CHAPTER 18
“Coffee for you,” a soft voice stirred me awake.
I blinked, groaning when the sharp sunlight hit my eyes. “Too early,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes.
“Not really. It’s eight.”
“Still early,” I mumbled, holding the sheet to my chest as I leaned against the headboard, grabbing the coffee from him.
A happy sigh left my lips when I sipped in the goodness. Why the hell did I love coffee so much? I had no idea, but I wasn’t complaining.
Through my side-eye, I watched as he poked open a strawberry milk and happily sipped.
“Strawberry milk? So early in the morning? What would the mean-ass Jay say?”
“That fucker is gone. He only likes to show up to torment a certain someone.”
“What did I ever do to deserve that?” I mumbled under my breath, sipping more coffee. Only then did I realize that I hadn’t told him the news.
“Guess what?” I gave him a cheeky grin.
His brow rose. “You’re chirpy all of a sudden.”
“Yes, I am.” I set my mug aside and turned toward him, grabbing his hand as I shook him. “Guess!”
His nose scrunched while he shook his head. “No clue,” he said before his eyes widened. “Please don’t tell me you’re pregnant.” Panic clouded his face.
“Jay.” I gave him a hard smack. “I’m on birth control, and yes, as much as I want to have babies, it’s not now.” I paused. “It’s one day—in the future.”
He exhaled, visibly relaxing as he held a hand to his heart. “I don’t think I can handle you being pregnant right now.”
That was weird. I thought he was ready to start a family anytime I wanted. Did he not want that anymore? I let that thought slide, saving it for another day while I shook him harder. “Have you still not guessed?”
“I don’t know, sweetheart,” he groaned. “Why don’t you just tell me?”
“Well.” I sat up straight, lifting my chin proudly. “You are now looking at author Evelyn May, who finally found an agent to represent her.”
His eyes widened before a beaming smile curved his lips. “You did?”
“Yes.”
“Fucking hell, come here.” He gathered me in his arms, pressing a soft kiss to my forehead. “I’m so fucking proud of you. Congratulations!”
“Thanks.”
“Are you excited?”
“Very.” I nodded, smiling. “I can’t wait to have my book published. But we still need to find a publisher. ”
“You will. I know.” His eyes swept over my features. “I can’t wait for all your dreams to come true. You deserve it more than anyone.”
“Thanks,” I said shyly, burying my face in the crook of his neck. “Oh, and something else happened.”
“What?”
“You wouldn’t believe this, but I ran into Liam the other day.”
Lines creased the corners of his eyes. “You mean Marie’s boyfriend from back in the day? You told me he abandoned you.” His eyes narrowed.
I shook my head. “I mean, he did in a way, but I wasn’t his responsibility, Jay. Turned out he was going to propose to her, so he took it a lot harder and lost himself in a way.”
“He still shouldn’t have left you alone,” he grumbled.
“Can’t change the past. It happened. He has a daughter now.” My tone softened even thinking about it, the emotion of it clogged my throat. “He named her Marie.”
“Whoa.” Shock flooded his eyes. “I didn’t expect that.”
“Yeah. It felt like Auntie M was thinking of him anyway,” I said, draping myself back over his chest. Even though they weren’t genetically related, it still felt like a part of her was still living and breathing in this world.
I wasn’t sure what stroked my creativity again, but it was bursting out of me. Maybe it was the fact that I landed an agent or the fact that I was madly in love. I had zero idea, but I welcomed it .
I had already plotted my next story—a brand-new fictional novel that had nothing to do with my own love story. It went through massive plot revisions already as I spent the last couple of days explaining it to Jay while he listened and gave me his input. I even woke him up in the middle of the night like an annoying girlfriend, but my man never complained. I loved sharing my ideas with him. It gave me a sense of satisfaction that I was going the right way.
Now that the plotting was done, I had fully submerged myself in writing it. I probably looked like a freak on steroids, but I didn’t care.
I had officially claimed the library as my writing cave. It was so dark and moody and cozy that it was exactly what I wanted.
“When was the last time you showered?” Jay questioned, watching over me from the threshold.
“Morning,” I grumbled while I typed, sparing him a glance. “I don’t smell.” I knew I looked anything but clean in my old pair of sweats with my messy hair held together with a pen and a coffee stain on my hoodie.
“Of course you don’t.” He smirked, watching me.
I leaned back on my chair as I half shut my laptop, wanting a break anyway. I’d been at this for hours, and my body ached. What better distraction than him?
Watching him grin over the threshold made an idea pop inside my head.
“Wait.” I perked up, lifting a hand. “Stay right there, and don’t move.”
He frowned. “Okay, but why?”
“I need to do something,” I replied as I walked toward him.
“Now, I’m scared,” he replied dryly .
“I’ve always wanted to do this,” I said, standing in front of him with my back against the doorframe.
“Do what?”
“Okay, now you take two steps back and walk over to me—sexily and then hold on to the doorframe above and lean over to grab my chin,” I instructed him.
He blinked. “Why?”
“Because,” I whined. “I said so. I’ve read it in all my books and want to know how it feels, too.”
“Fucking weird,” he mumbled, taking a step back. “You ready?”
I nodded frantically. Oh yes, I was so damn ready.
All the frustration and doubt left his body in an instant, and his eyes darkened, locking in on mine. He pulsated with raw sexual energy as he made his way to me, and my heart leaped to my throat when he grasped the doorframe and leaned over, hooking my chin between his fingers. Lowering, he bit my lip before licking the path with his tongue.
“Like this?” he asked in a husky tone that made a shiver run down my spine.
“Exactly like that,” I mumbled, lost for words. He looked so damn hot right now that it should be illegal. “Don’t you dare do this with anyone else.”
He stepped closer, trailing his lips along my cheek before he whispered in my ear. “Who else am I going to do this with?”
Fucking hell, my panties were drenched, and my heart begged to jump out of my chest.
Just then, I felt someone’s presence staring at us. Confused, I darted my eyes to the hallway, and very well, Strawberry had something that looked like a shoe stuck between her teeth, watching me with her sheepish brown eyes.
“Oh my, what do we have here?” I asked, crouching down as I pulled what seemed to be the remnants of my very expensive leather loafer. “Bad girl, Strawberry,” I chided, glaring at her while she blinked. “Is this where you disappeared the whole afternoon?”
A small whine left her lips before she calmly walked and buried her head in Jay’s legs.
“Oh no, ma’am, you come here and answer me.”
“Leave her be. It’s just a shoe,” Jay added, petting her.
I pointed a finger at him. “Don’t you dare coddle her. This is wrong.” I trudged farther down the hallway and stepped inside our bedroom, and just as I expected, our entire closet was a mess. Almost all our shoes were destroyed, and the boxes we kept on the lower shelves were in disarray on the floor.
“Strawberry!”
“Uh-oh, Mommy’s angry.”
I spun around, narrowing my gaze at the innocent-looking ball of fur in his arms, looking at me as if she hadn’t done a thing.
“You’re in so much trouble, ma’am. You’re grounded.”
Jay laughed while she whined, blinking adorably at her dad. “You can’t ground a dog, Evelyn.”
“Damn, yes, I can. Watch me.” I stomped my foot, asserting in a firm tone. “No treats for you.”
Jay shook his head and eased her down while I let out a frustrated sigh at the mess she created .
“Don’t worry, I’ll help you clean,” Jay said, hugging me from behind while he dropped his chin to my shoulder. “And I’ll get everything replaced.”
“That’s not the point,” I mumbled.
It took us a while to sort through the mess. Most of it was going to the garbage with the amount of holes poking out of them.
“What’s this?” Jay frowned, holding out a card to me.
“I don’t know,” I mumbled, approaching him. Only then did I realize it was the note I found in my bag all those days ago.
“I forgot all about it,” I said, the message you made a mistake staring back at me. I recalled changing my purse, so I set it aside to tell Jay and then forgot about it altogether. “I found this in my purse the day after White and Dorian paid us a visit.”
His eyes turned to thin slits. “And you just forgot to tell me?”
I nodded, a guilty smile pulling my lips. “It’s not like I didn’t mean to. It just slipped my mind.”
“Evelyn, do you understand how dangerous this is? It means someone got close enough to you to drop this in your fucking purse.” His voice rose a decibel with each word.
“Jay, I swear I did forget, but all that’s over now, right? White’s been arrested, and everything is behind us.” But even as I said it, I knew it wasn’t true. “I’m sure I didn’t get anything else after that.”
“Really?” His jaw thinned into a straight line. “How sure are you?”
“Very,” I assured, although my tone said otherwise. I was already walking toward my purse. It was an absolute mess with the amount of shit I had stuffed inside it. Unzipping, I dumped the entire contents onto the bed.
And my heart dropped when I found a similar white note sticking out from behind my lip gloss.
Jay grabbed it before I could snatch it. He looked furious as his eyes glided over it.
“What does it say?” I muttered, stepping toward him.
His burning gaze dashed to me, and my feet rooted to the spot. “How very careless can you be, Evelyn?”
“It’s not my fault.”
“Oh, this time it’s your fault.” He waved the note in his hand. “We could have stopped this, yet you forgot to mention something important that could put you in grave danger.”
“I’m sorry, but nothing happened, Jay. I’m fine, and it was probably Nathan who dropped it.”
“You don’t know that, Evelyn,” he gritted through his teeth.
I sighed, gently pulling the note out of his hand. A chill ran over my body as I read the message— It’s all your fault. You should’ve listened . It was the same words that White told me at the apartment.
“I’m going to update the security team about this. Unless proven otherwise, you aren’t to go anywhere, Evelyn.” And with that, he stormed out of the room.
I sighed, sinking into the bed. This wasn’t how I envisioned today to go.
Somehow, everyone pointing their fingers at me made me question everything. Was this all somehow because of me and never about Jay and his dreams to begin with?
Even if it was, why?