Reflected in the Rain (The Storm Inside)

by Alexis Anne

  “Put your arms around my neck, darlin’.”

  She nodded sleepily, letting her head fall against my chest as I pulled her up into my arms.

  “Have a good night sir, and congratulations.” The driver handed me back the key.

  “Thank you, drive safely.”

  He nodded and jogged back off toward the open limo as I slid through our open door and kicked it closed. Eve shifted in my arms when I flicked the deadbolt.

  “I love you so much,” she murmured as I mounted the stairs. Every single time she said that my chest ached.

  “I love you too.”

  She smiled and bit the corner of her lip even though her eyes were still closed. “It was a good night.”

  “Yes, it was,” I agreed. “We have good friends.”

  I went straight to the bed and gently laid her down. The lights were off and the blinds were open so the room was barely lit by the street lamps outside. It cast the softest yellow glow across her face and I wanted to study her.

  I loved watching her sleep. She wasn’t tainted by the world the same way I was—she could sleep peacefully at night. I watched her because she calmed me, but also because I was fascinated. What was she dreaming about? What was putting those smiles on her face?

  For me, sleep was a chore. I had to sleep in order to function, so I did it. Otherwise, I’d give it up altogether. The tossing and turning weren’t worth it. Neither were the nightmares.

  Thankfully her dress was easy to slip off, along with her heels. But then I stopped and stared at her underwear. It wasn’t what she was wearing when she left. It was a pair I’d never seen before.

  They were hot. Delicate. They looked like they’d fall apart in my fingers and a little caveman part of my brain dared me to find out. I ran my fingers along the scalloped edge and underneath as I wondered where the hell Jennie took Eve before the piano bar.

  Why was she wearing new underwear?

  The more I thought about it, the more worked up I got—which was ridiculous considering she was asleep and probably hadn’t done anything worth worrying about.

  But I sat there stewing for a while anyway. I had to make myself get undressed, but I wound up right back on the edge of the bed watching her sleep and staring at the sexy underwear I didn’t recognize.

  I trusted her. Really, I did. But seriously, where had the damn underwear come from and why couldn’t I stop staring at them?

  I was so completely at Eve’s mercy it wasn’t even funny.

  Damn underwear.

  Chapter 5

  ~Eve~

  Sunday was shit. We were hungover—not “college” hungover, thank god. There was no hugging of the toilet or passing out on tile floors. We slept until noon on separate sides of the bed (because who wants to cuddle when the room is spinning?) then ordered pizza. The rest of the day was made up of Gatorade and movies in bed.

  Things felt off and I just assumed it was because we were both wary of asking the inevitable question: what happened last night? We all wouldn’t have had so much fun singing at the end of the night if anyone had done anything stupid, but it was still weird. It was like asking about what happened at the doctor’s office—you want to know, but at the same time, you don’t. I might have been content to leave it alone, but Jake was acting so strangely I just couldn’t.

  He was a million miles away from me, both physically and mentally. He was distracted, his eyes rarely made contact with mine, and he never touched me. Not even when I sat in his lap and ruffled his hair.

  “Should I be worried?” I finally asked. I was sitting cross-legged in the middle of our bed, my feet tucked up under me with Jake’s ancient USF t-shirt on and not much else. I’d woken up in nothing but my new underwear.

  His head jerked and he finally looked at me. “You? Why would you be worried?”

  I loved his response because it told me everything I needed to know. There was nothing for me to be worried about, but clearly he was worried. The question was why? “You’ve barely said two words to me—and talking about pizza doesn’t count.”

  His beautiful lips turned down into a frown and he looked at me pointedly. “I’m not avoiding you. I didn’t do anything I regret last night. There were some very scantily clad dancers and one very pushy waitress, but that was it.”

  I smiled a little because of the twinkle in his eyes. “You weren’t tempted out of the garden?”

  He closed his eyes and shook his head, “Nope. But I think Greg was. I’m pretty sure he hooked up with the waitress before we left.”

  That sounded just about right.

  “So why aren’t you talking to me?”

  Jake stewed for a minute, pulling in his lips and crossing his arms before he seemed to decide he was going to say whatever it was he had on his mind. He grabbed my ankles, pulling me across the bed and onto my back, then climbed over me and looked deeply into my eyes. It took my breath away. There were a million things going through Jake’s mind and I didn’t have the slightest idea about any of them. He lowered his head down and gently kissed my lips before pulling back and gliding his hand down my body, lifting the bottom of my (his) t-shirt up. His fingers slid under the very delicate fabric of my new panties and a grim look crossed his face. “I’ve never seen these before,” he whispered.

  It took my brain approximately five seconds to put two and two together. “No. No, no, no, no! Whatever you are thinking, just stop it!” I placed my hands on Jake’s chest, but when he didn’t meet my eyes again, I grabbed his face and forced his eyes away from my panties. “The girls bought us a ton of lingerie for the honeymoon. We went to Satin and Lace. We had the party there while they made me try on outfits.”

  He stared at me for a good ten seconds before he made any sort of movement at all. He didn’t breathe or twitch, or anything. It was freaking me out. But then a sly smile crept across his face, turning up his eyes and popping out his dimple. “Lingerie, huh?”

  I ran my fingers up into his hair and let out a very relieved sigh. “Lots of it.”

  Jake’s mood had swung as far in the opposite direction as possible. Suddenly he was seductive and obviously turned on. “Where is all this new lingerie?”

  “It should be delivered soon, actually. Would you like a private show?”

  He nodded quickly. He looked like a kid on Christmas morning, giddy and excited to open his presents.

  With our little misunderstanding behind us, we decided to get in some “practice” for the honeymoon.

  All in all, Sunday was a wonderfully relaxing day off.

  Monday was a different story. My morning was all business, moving from meetings to planning and back again.

  “Sure you want to come back after you marry Prince Charming? Don’t you want to enjoy all that married life has to offer?” Carey Thomas thought he was hilarious as he leaned casually against the conference table in his black slacks, white dress shirt, and shiny red tie. He was handsome in a goofy way, his dark hair was long and little greasy for my taste, but his jaw was strong and his brown eyes were piercing.

  “Oh, you never know. I may change my mind. After all, working with you is rarely worth it.”

  The truth was, while Carey had a crude sense of humor and always gave me a hard time, he was really good at his job.

  “Aw, c’mon. Give a guy a break! Do you know how much work it is going to be while you and Joshy-poo ride off into the sunset? I’ll be covering your lucky ass’s non-stop. You should be nice to me!”

  I chuckled as I gathered up my paperwork. Not only was I taking two and half weeks off for our wedding and honeymoon, but pretty much as soon as I returned, Josh was taking two weeks of paternity leave. We had a temp coming in to help with the hole Josh and I were leaving in the pre-season ramp-up.

  “Take care of my temp and I may just have those tickets you’ve been begging for…”

  Carey stood straight up. “Seriously? You aren’t playing with me, are you?”

  I could play it cool, draw things
out a little longer and make Carey miserable. Or, I could dangle the bait right in front of his eyes. I slid the tickets out from the back of my folder. “Two tickets, front row center, to the Justin Timberlake concert.”

  He lunged for the tickets which I moved out of his reach. “Not a chance. The concert is in two months. I have them, you know I have them… I expect flawless work while I’m gone.”

  He looked me up and down, the eagerness written all over his face. “And I get the tickets? Promise?”

  “Promise.”

  He stood up a little straighter. “Consider it done. Not that you had to worry, I’ve got your back, Daniels.”

  I tucked the tickets back away. “I know, but I like giving you a little incentive. You always work harder.”

  He groaned and started toward the door. “You know, if I didn’t like you so much, I’d probably hate you.”

  “Get back to work, Carey.”

  I stood there stewing for a minute. Carey was being a jerk to get under my skin and it worked beautifully. Every time someone suggested marriage was going to change my life I wanted to scream. It seemed vowing to stand beside Jake and love him for the rest of my life somehow translated into affecting my ability to do my job, think for myself, or maintain authority. I really hoped Jake was getting teased too. That would mean it was just the normal ritualistic teasing all couples got before the wedding. But if this kept up I was going to have to set the record straight—the simple act of falling in love didn’t change me.

  I headed back toward my office, which took me right past Josh’s. I heard his voice before I even got to the door. It was loud (which for Josh was very unusual) and he was clearly angry. I poked my head in the door.

  Josh’s office made mine look like a cubicle. It was nearly three times as large, with massive windows. His wood desk was situated in front of the windows, facing the doorway. Everything was dark woods or hunter greens and navy blues. It would be imposing if it weren’t for the windows. Memorabilia hung from every wall and was displayed on every shelf. Josh loved signed balls and bats, and that alone took up most of his office.

  He looked up and as soon as we locked eyes I knew it wasn’t good news. Josh looked like he was going to rip someone’s throat out. “Renegotiating the contract is not on the table. It’s simply not an option. You are on the hook through the end of this season, renegotiate then.” His knuckles were white as he strangled the phone in his hands.

  I closed the door and moved over to the desk wondering which “contract” was in trouble. When I was beside him, Josh put the call on hold. “It’s Synergy. They are trying to use a loophole in the contract to renegotiate the concert series.”

  “How much?” My stomach dropped a little. Our concert series was a huge part of our plan for every season, but this season in particular.

  “They want a ten percent bump.”

  “That’s not the end of the world…”

  Josh shook his head, “And they want to cut the children’s concert series.”

  I practically grabbed the phone out of Josh’s hands. “They want to what?”

  He only nodded and threw his hands in the air. “David is getting chewed out by Synergy for not getting us for more, so he’s trying to throw it back on us.”

  “What’s the loophole?” I was not going to let David’s mistake become mine.

  Not happening.

  “We didn’t specify the safety specs for the new outdoor fan experience in the contract.”

  “What? He’s grasping at straws, give me the contract. I’ll take care of this.” In many ways this was my ass on the line, not Josh’s. It was my fiancée who built and engineered the new fan experience, it was my new concert series, and it was my contract. If anyone was going to fix this, it was me.

  I flipped to the appendix in question while Josh put us on speaker phone.

  “I’m not sure why we’re still talking, Josh. Talk to legal and accounting and get back to me with a new contract.”

  “Hi David,” I said flatly.

  There were some shuffling noises from the other end of the line before David replied. “Hi, Eve. I didn’t realize you’d joined us on the call.” David suddenly didn’t sound so sure of himself. In fact, he sounded downright scared.

  I loved when people were scared of me.

  “Look, Josh has gotten me up to speed on things and I’m not sure what it is you are trying to do here but I will not be taking this up to legal, nor will I be asking accounting for more money.”

  “But…”

  “No. If you look at Appendix D you will see the safety specifications you mentioned are, in fact, listed from the blueprints with a note that final specs would be provided by Spencer, Hamilton, and Associates at the completion of the project. All you have to do is request the specs.”

  The line was silent for a moment before David replied. “I would like to request the final specs.”

  “I’ll have them to you by the end of business today.”

  “Thank you,” he said flatly. “Synergy would still like to reopen discussion on the concert schedule and compensation.”

  “Touch my series and I’ll make you pay us.”

  “Eve… let’s be reasonable. Please? “

  I rolled my eyes at Josh who was looking a little less green.

  “Be honest with me and maybe I can work with you.”

  By the end of the phone call, I somehow managed to finagle an extra act out of David while only giving him an extra two percent. In reality it was a win all around. David got to the number Synergy needed to hit. Which, it turned out, was the bottom line for everything. If David couldn’t make their numbers work for the board of directors, there was going to be trouble for all of us. So I gave him his money in exchange for an extra act.

  “If you don’t mind, I’m going to go get those specs from Jake personally.”

  Josh chuckled and spun in his chair. “It’s not going to be the same while you’re gone. I’m going to miss you.”

  “It’s going to be weird to have you gone, too. What a bizarre year we’re having…”

  He walked me to his office door. “A good year, though. Life moves forward, what better way to see that than weddings and babies?”

  Josh was going to be a great dad. He was already hopelessly in love with his daughter. I didn’t think it was possible for a man to be so excited to have a baby girl, but Josh was living proof it was possible.

  “I’ll see ya later, Big Daddy.”

  ***

  I didn’t text Jake to let him know I was coming. I wanted to surprise him.

  I was feeling, shall we say, feisty.

  Lisa, the receptionist, smiled as soon as I opened the doors. “What a nice surprise, Eve. You haven’t been by much lately.”

  I leaned against her desk, “Wedding planning should come with a warning label.”

  “Not enjoying it?” she looked at me with sympathy.

  I shook my head. “Not even a little. I love that everyone is so excited, but I just want to get married.”

  “Well I am very much looking forward to everything.”

  Greg poked his head out of his office. “I thought I heard your voice.” He was dressed in a smart navy suit with his blonde hair more ruffled than normal. He looked a little ragged, actually. “We still on for lunch Wednesday?”

  “Absolutely. I’m looking forward to it.”

  He kissed me on the cheek and winked. “We should plan something devious. Jake has it coming…”

  Lisa rolled her eyes and shook her head as Greg and I jokingly plotted to keep Jake busy on our wedding day.

  “Where is my groom anyway?”

  “On the floor. He’ll be done soon.”

  “I think I’ll wait in his office then. You should be working, shouldn’t you?”

  Greg flashed his devilish smile at me, “Something like that. Have fun in Jake’s office.”

  Oh, I was planning on it.

  Chapter 6

  -Jake-
>
  “No, I’d look for an imperfection in the material. My guess is that is what keeps randomly throwing the drill off.”

  Jim sighed as he looked back at the machine. “Alright, I’ll have it figured out by the end of the day. Thanks for taking a peek, boss.”

  I clapped him on the back, “No problem. You’re doing great. Really, you are.”

  Jim smiled weakly and nodded. “Thanks for saying so, I appreciate it.”

  I was just about to check on my next team when Greg came bounding toward me. He had one of his ridiculous grins on his face that said more than words ever could. “You have a visitor in your office.”

  I wasn’t expecting anyone. “Who?”

  Greg ran his hand over the toolbox and shook his head, which to me was a sign I was being dense. “She’s awfully pretty.”

  Eve. My adrenaline kicked up just at the thought of her. She was a drug and I was a junkie. It was ridiculous and awesome. “Thanks.”

  “No problem. How are things coming?” He cocked his head toward the machine.

  “We’ll start test runs tomorrow.”

  “Perfect. We won’t even miss you while you’re off on the Dream Boat.”

  “Island,” I corrected him.

  “Fuck, whatever. While you are on a magical vacation, the little people back here in the real world will be just fine without our fearless leader.”

  “You sure know how to make a guy feel loved.” I shook my head as I headed back toward my office.

  “I love you, man!” Greg laughed as I disappeared.

  Eve was twirling in my chair and flipping through my papers. “Hey, handsome.” The flash of her eyes and the slight upturn of her lips made me want to kneel in front of her and bury my face between her legs.

  “Hey, beautiful. To what do I owe this surprise visit?” I closed and locked the door behind me and started toward my main door.

  “Don’t worry, I already locked it.”

  My heart beat a little faster in my chest. “Well then…” I turned back toward my desk and sat in front of her, running my hands through her hair and tugging lightly.