End of Day (Jack & Jill #1) (24 page)

The sweltering heat that had plagued the previous weeks showed mercy that day. It was eighty degrees with low humidity. Jillian and Lilith nursed their iced teas and watched the ducks and geese play in the algae-infested pond. Before Lilith had a chance to finish her drink, she drifted off to sleep as Jillian drifted back in time.

*

Day

Luke insisted Jessica
take the day off to recover. No work, no therapy, no Luke. Jessica appeased him by playing the part of the good patient, only because she’d caught a glimpse of her hideous reflection in his GTO’s window. Who was she kidding? Soap, deodorant, toothpaste, and a comb were the absolute minimum requirements before her charm and sex appeal would have a chance. And even then, she knew he was immune to her spells.

The loose-fitting cargo pants didn’t turn any heads, but they also didn’t rub against her road-rash covered legs. Her sleeveless blouse that revealed her cleavage, one of the few areas of her body that was unscathed, made up for the not-so-sexy pants. She left her hair down to veil the scrape high on her cheekbone. Armed with a pizza, Heineken, and a bottle of Riesling, she knocked on Luke’s door.

“Jessica?” Luke answered wearing an authentic look of shock, but it didn’t distract from his fitted button-down shirt, sleeves rolled up, and jeans that flashed like a neon ‘fuck me’ sign. At least, that was Jessica’s humble opinion that was reaffirmed when she inhaled what she’d come to think of as Chanel No. 69 – Jones le fonder de culotte—
Jones the panty melter
.

“I’m not a take-the-day-off kind of girl, so …” She shrugged.

“You should have called first.” Luke’s expression morphed from surprised to a reprimanding scowl.

She wrinkled her nose. “I wanted to surprise you. The call would have ruined it.”

“True, but at least you would have known that I already have plans this evening.”

“Plans? What plans? Your place is immaculate thanks to yours truly and less than twenty-four hours ago your plans were with me?” Jillian leaned forward and sniffed, trying to decipher what she was smelling other than pizza and Chanel No. 69. “Are you cooking?”

“Yes,” Luke answered, enunciating the word as if Jessica was deaf or just dumb.

“Luke?” A female’s voice called from inside.

“Is that … a woman?”

“Yes,” he repeated his same enunciation.

“A date?” Jessica said with loud surprise.

“Shh … yes, a date. Now, do you mind?”

“Where’s your bottle open—Jessica?” A familiar body accompanied the mysterious voice.

Luke sighed as his date peeked around him.

“Ellie?” Jessica gritted her teeth.

“Wh-what are you doing here?” Ellie’s gaze moved to the pizza box and sack of beer and wine.

“Jessica cleans my house.” Luke smiled at Ellie.

“But, I thought Kelly and Gabe said they fixed you two up and it didn’t work out.”

Jessica smiled at Luke, waiting for his explanation.

“They did, and we didn’t work out romantically, but I was looking for a cleaning lady and Jessica was looking for some part-time work so …” Luke shrugged like that’s all the explanation that was needed. “So, I take it you’re both mutual friends of Kelly’s?”

Jessica interrupted before Ellie could get one syllable out of her pouty lips. “We all went to college together.”

“I dated her brother, Jude, for a while.” Ellie flipped her blond hair over her shoulder as if dating Jude was worthy of a spot on her dating resumé.

“I think he said he screwed you in the alley behind a night club and couldn’t remember your name so he referred to you as ‘the girl who would lick
anything
.’ So if you call that dating, then sure … you dated my brother.”

Ellie laughed. “Oh, Jess … you’ve always had such a great sense of humor.” Ellie retreated from Luke’s view and gave a pleading, wide-eyed look to Jessica.

“Well, listen up, Jones. I’m busy for the next two weeks so it’s now or never for cleaning your place.”

“Never.” Luke squinted and started to close the door.

“Now? Great!” Jillian pushed it open and wedged her way between him and the door. “You don’t mind do you, Ellie? I’ll be done in no time. You won’t even notice I’m here.”

“Uh … well…” Ellie stepped to the side “…what’s with the pizza?”

“A girl’s gotta eat.” Jessica sauntered down the hall toward Luke’s bedroom. She shut the door and leaned up against it, blowing her hair away from her eyes. “Ellie?” she grumbled. “Ellie fucking … what is her last name? Lehman? Lawson? Lieberman? Lickey!” She laughed in spite of the frown on her face. “It’s not Lickey, but screw it, I’m going with it. How could Kelly fix him up with
her
? Shit!” Jessica jumped as a loud knock vibrated the door just opposite her head. She turned and opened it.

“Jessica …” Luke stormed inside his bedroom. It was more like a small gust. Nothing Luke did ever appeared out of control. “Once again you are crossing the line. I told you to stay home and rest. Now you’re here crashing my date, which is completely inappropriate, and the web of lies keeps getting bigger and it’s all going to blow up in your face—”

He turned, having been venting his frustration to the window. Jessica sat perched on his bed with her legs crossed, pizza box open, and in the middle of pouring a glass of wine.

“What are you doing?” His voice escalated. Incredulity etched in the lines of his forehead above his wide eyes.

“Eating…” she mumbled through a mouthful of pizza “…I’m starving.”

“That’s a fifteen-hundred dollar bedspread. Do you know what that means?”

Jessica held up a finger as she finished chewing, a sparkle of excitement in her eyes. “Oh, yes, I know this one. It means that you’re an
idiot
for paying that much money for a semen towel.”

He eased toward the open bottle of wine that she’d decided to balance on the bed next to the pizza box. A bit of relief washed over his face as he grabbed it without it spilling. “Out. Right now. Take your food and go. Ellie’s waiting for me and I don’t have the time nor the patience to deal with you and your antics right now.”

“Oh God … Ellie, right. Please tell me you’re not seriously entertaining the idea of dating her.”

“That’s none of your concern.”

“Come on, Jones! You can’t be serious. She’s a total slut. Are you really going to take her to dinner with your uppity shrink buddies, half of whom she’s probably already screwed.”

“She owns a daycare … I hardly think that qualifies her as a slut.”

Jessica took another bite of her pizza and shrugged. “She likes to recruit them when they’re young.”

Luke grabbed the box, leaving Jessica on the bed with just a lone piece of pizza in her hand. “Out. Now.”

“Don’t have sex with her.”

“Once again…” he gritted his teeth “…none of your concern.”

She scooted off the bed, wincing a bit as the friction irritated the raw skin on her legs that hadn’t had a chance to form scabs yet. Luke’s face mirrored her wince.

“You should be in bed, resting.” He spoke with a softer surrender to his voice.

Jessica slipped on her sandals. “What do you think I was just doing?” She set her half-eaten piece of pizza on the box in Luke’s hands. “Wash your sheets tomorrow. I don’t want to sit on your bed after
she’s
been in it.” She opened the door.

“It’s just a date.” Luke sighed. “Here, don’t forget your pizza.”

Jessica frowned. “I’ve lost my appetite.”

*

Dr. Luke Jones
had a remarkable ability to focus even in the midst of chaos. He could dissect a problem, analyze it, mend it, and put it back together. Then he could walk away and forget about it. This is … until Jessica Day landed in his office.

“Go away!” Jessica yelled at Luke’s incessant knocking on her door.

In spite of the agitation in her voice, he kept knocking. That night was not supposed to play out the way it did. He had a date. A sexy date. An unattached date. A
willing
date. He wasn’t supposed to be knocking on Jessica’s door. He was supposed to be indulging in meaningless sex.

She tore open the door with a killer’s wrath. “What?”

Luke flinched, but it wasn’t from her words. Jessica stood at the door in a sports bra and tight shorts, literal blood and sweat dripping from her body.

“What are you doing?” Luke stepped forward, struggling to hide a slip of uncharacteristic panic that tugged at his practiced and refined poker face.

“What does it look like, Einstein? I’m exercising.” She turned and grabbed a towel off the couch by the punching bag that hung from the ceiling behind it.

Luke took the towel from her and pressed it to the exposed stitches on her arm, a few that had been ripped back open, then he moved it to dab the smeared blood that ran down her legs. She hissed as he blotted her wounds. Her stomach muscles clenched. This wasn’t his fault and he knew it, but the finger of guilt still tsked at his conscience.

“You need help,” he whispered, more to himself than to her.

“Then help me,” she whispered back, confirming how far in over his head he’d become with her.

He stood and handed her the towel. “Why?”

“You said it yourself. I need help.”

“No, why did you do this to yourself?”

“I was just exercising.”

“Jessica …”

She turned and walked to the kitchen. “I had to burn off some energy and Jude’s out of town.”

“You’re bleeding.”

“I couldn’t feel it past the adrenaline.”

“There’s blood everywhere. Why did you do it?”

“I told you—”

“Tell me again. Where did you get all this energy since you left my house two hours ago?”

“Red Bull.”

“Jessica.”

She huffed. “You! Okay? You and fucking Ellie Lickey!”

“Ellie Liggett.”

“Whatever! I was pissed that you kicked me out so she could do all her slutty shit to you. Is that what you want to hear?” Jessica leaned against her kitchen counter, arms crossed over her chest, refusing to meet his eyes.

“You were jealous?”

Throwing her arms in the air, she groaned. “No! Really, could you be more full of yourself? I’m starting to feel less and less guilty about not paying you for your ‘expertise.’ I said I was pissed, not jealous. I trusted you … your judgement, but dipping your dick in San Francisco’s communal pussy shows complete lack of judgment on your part—”

“Jessica?”

“And now I’m going to have to find someone else and start this whole process over again.”

“Jessica?”

“And it’s going to be a
woman!
”

“I didn’t have sex with Ellie.”

“But-but she sucked your dick, didn’t she? God! She’s such a man-eater.”

Luke raised a lone brow.

She looked up at him. “Don’t give me that look. I’m not a man-eater. I may take a nibble here and there, but I have discriminating taste. Ellie’s just … gross!”

Luke laughed a little. “Gross? Like … icky or yucky?”

“So help me, Jones … if you’re making fun of me—”

“What? Are you going to bite me?” He knew his words were unprofessional and provoking. But with Jessica, Luke was caught in the crossfire between a man who desired her and a psychiatrist that needed to help her. The psychiatrist reminded the man every day that he could never have her. Most days the man listened, but some days he told the psychiatrist to go fuck himself.

She swallowed. “Why didn’t you have sex with her?” Jessica whispered.

Luke was drawn to her. His body detached from his mind as he moved toward her, pinning her against the counter with his hands on either side. “Because I have it on good authority that she … gets around.”

Jessica risked a glance at him. “I’ll help you find a nice girl.”

“You will?”

He could feel her heart pounding in her chest over and over as her breaths chased one another. Her proximity smothered his ability to think with any sort of clarity. He felt like a masochist in her presence.

“Yeah … I have one in mind.” She trapped her lower lip between her teeth, looking vulnerable without any resemblance to the Jessica Day he’d come to know.

“You do?” Luke’s gaze shifted from her face to her chest, then the rest of her body. She looked like hell, the way she did at the hospital, and maybe it was her vulnerability, but in Luke’s eyes all he could see was her beauty.