Favorite Places (A TroubleMaker Novel, #2) (22 page)

He wasn’t sure
when it had happened, when he had fallen in love with her. For all he knew, it
was the first moment he’d set eyes on her. The when wasn’t important. The only
thing that mattered was that she knew the truth. His insecurity had hurt her
severely. He hadn’t trusted her because he wasn’t able to trust himself.
Really, he was no better than her ex-fiancé. He had taken her purity, her
beauty and twisted it into something ugly. He’d blamed her and, in doing so,
had put her in the same dark, demented category as the man who had ruined her
life. Chase wasn’t sure if she could or would ever forgive him for it, but he
wasn’t the type to so easily toss in the towel. It would take a knockout, one
he wouldn’t wake up from, for him to give up on Jess.

When the front
porch came into view, Chase noticed Mrs. Caplin sitting on it. He looked around
and saw that his car was gone. He knew Jess and Mrs. Caplin had gone out for
lunch together, so he didn’t understand why Mrs. Caplin was back but Jess
wasn’t. His concern heightened as they climbed the stairs and met the elderly
woman.

She smiled at
them, and her eyes toggled back and forth between the two men. “Well, Arthur?
Out with it. Don’t make the poor man wait,” she said, no doubt noticing Chase’s
nervousness. Arthur shook his head at his wife, then turned to Chase and placed
his hand on his shoulder. “How’s July sound?”

Jess was still
weighing heavily on his conscience, but Chase was able to concentrate long
enough to comprehend the offer Caplin had just made. He blinked several times. “You’re
taking the job then?”

The whiskers
hiding the elder man’s mouth had spread out, and Chase was pretty sure that beneath
all that beard, Caplin was smiling.

“July would be
great,” Chase finally responded. With that out of the way, he turned back to
Mrs. Caplin. “Where’s my wife?”

She gazed up at
him thoughtfully, to the point of making him uncomfortable. “She said she needed
to go home and—”

“Home?” Chase
asked.
Home where? Jess’s home?

“Yes. She mentioned
that she had some things to do back home, but she wanted to wait to see how the
tour went. I told her not to worry about it and to run along. I assured her
that Arthur was going to take the job,” she said, winking at her husband. “She
was so happy. She wanted me to tell you that she’ll have Katie send someone back
with the car so you won’t be stuck out here.”

“She went
home
?”
Chase asked, and this time he knew what it meant, Jess had taken off as soon as
she knew it was a done deal.  

“Yes, home…where
you and your wife live?” the older woman cued.

Oh!
Where I live!
Sure, Jess intended to return to
his
home, but only long enough to return his car. Jess had fulfilled her part of
the bargain and would be expecting her pay. She hadn’t waited around to relish
in the triumph. She’d just left. He knew he’d hurt her, and he was sure that
was why she’d refused his blatant advances the night before, but he’d had no
idea that she’d really just walk away and never look back.  Suddenly, it hit
him hard, real fucking hard, like a fist to the face…
She’s gone. My Jess is
gone!

It wasn’t a
knockout, but it was definitely a technical one, because Chase was injured, no
longer able to defend himself properly. Trying to shake it off, Chase realized
it was going to take longer than a ten-second count for him to get up from the
loss of Jess.

He fucked up
real bad.

Maybe he needed to give
Jess a little space, some time to heal before he pulled himself up to his knees
and groveled for forgiveness.

It’d been over a
month since Jessina had seen Chase. As she followed Jon into the courtroom, she
became anxious and apprehensive about seeing him again. Her eyes swept the room,
but there was no sign of her soon to be ex-husband. When their names were
called, there was still no Chase. Jessina settled into the seat next to her
lawyer in the front of the room.

When they called
Chase’s name again, a tall, attractive man carrying a briefcase entered the
room. He waltzed to the front and assumed the position directly across from
them. He opened the case, and then gave his attention to the judge, who was
eyeing him suspiciously. “Are you Chase Lennox?”

“No, Your Honor.
I’m Jack Pearson, but I’ll be representing Mr. Lennox.”

The judge
glanced at the courtroom doors and back to the document in his hands. “Is Mr.
Lennox planning on joining us today?”

“No. I’m his
lawyer and—”

The paper in the
judge’s hand ruffled, and Pearson took the hint and stopped talking.

“It says here
that Mr. Lennox has already requested that this hearing be rescheduled twice
before.” The judge looked back up at Jack Pearson. “Are you telling me he’s unable
to attend for a third time? I’m here today, and,” he glanced down at the paper
in his hand, “Mrs. Landi and her lawyer made it. Even you’re here, Mr. Pearson.
So what’s Mr. Lennox’s excuse? Surely his time isn’t more valuable than all of
ours.”

“You Honor, he’s
not feeling well, and—” Pearson started to explain.

“Is he dying?”

“Um, not
exactly, sir, but, uh—”

“Again,” the judge
asked, his bushy eyebrows gathering like two mating caterpillars, “is he dying,
Mr. Pearson?”

“No.”

Jessina sat,
half-listening to the conversation, as concern filled her about Chase being too
ill to make it to court. She wanted to interrupt the judge’s inquiry and ask
Mr. Pearson what was wrong with Chase, was it the flu or something more
serious. She had waited for over a month to see him, over thirty long days to
get her annulment, a long month of wishing that when she finally saw him again,
Chase would tell her he was in love with her. Since she’d made that deal with
Mrs. Caplin, Jessina couldn’t let Chase back into her life until he did so, and
now it appeared she wasn’t going to get her chance.

And sure, after weeks
with no call from Chase, she should have taken the hint. Moreover, he
rescheduled the court date not once but twice, just as the judge had stated. He’d
even gone through Jon to get the money he owed her. That alone should have
clued her in to the fact that Chase didn’t want anything to do with her.

Jon turned to
her, his eyes open wide. Jessina hadn’t been paying attention. She looked up at
the judge, who was sternly addressing Chase’s lawyer.

“…and you didn’t
bring the signed affidavit to prove that Mr. Lennox’s identification had been
stolen, that your client was not present during the ceremony, and that he’s in
agreement with the annulment?”

“No, Your
Honor.”

“Why are you
here exactly, Mr. Pearson? What do you intend to accomplish today? Does your
client even want an annulment?”

Pearson remained
silent.

The judged
crossed his arms and leaned on the desk, looking pointedly at Pearson. He sighed,
and then turned to Jessina. “Without the affidavit and Mr. Lennox’s presence, I
can’t grant you an annulment. I’m sorry, but I must decline your petition.” The
judge looked back at Pearson. “You can report back to your client and tell him if
he wants out of this marriage, he will now need to divorce Mrs. Landi. You
might also want to remind Mr. Lennox that because of his lack of interest in
resolving this matter by appearing in person at court, his legal wife is now
entitled to half of his possessions and estate.” The judge picked up his gavel,
dropped it, and announced, “Court is adjourned.”

While Jessina was
still trying to understand what had happened, Jon sank back in his chair,
shaking his head. “Why wouldn’t he show up? He must be insane,” he mumbled
under his breath. Resting his chin in his hand, he glanced at Jessina. “Not
that you would, but if you wanted to, you could very well take him for half his
fortune.”

Half?
Jon’s
words had tweaked her memory. She recalled when Chase first propositioned her
in the hospital, when she’d threatened to do just that as his wife. She
struggled to remember what he’d said to her, but then it came to her…“
I’d
have to be clinically insane, deadly infected with a bad case of the loves
before I’d give one penny of my hard-earned fortune away to any woman…”
She
thought about it for a moment and wondered…
Does that mean Chase loves me?

Jessina quickly
squashed the thought. She couldn’t allow herself to believe that, because it
would hurt far too much if it turned out not to be true.  

Chase’s lawyer
walked over and stopped in front of Jessina and Jon and handed an envelope to
her. “Here. Mr. Lennox wanted you to have this.”

She stared at
his hand, unable to move. Needing to know the truth, she finally asked, “Is he
all right?” Her eyes slipped from the envelope to Pearson
.

The man nodded
his head. “He’s just a bit…under the weather,” he said, and then he left.

Jessina stormed past
Katie and barged right into Chase’s office. And that godforsaken, crippling,
enticing scent hit her as soon as she threw open the door. “How dare you?”

Chase stood up
from his chair. “Jess? What are you doing—”

“No!” After a
quick sweep of the room to be sure they were alone, she stopped in front of his
desk. “Sit your ass back down. You don’t get to ask the questions right now.”

He lowered to
the chair, but she hadn’t missed the impish grin making its way across those
delicious lips of his, and God, how she missed that mouth!

“First, you
cancel our court date not once, but twice. Then you have the audacity not to
show up at all. Just who the hell do you think you are?”

Chase opened his
mouth, no doubt about to defend himself, but she was too angry to hear any of
his excuses. She halted him with the raise of a hand, and even when he placed
his finger over his mouth, she noted his sexy little grin spread a bit wider.

She set her
hands on her hips. “And don’t give me that bullshit excuse about being sick, because
you look damn fine to me!” Her eyes cased him, and she surmised that he
couldn’t possibly have looked any better.

He lifted his
finger from his mouth again to respond, but she shot up her finger in warning.
That time, he didn’t try to hide his smile. It reached full bloom. Somehow,
though, Jessina found a way to ignore it.

“What the hell
is this anyway?” she asked, flinging the check at him. It sailed through the
air, swaying slowly, but Chase’s eyes never left hers as it silently fell to
the floor. He leaned forward, and her body responded, engulfing in flames of desire.

“That’s the
remainder of what I owe you,” he said, and got up from the chair.

Jessina took a
step to the side and reached for the desk for stability. “But you…um…you
already paid me,” she reminded him as he crept closer.

“I gave you 300
grand,” he said, stopping in front of her, “but I still owed you 200.” His arm moved
around her waist as if it was made to rest there, and he pulled her close to
him. “We had a revised deal, remember? A renegotiation.”

“Well,” she
sternly replied, trying to press back from his amazing scent and hot touch, “I
don’t want another cent of your damn money, Chase Lennox!”

Chase’s eyes
dropped to her lips. His head bent, and he started to move.

“Mr. Lennox, the
lady may not want your money, but we at the Jenkins Corporation would be more
than willing to take some of it off your hands.”

Jessina could
hear the voice, but it sounded strange, somewhat static and far away. She
glanced around the room, trying to decipher the source, but no one was there.
She turned back to Chase, who still had an impish grin plastered to his handsome
face. Like before, in the boardroom, he’d known they weren’t alone, and he had
again knowingly allowed her to make a complete ass of herself. She pushed to
get away from him and his rascally smile, but he held her tight as he leaned to
the left and pressed the intercom button on the phone.

“I bet you would,
George,” Chase said, still pinning Jessina with his eyes.

Like his voice,
the man’s chuckles muffled through the phone speaker. “It sounds like something
more pressing has come up, Chase. Why don’t I call Katie and reschedule our
conference call?”

“Thanks, George,”
Chase said, and then clicked the intercom off. In the time it took for him to
lift his head and look at her, his fingers had wrestled through her hair. He
cradled her head, bent down, and kissed her hard.

Caught off guard
by the hostile attack, Jessina’s hands lifted to his chest, but she hadn’t
pushed him away. Instead, she fisted his shirt into her hands and pulled him
closer.

Chase’s lips
broke from hers. “What the fuck took you so long?” he whispered roughly against
her mouth, reclaiming her lips.

What
the hell did he just say?
She’d been waiting for
him
for a freaking month! Anger surged through her, and she veered back from him. “Me?
What took
me
so long? You’re the one who kept canceling the hearings!”