Read Online A Lover's Secret by Bethany Bloom - Free Book Online Page A

with…someone. With a woman.”
    “What?” His laugh was incredulous. “No. I didn’t. Why would
you get that idea?”
    “Someone told me.”
    “Who? Who said that?”
    “Monica.”
    “Oh, Monica.” Jake grunted. “I know she’s your sister, Jess,
but I’m not sure she’s always your friend.”
    “Yeah, I know.” Jess’s brows pulled in, and she frowned.
    “The truth is, the bride’s sister spent a good part of the
reception chugging Tuaca in the church bathroom, I guess, and she was pretty
destroyed. She was falling all over herself, so, after looking for you and
realizing you had left, I drove her home, in her car. Then I walked back to my
hotel. Alone.” He paused then. “After seeing you…and getting shot down like I
did… I needed to clear my head. I needed to walk.”
    Jess chewed at her lip. She was silent, listening on some
level to his words but mostly riding the soft waves of his voice. They were
quiet and kind, like the shy and introverted man in her fantasies. Not the one
who globetrotted or parasailed or whatever he said he did. She could imagine
him now, sleepy-eyed and adorable, holding the phone close to his face and
smiling into it. She clutched her knees tighter and tried to control the
trembling that was rising once more, deep in the core of her.
    “Jess? Are you still there?”
    She took a deep breath. “I’m still here.”
    “So… Would you come over?”
    “Like in the morning?” Oh, Christ. She wagged her
head. She’d been trying to sound nonchalant. Not eager. But, in the morning? Could she have sounded more desperate?
    “No.” Jake’s tone was curt, abrupt. “Would you come over
right now?”
    Jess’s stomach dropped and her throat felt like it was
closing up. She stuttered. “I…I think you have the wrong idea, Jake.” She
wasn’t one of the ultra-beautiful girls from either coast, who would do his
bidding in the middle of the night.
    “No, Jess.” He laughed. “I think you have the wrong
idea. I just…I can’t stand to hear your voice, after all these years, and not see
you—and not be able to look into your eyes.”
    “But I don’t… My intention was not to…”
    “Seriously, Jess, I just want to see you. To reconnect. I
won’t…I won’t even touch you. You have my word. No kiss-stealing or pushing you
up against anything.”
    As he said the words, she could feel him, once again; the
pressure of his body against hers. Her heart pounded in her face.
    “I just want to see you. Please?”
    She pulled in a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
    There was a series of soft clicks and rustles on his end of
the line. She swallowed and opened her mouth. Then closed it again. After a
time, he said, “So, did you read the book?”
    “A little bit.” She straightened her spine and pulled her
neck upward in an attempt to keep the shakiness out of her voice.
    “The part about you?”
    “Yes.”
    “Good. So you get it. Now come over. We’ll talk about it. I
just want to talk to you. I’m dying to talk to you. Finally. After all these
years. Please, Jess.”
    Jess tilted her head from side to side and stared out into
the room where Grandma lay perfectly still. This is what struck her now: the
motionlessness of the room. The dank smell of overripe flowers. The moisture
and the heaviness and the stillness.
    “Jess.” His tone was sharp now, cracking. “There literally
isn’t a moment to waste. My flight was supposed to leave tonight. Well, I guess
it did leave tonight…without me.”
    “Oh?” It was more an exhalation than a response.
    “Because I was hoping you’d call, Jess.”
    She bit her bottom lip and swallowed.
    “Listen, Jess, I’m sending you a car. The driver will be
discreet. All you have to do is… be outside, in front of your house, in seven
minutes.”
    Seven minutes. She listened to her breath flow in and out, and
then her reply came out in a rush, before she had made the conscious decision
to form the words. “Okay, okay, yes.