Hurt Like HELL (new adult contemporary romance) (19 page)

Jack moved faster than he ever had before.

In a second, he spun around, had his hands on my waist and was eyeing my hands as they were now palms flat against his sexy belly. 

Oh my.

His hands tightened against my hips.  I bit my lip, which was something I never did.  I wanted it so bad, I needed it. 

“Tessa...”

“Don’t do this,” I said.  “We’re here, tonight, right now.”

“I know everything,” Jack said.  “I know you haven’t...”

“So what?”

“I want it to be special.  Not a lust thing.”

“Why can’t it be both?” I asked.

Jack threw his head back and let out a groan.  I was breaking him down, wearing at him.  My only other option would be to strip naked in front of Jack.  Then again, he had already seen my naked.

“I don’t want to hurt you anymore.”

“You haven’t hurt me,” I said.  I was at the point of yelling.  “What have you done?”

Jack licked his lips.  “Just not like this.”

“Like what?  What else needs to happen?”

“A date.”

Jack said it so matter-of-fact like.  His voice stern, honest.

“A date?”

“Yes.  I know it sounds dumb but I want to take you on a date.  To talk, to be together, to let the night just happen.”

“So I have to wait?” I asked.

“Just until tomorrow,” Jack said.  “Meet me at your café at six.”

“It’s not my café, I don’t own it.”

“Fine.  Meet me at Thorns.  At six.”

“Meet you?  Don’t you know how to ask a girl out?”

“Ask?  I’m not asking you, Tessa...”  Jack’s right hand moved from my hip to my face.  His thumb did the whole cheek caressing thing again.  “I’m telling you.”

“Tell me, Jack, tell me.”

I smiled.

Jack didn’t.

He paused, long enough to kiss me.  Our tongues touched, played, flirted.  The kissing was just so hot, like romantic movie kind of hot.  Like the kind of kiss a woman could only dream about.  All I needed was Jack to push me down to my bed.

A date?

Who needed a date?

Jack did.

He stopped the kiss before anything else could happen.

He licked his lips and moaned.

“It was hard before,” he said, “resisting you.  But now, now that I can actually touch you, be near you.  This is impossible.”

My fingers curled, my nails trying to dig at his hard skin. 

Let it be impossible.

That’s what I wanted to say but I held back.  The idea of a date felt good.  Really good.  I hadn’t been on a date in a while, let alone a date that I wanted to be on.  I figured since Bridget already knew about Jack and that word had to be floating around about he and I, then what did it matter to go on a date?

Plus, it would be pretty nice to have a guy like Jack standing with me, holding my hand, maybe even kissing me.  Everyone that thought I was a prude, found me weird because I was virgin, imagine what they would think then?

As I thought about everything, Jack managed to back up.  He turned to retrieve his shirt from the bed and I saw the scars again.  Any enjoyment I had been feeling was stripped away, leaving me almost in tears.

The scars were a silent proof of what Jack had done for me.

Now, I wanted to give myself to him.

~10~

Six.

What a terrible time of day for a date.  But it’s what Jack wanted, so I obliged.  Not to mention I did have work and would be getting off right around the time for our date.  Of course, this left me in a worried fury because I didn’t want to go on a date with Jack smelling like a café.  I wanted to have something sexy for him to look at, something that would keep his mind on me and what I wanted him to do to me.  I couldn’t imagine waiting any longer.  All I wanted was him. 

He had me.  He had me all these years and it didn’t feel fair.  It didn’t feel right.  Sure, he saved me and protected me, but he was here now.  I could see him.  People could see him.  I could touch him, taste him, and now...

“Excuse me, can I get some freaking service here?”

My lip curled and I fought it back to normal.  No need to fight with some businesswoman on her way home from a long day of work.  She was probably heading home to do more work.  Maybe alone.  Maybe not.  None of it mattered.  I just needed a smile on my face to suffer through the last little bit of my shift so I could meet Jack right there at Thorns.  Chances were we would end up staying at Thorns, and that was okay too.  There were a few bands playing, most I had no idea who they were.  I loved seeing the local people and those traveling in beat up vans, chasing their dreams. 

I turned, forcing myself to smile.

“Can I...”

I looked at a smiling Bridget.

That bitch.

“Well?” she asked.  “Can I get some service?”

“Prices go up after five,” I said.

“How much?”

“Double.  Especially for you.”

She laughed and I poured her a coffee.  I tried to sneak it to her on the house but she insisted on paying. 

“I wanted to stop by and see how you were feeling,” Bridget said.  “I haven’t heard from you... since we talked about your old friend.”

“Oh.”

Yeah, Bridget was right.  Time seemed to slip away when it came to Jack.  Minutes became days.  I wished the days would become years.  Our lives, always.

“Did I upset you?”

“No.  Never.”

I could see it in Bridget’s face that it had been bothering her.  She always let her demons get the best of her.  She’d rather spend time worrying about a situation than working on solving it. 

And in this case, there was no situation. 

“Are you sure?  I mean, Tessa, if I upset you, I was just kidding.”

“You didn’t upset me.”

“Okay.  I was so worried about it, you know?  I was just joking about the old friend thing.”

I smiled.  The funny part of it all was that Bridget had been right.  I did meet up with an old friend, I did have feelings for him, and he did have feeling for me.  Not to mention all the back story, pieces that I couldn’t tell Bridget.  Things were just better kept between two people.  Like sharing scars.  In a tragic romantic sense.

“I’ve just been figuring things out,” I said.  I didn’t want to bring it up to Bridget that it had only been a day or two since we talked.  She stood with a blank face, on the verge of crying as though we hadn’t spoken to each other in months.  I didn’t want to hurt her feelings anymore than she already hurt her own.

“I know, Tessa.”

“I mean, the accident, my father...”

“I still appreciate you telling me about it all,” she said.  She reached for my hand and squeezed it.  “I feel closer to you.  And I’d never tell anyone.  Just because Gabrielle and I talk, it doesn’t mean anything.”

“I wouldn’t question your friends,” I said.  “Even though I disagree.”

“Her father’s a client,” Bridget said.  “I have to deal with her.  Better to make friends than enemies.”

“Or not.”

I winked and tended to the next customer in line. 

Bridget lingered for a few minutes as a rush of people all tried to get their orders placed before the first band started then I was able to talk to her again.

“How’s Timmy?” I asked.

“Confusing, as usual.  He threw Danny out.”

“That’s good.”

“Danny got in trouble with someone or something.  I think his father did something, I don’t know.  I don’t care either.  But Timmy got pissed and told him to move out.”

I thought it was a good situation.  Danny mooched off Timmy and in turn, mooched off Bridget.  I personally would have thrown him out after his strange request to have Timmy share Bridget. 

Bridget thought otherwise. 

She tried to keep a straight face but her thumb flicked at the lid of her coffee. 

She was nervous.

And worried.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Well, Danny moved out.”

“Yeah, you just said that.”

“That means Timmy’s apartment has just Timmy in it.”

Oh no, I knew where this was going to end up.  I hoped a band would quickly take the stage and start playing loud enough to drown Bridget out.

Not a chance.

“I thought once Danny left, it’d be a good chance for us to move in together.”

“If he has a lease, he can’t break it.”

“Not him, me.”

“Your lease...”

“Is month to month.  All I need is one month’s notice.”

“When did Danny move out?”

“Yesterday.”

I stared at Bridget in disbelief. 

Yesterday?

“It was just yesterday,” I said.  “Give him a chance to breathe.  Maybe he’s cleaning up after Danny.  He’s messy, right?”

“A pig,” Bridget said as she made a horrible looking sour face.  “He ate and left dishes in his room.  He never did laundry.  He was disgusting.”

“There you go,” I said.  “Timmy’s probably cleaning the place up.  Making it his own... before it’s yours.”

I smiled, Bridget bought it, and life moved forward. 

I caught sight of my boss, Jerry, walking towards the stage.  He wiggled his wrist to pull his shirt sleeve up and checked the time.  He jumped up on the stage, trying to look cool, but Jerry was anything but.  He turned and grabbed the microphone, fixing his glasses before talking.

“Thanks for coming out tonight,” he said.  “We have a few bands lined up.  Our first act is brand new.  It’s his first show.  Please welcome...
For Abby
.”

The second I heard the name, my heart jumped.  I hadn’t heard that name in a long time. My eyes then watched as Jerry moved from the stage as someone else walked on it. 

“Whoa, that guy is hot,” Bridget said.

“Yeah, he is.”

It was the only response I had.

My eyes were wide and I was in shock.

Right there, on the stage of Thorns, stood Jack.

~11~

He picked up a guitar and strummed a few chords, eyeing the café, barely even looking at me.
  I’m sure my face said enough and I was thankful that Bridget had her attention on Jack, like most of the café.

I say most of the café because people were still settling in and talking.  The second Jack struck the first chord to a song and started to sing, the entire place became his. 

Just like he commanded me with his words and eyes, he did the same for the lucky twenty or so people in Thorns.

I had no idea Jack could play guitar and sing. 

He did.

He did both with a passion and beauty that made it seem like he was singing to me.  At one point, he was singing to me.  Just him and a guitar, lyrics that stopped the world but moved me. 

“He’s good,” Bridget said.

She leaned against the counter as I leaned over it.  My chin rested in my hands and I was probably seconds away from drooling. 

“You hear me?”

“I heard,” I said, snapping out of my trance.  “I heard.  And yes, he’s good.”

“And hot.”

“Yeah, I heard that too.”

The song continued and Jack’s eyes wouldn’t leave me.  At first, I tried looking away, thinking that would break the eye contact.  It didn’t.  The more the song became its own, the more I felt the lyrics, and felt Jack singing them to me.

This wasn’t just a song written about me, or us, this was the song.  Covering all the years, all the emotion, all the passion, and all the love.

When it ended, Jack tucked the guitar pick into his pocket and nodded.

Thorns erupted in an applause that rarely happened for the first band performing. 

“That’s it for me tonight,” Jack said.  He offered his sexy smile and his voice sounded hotter than ever coming through the speakers in the café.  “I’m going to be late for a date if I keep singing.”

Our date.

Oh yeah.

He took the guitar off and gently put it back down.

Bridget turned to me.  “Wish I had some of that.”

“Coming from the girl upset her boyfriend won’t offer her to move in with him.  Keep your eyes to yourself.”

Bridget waved at me.  “Like we’d ever have a shot with him.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

I smiled.

Jack left the stage and made his way towards me.  A few people reached out and offered handshakes and high fives.  Two women grabbed at his wrist, probably wanting to buy him a coffee and flirt.  He ignored the world for me.