My head drops back and his mouth goes to work on my neck, the responding sensation coiling deep in my belly. My nipples threaten to burst out of my bra, and honestly, I wouldn’t mind if they made contact with the edge of my bra cup. He’s rock hard pressing against me, and I groan into his mouth as he bites my lower lip. He chuckles and delivers a tender kiss to soothe me.
“We’ve gotta get out of this parking lot, darlin’. You’re gonna have to be good for me and keep it together until we get back to the house.” I chase Jake’s lips, not really caring what they say so much as what they do. “Can you do that for me?”
“Okay,” I agree, entranced.
Jake chuckles, deep and husky. “I don’t know if you know how to be good, boss.”
“Being good is overrated.”
“That’s the secret,” Jake says. “The best girls are secretly bad.”
His arm slides under my ass as he lifts me so he can open the door, placing me on the bench seat and shutting the door behind me.
My heart races as Jake circles the truck to get in on his side. My first time with someone new in years.
Someone new.
And I forgot about my someone old until this very moment.
Rob.
He must have stopped calling because my phone didn’t buzz the whole time we were talking in the parking lot. I know I have to check my phone. I have to know how bad this is going to be.
There are no missed calls. No more texts. Just silence.
He gave up. Or went out drinking. Or crashed his car or something else destructive.
“You alright?” Jake asks, and I jump. He extends a hand my way. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“He . . . stopped calling.”
Jake’s brow knits. “That’s a good thing, right?”
“Yeah,” I say, still not sure. “Guess he gave up.”
Jake’s still not starting the truck, his hand on the middle seat between us. “Wanna sit here?”
I meet his eyes and with a weak smile, I scoot over and buckle in. Jake gently touches my chin, holding me still so he can kiss my temple. He puts the truck in gear and once we’re on the road, his hand moves to rest on my knee.
“You don’t have to tell me about him, but I’m here if you want to,” Jake says as we pull up to the first red light.
I nod, still shaken up. “I shouldn’t have checked my phone.” I suck in a breath. “Sometimes it’s worse when he goes silent. Like he’s preparing for some more petty payback.”
Jake hums, his thumb tracing the inside of my knee in a more comforting than sexy way.
We ride in silence for a while, but my brain is anything but quiet. I have warring thoughts: that I was irrational to leave Raleigh and Rob so suddenly, to throw years of life and love away. Am I just being dramatic? Was it really not that bad? Is it reasonable for someone you love to ask certain things of you?
That was part of the reason I knew I had to leave entirely. If I stayed, I’d get confused. I’d have trouble seeing the bad times for what they were.
In some ways, I feel a little sorry for Rob. He loves me, and there will always be a part of me that loves him. But that love is what makes the betrayal even worse. I finally speak as the final notes of “Coal Miner’s Daughter” float in on the radio.
“I’m sorry. He’s invading our nice night. I wish I could be unaffected. It makes me feel powerless that he can still do this to me.”
Jake’s groan is sympathetic. “Sorry. The past can come back to fuck with you in all sorts of ways.”
“I wish it would go away entirely,” I say with a forced laugh.
“Wish that’s how it worked.”
