"I'm not watching it, Jax." I follow his lead and sit in one of the two leather chairs facing his expansive desk.
"Do you remember when we went to visit your father?" He reaches for the flash drive and rubs it between the index finger and the thumb of his right hand.
"Of course I do." My throat is burning. I'm anxious and frustrated. His calm demeanour is doing very little to help ease any of that.
A small smile spreads across his face. "It was perfect."
I sit in silence. I can't allow myself to relive those memories. He's right. It was perfect. The entire trip was everything I wanted and needed. I left Boston feeling intensely that Jax adored me and would do anything for me.
"Your father asked me about my father." He stares at the flash drive flipping it effortlessly between his fingers. "My father was always very disappointed in me when he was alive."
I feel my anger retreating and I'm frustrated by my own emotions. I don't want to listen to his excuses. I know what I saw and I know what I heard. "I'm sorry for that but…"
"Your father's approval is important to you too," he interrupts. "I saw it that day."
I nod silently. I've always wanted my father to love me more. I've always known that he secretly blames my birth for my mother's death. I understand that voracious need to win the approval of a parent but rehashing my second-rate childhood and how it relates to Jax's isn't what I came here for.
"Yes, that's true but I didn't come here to talk about that." I state boldly. I can't back down from this. I want Jax to understand that manipulating Mrs. Adams into doing his bidding for him just isn't acceptable.
"Before the gala…" He leans forward in his chair before he continues, "doing whatever was necessary to win back my father's company was all I thought about."
"That's obvious on the video." I motion towards the flash drive he's still lazily running along his fingertips.
"Everything changed at the gala. Everything changed when I saw you." His voice breaks and he looks down into his lap. I can hear him drawing in a heavy breath in an effort to temper his emotions.
"No, that's not true." I push back. I don't want him to think that he can pull on my heartstrings again and I'll forgive him. This time is different. I understand his need to honor his late father's memory but I won't let my guard down. "On the video you say it's the day after the gala. You were plotting to blackmail Mark after the gala so you're lying again."
He slowly raises his head until his eyes are in line with mine. I lock onto them searching for any hint of honesty within him. "Did you believe me when I told you I loved you, beautiful?"
The question jars me. How dare he ask me something so personal when we're in the middle of a discussion about his underhanded corporate conspiracy? "Don't talk about that." I spit the words out with distaste. "How can you use someone so easily like that? How can you pretend to be something you're not?"
"I've never pretended with you." He studies my face with his eyes. "I told you I loved you because I do. I've never loved a woman before."
I laugh out loud. "That's such bullshit. You admitted you were cheated on. It was Brooke, who cheated on you, wasn't it? She cheated on you with Mark. How sick and twisted is that? The woman you loved cheated with the man I loved?"
He's silent in response. I sit waiting for the expected explosion of anger but he stares directly into me, his eyes not faltering.
"You and Brooke plotted against Mark and me." I point my index finger at him. "The two of you deserve one another. I just have one question."
He tilts his chin up. "What's that?" he asks in a whispered tone.
"Why did you break the rule? Why did you fuck me?" I seethe.
"You said you loved me, Ivy." He picks up the flash drive and balances it on his palm. "I know that you meant it."
"So what if I did?" I snap back. "I was in love with who I thought you were not the real you."
"You're mistaken, beautiful." He pulls himself to his feet in one fluid motion. I push my body back into the chair. I want to keep as much physical distance as I can between Jax and me.
"I'm not." I fumble for my purse. I know I placed it next to the chair when I sat down and now I can't find it. I just want to get out of here.
"I haven't made love to anyone since I saw you at the gala that night." His voice whispers across the back of my neck and I jolt myself back into an upright position. He's there, hovering over me. I can smell his skin. He's so close.
"Why are you lying?" I try to retreat into the chair but the soft leather resists. "I saw you in bed with Brooke. I saw it."
He leans back against the desk giving me a slight reprieve from his imposing presence. "I was in bed with Brooke. Nothing happened."
"No. You're lying. You think I'm an idiot. You've always thought I was naïve." I scowl.
"You're, by far, the most amazing woman I've ever met." His voice lowers. "I knew it the instant I saw you at the gala. I would do anything for you."
I stand. "You're so delusional."
"How so?" He mirrors my stance and towers above me.
"You and Brooke worked together to manipulate Mark and me. It's all there on the flash drive, yet you continue to deny it." I chuckle," the proof is right there, Jax."
"Indeed it is, Ivy." He opens his hand and holds the flash drive at my eye level. "If you would watch the entire thing, you'd understand."
"I understand everything I need to understand." I grab the flash drive and toss it back on his desk. I try to push past him so I can leave but his body is blocking my pathway to the door.
"That's obviously not true." He lowers his head until his lips are hovering mere inches from mine.
"It's true." I pull back. I can't think straight when he's this close to me. I'm beginning to doubt my own resolve.
His index finger traces a faint line across my chin. "I fell in love with you at the gala. My life changed that night."
I shake my head partly to disengage from his heated touch and partly to clear my thoughts. "You've been manipulating me since we met at Brighton's gallery opening. It's all been so you could take control of Mark's company."
"That's your perception, beautiful." He takes one step closer. "I'm only guilty of wanting you and my father's company."
"Do you really think this will work?" I throw my hands in the air in sheer frustration. He honestly believes that he can seduce me into forgetting what I saw on the video.
He grabs my wrist in one fell swoop. "What do you mean?"
I try to pull it free from his grasp but he's not relenting at all. "Let go of me." I glare at him.
"Not yet," he whispers as he pulls my arm to his lips. I flinch as I feel him run his lips across my skin.
I shiver from the touch. "Stop it." I jerk my arm again and this time he effortlessly lets it drop from his clutch. "You can't seduce me. You can't convince me that you're not the manipulative jack ass that I know you are."
He arches his brow and his expression darkens. "Oh, I'll convince you, beautiful."
"Give up, Jax." I scowl. "You won. You get your father's company and you got to fuck Mark's ex. Way to go." My words are dripping sarcasm and I don't care.
He swallows hard before he speaks in a pained whisper, "You think I'm a monster, don't you?"
I'm taken back by his response. "I think you'll do whatever is necessary to get what you want."
He lowers his head into his hands. "That's not who I am."
I stare at him. His shoulders have softened. His posture has shifted. If I didn't know better I'd swear my words bit into him. "You've manipulated me since we met. You've withheld the truth."
He pulls his head up so he's looking directly into my eyes. "I should have been honest about my father."
"You used me. You used me to get what you wanted. You let me believe in you." I feel all of my emotions rushing past the barrier I've tried to create within my heart. "I fell in love with you. I thought you were him. I thought that was you."
"You
thought I was who?" He jolts to his feet again.
"Him." I sob as I turn towards the door. "Mine." I can't form the words to tell him that I envisioned our future. That the innocent part of my heart wanted to build a life with him.
He reaches for me and pulls my body into his chest. I struggle to break free.
"I am him. I've always been him." His voice cracks. "Believe in me. Trust me."
I twist around swiftly breaking free from his arms. "You don't see it." I struggle to form the words through my sobs. "You can't do that…" my voice trails as I point behind him to the flash drive." You can't do that and then expect me to just pretend I didn't see it."
"You don't know what you saw." He raises his voice, frustration laced within it. "Until you watch the entire thing, you're never going to know the truth."
"I can't." I stumble back towards the door. "Why the hell do you want me to watch you fucking her? Why?" I scream the words at him.
"I didn't fuck her. I couldn’t. I wouldn't have." He picks up the flash drive and lays it in his palm. "Take this. Watch it."
I stare at it. Brooke's name is taunting me. I scoop it up and throw it in my purse again. "You're not worried that I'm going to hand this over to Mark and ruin your chances of taking over the business?"
He pauses as if he's contemplating the question. "The business doesn't matter to me anymore."
"Yeah, right." I snap. "That's all that matters."
He brushes past me. "I have a meeting to get to." His hand curls around the handle of the door. "I can have Leonard drop you off at home and I'll take a cab."
'I'll take the cab." I move quickly towards the open door. "For someone who doesn't care about the business you're certainly in a hurry to go to this meeting." I know I'm being childish but the way he's dismissing me stings.
"It's not a meeting for that." He motions towards the bank of elevators. "Everything I do is for you. Everything." With that he steps into the open elevator.
I stand in silence as I watch the doors close.
Chapter 7
"I'm not sure what day I'll be there, dad." I call towards my phone where it's perched precariously on my pillow. "I haven't finished packing yet."
"I can barely hear you, princess." His voice bounces off the now empty walls of my bedroom.
I scurry over to the bed and pick up the phone. I hold it to my lips. "You're on speaker phone, dad. Is this better?"
"Much better." I hear relief wash through his voice. "You're on rotary dial by the way."
I giggle at my father's reluctance to embrace technology. "Really dad? Is that why you sound like you're sitting at the bottom of a tin can?"
He laughs and the sound lifts my spirits.
"I'll let you know when I'm ready to come down and then we can go apartment hunting together." I work to fold one of my dresses with my free hand but it's more of a mess than when I found it bunched up on the floor of my closet.
"Nonsense. You're going to live here with me." I can hear how adamant he is by his tone.
"Maybe temporarily, dad," I offer in response. I do want to rebuild my connection with my father but living together may not be the best approach to take.
"It's settled then. I need to run over to your sister's now. I'll give her your love." He's not leaving me any room for a rebuttal.
"Sounds good. Love you dad." I stare at the phone waiting to hear his response.
"I love you too, princess," he says quietly before ending the call. It's a small offering but it brings tears to my eyes. I know that once I reach Boston, I'll feel safe enough to find my footing again.
I glimpse at the time on my phone and realize that it's after seven. I need to eat something. I silently wonder if Mrs. Adams might be up for a quick stroll to the diner down the street. I drop the dress I've been unsuccessfully trying to fold into the large cardboard box near my closet. I'll worry about sorting through everything once I'm settled in my new place.
I grab my purse from the bed and rummage through it for my keys. I curse when I realize I can't find them. "What the hell," I whisper under my breath before dumping the contents onto the blanket. I pull my hand through the assorted pens, notepads, candy bar wrappers and receipts before my fingers settle on something metal. "Eureka!" I joke to myself when I throw my hand up in the air. I stare at it when I realize it's not my keys. I'm holding the flash drive above my head.
I feel my knees going weak so I sit back on the bed. My laptop is within arm's reach on the nightstand. I pull it into my lap and flip it open. I push back the cover of the flash drive and hold it next to the USB port. I feel a sense of nausea wash over me. Why am I doing this? Why subject myself to this?
My mind darts back to Jax's office when he assuredly told me to watch it. Since that conversation I've been certain that he was calling my bluff. He handed the flash drive back to me because he was convinced I wouldn't watch it. I need to prove I'm stronger than he thinks I am. I push the drive in and hold my breath.
A folder pops onto the screen and I click the now familiar file to start the video. I close my eyes when I hear Brooke's voice. I want to mute the sound but I'm going to get past their conversation. I'm going to see what Jax wants so desperately for me to see.
It seems like an eternity until I hear Jax say, "You belong to me. Only me."
I cringe and close my eyes as I await the sounds of their lovemaking. I fumble for the flash drive. My heart is screaming at me to pull it out. My body won't let me.
"I've waited forever for this." Her voice is breathy. I recoil at the sound of the desire in it. I peek at the screen through the corner of my eye.
"Do you know what would make me hard?" He leans back pulling his body away from her.
She breathes an exaggerated sigh. "Tell me."
"Hearing how much power you have over him." He rests his head on his elbow. "Play it for me again."
"Now?" She eases closer to him.
"Get it for me." He points towards the nightstand. "Play it. Let me hear how in control you really are."
She runs her eyes over his face and chest before she leans back and picks up a phone. I watch as she rolls her thumb across the screen. She carefully holds the edges of the phone between her fingers pointing it in Jax's direction.
"Baby, it's me. It's Mark. I've been thinking about you all day. Fuck I wish it were you I was marrying. I wish we could get Ivy out of the picture. If we could, everything would be yours. All the shares, the money, that apartment you want. I'd give you anything if you were my wife. Call me as soon as you get this. I miss you."
I wince at the sounds of Mark's voice on what seems to be a voicemail message as I watch her place the phone back onto the nightstand. "I have him right here, in the palm of my hand." She holds out her hand in front of Jax's face.
"Tell me you don't want him," he says.
"Are you crazy?" she snickers. "He's too old for me. Just the thought of him naked disgusts me. I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole."
"You're such a stupid bitch." His voice is barely audible. Did he just call her a stupid bitch?
"What did you say?" The confusion in her tone is blatantly obvious.
"Get the fuck out of my bed." Jax's voice booms through the speakers.
My hand jumps to my mouth and I stare at the screen. He's pulled the sheet back from his body and is sitting straight up glaring at Brooke. He's wearing nothing but boxers.
"What?" Her stunned expression mirrors my own. "What's wrong with you?" She's pulling at his arm coaxing him to lie down next to her again.
"You seriously thought I was going to sleep with you?" He laughs before pulling himself up. "Get dressed. Get out."
She doesn't move. She's frozen in place. I can feel her shock resonating through me. "What…" her voice trails as she helplessly stares at him.
He's standing next to the computer now and all that is visible is his right arm. "You ruined my parents' marriage. Did you really think I'd want my father's leftovers?"
&nb
sp; Her stunned silence is now giving way to something else. Rage. "You're crazy," she screams it at him. "I never slept with your father."
"Shut up," he barks back at her. "He told me everything before he died." He leans far enough forward that there's a flash of his back on the screen. "Everything," he pulls the word along his lips, enunciating every syllable. "You were blackmailing him, you bitch. You haven't changed your playbook at all. You're doing the exact same thing with Mark."
She's up on her knees now. She reaches for a glass from the nightstand. She levels it in Jax's direction and he moves his body completely in front of the computer. I can't see what's happening, but the dull thud suggests that the glass hit him square in the chest.
"Why are you doing this?" Her voice is louder now. I can tell she's closer to where Jax is standing.
"I wanted to see how far you'd take things with Mark." He doesn't move. "I know you already slept with him. He was bragging about how he tapped his hot assistant last week."
"So what?” she scoffs. I curse inwardly wishing Jax would shift his body enough that I could get a glimpse of the rage on Brooke's face.
"I don't give a shit what you do with him." He moves slightly left now and I can make out Brooke reaching down next to the bed gathering up clothing.
"You're just jealous." She throws the words in his direction with a smirk. "That's why you turned on me."
"Turned on you?" he asks mockingly. "You're the one who came to me with the idea to steal their shares away. That's all on you."
"Your father should have left his part of the company to me." She points a bright red fingernail at Jax. "He told me he would. It made me sick every time he fucked me. He was a stupid, horny old man."
He leans forward before he says anything. "You're the company whore. You disgust me. You'll do anything for a dollar."
"And you won't?" She throws her head back in careless laughter. "You're ready to destroy Mark's relationship just to get what you want."
"You're wrong." I can sense the movement of his head in the way his shoulders teeter back and forth. "Ivy is off limits. I'd rather give up the company than sink to your level."
Obsessed: Part Three (The Obsessed Series) Page 3
