Kisses From Jack (The Kisses 1.5)

“You're free. Go have fun,” Rachel told him, stacking up his signed documents. She checked her watch. “Oh, by the way. Brandy's plane just took off.”

He grinned, feeling free. Now he could have his vacation without interruption. Now he could enjoy the one person on this island who saw him as a man instead of a meal ticket. He felt lighter than air.

He was so happy he had to share it, so he did the only thing he could think of. Jack hugged Rachel. She pulled back in surprise and then squeezed him hard. “You haven't done that in years,” she whispered, holding him close.

“I'm happy for the first time in years,” he said softly.

“You are, aren't you?” Rachel looked up at him, her brown eyes soft as she searched his face. Whatever she saw there made her smile. “I'm glad you found someone that makes you happy. You deserve it.”

He unwrapped his arms around the woman he considered an older sister. “Thanks, Rachel.”

She smacked his shoulder. “Now get going. I don't want to see you for the rest of your vacation.”

He grinned and took off for the door. He was going to make it back to Emma with time to spare.

Jack heard the door close behind him, but he stood frozen to the front step. His smile faded and the joy abandoned his mood. Standing in the driveway, her things on the ground behind her, was Brandy. He watched as a cab pulled away, leaving her with him.

“Jack,” she said softly, her doe eyes big and sad. “Jack, what's going on?”

“You're supposed to be on a plane,” he informed her, not really sure what else to say.

“I couldn't leave without saying goodbye, Jack.” She took a step forward. “I love you, Jack.”

Jack snorted. Confusion and a hint of anger flashed across her face, but she quickly schooled it into a hurt expression.

“I do, Jack. I couldn't leave without telling you.” She quickly crossed the space between them, putting her hands on his chest and looking up at him through long, eyelashes. He looked down and realized the eyelashes were fake. Emma's were real. Everything about Emma was real, while Brandy was just an imitation of real. The differences between the two women, real and fake, amazed him. He gasped at how blind he had been to Brandy's true nature.

Brandy took his gasp to mean he felt something. She rose up on her toes to kiss him, but he turned his face from her. Her lips grazed his cheek, twisting his stomach with their touch.

“Jack, baby, what's wrong?” Brandy pouted. Panic flickered at the corners of her eyes and mouth. “I don't want to lose you.”

“You never had me in the first place,” he said coldly. Jack picked her hands off her chest and dropped them as if they were covered in mud. “You're supposed to be on a plane.”

“I told you, I couldn't leave without telling you I loved you.” Her voice took on a hard edge. This wasn't how she had envisioned this reunion. “I love you, Jack.”

Jack laughed. “No, you don't. You love my money.”

She took just a second too long before responding with a, “I do not!”

Jack looked her up and down, clearly seeing the woman in front of him for the first time. She was gorgeous in the traditional sense of the word, but everything about her was fake. From her dye job, to her eyelashes, to her breasts, to her emotions, not a single thing about her was real. He was disgusted that he had ever let himself believe he could have a future with something so patently false.

“Go away, Brandy. I'm done with you,” Jack said coldly. He stepped to the side and walked around her. He needed to get back to Emma.

Brandy panicked. She was losing her ticket to financial freedom. Everything she had worked so hard to achieve the past few months, the hours spent flirting and setting him up to love her were about to be lost. She had a billionaire in her grasp and she was about to lose him.

She grabbed his arm, and spun him to face her. “They said there was someone else. I love you, Jack. How could you do this to me?”

She wore the mask of a confused lover, but her voice held too much anger and greed for it to be real. Her eyes flashed with anxiety instead of hurt, and her stance was poised for attack instead of reconciliation. Every line of her body language screamed she was defending her territory, not her relationship with him. He was an object to her, not a person.

“I love you,

Jack,” she whispered, forcing tears into her eyes. She was trying for an Oscar performance, but her words didn't have even the simple warmth that Emma's did at just saying his name.

Jack stared her down, his hazel eyes hard and cold. He was going to make him late getting back to Emma. His sweet Emma who blushed when he complimented her, who smiled when she said his name, and who looked at him like he was a human being instead of an ATM.

“We're done, Brandy.” He used his business voice, the one that made people tremble. “You will leave the island or I will have you deported.”

Brandy's eyes went huge and her jaw dropped open, as if she couldn't believe that anyone, not even a billionaire, would talk to her like that. Then, her eyes narrowed and her mouth twisted into something ugly. “You can't do this to me. I worked too hard for you to do this to me!”