“I can always hope,” he said as he held open the cab door.
Jewell didn’t bother replying this time. She wasn’t giving him her number, and she didn’t want him to hold out on any hope that she’d see him again. This was her last time for a ladies’ night out. She’d tried it and it had failed.
Jewell hoped Blake didn’t notice it when she returned home in a cab. Though she’d have to ask him for a ride to her car tomorrow, she just hoped to make it home tonight while Justin was still awake.
When they pulled up to the house, though, the lights were off in the living room, and her hope was dashed. It was only ten in the evening, but a lot had happened this week for Justin, too, with a new school, a new home, and moving in with a man he certainly liked and respected, but didn’t know all that well.
Her brother was a real trouper to have such positive attitude after so much change had been thrown at him.
She paid the cab driver, then made her way up the path to the front door and fumbled in her purse for what had to be a full minute before she found her keys and let herself inside.
All of a sudden, loneliness like she hadn’t experienced in a while weighed down on her, and she fought the urge to run to Blake’s room and demand he give her some TLC. But that, she knew, would only ease the loneliness for a short time. She needed a long-term solution.
If she hadn’t been so afraid of rocking the boat she was riding in, she might have opened up and told him she was feeling this way. But what if he was somehow disgusted with that and got rid of her? Justin’s life would be thrown into upheaval again. No. It was better to just go with the flow, even if she felt like she was constantly fighting the current.
Jewell set down her purse, and then smiled when she heard a squeak. The kitten they’d gotten the day after Justin had come to live with them was winding its tiny orange body around her feet.
“At least someone has missed me,” she whispered. She lifted up the little boy fur and nuzzled his soft fur, delighting in the purrs he released amid its high-pitched mews of satisfaction at being held.
When she stepped into the living room and found Blake sitting back with only a dim lamp lit and an unreadable expression on his face, she stopped. “Why are you sitting here like this?” she asked, looking around.
When Blake was at home, he was almost always working, either in his office or in his favorite chair in the living room, and one thing she knew about him was that he really liked lots of light. She was always turning it off in the rooms he exited, and he often laughed at her about her compulsiveness.
When she moved again, she noticed a bottle of bourbon on the table beside him, and an empty crystal glass next to it. That didn’t look good.
As she drew nearer, she noticed his muscles were tense, and the look in his eyes wasn’t as casual as she’d first thought. No, his eyes were burning. She’d seen that look before, not that she was able to interpret it.
“Is everything okay, Blake? Is Justin okay?” she asked, getting ready to bolt for the stairs to assure herself that Justin was still there, that he was fine.
“Justin went to sleep two hours ago. It’s been a busy week for him,” Blake said, and her heartbeat slowed just the tiniest bit until he stood up and began moving toward her.
Jewell didn’t know why she took a step backward, but there was something dangerous in his eyes, and every muscle in her body was screaming at her to run. She knew that was foolish, but at the same time, her instincts were most likely right.
“Put down the kitten, Jewell,” he told her as he drew ever closer.
Jewell had almost forgotten about the kitten. “Oh,” she said as she freed the little fur ball and watched as he ran off, probably to destroy something.
“You’re really worrying me, Blake. What in the world is the matter?” she asked as she took another involuntary step backward.
“I have given you time to adjust, have waited for you to tell me you’re ready, have moved in together with you, reunited you and your brother, and still I’ve waited, and I haven’t gotten the green light from you,” he said, and she stepped back yet again.
“What in the world are you talking about, Blake?”
“Since rescuing you from Relinquish Control, I’ve only had you two nights. And it’s been over three weeks since the last time we were together — three weeks, Jewell. And then tonight you go out with another man,” he said, his muscles flexing, his eyes sparking.
“What? I didn’t go out with another man,” she told him, though she didn’t understand why she was denying it. “That wouldn’t be your business anyway,” she said, suddenly tired of being defensive when she didn’t even know why she was being that way.
“Max was there,” he told her.
“I didn’t see him,” she began before stopping. “Then why in the world didn’t he give me a ride home?”
“I wanted him there to make sure you were safe. Apparently you were more than safe,” Blake said, his voice menacingly low.
“I don’t need someone to spy on me, Blake,” she told him. She didn’t get to say anything more, though.
Blake must have decided they had conversed enough, because one second they were facing off against each other and the next second she was completely out of breath. He’d reached out and grabbed her, hauling her body against his before lifting her in the air.
And then they were moving — right toward his bedroom.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Blake pushed his bedroom door open with his foot, and shut it the same way. Jewell was so shocked by his behavior that she uttered not a word of protest. And then she was airborne for a brief moment before the bed caught her.
She was trying to clear her head, but his scent enveloped her, and all she could do was to inhale the musk of the only man she had ever desired.
Still, he was behaving like a brute, and she thought about trying to stop him — for about two seconds — but then he was on the bed with her, his legs pinning hers down as he pulled off her coat, shirt and bra in a quick sweep, leaving her upper half bare to his view. He moved to the side, but only to yank off her pants and minuscule panties, and now he was ripping his own clothes from his body.
It was so fast — all of it was happening far too fast.
Before she was able to protest, Blake was stretching his now naked body on top of her, and the feel of his solid chest pressing against her tender breasts made her cry out his name in pleasure.