Inferno Anthology (43 page)

“What can’t you do, Syd?” His tone was angry and he took another step closer.

I took another step back and spoke to his chest. “I can’t close my eyes and not see what is going on around me just because it makes life easier for me.”

Jack took another step closer and lifted my chin, forcing me to look at him. “Look at me. What do you think is going on?”

I looked away and didn’t respond. I was fighting the tears back with all my might and I couldn’t look into his eyes.

He let go of my face and raked both his hands through his hair in frustration. Then he took a deep breath and grabbed my face with both hands, bringing himself down to my eye level. I had nowhere to look but into his eyes. “Nothing is going on and you know it. You’re scared. And so the fuck am I.” He paused and searched my eyes. “Baby, I’m not him. I’m not the asshole that made you afraid of giving yourself to me, but I wish like hell I could take away what he did to you. Because I’m in. I’m all in, baby. I’m not perfect and I don’t know what the fuck I did to deserve someone as good as you, but you have me and I’m not settling for just a part of you. I want you. I want all of you, baby.”

The tears flooded my eyes and poured down my face. Jack pulled me close to him and held me until there were no more tears left.

I pulled my face out of his chest. “There’s nothing going on between you and Jenna?” I looked up at him raw, vulnerability on the table bared to him.

“There’s only you, baby.” Jack paused and reached down and lifted me up, cradling me into his arms. “I belong to you.”

W
eeks passed and my angst about Jack’s other life and the people he shared it with began to subside. We began to fall back into a routine and we even went out with Jack’s friend Tyler that I’d met in Hawaii and his new girlfriend a few times. We were beginning to settle in as a couple and, although it scared me, I was happier than I had ever been in my life.

Sunday morning we were reading the paper in bed when my cell phone rang and flashed a picture of Sienna. “Hey.” I didn’t even get to finish the word, Sienna was already talking over me. I had to ask her to slow down just to be able to make out what she was saying. Her voice was screeching with excitement and she was going a mile a minute. I was only able to make out the last sentence. “The Smiths, Syd, can you believe it!”

I was confused and my conversation had gotten Jack’s attention too. He looked at me silently, asking if everything was alright, and I shrugged my shoulders in response. “What about the Smiths?”

Sienna took a deep breath to calm her on the phone. “They want us to open for them, Syd! They want us, me and you, us, to open for them!”

“What, when?” I loved the Smiths. Years ago, when Sienna and I had a band back in Boston, we had made friends with a lot of other local bands; one of them was the Smiths. We had a mutual respect for each other’s music and we had always joked that someday we would alternate opening for each other’s bands when we went on tour. Years later, the Smiths made it big and Sienna and I were happy that, if it couldn’t have been us, we were glad it was them. Sienna and I had been to a dozen concerts over the last few years and I knew they were about to release another album.

“On their tour, Syd.” Her voice was elevating back to screaming. “They want us to open for them for their whole tour!”

“I didn’t even know they had a tour set up here anytime soon.”

“They don’t. It’s a European tour, Syd. Four months of singing and traveling through Europe with the Smiths! Can. You. Fucking. Believe it!”

I held the phone away from my ear as she continued to scream. Oh. My. God. It was my dream come true. I had no idea how it had happened, but it was every musicians dream. I turned and looked at Jack and suddenly my heart was in my throat. I saw in his face that he’d overheard the news that Syd had just shared. How could he not have, she was screaming every word.

Sienna blabbered on and on, as I struggled to keep my composure on the phone with her. I felt like I was just punched in the stomach and the wind was knocked out of me. I was thrilled and excited, but scared and sickened at the same time. “When does it start?” I had to feign excitement, but it broke my heart as Jack rose from the bed and went into the living room.

“A week?” I was exasperated. “When do they need an answer?”

“An answer?” Sienna laughed. “I already gave them one! Of course we are doing this, Syd!”

A few minutes later I was able to get Sienna off the phone and found Jack standing against the window, looking out over the city. I wrapped my arms around his back and hugged him tightly. Neither of us said anything for a few minutes.

“When do you leave?” Jack turned to face me, clasping his arms around my back.

“In a week. It’s a four month European tour.”

I caught Jack’s jaw tense, but he tried to hide it from me. He brushed my hair back from my face. “Congratulations, Syd. It’s your dream come true.”

I thought about his words. He was right. It was my dream come true, but why did it feel like my worst nightmare? “Thank you. I think I need some time to process it all.”

A few days passed and Jack and I went about our lives as usual. We talked about the tour schedule, the travel plans, and the venues we would play, but we steered clear of the thing we both needed to talk about most. Us. What would my leaving do to us? Would we be able to survive as a couple with months of not seeing other? Would we even try a long distance relationship? I wasn’t sure why we hadn’t talked about it yet, but I was terrified of the answers that needed to be said.

Two days before I was to leave, I woke up to find Jack in his home office, working. I couldn’t leave without having the conversation, no matter how much I dreaded having it. I sat on the other side of his desk, something I had never done before. The only place I ever sat in Jack’s office was on his lap. Jack looked up at me and waited for me to speak.

“What’s going to happen to us when I go, Jack?”

Jack stopped what he was doing and his hands rubbed his forehead. “What do you want to happen, Syd?”

“I don’t want to go, Jack. I’m afraid to leave you, I don’t want to lose you.” A tear escaped before I could stop it.

“I don’t want you to go either, Syd. But you have to. When we first met in Hawaii you said yourself that you had forgotten who you were when you were with Michael. You need to do this for you. It’s your dream.” He came around the desk and lifted me, setting me down on top of his lap. “I’ll come to Europe to see you and you can come home when you have a few days between shows.” His face was serious and his tone was unwavering.

I knew he was right, but it didn’t make it hurt any less. I looked into his eyes and saw his sacrifice. “I love you, Jack.” I hadn’t planned to say it, the words just came out on their own.

Jack lifted me up and carried me to the bedroom, setting me down on the bed gently. I watched as he unbuckled his pants and took off his boxers, never taking his eyes off of me. He sat me up and pulled the tank-top I was wearing over my head. He climbed on top of me and gently kissed my lips. He pulled his head back just enough to look me in the eyes. “I love you too, Syd.” Then he made love to me.

On the morning of my flight, I was surprised that Jack said he needed to stop at the office. “I just have to pick up something. We can stop on the way to the airport. It will only take five minutes.”

We were both quiet, but it didn’t have anything to do with the unplanned stop at Jack’s office. I wasn’t going to see Jack for three full weeks, until I had a break in my schedule. We planned for him to fly to Rome for four days then. He was going to come for the Rome concert and then we were going to stay three days together, before I had to fly out to Prague for the next show.

Mateo pulled up in front of Jack’s office and he opened the door and held out his hand. I was surprised that he wanted me to come inside, after the last time I had visited. I really didn’t want his last memory of me in his office to be my childish behavior from last time, so I sucked it up and got out with him without question.

Jack’s assistant spied us as soon as we walked in. “It’s on your desk.” She smiled at me sweetly.

We walked to his office hand in hand. I was relieved that I didn’t have any Jenna sightings that might upset me before I had to leave. Inside his office, Jack handed me an envelope.

“What’s this?”

“Open it.”

Inside was a pretty silver heart keychain with a bunch of keys and some folded papers.

I looked at him curiously.

“The keys to the penthouse, my office, and the storage unit. And an open first class ticket in case you need to come home for an unplanned visit.”

I understood the first two and the last. “The storage unit?” I asked, confused.

“Where I’m having your furniture stored next weekend. I’m moving you into the penthouse next weekend. You can figure out what you want to keep and get rid of when you get back.”

My eyes widened with disbelief. I was about to argue when, out the corner of my eye, I saw the picture that I had given him on his desk, perfectly positioned for him to see from his chair. He had taken the present I had rudely delivered to him on his birthday and put it proudly on display. My picture was on the desk of the man who never had any personal belongings in his office. I took a deep breath and decided to throw caution to the wind. “Okay.”

“Okay?” He had definitely expected more of an argument.

I reached up on my tippy toes and kissed him sweetly on the mouth. “I belong to you, so why not.”

Jack tipped my head back and kissed me deeply. “I’m going to be taking a lot of cold showers over the next three weeks.” He made a sexy growling noise as he took both my ass cheeks into his hands and pressed me up against his erection. For the first time in a week, I felt like we might actually make it. We might…..

Jack and Sydney’s story continues in book two,
Made For You.

Belong To You

My honeymoon was almost everything I dreamed it would be, a tropical paradise, turquoise water, romantic walks on the beach, and loads and loads of mind shattering sex. The only thing missing was the groom.

After seven years of coasting through a relationship with Michael, my senses were numb. A week of passion with a stranger was just what I needed to clear my head and take back control of my life. But how do you move on when the man that was only supposed to be a fling somehow seeps into your soul and steals your heart?

Made For You

Jack and Syd spent a week in paradise. It was only supposed to be a fling. But life can be funny sometimes, and circumstances brought them back together again. Together they seemed to have found their happy ever after. But when Sydney is offered a chance at the career she has always wanted, she must leave Jack behind to follow her dreams. Can their love survive long distance? Sydney's touring with a man every woman wants, but he only has eyes for Syd. And an unexpected tragedy leaves Jack feeling remorseful. Can the two find a way through to forever?

Worth The Fight

It didn't matter that the ref called it a clean hit. Nico Hunter would never be the same.

Elle has a good life. A job she loves, a great apartment, and the guy she's been dating for more than two years is a catch and a half. But it's boring...and she strives to keep it that way. Too many emotions are dangerous. Her own past is living proof of what can happen when you lose control.

Then Nico walks into Elle's office and everything changes...for both of them. But what can the tattooed, hard-bodied MMA fighter and the beautiful and always steady attorney have in common? A lot more than they bargained for.

***Author's note*** THIS IS A STAND-ALONE NOVEL. Due to strong language and sexual content, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.

Worth The Chance

Meet Liv Michaels
It may have been seven years, but I'd know him anywhere. Sure, he's grown, filled out in all the right places, but his captivating blue eyes and cocky grin are exactly the way I remember. Even though I'd much rather forget.