168
“Wow,” I yell as Leila spins me for the third time sending me wheeling across the narrow area we have chosen as a dance space. The place is jam-packed, and bumping into random strangers is inevitable. I catch Jake looking over at me from the group of men he’s ensconced with and smile at him. He smiles back, but there’s a tension about him that wasn’t there before. I’m pulled back by Leila seconds later and spun out in a twirl, colliding with someone hard.
“Ouch,” I yelp as strong hands come up to steady me. I pull myself away from the person, apologizing profusely, and stand on my own two feet. Hard to do when you’re extremely drunk, and I’m sure I’m slurring. I look up into the face of the tall, dark ‘wall’ I’d collided with, and I’m surprised by his resemblance to Jake; it’s almost eerie. Although Jake is casual and sexy with designer stubble and green eyes, this man has a clean-shaven face, blue eyes, and more of a James Bond thing going for him. He smiles at me and extends a hand.
“A proper introduction … I’m Ben Huntsberger, Leila’s brother.” He smiles, and I’m glad to see that he doesn’t have Jake’s heart-wrenching ‘I’m too hot’ smile. There’s no comparison; his smile seems all too engineered and white against the fake tan glow on his skin. Jake’s tan is real; even without the sun, he has that warm Italian olive skin.
“Emma Anderson,” I reply, shaking his hand and quickly pulling it away, not liking the feel of his skin on mine. Jake aside, I still cringe at men touching me. Somehow it feels wrong to be touched by him, and it sends a weird unease through me.
“She’s told me a lot about you.” He grins at me, and I get the distinct impression he’s trying to flirt. I lower my brows, narrow my eyes suspiciously and move back, feeling slightly uncomfortable. It’s that same feeling with him that I get with most men except Jake. I’ve never felt it with him, not even from the start, that off-feeling of mistrust.
“Most of it’s probably not true; she likes to embellish.” I smile tightly, ensuring I don’t encourage him in any way. I know his type.
“I’m sure it’s all true.” His eyes wander up my legs and over my body before stopping a second too long on my cleavage. “She tells me you’re Jake’s girlfriend?”
I feel a wave of bile and unease. He’s making my skin crawl, but I don’t get a chance to answer before I’m tugged back harshly into the hard chest of a very irate Jake. He’s holding my upper arm almost painfully.
“Yes, she is, so you can go letch someplace else, asshole.” Aggression is oozing off Jake in overwhelming waves, making me almost instantly uneasy. My alarm bells are going off at being caught between them, with Jake exuding a mounting alpha male vibe.
“Well, didn’t you turn out to be the jealous one after all?” Ben quips, grinning.
But it’s the wrong thing to say, and Jake moves toward him in a flash, face-to-face. Pushed aside a little too abruptly, I stumble into someone else. I catch myself and stagger behind Jake to keep my distance, eyes wide at this new version of him, unsure of what to think or do. I’m stunned that he actually shoved me.
“You think I’d be jealous of you? Emma wouldn’t give you a second look,” he snaps in Ben’s face, the men nose to nose in a display of dominance, equally matched in height and muscle. The air is sparking around them. I begin to tremble in fear, unsure how to react. I’ve never seen Jake go head-to-head with someone this way, nor seen him behave like this, except with Ray Vanquis, which ended in bloodshed for a justified reason.
“I’m sure you thought that about Marissa too, yet she was only too willing to climb into my bed,” Ben sneers, and my brain instantly clicks the pieces into place, and I gasp quietly.
This was Jake’s best friend? The man who betrayed him so long ago? No wonder Jake feels this way about him.
I don’t see it coming at all. It’s so sudden and uncharacteristic of Jake that I barely see it happen. He hits Ben full-on in the face with one perfect punch in his trained boxer stance, the energy rippling around us. The room almost falls silent as the thud echoes in my ears. The other man crumples to the ground. Chaos erupts around us as others jump to their feet, and Leila starts yelling.
I’m pushed back behind other girls by the force of those getting involved and can’t see what’s happening. For minutes I’m pushing and struggling to get out of the corner I’ve been trapped in, panic searing through me, surrounded by noise and shouting, drowning out the music. Finally, I’m yanked forward by Leila, who drags me out between groups of people and hurriedly leads me along the windows before heading out through a smaller side door to the elevator lobby.
“Where’s Jake?” I demand, trying to wrench free. “Leila, stop! Where is he?” I squeal in panic. I can’t leave without him; I need to know where he is, what’s happening, and if he’s okay.
“We’re following him!” Leila barks. “Security threw him outside with Ben. I need you to calm him down before he fucking kills him.” She is completely distraught.
“Wait, what?” I grab her hand, pulling her to an abrupt stop. “I thought Jake hit him, and that was the end. Everyone got in the way, and I couldn’t see anymore.” The fear that has taken hold in my stomach is most definitely in panic mode.
“Ben got back up, and when Jake went to walk away, he lurched at him and tried to hit Jake back.” Leila starts to cry, and I wrap my arms around her. “I got pushed aside, and I couldn’t see anymore. The next thing I knew, Ben and Jake were gone, apparently heading out of the building to finish what they started.” She starts sobbing. “I love them both … I don’t know what to do.”
“It’s okay,” I soothe, trying to act soberer and braver than I feel. The shock of what’s happened has improved my senses. The deep pit of worry inside me takes over, pushing good old familiar PA Emma’s head in place. We catch an elevator down; when the doors open, I pull Leila along, following others leaving the building, hoping I’m going the right way. Ahead of us, I spot one of the men who had been with us upstairs and follow him, dragging a silent and tearful Leila along by the hand with determination, my heart thudding through my chest.
With people in the way hindering us, it feels like the longest time ever before we finally get outside. Arrick appears, looking less frantic, and shakes his head in our general direction like this is something normal every day. I feel ill with nerves, but my outward demeanor is that of cool and controlled PA Emma; she was always best in a crisis.
There seems to be a crowd in the street. Pulling Leila by the hand, I spot familiar faces and finally see two men holding Ben back. His face is bloody, his perfect hair messy, and his shirt pulled and torn. He’s yelling and struggling to get loose, but they have an arm each and are doing their best to keep him back.
I follow the direction of his hateful gaze and see Jake standing about twenty feet from him. A few men are in front of him, talking to him, their hands resting lightly on his arms. He looks less agitated than Ben and requires a lot less force to keep him still; he’s also completely unscathed, with not even a hint of anything wrong with his attire. I let go of Leila, run for him, pushing between the men standing with him, and throw myself around him, tears coming from nowhere. He seems to jolt back to reality at my touch and instantly relaxes, the tension I hadn’t seen in his face seeping from his rigid body. His hands come to my face, pulling my chin up to bring our eyes to one another.
“Hey, don’t cry,” he soothes, the furrow on his brow deepening, showing remorse instead of anger. “Bambina, hey, stop now.” He bends, and his face and mouth nuzzle into my neck as his arms come around me, surrounding me. He squeezes the life out of me, lifting me from my feet in a bear hug that almost winds me.
Suddenly rage rises inside me, now that I know he’s okay, over the fact that Jake physically pushed me out of his way to fight with some idiot over her. It sparks to the surface without warning, igniting crazily. I shove him off hard and square up to him as best I can, being so much shorter.
“Don’t ever do that to me again,” I yell at him, tears replaced with anger. His face is a picture of disbelief. He tries to grab me, but I hit him away angrily, the fire inside me fully blazing, jealousy eating my soul.
How could he behave like that in a nightclub?
It’s not just that he pushed me aside and physically attacked someone; he attacked the person who stole Marissa from him, the girl he doesn’t care for anymore—apparently!
That, more than anything, is at the root of my drunken fury. My insecurity is piqued and sensitized, and irrational Emma is on a full-blown tirade in her woozy state.
“I’m going home!” I snap. Giving him no chance to answer, I turn away and look around for Leila, for anyone to get me away from him and the utter rage I am in right now.
“Emma?” Jake comes at me again, apprehension all over his face. I’m beyond livid. I need him not to touch me. I spin away and march back toward Arrick, standing nearby, looking toward Leila with Ben. She’s got her arms around her brother’s waist and is talking to him, crying her eyes out, pleading with him; all the while, he’s glaring over her head at Jake with unveiled venom.
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