Mr. Wrong

by Alessandra Hart

  “It’s not that,” I said hurriedly. “It’s just… I have an interview for a new job tomorrow. With Hartwell. It was sprung on me at the last minute, and it’s for a movie that films in New York.”

  “That’s great. When’s it happening?”

  “If I accept it, I’ll have to leave in a week.”

  Jacob furrowed his eyebrows. “Jesus, that’s fast. For how long?”

  I looked at the floor again. “Six months.”

  “Shit. That’s a while.”

  “I can just say no,” I said, looking back up at him. “Delos will have other contracts for me here. I don’t need to accept this one.”

  “Nora, it’s Hartwell. You shouldn’t say no to them. They’re a huge deal.”

  “I know. It could be so great for me, but at the same time, I literally only just moved in here. So if I suddenly picked up and left for six months, I feel like….”

  Jacob reached forward and put his hands on either side of my face. “Baby, you don’t need to worry. I can tell you’re freaking out, but you’re freaking out about nothing. Remember three minutes ago when I was so worried about the phone thing, but then you had an easy solution and I realized everything was actually fine?”

  I nodded. He went on. “There’s an easy solution to this as well. You go east for work, and I stay here for my own work. I can fly out to New York every two weeks for a couple of days. That means we’re only going ten days between seeing each other, and we’ll both be so busy with work that those days will fly by anyway. And after just twelve visits, it’ll all be over. Six months is really not that long.”

  “You’d really fly out to see me that often?”

  “Does a bear shit in the woods?” he said with a grin. “It’s only a six hour flight.”

  My shoulders relaxed, and I smiled. “So you really think I should take the job? And you think we’ll be okay?”

  “Of course. I know we haven’t been together for long, but fuck, Nora… this is solid. We’ve got something good here. Being apart for a while isn’t gonna change that. Got it?”

  “Got it,” I said with a weak smile. “But now I’m kinda nervous. What if they interview me and don’t even want me for the job?”

  Jacob chuckled. “Okay, now you’re just being ridiculous. Who wouldn’t want you? I certainly do.”

  I smiled. “Oh, do you?”

  “Yep. I fucking love you, Nora Valencia.”

  My eyebrows shot up, and in those seconds, all my worries dissipated. Of course our relationship could survive a six month long-distance episode. Jacob loved me.

  And I loved him too.

  “You’ve never said that before,” I said softly.

  “I know. I was waiting for the perfect moment to tell you for the first time, but I kinda think all the moments are perfect when you’re around. So may as well be now, right?”

  I smiled widely and threw my arms around him. He kissed the top of my head. “Gonna leave me hanging?” he asked, a tinge of amusement in his voice.

  “Oh, I love you too!” I said. “Sorry. I thought it in my head but I didn’t say it out loud.”

  “Thank god. That could’ve been awkward.”

  “You already knew I loved you back,” I teased. “Why else would I move in with you?”

  “Because I’ve got a big house,” he said, eyes twinkling with humor. “Maybe you’re just using me.”

  “Oh, I am,” I replied with a mischievous grin. “But not for your house. For your body.”

  He held his hands up and slowly backed toward the bed. “Go ahead. You can use me right now.”

  “Maybe I will…”

  I pushed on his chest. He moved closer to the bed before reaching forward and grabbing me, sliding his big hands over my soft skin. “Get that skirt off,” he murmured. “Right now.”

  I reached down and pulled at the skirt, letting it slip down my thighs and knees until it was pooled on the floor. Then I yanked my top off too. Jacob groaned softly at the sight of me in my black lacy bra and panties before sliding his hands up my back and unclipping the bra. My breasts spilled out as he pulled the lacy fabric away. He leaned down and buried his face in them, kissing them and laving my nipples with his tongue.

  I sighed with pleasure, and Jacob pulled back for long enough to pick me up and throw me down on the bed. Then he was back on me, worshipping my breasts, neck, and shoulders with his mouth and hands. He kneaded and massaged, licked and sucked, and when he was done, my skin was raw and red, claimed so utterly by this man.

  He began to work his way down my body, kissing me as he went. I writhed as he sank below my bellybutton, teasing me just above the hem of my panties. “Please, Jacob… please,” I said with a moan. He always liked to make me beg.

  He grabbed my panties with both hands and tore them off me. I could feel how wet I was as he gazed down at my pussy. He ran a hand down along my trimmed mound, and then he moved ever so slowly and gently across my bare skin. When his finger grazed my soaking and swollen lips, I let out a yelp and bucked my hips.

  “I’ve barely even touched you,” Jacob said with a teasing smirk.

  “Then touch me more,” I replied breathlessly.

  He pressed against my lips and slid his fingers slowly down. Then he pressed one finger into my drenched entrance before pulling it back out and sliding it toward my clit. As soon as he pressed lightly against it, my muscles tightened. He rubbed gently, and my back arched off the bed. Then he dived between my legs and ran his tongue up the length of my pussy. My legs wrapped around his head, begging him for more without saying a single word.

  He gave me what I wanted, bringing his tongue up to my clit, and I moaned as he began to lick up and down over the swollen nub. He held me still, grabbing hold of my hips and worshipping my clit, and when my moans became frenetic and breathless, he quickened his movements. I came hard against him, whimpering and quaking as I said his name over and over, digging my nails into his head.

  “Oh god, I don’t think I can go for six months without that,” I said breathlessly as I lay back on the bed a moment later, still recovering.

  Jacob grinned. “I told you, I’ll be visiting as often as I can.”

  “Oh, you better,” I said, giggling as he wrapped me in his strong arms.

  As far as I was concerned, everything in our cozy little world was perfect at the moment. Our lives and careers were crazy right now, and things were only going to get crazier if and when I got this job with Hartwell. But we had each other. That was enough to keep us blissfully happy, grounded, and sane no matter what curveballs the universe decided to throw our way. I couldn’t think of a single thing that could come along and screw it up for us. It simply couldn’t happen… right?

  Wrong.

  30

  Jacob

  “Good news, Mr. Archer. We found your phone.”

  The L’Amio restaurant manager was on the other end of the house line, and I sighed with relief. It’d been three days since my stuff was taken from the restaurant coatroom, and I hadn’t heard anything. I’d honestly started to think that I’d never see the phone again.

  “Great. So you have it?” I asked.

  “Not exactly. A customer called us a moment ago saying he had it. He just realized he took the wrong jacket home the other night, and he looked through the pockets to make sure he hadn’t accidentally taken anything else too. That’s when he found the phone and called us. It’s a black iPhone, latest model, and the jacket was black with an Armani label.”

  “Yep, that’s my stuff.”

  “The man who accidentally took it has left us a number for you to contact him on. He said to call or text him anytime to arrange a time for him to drop off your phone.”

  “Great. Thanks.”

  I put the number into the replacement cell phone I was currently using. Then I tried calling it once I was off the house phone. There was no answer, but it was two in the afternoon, so I assumed the guy was at work.

  I shot off a qui
ck text instead. Hey, I hear you found my phone and jacket. Can you please give me a call or message back when it’s convenient for you? I’d be happy to buy you a drink or something as a thank-you for returning my stuff.

  I had the day off work today as a few scenes which didn’t require my presence were being filmed, so I simply sat and watched some TV while I waited for a response to my text. Nora was out shopping with Ina and Angie for new luggage and other assorted things, because she’d scored the New York job just as I knew she would.

  She’d been racing around getting ready for the last couple of days, and she was flying out in just four more days to get settled into the apartment Hartwell was providing her with for the six month stay. Angie was going to fly over with Oscar to drop him off a couple of days later once Nora had everything figured out. I wanted to take Oscar over there myself, but unfortunately I couldn’t get time off work that soon.

  I was damn well going to miss Nora—and that golden pup as well, of course—but I knew it was for the best that she scored this job. It could do great things for her future career, and I knew how much she loved her work. Almost as much as I loved her.

  My spare phone beeped just after five o’clock with a response from the number the restaurant gave me earlier.

  I don’t want a drink.

  That was all it said. I frowned, wondering what the hell this guy wanted. Money? Something else? It seemed a bit ludicrous that he was expecting anything at all. I’d only offered to buy him a drink as a friendly gesture, after all.

  What do you want? I asked, my good mood quickly turning sour.

  I want you to break up with Nora. Tell her it’s over within the next hour, or I’ll release all the shit I found on your phone to the media. I know a lot of stuff about you now, Jacob Archer. You should really delete your texts more often. Looks like you’re secretly married, huh? Not to mention this hot and heavy video I found of you and Nora. Like I said, you have one hour. Don’t contact the police. I’ll know if you do.

  My guts churned as I read the text. Jesus Christ, I’d been right the other day after all—James had somehow managed to steal my phone that night at the restaurant, and he’d managed to go through everything and save it to the phone’s regular gallery before Nora had the bright idea of removing the device from the iCloud.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  What the hell was I supposed to do? Obviously there was no way in hell I was going to break up with Nora. But if that psycho prick James didn’t at least think I did within the next hour, he would release our sex tape and humiliate her in front of the entire world. I knew how quickly videos like that could go viral. It could be out there in a matter of minutes, and just like that, Nora’s life would be ruined.

  I could also go to prison if he released the information about my secret marriage to Ina, because people might figure out that it was all a green card sham. If that happened, she would go away too, facing either prison, or worse, deportation to her hellhole home country.

  I had to play this very fucking carefully.

  The first thing I needed to do was buy some time, so I shot back a bullshit text. Nora is out all afternoon. Won’t be able to contact her. Give me until the end of the day to break things off with her.

  Of course that was a lie, but hopefully it would give me a few more hours to get this shit sorted.

  Fine, came the response. But that’s it. No more time after that.

  Now I just needed to get the phone off him before I called the police. If I called them right away, he’d know as soon as he saw them coming for him. I was willing to bet he had a drafted message to the tabloids on standby, ready to hit ‘send’ on if he saw he was in any trouble. I couldn’t risk that, so I needed to make sure I had the phone first. Without it, he had no solid proof of his claims to give to any reporters, unless he’d made backups. In that case, I was screwed either way, but I just had to hope he hadn’t.

  Fuming, I got in my car and sped down to the office building where the accounting firm was. The receptionist recognized me from all the times I’d been in to visit Chris, and she smiled up at me. “Hi, Jacob. Chris has already left for the day. You just missed him.”

  “That’s all right. I’m not here to see him. I just left something at his desk the other day. Mind if I go and grab it?”

  “Go right ahead,” she said with a simpering smile, batting her eyelashes. Christ, it was good to have sex appeal. I could’ve showed up here with a spiked club and she probably still would’ve let me in. I gave her a winning smile of my own and headed into the bullpen to find James in his cubicle.

  He was on the phone at his desk when I spotted him. Before I approached, I was careful to make sure his hands weren’t anywhere near his keyboard, where he could easily hit ‘send’ on an email exposing everything he’d found. Luckily, he wasn’t anywhere near his computer, so I stalked over with a grim expression on my face.

  His own face turned ashen when he saw me. In a faltering voice, he said a quick goodbye into his phone before hanging up.

  “Didn’t think I’d actually show up here, did you?” I said. “Don’t fucking move, or I’ll smash your face right into that desk.”

  He stood up, holding his palms in the air. “For god’s sake, man, why can’t you just leave me alone? I didn’t even press charges last time you came over to abuse me! And you know I very well could have after what you did to me!”

  “You think this is about that?” I said incredulously. “You’re a blackmailing little son of a bitch, and if you honestly think I’m going to dump Nora just because you found some dirt on us, then you’re deluded as fuck.”

  His eyebrows furrowed. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “You know exactly what I’m talking about, you sack of shit. Now sit down before someone notices what’s going on.”

  He did as I said, and I took a seat in his spare chair. I noticed his legs were trembling. Jesus, what a little bitch. He could dole out shit when he was hiding behind a screen, but he obviously couldn’t take it.

  “What’s it going to take to make you leave me and Nora alone?” I said. “You want money? Some sort of apology from Nora for dumping your sorry ass? Because let me tell you… that isn’t gonna happen. You fucked up.” I paused to give him a triumphant smile. “You forgot to turn off location services on your phone, so I can prove the blackmail texts you just sent me came from this building. The police aren’t gonna like that. They’ve been trying to nail you for weeks, and you thought you’d outsmarted them until now, didn’t you?”

  “What messages? Jacob, I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about,” he replied. His hands were shaking now too. “And I have no idea why the cops keep showing up at my door questioning me. I haven’t been harassing Nora online or anywhere else! I stopped talking to her when she dumped me, like I told you that day when you showed up and punched me!”

  Did this guy have some sort of fucking multiple personality disorder? He seemed like he was telling the truth, but I knew he wasn’t.

  “Look,” I said through gritted teeth. “We know it’s you. You’ve been making fake Facebook accounts to send nasty messages to Nora for weeks now, and you trashed her house. You’ve terrorized her. And now you’ve stolen my phone from a restaurant I know you were at. I saw you there. So do you expect me to believe you didn’t send those messages today, trying to fucking blackmail me?”

  “Why would I? Man, if I wanted to mess with you, I would’ve gone ahead and pressed assault charges when you punched me outside my house that day. But I didn’t. Know why?”

  “Why?”

  He looked at his feet. “Because I didn’t want to,” he mumbled. “I guess I knew I deserved it. So I left it alone, and I stopped talking shit about Nora. She didn’t deserve it, and I was just being a bitter asshole by spreading crap about her.”

  “So you admit it. You were spreading rumors about her.”

  He nodded. “Yes. But I stopped that day when you hit me. And I never harassed
her online. I never trashed her house. Like I said, the cops have been bugging me about this for weeks now, but it’s not me. It’s not fucking me!”

  James honestly looked like he was about to cry at this point. I narrowed my eyes. He was a lying, cheating, dog-abusing sack of shit, but a tiny part of me was starting to believe he hadn’t actually been doing the other things I’d accused him of. It was hard to fake the kind of reaction he was currently having unless the person in question was a trained actor, and I was the only actor sitting in this cubicle right now.

  “If it’s not you, then who the hell has been doing it?” I asked. “All the messages from Facebook are coming from accounts under your name, and the text messages I got today came from this building, or somewhere near here. You’re the only person who’s ever had a problem with Nora, as far as I know. So who else could it be?”

  “Someone is setting me up,” he said, his eyes wide. “I swear to god, Jacob. I’m begging you to believe me. I know I’m a fucking scumbag, okay? I have issues. I’m fucked in the head. But I’m not doing any of this other shit you’re talking about.”

  “Who would set you up? And how do you explain the location of the texts?” I shot back.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. This company isn’t the only one in the building. The texts you got could’ve been sent from any other floor, or even right outside. If someone is setting me up, then it makes sense that they’d come to the building and send the messages, just to make me look even guiltier.”

  I nodded. “That’s true. It did seem unbelievably stupid that you’d leave the location service turned on,” I said slowly. “But if someone is trying to use you as a scapegoat to harass Nora and break us up… well, who? Who the fuck has such a big problem with us being together?”

  “I really don’t know. Please believe me, I honestly have no idea,” James replied.

  I gave him a long, hard look before speaking up again. “Let’s say I believe you for just five minutes. Let’s say there is actually someone setting you up as a scapegoat. That means you’re involved in this shit whether you like it or not. So you need to help me figure out who it is.”