Chapter 30
"When your text said see you soon, I thought you meant back at Armidale."
Ruby stroked Jax's chest, her fingertips skating along the skin, her cheek resting an inch from her hand. His heart beat strongly beneath her ear, the fast beats indicative of their frantic reunion.
She'd missed him.
More than the sex, more than the intimacy, she'd missed this. Lying close to him in the aftermath of another sensational orgasm, making desultory small talk, content to do nothing but bask in the afterglow.
"I couldn't wait until Sunday to see you."
She propped her chin on her hand, looked him in the eye. "Missed me, huh?"
"Like you wouldn't believe."
The sincerity in his eyes warmed her. So she'd been silly enough to fall in love? By the way he stared at her, he was halfway there himself.
What had changed?
She didn't want to disrupt their unexpected reunion, didn't want to risk him shutting down as he usually did when she mentioned anything remotely emotional, but if they had any chance, he needed to start opening up to her.
"Careful. Admitting you missed me is tantamount to revealing emotion, something you tend not to do."
He stiffened, shadows instantly darkening his eyes. At least he didn't scamper for a sudden bathroom visit or snack.
"You're saying I have difficulty expressing emotions?"
She raised an eyebrow and his mouth kicked into a smile.
"Okay, okay, maybe I do, but there's a damn good reason for it."
Daring to hope he'd confide in her, she sat up and clutched the sheet to her chest. "Tell me."
After a long, drawn-out moment, he shimmied up the pillows, still within touching distance, his wary gaze not leaving hers.
"I had a great childhood. Loved my folks. Idolised them. Had a ball with the constant parties and going out and staying up later than other kids. We lived the high life, together."
A deep groove slashed his brows as she braced for the tough stuff.
"Until I graduated uni and heard the rumours.
Working in the corporate world, there were mutterings about Dad, why he made millions on deals that sent other people broke.
And why a cultivated high society woman like Jackie Blaise would be with a guy of dubious background.
Slumming it, apparently, considering Denver's dad was a small time petty drug pusher who ended up dead for his double dealings. "
She didn't want to stem the flow, didn't want to intrude, but felt compelled to say something to fill the growing silence.
"That's harsh about your grandfather.”
He shrugged. "Never knew him. Which made accepting Dad's betrayal much harder to accept."
“So he definitely used your mother to cultivate rich friends to scam?"
Jax winced. "I still don't know if he genuinely loved Mum, or saw her as a meal ticket. She adored him, he used her, and fleeced most of her friends for millions."
"How did she cope?"
Sadness pinched his mouth. "She joined him."
Ruby didn't want to push, didn't want to probe too deep for fear of opening old wounds, but she'd never felt closer to Jax than she did at that moment.
This was true intimacy, the sharing of confidences, of secret fears.
She didn't want him to stop.
"What do you mean?"
"A lot of rumours circulated when Dad went to prison. Rumours of an accomplice."
Pain, raw and undiluted, flashed across his face and she reached out to momentarily cup his cheek before letting her hand fall. "There was an extensive investigation but the police never found proof Mum was implicated, so she got off."
He shook his head, disgust curling his upper lip. "The fact she ran and didn't look back not long afterwards pretty much proves she must've been involved. Makes me sick."
His hands clenched into fists, bunching the sheets. "Their friends trusted them and they embezzled every last cent."
She traced his knuckles, smoothing each one until first one hand, then the other, unfurled. “They must’ve shattered your trust too."
He glanced away and her heart bled at his bleakness. "Dad ruined everything. For months after his incarceration I couldn't work in this city, not with Maroney as a surname. And while people didn't blatantly blame Mum, I reckon they suspected."
"So you left."
He nodded. "Never looked back. Mum's mum knew Denver was a ratbag all along and didn't trust Jackie's judgement, so she left me the mine in her will and I headed west to prove myself."
Ironic, that in proving himself, he'd almost ruined her. If the Seaborn mine went under, so did Seaborn jewel company.
Not worth thinking along about when they'd come so far, and would continue to grow, together, if she had any say in the matter.
"You've never visited him?
Jax’s incredulity answered the question before he opened his mouth. "I want nothing to do with him."
Her fingers stilled as she covered one of his hands with hers. "I heard his appeal's coming up."
A deep frown slashed Jax’s brows. "Yeah, as I'm constantly reminded by the press contacting me for the inside scoop." He scowled. "Those vultures won't take no for an answer."
"Might be good to talk to them to stop them badgering you? Or maybe go see your dad, kind of like an exorcism of the past?"
He stared at her as if she'd suggested he break his dad out of jail.
"I've spent the last decade distancing myself from the old man's poison. Why on earth would I want to see him?"
She saw the shadows clouding his eyes, the pain contorting his mouth, and wanted to butt out. But intimacy went beyond the physical and he had to let her in.
"Because he's your father, and you said you had a great relationship until he was arrested." She took a deep breath and ploughed on. “It might help you lose the latent anger eating you up inside."
"You don't know anything about me," he muttered, his expression bleak as he glared at some spot over her right shoulder.
"Yeah, I do," she said, intertwining her fingers with his and gripping tight. "You're an incredible guy and it's not worth letting the past twist you into knots. Maybe if you talked to him—"
"No." Jax flung off the covers and stood so fast she almost tipped off the edge of the bed.
"Jax—"
"I'm taking a shower."
He stalked across the room, emotionally closed off, the distance between them bigger than ever. If she hadn't already realised she'd fallen in love with him, she would've known it at that moment, because his impressive butt didn't register as much as the anger radiating off him.
She did the only thing a woman in love could do.
She followed him.