Page 55 of Look What You Made Me Do

“I was clearly decrepit at the grand old age of twenty.”

His chuckle was interrupted by a loud banging on the door. “Jake. It’s Pete.”

Pausing his assault on Ella’s neck, Jake pressed his forehead to her sternum. “It’s like Grand Central Station here, isn’t it?” Glancing at the door he yelled, “Go away.”

“Rosie says last chance for bacon.”

Jake fell back against the bed on a groan as Ella muffled a laugh. “We said no, already.”

“She says it’s like an orgasm for the mouth.”

Ella laughed again as Jake shook his head. “Does the kid not realize that I’m trying to score a real one here?” he murmured. “Pete,” he said, louder this time, “I hired you, I can fire you. Go away.”

“Jeez, okay, I’m going, I’m going.”

Jake collapsed back against the mattress and Ella pressed her body into his side, snuggling her head into the crook of his shoulder. His arm came up around her, his fingers stroking up and down her arm, her contented sigh echoing one of his own.

Lying with women after sex had never been Jake’s thing. It didn’t usually take them long to get to the hard sell, the when can I see you again speech which usually had a lot more to do with his celebrity than anything else.

When he’d been younger the hey baby, sure I’ll call lies had been easy. The older he got, the more gnawing his arm off in the middle of the night appealed. But being here with Ella, escape was the furthest thing from his mind.

A flash of color amidst the nick-nacks sitting on the shelf above the Van Gogh caught Jake’s eye. A stray beam of sunlight had pierced a path through swirling dust particles and struck two red glass objects, throwing a deep ruby glow on the wall behind.

“Hey.” He knew what that was. “Are they the vases your mom had in her room on the window ledge opposite her bed?”

12

Ella had been drifting away to the deep rhythm of Jake’s heartbeat when his comment ripped her by the roots of her hair back to consciousness. For a few seconds everything stopped as his words sank in.

How in the hell did he know that?

Ice-cold dread spread frigid tentacles through her veins. Her heart beat like bullets, hitting her chest from the inside. She pushed herself away from him, dragging the sheet with her, anchoring it firmly under her armpits.

Ella looked at the vases and for the first time in her life they revolted her. They’d been the only thing – aside from Cam – she’d taken from the house after she’d packed it up and left it for the lawyer to sell.

The only link to her mother. Not Rachel – her mother.

The woman she’d loved and known before the ugly truth of who she was had infected her memories like a cancer.

A rising urge to hurl the vases against the wall and watch them smash into a pile of ruby shards shook Ella to the core.

“Ella?”

She must have looked strange because he was looking at her warily, a frown crinkling his brow. “Yes, Jake.” Her voice trembled which Ella hated but her feelings were too big right now to act cool. “They are.”

Seemingly reassured by her answer, he nodded, glancing at them again. “I thought so. I always thought it was pretty cool how they refracted that weird red light around her room.”

Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.

The vain flicker of hope that maybe he’d just heard about the vases through grubby boys’ talk was brutally snuffed out.

Ella leaped out of bed, her mind scattering as she searched for something to put on. Jake’s coyness earlier about the experienced woman who had taken his virginity formed a bilious slick in her gut.

Oh God… she should have guessed who it was then.

Roger Hillman’s words from last night – come on, Jake, you remember Rachel, right? – caused a pain in her chest so severe she thought she was having a heart attack. Ella rubbed at it, trying to ease it as she threw Jake’s jersey over her head before turning to face him.

Adrenaline flooded her system as her fight-or-flight response took hold. “I think it’s time you left.” She crossed her arms around her middle to stop her hands from shaking.

---