"That he didn't fuck her?" His voice is on my neck now. I shiver at the sensation.
"No." I turn and look up into his vibrant blue eyes. "Do you think it's odd that the only two men I've ever loved own a company together?"
His eyes scan my face. I know that he still sees that shy and vulnerable seventeen-year-old girl that stared at him across the baseball field. "You're doubting him still, aren't you?"
I shrug my shoulders. "Maybe or maybe I'm just doubting myself."
"I think that you're a beautiful woman who needs to listen to this…" he gently grazes his finger across my forehead before he continues, "instead of this." His finger hovers above the space between my breasts. "Get all your questions answered, take some time and then everything will make sense."
"How did you get so smart, Nate?" I ask tapping my finger to the tip of his nose.
He blushes. "Law school, Ms. Marlow."
"Are we done here?" I move past him back to where my purse is resting in a chair. "I have a lunch date."
"You've signed everything I needed you to sign." He gathers together the papers that now cover his desk.
"Did you know Veray was in financial trouble?" I throw the question at him as I reach for the door handle.
"Jax's lawyer was pretty insistent that I talk you out of taking over his interest in the company," he says. "So I had a pretty good idea there were some issues with the company's structure."
"I found out today he bought into it to save it from bankruptcy because I sell my stuff there," I admit.
He lowers himself into his chair. "How do you feel about that?"
I slowly open the office door. The sound of people milling about is mixed with a cell phone ringing in the distance. "Numb."
He nods as I turn to walk out the door.
Chapter 12
"How's Moore?" The loaded undercurrent that is swirling beneath the question doesn't slip past me.
"Dreamy," I say with little emotion as I sit down across from Jax.
"Dreamy?" he repeats. "Who even uses that word anymore, Ivy?"
I pull my eyes into a squint. "Obviously, I do."
"You just say those things to get under my skin." He raises his wineglass to his lips.
I take a small sip of the ice water in front of me. "I say it because it's true. Nathan is hot."
"You're goading me now." He pushes his body into a more upright stance. "Why?"
I motion for the waiter and order myself a martini. "This territorial, I caveman, you woman thing is wearing on me."
"Excuse me?" he tries to stifle the laugh that accompanies the question but it's useless.
"I'm being serious." I don't break a smile. I don't even really know who this man is. Our entire relationship has been nothing but a series of lies, betrayals and corporate maneuverings. Last night was a start towards the truth but I'm craving more and I'm not afraid to ask for it.
He studies my face as if he's gauging whether or not I'm sincere. "It's just who I am," he says dryly.
"Were you always that way? With the women you bedded?" I nod as the waiter places the martini on the table. I drink from it, savoring the taste, anticipating the slight buzz it will give me. My courage always seems to make an appearance when alcohol is involved.
"The women I bedded?" He looks past me pretending to do a search of the room with his eyes. "Where's the Ivy that left my apartment this morning? You're an imposter, aren't you?" The laugh that follows the questions irks me.
"None of this is funny to me." I take another swallow of the drink. "I told you this morning that I have a lot more questions."
"Ready. Set. Go." He points his hand at me as if he's shooting a revolver. "Ask away, beautiful."
"Who was the woman you said cheated on you? When did that happen?" I lob both questions effortlessly at him. He doesn't bat an eyelash.
"Maria. I can't recall her last name right now." He pauses to sip from his wineglass. "It was right after college. She was blowing our boss for cheap favors and a dollar more an hour than what I was getting."
"You're joking," I say sarcastically. "That's who broke your heart?"
"I was crazy for her," he admits. "The day after she told me about their affair, I quit and took off."
"Took off? As in left the job?"
"As in left the city. Hell, I left the continent." He shrugs. "I guess I was running from the pain. It was the first time I was rejected."
"You're over her now." It's more a statement than a question. "Do you think the possessiveness stems from that?"
He stares intently at my face. "I've never been possessive. I'm only that way with you."
I chuckle before I respond. "I clearly recall you saying something to Brooke in that video about her belonging to you."
His face rushes crimson and he scowls at the words. "I said that to her to make her feel safe enough to confess what she was doing. The words slipped out."
"It's strange." I shift my gaze past him to a couple seated behind him. I envy the simple way they are holding hands, the way he leans in to listen to her speak. "The words hold less meaning to me now. Now that I heard you say them to her."
"They meant nothing before you." He reaches casually across the table to place his hand over mine but I retreat.
"What about my shares in the company?" I slip into a new topic, not wanting to dwell on the loss of our connection's innocence.
He stares at my hand as if it's left a trail behind it on the table when it dodged his grasp. "What about them?" he asks nonchalantly.
"Is there a reason you just didn't tell me who you were and then ask to buy them?" I ask before raising the glass to my lips again to finish the drink.
"Mark cheated on you."
His statement is unexpected and I grip the stem of the glass, wishing the waiter would stop by with another. "That's common knowledge, yes."
"Do you honestly think that you would want anything to do with his business partner?" he asks without emotion.
I don't know how to answer that. Until a few weeks ago I assumed that Tom Walker's widow was Mark's irrelevant and silent partner. I had no idea that his son, my new lover, was the man who held Mark's company's future within his hands. "I don't think that that's relevant." I pause before I continue, taking the time to carefully craft my response. "I think what matters is that you didn't give me a choice. You just swooped in, pretended to be something you weren't and almost snatched Mark's company away from him."
"Why do you insist on calling it Mark's company?" His words are biting. "It belongs to my father. It's mine now. Why can't you see that?"
I don't react. I don't want him to see how weary this is making me.
"Mark has driven the company into the ground. He's taken everything my father built and tossed it aside because he couldn't focus enough on the business at hand. He was too busy fucking anything that passed by him in a skirt," he fumes.
I sit rigidly letting the words soak into my skin, my heart and my soul. Mark. It's all about Mark. It's always been about Mark.
"Christ, Ivy." He pushes his chair and stands. "I didn't mean that."
I silently watch him walk around the table. He crouches before me. I close my eyes. "Please, just go," I whisper as I wave my hand thoughtlessly in the air.
Chapter 13
"Your wish is my command." Mark's overly zealous grin greets me as I swing open the door of my apartment.
I move to allow him to walk in. "Cut out the theatrics, Mark and get in here. The NYPD will be breaking down my door with a battering ram in about two minutes if Mrs. Adams sees you're here."
"Good point, sweetheart." He uses the word naturally and I suddenly wonder if he does it as way to unnerve me. I decide that this time I'm going to completely ignore it.
"Moving back in?" He nods towards the stack of boxes littering the foyer.
"Nope," I say curtly. "I'm moving to Boston."
"Boston?" He twists the word around his tongue as if it's repulsive.
; "Boston," I parrot back to him.
"Why the hell would you go there?" He walks into the living room and settles himself onto the couch. I follow behind and take a seat in the chair opposite him.
"My life isn't your business anymore." I growl. "I didn't ask you over to talk about that."
"Fine." He stares at his fingernails. It's a tactic he's long used when he wants me to believe he's not interested in what I have to say. It's childish, humiliating and pure Mark through and through.
"Let's talk about Brooke." I lean back into the chair, relaxing my shoulders.
"So I did peak your curiosity when I mentioned her." He sits upright. "Is that why you left him?"
"Who said I left him?" I purse my lips together.
He studies my face trying hard to mask the look of surprise that is running along his brow. "You're moving away so it's obviously over."
"Jumping to conclusions isn't smart, Mark," I chuckle. "Sleeping with Brooke probably wasn't one of your brightest moves either."
"I didn't sleep with her." The words fall off his tongue so quickly they almost bounce into one another.
"What's that?" I crane my neck forward as if I didn't hear him. "You didn't sleep with her?"
"Jax did." He spits back at me.
"Yeah, no." I shake my head lightly back and forth. "That's a lie."
He runs his hand over his brow pushing away a few small beads of sweat that are forming. "So now you believe him over me?"
I breathe in heavily before I pull a wide grin across my lips. "Actually I believe that if she would have slept with Jax she wouldn’t have gone near your bed."
"What the fuck does that mean?" He jerks forward, his knees banging into the coffee table.
"You kind of suck in bed." I shrug my shoulders. "Jax, on the other hand…" I let my voice trail as I watch him squirm.
"Shut up." A vein on his forehead bulges as he tosses the words at me. "What the hell would you know?"
"I finally know what an orgasm is," I say in a breathy tone.
"You're vile." He lunges to his feet. "You called me all the way over here for that? To tell me Jax is better in bed than me?"
"Better is an understatement, sweetheart." I stand now too.
"What do you want, Ivy?" He moves swiftly towards the door of the apartment.
"I want to know why I keep hearing that there were company shares in my name before we even separated." I place my hands on my hips in defiance. I won't back down from this.
He scoffs, "who told you that, it's not true?"
"Brooke did." It's a lie but it's only skirting the truth. I did hear her say it with my own two ears on that video.
"She's a lying bitch." His hands are trembling.
I know I'm circling something big. I just don't have any idea what it is. "No, she's a whore and a lying bitch but that's just semantics."
"When did you talk to her?" He pushes the question at me as he takes a step towards me.
I don't retreat. I'm not going to allow him to intimidate me a moment longer. "That's not relevant. What is relevant is that you gave me a ten percent share in Intersect Investments when we separated and apparently I owned at least that for some time before that day."
"You did not," he screams at me.
"I've always wondered why you didn't involve any lawyers in that transaction." I tap my index finger to my chin. "Brooke helped me understand why that is."
All of the color drains from his face. "I paid her to keep her mouth shut."
"Obviously not enough." I temper the tone of my voice. I have to keep baiting him. "She told me everything."
His foot begins drumming extraordinarily fast against the hardwood floor. It's a sign that he's panicked. I remember it clearly from the day I confronted him about his affairs. "Fuck her. She told you about the forgery, didn't she?" he asks, his voice cracking.
I nod my head. Forgery? Did Mark forge my name? Was he using my proxy before I signed the documents giving it to him?
"When Tom died I had to do something." He starts pacing back and forth in the foyer. "Jax could have taken over. Putting those shares in your name was the only thing I could think of."
I stare at his face. How could I have not realized how destructive he was? How did I not see through the thin veil of goodness that he wore for me?
"You're not going to the FTC with this, are you?" He lunges at me and grabs my arms. "Is she going to testify that I made her impersonate you? Or that I paid her off to keep quiet?"
I almost feel my knees buckle. I can't speak. I can't believe that all of this has poured out of him. All I wanted when I called him over here was some closure. I just wanted to know why Brooke had mentioned those shares right after the gala when Mark and I were still together. I wanted this to be the last time I'd ever see him.
"What do you want?" He takes a step back from me. "I'll give you the apartment. You can sell it and buy one in Boston. Do you want money? What? Tell me what?"
"Nothing," I whisper. "I want nothing."
He glares at me as he marches towards the door. "I'll be back. Think about what you want and I'll be back."
I slide to the floor as the door slams behind him.
Chapter 14
"If you knew something about someone that you didn't care about but that information could damage someone you love, what would you do?" I ask while I stare at my hands in my lap.
"That depends, dear." Mrs. Adams takes a heavy breath. "Is this about your fellow?"
"It is." I smile lightly. "Someone has done something that is illegal and if I report it, the consequences of that could hurt Jax and me."
She squints her eyes as she looks toward the midday sun pouring into her apartment. "I think you need to ask him about it."
"I'm not sure I can do that." I rush back in my mind to that moment at the restaurant when Jax was seething with anger about Mark and his father. If I give him this ammunition there's no telling what he will do with it. At the very least the three of us will be pulled into a very complicated investigation with the FTC. All I want at this point is to leave Mark behind me. I just want him to stop being such a force in my relationship with Jax.
"Ivy, come sit here." She pats her wrinkled hand on the couch next to where she's sitting.
I move from my position in a chair next to the window, to sit with her. She reaches for my hands. "Dear, lies break people apart. You know that."
I nod. I know she's talking about Mark and it's ironic that she has no clue that my problems have come full circle right back to him.
"Don't be like Mark. You're better than him." She lightly squeezes my hand. I can tell it takes a lot of effort for her to do it. "Do the right thing. Your fellow will understand."
I sigh. I know that she's right.
"Never tarnish your heart." She taps my chest with her finger. "You have to tell him. If you don't, you're a liar too."
Her words bite not because they are cruel or malicious but because they are grounded in fact. She's completely right. I have to tell Jax and I have to report Mark.
***
"You're such a good cook," I say as I place the fork down on the plate. "Where did you learn how to cook pizza that's this good?"
"My mother was an amazing cook." He reaches for my plate and places it in the sink along with his own. "It was one of the things we always did together when I was child."
I smile. I love when Jax talks about his childhood. Each time he has it's always brightened his face and brought a lilt to his voice. "That's such a beautiful memory to have."
He reaches for my hand to pull me from the chair. "It's one of my favorites."
I watch his back as he leads me down the hallway to the bedroom. "Isn't there a rule about waiting at least a half hour after you eat before having sex?"
He stops, turns and lets out a ferocious laugh. "Do you know how charming you are?" He brushes his lips across my forehead. "I just wanted to show you something?"
"I've seen it and it's impressive.
" I giggle. The one glass of white wine I had with my dinner is already having the desired effect on me. I need to bring up my conversation with Mark but first I have a few questions for Jax.
He shakes his head as he chuckles. "There's something in your drawer for you." He motions towards the dresser. I flash back to the day I was moving in and he had shown me the emptied drawers that were reserved for my unmentionables as he called them.
I glance up at his face and his gaze is clear and steady. There's no apprehension there. Tonight he's just my Jax. He's not the ruthless businessman determined to ruin Mark. I don't want to tell him what I've learned about Mark but I know I have no choice.
"Open the drawer, beautiful." He reaches for my hand and holds it to the metal pull.
I yank it open and I'm greeted with the sight of my lingerie I left behind when I raced out after seeing the video. Beside it is a plain white envelope with my name on it. On top of that is the necklace. The beautiful necklace that Jax had designed for me was now fixed.
He reaches past me to pick up the delicate chain. "Turn around," he whispers into my ear. 'I'll put it on you."
I do as I'm told and I feel a shiver course through me as he grazes my neck with his fingers after securing the clasp. "Thank you," I say breathlessly. I feel complete again. I cradle the necklace in my hand, wishing that I could make the world swallow everything up and chase it away so that all that existed was Jax and me in this moment, in this room, forever.
"It belongs on you." He kisses my neck. "Now open the envelope." There's a giddy edge to his voice and I whip around to look at the expression on his face. It's exuberant. He's excited and I feel my stomach flip flop as he hands it to me.
I raise an eyebrow expectantly as I watch a wide grin take over his face. "I can't wait." He's almost bouncing up and down. "Rip it open."
I do it knowing that if I hadn't at that exact moment he was liable to take it from me and do it himself. I stare down at a beautiful invitation. I run my finger over the raised lettering before I pull it closer so I can read it. The information is sparse. It only lists a date and time and an address in Soho. "Is this another of Brighton's shows? If it is I'm going to have a headache next Friday." I scrunch my nose up.
Obsessed: Part Three (The Obsessed Series) Page 6
