“I’m sorry Jake,” I said coldly. “I’ve just realized this isn’t right for me, and it’s not right for you either. Our “little romance,” as you call it, never got off the ground. I can’t tell you what to do with your engagement but I can’t be a part of this three-way twisted love triangle either. And for your information Jenna doesn’t suspect a thing, I haven’t breathed a word to her.”
The storm clouds on his brows were ominous and frightful, but I forced myself to ignore them. However much my heart and body yearned towards him, I couldn’t come clean to a man recently dubbed “Most-Hated Man in the U.S.” by Time Magazine. There was no amount of money, no amount of physical attraction, that could persuade me to cross that line.
“I’m so sorry for taking up your time,” I said stiffly. And turning on my heel, I made my way out of his office.
CHAPTER TEN
Jake
What the fuck had just happened? I’d figured Tina was coming to Sterling for a fresh start. The illicit, but one hundred percent satisfying tryst we’d had in the restroom had cemented my view that she was the perfect girl for me. The way her hips swayed, the way she sashayed off, leaving me to be discovered by a gaggle of old ladies … I loved it, loved her sassiness, her clear intelligence, her bold attitude.
So when Tina had called for an appointment, I told my secretary to clear my schedule for a few hours in anticipation of some serious conversation. Not that I expected it to be painful, just that major items needed to be addressed … namely my engagement to her sister.
Jenna. The name still made me shudder. I was so over her, so over the bony blonde that I could barely even bring myself to think about her. But getting rid of her was going to be a huge relief, and grimly I looked forward to breaking off our engagement.#p#分页标题#e#
Because that was the clear path forward. Sure, I’ve been known to engage in threesomes before, every rich playboy in the Valley does it, but Tina was worth way more than that. She was far more than a fling, and I was willing to break off a very public engagement in order to explore a relationship with the curvy brunette. Asking her to engage in a threesome? Not only would I be slapped to the ground, but it didn’t honor what I thought of this beautiful girl, the one with a mind as sharp as a blade complete with a playful, teasing personality.
But what the fuck had just happened? She’d shown up looking delicious enough to eat, her curvy form skimmed by a brown dress, her slim legs shown off to their best form in a pair of pumps. And she’d thrown me a dazzling smile upon her arrival, I was ready to jump her on a moment’s notice. We would have made good use of the couch in my office, or maybe the rug, who knows so long as we were horizontal.
But I disappeared for a few minutes on some stupid errand and she was completely different when I returned. Nervous, balky, recalcitrant … and utterly firm in rejecting my advances.
I’ve been rejected before but only by women who are lesbians. Even the married ones find me irresistible, doing the down and dirty as soon as I get my game on. But Tina? She was so adamant, her pretty face determined, her movements sure and firm as she pushed away from me. It wasn’t the “oh help me” struggle of a damsel in distress who actually wants to be ravished. It was the “let me go NOW” struggle of a woman determined to make an exit.
So I let her go, figuring I’d save myself some scratches from a wildcat. But it was odd … even when I mentioned I was planning on breaking up with Jenna, she just shook her head, saying that “this was all too complicated” and “Jenna is my sister” and all that bullshit. Okay, maybe not total bullshit, but nothing that time wouldn’t cure. Fuck, it wasn’t like I was married to Jenna. It was just dating, and only a few months at that. Worse things had happened in the world.
Silently, I cursed at myself. What the fuck was going on? Had my inability to actively reject Jenna gotten me into this mess? Had I been too passive, allowing myself to be led along like a fucking mule? I cursed silently again. Normally a go-getter, I’d let myself be seduced by a pretty face and lithe body. Now it was too late, and I was fucking stuck with a witch … while the girl of my dreams disappeared into the horizon.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Tina
Six months later …
My baby mewled in my arms. Janie was beautiful, just the tiniest thing, crying a bit as I rocked her. Normally crying is a good thing because it shows that a baby has strong, healthy lungs and isn’t afraid to communicate her distress, sending adults scurrying to do her bidding. But with my daughter, things are different. Janie was born prematurely and she’s tiny for her age. Her crying was weak, her mewls pitiful. She doesn’t eat much, nor does she have the “rooting” instinct of newborns, the one that causes them to seek their mother’s breast for nutritious, life-giving milk.