by Katy Kaylee
Jax called all of us into the conference room. We’d all been working hard, day and night, the campaign in full swing and the line doing very well. Better than any of us could have expected. He was giving a small press conference to talk about the success of the line and tease the public about the next line that was in the works. The press conference had been my idea. I had invited a handful of bloggers and journalists to the office to get the inside scoop. Making something exclusive was an excellent way to make it appear special and important.
“Great job,” Dakota said, giving me a smile as I passed him in the hall.
“Thank you. Great job to you as well. Do you know what Jax has to say?” I asked.
He was still grinning when he shook his head. “I don’t, but I hear it’s something big. I think you might be the star of his little speech.”
I grinned even bigger. “I doubt that. It was a team effort,” I answered and moved on.
I was proud of how everything had turned out. Jax and the company were going to make a huge amount of money. I had put him on the map. I walked into the conference room and saw Jax chatting with a beautiful woman. The two of them seemed very close. I refused to let myself get jealous.
“There she is!” Jax exclaimed when I walked in.
My ego blossomed. I smiled and waved at the reporters and walked to stand beside Jax. He reached down and picked up a manila envelope and handed it to me. My eyes widened with surprise. He was giving me a bonus check?
“What’s this?” I asked, holding my smile.
“Your walking papers,” he answered.
I blinked. “My what?”
“You’re fired,” he announced before turning to look at the reporters. “This woman is probably the worst marketer on the planet. I’m cutting her loose, but I need to warn the other unsuspecting companies out there about her. You don’t want her. She sucks at her job. Don’t hire her. Learn from my mistake.”
I stood there, holding the envelope in my hand and staring at him with my jaw scraping the floor. It was exactly what he had done to me in college but on a level far worse. I was horrified and mortified all over again. I raced from the conference room, the laughs and jeers chasing me down the hall. I kept running, having no idea where to run to.
“Oh god,” I gasped, sitting up in bed and clutching my heart.
I could feel tears on my cheeks and quickly wiped them away before jumping out of bed and racing into the bathroom. I was on the verge of hyperventilating. I locked the door behind me and turned on the cold water. I closed my eyes, doing my best to slow my breathing.
I opened my eyes after splashing cold water on my face and stared at my reflection in the ugly, mottled mirror. “It was only a dream,” I told myself.
My hands were shaking as I reached for the towel to dry my face. I patted my face dry, my heart still pounding in my chest. It was only a dream. I sat down on the closed toilet lid, staring at the dated pink walls of the bathroom. It would always be like this with Jax. I would always distrust him. I would constantly be waiting for that familiar betrayal. I couldn’t imagine myself ever being content or happy with Jax.
He’d left deep scars back then. Scars that may have healed, but the pain that accompanied those scars was still very real. My shoulders slumped forward as I dropped my eyes to the linoleum floor. I had been fooling myself. I couldn’t work for Jax. I couldn’t be with him. I just needed to get through the campaign and leave on my own terms before the nightmare did come true. I was in control of my future. I wouldn’t let Jax destroy my chance at being a successful marketing manager. No way.
19
JAX
I woke up in a great mood. Penny was still asleep, looking way too comfortable for me to wake up. I had managed to get dressed and sneak out of the room without waking her. I had a plan up my sleeve. I had left a message for her with the front desk, just in case she got up before I got back. I didn’t want her to think I had ditched her in some hotel in the middle of the woods. I pulled into the tiny market I had been told about. It looked a little sketchy, but I headed inside anyway. I quickly filled the little basket with all the things we would need for the picnic I was planning. I had done a little shopping Thursday as well. Picking up a variety of gourmet cheeses and chocolates to surprise her with. They were neatly tucked into a small box in the trunk.
I was going to woo her. A picnic in the forest was the perfect plan. Last night, I had wooed her with sex. Today I was going to go after the emotional side. I was going to show her I could be a good guy and I could treat her right. It wasn’t only about sex. With my bounty tucked in the trunk of my car, I sped back to the hotel, anxious to see her.
“Hi,” I greeted her.
“Where’d you go?” she asked, her hair wet from her recent shower.
“I ran down to a slightly scary convenience store to grab some things for our day out.”
I walked to her and gave her a kiss on the lips. She was stiff and not at all as welcoming as she had been last night. I figured I just needed to be my charming self and she would loosen up.
“Things?”
I grinned. “For our picnic.”
“Picnic?” she gasped.
“Yes, picnic. Are you ready?”
“Yes, I just need to get my shoes on.”
I waited impatiently. I was anxious to get her alone in the wilderness. I had dropped off the goodies for our picnic with Mrs. North downstairs. She said she had a basket for us to use and would put in a few extras. We stopped by the front desk and grabbed the basket with the checkered blanket folded neatly over the top.
“Are we driving there?” Penny asked skeptically when I moved to get in the car.
“Yes. There’s a trailhead a couple miles down the road. There are trails around here, but the one we’re going to has a nice outlook at the top that I think might be a good location,” I explained.
“Sounds great.”
I parked my Porsche in the small gravel area and grabbed the picnic basket. Penny grabbed the Nikon she had brought along to take some test shots, putting the strap around her neck. We began the hike up to the lookout, traveling at a slow, leisurely pace.
“This is really nice out here,” I commented.
“It is. And this trail is perfect. We would have no trouble getting the camera and lighting equipment up here,” she replied.
“I like the colors,” I said, pointing to some leaves that stood out because they were head of the fall color change.
“Me too. I think we should plan the shoot to happen within the next month, right at the height of the fall season.”
I smiled, happy we were on the same page. “Good plan.”
“Let me get a few shots of you. I want to see if the morning light is better. In my mind, I picture the day bright and clear, but the morning might help soften it up a little,” she muttered, the camera in front of her face as she took several shots.
“What about sunset?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Maybe a few, but the sunset thing has been done a million times. The clothes are bright and vivid, and I think we need to present them in a way that is bold, yet subtle. Does that make sense?” she asked, her nose wrinkled in the cutest way.
“I think it does. You want rustic, natural, and bold?” I teased.
She groaned. “Yes and no. I’ll use these pictures to create a better proposal with images from the line transposed over. Then you’ll see what I mean.”
“I trust you. I trust your vision,” I told her in a serious voice.
“Thank you.”
We continued hiking, stopping to take pictures along the way and talking about different ways we could stage the pictures. She was very animated as she spoke. I loved to watch her work. The creativity she exuded was catching. It was hard not to get excited.
“Remember that forest park by the high school?” I asked her.
“The one where all the skippers went to hide out?” she replied.
I chuckled, remembering the
many times I had skipped school and hung out in the park. “Yes. That one.”
“I never went in there. That place was creepy, and I knew the people that hung out there usually smoked and drank. I wanted no part of that. I actually went to class,” she stated.
I laughed. “You were always such a good girl. I have to say, I like it much better when you go bad.”
“I don’t go bad. I’m not bad.”
“Oh, I think you’ve got a naughty side,” I said with a wink.
“Compared to you and Chance, I’m an angel. Even on my worst naughty day, I don’t come close to being like you or any of the other people you guys hung out with. You guys are a lot of bad apples,” she teased.
“Do you remember when Old Man Moony caught us toilet papering his yard?” I asked her, laughing at the memory.
She groaned, slapping a hand to her forehead. “I tried to block that out. You know I had to clean up that whole place by myself.”
“We told you to run,” I retorted.
“He had already seen me. I couldn’t run.”
“Thanks for not giving us up. That was pretty cool,” I complimented.
“Yeah, only because Chance offered to pay me ten bucks if I kept my mouth shut, which he never did by the way,” she pouted.
“Whatever happened to Moony?” I asked curiously.
“He passed away a couple years ago. He was actually a very nice man,” she said.
I nodded. “I heard that. I was always too afraid to go around him. I just knew he would know I was the one who did the toilet papering and the many other things we did to him.”
“He did know. He always told me to stay away from you guys because you were a bad influence. You know he and the widow that lived down the street from us, Mrs. Connor? They ended up getting together.”
“What? No way!” I exclaimed.
“Yes, they did. It was the sweetest thing.”
It felt good to reminisce. After the whole debacle with Penny in college, I hadn’t gone home. I’d been too embarrassed and ashamed to show my face after what I had done. I had missed home and wondered how the people I had grown up with were doing. It made me feel connected. For too long, I had felt alone and adrift. I shifted the picnic basket to my other hand and reached for her, wrapping one arm around her shoulders.
She didn’t pull away, which I took as a very good sign. Baby steps. I was making slight inroads back to her good graces. I just need to go slow and easy. Soon, I would be enmeshed in her life and she would never want me to go.
“Have you never been back there?” she asked.
“No. I’ve traveled almost nonstop the past three years. I didn’t think that town had much to offer me. I decided to settle in Minneapolis. It was close, but not too close to Superior.”
“I understand. I think it’s why I went to the city as well. As much as I always said I was going to get out of the Midwest, when it came time, I didn’t want to go.”
I completely understood what she meant. We walked a bit farther, both of us caught up in the beauty of our surroundings. It was so peaceful and felt good to be in nature without the sounds of the city buzzing around us.
“How about here?” I asked when we came to a clearing.
“Here for what?” she asked, her inquisitive blue eyes looking up at me.
“For our picnic.”
“Oh, perfect. I could use something to eat. We probably burned a lot of calories on the hike up here.”
I put down the basket and with her help, spread out the blanket. We sat down and I opened the basket, handing her one of the little plastic plates Mrs. North had thoughtfully added to the basket. I pulled out the thin cardboard box that had the assortment of cheeses.
“Cheese?” I asked her.
She looked at the box. “You did not get that at any Podunk market in the middle of nowhere.”
I laughed. “Busted. I picked it up before we left the city. Have you been to that place on Forty-Fifth?” I asked her.
“No. That is too pricey for my blood,” she said.
“Open your mouth,” I told her.
She looked skeptical but did it. I used a toothpick to stab one of the squares of cheese and put it in her mouth. She closed it and chewed. I watched, waiting for her reaction. “Oh my god,” she moaned, reminding me of the many times I had heard say exactly that last night.
“Good?”
“Amazing. Now I know why they charge a small fortune.”
I fed her a few more bites, watching her tongue come out before her lips closed around the bites. It was very erotic to feed someone who was clearly enjoying the food. I found myself incredibly aroused.
“Wait until you taste the chocolate,” I told her, anxious to watch her expression when the sweet, creamy chocolate hit her tongue.
“You brought chocolate?”
I nodded. “From the same place. They import some of the best of the best from all around the world.”
I opened another box and pulled out one of the milk chocolate pieces. She reached for it, but I held it out of reach and slowly shook my head. She smiled and opened her mouth, knowing what I wanted. I popped it in her mouth and watched her eyes close. “Ohh,” she moaned.
Her little pink tongue darted out to lick her lips. I couldn’t resist. I kissed her lips, gently at first until she opened her mouth. I could taste the rich chocolate on her tongue and groaned with pleasure. The chocolate was the best aphrodisiac. Being in the woods with her was perfect. I never wanted to leave the little haven we had on the tattered blanket. It was my safe zone.
I pulled her closer to me and melded our mouths together. I was hot and aching with need, but in that moment, I far more appreciated the closeness and the intimacy we were sharing. I pulled away, using the pad of my thumb to wipe a bit of chocolate from her lips, and leaned back on my elbows, staring at the scenery around us.
“It’s really beautiful out here,” Penny said, settling in next to me, her jean-clad legs stretched out alongside mine.
“It is. Can we just stay?” I asked.
“I don’t think you have enough cheese and chocolate in that basket to sustain us for long,” she teased.
“We’ll ration it.”
She leaned up and kissed me on the cheek. It felt so natural. Being with her like that, carefree with the past long behind us, was what I had been missing in my life. Being wealthy and famous could be very isolating. I had longed for the comfort and security that could only come from sharing yourself with another person. I had longed for her.
20
PENNY
My face hurt from smiling. I couldn’t remember ever smiling so much. Never, in all the time I had spent with Jax, had it just been him and I. It had always been me and Chance with Jax or me and one of my girlfriends with him. Being away from everyone and everything allowed me to have him all to myself. I was thrilled. He was treating me like a queen. I felt like I was bouncing instead of walking, floating through the air on a happy bubble with a very handsome man by my side doting on me.
He made me feel like I was the only person in the world that mattered. He’d fed me lunch. I had never experienced anything quite like that. He’d put a picnic together! Few women could say their man had done that. Jax wasn’t quite as bad as he pretended to be. I was getting to see that softer side of him.
“Too bad they didn’t have horses around here,” he said out of nowhere.
His hand was holding mine as we strolled along a trail that we’d followed from another trail. We were in no hurry to get anywhere and were just meandering at a leisurely pace. It was a little strange to be with Jax in that way, but also wonderful. I remembered the fantasies I had about the two of us before that fateful night. I had always dreamed of being with Jax, just like we were in that moment. I had longed for the late-night phone calls when he would call me to talk about everything or us spending time together on a Sunday morning doing nothing but reading or lounging.
“We can order pizza tonight. I know th
at’s your favorite after a long day,” he said casually.
I looked over at him. “What? How do you know that?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “I remember when you would come home after a long day at the pool or on those days you were cramming for a test, you always wanted pizza.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Oh. Yes, actually, that does sound good.”
I was surprised to know he knew that or that he remembered. Back then, he barely looked at me. I didn’t think he even knew I was in the room some days. He had a way of looking right through me or acting like he was completely oblivious to my presence at all. He did know and he’d been paying attention.
“Do you want wine or beer to go with your pizza?”
I thought about it for a few seconds, thinking about what he would prefer. “I think cold beer would be great. Does that work for you?”
He grinned, his eyes sparkling with laughter. “Are you only saying that because you think that’s what I want?”
I shrugged. “Maybe a little, but I think beer fits the day, the setting, don’t you?”
“I do. Beer it is. When we get back to the car, I’ll see what that restaurant can pull together. If not, I’ll order from town,” he said.
“Town? That’s like forty-five minutes away at least!”
He squeezed my hand. “Trust me, they’ll be happy to deliver to us.”
I wanted to trust him. God, how I wanted it all to be real. I wanted us to be this happy couple without a nasty past. I wanted to pretend we had never gone through what we had. For so long, I had hated him. Thinking about his name made me crazy with anger and hurt. My brain had been trained to hate him. Seeing him as he was now was hard for me to reconcile with the man I had villainized in my head for so long. I was a little overwhelmed with it all. As much as I wanted to pretend we could forget about our history, I knew that wasn’t possible.