Episode 235
TEMPTED
Sienna
I freeze outside River’s suite, my hand ready to knock, when I hear a voice—Emily’s voice—cool and sharp right through the door.
“Why exactly would you be fucking up anything for Brett?”
My breath catches. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop.
My gut twists.
Brett’s name.
When I returned to the mansion, I went straight to Emily’s suite. When she wasn’t there, I took a chance and tried River’s.
Clearly I was right. She’s here, which means the two of them are okay.
I want to be happy for her. Truly, I do.
But I’m in turmoil. The man I thought was the love of my life loves someone else, and I can’t compete with a twenty-year-old memory.
I don’t know what Emily and River are talking about, but for once in my life I put myself first.
I knock anyway.
Out of necessity. Because if I don’t, I’ll spend the rest of the day spiraling.
Three soft knocks.
The door opens.
River is shirtless, damp and flushed in a way that makes it painfully obvious I’ve interrupted something. He doesn’t look annoyed, but he doesn’t look thrilled either.
Emily stands, also flushed, wearing nothing but a sheet. Her cheeks are pink, her lips slightly swollen. She looks…glowing. Happy. Awash in post-coital haze.
And I hate how much I envy her for it.
A third person is here as well.
Jake.
My competition.
“I need to speak to Emily,” I say quickly. “Privately.”
“Are you okay, See?” Emily asks, walking toward me. “No, of course you’re not. You look like the kettle’s broken and there’s no more tea.”
Even Emily’s British banter doesn’t make me smile.
“You poor thing,” she says. “Let me get some clothes on and I’ll be right with you.”
She disappears into the bedroom, the door clicking softly shut behind her.
I stay standing just inside the entryway, but the tension swirls around me like it’s stitched into the air itself.
Jake doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t need to. Everything is in his expression—the guilt, the ache, the embarrassment.
“Sienna,” he says finally.
I shouldn’t answer.
But I do.
“What?”
“Jake…” River begins.
“No, Riv. This concerns me.”
“She wants to talk to Emily,” River says.
“He’s right.” I sigh.
Jake nods and exhales slowly. “I get it. And I won’t take a lot of your time, but can we talk? Just us?”
I hesitate.
Excuse me? He’s serious? We don’t know each other.
Of course, we have one very important thing in common.
So I nod. “Sure.” I turn to River. “Tell Em I’ll be back. I do want to talk.”
“You sure about this?” River asks me.
I shake my head. “I’m not sure of anything anymore. But I should hear him out.”
Jake smiles.
And I hate how utterly handsome he is. Not as pretty as Brett, but with the lighter hair and leaner build, he has an almost boyish charm that mixes with his grown-man sex appeal—the kind that makes you forget your own name.
We don’t talk as we leave the suite, walk down the stairs, and out through the front. He seems to know instinctively that I’d prefer to avoid the beach, where I saw him and Brett kissing. Where Brett begged me to forgive him.
We find a narrow path shaded by palms and lined with thick greenery. It’s quiet. Removed. Even the waves feel distant.
We walk for a while, still without speaking, the silence pulsing between us. I catch glimpses of staff through the hedges. They’re laughing, hauling crates of wine and paper lanterns for tonight’s festivities. It all feels surreal. Like the world is still spinning even though mine is splintering.
Eventually, we find a bench at a small overlook, but we don’t sit. Just stand with a few feet between us.
“Start talking,” I finally say.
Jake runs a hand through his hair. “I kissed him.”
It lands like a punch. Not because I didn’t know. But because hearing him say it makes it real in a way that rips something open.
“Yeah,” I whisper. “I was there.”
“I shouldn’t have. I know that.”
“But you did.”
He nods once, slow. “And I told him he needed to go after you. That he was a fool to let you go.”
I cross my arms. “Was that before or after your tongue was in his mouth?”
He winces. “I deserved that.”
“You think?”
Jake steps forward, voice low. “I didn’t do it to hurt you. And believe it or not, neither did he.”
“But you did hurt me,” I say. “You both did. And now I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to feel.”
Jake’s blue eyes meet mine. They’re beautiful. Lighter than Brett’s, even. He must have been gorgeous even as a lanky teenager.
“But you still love him,” he says.
I blink. “I do. But let’s be real here. It’s only been days, Jake. And you just blew a crater through whatever we had.”
“I know.”
Silence again, broken only by the distant squawk of a gull overhead.
“I had no idea what he felt back then,” Jake says. “But the truth is, I felt it too. And I buried it. Deep. Because I had to. Because I loved someone else, and I made choices I don’t get to take back.”
“You didn’t just bury it,” I say. “You brought it back to life the second you got here.”
“I didn’t plan to,” he says. “But when Brett told me, it was like this door opened in me. One I didn’t even know was still there.”
“What now?” I ask. “You kiss him. You ruin things with me. Do you just vanish again?”
He shakes his head. “No. I’m done running. I don’t know what that means yet. But I’m here. And I needed you to know it wasn’t about you. It wasn’t to replace you. It wasn’t even about love.”
“Then what the hell was it?”
He hesitates a moment. “Closure, maybe? Or a goodbye we never got?”
Damn. I hate how much I understand that. I didn’t get closure with Leroy until days ago.
Still—
“I don’t care.”
Jake nods. “I’d take it back if I could.”
I pierce his gaze with mine. “No, you wouldn’t.”
A moment.
Then—
“You’re right. I wouldn’t.”
He takes a step closer. Then another.
I don’t move.
“You’re beautiful,” he says, his voice low and broken. “And sweet. It’s not difficult to see how Brett fell for you.”
I breathe in and let it out slowly. “You don’t even know me. Hell, neither does Brett. I can’t compete with someone he’s been mourning for twenty years, Jake.”
“You shouldn’t have to.”
“Damned right I shouldn’t have to. So I’m not going to. Have at him. He’s yours. I’m no stranger to a broken heart. I’ve gotten over it before, and I can do it again. Besides, Sebastian is still available.”
“Sienna…please.”
I look away.
But he tips my chin and pulls me back to meet his gaze.
And something hot and unexpected glimmers low in my belly.
He touches my face.
Softly. Reverently. Like he knows he has no right.
I should stop him.
But I don’t.
Because in this one horrible, aching moment, I want to know what it feels like to be wanted by the man Brett wants.
So when he kisses me, I let him.
It’s slow. It’s deep. And it’s devastating.
He slides his hands into my hair, and I clutch the front of his shirt, holding onto him as everything else falls apart.
When we finally break apart, I’m shaking.
I liked it.
I more than liked it.
“This doesn’t fix anything,” I say, barely above a whisper.
“I know.”
“And I don’t forgive you. Or Brett."
He nods. “I don’t expect you to.”
I wipe at my mouth with the back of my hand. “This was a mistake.”
“Maybe,” Jake says. “But it was honest.”
And that’s the worst part. It was. I wanted it as much as he did. Maybe for the wrong reason.
Or maybe for the right one.
I gulp as I step back. “I need to go.”
He lets me pass. Doesn’t follow.
As I walk back toward the mansion, the weight of the kiss still on my lips, I realize I’m not sure who I’m angrier with—him, Brett, or myself.
But I know one thing:
This island was supposed to be paradise.
And it’s turning into a war zone.