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Rakell:I owe him. I am so excited to go out. This sneaking around is getting old. I hope this story dies soon…Send
Lana:Levi thinks you should do an interview with him and address it head-on. Maybe it will stop all the speculation. Of course, he wants to be the one that breaks the story and you know he’ll be gentle…Send
Rakell:I want to talk to Jake first.They keep asking Jake about the Jumbotron girl in interviews…Send
Lana:He’s doing a pretty good job acting indifferent…Send
Rakell:Yes, he is, and I'm definitely getting a weird vibe from Jake and I haven’t even talked to him yet…Send
Lana:You’re being paranoid. He’s insane about you. So, get on the same page and see where it goes. You deserve this. See you at 8…Send
As Jake opened the door, he felt pressure building in his temples, thinking about how he would approach her, what he’d say. He took her in, blown back by the sight of her, her sexiness, her big smile. “Wow, hey you,” he said, trying to sound light, veiling his frayed nerves.Act natural, Jake.“Just about to open a bottle of pinot for Jenae and Winnie. Does that work for you?” He sounded uncharacteristically staid to his own ears.
Her lips morphed into a small smile. “Yeah, that sounds nice,” she said, walking through the open door into the living room.
“Yep, they’ll have a drink with us before they meet some friends for dinner.”
“Great,” she said, scanning Jake’s face. He seemed so stiff, not the Jake she knew.
She had on a tight, short cable knit sweater dress in forest green and high-heeled brown suede boots that came to just below her knees, leaving her thighs completely exposed. Her hair cascaded down in soft waves around her face, her eyes framed in thin liner that made them look cat-like, and her lips were highlighted in pale pink lipstick. He took her in—all of her—focusing on her lips, wanting to lose himself there, to forget all this.
It hit him that when she was near, his response to her was visceral, something he couldn’t control even with the carpet of lies her life represented to him. His nervous system wanted this girl, but could his brain assuage what he had learned? Was there anything she could say that would make all the lies sensical?
He leaned in, pecking her lips with a quick, perfunctory kiss, which stilled her because it was so un-Jake-like. He turned,walking toward the kitchen. “Hey, you,” she yelled toward his back. He whipped around in response. “Is that all this gets?” she challenged, her hands out from her body, moving up and down her torso, strongly suggesting her outfit deserved a little more attention.
This fucking girl, how could I crave something that was screwing me up so bad—he sucked in a quick breath, stalking toward her, one hand seizing the base of her neck behind her head, the other to the small of her back, tugging her into him. He positioned her so his mouth slanted over hers, capturing her soft pink lips and encompassing them with his. Absorbing her stunned breath before piercing her mouth with his tongue, he consumed her, her mouth surrendering to his forcefulness, letting him in, her tongue meeting his, feeling his intensity.
Her body registered the shallow tremble moving through his arms. He held her there, making her lips putty, they suction broke at the sound of footsteps. He pulled back, relaxing the hold he had on her. “God,” he hissed, looking at her before turning to Jenae.
“Hi,” Jenae said tentatively.
Rakell’s breath was choppy, trying to recover from the storm that had just crashed into her. “Oh, hi, Jenae,” she said, thinking again how much Jenae looked like her mom.
Winnie walked into the living room, briefly hugging Rakell, and they all grouped around the kitchen counter because Jake insisted that Winnie and Jenae had a glass of wine with them before heading out to meet friends for dinner.
She’s a professional.Miami stirred through his thoughts, her submissive, coy…that was Marietta…but Rakell, the woman he knew was bold, tough…or was all of it a con?Of course, you fool…she can be anything a man wants…she read you, she morphed herself into your match. FUCK!
Their chatter buzzed around him, his sister laughing about the sea of white jackets. Winnie commented that she wished she’d been able to see Jake play. She heard that Selena Gomez had knocked the half-time show out of the park.
They talked about Jake’s interviews this week. The articleSports Illuminatedwas doing on him and Dwayne.
“Jake, hey, check in…” Jenae uttered, arching an eyebrow at Jake. “I love the angle they are taking, going back to you and Dwayne’s ‘meet cute’ in Miami.” Her fingers made quotation marks. “It’s sweet and shows the long loving friendship you and Dwayne have had.”
Jake scoffed, “Yeah, great. We wontheSuper Bowl, and they want to concentrate on some bro-love story.”
Jenae smiled. “Jake, I think it’s a nice way to encourage intimacy in male friendships and highlight that side of professional athletes.”
“Great, I’m the poster child for intimacy in male relationships,” Jake added under his breath. The sentence sitting behind that one was, could he ever get intimacy right with this girl? Typically, his brain would have jumped to something funny, but his anxiety about tonight had his mind on lockdown. He’d made it clear to Jenae that he had to talk to Rakell tonight. She’d counseled that he should wait until tomorrow, but he couldn’t. He had to get this out. He had to hear her version of what he had seen in those pictures. What had she felt when they were together in the spring? What about the Best Day Ever? Or the other night, when she’d demurely called him ‘Mr. Skyler’ and followed his orders.Had I been completely duped?
Winnie shook her head. “It’s a good thing, Jake. Rakell, how fun that you’re going to be on the cover ofSports Illuminated. That’s so cool,” Winnie said, sipping some of her wine.
Rakell flashed her a smile. “Thank you. Honestly, I didn’t expect it. During the first shoot, the photographer seemed to be almost put off by my size, posing me in ways to work around it.”
“That’s crazy,” Jenae jumped in.
“It doesn’t take a genius to understand why women are so screwed up about their bodies,” Winnie said. “I mean, honestly, you’re built…well, perfectly. I mean, they should be happy you can fill a swimsuit out.”
“Agreed,” Jenae said, tossing a quick glance toward Rakell and then Jake, who didn’t seem to be in the conversation, as if he were off someplace else.
