I walked into my room and closed the door while Jake made his call. He must’ve made it quickly because he burst through my bedroom door.
“Hey! Knock much?” In answer, he stalked toward me. “Jake, we don’t have to. I mean I’m fine if we just hang out.”
“Is that what you really want?” I looked into his eyes. “Tell me the truth, Katie. Tell me what you want. I’ll give you anything.” The moment was so fierce I broke eye contact.
“I want to learn how to do this. This is new for me, Jake. I don’t know how to do casual sex,” I told him honestly.
“Casual sex…okay, yeah. Um, well, it’s easy because it’s as casual as you let it be.” He sounded as nervous as I felt.
“I vote very casual, you?”
“Like I said, whatever you want.”
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Right now?” he asked. “I want you to tell me your wildest fantasies.”
The line was so cheesy I laughed. “A car that cranks, a house that isn’t falling apart, a massage, a manicure, a freaking good night’s sleep…”
“I can do all of that for you.”
“I was joking. For real, don’t buy me things,” I said sternly.
“I can’t promise that. However, those weren’t really the kind of fantasies I was talking about. I want to experience things with you.”
“How do you mean?” I asked, whipping my hair up.
He walked around me, kissing the back of my neck, running his hands down my arms. It was the start of something that I knew he would finish.
After spending a few hours letting Jake have his way with me, more carefully this time, I should’ve been exhausted. Instead I was all giggly again.
“So, is this what you want? You want me to be your sex slave for the week?” I asked, biting down on his nipple playfully.
“Ow!” he yelped. “I was thinking I could be yours.”
“Seriously, what are your expectations?”
“Gah! Why do you think so much? I don’t have any expectations. I just want to spend time with you. If that means some part of my anatomy happens to fall inside you every evening, then great, but if you don’t want that, I’m okay with that too. I thought we weren’t setting any rules?”
“I’m not, but I just want to know what to expect.”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
“I’m a planner. I worry about everything.” I looked at him seriously.
“Not this week, not with me. You never have to worry with me.”
I couldn’t help the thought that came next: Yeah, but what about when you leave…
Chapter 6
Jake’s assistant had a local acquaintance go buy him new clothes and deliver them to my house so he didn’t have to go by his mom’s house or out in public, period. Guilt jolted through me at the thought of Momma Lewis sitting over there alone while we were here, together. He’d said there were some reporters there, and he hadn’t wanted to chance being followed back to my place.
He thought he could hide out here, but I knew eventually they would find him. Really all they had to do was ask the right person.
Take Lauren, for example. She would love to spend her fifteen minutes of fame tethering herself to Jackson Jacobs.
We spent the evening watching one of our favorite childhood movies. Jake popped popcorn, and we sat on opposite sides of the couch, trying to ring each other’s mouths. He had popcorn all in his hair, but I didn’t tell him. I just kept glancing over and laughing.
When I laid back on the couch, Jake took my feet in his lap, massaging each foot. It was so…normal. Considering we’d flown across the country this morning, and were now fugitives from the press, I guessed normal was subjective.
Just as the movie was coming to a close, my prepaid started ringing. “Pause it,” I told him between laughs. “I’ve gotta grab this, but I want to watch the ending.”
“Can’t you just call them back?”
“No, it’s important. Hang on, I’ll just be a minute.” I took my phone in my room to sing Ty his goodnight song and get an update on how he was doing. Aunt Julie was really excited about going on the trip with him, and I was glad. She asked if I had been watching the news. When I said no, she suggested that I shouldn’t. I assured her that she shouldn’t believe whatever they were saying on the celebrity channel, which was what she was referring to as “news.” She reassured me that she didn’t. She advised me to “be careful with that boy” before hanging up.
Before Aunt Julie and Uncle Ray retired, they’d owned and operated a chain of department stores in Virginia, so they didn’t really know Jake. They’d met, but they didn’t know him like my parents did.
Julie worried over me because she had come to love me like I was her daughter and Ty like her grandson. Julie loved us with all of her being. She was the best person I knew.
I flipped the phone closed and plugged it in to charge for the night. I always kept it close by me when Ty wasn’t with me, just in case. I’d had so many issues with my landline because sometimes I had enough money to pay the bill and sometimes I didn’t. It was a luxury.
When I walked back into the living room, Jake looked at me skeptically. “Aunt Julie again?”
“Yep.”
“It sure is nice of her to call and check on you every night before bed.”
“It is,” I agreed. He pressed play on the remote but immediately paused the movie again.
“Are you sure you’re not hiding anything from me?”
“How do you mean?” I played innocent. I didn’t know why, but I wasn’t ready to share my son with him yet. I would tell him…just not right now. At first, I hadn’t told him because I didn’t feel like it was his business. We hadn’t been close in a while. I didn’t tell him now because he would panic about his slip-up this morning. He would worry that I was pregnant, and there was really no reason for him to.
“I bought you a nice new phone. You should use it, get rid of that crappy prepaid.”
“I can’t afford to use that iPhone. It requires a contract, internet package, blah, blah, blah. I’ve looked into getting one. It’s nice, but it’s just not in the budget.” And I didn’t have the credit for things like that anymore, I thought, but I didn’t say aloud.
“I added you to my plan so feel free to use it.”
“You put it on your plan?”
“Yeah, you can use it whenever you like. Those prepaid phones are garbage.”
“You can’t just do things like that.”
“Why not?”
“Because I didn’t ask you to. I don’t need you to. I’ve got a phone that works just fine.”
“Katiebug”—he looked at me with a “duh” look—“I’m going to buy you things.”
“That makes me feel like a whore, Jake.”
“What?”
“We sleep together and you buy me things? No.”
“I bought you the phone before we slept together, and trust me when I tell you that I had no idea we would have sex.”
“It’s just weird. You show up, sweep me off to Vegas, we hook up, and suddenly you care about my finances?”
“You really never opened a single card from me, did you?”
“No,” I mumbled, not wanting to reopen that wound again for either of us.
“Did you throw them out?”
I’d wanted to, but I couldn’t seem to make myself do it. “No, they’re in my bedside table.”
His eyes lit up. He was relieved that I hadn’t tossed them. “Go get them.”
“Now?”
“Yes, please.” I got up with a grunt, aggravated with this whole conversation. Why couldn’t he just respect the fact that I didn’t want his money?
I returned to the couch holding the cards, still in the envelopes. They were held together with a pink ribbon. He ran his fingers over the silk fabric, drawing his brows together. I was embarrassed that I had taken care to tie a ribbon around them. I didn’t know why I’d done that. I was such a gir
l sometimes.
“Let me,” he said, slipping them from my hands.
He opened the first one. He didn’t give it to me to read, but he opened the card enough for a check to fall out. “Five thousand dollars?” I yelped. He didn’t say anything just opened the second: “Ten thousand dollars! Jake!” The third: “Twenty-five thousand dollars. Are you crazy?” The forth: “Fifty thousand…” The fifth I didn’t even say aloud. It was a check for one hundred thousand dollars.
“Were you trying to buy back my friendship?”
“No, of course not! Like I said before, I just wanted to share my success with you. You’re my best friend.”
I sat there holding the checks written in his handwriting totaling nearly two hundred thousand dollars. “What do the cards say?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
“Then read them when I leave.” He got up and put them back in my room. “It makes me happy to spend the money I have on the people I care about. It’s not about me thinking you need me to take care of you. It’s about me having the means to make sure you never want for anything. Wouldn’t you do the same if you had the money?”
I shrugged. He knew I would. “I guess so.”
“So let me do that for you.”
“But I don’t need nice things to be happy.”
“I know you don’t. I love that about you, I really do, but it doesn’t hurt, does it?”
“Well, it hurts my pride a little…”
“Pride, shmide. Get over it.” He pressed play on the movie, and it was like the conversation had never happened.
Something else had been on my mind all day besides everything we’d been through and discussed, so I paused the movie again.
“It’s got like five minutes left,” he whined.
“I need to ask you a serious question.”
“Shoot.”
“It’s personal, and you may not feel comfortable telling me, but given the circumstances, I feel it would be irresponsible of me not to ask.”
“I’ll tell you anything you want to know. Just spit it out already.”
“Okay, um, how many women have you, ah, been with?” I asked nervously.
“Oh.” Long pause. Like really long.
“I know it’s none of my business, and I wouldn’t ask if we hadn’t…but we did, and we didn’t use anything so…”
“Yeah, I understand.”
“So…”
“Well, I’m clean if that’s what you’re worried about. I get regular physicals.” I felt as if he was dodging the question, but I did feel somewhat relieved that he was responsible enough to get checked out.
“So you won’t tell me anything?” I reiterated.
“Honestly, Katie, I don’t know. More than I’m proud of, but I’ve always, always used a condom. No drunken slip-ups, no games of ‘just the tip,’ no excuses. I’ve always used a condom. That I know.”
I felt a sudden tension come across my shoulders. I trusted him when he’d said he was clean and that he’d always used a condom, but if he’d been with more women than he could count, what could sex with me possibly mean to him?
“I think I’m gonna hit the sack. I’ve got work tomorrow,” I said. Suddenly I felt less than adequate, and I didn’t like it.
“Yeah, I’m pretty tired too.” He followed me, turning off the TV.
“I can make you a bed on the couch.”
“You don’t want to sleep with me?”
“Ah, I just thought…”
“Don’t do the thing.”
“What thing?”
“The thing where you get mad that I’ve been with other women. It’s beneath you.”
I was appalled. “You’re exactly right. That is beneath me. I would never…”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“Put yourself in my shoes, Jake. You’ve been with God knows how many women and beautiful women at that. What could I possibly give you that they haven’t?”
“Openness, honesty, something more than getting off. Something real,” he said without hesitation as though it were obvious. “I can be myself with you. I can share myself with you, wholly, without wondering if my actions will show up in some magazine. We’re sharing things that I’ve never been able to share with anyone because it requires trust, and you’re the only woman that I’ve ever trusted.”
“But you’ve probably had three-ways and orgies with supermodels!”
“Orgy is going a little overboard. I told you, I’m not a man whore.”
“But you’ve acted out every man’s fantasy,” I said again because it hadn’t escaped my attention that he hadn’t denied the three-way.
“I haven’t acted out my own fantasies, and I’ve never been with a woman like you.”
“Me? I’m average on my best day!”
“You’re perfect to me.”
I smiled a little. “That better not be a line from one of your movies.”
“That’s the best thing about being with you, Katie; I don’t have to act. It’s such a relief to just be myself. You have no idea what it’s like to have someone watching your every move, waiting for you to step out of line.”
“Poor, pitiful, rich and famous movie star.”
“Yeah, yeah. So can I sleep beside you, or am I exiled to the couch?”
“I guess so but keep your paws to yourself. I’m tired.”
“I was going to crack a joke about not promising anything, but you have truly worn me out today, baby girl.” He flashed that tilted grin that made me wonder how I’d gone so long without sex, and how I’d gone so long without noticing how unbelievably sexy he was.
He made fun of me while I unmade the empty side of the bed and tossed aside the body pillow that had occupied it for years. It was a king size so there was plenty of room, but he still pulled me close to snuggle. When I knew he was asleep, I scooted out of his arms. I enjoyed snuggling, but I couldn’t go to sleep like that. It had been a while since I’d had a bedfellow.
I woke up earlier than I had to because my body was used to getting up early. Bits and pieces of a dream came back to me. Jake calling me “baby girl,” which was so endearing I almost melted. Jake holding me at the fountain in Las Vegas. Jake, Jake, Jake.
He was lying on his stomach with his arms under his head. I admired him for a minute before I scooted out of the bed and into the bathroom.
I took a quick shower and got dressed in my tiny walk-in closet, careful not to wake him. I knew if I did, he would manage to coax me back into bed. It wouldn’t take much, but I wanted to get to work in time to help Joe open the diner since he did so much for me.
I peeked outside, a bit paranoid from my experience with Jake in Vegas, but all I saw were puppy dogs that had just been let out for their morning stroll. I was being silly. Even though the house had defaulted to me when my mom passed away, the property was still in her name. I never had to probate the will or anything. Besides, even if the press did figure me out, they would be looking for Katie Masters, not Kate Levy, which was my married name and the name on all of my mail. The phone number was still in my mom’s name, too, so that was helpful.
I slid into my car without snagging my hose and smiled, like really smiled for the first time in a while. It had been a nice weekend. Having Jake back in my life was amazing. I would never have imagined we would become lovers, but now that we had, it was…he was extraordinary. I didn’t know how I had ever done without him.
It wasn’t the sex. Well, it was, but it was more than that. It was the way he knew me. He just got me, just like that, no explanation needed. And when the man touched me, I felt like a woman again, not just a waitress or just a mother or just an anything. I felt sexy and pretty, playful and giddy. I didn’t know why he had that effect on me, and I didn’t care. I just wanted to enjoy it while it lasted.
My car must’ve driven itself to work because I sure didn’t remember anything about the trip. I was too happy to concentrate on anything bu
t getting back to the man in my house and making sure Ty got to Huntsville safely. I phoned Julie on the drive. She promised to call when they arrived.
I pulled into work, parking in my usual spot and floated inside. “Good morning, everyone!” I kissed Joe on the cheek. He quickly gave me a look that I knew too well. He didn’t like to be touched, but today, I’d disrespected those boundaries.
“What are you doing here?” Lauren asked with her arms crossed over her chest. She had gotten her hair French braided in pigtails, which was appropriate given her maturity level.
“I work here.”
“Shouldn’t you be jetting around the world with Jackson? Or like getting knocked up or something?”
“Yeah, I should!” I said jokingly, but she didn’t laugh. “Hey, you do realize everything you read in the tabloids isn’t true, right?”
“You said y’all were just friends.”
“We are.” I tugged at her pigtails playfully. “We’re best friends,” I said without any further explanation. I didn’t feel that I was under any obligation to divulge my personal life to Lauren, or anyone else, nor did I want to talk about it all day. But I didn’t want to hurt her feelings either. After all, I had forced Jake to escort her around town, and even though I had warned her not to read into it, I had known she would. She had probably scribbled Mrs. Jackson Jacobs all over her Hello Kitty notebooks. Bless her heart.
Besides, I didn’t even know what Jake and I are doing, so I couldn’t explain it to anyone else. We were just having fun, I reminded myself. Just two friends having fun.
Everything was business as usual until around nine. I got a text from Jake asking if he could shower at my place. I told him to go ahead and stay if he wanted because I had overheard his conversation with Joan and I knew there are paparazzi at his mom’s house. I had locked Ty’s room, bathroom, and the junk room before I left the house so he couldn’t prowl around, not that he would try. It wasn’t that I didn’t want him to see either. I just wanted to be the one to tell him about Ty. I got a text back telling me that my kindness would be rewarded. I couldn’t stop smiling. I played my song on the jukebox, dancing around as I did. Lauren was still sore, but she would get over it.
Love Reconnected (Hollywood Series Book 1) Page 10