Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 73462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
We don’t talk as we leave the suite, walk down the stairs, and out through the front. He seems to know instinctively that I’d prefer to avoid the beach, where I saw him and Brett kissing. Where Brett begged me to forgive him.
We find a narrow path shaded by palms and lined with thick greenery. It’s quiet. Removed. Even the waves feel distant.
We walk for a while, still without speaking, the silence pulsing between us. I catch glimpses of staff through the hedges. They’re laughing, hauling crates of wine and paper lanterns for tonight’s festivities. It all feels surreal. Like the world is still spinning even though mine is splintering.
Eventually, we find a bench at a small overlook, but we don’t sit. Just stand with a few feet between us.
“Start talking,” I finally say.
Jake runs a hand through his hair. “I kissed him.”
It lands like a punch. Not because I didn’t know. But because hearing him say it makes it real in a way that rips something open.
“Yeah,” I whisper. “I was there.”
“I shouldn’t have. I know that.”
“But you did.”
He nods once, slow. “And I told him he needed to go after you. That he was a fool to let you go.”
I cross my arms. “Was that before or after your tongue was in his mouth?”
He winces. “I deserved that.”
“You think?”
Jake steps forward, voice low. “I didn’t do it to hurt you. And believe it or not, neither did he.”
“But you did hurt me,” I say. “You both did. And now I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to feel.”
Jake’s blue eyes meet mine. They’re beautiful. Lighter than Brett’s, even. He must have been gorgeous even as a lanky teenager.
“But you still love him,” he says.
I blink. “I do. But let’s be real here. It’s only been days, Jake. And you just blew a crater through whatever we had.”
“I know.”
Silence again, broken only by the distant squawk of a gull overhead.
“I had no idea what he felt back then,” Jake says. “But the truth is, I felt it too. And I buried it. Deep. Because I had to. Because I loved someone else, and I made choices I don’t get to take back.”
“You didn’t just bury it,” I say. “You brought it back to life the second you got here.”
“I didn’t plan to,” he says. “But when Brett told me, it was like this door opened in me. One I didn’t even know was still there.”
“What now?” I ask. “You kiss him. You ruin things with me. Do you just vanish again?”
He shakes his head. “No. I’m done running. I don’t know what that means yet. But I’m here. And I needed you to know it wasn’t about you. It wasn’t to replace you. It wasn’t even about love.”
“Then what the hell was it?”
He hesitates a moment. “Closure, maybe? Or a goodbye we never got?”
Damn. I hate how much I understand that. I didn’t get closure with Leroy until days ago.
Still—
“I don’t care.”
Jake nods. “I’d take it back if I could.”
I pierce his gaze with mine. “No, you wouldn’t.”
A moment.
Then—
“You’re right. I wouldn’t.”
He takes a step closer. Then another.
I don’t move.
“You’re beautiful,” he says, his voice low and broken. “And sweet. It’s not difficult to see how Brett fell for you.”
I breathe in and let it out slowly. “You don’t even know me. Hell, neither does Brett. I can’t compete with someone he’s been mourning for twenty years, Jake.”
“You shouldn’t have to.”
“Damned right I shouldn’t have to. So I’m not going to. Have at him. He’s yours. I’m no stranger to a broken heart. I’ve gotten over it before, and I can do it again. Besides, Sebastian is still available.”
“Sienna…please.”
I look away.
But he tips my chin and pulls me back to meet his gaze.
And something hot and unexpected glimmers low in my belly.
He touches my face.
Softly. Reverently. Like he knows he has no right.
I should stop him.
But I don’t.
Because in this one horrible, aching moment, I want to know what it feels like to be wanted by the man Brett wants.
So when he kisses me, I let him.
It’s slow. It’s deep. And it’s devastating.
He slides his hands into my hair, and I clutch the front of his shirt, holding onto him as everything else falls apart.
When we finally break apart, I’m shaking.
I liked it.
I more than liked it.
“This doesn’t fix anything,” I say, barely above a whisper.
“I know.”
“And I don’t forgive you. Or Brett."
He nods. “I don’t expect you to.”
I wipe at my mouth with the back of my hand. “This was a mistake.”
“Maybe,” Jake says. “But it was honest.”
And that’s the worst part. It was. I wanted it as much as he did. Maybe for the wrong reason.
Or maybe for the right one.
I gulp as I step back. “I need to go.”
He lets me pass. Doesn’t follow.
As I walk back toward the mansion, the weight of the kiss still on my lips, I realize I’m not sure who I’m angrier with—him, Brett, or myself.