Jessie Slaymaker's Rules of Engagement (The Jessie Slaymaker Series Book 2)

by Iles, Jo

  Out of the office, Rachel seemed to be a completely different person. She was still intimidating in a I’m-just-so-damn-confident kind of way, but she was chatty and inquisitive along with it. She didn’t mention work once, at least not in a serious boss-to-subordinate sort of way, but instead she seemed genuinely interested in Jessie’s life. She was also actually a bit of a gossip and chatted away incessantly about this so-and-so and that so-and-so from the bank. Of course, Jessie had no clue who any of these people were. All the names and faces seemed to be entirely different from the people here on her previous visit.

  Rachel also seemed to love talking about her latest boyfriend, and he kept cropping up in the conversation—so much so that Jessie felt like she knew all about him even though she hadn’t even met him yet. His name was JP, he hailed from London, and she called him her ‘bit of rough’, which automatically suggested someone of considerable stature in Jessie’s mind. The woman was absolutely besotted with the guy, as evidenced by her going seriously gooey-eyed whenever she brought him up in conversation.

  ‘I like your earrings,’ Rachel said, looking at Jessie’s sparkly lobes and taking a break from talking about JP.

  ‘Thanks,’ Jessie replied, smiling. ‘A present from my boyfriend, Jack.’

  ‘He moved here with you, didn’t he?’ Rachel asked as she grabbed a nearby magazine from a waiting pile.

  ‘Yes. We came together,’ Jessie replied. As far as Jessie was concerned, Jack was still in the doghouse for deserting her last night in favour of the boys.

  ‘What does he do?’ Rachel asked, flicking her gaze across to Jessie.

  That was a stumper. What did Jack do exactly?

  ‘He used to work in publishing in Shanghai. But I think he wants to do something different here. He’s got a few irons in the fire,’ Jessie said, polishing the truth a touch. In all honesty she didn’t have a clue what Jack actually wanted to do in Hong Kong. She didn’t even know if Jack knew what Jack wanted to do.

  ‘That’s nice of him to follow you here,’ Rachel said, returning her attention to the glossy magazine in her lap. There was something in what she’d said that rankled Jessie. Something that made Jack out to be something of a puppet. Jack didn’t just follow her here, did he? Surely he came because he wanted to have a life here. Of course, with her, but surely he actually wanted to come for himself as well. Right?

  ‘OMG,’ Rachel suddenly exclaimed loudly. Jessie looked across at her companion to see if maybe something had gone wrong with her pedicure. Everything looked to be fine on that front, yet Rachel had stopped leafing through her magazine and her face seemed to be frozen in place as she stared open-mouthed at something on the page.

  ‘What?’ Jessie asked, leaning over to get a glimpse of the offending picture.

  ‘I can’t believe that,’ Rachel said, shaking her head slightly, building the sense of drama.

  ‘What is it? Has Angelina had another tattoo? Or a baby?’ Jessie quipped.

  ‘No. I can’t believe she’s pregnant. I mean, whoever would be stupid enough to get themselves embroiled with that family must need their head tested,’ Rachel said disapprovingly.

  ‘Who?’ Jessie asked politely as she tried to play down her own curiosity, returning to her own magazine flicking.

  ‘Have you ever heard of Sonia Shum?’ Rachel asked as she scanned the article.

  At the mention of that particular name, Jessie instantly felt her blood run cold. It was a name that, uncharacteristically for Jessie, inspired nothing but dislike and ill feeling. It was Sonia Shum who had been pulling Charlie’s strings into framing her and sleeping with her. It was Sonia Shum who had essentially blackmailed Jack into staying with her and being her lap dog. It was Sonia Shum who had basically kept her and Jack apart when they should have been basking in each other’s glory, falling blissfully in love with one another.

  ‘I’ve heard of her,’ Jessie answered coldly.

  ‘Well, she’s a notorious billionaire heiress who splits her time between HK and Shangers. She’s a complete nutjob if you ask me, though. A right control freak. Anyway, somehow she’s gone and gotten herself pregnant. I can’t think how though. She has a terrible reputation with men. I’m surprised anyone would go near her. Did you know, it’s common knowledge that the last guy she was seeing was a right wimp who was at her beck and call the entire time?’ Rachel leaned in and lowered her voice conspiratorially. ‘Apparently it was all fake and for publicity from her point of view, but when she binned him he took it really bad. He was so cut up, he had to run away back to England so he wouldn’t run into her around here.’

  ‘How pregnant is she?’ Jessie asked deliberately, choosing to ignore the gossip about Jack’s departure, which was clearly a story perpetuated by Sonia so as not to lose face. But Sonia pregnant? There was no need to panic, Jessie told herself as she took a deep breath. She just hoped to hell that they were still talking the first trimester and nothing longer.

  ‘It says here she’s believed to be five or six months gone,’ Rachel replied obligingly, holding up the picture of a clearly pregnant Sonia Shum. She was wearing a tight-fitting body con dress to some fancy event, and the dress left no illusion whatsoever as to what was growing in her stomach. Nor did the healthy fullness to the woman’s face and figure. In fact, the pregnant glow seemed to emanate from every pore. Everything about her screamed ‘woman with child’.

  Jessie couldn’t speak. She went totally numb. Five months pregnant. The thought that Sonia Shum was pregnant silently reverberated within the confines of Jessie’s head. Five months ago she’d been seeing Tom in England, which meant that Jack had been living with Sonia in Hong Kong. It couldn’t be his? Surely not. Could it? Jessie ran the numbers again to check. Jessie was extremely good with figures in her day job, but she willed her basic arithmetic to be wrong for once. However, the numbers didn’t lie. The timings matched up. Of course, she didn’t know what Sonia’s private life had been like during those weeks, but she did know Jack had been a part of it. Which meant there was a very real possibility that Jack—her Jack—was the father of Sonia Shum’s unborn child.

  ‘Holy fuck,’ Jessie exclaimed quietly, as the full realisation dawned on her.

  ‘Is something the matter?’ Rachel trilled. ‘You’ve gone white as a sheet.’

  Jessie just stared numbly at the photo, unable to respond.

  ‘O-M-FUCKING-G,’ Rachel practically shrieked, causing all the other ladies getting their feet prettied to look over at them. ‘It’s your Jack, isn’t it? He was the poor sap chained to Sonia Shum!’ Rachel’s intelligent mind quickly put two and two together based on Jessie’s reaction.

  ‘And… is he the father?’ Rachel whispered, her eyes growing wider and wider, when Jessie still didn’t respond. Jessie got the distinct impression Rachel was enjoying herself, putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. Possibly a bit too much.

  ‘But judging by your silence, you didn’t know she was pregnant. Which means he probably doesn’t know either. OMG, Jessie. This must have come as a total shock. I’m so sorry,’ she said, dramatically clutching Jessie’s hand.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Jessie finally said quietly, removing her hand from Rachel’s grasp. She hardly knew Rachel, yet Rachel seemed to have figured out all of Jessie’s dirty laundry in a matter of a few seconds. All she wanted to do was scream O-M-FUCKING-G herself, but instead she forced herself to show some poise and neutralise her features as she returned to her magazine-flicking until her pedicure was finished.

  Chapter 21

  After saying a quick goodbye to Rachel, Jessie raced back to the serviced apartment. She’d considered sending the man of the moment a forewarning text, but what could she say? Your crazy ex-girlfriend is up the duff and it looks like you’re the father. It wasn’t really a text-appropriate subject. This was a conversation that had to be conducted in person.

  When Jessie threw open the door she was dismayed to find that Jack wasn’t there. She’d been confident that
he’d still be there, recovering from his exerts the previous night, but she’d been wrong. She searched the apartment quickly, even checking behind the shower curtain, but there was no Jack.

  She spent the next five minutes prowling around the living room, wearing holes in the wood laminate. She was about to start yet another circuit, when she heard a key in the lock.

  ‘Did you know about this?’ she launched at him loudly the second Jack’s face appeared. She waved the pilfered, toxic magazine in front of his face, in case he was in any wonder as to what this meant. Then she took a step back and chastised herself. She’d been planning on sounding rational and reasonable, but instead the demented hysterical woman within her had blared at him and accosted him before he could even get through the doorway.

  ‘What?’ he asked in genuine confusion as he struggled to focus on the paper that Jessie seemed unable to hold still. He tugged it gently from her hand and studied the picture of the double-page spread as he entered the apartment, kicking the door closed behind him. Then he froze as the full magnitude of what he was looking at hit him.

  ‘It’s not mine. It can’t be,’ he said as though thinking aloud, the shock still registered all over his face and in his body language.

  ‘You were together though, when this baby was conceived,’ Jessie said carefully, finding some inner calmness from somewhere deep inside. ‘It says in the article she’s between five and six months pregnant. That puts it around about the time that you…’ Jessie trailed off, lost for words.

  ‘Well after I shagged her by accident you mean, and then shacked up with her,’ Jack said angrily, saying what they were both thinking. ‘But how can we even believe this is true?’ he added. It was his turn to wave the offending magazine at her. ‘We hardly ever did anything.’

  ‘It’s this week’s edition,’ Jessie said, somehow managing to detach her emotions and focus on the facts, choosing to blank out the thought of Jack and Sonia doing anything together, let alone making a baby. ‘Look at the picture, Jack. She’s pregnant. She’s clearly very pregnant. And there’s a chance it could be yours.’

  ‘I guess,’ Jack offered by way of an inept reply. He threw the magazine on the floor and began pacing around the living room, just as Jessie had been doing moments earlier.

  ‘Don’t you want to find out? So you can be sure?’ Jessie began. ‘I really think you need to call her and find out what’s going on.’ Jessie felt a wave of assertion wash over her from somewhere. It felt familiar and therefore good for her to think rationally and pragmatically about a problem. She had already overcome her shocked phase—it had somehow helped to pass that baton onto Jack—and had moved onto her constructive, let’s troubleshoot phase, no longer coming apart at the seams.

  ‘And then what? It’s not like she’s come hounding me with the information. She obviously doesn’t need me to do anything,’ Jack said, turning surly.

  ‘You are kidding, right?’ Jessie asked, fixing him with an incredulous stare. ‘You seriously want to just ignore all this and pretend that some woman isn’t walking around with Jack Junior in her gut?’

  ‘That’s precisely where you’re wrong, Jessie. She’s not just some woman. She’s Sonia Shum. I’m finally rid of her, or so I thought. Why would I actively seek out contact with her, if I don’t have to?’

  ‘Because it could be yours!’ Jessie said, exasperated with him. She knew he was still in shock, but she was finding it hard to make allowances for him.

  ‘So what?’ Jack replied, demonstrating more surly teenage-esque characteristics.

  ‘I don’t believe you’re that indifferent to your potential offspring for one second,’ Jessie snapped at him impatiently. ‘You need to speak to her. It’s the right thing to do.’ There was a finality about her words, as though that was the end of the conversation. She began to gather her phone, keys, and bag together.

  ‘I’ll do no such thing,’ Jack said defiantly.

  ‘Like I said, it’s the right thing to do,’ Jessie repeated, sounding highly moralistic.

  ‘Well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree,’ Jack replied, giving her a semi-smirk, like he’d just hit her with some kind of award-winning argument. ‘Where are you going?’ he then asked, looking suddenly panicked at the thought of being left alone.

  ‘I have to go and meet this real estate agent,’ Jessie said wearily. She’d told him several times already she had this appointment booked in the diary. He obviously hadn’t been listening to a word she’d said. Probably about anything. The bank had assigned her the serviced apartment for her first six weeks in Hong Kong, but she needed to find somewhere to rent sooner rather than later.

  ‘Okay, then I’ll come too,’ Jack said, sounding relieved at a task to do.

  ‘I’ll be fine on my own,’ Jessie replied. She didn’t really want him following her around in his present mood. She was none too impressed with Jack the teenager and needed some space to think.

  ‘Come on, Jessie. Be rational here. I want to have a say in where we live,’ Jack said, holding his hands out in a truce-like gesture.

  ‘Well, maybe we shouldn’t be living together,’ Jessie blurted out as she checked her watch and saw that she was late. Her emotions were all over the place. She felt calm and in control one second, and then insanely emotional and stressed the next. Her suggestion had escaped her lips before she’d even realised what it was she was saying. It’s not like she’d given the idea any serious contemplation. She’d merely vocalised a passing whisper of a thought, one that ordinarily wouldn’t have even lingered long enough to become a proper thought. But by saying those words, her passing whisper of a thought had manifested itself into a tangible idea, and ultimately something else to fight with Jack about.

  ‘Pardon me?’ Jack asked, stunned. She didn’t think it was possible, but he looked more surprised now than when he’d seen Sonia’s pregnancy picture.

  ‘You heard me,’ Jessie said, as her suggestion gained traction in her own mind. ‘Maybe we shouldn’t be living together. I mean, how well do we really know each other? We’ve been together for a couple of months. If anybody I knew told me they were moving in after only a few months, I’d tell them to slow down. I think we just sort of assumed it would happen without actually talking about it properly. It’s a big step, Jack. For both of us.’ She walked around Jack, towards the door.

  ‘Great. That’s just bloody great. So you don’t want to live with me now,’ Jack said angrily, just as she placed a hand on the door handle. ‘Because of this,’ he said, snatching the magazine from the floor, walking towards her, and brandishing it in her face. He looked angry. Really angry. Jessie had never seen him like that before. It was like he was about to breathe fire.

  ‘It’s not just that,’ Jessie said in a small voice, fighting to meet his eye.

  ‘What are you talking about?’ he said, fixing her with an ever-increasing angry look that had her pinned with her back to the door.

  ‘Well, we haven’t had much fun at home this past week, have we?’ Jessie pointed out with a weak smile. His physical presence wasn’t so much intimidating, it was just claustrophobic and made it hard for her to think properly. She half expected him to pounce on her and kiss their argument away. He did things like that from time to time, and part of her was longing for him to do that now, so she could get out of the silly mess she’d created for herself.

  ‘Need I remind you that I have been sick,’ Jack said, backing off half a pace. Jessie saw red and any daydream of him suddenly snogging her face off was superseded by her desire to punch him clean on the nose. The only reason she didn’t was because she didn’t want to hurt herself.

  ‘Of course you don’t need to remind me,’ she snapped back, with venom. ‘I’ve had enough daily evidence to have it fucking tattooed on my mind for all eternity,’ she shouted at him, forcing him to take another step back. He looked at her like she’d transformed into some kind of lunatic before his eyes.

  ‘Does this mean you want to see othe
r people too?’ Jack asked quietly, with grave seriousness. Unlike Jessie, he sounded totally calm, unemotional even. His question took Jessie completely by surprise. She hadn’t expected him to say that in a month of Sundays. It was tantamount to asking her if she thought they should split up.

  ‘No, of course not,’ she replied defiantly, raising her chin slightly. ‘Do you?’ She narrowed her eyes, a note of challenge in her voice.

  When he failed to respond, Jessie opened the door and slammed it as hard as she could behind her.

  Chapter 22

  ‘How the hell did that happen?’ Jack muttered to himself as he tossed the crumpled magazine onto the dining table. The rag was offensive to him. He didn’t want that kind of trash touching his skin. He slobbed out on the sofa and switched on the television for a bit of robotically aimless channel surfing.

  That morning he’d woken up, seriously hung over and hungry. He’d gone out to grab a quick bite to eat, and when he came home, he’d found his whole world had all but imploded. Sonia was apparently pregnant. And more worrying, there was a very high probability that he was the father and that his first offspring was on its way. His mother would not be impressed.

  Jack screwed up his face as he tried to recall when it could have happened. He was definitely with her when she’d conceived, but had be been with her? He couldn’t be sure one way or the other. Jack wouldn’t have put it past Sonia to have faked the whole thing, but there was something about that picture of her that had been thoroughly convincing. It was scary to think that he might become a father soon. He always thought he would be a dad at some point, but no way was he ready for a life commitment like that. And no way was he ready to become a father if Sonia Shum was the mother. He wanted nothing more to do with that woman, let alone raise a child with her.