“Not really. You two?”
“Haven’t talked much,” Jake replied, lowering his voice. “I don’t think my coming back to New York was what he imagined it’d be. It’s different than him visiting me in Australia or Nicaragua. It’s not a vacation when we’re here. It’s always business, whether it has to do with work or family. There’s always some drama when we’re both in this city. Because this is where it all started.”
“Why did you come back here at all?” I asked curiously.
“Jackson. He called me back because he said he was going through some shit and he just needed me around to talk him down from doing something stupid. But it’s like he changed his mind when I got here. He hasn’t told me anything about what’s going on, besides the hotel being unfinished. And honestly, it doesn’t feel the same between us, anyway. I feel obligated to him because he’s my blood but I also get the sense that I don’t know who he is anymore. Every time I go away and come back, it feels like he’s become more and more like one of those guys. The Dane McNulty types.” Jackson grimaced at his own words. “I mean I pray to God I’m wrong considering what a piece of shit Dane is, but that’s just what I’ve been sensing. And I guess it’s coming off of me because Jackson’s definitely been taking his time to warm up to me since I got back. I’m guessing he hasn’t rebuilt his trust yet since he hasn’t yet mentioned…” Jake trailed off, his eyes flitting past my shoulder.
“Gabrielle,” I whispered, shuddering at the sound of her name. I didn’t realize how disturbed I looked until I heard Sawyer’s voice.
“What’s wrong with Lara?” he asked Jake before turning to me with a devilish grin. “Is Jake being a shitty boyfriend? Since, you know, he’s your boyfriend today?”
I laughed and squeezed Jake’s knee. “He’s being the perfect boyfriend, Sawyer,” I answered, sucking my lip back as I felt Jake’s muscled thigh twitch under his jeans.
“He’s a better boyfriend than you are,” Sloane crossed her arms at Sawyer. “Since you won’t walk me to the bathroom.”
“We have two on and none out, why can’t you go to the bathroom yourself?” he sputtered.
“Because I don’t know where it is!” Sloane said. For a pampered girl, that was a perfectly logical reason. I grinned, watching them bicker like children.
“Sawyer, don’t be a shitty boyfriend. Take her to the bathroom,” I finally broke it up, blowing kisses when he groaned and took Sloane’s hand, dragging her out of the aisle like a begrudging brother.
When I turned back to Jake, I saw a wince twitching in his laugh. “What?” I asked, but I didn’t need an answer when I saw him spreading his legs to make more room for himself in his jeans. “Oh,” I breathed, realizing what was going on. “All I did was squeeze your knee,” I giggled quietly, my heart thumping as I let myself lean into him. The second I nestled closer, he kissed the top of my head.
“I know,” he murmured, a laugh in his voice. “But you can pretty much walk a straight line and get me hard as a rock.”
I smiled as he pushed my hair back and kissed my neck. Heat radiating my skin, I closed my eyes. “Jake, we can’t…”
“I have to.” He lifted his mouth to mine, kissing me so gently that I instantly needed more. “This is the only time I’ll ever get to pretend that you’re mine,” he whispered against my lips, kissing me again. A tingle darted between my legs as he slid his tongue between my lips. I knew I should but I couldn’t stop it anymore. I kissed him back – deep and passionate in a way that made me feel a release.
Cupping his jaw, I started over in my head. For those few seconds, I imagined that I’d met Jake after college, on some vacation. We had fallen instantly, hopping beaches, islands, different tiki bars. Aside from the constant traveling, we lived a low-key life. No drama, no cheating, no getting back at each other in strange ways. We were just a normal couple and this was just a regular day. After the game, we’d go home, make dinner and spend too long picking out a movie to watch. And at night, a massage in bed would turn into sex.
It was the simplest fantasy I’d ever had but it took my breath away.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I awoke the next morning to see Sloane next to me in bed. It took a second for me to remember that she had slept over last night. After the game, we’d gone to a nearby bar with the boys, where Sawyer
had proposed a game of pool, girls versus guys. Every time a shot was made, the other team drank. And every time I went up, I felt Jake’s eyes on my backside. If I needed confirmation of it, I looked up at Sawyer, who’d be laughing or shaking his head at Jake over my shoulder.
“I know, brother. It’s painful,” he said during a shot that had me half seated on the table, angled in a way that pinched my waist and flared my hips. After sinking the ball, I glanced over my shoulder to throw a triumphant smirk at Jake, but before I could, I felt him yank me into his chest by my hips, pulling my ass against the zipper of his jeans. My eyes went wide as he whispered in my ear about how sexy I was. His erection pressed against me, I stared across the table at Sawyer and Sloane, my mouth wide open as they just laughed drunkenly.
“Damn, you guys are getting a little too convincing!” Sloane giggled. She was too gone to notice anything off but as I rolled out of bed to her sleep, I recalled a moment that struck fear in my heart. It was something Sawyer had said to me while we both watched Jake shoot for the eight ball. It had been quiet but the air had been thick and I could tell that he was waiting for the right moment to speak.
“If something were going on,” he finally started, his eyes glazed over from the whiskey, “I’d be behind you on it. I’d understand why,” he finished, his gaze sliding from Jake to me. As drunk as he was, I could hear something deliberate in the way he spoke. But by the time I asked what he was talking about, it was his turn to shoot. And in no time, the moment was lost amid all the shouting and drunken laughter.
“Speak of the devil,” I murmured to myself when my phone lit with a text from him. I opened it hastily.
You were probably too drunk to remember but the deal last night was that loser had to buy a massive hangover-curing lunch the next day. You lost. It’s noon. We’re hungry.
~
Lunch was in SoHo because Jake had crashed at Sawyer’s penthouse on West Broadway. Since it was close by, we went to Broome Street Kitchen, the place where I had first realized that Max was in fact Jake. It had been a gut-wrenching realization then but today, I could vaguely laugh about it. As Sloane and I approached the boys’ table, I wiggled my lips, trying to suppress my amusement as Jake sat beside Sawyer, his gorgeous eyes gleaming at me with a sexy hint of mischief.
“Hey.” His voice was still scratchy, as if he’d only woken up minutes ago. The sound of it made me long to be in bed with him.
“Morning, losers,” Sawyer greeted us jovially. “How we feeling?”
“It’s not exactly morning anymore,” I laughed, glancing at my phone, “but I feel fine.”