His lips pinch in a thin line, jaw ticking as he understands I not only mean it, but I’m also right. “Also,” I continue, “Eddie and I work together, we have friends in common, our families frequent the same circles… I don’t need him to know those sorts of intimate details about me—especially not when you’ve just humiliated him, which might make him vindictive. You had no right to disclose the information you did.”
“And he had no right to call youthat.”
Something in his tone, in how hurt he sounds about Eddie calling me a whore, makes my chest ache. He’s right, Eddie shouldn’t have said that. But it doesn’t mean slamming him against my wall was the proper course of action.
“I’m sorry I lost my temper,” Jake says. “I just—I saw red, and I wanted to make him swallow his fucking tongue for saying it.”
Again, the vulnerability I discern in him is touching, and I don’t know what to make of my torn feelings. Part of me appreciates that he stood up for me like this, but another part hates how he went about it.
Something tells me that Jake wouldn’t have reacted so harshly had Eddie only insulted him. Jake has thick skin, and his nonchalant and cocky attitude allows him to brush off a lot more than most. But hearing the insults veered toward me is apparently another thing.
I don’t even know what to say anymore, so I walk the space that separates us and wrap my arms around him, pressing my front on his bare torso. After a second of uncertainty, his arms also come around me, and he holds me in a hesitant embrace.
“Thank you for protecting my honor,” I whisper, my temple and cheek plastered on his shoulder. “But please, never do that again.”
“I don’t think he’ll give me the opportunity to.”
“Yeah, that’s unlikely.”
I look up, still not quite over everything that just happened. His green eyes meet mine, and his hand comes to my face. With a delicate thumb, he grazes the length of my cheekbone. “You know you’re not what he said, right?”
I nod, mesmerized by the softness of his irises and the fondness clearly visible in them.
“Just because a woman enjoys sex doesn’t mean she deserves to be shamed for it. No matter how many partners she has, her history, her kinks, her pace, her needs… You understand that, right?”
My head bobs up and down again. I’m touched that he’s making sure I’m okay after Edward’s hurtful insult.
“Good, because you’re fucking perfect, red, and you don’t deserve to have any doubt about the kind of person you are.”
I cup his cheek, contending with a swarm of feelings too strong to register. “You’re the one who’s perfect, wombat.”
I’m rising to my toes to kiss him when he mumbles, “Hardly.”
Because it’s too late to counter him with words, I show him just how much I mean it with my actions. My display of affection isn’t supposed to turn into anything more, but we get lost in the moment. Adrenaline ran high, and we’re both looking for a way to let it out. Maybe that’s why my heart seems to have doubled in size. It feels like it might explode at any moment, overwhelmed with emotions and feelings.
I don’t protest when Jake lifts me by the back of my legs, settling my bare center right onto his boxer-clad crotch.
“Where do you want me?” he asks into our kiss.
“The bedroom. I think we can make it all even filthier—in case he comes back because he forgot a bowtie or something.”
His chuckle echoes everywhere within me, and I beam in return. “I love the way you think, Miss Kensington.”
“Thank you. I’m very smart. I even went to Harvard.”
“You did?” he sarcastically asks. “I had no idea. Younevermention it.”
“Dick,” I mumble. He laughs again, and this time, I’m with him.
When he sets out to bring me to the bedroom, I’m reminded he had plans that didn’t involve sex this morning. “Wait, what about the airport?”
“I’ll text Eli to pick up Kaya. This is more important.”
While he carries me back to the bedroom, I kiss every inch of his face, entranced by all of him. I’m still not sure that I like the way he handled Edward, but in my heart, I can’t blame him for it.
I’d have done the same thing for him.
Chapter Twenty-Four
