Cupping her cheeks in my palms, I wipe away her tears with my thumbs. “I can’t help it. I’m the man who loves you. I’ll never stop.”
“I love you too.” Mac’s eyes fill with fresh tears. “But what does that even matter? I can’t be the woman you want me to be. I can’t give you what you want.”
“What do I want?”
“You want the happy ending, Jake. You want marriage and family. You want our lives to keep going on how they are, and they can’t.”
“What’s wrong with wanting all that?”
“Because I can’t give it to you.”
“You can’t? Or you won’t?”
Mac swallows, regret etched all over her face. “Both.”
“Then I’ll take whatever you’re willing to give.”
I cringe, knowing I sound like a pathetic asshole.
“Jake …” Mac scrambles to her feet, and I rise with her. Taking a washcloth from the towel rack, she gives me her back and flicks the tap on, wetting it. I watch her in the mirror. Each dab of the cloth against her cheeks wipes the hurt from her face. She looks at my reflection and meets my eyes. “I can’t do this.”
A hard rap comes at the door. “Mac?” Henry calls out. “Are you in there? I have an idea about the replacement bassist.”
“Be right out,” she calls back. Then she turns around and speaks softly. “I need to go sort this out.”
“Mac …”
She breathes in deep as though drawing in all her strength, because when she lets it out there’s no trace of emotion left. None. “You deserve better than whatever I can give.”
I give her a stony stare. “Am I getting the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ speech?”
“Jake, you started with nothing and now look at you. You’re living your dream. You have everything you ever wanted.”
“Except you.”
“You don’t need me.”
My voice cracks. “Of course I need you. It’s always been you and me. Right from the beginning, remember?”
“We were just kids in the beginning,” Mac says. “And kids grow up. They change. They grow apart.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” I say, pushing her back against the bathroom counter, my body pressing against hers. I put both hands on either side of the vanity, locking her in place.
“Get what?”
“That in this one universe, there are nine planets. Of those planets, there’s just one that holds two hundred and four countries, seven seas, and seven billion people. Of those seven billion people, I had the privilege of meeting just one girl. And that one girl not only stole my heart, she set my world on fire.”
“Jake,” she whispers, her emotionless fa?ade slipping.
“When I said I belonged to you, Mackenzie Valentine, I didn’t mean in just that moment. I meant across time. Across planets. Galaxies. Hell, the goddamn universe. Princess,” I take her chin in my hand, staring hard into her brilliant green eyes. “I meant forever.”
MAC
We stare at each other for a pulse-pounding moment. Then I clear my throat. “Well … Okay then.”
I wince at my response. Really, asshead? Jake says he belongs to you across space and time and you give him an ‘okay then’? Can I be any more emotionally stunted?
Henry’s knock comes at the bathroom door a second time. “Shit,” I mumble.
Jake lets out a deep, weary sigh. Standing off to the side, he says, “Go,” as he opens the door to let me walk through. “But this isn’t over.”
I stride passed him, and because I can never give a single inch, I say coolly, “It never is.”
“Fuck it,” he mutters and in the next second the back of my sleeveless floral blouse is grabbed in a fist and I’m being dragged backward.
Henry, standing with my phone in hand waiting for my direction, stares bewildered as I flail on my heels.
“I’ll be out in a moment,” I tell him in an authoritative tone, ignoring his wide eyes. “Go find out where Quinn is. She and Travis were supposed to be here over an hour ago and—”
Jake slams the door shut in Henry’s face.
“What the hell was that?” I spin to look at him. The hard glare on his face warns me he’s not in the mood to argue. Too bad. “We have an emergency on our hands and you want to play hide and seek inside my brother’s bathroom?”
“I give you the fucking universe,” Jake growls, “and you give me ‘well okay then’?” That was exactly my thinking, but clearly I’m suffering the effects of an emotional overload during the middle of a work crisis.
“I’m sorry,” I bite out, “but I can’t compete with that right now.”
“Compete? This isn’t a damn competition, Mac, but if it was, it’s obvious there’s no winner here. All I see are two losers who can’t get their shit together.”
“Speak for yourself,” I retort.
Jake is fed up. He grabs the front of my blouse and shoves me around until my backside hits the bathroom counter. “I spilled my fucking heart out to you, you cold-hearted bitch.”
I jab a finger in his face. “Don’t you ever call me a bitch.”
His brown eyes narrow. “Bitch, bitch, bitch.”
My slap is a loud crack in the room.
Jake’s head slams sideways from the blow. He stands there for a moment, breathing heavy, shoulders tense. He’s struggling for control. Fuck that. Jake is always on at me to let go. Let’s see what happens when he does.
I bare my teeth. “Fuck you.”
“No,” Jake replies, his tone harder than steel. “Fuck you.”
He reaches for my pants. Not bothering to undo the pretty yellow button, he rips it open. My eyes watch as it pings across the room and hits the tiled wall before dropping to the floor. My gaze cuts back to his. The heat in his eyes is unmistakable, causing my breath to hitch. “Jake, you can’t—”
“I can. So shut your fucking mouth, Mackenzie.”
My pants are yanked down. The zipper unfastens on its own accord from the force. My panties are shoved down next. Jake leaves them bunched around my calves as he lifts me and sets my bare ass on the counter.
He spreads my legs, pushes his way between them, and unzips his jeans. “What are you doing?”
Jake slips a hand between my legs. The rough pad of his finger finds my clit and he rubs, finding me wet. “What am I doing?” The next moment his hand is gone and his thick cock is pushing inside me. The intrusion is unexpected yet my body pulses around him, welcoming it. I bite down on my bottom lip, unable to stop the moan from escaping. “You’re a smart girl,” he states. “You work it out.”
“Jake,” I gasp, my hands sliding around his neck when he fully seats himself inside of me. I bury my head in his neck and breathe in the familiar scent of his warm, male skin.
“Look at me,” he demands, his shoulders bunching with muscle as he grabs the naked cheeks of my ass in his big hands.
I draw back and look him in his eyes. They’re dark and burning with anger. “Look me in the eye while I’m fucking you, Mac, and tell me you don’t need me. Tell me you could walk away from me tomorrow and never look back.”
JAKE