Before You(58)
Stunned, Bre could hardly answer. She had dated Cam for so long, it felt strange and at the same time thrilling to be propositioned. But the thing that absolutely left her breathless and disoriented was that she was totally and overwhelmingly tempted to accept his insane proposal. “Jax, I can’t believe you said that. I can’t cancel on Cam now that I’m already here.”
Jax exhaled slowly. “Why not? He’s cancelled last minute plenty of times, and he’ll do it again. To Cam, you will never be a priority, at least not anytime soon.”
“I don’t want to talk about Cam with you. It feels wrong. He made me a priority by flying me here this weekend.”
“If you’re a priority, he would pick you up at the airport and take you out for a romantic evening. You’ll be lucky of Cam spends more than two hours alone with you without something or someone drawing his attention away. Forget Cam, this about us.”
She immediately scoffed. “There could never be an us. The idea is utterly ridiculous.”
“The only thing that’s ridiculous is trying to ignore what’s between us,” Jax responded.
“No, Jax. Even though Cam and I broke up, he’s still my best friend, and honestly, I came here to see if Cam and I can salvage things.” Her voice quivered, and she wanted to kick herself for failing to be firm.
His jaw twitched. “So that’s it. After that whole speech about him not being what you needed, you’re getting back together with him. ”
“I didn’t say that,” she responded, shifting uncomfortably in her seat.
“Then, what are you saying?”
“Cam and I have known each other for over ten years, six or seven of which we dated. His friendship is important to me. I don’t want to lose it.”
“What does that have to do with spending the weekend together?”
“What are you suggesting I do? Destroy my lifelong relationship with Cam to have a weekend fling with you?”
Jax kept his eyes glued on the traffic, but he shook his head. “I didn’t say I was interested in a weekend fling. If I wanted to have a weekend fling, I would find something less complicated.”
“Oh, I get it. You want us to be together when I’m in town, but you can still hookup with other women on the side. That’s not the kind of relationship I’m looking for. I would never settle for that.”
“That’s not what I want, either.”
She laughed bitterly. “Please, Jax. Don’t play games with me. I’m not some random girl that doesn’t know your history. You aren’t a relationship type of guy, and if I had any doubts on that score, you explicitly confirmed that fact yourself last weekend before you left.”
Jax flinched. “I’m not half as bad as that, Bre. I’m not a saint, but I’m certainly not as bad as you think I am.”
“Don’t try to white wash your life. Cam tells me about your exploits all the time. I have no interest in being one of many in some man’s life who can’t even be bothered to remember my name.” Even as she said it, she cringed inwardly at the intentional slight.
“Cam has no idea what I do or don’t do. Besides, if you have such a poor opinion of me, why were you with me last weekend?” Jax replied, visibly irritated.
“I don’t know why I was with you… I’m sorry.”
“Sorry you were with me or sorry you have to lie to Cam about it?”
She turned to look at him for the first time, watching the sunlight catch in his hair making it look light brown, almost gold near his face. Jax wasn’t traditionally handsome like Cam, but he had masculine confidence and sexual magnetism that were a million times more lethal than Cam’s classically sculpted features. In comparison, Cam looked too pretty, almost boring. When he caught her gaze, the tension of conflicting urges streamed through her body—the desire to crawl into his lap and the desire to flee from the increasingly awkward conversation. Scolding herself for wanting to be near him, she reminded herself that Jax didn’t have any real interest in her. Jax was fickle, and at this moment, she interested him. That didn’t mean he would feel the same way tomorrow or in a week. She needed to dissuade him from his pursuit.
So she plastered a condescending smile on her face. “Sorry for both. Come on, Jax. I thought we agreed to let this go. We both know you aren’t interested in me like that or in having a relationship. You just like the idea being with me because it’s new and forbidden, but the feeling will fade, and then we couldn’t even be friends anymore, and I want to be friends.”
Jax stopped the car, and she absently noted that they were sitting in front of Cam’s apartment building. After a prolonged moment of silence, Jax looked at Bre with a harsh stare that unraveled every nerve in her body. And he said in low, gravelly voice, “If you say so, Bre. After all, I do like doing new and forbidden… things.”