Page 137 of Take What You Want

“You won’t know that until you talk to her.” He unlocks the car. Hendrik looks at me with such fondness, such care, that it makes my lungs squeeze. He’s been with me for the past seven years and oftentimes felt more like a father figure to me than my own father who has moved on to his new family.

“Thanks, Hendrik. For everything.”

He pats my leg and turns away. “Go talk to her.”

I hop out of the car, leg muscles protesting at all of the sitting they’ve been doing the last seven hours, and jog into the house.

The alarm system isn’t set when I open the door, so that’s a good sign.

“Jane,” I call out when I walk through the kitchen and living room. Both are empty. I run upstairs and check her bedroom but her bed is still made and looks like she didn’t sleep in it last night. “Fuck.”

I dart downstairs and check the theater room and studio. No sign of her.

Panic clogs my throat as I race around the rest of the house, checking every single room and even the closets. Just as I begin to accept that she’s not home, I glance at the pool.

Dark hair billowing behind her in the warm breeze, legs dangling in the water as she watches the sunrise, sits my beautiful girl. My salvation.

My everything.

36

JANE

Ifeel him approach me before I hear him. The air charges with an electric energy that only Nikolai Brooks can muster. It dances over my skin and makes my heart race.

“Hey,” he says timidly; his footsteps nearly silent on the concrete.

The rising sun burns my eyes but I don’t look away. I like the sting, and for this view, it’s worth it.

Just like how Nikolai has always been worth the hurt, I guess.

“You’re back early.”

The water is cool around my legs as I swish them around in the water. I wasn’t planning to come out here so early, but I couldn’t sleep and as I paced around the house, I found myself out here.

“Yeah.” He kicks his shoes off when he reaches me and rolls up the bottoms of his joggers. With a heavy sigh, he sits beside me, shoulders brushing, and puts his feet in the water, too. “You haven’t been answering your phone.”

“I turned it off.”

“I figured.”

“You look like shit.” Dark circles hang beneath his dull eyes and his hair sticks up in various directions.

He barks out a laugh and rubs a hand across his cheek roughly. “Thank you for your honesty, LJ.”

“I watched your performance,” I say, cutting to the chase.

“Jane—”

I whirl my head in his direction and lock our eyes. “I’m going to ask you a question and I’m telling you right now, you better be 100% honest with me. I’ve been cheated on before, you know this. And I’m trying really, really hard not to let that situation bleed into ours. So, I’m going to ask you this once.”

He swallows thickly.

“Did you tell her she could kiss you?”

“No.” The single word is emphatic and certain. “I promise you, Jane, I did not.”

I nod. The movement sends my hair falling in my face, creating a curtain of privacy as his answer sinks in.

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