Sweet Deal

Chapter Seventeen

A melting sweetness throbbed through Shelby as Jake’s heavy weight pressed her into the mattress, and tears welled in her eyes at the perfection of it, the overwhelming intensity of it, the rush of emotion inside her so strong, so sweet.

She wrapped her arms around his back and held on tight, as tight as she could. His face buried between her breasts, he drew in long, ragged breaths. He had to feel it too. It was too powerful not to.

Oh dear lord. This wasn’t supposed to happen to them. This was a deal. A sweet deal, yes, but a deal nonetheless, both of them on the same page about not wanting a relationship, not wanting anything more than hot sex and a fake boyfriend for her.

There was nothing fake about the emotion swelling in her, so achingly lovely, so terrifyingly real. He consumed her, he took possession of her, and she’d willingly let him, given herself over to him completely, and not just her body, knowing that giving herself to him was not only what he wanted and needed, but was what she wanted and needed. He was what she wanted and needed.

She was in love with him.

She sucked in her bottom lip, eyes stinging, heart constricting. She knew he’d felt something, but he was a guy, and maybe it was just his orgasm that had made him look so…what? What had that look in his eyes been? It looked like tender possession, like worship and devotion, but was it really love?

“Oh, Shelby.” His murmured words had her blinking tears as he moved on her, lifting himself so he could kiss her. A long, tender kiss that had her heart turning over. “You undo me, baby. Completely undo me.”

She blinked up at him and gave a shaky smile as he rolled to his side, pulling her with him, still inside her in the most intimate of connections. He pulled her thigh over his hip and tucked her head under his chin.

She wanted to talk. She so wanted to talk, to ask him a million girlish questions about his feelings. But she’d done that before—asked all those questions right after sleeping with a guy, a guy she probably shouldn’t have slept with, then felt him withdraw and cool off. Never to be seen again. So she kept her questions to herself, snuggled into Jake. She loved how he felt against her, big and hot, hair roughened and masculine. She loved how his hand stroked absently up and down her spine, sending a torrent of tingles over her when he reached that sensitive spot at the base of her spine and lingered there.

“Back to work tomorrow?” he asked her, his hand sliding back up her spine.

Okay. So this was where the after-sex talk was going to go.

“Yeah.” She sighed. “Thanks for your help with my project stuff. I’m going to have to meet with Andrew and go over it all.”

“You’re welcome. I like doing stuff like that. Better than my own job, in fact.”

She lifted her head. “If you don’t like your job, you should quit. Life’s too short to be miserable all day, every day.”

“I guess.”

“The economy is picking up. Are you sure you couldn’t do it?”

“I need a partner.”

“Why?” She rubbed her hand over his shoulder. “Really, why? You’ve got everything you need. Look how you helped me with that problem. You know your stuff. That wasn’t even your company and you knew how to help me. You didn’t make me feel like an idiot. You even came up with a great idea for how to fix things.”

“No. You came up with the great idea.” He smiled at her. “Maybe my suggestions sparked something, but you came up with it on your own, and I have to say, it’s brilliant.”

Warmth spread in her chest. “I’d hire you.”

“Thanks.” His smile deepened.

“Seriously, Jake. Is it the money? Do you need someone else to make it work financially?”

“No.” He ran his hand over the curve of her butt and she wriggled against him in response. “I have enough money put aside. There aren’t huge start-up costs for a consulting business. I could even work from home at first.”

“You might need to tidy up a little.”

For that he gave her a little swat on the butt, but he smiled.

“I just need money to keep me going until revenue starts coming in. That could take a while.”

He told her then about his plan, about the contacts he’d made, about how he’d approached many of them about whether they’d use his services and how he’d felt confident he had a good start on a client base.

“There you go. You could totally do it.” She paused. “Look at what happened to Adam.”

“What do you mean?”

“He was only a few years older than you.”

“I know. It’s scary, isn’t it?”

“But in a way, it makes you think. What if we only had a few years to live? How would you want to spend it?”

He gazed back at her and then his eyes closed and his arms tightened around her. “Yeah,” he said, raw emotion roughening his voice. “Yeah.”

The next day both Jake and Shelby returned to work full time, ready to get caught up. In his office, that feeling of a new beginning stayed with Jake. He remembered how Shelby’s faith in him when they’d talked last night had made his heart squeeze, how he’d gazed back at the beautiful, loving, supportive woman in his arms, and how that sensation of falling had come over him, and how he’d grabbed on to her and held her tight.

He also recalled the conversation he’d had with Drew.

Having just attended the funeral of a thirty-three-year-old man must have shaken him up a bit, made him think of all kinds of shit. Shelby made him think of all kinds of shit. The bigger picture of his life. He was usually so good at seeing the big picture. But now he saw how for the last year he’d been so narrowly focused on how wrong he’d been done, rejected, abandoned, full of self-doubts, that he’d lost sight of his goals and plans and hopes and dreams.

He went back to the file he’d kept on his USB drive for the last year. The business plan for the consulting business he and Andrew had been starting he’d told Shelby about. The financials. The market research. The list of potential clients. The economy was picking up. Things were a lot more positive than they’d been a year ago.

She’d been right. He didn’t want to sit there working for someone else for the rest of his life, all safe and secure, but bored and frustrated. He’d never been afraid to take risks.

He thought of Shelby getting fired from her job for something she hadn’t even done, how she’d been kicked in the teeth, but hadn’t let it get her down, how she’d gone on with dogged determination and optimism that everything would work out fine. And how when he’d been kicked, he’d let it drag him down and keep him there.

He wasn’t going to be like that anymore. He closed his eyes briefly as he considered what he was about to do. Yeah. He was going to do it.

Then he rose to go into his boss’s office.

“You’re kidding me,” Tom said, moments later, staring at him. “You’re quitting?”

“Yeah.” Jake ran a hand through his hair and gave a weak smile. “I’ve given this a lot of thought and it’s what I want to do.”

Tom leaned back in his chair. “We’ll miss you, Jake. You’re bright and talented. Could I convince you to stay? Is it more money you want?”

“No. It’s not the money.” He briefly explained his plans to Tom, who, despite their different styles, had been good to work for. “The usual notice is two weeks, but if you need me to stay longer while you find a replacement, I can be flexible.”

“We’ll see, thanks. Maybe we have someone internally we can move into your position.” He shook his head. “Wow. That takes some guts. I wish you well, though.”

“And keep me in mind if you need a consultant.” Jake grinned.

His boss laughed. “Yeah. I’ll do that.”

Jake returned to his office, excitement building in him now that he’d done it. Holy shit! He’d quit his job. He laughed out loud, alone in his office, eager to share his news with Shelby. He didn’t want to tell her over the phone though. He’d go see her later, tell her in person, and celebrate with some sheet-twisting sex, maybe. He knew she’d be happy for him, after her encouragement last night, and he wanted to see that approval on her face, to know she had his back.

Oh man. He was in deep, no doubt about it. It was terrifying. Exhilarating. But terrifying.

He worked late, emerging onto the sidewalk in the evening sunshine. Much of the rush-hour traffic had disappeared, although the downtown street was still busy with people going for after-work drinks or dinner. His eye was caught by a woman standing at a parking meter, fiddling with it.

She looked up and saw him. His footsteps slowed but he kept walking toward her.

Her smile was lovely, if a bit hesitant. “Hi.”

“Hi, Gianna. What are you doing here?”

“Just…um…parking.”

He lifted an eyebrow.

“I never heard back from you,” she said in a rush. “You said you’d think about it. I’m going crazy, Jake! I wanted to see you!”

“I’ve been busy.”

Her eyebrows slanted down. “With that girl? The one who works for Andrew?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you in love with her?”

He stared at her, unwilling to go there even in his own mind.

“Just have a drink with me,” she said, laying her hand on his arm.

Were they really having problems, her and Andrew? He searched her face. Maybe he should talk to her, find out what was going on. Maybe in some way this would help him help Shelby.

“Okay.”

“It’s late and my mind isn’t working.” Andrew leaned back in his chair. “Let’s call it a night and talk more about this tomorrow.”

Shelby nodded and gathered up her papers. “Okay.” But even though her head was pounding and she was so, so tired, she wasn’t finished. She’d shared with him what she’d learned about the intake process and changes that needed to be made to it, and how it impacted the new payments system project. She’d wanted to make sure she had all her facts and figures straight before she talked to him. He liked facts and figures. Now she and Andrew had spent hours going over everything, and she sensed his concern about the project. But she still hadn’t shared her potential solution.

It was late. She rubbed her throbbing temples, still tired from the funeral and everything that had happened, and then catching up with work.

“Go home,” Andrew said gently. “Better yet, let’s go get a drink. You could probably use it.”

She bit her lip and looked away from him. How many times could she say no? He knew she had a boyfriend now. She’d made sure to mention Jake as much as she could when he’d asked about Adam’s funeral and how Kiara was doing. She was tired and all she wanted to do was go home, but maybe she could still talk a little business and tell Andrew she thought she knew how to fix things so the project could move forward.

“Sure. Okay.”

They left the office together and walked down the street and around the corner to the small bar they sometimes went to for happy-hour drinks, Callahan’s, a popular after-work place.

They walked into the dimly lit bar, and the noise of voices talking mingled with music and clinking glasses surrounded them. Shelby blinked. Why had she agreed to this? She really just wanted to go home. And see Jake. But Andrew was her boss, and her job was important to her.

She scanned the room for an empty table, and they walked a little farther into the room. Booths lined one wall, but they were all full too. “Maybe the bar?” she said, going on her toes to speak into Andrew’s ear.

“I guess.”

They moved toward the long bar of polished oak and glass, a huge mirror behind it. They found two stools near the end of the bar, and Shelby climbed up onto one. The mirror behind the bar reflected the room back to her. Reflected the image of a man who looked like Jake. A smile breaking across her face, she swiveled on her stool to look at him in person, to make sure it was in fact him, ready to go over to him.

It was him all right, but he wasn’t alone. He sat at a small table in the dim recesses of the bar with a dark-haired woman who had Shelby’s eyes almost popping out of her head. Andrew’s wife!

Her mouth fell open as she stared at Jake and Gianna, sitting side by side, their heads bent close together, talking in what appeared to be an intense conversation.

“What’s wrong?” Andrew turned too to see what she was looking at. Shelby made a squeak of warning but it wasn’t even a word and it was too late. He too had spotted Jake and Gianna. She turned her gaze up to Andrew, sitting beside her, watched the reaction on his face—eyes widening, brows drawing down, mouth opening and closing and then opening again.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he breathed. His cheeks got very red and his breath came fast and shallow.