AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Watch the program." She calls over her shoulder as she slowly walks towards her apartment. "Do it now."
Chapter 6
"Who the hell do you think you are?" I smash the flash drive onto his desk causing him to turn from where he was gazing out the window, the phone still pressed against his ear.
"I'm going to have to call you back." He's curt with the person on the other end. "What are you doing here?" His eyes run seamlessly from my face to his desk where the flash drive with Brooke's name emblazoned across the side now rests.
I turn to slam the door of his office shut. "You had no right coming to my building to sweet talk Mrs. Adams into being part of your fan club."
"What?" A weak smirk flashes across his lips. "I have a fan club?"
"Everyone is suddenly on your side." I know I sound delusional. I've just realized that I'm standing alone in a room with Jax. This is the first time we've been in this situation since that night at his apartment when I finally understood his true intentions.
"Who pray tell is everyone?" His tone is playful and misplaced.
I stare at him. He looks like a completely different person than the disheveled and scattered mess that he was yesterday. He's dressed in a navy suit complete with a blue and white pin stripe shirt. He's pushed his hair back from his forehead and his face is now smooth. Any remnant of his outer pain has been cleaned up by a shower and a shave. I feel completely out of place in my worn out jeans, white t-shirt and pink cardigan.
"Mrs. Adams and Nathan," I murmur. Why am I telling him this? "They said I should give you a chance."
"Moore is on my side?" He leisurely undoes a button on his suit jacket as he sits. "So you haven't watched it yet?" He nods his chin in the direction of the flash drive.
"I'm not watching it, Jax." I follow his lead and sit in one of the two leather chairs facing his expansive desk.
"Do you remember when we went to visit your father?" He reaches for the flash drive and rubs it between the index finger and the thumb of his right hand.
"Of course I do." My throat is burning. I'm anxious and frustrated. His calm demeanour is doing very little to help ease any of that.
A small smile spreads across his face. "It was perfect."
I sit in silence. I can't allow myself to relive those memories. He's right. It was perfect. The entire trip was everything I wanted and needed. I left Boston feeling intensely that Jax adored me and would do anything for me.
"Your father asked me about my father." He stares at the flash drive flipping it effortlessly between his fingers. "My father was always very disappointed in me when he was alive."
I feel my anger retreating and I'm frustrated by my own emotions. I don't want to listen to his excuses. I know what I saw and I know what I heard. "I'm sorry for that but…"
"Your father's approval is important to you too," he interrupts. "I saw it that day."
I nod silently. I've always wanted my father to love me more. I've always known that he secretly blames my birth for my mother's death. I understand that voracious need to win the approval of a parent but rehashing my second-rate childhood and how it relates to Jax's isn't what I came here for.
"Yes, that's true but I didn't come here to talk about that." I state boldly. I can't back down from this. I want Jax to understand that manipulating Mrs. Adams into doing his bidding for him just isn't acceptable.
"Before the gala…" He leans forward in his chair before he continues, "doing whatever was necessary to win back my father's company was all I thought about."
"That's obvious on the video." I motion towards the flash drive he's still lazily running along his fingertips.
"Everything changed at the gala. Everything changed when I saw you." His voice breaks and he looks down into his lap. I can hear him drawing in a heavy breath in an effort to temper his emotions.
"No, that's not true." I push back. I don't want him to think that he can pull on my heartstrings again and I'll forgive him. This time is different. I understand his need to honor his late father's memory but I won't let my guard down. "On the video you say it's the day after the gala. You were plotting to blackmail Mark after the gala so you're lying again."
He slowly raises his head until his eyes are in line with mine. I lock onto them searching for any hint of honesty within him. "Did you believe me when I told you I loved you, beautiful?"
The question jars me. How dare he ask me something so personal when we're in the middle of a discussion about his underhanded corporate conspiracy? "Don't talk about that." I spit the words out with distaste. "How can you use someone so easily like that? How can you pretend to be something you're not?"
"I've never pretended with you." He studies my face with his eyes. "I told you I loved you because I do. I've never loved a woman before."
I laugh out loud. "That's such bullshit. You admitted you were cheated on. It was Brooke, who cheated on you, wasn't it? She cheated on you with Mark. How sick and twisted is that? The woman you loved cheated with the man I loved?"
He's silent in response. I sit waiting for the expected explosion of anger but he stares directly into me, his eyes not faltering.
