The Next Play: Part Four: the play series | book 1 | part 4

by Byrd, Rhyannon

  “Christ, baby, you don’t need to thank me for anything. I’m exactly where I want to be. You just need to accept it.”

  Her lips curved, and her eyes glistened. “I’ll try.”

  “Now, let’s go get our guy to the docs.”

  She squeezed his hand in agreement, and they headed down to the parking level, still holding hands when they reached the Mercedes. Jonah helped her in and shut her door, then jogged around the back of the new SUV to the driver’s side, quickly climbing in and starting the engine.

  Then they drove off into the night, their hands linked on the center console, ready to focus on what truly mattered.

  Together.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Jonah opened his eyes to the sight of Jocelyn standing beside Davey’s hospital bed, the room’s faint nightlight casting a golden glow over her worried face. After they’d picked Davey up from Rey and Mitch’s place, they’d driven him straight to the ER, and he’d been admitted as a precaution while the doctors waited for the meds pumping into his IV to take effect.

  A quick glance at his watch told him it was just after five in the morning. He wondered if Jocelyn had managed to catch any sleep at all in the surprisingly comfortable chair beside his, or if she’d waited for him to fall asleep and then moved to where she was now, standing vigil at Davey’s bedside during the long hours of the night.

  “Come here,” he murmured, when she looked over at him.

  She gave him a small smile. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”

  “Not at all.” He waved her over with his fingers. “Now get over here.”

  She made her way around the foot of the bed, across the white linoleum floor, and curled up into his lap, resting her head against his chest. Loving the way it felt to have her so close, Jonah wrapped his arms around her with a quiet sigh of appreciation. “I hate seeing him like this,” he said against the top of her head, while they both stared at her little boy in his hospital bed. “That fucking surgery for his ears can’t happen soon enough.”

  “I know.” She tilted her head back to look up at him, her green eyes bright with emotion. “Thank you for staying. I know it made Davey feel better, and it’s made me feel better too.”

  “You don’t need to thank me, sweetheart. This is where I belong.”

  Another small smile ghosted across her lips as she reached up and rubbed her palm against his stubble-covered jaw, looking as if she enjoyed the texture. “I’m sorry we didn’t get to eat that amazing dessert you bought.”

  “Don’t be. It’s just food.”

  She gave a soft snort. “That I know you paid a fortune for.”

  Dropping his voice a bit lower, he said, “I had you for dessert, and you were so much sweeter than any lava cake could ever be. There’s no comparison, Miss Brenna.”

  “You’re crazy, Mr. Cartwright.”

  “Yeah. About you.”

  A soft breath gusted past her pink lips, and he’d have given his left nut to hear her say the things that were shining in her eyes at that moment. To hear her give voice to the words that were shimmering there, so vibrant and warm and real. But this wasn’t the time or the place to push her, and so he sucked back his need and said, “When they discharge the little guy, I think it would be best if you both came home with me.”

  She sat up a bit in his lap. “Why?”

  “Because I’m going to be worried sick about the two of you, and I want you both where I can take care of you.”

  Her pale brows drew together in a little V. “Is this because of the texts? Has something happened that you haven’t told me about? Have you learned something new?”

  “No. Not yet.” Though he had made a quick call to James Vane, telling the club owner about the photo of him and Monica Kreskey in the Diamond. James had been furious that there’d been such a serious breach in the club’s security protocols and he was out for blood. Especially seeing as how the photo looked as if it’d come straight from the club’s system, and not a private cell phone.

  James had asked Jonah to forward him the photo, so that he could have Graeme Wilson, his right hand man and a genius when it came to technology, take a look at the file to see if he could trace its source, and Jonah had sent the image as soon as he’d ended the call and had Jocelyn hand over her phone.

  “But the texts are worrying you, aren’t they?” she asked, studying his expression with a look that was part dread and part exhaustion.

  “Of course they are. But not because I’m trying to hide anything.”

  At least nothing about the texts. But there was so much more he was holding close to his chest.

  So just go ahead and tell her, you idiot. Tell her now! Tell her about the phone calls the employees at Vane are getting that James told you about yesterday. About Valerie. About why you ever started going to that godforsaken club in the first place. About the things you did on that stage.

  They were all things that needed to be said, but he couldn’t get a single word to form on his lips.

  When he didn’t say anything more—just sat there staring back at her—she softly said, “I’m not sure us staying with you right now is such a great idea.”

  It took everything he had to keep a calm, easy-going tone as he asked, “Why?”

  Her gaze lowered to her lap, before slowly coming back to his as she pulled in a deep breath and said, “Because there are still secrets between us. Even more than the ones about your father and that woman named Valerie who you refused to talk about. I know there are, because I can feel them.”

  Tension coiled through his muscles, along with a heavy dose of frustration. “You told me you would give me time.”

  “And I will. But I think we need to be careful moving forward and—”

  “Don’t,” he scraped out, cutting her off. “Don’t put distance between us because of this shit.”

  “I’m not. I just… I need time to think.” She lifted her hands, rubbing at her temples. “We’ve only had a few hours of sleep, and I’m exhausted and worried and everything just seems like it’s… I don’t know. This is all happening so fast.”

  “Not fast enough, if you ask me.”

  She shot him a startled look.

  “I want you in my home, and in my life. I want you in every part of it, Jace. But instead of focusing on what we could have, you’re going to let my past keep us apart.”

  “I’m not. All I’m saying is that we need to take things easy, until you’re ready. I think we just need to give it some time.”

  “Fuck time,” he quietly argued. “I got where I am today in business because I trust my instincts. But when it came to my personal life, there was nothing to trust, because I didn’t ever let anyone get close enough to make a difference—until you. And once I stopped fighting them and started listening, I realized those same instincts have been leading me right where I need to be. You just need to catch up.”

  “What are you saying?” she whispered, as he cupped the side of her face in his hand.

  “I’m saying that I trust this. What we have together. Because for the first time in my life, I’m exactly where I want to be. Where I’m meant to be.”

  She stared back at him, her eyes bright and wide.

  “And one day you’re going to let go of the fear and see that you can trust it too. That you can trust me.”

  “But don’t you see that it works both ways?” she asked, reaching up and pressing her soft hand against his. “And that between the two of us, I’ve already shown so much more trust than you?”

  Fuck! He knew she was right, but before he could say anything, she pulled his hand away from her face, holding it in both of hers as she kept going. “Look, I’m not trying to pressure you or fight with you or make you do something you’re not ready for. But you need to give me the same consideration, until we’re both on equal footing.”

  “Goddamn it, Jocelyn. We’re already there. You and Davey belong in that penthouse every bit as much as I do.”

  “I hope so
, because that’s how I want things to be. For us to be together, and I love that you want that too. I just think you’re trying to skip steps in between.” Like the ones where you open up and finally talk to me. About everything.

  She didn’t say that last part out loud, but she didn’t need to. Jonah could hear it loud and clear in the heavy silence that settled between them, and as he pulled his hand from her grip and scrubbed it down his face, she slipped off his lap, moving to her feet. He surged to his feet right along with her, but instead of standing by the chair, he turned and walked over to the far window. Panic, anger, and frustration were all pressing in on him, making it difficult to pull in a deep-enough breath, and he felt a graveled burst of words tearing up from his throat before he even knew they were coming. “You’re right, Jace. You have put your trust in me, and it’s… Fuck,” he grated, rubbing a hand over his rigid jaw. “It’s about time I did the same.”

  He looked back over his shoulder to find her beautiful green gaze filled with surprise. And maybe even a little bit of wariness, since she had no idea what was coming.

  Shoving his hands into his front pockets, Jonah shifted to the side so that he could rest his left shoulder against the window frame. Rain had started to fall at some point during the night, and he turned his head to watch the drops splinter into tiny rivers across the glass, determined to find a way to talk to her, no matter how much he hated this particular story.

  Voice barely more than a gritty scrape of sound, he finally said, “I haven’t wanted to talk about it, because it makes me look like a fucking moron. But back when I was finishing up my master’s degree, Valerie Johnson was my girlfriend. And she was the first ‘real’ relationship I’d ever had. One where it was just me and her, and we kept things fairly vanilla. No threesomes, no sex clubs. Just a guy dating a girl who he hoped might turn out to be the one, because he was already getting tired of playing the field.”

  “You were in love with her?” she asked, as the rain started to fall harder, blurring the outside world until it was just him and her and her precious little boy who was softly snoring in the bed.

  “I wanted to be, because I wanted to have that in my life. Which isn’t a bad thing. I was just trying to force it with the wrong person. And I don’t know if she sensed that, or if she’d just been using me for my money all along, but when things went to shit, they really went to shit.”

  She came closer, mirroring his position as she leaned against the opposite side of the window. “What happened?”

  Jonah slid her a wry look. “My old man happened.”

  Her brows knitted with confusion. “I don’t understand. He made you break up with her?”

  “That’s one way of putting it,” he drawled quietly, a hollow laugh rumbling up from his chest. “Another way would be to say that he offered her a cool hundred grand if she’d suck his dick, and he was kind enough to show me the video that he’d made of her accepting his offer, and then going down on him with the gusto of a porn star.”

  “Ohmygod,” she whispered, looking completely horrified.

  “Yeah, it was a real eye-opener,” he murmured, reaching up with one hand to rub at the knotted muscles at the back of his neck. “Needless to say, things ended between us—but in all honesty, Val didn’t really seem to care. For a while, she was happy to take on the role of Carter’s younger piece of ass.” He shrugged, hating that he could still remember the biting sting of her betrayal. “She’d come from one of the poorest parts of town, so as much as it sucked, I could see how she fell into his trap.”

  “God, Jonah. You’re a hell of a lot more understanding than I would have been.”

  “I guess that’s because at the end of the day, I realized that I didn’t really care about her as much as I should have.” He straightened and moved closer to her, until she had to tilt her head back to keep their gazes locked. “But the way that Val did what she did… That fucked with my head pretty badly. Trust has never really been one of my strong suits, and my ego took a hard-enough knock that I’ve never let another woman get close to me. Never even wanted that to be a possibility.” He exhaled a rough breath and hoped that she could hear the sincerity in his voice when he said, “Until now. You’re the only one, Jace. And what we have… It’s unlike anything I ever thought I’d be able to find. I didn’t even really understand that these kinds of emotions, and this kind of connection, could exist. I mean, I knew that Den and Gabe love each other, but I didn’t really get it. Not until you.”

  He wanted to keep going—to finally tell her that he’d fallen in love with her—but she was still trying to wrap her head around his story, and Jonah knew this wasn’t the time.

  “And the club?” she asked. “Was that just to get back at her?”

  He laughed again, though he didn’t know why. Wasn’t like any of this shit was funny. “In the beginning, I’m sure it was a bit of a ‘fuck you’ to Val. But it was my old man who I was really trying to strike a blow at by going there.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Turning back to the window, he braced one forearm up high, against the top of the frame, keeping his other hand in his pocket. “The only thing Carter loves more than money is his reputation as a pillar of society. He thinks he’s like royalty, setting the standard for the rest of the city. So I decided that the best way to pay him back for what he’d done was to take the Cartwright name and drag it through the mud.

  “I joined Vane at first because I just wanted to blow off some steam. But it didn’t take me long to see what its real purpose could be. It’s the most elite, high-priced club of its kind around, and a lot of my dad’s friends and peers are members there. So I started performing regularly, and without a mask, just so I could embarrass the jackass.” He shook his head as he gave another soft, bitter laugh, the hand in his pocket clenching into a tight fist. “I fucked up my life, and all because I was pissed off at the dickhead. Because I wanted to make him pay, with his pride, for what he’d done. And after a while, it turned into the crutch that Gabe accused it of being, keeping me from getting too close to anyone. Keeping them at a distance. Because how close can you get to someone that you don’t really know, when there are so many sets of eyes watching you, sharing in the experience?”

  “So was your father just trying to hurt you? Why did he do it?”

  Turning his head to look at her, he said, “Because he sees women as nothing more than money-grubbing whores who were put on this earth to serve him. He’d spent years trying to convince me he was right, from the day my mom bailed on us, and my relationship with Valerie pushed him over the edge. He wanted to prove to me that he’d been right all along, and that all she cared about was my bank account, so he offered her the money, and he won.”

  “No, he didn’t win,” she argued, placing one hand on his shoulder, while she cupped the far side of his face with the other. “Because no matter what happened with her, I don’t for a second believe that you see the world the way he does. You’re too good of a person, Jonah. You’re so much stronger and wiser than he could ever be, and I bet that’s what he hates most of all. That no matter how hard he tries, he can’t come anywhere close to you.”

  “If I’m so great and amazing,” he murmured, shifting his body toward hers, “then why won’t you let me do this for you and Davey? I swear to God, I’ll spoil you both rotten, and I’ll take care of you. Both of you. I—”

  “Okay,” she husked, cutting him off. “We’ll spend the weekend with you.”

  His heart gave a heavy thump in his chest. “Yeah?”

  She gave him a wobbly smile. “Yeah.”

  “Thank you.” He reached out and pulled her into his arms, pressing his lips to the top of her head again as he gave her a crushing hug. “I swear you won’t regret it.”

  With her cheek pressed to his chest, she said, “Thank you for finally opening up and talking to me. It means a lot.” Her arms tightened around his waist. “And even though there’s obviously a lot I don’t know abo
ut the years you spent at Vane, I understand more now. So thank you for trusting me with your story.”

  “Baby,” he rumbled, “I’d trust you with my life.”

  “I love that you feel that way.” She gave him another squeeze, then tilted her head back to look up at him. “But do you really think you can walk away from a place like Vane so easily?”

  “Of course I can.”

  The look in her eyes was soft, but guarded. “You say that like it’s so simple.”

  “Because it is. I never would have laid a finger on you if there were any part of me that still wanted anything to do with that place. So forget about the fucking club, because that part of my life is over and done with.” He pushed his hands into her pale curls, and his voice roughened with emotion as he said, “Last night was a new beginning. It was something new for both of us.”

  She stared up at him in complete wonder. “Last night was incredible. There’s no other word for it.”

  He couldn’t not kiss her when she said stuff like that, so he did, slow and deep and as possessively as he could, wanting her to feel just how strongly they belonged together. Needing her to see it, and believe in it, as fiercely as he did. And he could have kept on kissing her just like that for hours on end, feeding on her soft sighs, but she pulled away with an embarrassed gasp when the door to Davey’s room suddenly opened and one of the pediatric nurses walked in. The woman gave them a friendly, knowing smile that made Jocelyn blush, then got busy checking Davey’s vitals, and Jonah used the time to slip into the room’s private bathroom.

  When he came back out, the nurse was gone, and he walked over to where Jocelyn had cuddled up in one of the chairs by the window. “How come you look so beautiful and I look like a guy who hasn’t slept in days?” he drawled, lowering his tall body into the chair next to hers.

  She slid him a playful smirk. “Well, you are a lot older than me. Maybe you just need more rest.”

  With his elbow braced on the arm of the chair, he leaned over and rumbled, “Maybe what I need is to put you over my knee and spank your impertinent little ass.”