Page 73 of Heartless

“If that’s what you need.”Gentle teasing mollified his voice as he inched closer.“I’ve met your friend, and I reckon I’ll be a slight improvement.I’ll be there for you, Sienna.In any way you need.”

The last thing I needed was a pity-borne friendship from the man my body was still hung up on.

“You don’t have to do that either.I was...”Too naïve, too stupid, too...“I’ll get over it.”

The next second, he was really close.“That garbage you carry is mine.This shit is on me.All of it.And you’re the last person in the goddamned world who deserved the way I treated you.”

“That’s nice of you, but I promise, I’m—”

His low, attractive—damn him—chuckle cut me off.

“Baby, I’m a lot of things, but nice isn’t one of them.”The intensity of his gaze elicited a whole-body shiver.“Let me be there for you, Sienna.”

I held my breath and stared at him.Maybe...maybe if he kept his distance, it might be okay and...One could never have too many friends, right?So, after a deep breath, I nodded at Jake Rhodes.“All right.Friends.”

His hand curled on the side of my neck, and he touched his head to mine.“Whatever you need, baby.”

A shiver flittered over me.I should have told him that the way my body responded to his ‘baby’ was nowhere near friend-like, but I wanted to keep the endearment for a little while longer.

When his cell pinged, I jumped.He frowned as he peeked at his screen.

“I have to go.We’ll talk when I’m back.”He curled gentle fingers under my chin.“Okay, baby?”

“Okay.”

He pecked my head and stalked out of the room.

I watched the closed door for a long moment.

Then, it was like a cork popped.A wave of ideas and images flowed to my mind.I needed to write.There was no time for my notepad.Goddess Calliope was smiling down on me again.I ran the few steps to the library and turn the new laptop on.

After settling on the terrace of the bedroom, I wrote.My finger flew over the keypad until darkness shrouded me, and the soft spotlights along the balustrade of the terrace had switched on.A cool breeze kissed my skin, and I checked the corner of my screen.It was late.

As if my body remembered its basic functions, my stomach growled in hunger.I’d finished the bowl of blackberries I’d been snacking on while I’d been typing, and I was salivating for a toasted olive bread cheese sandwich.

I stretched my neck back to front and side to side and rolled my ankles to restore the blood flow before pushing on my knees.

Once inside, I set my laptop on the dining room table.

I eased the door to my quarters shut just as the muted clap of the front door closing disrupted the peace of the house.Jake was back.My feet moved before my brain could engage, and I rushed toward him.

By the time I reached the archway of the kitchen, he’d taken a few steps into the hallway.His eyes were hard, but a different type of hard.His chin jerked in an almost imperceptible nod, and before I had a chance to get unstuck, he disappeared into his part of the house.

I traipsed after him.The vast front room was bathed in the soft glow of the lamps reflected in the bay windows.Jake stood with his back to me between the door jambs leading to another large furnished terrace.I tiptoed across the wooden floor, the thick deep red rug on which laid a long, glass-covered coffee table, and past the elegant cream leather sectional and two armchairs.

His stance was rigid, and his hands were deep in the front pockets of his pants.My heartbeat quickened as I approached him.

“Jake?”He didn’t move.“Did something happen with Nigel?”

When he glanced over his shoulder, my breath caught in my throat.The grooves around his mouth were deepened, and his eyes...Oh.

“I’m good, baby.Go back to your quarters, we’ll talk tomorrow,” he said before shifting back to his previous position.

I padded toward him and kept going until I could loop my arms around his waist.I touched my cheek between his shoulder blades, and the hardness of his body turned into steel.After a few seconds of his cemented stillness, I unhooked my arms.He didn’t want to be held.I stepped back, ready to return to my room.

Jake moved then.He pivoted, and the next second, I was in his arms.I closed mine around him and listened to his heartbeat.

His hold tightened, and we stayed like this, cocooned in the dimming daylight.