by Rowena Dawn
“What’s so unbelievable?” he frowned.
“Two weeks ago you asked me to leave because you couldn’t stand to look at me anymore. We’ve met again today, and suddenly, you’re... in love,” the woman noted with disbelief in her voice. “No one falls in love in a few hours,” she pointed out in a sarcastic tone of voice. “You must have something else in mind,” she shook her head.
“I haven’t asked you to marry me yet,” Jay snapped at her. “Anyway, for your information, some people fall in love in less than an hour,” he pointed out in a mean tone of voice.
“Huh!” she scoffed.
“Becka and Bryan did,” Jay said.
Ellen looked at him nonplussed.
“Don’t look at me like that. The two of them did. And the love between them is still growing strong,” the man mentioned. “Anyways, that’s not here or there. When I asked you to leave, I was fed up with my bruises and your constant judgments. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t like you even then. I liked you, all right. Quite too much,” Jay mumbled. “I couldn’t take you out of my mind for days. Even today, I decided to go out because you kept popping into my mind and I couldn’t do anything,” he confessed.
“But to tell your parents,” Ellen started to say, but he interrupted her with an angry shout.
“I haven’t told them anything,” he dropped her hand and stood up, feeling the need to move. He started toward the kitchen and suddenly turned back to her. “They guessed if you haven’t noticed,” he added, before disappearing into the kitchen.
“What are you doing?” Ellen stood up as well, looking after him.
“I don’t know,” the man admitted. “I just need to move.”
Ellen’s eyes climbed up her forehead, and the woman shook her head surprised.
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” Jay’s voice came from the kitchen. “I’m just too agitated,” he added.
“What’s going on, Jay?” Ellen came to him, and found him at the window, watching outside.
“I’m upset,” he replied without turning to her.
“With me,” she surmised.
“With you,” he nodded. “And with me.”
“You’re a strange guy, Jay,” she laughed. ‘Will I ever understand how his mind works?’ she wondered.
The man shrugged and stretched his hand to her. Ellen hesitated for a second, and then, she got closer to him and put her fingers in his hand timidly.
“Elle,” he said almost inaudible, playing with her fingers and staring at her small hand in his. “Why won’t you give me a chance, I wonder?”
“A chance? To do what?”
“I can feel your distrust,” Jay shrugged. “You like me, in a way, don’t you?”
Ellen laughed nervously and nodded. “I do, and maybe, a little too much.”
“Is that so bad?” he lifted his eyes to hers, and lights glimmered in his pupils.
“I don’t know,” she almost whispered. “I’ve always avoided any kind of relationships. I don’t believe in love or anything of the sort,” she confessed.
“I do,” he said quietly. “I haven’t been in love before now, that’s true. But I witnessed my parents’ relationship, Elle. I can see how Becka and Bryan are together. What the heck, I had a lot of fun when Matt fell in love,” he burst into laughter and shook his head. “Maybe you haven’t had the chance to see how it works. But let’s find together,” he became serious and fixed his eyes on her face.
The intensity in his black eyes stole the woman’s breath away. Ellen licked her lips nervously, and she lowered her eyes. She looked at their joined hands, and a sort of longing pierced her heart. She shook her head, willing it to go away.
Jay tugged at her hand, and Ellen lifted her eyes to his face.
“It’s not difficult,” he whispered, drawing her to him and sliding his arm around her. “Just go with the flow, little girl,” he buried his face in her hair and kissed her temple.
Ellen liked the way Jay’s body felt against hers, and she leaned her head on the man’s chest. Jay still kept one of her hands in his, so she slid the other around his waist and fit her body to his better. A contented sigh flew off her lips, and Jay grinned.
‘I’m getting there. I’ll go through all your walls, sweetie,’ he promised himself.
Jay held her for a long time, just brushing his lips over her hair and temple. She snuggled against him like a kitten, content with the man’s ministration.
“Let’s polish that plateau with pastries,” Jay proposed after a while.
Ellen lifted her head and watched him in bewilderment. “No really, are you still capable of eating all those pastries?”
“With your help? Sure,” he shrugged.
“Forget about my help, big guy,” she drew back from his arms. “I need a few hours more until I can swallow anything else.”
“All right, let’s just talk, and I’ll eat,” Jay proposed. “But you’ll go out to dinner with me,” he decreed.
“Are you thinking of anything else than food?” the woman wondered.
“Sure,” he replied, looking straight into her eyes. “It’s too soon for that, I’m afraid. But I’ve been thinking of that since the moment I asked you to leave,” he confessed.
When she caught his meaning, Ellen blushed violently and slapped his chest.
“You can keep thinking of that. You won’t have a chance too soon,” she told him in an upset tone of voice.
Still, Jay noticed the anxiety mixed with curiosity and desire in her eyes. ‘Now, that’s interesting,’ he mused. ‘I think this woman has more surprises in store than I thought.’
CHAPTER TWENTY
The following Saturday morning, Jay strode with a brisk step into the low-rise building where Ellen lived. The man hadn’t forgotten the longing in Ellen’s eyes while she watched the lake from his balcony, and that was why he had arranged with Becka and Bryan to go out on the lake that day. The couple had agreed immediately because Becka’s parents wanted the babies for that entire Saturday.
Jay had told Ellen about his plans the previous night when he brought her back home. The man had taken Ellen out for dinner early in the evening first and to a musical afterward. They had also wandered through the streets of the Entertainment District for a couple of hours after the musical ended.
Ellen had been thrilled with Jay’s invitation until the man warned her that he would come to pick her up at around seven in the morning. Jay still remembered the woman’s grimace at his words, and he grinned.
Ellen wasn’t a morning person, but then Jay wasn’t either, so that was fine with him. As a matter of fact, he had found out that the two of them had a lot of things in common although they butted heads regularly.
‘What the heck, sparks just bring some more color into my life,’ he reflected.
Ellen and Jay had been going out together for an entire week already. They had spent full days in each other’s company, so Jay had learned a lot about the woman.
Every hour spent with Ellen had strengthened Jay’s decision to keep her for himself. They were good together.
‘Now if only I had convinced Elle’s strong head as well,’ he mumbled with annoyance, climbing up the stairs to the fourth floor.
Although Jay wasn’t particularly fond of waking up early in the morning, he insisted on having a private breakfast with Ellen, so he brought the food with him. He knew that Becka had planned a picnic at Bryan’s lake house for later.
But then, Jay wanted to have Ellen just for himself for a couple of hours. He couldn’t have enough of talking or playing with her. In the beginning, Ellen had been awkward at fooling around, but she learned.
The woman had grumbled when Jay presented his plan to her but accepted and quite quickly. Besides being thrilled about going sailing, she also seemed to enjoy being with him more and more, and that without any interference from the outside world.
Jay’s hopes raised every minute. He couldn’t wait until he made her his.
The man might have had a moment of uncertainty concerning his success now and then, but he didn’t allow doubt to flourish in his mind.
When he got to the fourth floor, Jay knocked briefly on Ellen’s door and then listened attentively. No sound of steps or anything else came from inside the apartment, and the man frowned for a moment. Then, he shrugged and knocked louder.
A moment later, something hit the front door, and he grinned. He could almost visualize how Ellen grabbed a shoe and threw it at the door.
Jay decided that it was all right to knock again. Ellen hadn’t woken up yet, but she had to. He hit the door with his knuckles more insistently, and to his pleasure, Ellen’s swearing reached his ears.
His eyebrows shot up his forehead. The man hadn’t thought that the woman would know those words. At least, she had never uttered them in his presence.
‘So you still have some secrets,’ Jay grinned wolfishly and knocked again with more determination.
“What?” she shouted angrily from behind the door.
“Elle, sweetie, it’s me, Jay,” he said, barely keeping his laughter at bay.
“So?” she snapped, and he shook his head, smothering a chuckle.
“We were supposed to meet this morning,” the man reminded her, making efforts to keep sober.
The woman swore again but unlocked the door. Although the blinds covered the windows, Jay had a full view of Ellen, and his eyes swept hungrily over her body.
The woman’s honey-colored hair stuck everywhere, and he stifled the impulse to brush his fingers through her disheveled mane. A crease from the pillow was visible on her face. The woman’s eyes were slightly puffy, and she rubbed them impatiently.
Ellen’s so-called nighty covered her body only to the hips, and Jay’s eyes zeroed in on her white cotton panties, which hugged her narrow hips snuggly. Besides, her nightgown was almost transparent, and the man didn’t have any difficulty to see what laid underneath. He shook his head mentally and then delighted himself, sweeping his eyes over the expanse of her lithe limbs.
Ellen didn’t seem aware of his perusal. Half-asleep, she just waved him to get inside, and then she shuffled her feet toward the bathroom to take a shower.
The woman needed to feel human again. She had come back home at around two in the morning the other day, and usually, her body required more sleep than what she had.
Jay shook his head and grinned again. He closed the front door behind him and strode to the small kitchenette which opened toward the studio.
There, the man started to take the boxes with food out of his bag, and he lined them on the counter. When he got to the container with freshly ground coffee, he opened it and began to prepare the coffee.
Ellen’s coffee maker was simple but efficient. ‘Not like mine, which I should have already replaced. But then, I remember about that only when I make coffee,’ Jay shook his head ruefully.
The man had already finished with setting the food on the coffee table and was just gathering the bed sheets off the couch when Ellen’s shout came from the bathroom.
“Jay, will you bring me the clothes I set on the armchair, please? I forgot about them.”
“One moment, sweetie,” he shouted back and turned back to folding the sheets.
He put them on one side of the sofa and then turned to the armchair. The night before, Elle had neatly laid a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a set of cotton underwear there.
Jay grinned and lifted the black panties with one finger. He looked at them from all sides, and then picked up the bra, rubbing the cloth between his fingers.
“Jay,” Ellen’s impatient shout broke his spell.
‘Get a hold of yourself, man,’ Jay scolded himself, and quickly grab the rest of the clothes and rushed to the bathroom.
“Here you are, sweetie,” he knocked on the door.
Ellen just cracked the door a little and slid her small hand through the opening. She waved her fingers at him, and Jay put the clothes in her hand with a shake of his head.
The door shut in front of him with a bang, and he chuckled.
“I’ll be out in a minute,” Ellen said.
“Take your time,” Jay replied, and then, he returned back to the studio and sprawled on the couch.
Ellen kept her promise and entered the room a minute later. Jay noticed that the woman hadn’t taken the time to dry her hair properly and shook his head in dismay.
“You should have dried your hair, Elle. I could have waited. It’s not a problem.”
“It doesn’t matter. It will dry,” Ellen waved her hand toward Jay. “I don’t know how it is possible that I didn’t hear the alarm,” the woman said and grabbed her cell phone off the coffee table to check it. “Apparently, I heard it,” she grimaced. “And turned it off, of course,” she snapped, upset with herself. “I’m sorry, Jay,” she lifted her eyes at him, but the man merely shook his head with negligence.
“Don’t worry about that, Elle,” he waved his fingers. “Actually, I didn’t mind at all. I love your nighty,” he observed with a grin, and the woman slapped his shoulder. Jay laughed and pulled her next to him on the sofa. “Let’s feed you before you turn into a ferocious kitten again.”
Ellen turned her eyes to the coffee table. “Oh, gosh, did you think you would have to feed an army?” she exclaimed when her eyes laid on the food he had set out. ‘How the heck I haven’t noticed it so far?’ she wondered and then shifted her wide eyes at him.
Jay merely shrugged, and with a gesture, he invited her to start eating.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Becka and Ellen leaned on the railing at the bow, talking and watching the lake. Now and then, their eyes would turn to Bryan and Jay, who were working together, manning Bryan’s power yacht.
“I see how you’re looking at Jay,” Becka surprised Ellen with her words. “You do like him,” Becka observed.
Ellen blushed and looked the other way. Becka laughed and shook her head in disbelief. “Did you really think that people won’t notice that you are in love with him?”
Ellen didn’t reply for a moment. She merely stared toward a flock of birds, which speared the horizon. Becka tilted her head watching the other woman with curiosity.
“Do you think he is aware of that?” Ellen practically whispered her question.
Still, Becka heard her and shrugged. “He feels something, but I don’t think he is sure that you love him. Men usually are a bit dense in that area. Besides, he is too close to you, and that makes it difficult for him to decipher what feelings you have for him.”
“That’s good,” Ellen nodded with relief.
“Why?” Becka stared at Ellen with astonishment. “The man loves you. Why shouldn’t he know what you feel for him? That you love him?”
Ellen’s wide eyes turned to Becka, stunned because of her words. “What did you say?” she asked.
Becka shook her head again. “You don’t know, do you?” she said softly. “You’re also dense, Ellen. I am sorry that I have to say that, but it’s crystal clear. Jay is crazy about you, and he’s never been this way,” Becka gesticulated nervously. “Yes, we saw him with a woman now and then, but he always kept himself at a certain distance. He didn’t want to get involved. With you...,” she shrugged. “I don’t know, but he seems like he wants to bind you to him and never let go. Maybe, I am not expressing this very well, but I hope that you understand what I am trying to say,” she pierced Ellen with a sharp gaze.
Unconvinced, Ellen nodded. She didn’t dare to believe Becka. ‘Anyway, it’s not like I would dream of happily ever after with Jay. I don’t believe in such fairy-tales,’ she shrugged inwardly.
“How well did you get to know him?” Becka asked with curiosity.
“Quite well, I think,” Ellen replied. “Well, as well as anybody can know somebody after spending practically every waking moment with that person for days in a row,” she amended.
“Then, you do know him well. He must have shown his ugly side now and then,” B
ecka laughed. “Anyway, no one’s perfect,” she shrugged. “You have a chance together,” she continued seriously. “Only if you can come to terms with his gambling problem, though.”
“Jay doesn’t have a gambling problem,” Ellen pierced Becka with a dark gaze. “His reasons for playing cards are different.”
“Oh, he told you then,” Becka exclaimed loudly, drawing the men’s attention.
“Shush, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” full of anxiety, Ellen rushed to quiet Becka. ‘Shoot! I couldn’t keep my mouth shut, damn it!’ she scolded herself.
“What are you two talking about?” Jay asked and narrowed his eyes to slits, staring at Ellen.
“Nothing important,” she waved his worries away and plastered a faint smile on her lips.
“Sorry, Elle, but you’re lying,” he replied in a hard tone of voice. “Becka,” he turned to his cousin, calling her name harshly.
“Jay, you won’t take that tone with my wife,” Bryan warned him with a dark look, and Ellen rubbed her palms off her jeans anxiously, watching Bryan with apprehension.
“Don’t worry, Ellen,” Bryan softened his voice noticing the woman’s worry. “I won’t ruin his pretty face,” he continued and chuckled.
“Hey, man, I’m not a girl,” Jay’s fist hit Bryan in his arm.
“Jay,” Ellen intervened immediately, striding toward the two men with angry steps. “He’s a fighter, for God sake! You don’t challenge a fighter, you idiot!”
“So after you spilled the goods to Becka, you also attack my maleness,” Jay observed upset.
“I didn’t spill anything,” Ellen shook her head, but a blush betrayed her.
“Elle, Elle, Elle,” Jay waved his finger to her to shut her down. “I told you that you don’t know to lie convincingly.”
The woman stomped her foot on the deck with irritation. She didn’t know how the man guessed every time when she lied, but he did.
“All right, Jay,” Becka came to them. “It’s no big deal. You told her about your gifts. So? I also told Bryan,” she pointed out, and Bryan nodded, putting his arm around her shoulders.
