Stolen Beauty (Jackson Family 1)

“You’re different,” he blurted, cutting me off.

I squeezed his hand. “Doesn’t matter, James. They’re human just as I am. They have feelings just like I do. Just talk to them. It won’t harm anything. I’m sure both men would love the opportunity to finally fix shit. I know Jaxon misses those times. He said you changed so much after the accident.”

James frowned. “I was raised that way, Emmaline,” he softly reminded me. “I couldn’t be a kid forever.”

“Just talk to them,” I begged him. He shook his head, but I lifted his hand and pressed my lips to his knuckles, my eyes never leaving his. “Please?” I begged him. “For me?”

He blew out a harsh breath of air. “You don’t play fair, little one.”

I beamed at him. “So, you’ll do it?”

He nodded but pointed a finger at me. “Only for you, little one.” He wrapped a hand around the back of my neck and pulled my lips to his, kissing me soft and slow. “Now, get your cute ass downstairs and get some food. I’m going to find Adrian.”

“You need to eat,” I told him as he got off of the bed.

He scowled. “Am I the one in charge, or are you?”

“You,” I quickly answered. “But it’s not fair of you to want me to take care of myself, yet you neglect your own health,” I bravely told him, not even caring if it got me a punishment.

He gripped my chin and tilted my head back, locking our eyes together. “I’ll have Mrs. Judy bring me food to wherever I find Adrian at. That work for you?”

I smiled up at him. “Yes. Thank you.”

He gave me a quick kiss. “You better be glad I love you. Anyone else trying to boss me around would have probably ended up critically injured at best.”

A sweet smile tilted my lips as my eyes softened. “I love you,” I told him.

He brushed his thumb over my cheek. “I’ll never get tired of hearing those words.”

~*~*~

JAMES

I found Adrian in his office flipping through a stack of papers with a scowl on his face. I knocked lightly at the door, and a flicker of surprise flashed through his eyes when he looked up before he quickly smothered it and gestured to the chairs on the other side of his desk, a silent invitation for me to come in and take a seat.

“You got a minute?” I asked him as I dropped into one of his chairs. Damn, these things were comfortable as fuck. I needed to find out where the hell he got these from because I needed some for my own office.

He set his pen down and looked up at me. “Always got time for the boss,” he sarcastically stated. My lips twitched. Yeah, he was in a right fucking mood. Despite us being friends, he still tried to show me the most respect that he could, but he was at his wit’s end with me. I knew it because he was using sarcasm, something he did his best to refrain from using.

“I wanted to apologize for my behavior when Emmaline was hurt and then when my mother shot you,” I told him. I drew in a deep breath. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Adrian, and yet, I still treated you like shit. So, I’m sorry. I really am.”

He leaned back in his chair, looking absolutely shocked. “Well, fuck,” he finally grumbled. “I sure as hell wasn’t expecting an apology when you stepped in here.”

I laughed. “You can thank Emmaline. She talked some sense into me.”

He grinned. “That woman has a heart of gold, James. I’ll never understand how she ended up with a dimwit like you.”

I snorted. “The sex is great,” I told him, but I knew that what Emmaline and I had together was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. I’d been lucky as hell to find a woman as sweet as her.

“Yeah, whatever.” He handed me the set of papers he was going through. “Some new contracts. Just need you to go over them and sign them before I send them back to your corporate office. Mr. Kellam already looked over them, and he said they look good.”

I nodded once and grabbed the papers from him before I stood up from the chair. “Hey, do me a favor,” I told him.

He shrugged. “What’s up?”

“I need you to do a background check on Emmaline, specifically from when she was a child until she became the legal age of an adult.” Adrian arched an eyebrow at me. “I need you to dig deep, as deep as you can go.”

“What’s going on, James?” he asked me, a bit alarmed that I was requesting a background check on the woman I’d collared.

I shook my head. “She went through some shit growing up. I feel like playing karma.”

Adrian nodded once, a small smile playing on his lips. “I’ll have it to you as soon as possible,” he promised.

I nodded once and then scowled. “Fuck,” I swore. Adrian looked back up at me. “I forgot to have Mrs. Judy send food up for us. I promised Emmaline I’d eat.”

Adrian barked out a laugh and stood up from his chair. “Well, let’s not disappoint the queen. Come on. We’ll go down and eat,” he told me. “Maybe we’ll even catch her there.”

~*~*~