“Probably not,” Jake agrees. “I had a fire lit under my ass after I become caretaker for my sister.”
“Your sister?” I ask, surprised. “I didn’t know you had a sister.”
“Yes, she lives with me. Has ever since our parents passed,” Jake says. He leans forward, and looking at him, I feel like I’m seeing a side of him that few people do, and it’s a side that I want even more than what I saw on Saturday. “I had to grow up quickly.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I say honestly, reaching out and patting his hand. “You must care for her very much.”
The conversation flows, the two of us growing closer as we find so much in common. Besides the surface things like similar tastes in music, we both see the world as a place to stand on your own, to make your own mark somehow. I order another Mermaid, but Jake stops me after my second, and it’s with a shock that I realize it’s near midnight. “Oh, wow,” I say, not slurring very much. “I guess it’s time to go home.”
“Come on, I’ll drive you like I said,” Jake says, helping me to my feet. He’s so close, I can’t help it as I press myself against him, looking in his eyes, and his hand falls to my lower back. He lowers his lips, kissing me softly, and I kiss him back, not with the fiery passion of Saturday night but with something truer.
“Jake . . .” I whisper when I step back, biting my lip in torn desire. “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever said in my life because I want you so fucking badly right now, but I need you to call me a cab. You’re my boss, and we can’t finish what this starts. We need to keep this strictly business.”
Jake swallows, and I feel his hand pull me even tighter, but he stops and lets me go. With a shuddering breath, he nods. “Okay. I’ll have the staff call you a cab.”
I nod and reach down, grabbing my purse. “Thank you. Jake . . . this is like the best club I’ve ever seen, but I don’t think I should come back here. I think you know why.”
Jake swallows and nods. “I do.”
He calls John the security guy over, giving him instructions. John nods, and Jake turns back to me. “You’re all set. I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“I am, and yes,” I say, giving Jake a smile. “Goodnight.”
John escorts me downstairs and out to the already waiting cab, closing the door for me. Just as the cab gets ready to pull away, I see the door to Club Jasmine open again, and Jake steps out, giving me a wave. As the cab pulls away and I give him a wave back, there’s something inside me that says this is just the beginning.
Jake
Strictly business.
Roxy’s words run through my mind as I button up the cuff links of my dress shirt, the early morning sunset peeking in a fiery orange through the window behind me. I finish my shirt and turn around, keeping my eyes directly from the sun but looking out over the city. It’s peaceful, certainly not as bustling as New York or one of those other cities that never seems to sleep.
It shouldn’t really be a problem. Being Roxy’s boss definitely changes things. I can’t even lie about how I’m new in town or that she doesn’t report directly to me. It’d be a problem eventually if we kept seeing each other. But I can’t divorce myself from the way she felt underneath my hands. The images flash in my mind, making my dick swell in my custom-tailored Italian slacks, and I unconsciously reach down to adjust myself as I turn away from the window.
But more than her body, I can’t get over what she told me.
I run my hand over my freshly shaven cheeks, checking for any missed spots as I think about our conversation yesterday. I just can’t get over the look in her eyes when she told me she’d given up her dream to work in the soul-sucking corporate world. It crushed me, and her tiny attempt at salvaging her pride by saying she got a promotion just made it worse. It made me feel for her, not as a woman I’d like to fuck, but as a person I’d like to help.
Here I am, living part of my dream by being able to start my own business, which by every measure is going to be hugely successful, and she has to work a job she isn’t happy with. I could see the spark she has for life is dimmed by it all. And being around her makes me want to reignite it. I just don’t know how.
Saturday night, if I’d heard her story, it would have been easy. Foolish, most likely, but easy. Now, we’re bound by rules. There’s corporate protocol we have to follow. And I fucking hate rules. I’ve played by my own as much as I can for my whole life. It’s the main reason I always want to be the one in charge. I know that eventually, my penchant for doing it my own way is going to make enemies if I’m not the one making the decisions. One misstep will have my ass flapping in the wind.
I finish up my grooming, grabbing my suit coat off the bed. The bed is an absolute mess, but my maid will be in here to clean it up. I throw my coat over my shoulder and leave my bedroom. I’ll save the coat for later when I’m getting ready to go to the office.
I walk down the hall and knock on Sophie’s door. She’s been a sleepyhead recently, and I’m not going to let her skip school because I trusted her to get up on her own.
“Get up, Sophie,” I say. “Rise and shine.”
I hear a groan in the room and a creaking bed. Great, she hasn’t even woken up yet. When she doesn’t reply, I open the door and peek in. All I see is a spray of hair sticking out from under the sheet and what looks like her left foot hanging out below.
“Sophie, get up,” I say, tapping on the door. “You’ve got twenty minutes.”
Sophie’s reply is a low, grumbling moan. “Ugh, I’m trying to sleep.”
With no warning, I grab the blanket and sheet near her ankle and yank the covers.
“Ohmygawd! It’s cold, you ass!” Sophie yells, trying to grab the blanket, but I pull it the rest of the way off. Her disheveled hair gives her a stringy, mop-top appearance as she looks up at me with red eyes. She must’ve been up late last night, and I only hope it’s because she was cracking her history books.
“Get up. You have that test, remember?”
“Can’t you just give me a note and call in sick?” Sophie says, reaching for the little decorative blanket over her headboard, but before she can, I snatch it up and throw it out the door. “I fucking hate that class!”
“Doesn’t matter,” I reply, knowing the feeling. “Get up unless you want me to get the Super Soaker.”
I’m not one to be physical with a woman, but I’ve found the squirt gun a great way to get a teenage girl out of bed quickly. “Jerk,” she mutters. She grumbles and gets out of bed. “You’re the world’s biggest asshole.”
“An asshole who wants what’s best for you,” I say, holding back my grin. I know she doesn’t mean anything by it. “And be careful. I don’t want you to fall and crack that big head of yours.”
I leave her room and go in the kitchen, indulging in one of my personal hobbies. Setting my coat across the back of a chair, I grab the cast-iron skillet and start making breakfast. Six minutes later, I have scrambled eggs, toast, marmalade, and a glass of orange juice sitting at the table. Sophie comes out, and while her eyes are still red, she’s at least brushed her hair out and looks cute, in a sort of teenage high school fuck the world, I wanna be in bed sort of way.
“You stay up all night?” I ask. “You seemed to be sleeping when I came home.”
Sophie nods. “I tried, but I woke up. I was on my phone.”
Alarm bells go off in my head. “With whom?”
“Jax,” she says flippantly, as if texting with someone that late is normal.
My stomach tightens. “Who’s he?”
“Just a boy from my math class,” she says. “We talk sometimes.”
I bite my tongue. That’s something I don’t really want to touch unless I absolutely have to. “Cool,” I say, trying to be nonchalant. “Bring him by sometime so I can meet him.”
She’s mortified. “Seriously? You’re cool and all, but I don’t want to scare him away.”