Page 142 of Heartless

My throat burned, and I shook my head.It was worse.So much worse.

His frown deepened.“What’s wrong, baby?”

Everything.

I put the length of the coffee table between us.Safely away from his touch, I took a deep breath, but it did nothing to appease the tremors inside me.

****

Jake

Something was fucking wrong.

She cleared her throat.“I had a visit today while I was picking up lunch.”

“Where was Ruiz?”

“He was there.”She swallowed.“The visit was from Rowena Wheelan, Kimberly Morrison, and Cecily Morrison-now-Inglewood.They said you and Silas slept with them because they were close to Nigel.”She swept her fingers through her hair, and hurt filled her gaze.“Is that true?”

Those fucking jackals.“Baby—”

“Jake, is it true?”

“Sienna, I don’t know what they told you—”

“You did,” she whispered, and tension tightened the back of my neck.

Curling her hands around her elbows, she cleared her throat.“Kimberly said when she told you she was in love with you, you said you just wanted to break one of Nigel’s toys.They said after you give oral sex to a woman, you wipe your mouth on her inner thigh.They called it your sexual trademark.They also confirmed you were an exceptional lover.So, I guess there’s that.”

“Baby, listen to me—”

“Did you find it difficult to sleep with them at the beginning as well?”

Fuck, baby.Don’t ask me that.

When I stepped closer, she stepped back.Fuck.“Please answer, Jake.”

I drove my fists in my pockets.“No.”

She flinched, and her chin trembled before her head dropped.“Just me then,” she murmured.

Wrapping her arms around herself, she hooked her darkened gaze onto mine.“How does that...work with you and Silas?Were you going to invite him to bed with us, or were you going to convince me to sleep with him, so you two could compare notes?”

I locked my body into place.“Those women latched onto his cock all by themselves.I just didn’t give a fuck that they did.”

A single tear spilled down her cheek.“I’ll never know what I am to you.”

Fuck no.I lunged and cupped her nape.“You know, baby.You know what you are to me.You’re fucking mine, Sienna.”

Lifting her wounded gaze, she whispered, “What part, Jake?What part of me is yours?The part who is Nigel’s daughter, or the part who isn’t?”She exhaled a long breath and stepped back.“I’m tired, Jake.God, I’m so freaking tired of people using me.I’m tired of being watched by Nigel and his people.Edo and his people.Tired of needing a bodyguard.And I just want...peace.I need space.Away from you.”

The defeat in her tone sucker-punched me.“Baby, don’t let them—”

“I’m doing this for me, Jake.I need to take care of me.Alone.”

If I pushed her right now, I’d lose her.“I’ll give you time, baby.Then, we’ll talk.”

Fuck those bitches who’d put that pain in her eyes.Against every fiber of my body, I walked out of her apartment.