her own voice husky with needing him.

  And then he spun her around so that she was facing away from him, and her hands clutched the edge of the bar. Jake pressed himself against her backside. His one hand slid inside her robe and grabbed her breasts, pinching her nipples just hard enough to make her cry out with sharp pleasure.

  His other hand slid inside her bathrobe lower down, between her legs. She’d been wanting that, waiting for it. She hadn’t even realized how badly.

  The moment his fingers touched the very edge of her slit, she cried out and then she was coming, coming, coming.

  Her entire body shuddered. He’d hardly even done anything to her, but his hands were like magic. Everything Jake did was like perfection. And then he was tearing her robe off her shoulders entirely, leaving her completely nude.

  She heard him adjusting his boxers and didn’t know quite what he was doing until she felt his hard cock pressing between her buttocks, and his hips were pushing into hers. He’d taken his cock out of his shorts and now it was just lying against her ass, stiff and hard.

  Raven didn’t know what he was going to do next.

  She wanted him inside of her more than anything. A voice in her said that this was wrong, she’d vowed not to sleep with him.

  You said not for money. This isn’t for money. This doesn’t count.

  Or did it? She wasn’t sure anymore what counted and what didn’t.

  Jake slid his cock up and down, and it was warm and hot and hard. He
r pussy vibrated with pleasure. “I want you inside me,” she told him.

  And then his fingers were rubbing outside her slit, rubbing her folds, hitting her clit, stimulating her as he rubbed his shaft against her backside. His other hand grabbed her breasts and his mouth was on her neck.

  “Fuck, Raven,” he growled.

  “I’m coming again,” she called out to him. “Oh God, Jake, I’m coming.”

  He swore again, and then she was bucking, coming hard against his fingertips and she felt him spurting all over her back.

  They stayed in that position, both of them breathing heavily, stuck like glue against one another. Jake was laughing and so was she. She turned her head to the side and glanced back at him.

  “What’s wrong with us?” he asked her.

  “Nothing,” she told him.

  Raven didn’t know how she’d found herself here.

  Lying in bed with Jake Novak, in an incredible hotel room at the Ritz, naked together in this gorgeous bed, with Jake’s body holding hers, arms wrapped around her, hearing him breathe softly and deeply in the night.

  How did I get here?

  She didn’t know the answer to that—she only knew she didn’t want to be anywhere else.

  Things had definitely changed between them. For Jake to invite her to come into his bed, for him to hold her like this—she knew that it was a very big deal for him.

  It was a big deal for her, too.

  He hadn’t kissed her on the lips yet, although it seemed he’d been so close so many times, and she wanted him to as much as she wanted any of the other things he’d done. She still couldn’t believe that he’d been so close to her, pressed himself into her like that, and even thinking back on it, she felt the familiar stirrings between her legs.

  She was aroused all over again just lying in this bed with his arms wrapped around her. She pushed herself back against him, trying to feel him again, feel his cock against her.

  The night wrapped around her, and it was silent and warm and beautiful.