22. Sara
22
SARA
T he night’s not going well.
After leaving Midas, I discovered that I’ve been suspected of forming a diabolical plan to swindle the owner of the bar I was sent to build relations with, practically exiled from the place due to an unfortunate incident that occurred between Amber and a life-size statue of an ancient Greek legend, not to mention the firsthand humiliation if Jack were ever to discover the juvenile napkin doodle.
I groan in the back seat of the second yellow cab of the night. The first marooned us after Amber thumped the window, insisting we stop to admire a fox, which had turned out to be an enormous hissing rat safeguarding a rotting burger. It’d taken thirty minutes to find another cab who’d accept two stumbling and shrieking—due to the rat—females.
I peek over at Amber, watching with rising dread as her complexion turns ashen, her gurgling stomach hinting toward another “episode.”
“Get it together, Amber, only a few more blocks.” I lower my voice to a whisper, so the driver won’t suspect anything’s amiss.
Only I’m not whispering because I’m several martinis and a tequila shot down at this point and have lost all ability to whisper.
“Is she going to hurl?” The driver performs several double takes, flicking his eyes between the road and the back seat. “If she hurls, I swear to God, I’ll lock you both in here and make you scrub until your acrylics fall off.”
“She’s not going to throw up,” I shoot a warning stare at Amber, who manages a feeble nod. “And I’m pretty sure you can’t joke about kidnap.”
“Who said I’m joking?” The cab driver barks.
I scoff at his threat and turn back to Amber. She’s swaying back and forth, her eyes exhibiting that glazed-over, end-of-the-night look.
“Could you crack a window?” I ask politely. “It might make her feel a little better.”
On cue, Amber hiccups.
Which is all it takes for the driver to attack the brakes, causing us to come to a screeching stop in the middle of a dark alley way.
“Alright, everyone out,” he bellows.
“You can’t just leave us here,” I cry.
“Are we home?” Amber’s sound effects have advanced, her hiccups now gaining belching status. I shoot her a severe look because this girl is not helping our case right now.
The driver erupts. “Out!”
With no other option, I get out, dragging Amber with me. She clings to my arms for dear life as I call to the driver from the curb side, “We’ll just be a sec, if you’d be so kind as to…” The rest disappears beneath the squeal of tires sp inning against cobbles. “…wait,” I say in the most defeated voice as the cab accelerates into the distance, taillights vanishing moments later as the car swerves left at the end of the alley, barreling out of sight.
Amber jabbers in my ear while I guide her to the other end of the alley.
“Hey, ya know what I think? I think that Parker dude’s trying to get me drunk. Five shots of tequila. Or was it shix?” she exclaims, holding up seven fingers. “I should tell him nice try, huh?” She snorts aggressive bursts of laughter in my ear.
“Sure, but let’s tell him when we’re in the safety of another cab?”
We’re not so far from the glow of streetlights now. I almost breathe a sigh of relief until our silhouettes are backlit by headlights that snake into the alley and the distinct sound of a car slowing hums from behind.
I tighten my grip on Amber, forcing her to move her skyscraper heels faster over the uneven cobblestones.
The engine draws closer until the car stops a few inches behind us and the sound of a door opening echoes throughout the alley.
“If it comes to it, take your shoes off and stab them in both ears with your heels. Like cymbals,” I whisper to Amber, unlinking my arm to perform the gesture with my hands.
“That’s disturbingly specific.” A familiar deep voice comes from behind us.
I’m squinting into the glare of the headlights when I see none other than Jack.
“What are you doing here?” The words startle out of me.
“Seeing if you need a ride, and also preparing to be mugged, I suppose.” He stands motionless with his hands in his pockets before squinting over at Amber who’s wandered off and is now leaning against a dumpster, attempting to take off one of her shoes with one hand and performing a drunken karate chop with the other.
“Oh jeez, Amber, get off the dumpster in my dress, would you? And keep your shoes on, it’s just,” I hesitate over what to call him, then in the most sarcastic tone I can manage, I say, “ J .”
He doesn’t reply immediately, the silence giving pause to a shiver that wriggles up my spine from the midnight chill.
“I should’ve told you.” He moves forward, removing his suit jacket and closing the gap between us until the scent of his leathery cologne fills my senses. “I thought I’d never see you again after Maine.” He wraps the jacket around my shoulders before I can refuse it, and I do my best to ignore how warm and comforting it feels.
“But if you’d told me, I’d be one step closer to stealing all your money. Thank the lord you kept your identity a secret!” I narrow my eyes.
Jack exhales. “I was an asshole. I deserve whatever you want to hurl at me.” He pauses, allowing me time to do just that. I don’t say anything, however. I’m too busy wondering why he left his own launch party to stand out in the cold with me. “I wasn’t lying when I told you how crazy my life can get. My job can get in the way of reasoning and judgement. Watching my back is how I’ve survived until now. You have no idea how…”
“Lonely at the top it is?” I offer. “Is that what you’re trying to tell me? That you can’t make friends because everyone’s hell-bent on robbing you?”
He makes a sound somewhere between relief and frustration.
“I just don’t know who I can trust.” There’s a vulnerable edge to his words. “I’m sorry I mixed you up in that.” He steps forward, his eyes fixed on me. “Look, what I said back at the bar was inexcusable. And the way I behaved…I’m not that person Sara. I’m not the jerk you saw back there.”
My chin lifts and I know I’m pouting.
“Really?” It comes out brattier than I want it to. “Because telling me I’m trouble in front of hundreds of people sounds like jerk behavior to me,” I say while my teeth chatter because the temperature has dropped yet again despite the jacket.
“I can explain that part too,” Jack says, eyeing my shivering shoulders with irritation. “Can we just get in my car? Where it’s warm.”
“I’m not cold,” I say whilst continuing to quiver. “In fact,” I pull off his jacket, and thrust it at him. “I feel extremely hot actually.”
At precisely that moment, a gust of icy wind that could freeze a lake, blasts through the alley.
“ Ahhh! ” I squeal, clutching my dress and patting down my hair that sticks to my eyelashes and lip-gloss. Each escaped strand blinds me and knocks me off balance. I twist on the spot, but my heel has become imbedded between two cobblestones which causes me to topple. “ Ahhh! ” I squeal again before I feel Jack’s arms wrap around my waist to steady me.
Heat floods me as his hands find the exact spot on my hipbone he gripped back in Maine. He holds me in the same protective way he did during the rainstorm when I lay shaking on top of him. I forget about being mad at him when something unfamiliar forms in my chest…
“Get in the car, Sara.”
“What?” I snap as Jack’s voice pulls me from my daydream. “No. ”
“You’re turning blue, get in.” Jack guides me toward the rear door of an expensive looking Mercedes.
“I will hurt you if you touch me again,” I say as he opens the door.
“No problem,” Jack says in that frustrated tone I recognize from Maine. “Hurt me from inside the car.” And with that, he bundles me in the back seat and slams the door behind me.
I’m about to open the door again when I realize how comfortable and warm it is in here, and suddenly the thought of returning to the cold isn’t so appealing after all. Instead, I shoot Jack a scathing look for good measure when he gets in the other side and say, “I can’t leave Amber out there.”
Jack nods to the guy in the driver’s seat, “Go get her.”
The man doesn’t look up from scrolling on his phone when he snorts, “Not in the mood for kidnapping.”
I almost gasp when I realize the driver is none other than not Mountain Rescue guy. He’s extremely handsome now that I see him up close…which means Amber will be easily lured by him. I sigh. “She’ll come if you ask her nicely.”
The driver groans, mutters something inaudible under his breath, then gets out the car.
“How did you even know I was here?” I snap at Jack when it’s just the two of us in the car.
“Burke is very resourceful,” he says, prompting me to look suspiciously at the driver who is currently shaking his head while reluctantly approaching Amber like she’s a disobedient kid being chased down for bedtime.
I feel my face screw up as I squash down all the ways being resourceful led to our discovery.
“So,” I begin, folding my arms. “Let’s hear it. Let’s hear this big speech where you convince me the guy who exiled me from his bar isn’t actually a jerk.” I flick my hair over my shoulder as I nestle into the seat.
“I didn’t exile you.”
“You certainly did.” I make a disapproving high pitch noise. “Do you know I haven’t worn sequins in over a year? You have no idea what a huge deal that is for me, Jack,” I shriek. “You absolutely exiled me. Why else would I be taking the most beautiful dress in existence home early?”
He opens his mouth to say something, but I immediately interrupt.
“I’ll tell you why,”—I draw in a deep breath—“because I’m trouble. ” I mock before laughing. “Trouble. Who even says that? I am the least troublesome?—”
“Christ Sara,” Jack bursts with explosive frustration. “You are trouble.” He readjusts in his seat, pulling at his tie. “The kind I don’t know what to do with. The kind that got in my head the minute I pulled you from that car wreck.” He shakes his head. “You got in my head. Damn it, you got in so deep I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since I left you at that tower. That’s why I ran off like a pussy, I wasn’t ready to let you go.” His hands rest on his lap, both sets of fingers curling into his palms. “That’s the reason I was so pissed at you at the bar. I thought you came with an agenda, which meant I’d have to let you go a second time.”
His body heaves like its recovering from getting rid of a weight that’s been carried for too long.
Everything seems to slow down.
I swallow, feeling my throat tighten.
Feeling my heartrate climb.
Then I feel my teeth sink into my bottom lip. I maintain the gesture as a tiny grin begins to tug at the corners of my mouth .
My voice is almost a whisper in the dark nook of the car. “And now you know I don’t come with an agenda…?”
Jack’s gaze flicks over to me. His chest begins to heave all over again, his eyes swelling with something that looks like restraint perishing to ash.
“I’d say I’ve got no right,” he says, voice low, gravel like and starved. “But I have to kiss you now.”
I gasp as Jack leans toward me, sinks a hand into my hair until it wraps around the back of my neck. He pulls me in close, crushing his lips against mine. My entire body tingles as a thousand butterflies take flight in my stomach and my eyelids flutter shut. His kisses are hungry and consuming, deliciously masculine. I taste scotch and peppermint on his lips as my tongues explores his mouth while my fingers dig into the taut layer of muscle at his chest. A low groan of approval vibrates from him as he pulls me in tighter.
Then he’s wrapping both hands around the sides of my rib cage before he grips me tightly, pulling me effortlessly across the seat divider and onto his lap where he continues to devour my mouth like he’s been starved for a very long time.
“Jack,” I breathe against him. I can barely speak between shallow breaths and kisses. “Why…”
“Why what?” he groans against my lips, his hands sinking into my hair, gripping hard and drawing me to him closer still.
“Why didn’t you do this in that stupid tent?” I moan, sucking at his bottom lip as I feel my nipples harden beneath the dress.
His eyes flash open for a second, his expression predatory. “You have no idea how hard I had to work not to. Believe me.”
“I do believe you.” I clamp down on his mouth again, sending my tongue into battle with his. “I felt how hard your dick was pressed against my ass in the morning, remember?” I grin against him.
His entire body stiffens.
“Jesus, Sara.”
He grips me tighter, his touch a reminder of why I slept so soundly that night next to him. A reminder that being with him was blinding chaos and serene peace at the same time.
He feels good against me, almost too good to stop what we’re doing in this car where no one can see us… Which is why it’s a good thing when an almighty crash rips through the alley, startling us out of our entanglement.
Amber.
Gasping, I tear myself from Jack, and leap from the car in order to witness the bizarre sight before me.
A pair of garbage cans roll from behind a dumpster while the enormous silhouette of Burke carrying Amber takes shape in the darkness.
“Why did you catch me?” Amber demands from the grip of the driver who has one arm around the back of her thighs and the other around her shoulders. “I told you, I can fly.” Oh boy…
“Because I didn’t want to scoop your brains from the concrete,” the driver growls with a murderous expression. “Now can you get in the damn car so I can go home?”
Amber kicks her feet and lets her arms splay out before she slurs, “Fiiine. But can you spin me first?”
“No.”
I sigh before I sense Jack’s presence behind me. I watch him wave off Burke who delivers Jack a stare which promises extreme payback and perhaps violence.
Jack’s eyes find mine before he’s brushing the sides of my arms which prickle in the cold. “I should probably take you both home.”
I nod, right before I’m consumed by all the details on his face I failed to pick up on before. Like the dimple on his left cheek when he grins, and how his skin is smooth yet ruggedly textured at the same time. Everything about him makes me close the gap between us, go up on my tiptoes, and continue the make out session from the car. His arm comes around my waist, his mouth working against mine, but just as I’m about to wrap my arms around his neck, Amber’s voice sounds again.
“ Oooooh, ” she hoots like an idiot, now back on her feet. “Remember to use protection and be gentle with my girl. Sara hasn’t done it in a really long time.” She twists on the spot. “Oh look, a cab!”
Jack’s chuckles vibrate against me while I contemplate throwing myself into traffic.
“You know what, I’m going to take the cab,” I say, taking a step back. “Since I can’t trust she’s done humiliating me tonight.” Since I can’t trust I won’t drag you upstairs to my apartment…
Jack nods. “Okay, but I’m taking you on a date. Soon.”
The moment the words leave his mouth, panic swirls through my insides. There’s no reasonable explanation for it, none I should be entertaining at least. Regardless, I can’t push the feeling away. It’s been so long since I dated – an entire year of healing, and I’m only just beginning to feel normal again.
While half of me wants to leap into the unknown with Jack, the other half won’t allow me to fall without applying caution. And I hate that. I hate that the sting of my past might always stay with me…
Jack appears to sense my hesitance. “What’s wrong? ”
I open my mouth as I plan on telling him I have to take things slow. Instead, I resort to more familiar ways. I pout, become a sassier version of myself, fold my arms, adopt my bratty voice…
“I still haven’t forgotten about earlier. A girl doesn’t just get over a man yelling at her, you know.” It’s not entirely untrue. Even though Jack didn’t really yell at me…
I watch his frame deflate by the smallest fraction. I hate the barrier I’m putting up, but a voice in my head tells me that if he really wants to date me, then he’ll step up. And I owe it to everything I’ve been through to put myself on the highest pedestal only those who are worthy can reach. I don’t want lazy dating. I want magic…
I hold his gaze, afraid that he’s going to walk away, yet I manage to hold my nerve long enough for my eyes to silently chant, if you want me, come get me…
“This...” Jack steps forward, his eyes mapping my features as his hand comes to touch my face. “This is why you got in my head. This is why I want you so much, Sara.” Gently, he holds my chin between his thumb and index finger. “You don’t want normal.”
I fight the urge to move, to lean into his touch the way my body guides me to. I shake my head. Magic. I want magic.
He strokes my face. “You were so determined on the trails. You fought to be out there, even though I know it killed you. You pushed past your normal.” He grins. “You know what you want. You don’t want mediocre.” He brushes his thumb over my lips and my entire body shivers even though not one part of me is cold anymore. “I’ll never give you mediocre, you can fucking bet on that.” He narrows his eyes. “You need actions over words. I get it. I’ll give you what you can’t find anywhere else.”
My lips tug upwards. He gets it. He gets it without me having to spell it out. Arousal immediately ignites inside me. I feel my thighs squeeze together.
“How?” I whisper. How was he going to do that when I couldn’t even put into words what I wanted from him?
He continues to stroke at my lips while I battle the urge to take his thumb in my mouth and swirl my tongue around it. “First of all, I’m not the kind of person who accepts IOUs on napkins.” We both grin. He continues in a low voice, “You’re going to accept that first gift from me. Then…I’m going to do the opposite of what you expect.” I frown. “I’ll send you flowers and jewellery, sure.” He shrugs, his voice bored before his expression turns determined. “But I told you, I’m going to give you things you can’t find anywhere else.”
He presses down on my chin, parting my mouth before he brushes his lips over mine. And when he breaks connection, he stays close. His body, his scent, his eyes, every part of him whispers over my skin, making me tingle.
“Now get in the cab before I put you back in my car.” He lets me go, allowing the insinuation of what would happen inside that car to hang in the air.
I manage to hold in my gasp as I step back, pulling myself from his piercing stare and his intoxicating piney scent.
I gather Amber, glancing back every so often to witness Jack never once take his eyes from me. We get in the cab, and for the entire ride home, all I can think about is why the hell I didn’t fuck him in that damn tent when I had the chance.