Chapter 41
JESSE
If I had any sense at all, I would have left the second I saw her. At the very least, that would’ve saved me from whatever things kept turning into whenever we were in the same room.
Instead, I stayed, standing at the bar like an idiot, just watching her and swatting away whoever came up to talk to me. Alex was going to have to be happy with the networking I’d done so far, because I was pretty sure I was done.
Jacque hadn’t seen me at first. She’d been laughing with that old woman and a group of her friends, but the dress hugged her in a way that made it physically difficult for me to look anywhere else. Elegant, sure, but not subtle. Sexy as hell, too.
With the plunging neckline and how it accentuated her curves, it was the kind of dress that made me want to walk across the room and remind everyone exactly who she—
No, not mine. She doesn’t belong to me.
I tightened my grip on my glass, dragging my attention away for half a second, but as soon as I looked back, her eyes found mine and that was it. Game over on my productivity for the night.
She looked away fast, though. Like she’d burned herself on the sight of me.
“Hi.”
I blinked hard at the sound of the voice beside me, realizing that the blonde from before was back. Or maybe she’d never left. Either way, she was smiling like she’d found exactly what she was looking for.
“Hey,” I said on autopilot, frowning a little when I noticed the friends who had been flanking her before joining us now.
“You’re Jesse Westwood, right?” the blonde asked, extending a manicured hand. “I’m Allison Rose. Of Brenton Rose and Associates, the financial risk management firm? I’m sure you’ve heard of us. Brenton is my father.”
“Sure, yeah.” I shook with her but withdrew my hand despite the fact that her grip didn’t ease when it should’ve. Her daddy was actually on my list of targets for tonight. “Is he here?”
She blinked rapidly. Her lips spread into a surprised but not displeased smile. “No. I thought everyone knew, but he’s been admitted to the hospital. I’m here on his behalf.”
My lips pursed. “Right. Is he okay?”
She nodded and flipped her hair over her shoulder, then flicked her fingers like she was dismissing the question. “Just some routine tests and the flu. He’ll be fine.”
“Great. I’ll talk to him when he’s out, then. Please give our regards and wishes for a fast recovery.”
I turned away from her, not in the mood to flirt my way into a meeting with her dad. Normally, this would’ve been easy. A few smiles, some light conversation, a drink or two, and the deal would’ve been done.
But tonight, I couldn’t focus on any of that. Jacque was here and that was the only thing that mattered right now. It felt like she was tugging on my heart with a string I hadn’t figured out how to cut.
“You know, Jesse,” Allison said, clearly not having caught the hint. “You and I actually have a lot in common.”
I tuned her out after that, just nodding every so often like I was listening to all the many things she seemed to think we had in common, but my eyes were fixed solidly on Jacqueline, tracking her movements even though I hadn’t intentionally decided to do it.
She wasn’t looking at me at all, but I caught every laugh, every smile, and every time she tucked her chin to brush a lock of hair behind her ear.
“You’re very quiet,” Allison remarked lightly at some point, but despite her attempt at not making a big deal of it, I could hear a faint trace of offense in her tone.
I finally flicked a glance at her. “Am I?”
“Yes.”
“It must be the atmosphere tonight.”
She smiled, her fingers curling around my shoulder as she tipped forward on her heels to lean into me. “Or maybe you just need to be distracted.”
If only she knew. “No, thanks. I need to keep my eyes open tonight. There are lots of people here I need to talk to.”
“Am I one of them?”
I considered saying no, but even I wasn’t that stupid. If I pissed her off, Alex would inevitably find out about it and I was trying to prove that I was responsible, not that I was leaving a fresh wave of beautiful enemies in my wake.
So I tried to pull myself into the conversation, to be present, and to act like the guy everyone expected me to be. The man Jacque thought I was. The guy who always had someone on his arm, but who never stayed.
No matter what I did, though, I just couldn’t concentrate on what these women were saying.
The other two were from important companies as well.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that I should focus.
I also knew that they were all hot and all interested, but when I glanced back at Jacque after only looking away for a second, she was gone.
Fuck.
My eyes narrowed as I scanned the room, finally straightening up a little, but I still saw nothing. Without even really thinking about it, I stepped away from the bar—and the women I was supposed to be talking to—muttering a quick, faint apology even as I was already backing away.
“Excuse me,” I said. “I see someone I need to check in with real quick. Have a wonderful evening.”
I moved fast through the crowd, still searching until eventually, when my heart was nearly beating straight out of my chest, I saw her. Just a flash of red and that dark hair, hurrying away from the main bar area.
Shit, she’s running. Why the hell is she running?
Logically, I knew I shouldn’t follow her. Especially since she was probably leaving because of me, but that string around my heart refused to let me even consider letting her go, so instead, I followed, finding her gripping the edge of a railing in another part of the venue seconds later.
It looked like the glass doors in front of her could open, turning that wall into a balcony, but they were closed tonight and it looked like that was a good thing.
Jacque was breathing a little harder than usual, her head bowed as she gripped the metal like it was the only thing keeping her from opening those doors and flinging herself off the balcony—or maybe it was me she wanted throw right out of the tenth story window.
Yeah, that probably makes more sense.
Twenty minutes later, however, not only had she not tossed me out the window, but I was walking her to her room. We stood side by side in the elevator, quiet, but it wasn’t awkward or uncomfortable.
While the air was thick with all the things we hadn’t said, just being with her again made everything feel easy. Everything, that was, except stepping into the lobby with her by my side.
The hotel we were in was busy, with more conferences and celebrations going on down here and men in suits everywhere. We crossed from the elevator bank to the exit, but every set of eyes that landed on her lingered for much too long.
Conversations buzzed around us and glasses clinked, but that didn’t stop what felt like every guy in here checking her out. I gritted my teeth, fighting against the instinct to tuck her against my side and run.
One guy blatantly looked her up and down like he was about to devour her, and my fragile hold on my self-control slipped. I reached for her elbow and took it gently, stepping just a little closer to her before I could stop myself.
She glanced at me, those honey-brown eyes questioning, but she didn’t push me away or say it wasn’t necessary, so I didn’t let go.
“You’re aware that glaring at strangers isn’t a great look on anyone, right?” she said quietly, a hint of amusement threading through her voice.
“I’m not glaring.”
She raised an eyebrow and I sighed but finally conceded. “Okay, maybe a little.”
“A little?” she echoed, chuckling as we finally reached the exit doors.
We pushed through them side by side, walking out into the crisp night air together.
She burrowed a little closer to me, not saying much as we crossed the street.
The hotel she was staying at was literally right across the street, and minutes later, we were in another elevator, ascending to her floor.
I glanced at her reflection in the mirrored wall, noticing that she kept her eyes downcast. I nudged her arm with my elbow, waiting for her to look up at me, but when she did, there was a flicker of heat in her gaze I wasn’t expecting.
My body roared to life no matter what I tried to tell it, my mind suddenly less focused on how I was going to convince her I was serious and more focused on trying to figure out what the hell was happening right now.
The elevator doors slid open with a soft hiss and I followed her out into the hallway without a second thought. She didn’t stop me or tell me I didn’t have to walk her all the way to her door, so that was what I did.
When we reached her room, she finally turned to face me, keycard already in her hand and a strange expression on her face. It sort of looked like she was doubting herself right now, which seriously wasn’t like her.
“Thank you for walking me,” she said softly.
“Yeah. Of course.”
She hesitated, not turning away or opening the door but definitely considering something. “Do you want to come in for a moment?”
I blinked hard, but not because I didn’t understand what she was asking. I understood perfectly. Especially after I’d seen that flash of heat in her eyes, but I needed to hear her say it.
“Why?” I asked, my gaze holding hers.
Her breath caught quietly and suddenly it was like I could hear everything she wasn’t saying. See everything she was trying to hide and feel it all as if it was my own emotions. All because Jacque was exactly like me.
She was always busy. Always moving. Always thinking. Never quite feeling like she fit even when she was supposed to.
Maybe that was why I’d latched onto her and couldn’t let go—because Jacqueline Calhoun got it. She got me in a way no one else ever had. She’d looked at me and she hadn’t just seen the surface.
Instead, she’d been confronted by the teasing, the sarcasm, and the playboy reputation, and she’d still liked what she’d seen beyond all that.
“I think you know why,” she said, those eyes fixed on mine and her voice just breathy enough to let me know that my suspicion wasn’t wrong.
So, yeah. I do know, and I’m one hundred percent okay with it.
She turned and slid her keycard into the lock, the soft click of the door opening barely registering over the sound of my racing pulse. The second she stepped inside, I reached for her, sliding my hand into hers and using my grip on her to pull her into me.
She crashed into my chest without trying to fight it, winding her arms around my neck and pushing up on her toes just as my head descended. I claimed her lips in a searing kiss, unleashing everything I’d been holding back since I saw her across that room.
She responded instantly and I walked her further into the room, kicking the door shut behind us. I’d always loved a one-night stand.
They were so easy and clean, and done right, they came with minimal to no complications.
That was all this would be. At least, that was what I tried telling myself, but even as I kissed her, pulling her closer and feeling her hands grip my shirt like she’d never let go, I already knew this wasn’t that.
It never had been and it never would be, but I went ahead and reached for the zipper at the side of her dress anyway. Jacque and I were inevitable, and maybe this was what she needed to finally realize that.