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“Nope,” he said, trying to shift away from his earlier comment.
“It wasn’t typical, you’re right, but it let me see the other side. Men with girlfriends, fiancées, even wives, buying other women for…sex, or to show them off, or just for company. How sad forthe woman sitting at home, even if she’s sitting in a mansion, dripping in diamonds with an endless budget. Who’d want to be the one waiting, alone? Not me, that’s for sure.” Her throat tightened.
“Okay, I get it. I’m just saying it’s not always like that. The guys you were with were…”
“Were what? Different? From who—you?”
“Yep,thatI can say for sure,” he said with certainty in his voice, looking at her then back to the road.
Turning her whole body on the seat to face him, letting the seatbelt slide, she asked, “So Jake, have you ever cheated on a girl?”
He sucked in the air around him. “A girl…ever?” He stalled, wondering how the hell they got twisted into this conversation and how the hell he was on the hot seat once again.
“Okay, not just a girl, but a girl that thought you were exclusive with her?” She stared at him, watching the muscle in his cheek twitch. “Are you mad? That’s a fair question since you’re pointing out how different you are.”
“Not mad, it’s fair…just trying to…”
“This is ayesornoquestion.”
It felt like someone was rotating a screwdriver into his temple. “Yes…yes, I’ve cheated but…”
“Okay, so not that different,” she said coolly, turning her body back, sitting squarely in the seat, her eyes on the road.
“Yes, I am.” His jaw was now so tight he was almost grinding his teeth. “I was young, I had a lot of women throwing themselves at me, I wasn’t looking to…”
“So it wasn’t your fault, it was theirs? All those random women wanting a piece of you?”
“No, no, I didn’t say that.”Damn this girl, he thought.
“Oh, okay, that’s what I heard. So I guess I heard wrong. We’ll just leave it at that.” A sharp tone blanched her voice.
“Okay, again, going to set the record straight…at UT and in Seattle, I was a wild, stupid kid. I know I hurt some girls. I didn’t mean to, but that’s beside the point. I did, and I don’t feel good about it. I didn’t know how to handle myself, all the attention… But the last three years in Sacramento, I cleaned up my act in a lot of ways. I can tell you going forward, I’dnevercheat on my wife or fiancée or my girlfriend, for that matter.”
“Um, but what about Angie, and us...Best Day Ever?” She kept her voice low; she wasn’t trying to pin him anymore. “I’m honestly just wondering.”
He sighed. “Rakell, I didn’t lie when I said she and I weren’t exclusive. I was pretty up front with her. I shouldn’t have slept with her, but I did, twice before bye week. After that day with you…well, I went back to Sac and ended it completely ‘cause I knew she felt more for me than I felt for her. ‘Cause I was thinking about you,” he confessed with a cautiousness to his tone.
“Oh, um, okay…” She trailed off, not knowing what to say.
“By the way, I do believe in fuckinghappily-ever-after,” he sneered. “My parents, both my uncles, Jordan and Delilah, hell, even some football greats…Rodger and Marianne Staubach married since the ’60s, Jim and Jill Kelly, Mike and Kyia Tomlin...hell my coaches, Easton and Mark…all married for the long haul.”
“So it’s nice to know pro athletes can keep promises,” she hushed under her breath.
She stayed quiet as they made their way to her apartment. This stalemate with him was pissing her off, him withholding sex as he figured out if she was worth moving forward with.
He kissed her lips, quickly, not trusting himself to linger. He stepped back, turning and mumbling, “I miss you.”
She thought she heard him say, ‘I miss you’ as she shut the door, attempting to process his touch, his tender words, the net of him around her. Then she landed back on the truth, the reality she knew. She’d observed his controlled expression when they were talking about her assignment in Paris—his forced stiff-lipped smile barely shrouding how quickly his brain connected what he knew of her past to her current modeling assignment. How was he going to react when future modeling and acting jobs required her to participate in scenes and shoots he considered too suggestive? She slammed her fist to the door as a startling burst of tears pulsed from her eyes. “Fuck this,” she screamed, her back sliding against the door as the weight of her past pressed down on her.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
He heaved the last bicep curl, pleased with how much weight he’d been able to lift today, especially since he didn’t have Jordan or Dwayne here to spot him. As he was re-stacking the weights, he saw a blond guy talking to Rakell while she did leg extensions.
This was the second time this week he’d seen the tall guy with blondish hair chatting up Rakell at the gym. This irked him;why wasn’t she shooing him away?She made a point not to engage when she worked out, but here she was, clearly giving audience to this guy. Two days ago, he saw her laughing at something the guy said, but Jake hadn’t said anything when he approached her about dinner, not wanting to come across as a jealous asshole.
He waited before snapping his eyes toward the chatting pair again, counting to ten, his jaw tightening, thinking,Why in the hell is she letting this jerk hang around?Jake shifted in her direction, his actions quick, stalking toward her as she was answering the guy standing in front of her. When he approached, Jake kissed her quickly but firmly on the lips, taking in the shock in her eyes. “Sweets, I didn’t know you’d be here now,” he said with a forced smile.
The guy stepped back, his torso stiffening, registering what had just transpired. “Shoot, sorry, didn’t know you had a boyfriend.” His hazel eyes widened as he looked from Rakell to Jake. “Sorry, dude, just saying hi,” he blurted out.
