Impulsive….check, check, check.
How was she any different than Harvey Campbell?
His lips closed around her nipple, and she shut her eyes, biting her lip. A few hours. She would be selfish for just a few more hours.
And then she would end this.
Chapter Twenty
Jacob woke up to the sound of clothes rustling. His body was spent—he was fairly certain his cock wouldn’t be able to rise for another forty-eight hours, given the exertions of the previous night—but he nonetheless turned toward the noise with a welcoming smile, his eyes blinking open.
Only to scramble upright, clutching the blanket over his lap like a scandalized virgin. “Jesus.”
Harris turned from where he was draping something onto the subtly patterned burgundy armchair in the corner of the room and peered at him. “Mr. Campbell. Good morning.”
“Morning.” Jacob cleared his throat. “Uh. Can I help you?”
“No, sir, I am here to help you.” Harris nodded at the neatly folded garments on the chair. “Your clothes, pressed. Breakfast is waiting for you downstairs. Your car will be brought to the front when you are ready to leave.”
As subservient as Harris’s words were, there was a hard purpose in his eyes that told Jacob he wouldn’t hesitate to help him along if Jacob dallied.
“Where’s Akira?”
Harris linked his hands in front of him. Was he wearing gloves? Yes. Those were definitely gloves. What casting department had sent this man over, anyway? “Ms. Akira had to leave.”
Jacob frowned. It was Sunday. Though Akira might happily go into the office on the weekends, workaholic that she was, he didn’t think she would do it when they were lying in bed together. “Was there an emergency?”
“No. She had to leave on a business trip. She told me to convey her gratitude for the evening and ensure you had all you needed before you left.”
Jacob stared at him, a fission of temper igniting in his chest. “A business trip.” One she hadn’t told him about last night or before she left.
Yeah. Right.
He was getting the bum’s rush, and she didn’t even have the balls to do it to his face.
Harris inclined his head ever so slightly. “Yes, sir.”
Had last night meant nothing? Didn’t she get that he had bared his soul to her? Hell, he had never told anyone the stuff he had said to her. About Kati, and her mother, and his father. They were things his brothers didn’t even know.
It doesn’t matter. She doesn’t think you’re in her league.
Was that it? Did it really come down to sex? Maybe last night hadn’t been up to her standards…
He squashed the demon of insecurity the second it hatched. He had felt her coming around him, had ridden her to exhaustion. The hell he hadn’t made it great for her.
He thought of the way she had curled away from him after talking about her name, the naked vulnerability in her eyes when he had kissed her cheek and her forehead afterward. No, this wasn’t about him. This was about her. And normally he’d be sympathetic and understanding, but damn it, she hadn’t even stuck around to hash this out properly. That rankled. A lot.
He wanted to growl, but the man watching him impassively had nothing to do with him and Akira. Harris was merely doing his job. So Jacob nodded and choked out between gritted teeth, “I don’t need breakfast. Give me ten to dress and I’ll be out of your hair.”
Harris hesitated, and in that moment, Jacob caught something terrible on his face: Pity.
“Ten minutes,” Harris repeated.
Nostrils flaring, Jacob launched out of bed as soon as the other man departed, and threw his clothes on, his anger insulating him from his true, more depressing emotions. He was about to turn and leave when he caught sight of the box on Akira’s nightstand.
His jaw set. She carried the thing with her from work to her home and back again each day, like a toddler with a security blanket. There wasn’t a chance in hell she wouldn’t take it with her on a business trip, even if it was a last-minute deal.
Trip, my bitable ass.
