One Timer(An Nashville Assassins Novel)(7)

“And you’ve ignored him?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t think he cares about that.”

“Why would you say that?”

She nods toward the front door. “He just got out of the car with a really big bouquet of flowers.”

I whip my head to the front, and sure as shit, he’s standing in the parking lot. He has a huge bouquet of roses in his hand wrapped in brown paper with a white bow. He has on some really nice-fitting pants and a pressed button-down shirt. His dark hair is brushed to the side, and he’s clean-shaven, unlike the other night. He pushes his sunglasses up into his hair and looks toward the shop. He can’t see us—the windows are tinted—but I can see him.

And. Wow.

“You gonna run? He’s coming in.”

I stand up, fixing the front of my shirt so my breasts look good. I pull up my jeans and jerk my thumb to her office. “Vamoose, you.”

She laughs as she gets up, heading back to her office just as the door opens and Jakob enters. “Hey, Jakob,” she calls over her shoulder. “Good luck.”

I’m gonna kill her. I look back at him, and he’s only looking at me. His green eyes burn my skin as he takes me in. He clears his throat. “I’ve been calling you.”

I press my lips together, tucking my fingers into my back pockets. “Yeah, I’ve been ignoring you. I told you this couldn’t happen.”

He nods slowly as he closes the distance between us. “I don’t take ‘no’ very well.”

I love his voice. Breathlessly, I gaze up into his gorgeous eyes. “I am discovering that.”

“I got these for you,” he says, handing me the over-the-top bouquet. It looked smaller when he was outside. Now that it’s in my hands, I’m sure there are at least five dozen roses. “I’ve thought of you this many times since I bought them, and I don’t care if that’s corny. Shea said I was corny.”

I grin, puckering my lips as I run my finger along the bow. “Just a bit. But it’s also incredibly sweet of you.” I look up, and he’s dropping his lips to mine. I should push him away, I should dodge his kiss, but I fall into it. He brings his hand up, holding my jaw as our lips move together.

When he pulls back, he’s only a breath away before he says, “Don’t pucker those lips unless you want to be kissed, kiska.”

Fucking hell.

I’m lost in his eyes as I gaze up at him. “Take me to dinner.”

“Okay.”

“And this is it. I’m going to see if I like you, and if I don’t, you’ll have to let me go.”

“Okay.”

I glare. “You’re not going to let me go.”

He slowly shakes his head. “Nope, because you’re going to love me.”

And for the first time, I realize I am actually scared.

I’m petrified he is right.





With how hot he looks, I expected him to take me to some fancy restaurant, but instead, we go to a hole-in-the-wall taco place. Don’t get me wrong—it’s the best tacos in Nashville, but I thought only I knew about this place. Even Elli doesn’t like it. She says she feels like they get the tacos off the floor. I don’t care where they get them; they taste like heaven, which is why I ordered ten of them. Plus, they’re small. Like, two make one, so in all reality, I got five. Still a normal and decent amount.

But I still say, “Don’t judge me. I’m hungry.”

He grins as he gestures toward me. “I’ll take ten of the same.”

The waitress nods and walks off. I cross my legs and then uncross them before recrossing them again. I’m flustered, but Jakob sits across from me, cool as a cucumber with a sneaky little look on his face. “What?”

“You look beautiful. I love your hair like that.”

I reach up, touching my hair. I have it gelled down in the front and wild in the back. It’s my “I was too lazy to do anything with it” style. “Well, thanks. I basically rolled out of bed this morning. I was up late—” I stop quickly, looking down at the table. I was up late because I kept tossing and turning, thinking of his fine ass.

“What were you doing, other than ignoring my calls?”

I look up, a grin pulling at my lips. “Just watching TV.”

“Should have called me, I would have come over and watched with you.”

I taunt, “Please, you’d want more.”

“Really, no. I just want to be near you.” His accented English sends my heart into a frenzy. “I feel you like to be near me too.”

I shrug. “I mean, it’s not horrible.”

He chuckles softly. “So, do you have family?”

He’s completely unfazed by my resistance. I don’t know if it’s confidence or if he doesn’t understand I don’t want this.

I don’t.

I really don’t.

Right?

“I do,” I find myself saying. “My mom and dad, and I have a set of twin sisters. They’re younger.”

He nods. “Nice. I have a brother, but our parents are our adoptive parents. We were adopted when I was a bit older, but my brother Erik is younger.”

“Does your brother play hockey?”

He smiles up at me. “Yes, he is very good. Some would say better than me. Not my mom, though. She says we are both the best.”

“Sounds like something my mom would say. She gushes over all of us, when we all know I’m her favorite.”

He laughs, and I can’t help but grin. “Ah yes, my mom does the same. My real parents, not so much. My mom ran off without us, and my dad was very… Uh, what is the word? Mean? No, something worse—”

“Abusive?”

He nods, pointing to me as our tacos are set down in front of us. “Yes, abusive. He hurt us terribly, but we are okay now.” He digs into his tacos like he didn’t just tell me something very personal. I don’t think I would ever tell someone something like that unless I truly knew them. He just met me.

He knows my vagina better than he knows me.

“I’m so sorry.”

He waves me off. “In the past. I have a good future ahead of me.”

Wow. His resilience is really sexy. “Is that right?”

“Yup. You’re in it,” he says around a mouthful of his food. “Remember, you’re gonna love me after tonight.”

I laugh, though I can’t ignore the clench in my stomach. “Cocky much?”

“Always,” he says with a wink. “You always want to be a photographer?”

I bite into my taco and nod. “I did. I went to NYU for it.”

“What is NYU?” he asks slowly.

“Oh, you didn’t grow up here?”

He laughs. “Doesn’t my accent give me away? I grew up in Russia.”

I feel dumb. “Yeah, duh. I don’t know, I thought maybe you came here when you were adopted.”

“I did, but I was already fourteen, and my parents know Russian, so we hardly spoke English. But yeah, I know it all now. I forget sometimes, but the written word gets me.”

“Can you not read in English?”

“Not much. I try, though,” he says with a wry smile. “It’s hard, but I learn.”

“I don’t doubt it,” I say, and then I smile. “I could help.”

Why. In. The. Hell. Did. I. Say. That?

I quickly add, “You know, if we make it out of this, both of us wanting to.”

He gives me a dry look. “You don’t believe this, huh?”

“Believe what?”

“This feeling. I feel it. You do, but you’re ignoring it.”

“I am not. I mean, I don’t feel anything. You’re a fantastic lay and I have fun, but I don’t date.”

“You don’t date? Why?”

“Guys are assholes.”

He nods. He’s already eaten four tacos. “Some are, but I’m good.”

I can’t help but grin at him. “Man, now I think you’re full of yourself.”

“I am,” he says with no apology. “I spent many years thinking I was not good enough. I don’t do that anymore. I gotta live each day fully, because they can be taken away, like this,” he says, snapping his fingers. “I have a good life. I want to make it better. Do you feel like that?”

“Huh?” I ask, confused. “Feel what?”

“That you want a better life. You have a good life, yeah?”

I shrug. “It’s okay.”

I mean, I live a good life. I work my ass off to make the studio successful, I sleep with whomever I want, I see my family when I want, and I do what I want. It isn’t bad. Do I want more? Sure. But I don’t really know what that means. I don’t like being lonely; I find myself at Elli’s house or even my parents’ more than I care to admit. I don’t do things alone; I always go with Elli, but now that she is with Shea, she’s busy with him. Maybe I need a dog? No, way too needy. A cat. Cats aren’t needy.

But from the way Jakob is looking at me over the tacos he’s devouring, I suspect he thinks he belongs in the void I didn’t know I had.

“Then you want better,” he says simply, eating like this is a normal, day-to-day conversation. Lord, he’s flipping intriguing. “Don’t you?”

I look at my taco, tearing off a piece before popping it into my mouth. “Yeah, sure.”