The Storm Inside (29 page)

Amazing… yep, that was the word I would use, too… if I could remember how to talk. My brain was mush, my body was drained, and I was contemplating moving into this bathroom just so I wouldn’t have to leave.

Jake chuckled, “That good, huh? I’ve fucked you into silence?”

“Yep.” I finally managed a single syllable word.

His chest rumbled again and then his strong arms moved around so that he could hold me up and look at me, “Darlin’ I promise to take you straight home, but first I’ve got to get you dressed again.”

I smiled and bit my lip, “No one’s missing us. We can hide out a while longer.”

He shook his head giving me a devilish look, “Well it is a damn fine thing I didn’t try to fuck you in the hallway. This would have been a disaster.”

“Oh, we would have gotten caught for sure. And with all these fancy people… we never would have lived it down.”

“They’d be talking about it at parties years from now…
do you remember that one couple… the one caught fucking?
”

We cleaned up quickly once I got my feet under me. Jake helped me back into my dress, and after a few adjustments I felt we were as close as we could get to looking like we hadn’t just had a wild romp in a bathroom.

Jake pulled me into one last kiss, “You sure you don’t want me to take you home? I could repeat my performance… in the shower perhaps?”

“No, I want to finish the night. It is a lovely party and there are lots of people we still haven’t talked to. Besides… I think I might need a little bit to recover before we do that again.”

Jake grinned wickedly, “I’ll get you a water first, then.”

“Wise,” I agreed and opened the door.

Unfortunately there was someone waiting for us. They weren’t happy. And they were also my ex-boyfriend.

Sebastian was leaned up against the wall, a frown on his face, and his arms crossed over his chest. I immediately straightened up and stepped to the side as Jake followed me out. His surprise was as graceful as mine, “Sorry about that,” Jake muttered, placing his hand on the small of my back and motioning for me to head down the hall ahead of him.

The only sound Sebastian made was the slamming of the bathroom door as we hurried down the hallway.

Awkward. That was awkward. As Jake got me some water I texted Jennie. It was one of those things you simply couldn’t keep to yourself.

“Do we pretend that didn’t just happen?” Jake asked with a look of mock horror on his face.

“What else would we do? Would you want an ex to come up to you and discuss the amazing sex they’d just had?”

Jake smirked, the pride glowing in his eyes and curling on his lips, “Amazing, eh?”

Cocky bastard. He knew it was amazing, he’d called it that himself. “I believe those were the words we tossed around, yes.”

His arm snaked around my waist and he dipped his lips down to whisper in my ear, “It was fucking earth-shattering watching you come, Eve.”

I melted against him and looked up at him through my lashes, “Glad I could rock your world.”

Jake growled and nipped at my earlobe, “You
are
my world, darlin’.”

Before I could enjoy his sweet words we were interrupted.

“Jake Spencer, I’m Lane Harris, one of the investors on the project.”

Jake winked at me before turning to Lane and shaking his hand. “Nice to meet you Lane. How can I help you?”

“I was wondering if we could have a minute of your time?”

“Of course, Lane. May I introduce you to my date? This is my girlfriend Eve Daniels.”

Lane smiled at me pleasantly, “It’s nice to meet you Miss Daniels, I actually know your father.”

I straightened up a little bit in Jake’s arms at the mention of my father. “It’s nice to meet you as well.” I extended my hand and he delicately shook it, as was the usual custom of men at parties like this.

“You two are quite adorable together. I’ve heard a lot about you over the years, Miss Daniels. Joe is a very proud father and from what I’ve heard, it’s all deserved. You’ve done a wonderful job with the Rays.”

I was flattered. The last thing I expected tonight was to see so many people I knew from work. This was Jake’s night and I had come with the intention of being his arm candy. But I was quickly realizing this was a small town and we were swimming with the big fish. Jake’s circles and mine were quickly colliding.

“I appreciate that very much, Lane. And please call me Eve.”

Lane lead us over to a group of three men, “Jake, Eve may I introduce you to some of the other investors? This is Peter Salsburg and Jeff McComb. And of course I’m sure you’ve already met the architect, Mr. Sebastian Monroe.”

We shook Peter and Jeff’s hands, the usual ‘nice to meet you’s’ exchanged, but Sebastian hung back. He was clearly in a foul mood, not that I would have expected any different, but he looked positively angry. His normally smooth exterior was ruffled, his shirt slightly out of place, his tie just a bit off center, his hair messy. On any other man—hell, on Jake—it would look normal and even a little sexy. But on Sebastian it looked wrong.

“Sebastian,” I nodded in his direction, but couldn’t bring myself to look him in the eye. It was just too weird.

“Eve,” he replied, even his voice was rough. Sebastian was not doing well at all. “Jake, seems you’ve been busy this evening.”

The temperature around us dropped. Jake and I understood the double meaning behind Sebastian’s words, but the others were blissfully unaware of the strange conversation we were having.

“I have,” Jake acknowledged, putting his arm back around my waist. It felt protective. I was glad, because the vibe I was getting from Sebastian was making me incredibly uncomfortable.

“So, now that we have both you and Sebastian here, we wanted to go over some details and bring up a few concerns we had for the designs.”

I watched the two men I’d lived with, both brilliant and powerful, as they interacted with the investors in the project. All three investors were absolutely taken with Sebastian’s designs and Jake’s ingenuity. Both men handled the conversation brilliantly. Soothing the investors when they needed it, walking them through information when it was necessary. They were the very picture of professionalism.

But Jake was uncomfortable. I had the feeling his radar was going crazy, he was worried about Sebastian and that, in turn, made him worried about me. I noticed how he kept me opposite Sebastian, even moving his body to block his view when it seemed to lock on me.

Sebastian was completely unlike himself. He was short and clipped with his words, not nearly as smooth or eloquent as I knew he could be. The differences were subtle, but to me they were obvious.

“Thank you for your time, gentlemen. We look forward to seeing what you do with this,” Lane said shaking everyone’s hands once again.

And leaving the three of us alone together.

The uncomfortable silence made my skin crawl and the only thing I wanted to do was go home just like Jake had suggested when we left the bathroom. Why hadn’t we just gone home then?

“Good night, Sebastian,” Jake said turning me away.

“You had sex in a bathroom, Eve? With
him
?” The way he spat out the words, the condescending drip they had, that was what turned us around. Anything less and Jake and I would have happily walked away from Sebastian’s game. But he baited us and we took it.

I froze and Jake tensed.

“I want you to really think about what you’re doing, Sebastian. Think before you speak.” Jake said as he turned around. “You can’t take back what you say.”

Sebastian was brooding, but defiant. He obviously didn’t like being chastised by Jake. “It was simply a question.”

“That wasn’t just a question. That was a carefully placed insult. And I don’t like it when anyone insults me or my girlfriend.” The testosterone cloud was blooming again.

I stepped out from under Jake’s arm, “Please don’t do this, Sebastian. Not here.”

Jake jerked, “Not ever.”

But Sebastian was on a mission. Whatever his goal was, he wasn’t going to be moved. “Are you going to answer me?”

I shook my head, “No I’m not going to answer you. You know the answer to both questions.”

“The Eve I knew wouldn’t reduce herself to such rude behavior.”

Oh no he didn’t.
“Excuse me? The Eve you knew? Maybe you didn’t know me at all. Did
that
bright idea ever occur to you?” I took a step toward him and my finger came out, pointing at him and waving, “We never had passion like that. You never needed me so desperately you had to have me wherever we were.
That
is why I’m with
him
.”

Sebastian’s mouth fell open and he laughed, but it was from disbelief. I was fairly certain Sebastian couldn’t even imagine feeling that strongly about anyone. “He abandoned you.”

He was looking Jake up and down like he couldn’t stand the sight of him. It kind of made me want to forget where we were or that I had any manners at all. Because at the moment, we were keeping things pretty quiet, there were only a couple of sideways glances at our threesome.

But what I really wanted to do was beat the crap out of my ex. And that, I was pretty sure, would get us some attention.

“Are you insane?” I hissed. “My relationship with Jake is none of your damn business.”

“I’m not so sure. I care about you Eve and right now you’re not thinking clearly. I think you might need to hear some sense.”

What did that mean? What the hell was he talking about?

“You are about to cross that line, Sebastian,” Jake warned.

Sebastian glared at Jake, “You want to talk about lines, Jake? How about the one you crossed when you left your girlfriend?”

I was pretty impressed by Jake; he wasn’t letting anything get to him. He was the picture of cool confidence. Sebastian would use anything he could get his hands on right now, so Jake wasn’t giving him anything.

Me on the other hand, I wasn’t so smooth. I didn’t have it in me to stand there quietly and listen. “If you have something to say, just say it and stop playing games.”

“I’m worried about you, Eve.” He said it so simply and calmly I almost believed he was really worried about me and not his bruised ego. Somewhere inside I knew all of this was coming from that. He was hurt. Our relationship hadn’t worked out, but clearly he’d wanted it to, maybe even expected for us to get back together one day. It was why he was still connected to my friends and family. Sebastian had never let go of the idea we would be together.

It probably wasn’t because he loved me, not in the way I viewed love. I was pretty sure, especially looking back, that Sebastian was in love with the idea of me. I was the woman he wanted on his arm, the family he wanted to marry into, the external trappings of success he thought would make him happy. But he’d never really known me, and never loved me the way I wanted to be loved.

“Eve, he can’t be good for you. He left you and he broke your heart. Do you remember how you were? Because I do. We were friends before we dated, and I knew you even before that. You were miserable.
He
made you miserable. And now you’re back with him… the man who destroyed you. What does that say about you?”

I hadn’t expected him to go there, so it took me by surprise. I’d expected to hear all about how Jake had ruined my life before and he would do it again. The whole ‘people don’t change’ line.

I didn’t expect him to turn the tables on me.

“Me?” I tried the idea out on my lips. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.

“Yes, you.” He squinted at me like I was a puzzle he was trying to solve. “You followed Jake until he left you even though you knew he was bad for you. He was a mess and yet… you wouldn’t let him go. Then you waited. And waited. I don’t call the bullshit halfhearted dating you did between Jake and me, dating. And then there was me. You were never really with me. No matter how hard I tried, there was always a brick wall between you and me. You never let me see inside.”

He was seething with anger and saying a lot of things. I was trying to keep up with him, but he just kept coming at me with more. “What are you so afraid of Eve? What do you have hidden inside you don’t want someone good like me to see? I think you like being with Jake because he’s safe. He is so screwed up that the attention will never be on you and you can keep hiding all your secrets behind that wall of yours and no one will ever notice.”

My jaw fell open but no words came out. I had no ready response for that. What Sebastian was saying… it had never occurred to me before. I was so incredibly fixated on the things being done to me, on the things on the outside… I’d never really looked in. I had no response to Sebastian’s questions because I had no answers.

“Eve, don’t listen to him,” Jake warned. “He’s messing with your head.”

“Sebastian… I want you to leave now.” I said quietly. “I’m sorry we surprised you tonight, I know that wasn’t fun. But we never meant to hurt you. What you’re doing right now… you’re trying to hurt me and confuse me on purpose. So if you don’t walk out of here in the next thirty seconds I’m gonna kick your ass. And the problem with that is my wonderful, passionate, will-do-anything-for-me boyfriend here, will also have to kick your ass. And seeing as I don’t think any of us really want that, I’m gonna need you to drag yourself out of here.” My voice got louder and firmer with every word.