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Rogen met her at one of the bars as she asked for ice. The tuxedo-clad bartender used silver tongs to place several cubes in a doubled-up napkin and passed the tidy packet to her. Jewel placed it in her palm and squeezed.
“What’s going on?” Rogen asked.
Jewel just shook her head.
He said to the bartender, “Send someone out to the terrace with two cognacs. The alcove on the far side of the library, by the patio doors.”
“Certainly, sir.”
Rogen gently placed a hand at the small of Jewel’s back and silently directed her through the opened wall of floor-to-ceiling pocket doors, across the terrace, and to a private spot shrouded by rich, blooming foliage. The intimate space only dimly illuminated with golden up-lighting edging the garden that abutted the veranda. Thick vines wound along the black wrought-iron railing and the faint scent of jasmine in bloom wafted on a gentle breeze.
“What happened?” he demanded in a quiet voice.
She sucked in a breath, then simply said, “Vin.”
Rogen’s anger flared—or perhaps it was alpha tendencies? A natural instinct where Jewel was concerned. The only time they ever truly kicked in with a woman. “What’d he do to you?”
“This time, it’s not what he did to me. It’s what I did to him.”
Rogen’s brow crooked.
Jewel rolled her eyes. “I slapped him. Hard.”
“Oh, fuck. That wasn’t smart.”
“No shit.” Her gaze dropped to her hand holding the ice. “But he deserved it. I couldn’t resist.”
“Christ, Jewel. What went on between the two of you?”
Her attention shifted to the server who approached and dropped off the cognac on one of the glass end tables accompanying the outdoor sectional.
Rogen collected the snifters and offered one to Jewel. She took it with her good hand and sipped slowly.
Then she said, “This is incredibly helpful, thank you.”
“You still look a little flushed.”
“Vin pisses me off.”
“After all this time?”
She sighed. “His very existence just makes me … crazed.” She ground out the last word.
Rogen’s chuckle was a strained one, holding no humor. “He’s always known how to push your buttons. But the two of you are…?” His brow rose again with curiosity.
“We aren’t anything, Rogen. Don’t conjure any delusions. He walked out on me, without a word, without the chance for discussion. With no explanation. So … That’s that. And honestly, it was so long ago that—”
“You should be over it by now?” he offered and challenged at the same time.
Jewel’s dark blue irises clouded. “I should be over a lot of things by now.” Gazing up at him, she said, “Clearly, I’m not meant to be freed from the past.”
“Jewel.” Rogen downed a big gulp of cognac. The alcohol that seared his insides came nowhere close to the sizzling sensation of Jewel standing so near that he breathed in her captivating scent and his body flamed with the intense desire to shed his tux and her dress and finally feel her supple skin and soft curves against his hard body.
“I know I shouldn’t have just popped in without warning,” she confessed, her tone compelling. “But if I had told someone I was coming, I fear I never would have made it through the front doors. And it was imperative that I speak with your father.” With another shake of her head, she added, “Unfortunately, I’ve turned everything upside down for you, me, and Vin. I swear there’s some cosmic force dedicated to keeping the three of us in constant turmoil whenever we’re together.”
“I think the collective nemesis is a bit more localized. Our parents have done a great job of derailing our association in every form it’s taken. Vin’s been stuck in the middle.”
“There’s so much anger between me and him.”
