Chapter 19 Jace
JACE
“I want to go to her place.” I knew where she lived, thanks to us picking up that change of clothes. And thinking of her entering that building in the dark of night, unprotected (not that it was a bad neighborhood, but sadly, anywhere women went could be dangerous) corded my nerves into a knot.
“Don’t.” Axel’s voice was flat, brooking no argument.
I ran a hand through my hair, pacing the length of the room. The city lights twinkled beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, but they felt hollow tonight. Empty.
“I can’t let that be the last time I ever see her. Maybe I’ll just call, make sure she got home safely.”
She did give me her number before she left …
“That’s a bad idea.” Axel lounged in one of my leather armchairs, looking irritatingly calm while I was falling apart at the seams.
“Why? She took a rideshare home. I should’ve driven her myself.”
A knowing smirk played at Axel’s lips as he swirled the amber liquid in his glass. “From what you just explained about your weekend, if you’d driven her home, we both know you wouldn’t have made it back to your car until tomorrow morning. And that’s being generous.”
I opened my mouth to deny it, then snapped it shut. Exhaled. “Fine. I would’ve tried to.”
Axel studied me like I was a rare species discovered in the wild. “I’ve never seen you get this worked up over anyone before. It’s like watching a documentary on mating rituals. Fascinating and slightly disturbing.”
I glowered at him. Jackass.
“You’ve known her for, what, two days?” His eyebrows shot up to his hairline. “You can’t possibly become this obsessed with someone in two days. That’s not even enough time to figure out if she’s a morning person or if she squeezes toothpaste from the end or the middle like a sociopath.”
“That’s what I thought too.” I dropped into the chair across from him.
“Tell me why she’s stuck in your head.” He pointed his glass at me. “And if you say it’s her eyes, I’ll pour this drink on your head.”
I pressed my fingers to my temple, trying to organize the chaos in my mind. The scent of expensive whiskey hung in the air between us.
“I suppose it started with how we met. She was this beautiful, delicate-looking woman, but fierce enough to plot revenge fantasies against someone who hurt her.”
Axel’s eyebrow arched so high, it nearly disappeared into his hairline. He pointed his glass at me. “See, to me? That right there would be a red flag the size of Texas. Some woman plotting revenge? That’s not fierce; that’s the prologue to a true crime documentary.”
“She wasn’t plotting,” I shot back. “She was just blowing off steam.”
“How do you know that? For all you know, she could be some psycho who keeps her exes’ teeth in a jar. Or collects vintage bear traps. Or has a shrine to you already with candles and your stolen napkin.”
A smirk pulled at my lips. “Funny, that’s exactly what she said.”
“She admitted to the shrine?” Axel clutched his chest in feigned shock, nearly spilling his drink. “Quick, check your hairbrush for missing strands.”
“No, you idiot. She warned me she might be a psycho.”
“So, she tried to talk you out of hanging out with her again?” Axel nodded approvingly, raising his glass in a toast. “Smart woman. Self-aware. I like her already. Maybe she’s too good for you.”
“She did.” I leaned back, staring at the ceiling. “But it was too late. I was already infatuated.”
“Infatuated.” Axel rolled the word around like the ice in his glass. “That’s all this is. It’s lust. You told me yourself that she’s beautiful, and I can only presume she was really good in bed. That’s why you can’t get her out of your head. It’s not rocket science; it’s biology.”
Part of that was true. The sex with her was like nothing I’d ever experienced. But was that all this was? Just lust?
“Yeah,” I said, the words tasting like lies, “that has to be what it is.”
Because he was right, wasn’t he? There was no way I could develop feelings for anybody within two days. Hell, I’d never even been in a serious relationship. How would I know what the early stages felt like?
So, why didn’t that feel like the truth?
“Plus,” Axel added, pointing his glass at me, “you’re used to women throwing themselves at you like you’re the last helicopter out of a disaster zone. It’s probably refreshing, having someone who tried to push you away.”
“Damn it.” I took another sip of whiskey, letting it burn down my throat. “Whatever it is, I can’t stop thinking about her.”
“It’ll fade,” Axel said with the confidence of someone who’d never let anything stick long enough to leave a mark.
“How do you know?”
“Because it always fades. Trust me. This is just lust. It’ll go away faster than that hangover she gave you.”
I worked my jaw from side to side, trying to swallow the angry retort building on my tongue.
Out of anyone I could’ve called tonight, I’d chosen Axel for a reason.
He was nothing if not consistent in his disbelief in love, as allergic to emotions as anyone I’d ever met.
The very notion of a relationship was like a flu to him.
Something you avoided at all costs, something you took action against at the very first symptom.
So, yeah, when I found myself pacing after Scarlett left, Axel was the one I’d called to talk some sense into me.
Why then did his words piss me off?
“I’m going to call her.”
“It’s midnight,” Axel said lazily, checking his watch. “Even psychos need their beauty sleep.”
My stomach twisted. Why hadn’t she stayed until midnight, the sarcastic timeline I’d set early on, when she could run away like Cinderella?
Why had she left earlier? When we’d been together on that bluff overlooking the lake, I thought I’d caught something in her eyes that told me she was feeling this too.
“Tomorrow then.”
Axel glanced at his watch. “Don’t you have the big announcement tomorrow?”
Holy shit. I hadn’t forgotten about it exactly, more like it had been shelved to the back burner of my mind. Somehow, the entire weekend had flown by, and the only thing that had consumed my thoughts was Scarlett.
Tomorrow was the big announcement that my private equity firm had acquired a new company.
We’d kept the identity of the acquisition private for several reasons.
First, it was a hostile takeover, and I never counted my chickens before they hatched.
Second, there was still that crucial signature missing on a page, which I would insist on having before I took that stage in front of thousands of employees—some in person, some on live stream—to let them know that I was now the one in charge.
The person with control over the direction of their company and their jobs.
“Trust me.” Axel’s voice cut through my thoughts. “You’ll wake up tomorrow and feel differently.”
“Will I?”
Axel set his glass down with a decisive clink. “You know what I think? I think this is the first time you’ve managed to go two days without obsessing over work, and that’s the real high you’re chasing. Two days without being Jace Lockwood, corporate shark. Must be a personal record.”
“I love my job,” I protested.
“Even sex becomes a chore if you do it eighteen hours a day.”
The words hit too close to home. Maybe he was right. Tomorrow was the biggest day of my career after all. I’d bet everything on this acquisition, put all my poker chips into the center of the table, so to speak. If it imploded, for any reason, my entire business could crumble.
It was only natural to have nerves, right? Only natural for anxiety to manifest in strange ways. Maybe that was all this was: displacement. Easier to obsess over a beautiful woman than face the weight of tomorrow’s announcement.
Besides, even if these were true feelings, if Scarlett ever found out the truth about who I really was, what I’d done in my past, she’d never want to talk to me again …