“Attached?” she gasped. “Justin means the world to me. Enough to do all of this,” she said as she held out her hands. “Please don’t use him as nothing more than a pawn in a game you are the only one who knows the rules to.”
If begging is what it took, she would resort to it, but she hated both herself and Blake for making her sink even more into this person she didn’t want to be.
“It may have started out that way, Jewell, but I have feelings for the boy. I don’t want to see him in the system. McKenzie feels the same way. And whether you believe it or not, I have feelings for you,” he said, his eyes boring into hers.
“I don’t believe you,” she told him, looking away from the power of his eyes.
Blake paused. This was where he told her that her feelings didn’t matter, right? Of course it was. This was where he went back to being the hard bastard she hated. But instead, he surprised her.
“You will.” He said nothing more, but there was so much assurance in his tone, she thought he might be right. What if this man of steel actually did have other emotions locked deep down inside besides greed and desire?
“Why are we both here?”
“I don’t understand the question,” he said.
“When McKenzie called me, I thought she just wanted to speak to me, but why this party? Why this elaborate setup? I wish I just knew more of what everyone was thinking or doing. I truly don’t understand any of this.”
“Why do you think any of us do anything we do, Jewell?” He turned the question around on her.
“I think that you’re bored,” she said with a frustrated sigh.
His eyebrows rose as she spoke and he looked…confused. That wasn’t what she was expecting at all. He wasn’t acting in a way that she could read. She almost wished for the ice man she’d originally met to remake his appearance, because at least then she’d know exactly what to expect.
“If you’d let down your guard, Jewell, you would see that I’m not a monster.”
“I need to visit with my brother.” She turned and walked away from Blake. If she began to think that he actually cared about her, she wouldn’t be able to fight him anymore.
She hadn’t gone far when she ran right into Tyler. “Where are you off to in such a hurry?” he asked with a laugh before looking up and spotting his brother who quickly approached.
“I’m thirsty,” she said as she tried to figure out how to get around Tyler without seeming too rude.
“I’m sure you’re after a conversation with my brother,” he said, placing his arm around her waist and turning her around to face Blake.
Blake looked pointedly at the fingers Tyler had on her side and sent his brother a look Jewell couldn’t interpret. “I don’t appreciate your sense of humor, Tyler,” he said.
“Ah, I think you really need to lighten up, brother dearest.” Tyler didn’t free Jewell from his hold.
“I can think of a few ways to loosen up, and they all end with you picking yourself up off the ground,” Blake said in a faux-pleasant tone.
“Do you really think, after all these years, that you frighten me?” Tyler let out a hearty guffaw.
“Don’t mistake my love for you as weakness,” Blake warned him.
“Love isn’t a weakness,” Tyler told him.
“It sure as hell was for our father,” Blake retorted.
That one sentence seemed to suck all the oxygen from the area. Tyler’s arm tightened around her as his muscles locked up and he sent Blake a glare. “There’s no reason to bring that up right now, Blake,” he said grimly.
“Then don’t make asinine statements,” Blake replied.
“Why in the hell do you always have to act so cold? Tyler asked him. “I know who you are. Why can’t you let other people see the man I idolize?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Blake shifted, his anger instantly draining away.
“You know what I’m talking about, Blake. You aren’t a monster, but you try so hard to act like one that people believe that’s what you are.”
Jewell had a feeling that both of them had forgotten she was even standing there with them.
“Ah, my brother, how I have you fooled,” Blake said. “Yes, I care about a few things, but you have to have a conscience to care what others think about you.”
Here was the man Jewell had been hoping would remake an appearance, but now that he had, she wanted him to go away.
“You have a conscience, Blake. It’s just buried down deep. With very little effort you could find it again, sweep the cobwebs from it and show the world what you have shown to both me and Byron — not that Byron is acting any better than you are right now,” Tyler said with a frustrated sigh.
“I’ll consider what you’ve said,” Blake told his brother, and Jewell knew he was done speaking about himself.
“I think I’m going to take Jewell to get that drink now,” Tyler said, and he turned and led her away before Blake was able to say another word.
“You know this is going to really piss him off, don’t you?” Jewell asked Tyler.
“Yes, I know, but I can’t help but do my damnedest to get underneath his skin,” Tyler said as they reached the bar set up in one corner of the yard.
“You’re not the one who will have to deal with his anger,” Jewell said, but she couldn’t find the energy to be upset with Tyler. He was just too sweet to her.
“Jewell, you have to come to grips with your own power as a woman. You are beautiful, kind, smart, and funny. You could easily have the old boy wrapped around your finger if only you tried.” Tyler handed her a soda and grabbed a beer for himself.
“I think you way overestimate my abilities,” Jewell told him.
“I am watching you blossom even as we speak.”
“How can I blossom when I can’t even find the sun?” she asked lightly. But she’d never felt anything more true.
“The sun is there, I promise you. Don’t give up, okay. Promise me you won’t,” he said as he placed his hand on her shoulder and forced her to look into his eyes.
“I’ll never give up. I can’t. I have my brother to think about,” she told him. And she was grateful, because without Justin, she probably would have given up a long time ago.
For the next couple of hours, Jewell avoided being alone with Blake, but she couldn’t avoid his gaze, which followed her everywhere she went. She also couldn’t avoid her brother’s obvious love for the man. Justin grew giddy with excitement at the smallest amount of attention Blake decided to bestow on him.