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If it were up to him, they would be together, and Jacob would nurse her back to health. Interestingly, Jacob felt fine since they’d gotten back from Barbados. But their meager conversations hadn’t allotted him the time to find out if maybe it was something else.

Still, he longed for the time he could wrap her in his arms again. It was safe to say, Jacob had it bad. Carla’s immeasurable personality, whimsical and delightful, was a pleasure to experience. That was the thing about her. She was so lively, whether during breakfast or in the times he enfolded her in exchange for successional hyper-stimulating strokes of his dick.

Heat swept his skin just thinking of her touch, her flavor, her heart, her love.

And yet, when Jacob flipped his gaze up to scan the area, the image of Carla across the room on the arm of Lennox Jenkins, ex-boyfriend, and candidate for mayor of Chicago, ushered confusion behind the sentiment in his thoughts.

Jacob’s brows dipped. His laser focus tuned into their stance. She was exquisitely beautiful, her maple brown skin a rhinestone of highlighted melanin. She spoke to the gentleman in front of her and then smiled, however coy and semi-uncomfortable it was.

Carla’s nod, followed by a glance into Lennox’s eyes, nearly sucked the wind out of Jacob. Her arm was linked with his as if she were his…date.

Jacob’s heart felt as if it would stop. Certainly, he must have misunderstood what was happening right before him. Never mind that his eyes had never deceived him before.

Jacob dropping out of the conversation brought the attention of Luke. He went to speak to Jacob when his eyes followed Jacob’s gaze.

“Excuse me for a minute,” Jacob said. Luke grabbed his arm, and Jacob slipped out of his grip.

He couldn’t control his body, his strides across the room. Nothing made sense as he walked toward them. The guests who spoke out to him were all but forgotten, and when she glanced up, Carla’s eyes meeting Jacob’s, the blood in her face drained.

Jacob moved into their circle of five, facing Carla but getting a closer look at their posture.

Carla dropped her arm and took a meager step of distance, separating her and Lennox.

“Mr. Rose!” The congressman standing next to Jacob greeted him. He held out a hand, turning his eye to the man.

“Congressman,” he greeted.

“It’s great to see you here. Are you campaigning for Mr. Jenkins? I know you and Mayor Steele have history.”

“Excuse me,” Jacob said, taking his attention back to Carla. “Who do I have the pleasure of being in the company of?”

As if he spoke to the congressman, the congressman introduced the circle.

"…And this is as you know, Lennox Jenkins and his lady Carla Jones,” the congressman gloated. “The two make a great couple, don’t you think?”

Jacob’s gaze dropped back to Carla’s, and he waited behind the uptick of his pulse for her to refute the congressman’s claims—but silence lingered amid the unsteady rhythms of his collapsing heart. Perplexed, despair, pain, and disappointment filled his gaze. Jacob nodded, feeling like the air was sucked out of his lungs.

“I don’t mean to interrupt,” Jacob said, “Have a good night.”

He turned and moved away from the group, and Carla went after him.

“Jacob.”

He paused, waited for a second, then turned to face her.

“So, this is why you’ve been so unavailable to me?”

Carla’s heart stuttered. “No. It’s, it’s…"

“It’s what? Not what I think?”

She took in a breath. “I know that’s cliché but, if you trust me—"

“If I trust you?”

“If…" She could barely craft her sentences. “If you trusted me before, trust me now, please; it’s not what you think.”

“Sweetheart, is anything the matter?” Lennox said, his voice drifting into their conversation from behind Carla as he glided up.