Sawyer’s jaw twitched but he swallowed whatever words were on the tip of his tongue. Glaring, he watched Dane till he was seated across the restaurant. Then, he grabbed Jake and Sloane’s coat and nodded out the door. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
That night, I sat violently shaking in the hot bath Jake had drawn for me in his soaking tub. It had taken some coaxing but I’d finally gotten Sawyer to finish what he had begun telling me at Broome Street Kitchen. He said it all quickly before Jake or Sloane could return, and what he revealed made me so instantly sick that my knees buckled. His arms had caught me before I hit the floor but a part of me wished that he’d just let go. I wanted to fall. I wanted to crash and shatter into a million pieces.
It had been a suspicion of mine but now I knew – everything I ever had with Jackson had been a lie. I had no idea who he was. All I knew was that he was a master manipulator – someone who knew exactly how to get his way, no matter how much money or many connections it took. Some way, somehow, he found a way to bend life in is favor.
And when it came to keeping me, he’d do just about anything.
“Say the word, Lara, and I’ll kick Dane’s fuckin’ ass,” Jake said, leaning against the basin sin
k. I hadn’t told him what Sawyer had revealed about Jackson. I was afraid of his reaction. After all, I needed to confront my fiancé. I couldn’t risk Jake beating him to death, so I went ahead and let him believe that it was Dane who had rattled me.
“Don’t kick his ass, he’s not worth it,” I murmured.
“If you’re worried about Jackson thinking that you’ve been having an affair with Sawyer, he has no reason to believe Dane.”
“I’m not worried about Jackson,” I muttered.
“Why not?”
I lifted my blank gaze at Jake. “Because I’m leaving him tomorrow.”
Jake stared with surprise. “What?”
“I just can’t do it anymore. I can’t take the lies. He has all these skeletons in the closet and I’m finding them one by one and I’m not even close to finished, I know it. And it makes me realize that he’s not the person I fell in love with anymore. Maybe he never was. You said yourself that he keeps changing more and more into someone like Dane. Someone with no morals or conscience or regard for anything but his image and his pleasure. I don’t even know if he loves me. All he loves is the fact that everyone else loves me – that I make him someone to be jealous of. I mean he’s told you about me over the years. What did he ever say? Did he ever tell you stories about me? About the things I believed in, the things that I loved? You didn’t know any details about me. Where I came from. About my parents and how I had a sister who ran away. Because I’m sure all Jackson ever told you about was how good I looked in a dress, or how Sawyer couldn’t take his eyes off of me one night, or how I charmed his investors at a dinner and won him new business. I’m not the love of his life – I’m just a prize that he refuses to let go of because he knows other people might want me. So I’m done.” Taking in a deep, shaky breath, I gathered my composure. “I’m telling him tomorrow when he gets back from Boston. I already took the ring off,” I said, nodding at the floor where I’d tossed the massive diamond. As Jake looked in disbelief, I unplugged the drain with my foot and watched the water in the tub sink away, gurgling and choking on its way down.
“Where are you going to go?” Jake finally asked.
“Anywhere but there.”
“You can always stay here,” he said. I looked up at him, hugging my legs to my chest, my hair only wet at the ends. He gazed at me with a kindness so pure I felt my lip trembling. “Or we can keep you in Manhattan,” he offered lightly. “I have a warehouse apartment in the Lower East Side. It’s not furnished yet but if you want to stay in the city, we can decorate it for you. Customize it, make it your haven.”
I blinked back the tears I felt coming. “No. I don’t want that.”
Jake nodded. “That’s fine. I’ll give you what you want, Lara. Once you know what it is, just tell me and I’ll make it happen.”
“I know what it is,” I said. Rising to my feet, I stepped out of the tub and went to Jake, feeling his shallow breath as I slid my hands up his abs. “I want to be wherever you are,” I murmured, looking at my hands on his chest. “I know you’re not going to stay here for long. Not with how it’s been with Jackson. Once the hotel opens, you’re going to leave. And I know you always go somewhere far away and make a life there, so when you do that, I want to go too,” I exhaled, my growing excitement snatching my breath. “And I don’t want you to feel like you’re obligated to me. I want us to do what we’re doing now for however long it lasts for. All I want is to do that wherever you go. So you can show me how to start over.”
Once I was done, I looked up at Jake, fearing his reaction. He wasn’t quite smiling but I saw something in his eyes that I hadn’t seen from him yet. Relief. I breathed easy as he took my hands and brought them to his lips, kissing my fingertips before leaning down to kiss me.
“I’ll make that happen for you,” he said softly. “For us. I need to feel you somewhere besides here. Somewhere where it’s just us so I don’t have to worry or even think about anything besides you.”
I closed my eyes, a wave of happiness crashing through me, washing me anew. “Thank you,” I whispered, kissing Jake deeply as his strong hands formed around my naked waist. I could already feel it – his touch bringing me somewhere else. To a place where the chaos didn’t exist.
On his bed, he took his time trailing his lips over every inch of my body. Between kisses to my stomach, my breasts, he shed his shirt and his jeans. Naked against me, I felt his warmth, moaning at every touch of his skin on mine. I arched my back into him as his hot mouth teased my breasts. They were sensitive, heavy with arousal and every last stroke of his tongue and fingertips was like pure bliss. He felt like a drug. The exact remedy that I needed.
“I want to make you feel nothing but good, Lara,” he murmured.
“Yes. Please,” I panted, delirious. I raised my hips for him when I felt his breath between my legs. “Oh God.” My fists pulsed around his sheets as his tongue drew hot, wet circles over my clit. The cries that spilled my lips were an emotional release. I needed this. I needed Jake. I felt nothing but good when his body was pressed against mine and in this moment, I needed that feeling more than anything in the world.
“You’re so wet,” he groaned deep against me as he felt my muscles tighten. Sliding his hands under my ass, he lifted me higher for his mouth, spiraling me into ecstasy as he slid his tongue inside my pussy. I cried toward the ceiling, my walls tightening around him as he tunneled deeper than I ever thought possible.
“Jake, I’m going to come,” I gasped, my stomach was taut, my body trembling as he brought every inch of me to a screaming orgasm.
That night, while we lay in bed, we talked about all the places in the world that I dreamt of seeing. Before finally drifting off to sleep, we did what I always hated – his flesh pulsing inside me, we made love. It was the only way to describe it.
Chapter Twenty-Six