chapter twenty-one
Wren
“So, how was your weekend?” Gemma asks, her voice full of sarcasm as I sit in front of her in our usual seat at The Beanery. “Wait, no. Boys, sit together. I need to hold my best friend’s hand while she tells me about her terrible weekend.”
Jay and Lance share a look as they coordinate their seating to have their eyes on the doors, the crowd, and their employers. Once they settle, they both take twin sips of their coffees.
“Okay, spill.” Gemma’s hand is warm and soft over mine.
I take a long, fortifying sip of a vanilla latte. I’d forgotten how good their drinks were here. “The weekend started off with a date. It was Grey Potter, you know the—”
“Jimmy Neutron hair, yes,” Gemma says, deadpan.
Jay snorts a laugh into his coffee and then excuses himself, patting the droplets of caramel away from his shirt.
“Right, that one. I had hoped for an interesting date. Anyone whose entire family has hair like a cartoon has to have a cool story,” I explain.
“You do not need to validate your choices of dates to me,” Gemma says with a palm held out. “I am Queen of Questionable Cock.”
I chance a glance at our bodyguards. Jay’s eyes are sweeping the cafe, but a slant of amusement touches the corners. Lance is also looking at everyone in the cafe, but his expression is pinched and almost sad. “Well, with your judgement behind me… he really only wanted a position on Dad’s board.”
“Ew,” Gemma grimaces and bites into her croissant.
“He offered a consolation though,” I sigh. “A little… deal.”
Gemma lowers her brows as she looks me over. “A deal.”
“He agreed to beat me during sex.”
“He what ?!”
Even Lance is looking at Jay to get his reaction. I can’t see Jay’s expression, but Gemma pulls me by the hand to look at her.
“You tell a guy you want to get kinky in bed and he tells all his friends you want to be abused ? Girl, that is not okay,” Gemma says, gripping my hand.
“I know.”
“No, like, that’s really not okay. I feel like we need to talk to Maxwell,” Gemma says and looks over at Lance and Jay again.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m done with all the guys in that scene,” I say and shake my head. “It also wasn’t my only date this weekend.”
“Oh no,” she sighs and leans back in her seat, still holding my hand.
“The second was Levi. He’s a musician and seemed so… normal. I mean, he is the most normal date I’ve ever had. He’s nice. He took me somewhere thoughtful, and he drove me himself. I even asked him over after. I was fully ready to sleep with this man.”
“But…”
“But he was more interested in getting your phone number,” I finish.
Gemma grimaces again and makes a sound of disgust. “That’s terrible, I’m so sorry.”
I shrug. “It’s not your fault.”
“No, but my name is attached to it, so it feels like I’m responsible,” Gemma says and rubs her thumb over my knuckles. “Babe, I love you to bits, and it hurts me to see you feeling lonely.”
“Lance, cover your ears,” I direct over to him.
“Why?”
“Because she’s going to say something dirty,” Gemma says.
“I’ve heard it all, little lady,” Lance defends. “Nothing you say could offend me.”
“Please,” I say with puppy dog eyes.
“Why does he get to hear it?” Lance grumbles and points to Jay.
“He already knows,” I say.
Jay kicks me under the table. The metal toe of his boot hits my shin and makes it throb painfully. I kick him back even harder.
Lance glares at me and covers his ears dutifully. I look back at Gemma, who has an expression on her face like she already knows what I’m about to say.
“Who started it?” Gemma asks looking between me and Jay.
Jay’s head tilts and his eyes narrow in warning.
“I think I did,” I say, ignoring his warning.
“Oh, shit,” she whispers, her eyes wide and a grin curling her lips.
I laugh and sip my cooling latte.
“Was it good?” she continues, with a hand up and blocking Jay’s view of her lips.
“It wasn’t full…” I look around to see if we were being heard. Nobody was looking at us besides our two glowering bodyguards. “It wasn’t full sex. We just made out and like humped each other.”
“Is that second base?” Gemma asks.
“I have literally no clue.”
“Well, I have to know. Is it big?” Gemma blocks Jay’s view as she asks.
I shake my head with a laugh.
“It’s not?!”
“I mean, I think it’s proportional? I didn’t see it!” I defend Jay’s “honor” with a laugh.
“You mean massive, because he’s massive,” Gemma says and forgets to cover her mouth.
“Jesus Christ,” Jay mumbles. “I need to go to Safe House to fill out paperwork for the incident last night. Chug your coffee.”
“A lady never chugs,” Gemma says loudly and dramatically.
“Please, I’ve seen both of you suck down cocktails in seconds,” Jay grouses.
Gemma gives an outraged gasp, garnering attention from the surrounding people. “The gall of that one! Send him out to pasture and get yourself a new Blue Jay.”
I giggle and chug the rest of my room temperature latte.
“Can I uncover my ears yet?” Lance grunts.
“No,” Gemma says and turns back to me. “I’ll call you later, babe. I need more details.”
I kiss her cheek and stand up. Lance complains to Gemma about keeping his ears covered and Gemma snarks something back but I can’t hear her anymore. Jay walks just behind me to the door where a Crow has a car waiting.
“Drop me off at Safe House and then take Wren to Mr. Taylor’s for the afternoon,” Jay directs the Crow.
“Wait, no,” I say as my stomach lurches with sudden and intense anxiety.
“What do you mean? I could probably get you into your dad’s office, but if he’s in meetings, a Crow would have to wait with you,” Jay says.
“I don’t…”
“Don’t what?”
“I don’t want to be away from you,” I whisper so the Crow can’t hear me.
Jay shifts in his seat to face me more. His eyes are intense and questioning.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m feeling anxious. After what happened last night with the intruders and stuff,” I say and shrug it off as nothing. I know the threat is over and it wasn’t even a real threat to me to begin with. And the Crows are all trained in defense. But would one step into the line of fire? Maybe its because of our sexy encounter last night and simply I’m hooked on this man. Either way, I don’t want to leave his side.
“Don’t dismiss it,” he says and inches his hand closer to mine on the seat. His pinky brushes mine and the bit of contact has me feeling more grounded. “I didn’t know you were struggling.”
“I wasn’t until you said you were leaving me,” I whisper.
His eyes soften with understanding. “You’d be safe with the Crows.”
“Logically, I know that.” I sigh, trying to settle my nerves.
“Hey, Crow, we’re both going to Safe House,” Jay says to the driver.
Crow looks at me in the rearview mirror. “She’s not allowed in Safe House….”
“Yes, I am,” I defend, sounding more petulant than I intended. “I want to have a meeting with Bradley after last night. I need to let him know something important regarding my security.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the Crow says. He clears his throat and looks back at Jay. “Since you haven’t done this before, I feel like I have to tell you she’s not allowed in your office.”
“She can meet with Bradley while I do my paperwork. I won’t be long,” Jay dismisses with a wave.
He settles back into the seat next to me and I chance a look up at him. He’s looking down at me and I feel a blush rise to my cheeks. We have discussed nothing about last night. We spoke a little last night about the scary parts, but the sexy parts remain undiscussed. It’s fine by me because what would I even say? Would I tell him I’m developing feelings for him? That would go over well. I don’t even know this guy’s name or what his face looks like.
But what I do know is I don’t want to be separated from him. I wouldn’t feel safe without him despite all qualifications of the person who takes his place. He put himself between me and a threat without a second thought. It’s what every Jay is trained to do but seeing it in action influenced me in a way I had not expected. And that was all without considering the sounds he made as he came in his pants under me.
A thrill runs through me as I process a little of last night. He listened to every one of my commands. He did everything I told him to, like a good little soldier. A laugh almost bubbles up as I realize he took every degrading comment I made when I was trying to get him to quit in stride because he likes it. I wonder if he knows. I wonder if he knows he likes to be bossed around and degraded. I wonder what else I can get him to do.
With little thought of anything else, I pull out my phone and start researching ways to degrade and dominate my bodyguard. Putting Jay through hell has reached a new, sexy, and exciting level.