CHAPTER296
Oh, this is not good.
Jake drinking is Jake sliding into more impulsive, more aggressive mode, where he can be unpredictable and harder to control. I throw him a wary look and when he goes to top it up again, I swipe his glass away quickly, giving him a pleading ‘please don’t’ glance. He frowns at me and sighs before planking the bottle on the table, sitting down instead. I inhale heavily, trying to relax as much as I can, while this crap is going on.
“So where does that leave me?! Our baby?!” She spits.
“Same place it already is. Visitation, access. I’m just not jumping through hoops for you. There’s no reason to be a part of your life before the baby is here. I don’t need a relationship with you because to be honest it would always be like this; it has always been like this.” Jake waves a hand between them, gesturing each other, locking his green no-nonsense focus on her, and willing her to back down the way I’ve seen him make many a man crumble.
“Fuck no! … You want to see your baby then you sure as hell accept that I’ll be here and in your life. No relationship with me, then no fucking visitation!” She slaps her hand on the table again and I can’t contain it anymore.
“Is that what it’s all been about? Having him in any way on your terms? Whether he wants it or not?” I sound angry, maybe even as venomous as her, but I don’t care. I’m seeing through her bullshit. This isn’t about the baby, this is about being close to him, having control over him like he’s her possession; needing to bow to her will in some way. It’s about forcing Jake to have her in his life.
“Is that what your jealous little head tells you? That I want him? That I’m trying to take him from you?” Marissa laughs nastily. “Sweetie, please, he’s the one who fucked me senseless that night and got me pregnant. He’s the one who was all over me asking for me to go home with him. If I wanted Jake back, I only need to ask.” She smirks but I only narrow my eyes and frown. Even I know that’s wrong, Jake isn’t someone who lets what he wants slip away. He’s someone who goes after it and if he wanted her all along then I wouldn’t be sitting beside him now. I saw her texts telling him she still loves him, and he never bothered to reply to her. The woman is deranged if she believes what she’s saying.
“Marissa. I haven’t wanted you in any way since I was about fifteen and even back then I’m pretty damn sure it wasn’t even real love.” Jake sighs, even he’s exhausted with this conversation, and I can feel the vibes coming from him. He wants her to leave, as do I, since he doesn’t see this going anywhere.
“He’s never wanted you, Marissa. I know him better than you ever will,” I say flatly, focusing on my hands and the napkin I’ve been twisting the life out of, instead of those vicious dark eyes emanating all sorts of hate my way.
“You know your fucking boyfriend cheated on you, right? With me … about four weeks ago,” Marissa spits at me across the table, shoving her plate out of the way, knocking over some empty water glasses.
“If you mean he kissed you then yes, he told me.” I glare back at her, lifting my chin defiantly. I lock my gaze onto those dark brown almost black dangerous eyes glaring back at me. My face completely devoid of emotion, even though it feels like a punch in the stomach to say it, just like it used to do. There’s a look in her eyes of surprise, at me knowing about the kiss, before she narrows them viciously.
“Kiss? Ha fucking ha! He had his tongue down my throat and his hand up my fucking dress almost making me cum, inches away from fucking me if I hadn’t stopped it. He wanted me just as much as he did the night, he stuck a baby inside me.” She tosses her hair back over her shoulder and I jump when the table is slammed by Jake’s palm disrupting everything, scaring the hell out of me.
“That’s not what fucking happened, and you know it.” He yells at her and I cringe in fright pulling myself back in my seat, my heart rate going crazy, my mind a swirl of emotions of images of him and her. I don’t even know what to believe in. She seems to find pleasure in sitting up straighter, meeting his fire head on and I seriously start to wonder if there was more between them that night. My doubts and insecurities filtering in as I try to get a handle on the pain in my chest.
“I’m surprised you can even remember, Jake darling, seeing as you were obviously high on God knows what and probably can’t remember exactly what happened. You were an absolute mess if I remember rightly.” She purrs and flutters at him. I feel sick to my stomach, my head a mass of confusion, I look to him and her and back again in painful panic. I don’t want to believe her, I shouldn’t.
I can trust him. He’s been proving that to me all along, hasn’t he?
“Why? You think because fucking you once had been so unmemorable that I wouldn’t remember four weeks ago? I remember every single moment, Marissa, right down to the second you launched yourself at me and I rejected you because I realized the only girl I ever wanted is Emma.” Jake is seething. I know him. I watch him and read his body language. He’s not lying.
He’s angry that she would imply there was more, he’s enraged that she has the gall to try to do this to me, to hurt us, and I’m not going to let her do it to him or me. I have
one hundred percent faith that what Jake told me was
the truth and this manipulative bitch is just trying to make me leave him again. Making a pathway for her to try to
get her claws into him and I sure as hell will never let
that happen.
“You have no clue. I saw the state of you. There’s no way you remember accurately what you did with me and I can assure you that you definitely remember how to finger fuck me to an orgasm, Jake.” She smiles and evilly licks her lips, looking directly at his crotch now that he’s on his feet and I flinch. The urge to use one of these steak knives has never been so appealing.
“You’re a liar.” I lift my chin, eyes pouring tears that I wasn’t even aware were falling and face her full-on. “You’re a disgusting pathetic tramp and a liar. Do you really think I would believe you? Over him?!” I stand and slowly start folding my napkin neatly, lying it on the table, old PA Emma taking control, pushing my erratic emotions down.
“Then you’re a fucking idiot, because once a cheat always a cheat, whether he kissed me or fucked me, he still cheated! Believe me, he will again!” Everyone is standing and glaring at one another, well Jake and I at her and her at both of us.
“You would know.” Jake cuts in with a snide comment and a snarl. “You are the queen of fucking cheating, Marissa, right?!” I catch that spark of fury, bracing myself for another onslaught of nastiness, but she cackles, laughing like a crazy witch.
“All these years, Jacob. You’re still so sore about all that because you’re in denial. You feel the way you do about me because it still hurts, baby. You still love me. You never forget your first love and you never get over them. You remember telling me you loved me bambino? When you used to fuck me over and over. You could never get enough of me, could you? Seems you still can’t.” She’s purring at him, using his own pet name which makes me pale, my fists clenching and my nails biting into my palms. Jake is shaking his head at her and snarling again. My fury is building to epic proportions at just the thought of the two of them, back then and now, when they made a baby. It’s all one giant mess of visions and agony and it makes me want to rip her head off.
“I don’t want you. I have everything standing right next to me that I could ever want. You’re just that irritating nail in my shoe that I can’t get rid of.” Jake delivers it with a sneer, but she doesn’t falter, just more bedroom eyes and lip licking.
“He did more than kiss me, Emma. He was unzipped and ready to go if only I’d stopped resisting. Pushed up against the wall in a dark smoky club. I bet you were the last thing on his mind, baby cakes.” She meets his eyes full-on, challenging him defiantly, a glimmer of calculation in that face and I know without a doubt she’s lying. Jake may be all about kinky sex and hot blooded even when drunk but I know he wouldn’t screw someone in a public bar; especially not her.
I don’t even have to think about it. Jake’s whole posture, his anger at what she’s trying to do, and the tension in the room all tell me that I know the truth. I know he wouldn’t have done that to me. She kissed him, pushed herself onto him, and he didn’t stop her right away. He let it happen, for seconds, and then his head snapped into place; his brain came around, and he pushed her away. I know him better, I know that he didn’t do this to us, I know without question because every part of this unfolding scene is telling me so. I don’t know Marissa at all but even I can see she’s lying, pure, barefaced manipulation.
“You know who else was there, Marissa? … Daniel … and Daniel’s version will undoubtedly match up to what Jake remembers so don’t even try to split us up with your rancid bullshit because yes! I am pregnant and we’re not only buying a house right next door, but Jake’s asked me to marry him more than once. So, please, a guy who is so quick to run off to his ex is surely not going to ask me to marry him and mean it.” I rant at her."
