Calling All the Shots (8 page)

“That’s all you’re getting until you come again,” he said.

Sensation feathered up her spine and she knew he wouldn’t have
to wait long. She pulled his head down to hers and whispered darkly sexual words
in his ear and she felt his hips jerk.

Suddenly he was driving himself as deep as he could inside her
and she felt the first burst of sensation as her climax ripped through her. This
one so much more satisfying because Jack was there with her. He kept thrusting
into her and then she felt his hips jerk, a flood of warmth jetting into
her.

She was shaking and he was sweating as he leaned down over her.
His chest resting on her breasts, his head nestled into the curve of her neck.
He dropped the softest, sweetest kisses on her shoulder and it was all she could
do not to turn and drop a kiss on the top of his head.

She wrapped her arms around him and her legs around his waist
and held him to her. She was careful not to let herself get too attached to this
moment but she couldn’t help it. This was Jack Crown, the man she’d never
thought she’d have in her bed.

And she had to say that her dreams were nothing compared to the
reality of having him. He stood up and pulled out of her body. Suddenly she felt
vulnerable and shy and she sat up, pushing her long hair back behind her
shoulder.

“Um…I need to clean up,” he said.

As far as postcoital endearments went, those sucked, she
thought. She’d slept with other guys who’d left her as soon as the deed was done
but she’d expected something more from Jack. She’d forgotten that by his own
definition he was still a frog. Hoping that her kiss would turn him into a
prince. “That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say? My kisses obviously weren’t
special enough to turn you from a frog.”

“Dammit, I’m not sure what else to say,” he admitted. “I want
to take you in my arms and carry you down the hall to the bedroom and then spend
the rest of the day making love to you.”

“Then why don’t you?” she asked because there were times when
she wanted to pretend she lived in this fantasy world with Jack. A world where
he thought she was hot and sexy and neither of them had a past or a future to
worry about.

“I’m not sure you’re ready for it,” he said. “And I’m not sure
I am, either.”

She nodded. “Go clean up.”

Aching deep inside, she hopped off the table. She wrapped her
arms around her waist, but it wasn’t enough of a comfort. She felt raw and
exposed and all the good feelings she’d had just seconds earlier were gone.

Then she felt Jack’s big hand on her shoulder and the other one
at her waist. “Damn it.”

“What?”

“I can’t do this. I know it would be better to give you some
time to adjust to things, but I need you, Willow. And for once I’m taking what I
want.”

He lifted her in his arms and carried her down the hall to her
bedroom. They spent the rest of the day in her full-size bed—which was too small
for Jack—making love and pretending that the real world didn’t exist.

“Thank you for this,” he said as the afternoon started to
darken into evening. “I think we had a date planned for tonight. How about I
head home and you get dolled up?”

She nodded, afraid to say anything. Her emotions were too close
to the surface and if she wasn’t careful she was going to reveal too much.

She put on her robe and got out of bed when all she really
wanted to do was to stay there curled in his arms. God, not knowing if he’d died
in that shark attack had shaken her too much. What had she been thinking to
bring him here? If she thought she’d had a hard time keeping him out of her mind
when he’d been just a boy from her past how was she going to do it now that he’d
slept in her bed.

She let him leave, then stood in front of the mirror staring at
her tousled hair and the red marks on her neck from his kisses and beard stubble
and wondered where her willpower had gone.

Eight

J
ack tried to keep his mind on the date
night he’d promised Willow but really he was just glad he’d gotten out of her
bed when he did. His temptation had been to stay there and wrap himself around
her. To hold on to her so she’d never disappear from his life. And he knew that
when he felt that way about anything it was doomed to end.

He entered his apartment and showered, washing the smell of sex
and Willow off his body. He’d checked his email and voice mail earlier to try to
get back into the real world but his mind still lingered in that small bed in
Brooklyn where he’d held Willow.

He got dressed and made a reservation at one of the most
exclusive restaurants in town. One of the many perks to his lifestyle was the
fact that he could get a table anywhere when he needed one. And like his little
hissy fit about the exotic fruit basket, he tried to keep those instances to a
minimum but at times it was very convenient.

Then he tried to forced himself to get back into work mode.
Sleeping with Willow hadn’t eased the ache in his soul. He didn’t suddenly know
her any better; in fact, she was more of a mystery now than she had been before.
He wondered if he hadn’t screwed himself by getting involved with her.

Willow had him tied in knots. No matter what he did he felt
like he still couldn’t figure her out. What was it about her that made her so
different from other women?

Everything.

Everything, from her tough-as-nails exterior to that gooey soft
inner woman that she was desperate to keep hidden from the world, pushed his
buttons. Why?

His phone pinged and he glanced down to see a text message from
Rhia Montaine. PJ was coming out of his coma. She didn’t have a good cell phone
signal in the hospital but would welcome a call from Jack on the hospital
phone.

He took a deep breath, as the text was just the reminder he
needed to rein things in with Willow. Earlier he’d been desperate to hold on to
her but this forced him to remember the reality of his life.

Nothing lasted. Not even the good times. Everything ended, no
matter what he did to protect it.

He dialed the hospital and waited a few minutes for the call to
be connected. With cell phones it was odd to have to use a traditional operator
to get in touch with someone. He had a flashback to high school when that was
the only way he’d been able to communicate with his single mom when she was at
work.

“Hello,” Rhia answered, sounding tired and a little bit
stressed-out. He wondered how many calls she’d had to deal with today. The
production company had hired a bodyguard to keep the paparazzi away from the
hospital room. Though PJ was well known in the surfing world, Rhia was an
internationally famous actress and the cameras followed her wherever she
went.

“It’s Jack. How’s our guy?” Jack asked, keeping his voice
gentle, trying to be soothing when he was anything but calm inside.

“Awake, but he’s still weak,” Rhia said.

It was good to hear that PJ had come out of the coma. He was
afraid to ask anything else, though. Did PJ blame Jack for the lost leg?

“How are you?” he asked instead.

“Exhausted, but also very happy. Oh, Jack, I am so relieved
that he’s awake and cracking wise. He asked if you were okay.”

“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?” Jack asked.

“You were shaken, too,” Rhia said. “I saw you before you got on
that plane, remember?”

“Well, I’m good. Can I talk to him?”

“Let me check.”

He heard Rhia’s muted voice but not her words as she talked to
PJ and a moment later there was some rustling on the other end of the phone and
then a very weak and gruff voice said, “I hope that was exciting enough for your
TV viewers.”

Jack shook his head and laughed, as he knew PJ was hoping he
would, but his heart ached at his physically virile friend sounding so damned
weak. “Showboater. Always trying to outdo everyone else.”

“Gotta keep my rep as a badass,” PJ said, but he didn’t sound
tough.

“You’ve earned it now.”

There was a prolonged silence leaving Jack to wonder if PJ had
fallen asleep. That was probably a blessing—it would let Jack end one of the
hardest conversations he’d ever had. Usually he was the one in a hospital bed.
Usually? He guessed he was getting melodramatic. One time he’d been the guy in
the hospital bed and it was so much easier than being this guy. The one who
escaped the incident scott-free.

He finally understood why Wayne McKenzie, the tackle who’d
brought him down, called him once a year. The other guy had guilt. Until this
moment Jack had thought it was because of the injury that he’d sustained but now
he knew it was because life for Wayne had gone on and for Jack it was changed
forever.

He heard a very soft sound as PJ cleared his throat.

“Thank you. If you hadn’t acted so quickly, I’d be dead.”

“You’re welcome,” Jack said. PJ would never know how glad he
was that he’d been there to help him. And if Jack was completely honest he was
glad that he hadn’t been the one to take that first wave. “I don’t have enough
friends to let one go easily.”

PJ laughed, and it was a genuine sound that made Jack feel a
little better about his friend’s chances of recovering. “That’s because you
think you’re all that.”

“I do,” Jack admitted. He realized that PJ and Willow would get
along very well because both of them thought nothing of taking shots at his ego.
That bit of insight made him realize that Willow was indeed different from other
women in his life. She might be the first real person he’d been involved with
for a long, long time.

“Doc’s coming in to look at his handiwork. I lost the leg,” PJ
said.

“Ah, man. I’m sorry,” Jack said, even though he’d known the leg
was gone before he’d left L.A. The injuries had been too massive to save it and
he’d sat in a tense waiting room with Rhia while the surgery had been
performed.

“It’s cool. I’m already trying to figure out how I’ll be able
to surf one-legged. Maybe I’ll invent something new that will set the world on
fire.”

“I’m sure you will,” Jack said. PJ wasn’t the kind of man to be
kept down by anything.

“Later, man.”

“Later,” Jack said as he hung up the phone.

PJ’s attitude was good but Jack remembered his own operation
and waking up with a scarred leg. His injuries hadn’t been as severe as PJ’s of
course, but those first few days he’d just been happy to be alive. Then as time
went on and he physically recovered he realized that he’d never be able to play
again. He made a note to check in with PJ again soon because he had a feeling
once his friend left the hospital things were going to get a little too real.
And Jack had been there.

He stood up as he got ready to head to the restaurant. He had
been there and he always survived. Whatever happened with Willow he’d come out
on the other side and move on. He wished he could feel differently or believe
that maybe they could have forever, but that wasn’t the kind of guy he was. He
never had been.

Which reminded him that he’d done something to her in the past
that she hadn’t been able to forgive. He needed to find out what that was. Maybe
he was back in Willow’s life to help her with something before he moved on.

He tried to tell himself that his attitude toward life and Fate
was healthy but a part of him ached at the thought of not keeping Willow as his
own for the rest of his life.

He shook that off as he left his apartment and headed to the
restaurant where he was meeting Willow. Live for the moment was his mantra until
he saw her walking toward him. Then he wanted to change his life and his beliefs
because he wanted to keep her.

* * *

Willow was glad that Jack had left when he had because
it gave her a chance to get back to normal.
Yeah,
right.
She’d left normal the moment she’d gone to the airport to pick
him up.

She didn’t know what she was going to do. Her plan for revenge
was out the window because at this point she couldn’t be cold and walk away from
him. She didn’t know if she ever had been able to do that. She wondered if she’d
used anger as a protective buffer to keep him at arm’s length until now.

Unable to figure out what else to do she picked up the phone
and called Nichole.

“Yo dog, what up?” Nichole said.

“Huh? Why are you talking like a wannabe white rapper?” she
asked.

“I’m giving my husband a hard time. He’s ignoring me to do
business,” Nichole said. “What’s up?”

“Conner’s right there?”

“Yes, but he’s on a conference call. He’s been on the phone for
the last twenty minutes…okay, I’m in the kitchen out of earshot. What’s going
on?”

Willow took a deep breath. She had never really been one to
talk about her own life. She was the best listener of anyone in their little
threesome but she always kept her own confidence. “I slept with Jack.”

“Yay! About time,” Nichole said. “Right? It was a good
thing?”

“I don’t know. I mean, yes, it was good. But I don’t think it
was a smart move for me.”

“Hold on. Let me conference Gail in. I’m on Jack’s side since I
think he’s perfect for you.”

“What? How can someone who’s traveling all the time be perfect
for me?” Willow asked.

“I’ll tell you in a second. Gail needs to be in on this. Don’t
tell her I said this but she’s smart about people.”

Willow agreed with Nichole and held the line for a minute until
Gail came on. “So you slept with Jack.”

“Yes. What should I do now?” Willow asked. “For once I don’t
know what the next step should be. I mean if I were still going for revenge I
guess I could go to dinner and then dump him.”

“Are you still thinking about walking away from him so he knows
what that feels like?” Gail asked.

“No,” Willow said. She knew she couldn’t do that now that she’d
gotten to know Jack. “He wouldn’t be the only one to get hurt if I did
that.”

“Is it that serious?” Nichole asked.

“I just don’t know. Sleeping with him…well, I thought I could
make it just sex but somehow when he left here this afternoon I knew it wasn’t.
I guess I sort of knew it before when he sent me that damned frog prince.”

“What frog prince?” Nichole asked.

“He sent me these little gifts when he was in L.A. One of them
was a trinket box shaped like a frog prince....”

“I didn’t know he sent you a gift.”

“Well, he did,” Willow said. “And that confused
everything.”

“Okay, so what do we need to figure out?” Gail asked.

“If I should walk away now before I get in any deeper. I think
I could and not get hurt,” Willow said.

“Oh, honey,” Nichole said. “I don’t think you can. He sent you
gifts, he’s been texting you and—”

“Let’s not put too much emphasis on that. He’s wooing you like
any guy would do. You have to be smart about this,” Gail said. “Let’s put Willow
first. What is going to be best for you?”

“Like Nic said, he’s wooing me and no guy has done that before.
I like it.”

“Okay. So did he ask you out again?” Gail asked.

“Yes. We have a dinner date tonight. He left to get ready for
it. He’s sending a car for me in an hour. Should I go?”

“Yes,” Nichole said.

“I think you have to,” Gail said. “You want to. I hear it in
your voice. Why are you hesitating?”

Willow didn’t want to talk about the past with Jack and she
knew that was the crux of the matter. “If we’d never met before he came on the
show I’d be there in a heartbeat.”

“Then pretend you didn’t,” Nichole said.

“I can’t. He doesn’t remember standing me up on prom night,”
she said. “What does that say about him? And me, that I slept with him when he
can’t remember the one thing that shaped me and my attitude toward men.”

“It says he moves on and leaves the past behind him. It also
says you want him enough to risk being hurt again,” Gail said.

“No. I’m in control this time,” Willow said, but the words
sounded hollow even to her.

“Right, I thought I could be Conner’s mistress and not fall for
him,” Nichole said.

“And I thought I could fix Russell without letting him into my
heart,” Gail said.

“Why? We are all smart women,” Willow said.

“Because men make women stupid,” Nichole said.

“No, the right man can make one woman stupid,” Gail said. “It’s
specific to one guy and one girl.”

“Jack’s my guy,” Willow said.

“Probably because of the past he’s tied in your head to love. I
can’t say what you’re feeling now,” Gail said. “But we’re your friends and we’re
never going to judge you. If you want him…”

“Then go and get him,” Nichole said. “And I’m not just saying
that to win the spa day.”

Willow tried to laugh but she was so confused. She didn’t feel
stupid because of Jack, she felt unsure. And a lack of confidence was the one
thing she hated most in the world.

“Thanks, ladies.”

“No problem. We always have your back,” Gail said.

“And you’ve always had ours,” Nichole added.

Willow hung up the phone, still feeling no closer to deciding
if she should go or not. But something that Gail had said kept circling around
in her mind. What does Willow want?

She thought about calling Jack with some lame excuse and
sitting at home all night, but then realized she’d been hiding away long
enough.

She got dressed in a slinky number she’d bought with Kat at a
designer sale last week. Standing there staring at herself in the mirror, she
thought she hardly resembled the girl she’d been in Texas. Yet at the same time
she didn’t look like her more recent self, either. Jack had forced her to
change—not intentionally, but all the same the change was there. She saw it in
her own eyes.

She wondered if Nic had thought that this would be the outcome
of her going to drinks with Jack. Her friend had thought she needed to change,
but Willow was afraid of it.