Love Reconnected (Hollywood Series Book 1)

by Michaels, Avery

  “No, of course not. I would never. I care about you, and I want to spend time with you and your son. I don’t care what they think. If I show them that, they might get their picture and go away.” He stood up and tried to pull me into some kind of photo-op embrace.

  “Sit down!” I whisper-shouted through gritted teeth.

  “Let’s stay here tonight.”

  “At the hotel? Why? I have a perfectly good bed at home that’s free.”

  “Because I don’t want these assholes camped out in your yard. There’s no way we can keep them from following us. We’ll stay here tonight and have the doubles Joan hired lead them away before we leave tomorrow so we can get back to your house without them following us.”

  I nodded in agreement because I didn’t want the press on my lawn either. Jake settled the bill and got a suite for the night. The room was almost as big as my house and was certainly nicer. Too extravagant.

  He went straight into the bathroom, leaving me to my thoughts. I took the opportunity to call and sing to Ty. I got a quick update from Julie on their day and flipped the phone closed, returning it to my clutch.

  Jake had said he cared about me and he didn’t care what they, the press, thought. What did that even mean? How many women had he been photographed with over the years? Countless, I reminded myself. It was just another “day in the life of a celebrity” for him.

  “Hey,” he said, breaking me from my reverie. “I’ve called your name 3 times. You okay?”

  “Ah, yeah.”

  “You aren’t a very good actress.”

  “I’m fine.” I directed a smile his way.

  “Your bubble bath awaits.”

  “What’s that?”

  “There’s a huge tub in the bathroom. I ran you a bath.” He produced a pencil, and I stared at him, confused. “For your hair.”

  “Oh, thanks.” I started toward the bathroom.

  “Can I join you?”

  Why was I doing this to myself? Why was I letting myself get even closer to him? He was leaving! He was going back to his own life and leaving me behind!

  “Sure.”

  He unzipped my dress, letting it fall to the floor. I removed my undergarments and climbed hastily into the tub, very aware of my imperfections.

  He wasn’t so bashful. He slipped his clothes off in front of me. Did he even know how gorgeous he was? His body was flawless. I didn’t think I would ever get over the sight of him. The olive tone of his skin, along with his dark hair, made his blue eyes seem to glow. I had never seen a man so handsome.

  He turned a knob, dimming the lights, and slid in the tub behind me so that my back was against his chest. We sat there in silence, and I allowed my body to relax against his. His fingertips traced up and down my arms, almost lulling me to sleep until I felt his lips on my shoulder, then behind my ear, on my neck; I was awake. In more ways than one, Jake had given me an awakening.

  He brought his hand up between my breasts to turn my face toward him. I resisted because my mind was still reeling from what happened downstairs and I didn’t know what we were doing anymore. We’d made love. Things had changed, yet he would still be leaving and going back to his life in Hollywood. He hadn’t denied it. No matter how much I had resolved to just enjoy him while he was here, I was having a hard time with that notion.

  He kept trying to kiss me, but I continued to pull my chin out of his grasp. My resistance didn’t discourage him in the slightest. He continued dropping kisses on my neck and shoulders as his hand traveled down between my legs. I arched my back when he slipped his finger inside me, and he moaned as if I were the one touching him.

  He was getting me worked up, but I couldn’t find release, so I got to my knees and slid him inside me. As I slid back down into a sitting position, his length filled me. From this angle, with him behind me, every inch felt like more than I could take. I had to sit there for a moment to let myself adjust. He took my hips and moved me up and down slowly, causing little ripples in the water to gently splash against the side of tub.

  Soon enough we were both moaning. The gentle ripples of water turned to sloshing waves as we moved together to find release. As soon as I found mine, he pulled me down hard once before lifting me off of him completely. I was surprised to feel his warmth on my back. He had come inside me twice, but he had pulled out this time.

  He must’ve read my expression because he said, “No need to tempt fate,” as he lowered me back down into the now lukewarm water. He was right. I had lost my mind. I had gotten completely caught up in him. I had been so irresponsible. Not only was I having unprotected sex with a man, who had admittedly had more partners than he could recall, I had let him come inside me twice.

  I grabbed a towel and headed for the bed.

  “Are you okay?” He followed me.

  “Stop asking if I’m okay. I’m not a china doll!” I spat the words like venom.

  “Sorry,” he said with that hurt look on his face. I rolled my eyes at myself in aggravation. As much as it seemed as though Jake could read my mind, he couldn’t. He was only trying to be there for me. He was trying to make sure I was all right. I shouldn’t have snapped at him. I wasn’t angry with him, after all. I was angry with myself.

  I patted the bed beside me and pulled him close as an apology for snapping at him. I held him to me until he fell asleep. Then I got up and paced. He was going to break my heart. I knew it, and I had no one to blame but myself.

  I had started this in Vegas, not him. He hadn’t wanted to. He’d shown restraint over and over, but I’d pushed him. Now that he’d kissed me in front of those photographers, he’d declared to the world that he had feelings for me that spanned beyond friendship.

  I had to ask myself what a declaration like that even meant in his world. I had seen him in the gossip magazines with dozens of women. I supposed he’d “cared” about all them to some degree at the time, yet here he was with me.

  The realization of all of this made me feel vulnerable. I didn’t like it.

  He’d been with all of those women. He’d been photographed with dozens, but he hadn’t made love to them. He’d admitted as much. I felt a small smile creeping up my face and wanted to smack myself.

  “Hold it together, Kate,” I whispered to myself, glancing down at the beautiful man who lay in the bed before me.

  He wanted to meet Ty. I shook my head at myself because, regardless of what choices we’d made this week, Jake and I had a deep-rooted friendship. If it were he that had a child, I would’ve wanted to meet him or her too.

  Of course Jake was welcomed to meet my son. It wouldn’t make a lasting impression on Ty regardless since it would just be the once. Ty only called three people by name: Julie, Ray and me. He didn’t even say his classmates’ or teachers’ names. He just called them “friends” collectively. He probably wouldn’t even acknowledge Jake’s existence.

  Besides, it wasn’t like Jake would be hanging around the house when Ty got home or anything. At that thought, I felt a pang in my belly, but I brushed it away. He hadn’t left yet. There was no reason to hurt…yet.

  It was decided. If Jake wanted to come with me to Huntsville, then I would bring him along. It wasn’t the big deal I had made it out to be in my mind.

  I grabbed a blanket from the bed and lay down on the sofa, not sure if I wanted to get any closer to Jake then I already had. If we were going to salvage our friendship, the sex stopped immediately. I couldn’t be just another girl in his string of flitting romances that graced the covers of magazines across the world. He meant too much to me to let him go altogether, and I couldn’t let him hurt me again, so that left me with only this choice.

  Chapter 10

  I awoke to nudging. “Babe, what are you doing on the sofa?”

  I opened my eyes, and Jake’s man business was right in my face. I slung my blanket at him, leaving myself exposed, then snatched it back. He just stared at me as I flung the fabric between us.

  “What is wrong with y
ou?”

  “Cover your junk!” I almost shouted.

  “You cover it. Come sit on it for a while, why don’t-cha?” He smiled, wagging his brows playfully.

  “I can’t. I mean I…”

  He sat down and pulled my blanket over both of us, taking on the mature look he had acquired since we’d been apart. “Talk to me.”

  “How can I say this? I don’t even know how to word what I’m thinking, how I’m feeling…”

  “I don’t like the sound of it already.” He rubbed his forehead. I took one of his hands in both of mine, but he pulled away. “Just say what you have to say.”

  “You want to meet Ty. You want us to be close again, right?”

  “Yeah, that’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

  “Then we have to stop this. I don’t think I can be close to you like this.”

  “What do you mean by this?”

  “I mean we can’t have sex and be friends. I wish we could. I thought we could. I’m sorry. I’m just not built that way.” I had to look away from his gaze. “We have to choose and I choose your friendship.”

  He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “So what does that mean? You don’t want to be with me?”

  “Be with you?” I blinked at him. “I didn’t know that was on the table.”

  “What if it were?” We stared at one another for a long moment. This wasn’t what we had discussed when we started this, but I knew a part of me craved it. A knock on the door broke the moment. Part of me wanted to cuss, the other part was grateful for the interruption.

  “Who is it?” Jake screamed, visibly annoyed.

  “Open the door, Jackson!”

  I recognized the voice. Joan, his assistant. He kissed my hand with a promise that the conversation was not over. He grabbed a sheet, wrapping it around himself and opened the door. Joan breezed in with a stack of magazines. She tossed them on the coffee table in front of me.

  “What were you thinking?” she scolded him. “First Vegas, now this? It’s one thing for you to drag floozy skanks around Hollywood, but your self-proclaimed ‘best friend’ in your hometown? This is a media circus!”

  Various covers with pictures of us were splayed out in front of me, but one stood out. It was a photo of Jake and me kissing in the restaurant from the night before. Above our picture, there was a small round photo of a boy from a distance. Ty.

  The caption read, “Does Jackson Jacobs have a son?” I was horrified.

  I picked it up and threw it across the room. “You said they couldn’t bring him into this!”

  “It’s all a matter of angles, dear,” Joan said calmly. “The photo is blurred. It could be anyone. However, the caption is the issue at hand.”

  “He’s not my son, Joan. You know that.”

  “I know that, but they don’t. How far are you willing to go to prove it? Press conference?”

  “Absolutely,”

  “DNA testing?”

  “If that’s what it takes.”

  “What the…?” I glanced back and forth between them.

  Jake looked at me then back at Joan, “Who wrote this trash anyway? It was Mick Lennox, wasn’t it? He always goes just one step too far!”

  “Ah, the better question is: What do they really want to know? Who is the child’s father?”

  “Get out,” I said to her. She regarded me with a raised eyebrow. “Get out of here!”

  “A little touchy for someone who doesn’t have anything to hide.”

  I started toward her, but Jake grabbed me. Joan’s lip twitched up on one side as she slid on her sunglasses. “I’ll be in touch.” Then she was gone.

  I grabbed my dress from the floor and slammed the bathroom door behind me. Jake was babbling, but I wasn’t listening. When I was half-ass dressed, I slung the door open, grabbed my clutch, and walked out, carrying my shoes. Jake chased me down the hall, tripping over the bed sheet he was holding around his waist. I pressed the button for the elevator and waited, unintentionally giving him a chance to catch up.

  “Katie, I’m sorry! Stop! Will you stop?”

  “DNA testing to prove that Ty’s not yours. Really? Prove to who? I thought you didn’t care what they thought?”

  “I don’t!”

  “Then why would you say that? You’ve lost your mind if you think I’m subjecting my son to a DNA test just to appease the media.”

  “I wouldn’t ask you to do that. Joan was just talking. She wasn’t serious. That’s how we brainstorm. I didn’t think you would take that seriously. That would be ridiculous.”

  “This whole thing is ridiculous! Look at yourself! You’re wearing a bedsheet! Go back in the room before the other guests come out and take your picture.”

  “Katie, please. I know I keep screwing up, but I’m trying. You see that, right? I’m trying!”

  I closed my eyes for a moment. Did I really want to leave? Yes. Did I really want Jake out of my life again? No.

  I turned and hugged him, trying to be reasonable. “I just need a little space from this, okay? I’m going home. You’ll come with me tomorrow if you can get away, all right?”

  He let go of the sheet to wrap both arms around me and nodded into my shoulder. When the elevator came, I got on and looked at the floor to avoid his gaze.

  I was completely unprepared for the scene that awaited me when the elevator doors opened in the lobby. Flashes nearly blind me, and hotel security did nothing. This wasn’t Las Vegas. This hotel wasn’t equipped for this.

  I tried to push through, but they pushed back, firing question after question until I couldn’t even understand what they were saying.

  Joan stepped through them easily, commanding the crowd with grace. “If I can have your attention, please,” she managed without even raising her voice. Even I was captivated by her. She inclined her head to me in the slightest, and I tried to make a run for it, but the photographers must’ve known that signal, too, because they blocked my path again.

  Joan tried again. “There will be no statement on the status of Mr. Jacobs and Ms. Masters’ relationship at this time. I’m asking you to please respect their privacy. This is Mr. Jacobs’ hometown and…”

  They’d lost interest in her completely, and I was bombarded.

  “Kate, how does it feel to do the walk of shame in front of the entire world?”

  “Kate, is Jackson the father of your child?”

  “Kate, Kate, Kate.”

  I turned to run back to the elevator and ran smack into Jake’s bare chest. He embraced me, cradling my head. He was wearing his slacks from the night before and nothing else.

  Joan came unglued for the first time since I met her. She began shouting over the crowd, but Jake and I were in our own bubble. “You’re okay. I’ve got you,” he whispered. I nodded. He ran his fingertips through my hair softly. “Come on. Let’s get you home.” He pulled me under his arm and began walking through the crowd of photographers. I just kept my head down, trying to block out their accusations.

  One man repeated the “walk of shame” remark again, and Jake turned to him. “It’s you who should be ashamed. All of you!”

  “Jackson!” Joan yelped. She knew his sudden affliction toward the media could turn the public against him, which wouldn’t be good for his image with awards season just around the corner. Even I knew that.

  The crowds parted for him. Jake walked us out until we are in the revolving door. When we were inside, he stopped the door with his bare foot. He pulled my face up to look at him and kissed my forehead. “I’m sorry.”

  “No, Jake, I’m sorry. I don’t want to mess things up for you.”

  “You could never mess things up. You make everything better, everything.” The flashes were still going off, but they couldn’t hear us, and thankfully, we couldn’t hear them. Jake took the keys from my clutch and placed them in my hand. “Go home, get some rest. I’ll take care of this and see you later.” I nodded before he released the door.

  The paparazzi
that were waiting outside, in attempts to follow me, became distracted when Jake promised a statement. I didn’t know what he would say; I was just grateful to make a clean getaway. I was so distraught by their questions that my hands shook all the way home. When I got there, I ran inside, locked every door between myself and the outside world then crawled in bed.

  The phone that Jake bought me went off several times, but I didn’t check it. Instead, I turned the television on the celebrity network, just in time to catch a recap of Jake’s interview.

  “Jackson Jacobs was in rare form this morning at a hotel in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, where his long-time friend, Kate Masters, joined him last night for an evening of wining and dining, and we can only speculate what else.

  “As you know, we’ve been on Jatherine watch since the pair jetted off for a weekend in Las Vegas a few days ago.”

  “Jatherine, seriously? You couldn’t think of anything better than Jatherine?” I told the blonde lady on the screen. My name wasn’t even Katherine; it was just Katie. Idiots.

  “Jackson has always been tight-lipped when it comes to his love life, but in a shocking turn of events, he ran to his maiden’s rescue wearing nothing but a pair of slacks this morning when she was bombarded by the media as she attempted to leave their hotel.

  “Shortly after he cursed and chastised the photographers, Jackson gave this statement: ‘Katie and I care very deeply for each other. We have been friends since we were children. She is one of the most important people in the world to me.’

  “As Celebrity News reported yesterday, Kate has a young son. With speculation swirling in the entertainment world, and no comment from the pair, we have to wonder… If Jackson and Kate have been friends for as long as they claim, is Jackson the boy’s father? When asked directly by reporters, Kate refused comment.

  “Jackson was reportedly overheard telling his publicist that he’s excited to get to know the boy. Is Jackson Jacobs a dad? Only time will tell.”

  They replayed footage of Jake holding me in the lobby.

  “We do know that we’ve never seen this side of Mr. Jacobs, but we think we like it.”