Page 76 of Love Lies Bleeding

“What sounds like fun?”

My spine stiffens as his voice caresses my skin like warm caramel. What is it about this man that he can just ignite my body without trying? I’m still an aching mess after the stunt he pulled on Saturday night. It will serve him right if I go and find some guy to take home right under his nose.

“Hey, Jake.”

Jake kisses Lexi’s cheek and I can’t help the rush of jealousy at his lips on another woman, even if that woman is my best friend and it’s completely platonic.

“Hey, Lex.” Jake looks at me with a raised brow and I give him what I hope is a bored look and glance back at my freshly painted nails, dismissing him.

“So what sounds like fun?”

“I was telling Cherry she should look for some hot guy to take home at the gala on Saturday.”

The satisfaction I get from watching Jake’s jaw tic in annoyance at my friend’s statement is unreal. I’m doing a mental happy dance that his dark stare only gets harder when I grin.

“You know, Lex, you’re right. I definitely need to get laid. I can’t remember the last time a man left me satisfied. Maybe I can find someone who actually knows where to find the clit without me having to draw him a map.”

Jake narrows his eyes at me in warning, but I don’t heed it and keep going. “What do you say, Jake? You know anyone who might be able to help a girl out?”

“No.” His curt, short, reply is filled with anger and I almost laugh but hold myself back. I do have a small dose of self-preservation left in my brain.

“Ah, well, I’ll find someone.”

Jake, seemingly having enough of this conversation, grips my upper arm and steers me towards the exit. “Time to go. We don’t want to be late for your fitting.”

Jake drags me past a smirking Lexi, who shoves my bag at me and waves me out the door.

“Take your hands off me.”

“No.”

My brain is clearly malfunctioning because it sounds like he said no. “What the hell, Jake?”

Opening the back door to the town car before his driver can, he gently pushes me inside and climbs in after me.

With a huff, I slide to the far side of the car and glare a hole in his head. “This is kidnapping.”

“Don’t test me, Blossom. I know exactly what you’re doing and it won’t work.”

“Oh, and pray tell, what it is I’m doing?”

Jake pins me with a laser-like stare that feels like it’s stripping the clothes from my skin. “You’re trying to find another reason to hate me and I’m not going to give you one. I get that I hurt you, Cherry, but I’m trying to put things right.”

The air leaves me in a whoosh as the fight he’d pinpointed so accurately leaves me.

“Good girl.”

I glare at his sexy smirk, wanting to pick a fight and knowing he isn’t going to bite. Jake has always been particularly good at seeing through my hard shell to the tender spot inside that bleeds.

Ignoring my outrage, he instructs the driver to take us to Bella Allure, the boutique where every socialite worthy of the name got their gowns, but that isn’t me. I’m not in that league and never will be.

“I don’t belong there, Jake. Just take me to the mall and I can grab something off the rack.”

His scorching gaze slides over me as he closes the partition between us and his driver. My pulse jumps to my throat as the tension inside the confines of the car rises to almost impossible levels. My breath freezes in my lungs as he leans forward and grips my chin gently but firmly between his thumb and forefinger.

“You belong anywhere you damn well choose, Blossom. If you want it, it’s yours, you got that? Because queens don’t ask permission and you’re a fucking queen and don’t ever forget it.”

With that, he drops a chaste kiss on my lips and releases me. My heart beats a frantic tap dance against my ribs as I watch him in silence. His belief in me had always given me confidence when I was wavering on whether I could do something, so it had been a double blow when he’d been the one to destroy it.

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