Page 33 of The Sandover Beach Billionaire

“I totally forgot too. Just go,” Jenna said. “I don’t need to be there. I just want to get it over with. I’m sure it will be a while before they finish getting us out.”

“Okay! I can come back and pick you up after.”

“I can drive her home,” Jackson called out. “Is Megan okay?”

“She’s fine,” Rachel said. “Hungry and still, um, saucy, but fine. She said she’ll let the firemen in. Call me when you get out. I want to know that you’re okay.”

“Okay,” Jenna said. She was suddenly aware of the heat again. The temperature felt like it was still rising. There was no circulation in the space. Her shirt was damp and her forehead slick. Jackson’s body heat on hers was almost unbearable, but she couldn’t pull away. Or didn’t want to.

Guilt felt just as cloying as the heat in the small space. It had been too easy to turn her hurt outward to him yet again. And why? She hadn’t been rude to Steve even once the other night in her kitchen. He cheated on her. He had started the rumor about Rachel. Yet she let him inside her house and had a perfectly normal conversation with him.

Jackson brought out the very worst in her, cruel words she didn’t even know that she had the capacity to say.

Rachel had gone. Megan was quietly waiting somewhere in the house for the fire department. She and Jackson still clung to each other, but the air felt charged with tension. Jenna knew she owed Jackson multiple apologies. She couldn’t keep lashing out at him. It wasn’t fair. And she didn’t really mean the things she said.

“I’m sorry.” The words sounded so cliché. She wished that she had better ones or that he could feel the weight of how deeply she felt them.

“It’s okay. I was a jerk back then.” He paused and there was pain in his voice when he spoke again. “I don’t know if I’m any better now. Though I’d like to be.”

Slowly, Jenna lifted a hand from Jackson’s back toward where she knew his face was. She hesitated only for a moment and then touched his cheek with her fingertips. He drew in a breath. She traced her fingers over his jaw and cupped his face, feeling the rough scratch of stubble on her palm.

“Jackson, no—I really am sorry. Not about what I just said, but all the things I’ve said. I’ve been treating you horribly since I’ve been back. I have never spoken to someone the way I’ve spoken to you this week. You totally didn’t—and don’t—deserve it. I’ve been the jerk and I’m sorry.”

He leaned slightly into her hand, bending closer toward her so when he spoke, she felt his breath on her cheek. “You mean like how you thought I was a bag boy at Bohn’s? Because that was actually pretty funny, I have to say. Your opinion of me could not be much lower, could it?” She could hear the smile in his voice through the dark.

“Oh, it could have been lower. Still can, so you better watch it. But seriously, even if you were a cashier or something, I shouldn’t have been a jerk about it. I don’t know what’s gotten into me. You just seem to bring out some kind of reaction in me. I don’t know what it is about you. I’m working on it.”

He was so close it felt like his cheek almost brushed hers. She closed her eyes, listening to the rush of her heartbeat in her ears.

“I bring out a reaction in you, huh?” His voice was teasing and light, just like the breath she felt over her lips.

Was he going to kiss her?

Now that she had the thought, Jenna’s mind and her mouth were drawn to the idea of his lips.

“You do. Not always a bad reaction.”

“No?”

Her breath caught. Jenna felt a rush and elation she hadn’t felt since she was a teenager. There was teasing still in his voice, but also a hint and a promise of something. The heat she was feeling now had less to do with the cramped, airless space and more to do with the attraction that was very clearly moving between them.

Could it be this easy? To go from thinking she hated Jackson to letting him kiss her? She wanted him to, more than she had wanted anything in a long time. This was the first time in as long as she could remember that Jenna wanted anything. Not just physical touch or romance, but even the spark of desire. The longing to live. Too long she had been going through the motions of a life that felt empty.

Cloaked in the darkness of the elevator, Jenna felt brave. She leaned the slightest bit closer to him and felt his arms tighten around her. She trailed her hand from his face down to his shoulder, feeling the muscles tense and bunch beneath her fingers.

The light scrape of his stubble on her cheek made her gasp. When Jackson chuckled, his lips brushed the skin near her mouth. Jenna froze completely, the shock of his skin against hers startling her into the inability to respond.

“I did everything wrong before.” Jackson’s words moved against her skin as his lips dragged over her cheek. Her body almost vibrated with the anticipation. If he moved his mouth slightly to the left …

“I want to do things right this time. I would like to kiss you, but I want to know that’s what you want too.” His breath on her cheek made Jenna shiver. “Though I’m honestly afraid of what might come out of your mouth, based on your track record.”

Jenna giggled, more from nerves than humor. “I can’t say that I blame you.”

When Jenna spoke, her lips moved against the sandpapery stubble on his cheek. Why hadn’t she just said yes? Yes, please kiss me. He was asking for permission. Jenna wanted him to kiss her more than she remembered wanting anything in the last few years.

But her nerves flared in equal strength to her desire. What was she thinking? Did he really want a relationship? Did she? Hadn’t she just been insulting him? Could her feelings really change that fast? Her heart was galloping and her brain was misfiring, her thoughts scattered, bouncing everywhere.

She couldn’t seem to summon the bravery she had felt only moments ago to say that one word. Three letters. Yes. That’s all, but Jenna couldn’t manage to choke out the word as the silence grew more awkward between them. If she couldn’t say it, she could show him instead. Jenna inched closer and pressed a soft kiss to his jaw.

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