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She frowned. How dare he call Jacob an old man?! “We’re not together.”
She shuddered and stepped away when he brushed his fingertip back and forth on her shoulder. “But we can be.” She felt slimy as he let his gaze travel over her. “A girl like you needs a bit more excitement than an old fart like that can give you. I mean, I get it – the money and everything.” He laughed. “And good job on getting the Range Rover, by the way. He wouldn’t even let Selena drive it.”
Becca’s breath caught in her chest. “Selena?”
“Yeah. His last girlfriend.” He smiled. “We got to know each other very well. I thought you might like to do the same. I mean, a guy like him works too much. He couldn’t give girls like you and Selena the kind of time you deserve – even if he had the stamina for it.”
Becca shuddered again, wanting nothing more than to get away from him. Just the way he was looking at her made her feel dirty.
“I can. I’d be more than happy to take my time over giving you what you deserve. Want to come back to my place and I’ll give it to you right now?”
“No!” Becca turned her back on him and hurried away. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
She cringed when she realized that he’d followed her, and he was still talking. “Don’t play innocent with me, Becca. I know you want it. Girls like you always do. Jacob might be eating up the buttoned-up teacher act, but I’m not. I bet you’re a little wildcat, really.” He dropped a card into her basket. “Give me a call when you’re ready to drop the act and get dirty.” He laughed. “I’ll give you all the dirty you can handle.”
She hurried on, hoping to goodness that he’d gone. She didn’t stop until she reached the dairy section in the back of the store. When she did, she finally glanced back over her shoulder, but there was no sign of him.
She was shaking. She couldn’t believe it. Her mind was whirling with everything he’d said. He thought that she was only with Jacob for money? He thought that she’d want to … sleep with him? Get dirty with him? Ugh! Whatever he meant by that, she didn’t even want to know.
And Selena? Jacob’s last girlfriend. Her heart pounded heavily in her chest and a sick feeling knotted in her stomach. Of course, he’d had girlfriends before her. He’d made no secret of the fact that he’d had lots of them. She knew that anyway, even if he hadn’t told her. She’d seen all the photos online of him out with a string of beautiful women. It shouldn’t surprise her. It didn’t. But she’d done her best not to think about it. She’d been trying to fool herself that they’d meant nothing to him. Maybe she didn’t, either?
No. She pulled herself together. That wasn’t true. She knew how he felt about her. He’d told her more than once that he was falling for her. And it wasn’t just words, either. He showed her, with everything he did that he cared about her, that she meant a whole lot to him.
She sucked in a deep breath and tried to focus on what she needed to buy. No way was she going to let that horrible Jamie person derail her evening. She was going to go home to Jacob and bake him a cake. If that made her buttoned-up and innocent, then so be it – but it was no act, it was just who she was. And she knew that Jacob liked who she was.
By the time she’d gone up and down the aisles and filled her basket with everything she’d need, she was starting to feel a bit better. She was good and mad at Jamie for thinking that she might want to have sex with him, and she was even madder at him for thinking Jacob wasn’t giving her all the sex she could want. He couldn’t be more wrong about that. She’d had no idea that sex could be so good. She was also mad at this unknown Selena person. Jamie had said that they’d gotten to know each other well – and the insinuation was clear. If Jamie thought Jacob hadn’t been able to give Selena enough time, perhaps she’d felt neglected and had cheated on him with Jamie? There was no way Becca could believe that she’d had any complaints about his stamina.
She bit the inside of her cheek as she made her way back across the parking lot to Grover. This wasn’t something she could keep secret. She didn’t want to ask Jacob about his previous girlfriend, but she did need to tell him about Jamie – and what he’d said. She’d promised Jacob that she wouldn’t lie to him. And as far as she was concerned, not telling someone something that they needed to know was lying. She didn’t want to make his life difficult. She knew that he needed two pilots to fly the plane, and he’d told her about Elliott’s father. It sounded like he didn’t have long left. So, she hated to think how telling him about Jamie might affect things for him. She couldn’t feel bad for Jamie that Jacob would probably fire him, but she did feel bad for Jacob.
She blew out a big sigh when she got into Grover. She’d been looking forward to a lovely cozy evening at home with Jacob, and now she was dreading it.
~ ~ ~
Jacob frowned when he checked his watch and saw that it was almost six-thirty. It had been good to catch up on some work this afternoon, but Becca had said that she’d call him when she was leaving school. He wanted to be back at the house when she got there – he was looking forward to spending the evening with her. He was even toying with the idea of taking her to Molly’s for dinner. He didn’t know if any of his old friends would be there, but he hoped they might. He’d taken to heart what Hannah had said about helping Becca make friends and find her feet so that she had her own life here. But it was getting late now. He would have expected her to call and be home long ago.
He picked up his phone and keys and dialed her number on his way out of the office.
“Hey.” She sounded tired or down or something.
He wanted to cheer her up. “Hello, is this the beautiful Becca?”
She laughed. “It’s Becca.”
“Hello, gorgeous.”
She laughed again. “Hello, yourself.”
“Where are you?”
“Oh. I’m home.”
He closed his eyes and let the rush of warmth in his chest wash over him. He loved that she was calling it home already. He’d noticed that she never called her townhouse home and he’d thought that it would take a long time before she thought of his house that way.
“I thought you were going to call me.”
“Sorry. I was, but I felt a bit guilty. You’ve missed so much work because of me. I didn’t want you to have to leave just because I called.”
“I wouldn’t have to leave, I justwantedto.”
