I shake my head. ‘I don’t understand. What’s Eliza got to do with the business? Wasn’t she just a client? An...ex?’ I choke over it. I acknowledge as I say it J
ackson’s rule never to sleep with the clientele. No need to ask where that rule came from then. I also realise with sickening clarity that he deemed business more important than coming to me.
‘She works in the same industry, has her own chain of clubs. She and her...’ his shoulders shudder, the move so negligible I wonder if I’ve imagined it, and then his head lifts ‘...her husband, Damien, they used to own Blacks...before it became Blacks, before it became mine.’
‘You worked together?’
He gives an abrupt laugh and sips at his drink. ‘You could call it that.’
‘And now...what?’
‘Now, nothing.’
‘So why was she here? Tonight, and two weeks ago.’
He’s silent.
‘Jackson?’
His continued silence is damning enough.
‘She wants you back?’
He nods.
I swallow down the rising chill. ‘And?’
‘I made it clear it’s never going to happen.’
My body relaxes a little, my voice easing as I say, ‘Good. And how—’
‘No, not good, Cait.’ He suddenly rounds on me, his eyes glittering with so much emotion, so much pain. ‘Nothing about this is good.’
‘What—’
‘It’s over, Cait. This. You and me.’ He thrusts his glass out and gestures between us, the whisky sloshing over the sides. ‘We can’t do this any more. I can’t.’
I’m hearing the words but all I can see is the hurt, the torment, the sadness...all things that our love can take away if he’d just let me in.
He raises a trembling hand to his hair as he sweeps it out of his face and avoids my eye now. ‘You can stay here tonight, in the guest room.’ Clinical Jackson is back. ‘I have a flight out of the country tomorrow. It’ll give us the space we need, time to adjust.’
My laugh is harsh, incredulous, and I push myself to my feet. ‘Time to adjust?’
His eyes flicker in my direction. ‘Don’t shake your head at me, Cait.’
I don’t even realise I’m doing it as I stride towards him, my blood boiling, my heart aching.
‘Do you really think it’s that simple?’ I throw at him when I’m within arm’s reach. ‘Do you really think time will stop me loving you?’
His eyes snap to mine, his pallor severe. ‘Don’t say that.’
‘Say what? That I love you, Jackson, that I’ve likely loved you ever since I fell in your lap six years ago?’
He walks away from me, striding to the bar and pouring another drink, but I’m hot on his tail. ‘You can’t avoid this conversation, Jackson. You owe me the truth.’
He throws back his drink and gulps it down. ‘You don’t love me...’ His voice is hoarse. ‘You can’t.’
‘Why? Because you don’t deserve it?’ I fist my hands on my hips and stare at him, eyes wide. ‘That’s what you keep telling me, right? That you don’t want to hurt me, that you want me to be safe. Well, newsflash, Jackson, I am hurt, and if you want me to walk away from this, from what we have, you need to tell me the truth. All of it...starting with Eliza.’