Jacqueline finally turned away from the machine and handed over a tiny cup like nothing in the world was out of place, her eyes still sparkling with amusement. If she was attracted to me at all, she didn’t even look vaguely disturbed by it.
That means I got it all wrong, right? We both agreed to keep things professional, but she’s the only one sticking to her promise.
I took the caffeine, grateful for the distraction. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” She leaned back against the counter and smiled. “So, what are we doing today?”
I took a sip to buy myself a second to get my brain back online, but once I’d swallowed, I was no closer to figuring out what the fuck was going on here than I had been before. “I’ve got a meeting and a lunch after that, but then the day’s ours.”
“Ours,” she repeated.
I tilted my head, watching her. “What do you want to do?”
She smiled, lighting up like the sky on New Year’s fucking Eve, and I swore it made me see stars.Oh, God. I really am screwed, aren’t I? So, so incredibly freakin’ screwed.
CHAPTER 16
JACQUELINE
The lunch he’d mentioned was at a nearby resort so beautiful and so fancy that I had to be the poorest person who’d ever set foot here. I kept waiting for an alarm to sound and black-suited security guards to escort me out. Jesse had been ushered into a glass-walled meeting space with a handful of men in expensive watches and carefully neutral expressions, and I had been placed just close enough to be included, but not close enough to matter.
Which was fine, because directly across from their very serious, important conversation about acquisitions or whatever, was a poolside bar. Lively with people laughing, music playing, and frosty drinks being served.
I’d been watching it for an entire hour. I checked my watch just to be sure, but yep. It’d been an hour since we’d arrived. I felt very much like a prop right then, which was so different from how I felt when I was alone with Jesse. With just us, I barely felt like I was faking it at all.
If I didn’t know about Jesse’s reputation, I might even think we were connecting on a personal level. But he didn’t do that. Jesse had friends and he had lovers, but there was no overlap between them. The whole point of our agreement was to preventanything like human emotion getting in the way when the charade ended. I had to keep remembering that.
When I glanced back at Jesse through the glass, one of his hands was gesturing as he spoke. His posture was relaxed, but controlled, his expression so focused that he didn’t look like the man who’d saved me from that awful bug in the kitchen just a few hours ago.
Smiling briefly when he caught my eye, he winked but then turned back to whatever he’d been saying. I sighed when I felt my heart skip in response. Jesse Westwood was dangerous with a capital D.
Earlier, when we’d arrived, he’d introduced me as his better half and a brilliant lawyer, joking about how I was far too good for him, but that he was working on it. At the time, I’d rolled my eyes, but the pride in his voice hadn’t felt fake and neither had the warmth that had followed me out of that room after.
It was really starting to mess with my head, his presence and the way he made me feel like I’d somehow become special to him. Sometimes, when he looked at me, I thought I saw real affection. But there was no way. Jesse Westwood didn’t fall in love. I would be a fool to fall for his charms after the way Thomas had blindsided me. I would just be setting myself up for pain and disappointment.
The sound of the door opening pulled me out of my thoughts and my heart did yet another strange, flip-twist thing when I looked up to see Jesse walking toward me. He smiled, but at the same time, he seemed strangely annoyed.
“Are you ready to go?” he asked when he reached me, extending a hand to help me up.
“God, yes.” I didn’t accept his hand, but not because I was trying to be a brat. It just wasn’t a good idea for me to touch him right now. “I’ve been ready since we arrived.”
Quiet laughter rumbled through him and he took a step back, putting some distance between us when I stood. I’d noticed he was careful about that, more respectful than I would have expected. We walked in silence to the exit, the tension of the meeting slowly evaporating from his shoulders the more space we put between ourselves and that room.
“You look like you just escaped from purgatory,” I finally commented. “What happened?”
He glanced at me before his gaze drifted to the ocean, stretching endlessly toward the horizon. “I was bored out of my mind. Who wants to be inthereif you can be outhere?”
I laughed. “True, but surely, you knew what you were in for when you came over here?”
“Yeah, but the only reason I agreed to come to this series of meetings was because I wanted to make good on some of the adventures we planned.”
I smiled, my heart fluttering all over again. “The dog heist?”
“Among other things,” he said. “We’ll get to that one eventually, but this was just supposed to be for us. Alex didn’t even have to force my hand to come.”
“Does he usually?”
“I’m still adjusting to the suit and tie lifestyle.” Jesse shrugged. “Sometimes I need some nudging. But I volunteered for this trip and he agreed because I’ve worked with this client before. Back when I was doing my own thing in Miami. Technically, I’m stepping on the West Coast Westwoods’ toes here, but the client trusts me. We’ve got history, so Sterling was good with it too.”