Page 31 of Heartless (Scathing Hearts #1)

Jake

Trust and worry warred in her eyes.

“Baby, let’s have something to eat.”

I was stalling. Fucking stalling. The minute she’d hear what she had to know, she’d hate me again, which might drive her straight into Morrison’s clutches. Fuck. Who was I kidding? I was biding my time because I wanted to keep that fragile trust in her gaze.

“Jake, you know I can take the truth from you.”

And get hurt again.

I took her hand to pull her toward the couch where she sat in the middle. Sitting on the coffee table in front of her, I set my forearms on my thighs and kept her small hand in mine.

“Edo will have his people watching you constantly to make sure you hold your part of the deal.”

“What... What does that mean?”

“The men who are watching the house are his. He has people working for him everywhere. Everywhere, Sienna, and they’ll report on you.

You won’t see them, but they’ll be there.

” Her fingers convulsed, and I rubbed my thumb over the back of her hand.

“Baby, Edo is not to be played with. And the people who break their word to him disappear.”

At her sharp intake of breath, I leaned closer. “Sile and I will be watching over you as well.” And I was going to hire private security.

She blinked and nodded slowly. “All right.”

The trust was still there. It was mixed with fear, but it was there.

“I’ll find you a place to live.”

Her expression softened and she slanted closer. “Thank you, that would be great. I’ll draw up a budget and—”

“You won’t pay for it.”

The little jerk of her head was followed by a frown. “Of course I will. I—”

“No, Sienna, it’s done. Call it retribution.”

Her head tilted to the side. “Retribution for what? It’s not your fault if—”

“We suspect Morrison had your house burned down, but blocking the home insurance payout was on me. So was blackmailing your boss into firing you.”

She gaped, and her bruised expression gutted me. When her chin quivered, she looked at her lap, and my chest tightened, bracing for her silent tears.

I made my voice gentle. “Baby—”

“I didn’t stand a chance,” she whispered from under the curtain of her hair.

The heartbreak in her tone hit me right in the throat, and I slanted closer. “Sienna—”

She yanked her hand out and curled it into a fist before jumping on her feet. Pacing to the window, she put as much distance as possible between us.

I got on my feet. “Sienna baby—”

She whirled toward me. “Is there anything else I should know?”

I pushed my fists in my pockets. “No.”

Her gaze darkened. “Are you sure? Because for someone who loves inflecting the truth, you sure seem comfortable lying by omission when it suits you.” Combing her fingers through her hair, she exhaled slowly. “How soon can I be out of here?”

“Three days. You have my word.”

“Your word...” Letting out a derisive scoff, she shook her head slowly and gnawed at her bottom lip. “You keep hurting me, and I keep letting you do it.”

“Baby—”

Her back shot ramrod straight. “You supposedly hate Nigel, but you’re exactly like him.

You two are cruel, rabid dogs, and I’m just the freaking chew toy between you.

He preyed on my need for a family. He manipulated and lied to me to save his life.

” She edged closer and pointed a finger at me.

“But you, you preyed on my heart for a piece of land when you can afford to buy a hundred of them. You did it for revenge. For something that happened when I was a toddler and living on another freaking continent.” She hooked her eyes, bright with fury onto mine.

“You win. Jake. You used me and you were better at it than he was. Go get your medal from Nigel. And go fuck yourself.”

“Sienna—”

“Get out,” she hissed.

****

Sienna

Jake eased the door closed behind him, and a scream boiled from the bottom of my stomach. When tears threatened to drown me, I remembered those freaking cameras. So, I flipped the light off and lumbered to my bedroom. This asshole would not see me cry again.

My back slumped against the bedroom door. My legs gave out and I slid to my butt on the floor. Only then, the first tear rolled down my cheek. I hugged my knees and cried.

The light rain swelled into a heavy downpour, and as thunder crashed through the night sky, I sobbed. I sobbed until sleep took me under.

****

The flash of lightning pierced through my closed lids.

I opened my eyes to the dark room. My shoulder ached, and my muscles whined.

When I tried to roll onto my back, I bumped into the door.

Shoot. I’d fallen asleep on the floor. Placing my palm flat on the cool wooden floor, I pushed on my hand to sit up.

What time was it? The room was cradled in the cocoon of the heavy rain pounding against the windows. I squinted, searching for the red display of the alarm clock. It was quarter to two.

A little sluggish, I slowly unfolded to my feet and ambled to the bathroom where I splashed icy cold water on my face.

My eyes were swollen again, but I somehow felt better.

Jake had reopened the wound of his initial betrayal, but if I was honest, it’d also started cleansing it, so perhaps now, it would begin to heal.

Far, far away from the Jakes Rhodes of the world.

While I applied face moisturizer on my tired skin, the sensual ache of my body was a bittersweet reminder of my day of sex with Jake.

His attraction to me was real. I’d witnessed it, tasted it, and enjoyed it tremendously.

Three days, he’d said. Three days before I could return to my life that now included Nigel, the mafia.

.. No. I wasn’t going to think about that now.

I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Food. I needed food.

On my way toward the door, the moonlight hit something on the coffee table that caught my eye. Jake had returned my cell and my laptop. This was a tomorrow problem. Or at least an after-I’d-eaten problem.

I opened the door, and my steps faltered.

The glow of the fireplace was bathing the dark family room. Then, I spotted Jake’s head peeking on top of the armchair backrest, and my breath stammered. The only thing I could see was his elbow lying on the armrest and his hand holding a glass full of a dark amber liquid.

I stared at the back of his head for a few seconds.

When his arm flexed, I held my breath, but his hand lowered to its previous position, and I crept toward the kitchen.

There were two plated sandwiches covered in cling film in the fridge, and I nearly groaned in relief.

After I’d poured myself a glass of water, I sat at the kitchen table and bit a large chunk of my roast beef and cheese sandwich.

Expecting him to walk past the kitchen at any moment, I made quick work of my past-midnight meal.

The next three days were going to be busy, so it was time to get some sleep. After cleaning the kitchen, I paused at the archway and took a deep breath. I was an idiot. I had to be, because knowing he’d been sitting all alone pulled at my heartstrings. Hard.

I rolled my shoulders back. It would be only two seconds of seeing Jake brooding in front of the fire then I’d be in bed. On my way back to my room, I couldn’t help but glance at his fingers clutched around the empty tumbler.

As I reached for the doorknob, the low rumble of his voice echoed in the spacious room. “He destroyed my family.”

****

Jake

After she’d landed blow after blow, I’d gone straight to the basement and took my fists to the punching bag while the rainstorm had pounded over the house.

If the rain was indeed a sign of her mother, Caitlin Winslow was raging at the asshole who’d hurt her daughter.

After a shower, I’d gone straight to the monitors, but she’d stayed in her bedroom.

Tagging her devices from the drawer, I’d knocked on her door, and let myself in.

Then, I’d heard a muted sniffle. I’d made her cry again. I’d left them on the coffee table.

Sienna gasped. “What?”

I poured more bourbon into my glass and kept my eyes on the fire.

“My parents got married right out of high school. I wasn’t planned, but they made it work.

My father worked as a lumberjack, and my mother was a supervisor in a hotel.

When his father died, he left him his cabin, and we moved there when I was eight.

When I was twelve, they opened an outpost for hikers, a one stop point with a convenience store.

Business was good, so my mother wanted to build a diner at the back of the store.

Morrison wanted the land. He posed as an investor, and screwed my father out of the business, but my father refused to sell the land.

At that time, my mother fell pregnant. I was seventeen, and they’d stopped trying for a second child.

The miracle baby they called it. A girl.

Hiking was becoming popular, and Morrison kept pushing for the sale.

My mother wanted to sell, my father didn’t. They fought about it.

Morrison found out the deed hadn’t been properly recorded, and he tried every legal trick to acquire the land.

None worked, but it created tension between my parents.

One night, after they’d had another fight, she went for a drive to clear her head.

She was seven months pregnant. The roads were slippery, and she lost control of the car.

We were told she and the baby died on impact. ”

I unclenched my jaw and swigged more bourbon.

“A month after the accident, the deed disappeared, and we knew Morrison had managed to get his hand on it. Without the original document, my father couldn’t prove ownership, not without a fleet of lawyers he couldn’t afford.

He lost everything, and it fucking destroyed him.

He moved into a small cabin in the mountains.

Six years ago, on a clear day, on a road he knew like the back of his hand, his truck ended up at the bottom of a ravine. He hasn’t woken up since.”

I loosened my fist around the glass. “This land... It’s all I have left of them.”

At the sound of her soft footfalls, my gut burned. She was walking away from my fucking darkness. I lurched forward, locking my body into place to refrain from begging for a little more of her light and warmth.

A gentle hand touched the back of my neck. “Jake.”

She was bent over me, and her eyes were full of tears.

I grabbed her and hauled her astride my lap, uncaring of the thump of the glass rolling on the rug.

Her arms circled tight around my neck, and I planted my face in the nook of her shoulder to breathe her in.

Her fingers glided through my hair in a touch that washed off the putrid ugliness anchored inside me.

When she shifted back, I locked my grip on her. I needed her too much. She softened against me, and the crushing weight on my chest fragmented.

****

Sienna

Jake’s breath was seesawing against the top of my chest, and my heart broke for him. What Nigel had done to his family was beyond abhorrent. It didn’t excuse what Jake had done to me, but God I wanted to kick Nigel in the balls.

After a long moment, his breath evened out, but his hold didn’t slacken, and my folded legs were squeezed between Jake’s hips and the armchair. “Jake?”

When he shifted back, my heart hurt at his expression. “Baby—”

I touched the side of his jaw. “Come to bed.”

He stood up, and I clutched my arms and legs around him. He strode straight to my bed where we laid down on our sides. He curled his hand around my nape to push my face against the base of his neck. Looping my arm around his shoulder and hooking my knee over his, I held him as close as possible.

His heartbeat was still fast. I tried to shift back, but Jake’s arms blocked any movement, so I snuggled deeper into his body, and eventually, sleep claimed both of us.

Sometime during the night, I woke up. The bathroom light was still on, and the curtains were open. I untangled myself from Jake and stretched out of bed.

I did what I had to do before returning to the room and climbed back under the duvet. As soon as I was in, Jake’s arm wrapped around me, so we were face to face with our limbs tangled.

“Thank you for telling me your story. And I’m so sorry.”

In response, he pulled me tighter against him, and his lips grazed my forehead. “Baby.”

“I’m here,” I whispered back.

Jake rolled me onto my back, and I couldn’t see his gaze, but I felt it. I felt it with every fiber of my body. The slow trail of his lips from my temple to my cheek sparked goosebumps all over my skin.

He slanted his head. Our breaths mingled, and a shiver seized my body. I opened my mouth, and when our tongues touched, my need for him coiled inside me while he deepened the kiss. I glided my palms under his t-shirt. His skin was warm. His hard, heavy penis was digging into my lower belly.

Heat built. When I rocked my hips, seeking the friction I needed, Jake touched his forehead to mine, holding himself rigidly still.

“Fuck, baby.”

“Jake.”

A pained grunt rolled out of his throat. “Kitten, it’s too soon.”

Tightening my arms around him, I whispered, “I want you.”

“Sienna—”

I kissed him. His groan poured into my mouth, and he took over the scorching kiss. Then, he knelt up between my legs. In seconds, we were naked. The second after that, I was under Jake. As I wrapped my arms around his neck, our mouths met in hungry moans.

While I shifted my knees higher along his sides, his penis glided down until the head of his sex was against the core of me. With his eyes locked onto mine, he slowly penetrated me.

Keeping one arm curled under my shoulder and his hand cupped around the side of my face, Jake slid his other hand from under me and linked his fingers to mine before pinning our joined hands in the mattress above my head.

When he plunged his tongue into my mouth, I sucked on it.

His thrusts rocked my whole body, and I moaned. My legs around his lower back tautened, and like the most primal choreography, my body danced with his, my hips bearing down on his upthrusts.

Faster.

Harder.

The knot in my lower belly verged on painful, and I whimpered in his mouth.

Faster.

Then I flew apart while Jake planted himself deep inside me with a guttural groan.

We stayed locked-in, breathing each other until Jake brushed his nose along mine. Our mouths fused, and we kissed.