Page 86 of Absolute Certainty
He’d swapped his glasses for contacts and wore an all-black dress shirt and black jeans.He looked good.Too bloody good. To be fair, Jay always looked good, but it all felt different now. She could spot the bracelet that Eloise had made him next to his watch, and it was so freaking precious that he continued to wear it, even with business casual attire.
Drawing his eyes away from the building on the other side of the street, Jay caught her nearness. His gaze darted to her with a shimmer that his glasses often hid.
Sahar wanted to hug him, wrap her arms around his large frame, and feel the warmth of his body against hers. And not in a fleeting embrace. No, she wanted to hold on. She wanted to inhale the scent of his cologne, cedar and something musky she couldn’t place, along with the bit of coffee that clung to him. As a palpable reminder of work every time he left, Jay probably hated that part. But it worked for him. It worked forher.
Given everything that had transpired in the past week, she wondered if the day felt differentfor him, too.This wasn’t a date—not the conventional kind—but she was his plus one, wasn’t she? That had to count for something.
The way he looked,leaningagainst the wall. No one should lookthatgood in the simple act of leaning.
Striding closer, she didn’t second-guess herself. Sahar inched forward, circling her arms around his neck. He wrapped his arm around her waist with a tight squeeze, making everything in her burn from his touch.
They parted too quickly again.
She wanted to keep holding on.
“Hi,” she said.
The smile tugging at the corners of his mouth deepened. “Hi.”
A stillness extended out into the air. An intimacy. A comfort. Something visceral she could feel all around her.
“I’m not late, am I? Were you waiting long?” Sahar added.
He shook his head amiably. “Not at all. I got here about five minutes ago.” Jay’s eyes mapped her frame before he spoke again. “You look really nice.”
A blush heated her cheeks. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” he repeated, his smile wider. Then he added, “Subway or a ride?”
“If I get a say in the matter, ride, please. Bad ankle and heels are seldom a wise combination. I didn’t want to ruin the outfit with a tote and extra shoes.” Courtesy of Willa’s styling, Sahar wore a pair of light-wash, high-waisted straight-leg jeans, a white silk cami, and a dark purple, oversized blazer, with four-inch white pumps.
Pulling out his phone, Jay nodded with understanding.
And while she was wearing said four-inch heels, he was still taller than her. His body, toned and lean.Stop ogling him.His beard was more of a scruff now, and so wildly hot as it accentuated his bone structure.
God, he wasfit—so devastatingly attractive. Yet, it wasn’t only the physical with Jay—it was knowing what went beyond his edges. It was the glimpses she had into his heart. His goodness. His patience.
“How was work today?” Sahar asked, brushing away thoughts of her attraction to him aside.
“I didn’t go in. I’d taken it off, so I spent the day with Ellie, then came straight here when I dropped her off at my mom’s.”
“Bet she loved it.”
He beamed at her. “She demolished me in a game of chess twice, so I’m sure she did.”
“Did you say chess?”
“I did.”
“That’s brilliant. My uncle tried to teach me once when I was like fifteen, and I almost cried because I couldn’t fully process the rules.”
A low laugh left his lips. “Are you one of those people who has to get something right the first time, or you’ll get frustrated and feel like a failure?”
“I think you can safely guess the answer to that.”
He could probably guess the answer to many things about her.
Jay had sent her the letter from Katherine two days ago. She’d wept over it and texted him right away to thank him. It was easy to gush over his words. It was seamless communicating with him when the topic of discussion wasn’t the sparks detonating between them. But he had to feel it, too, didn’t he? How intimate it all felt now? How, despite the sticky heat and makeup, the red staining her cheeks was an effect of how he looked at her.
