“God damn it, Mallory!” He half-shouted, his fist tightening around the necklace. “Stop lying to me! I don’t know why you’re doing this, but I’m not leaving until you explain.” He was fuming, his nostrils flaring. Mallory wanted to cower in the wake of his rage.
Gulping down the lump in her throat, Mallory forced herself to repeat the lie. “I’m with someone else, Jake. I was just using you for-”
“If you were just using me, then why would you tell me? Why are you so upset about leaving me? It’s because you have feelings for me. I know you do.” His face turned anxious, pleading. “I know you do,” he murmured.
“No, Jake,” she gasped out. “I don’t. I don’t!” Her voice was high and panicky. There was only so much longer she could keep up this charade without breaking. Jake seemed to sense that he was gaining ground, and he pressed on relentlessly.
He held out the necklace, shaking it. “And what kind of gold-digger leaves one-hundred-thousand dollars in jewels behind?”
“Jake, I…” Mallory was at a loss for words. What could she say to that?
“Let me in, Mallory,” Jake growled. “Now.”
Reflexively obeying his domineering command, Mallory stepped back. Jake shoved his way through the small opening that she had made, pushing her aside so that he could enter. When he had, he slammed the door behind him and locked it, trapping her.
He advanced on her, his powerful aura seeming to intensify around him like a palpable thing. She backed away, raising her hands as though to defend herself. But he didn’t stop until her back was against the wall, his strong arms on either side of her, pinning her in. Just his proximity made her sex throb, despite her distress. God, how could she resist him?
His dark blue eyes bored into hers, merciless. “Why did you lie to me, Mallory? If you do not answer truthfully things will go very badly for you,” he threatened.
“I can’t tell you!” She cried, shaking her head vigorously. “I can’t.” Her voice broke on the last words. “Please, Jake…”
“What do you mean, you can’t?” He seized on her words, and she knew that he would cling to them tenaciously, never allowing her an out. “What happened, Mallory? Who has done this to you?”
Mallory’s mouth opened before she could stop herself; she couldn’t bear this any longer. “Celeste,” she whispered.
Jake’s brows drew down in a frown. “What about her?” He asked harshly.
“She…” Mallory hesitated. But now that she had started, there was no point in stopping; she had already betrayed both of them by even speaking the bitch’s name. “She’s blackmailing me, Jake.”
His expression turned livid. “What?!” He demanded furiously. “Explain. Now.” His tone was clipped as he made an obvious effort to reign in his anger. But his hands on either side of her had balled into fists.
“She has a tape of us, Jake. A… a sex tape.” She forced herself to continue as Jake’s face darkened even further, livid. “She said she would go public with it if I didn’t break up with you. And now she will anyway because I’ve told you.” Her voice turned to an anguished whisper. “I’m so sorry, Jake.” If she had had any tears left, she would have been sobbing. Now she had betrayed him twice.
She peeked up at him, but his hard eyes had turned soft, the lines of his face easing. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in for a tight hug. The feeling of his strong arms around her was undeniably comforting, and she breathed in his masculine scent with a small sigh of pleasure. It felt so right to be held by him. He stroked his hand up and down her back tenderly, soothing her.
“It’s alright, Mallory.” His voice was a deep rumble, the warmth of it enveloping her. “We can get through this. Celeste won’t get away with this; I’ll press charges.”
“But the tape,” Mallory insisted, pulling back from him. “She’ll release it as soon as she finds out that I’ve told you.”
Jake frowned. “But how will she know?”
“I have no idea, but she said she would. And I believe her, Jake. She had video footage of us together in your house. Who knows where else she might have eyes and ears.” She suddenly looked around herself, getting the creeping feeling that someone was watching her. Was she even safe in her own apartment?
Jake’s face turned thunderous. “If she has surveillance inside my house, then I’ll find out who put it there. It must have been one of the staff.” His expression suddenly cleared as a plan formed in his mind. “I’m going home, but you have to stay here. I’ll call the staff together and get answers, even if I have to take them to the police to be interrogated. That way they won’t know that we’re back together until I’ve already found them out.”
“But what if whoever it is manages to get in touch with Celeste? What if she finds out regardless?”
Jake took her by the hands. “Then she’ll still go to jail, Mallory. And I’ll stand by you, no matter what happens.”
“Jake,” she said softly. “I can’t let this happen to you. Please…”
He held a finger to her lips. “It’s too late for that Mallory.” His gaze turned intense. “And I would gladly sacrifice my reputation if that’s what it took to have you.”
Her lips parted and her heart skipped a beat.
That evening Mallory found herself sitting in the backseat of Jake’s Jaguar, his driver taking her to his plantation house. He had sounded cruelly satisfied over the phone when he told her that someone was coming to pick her up. Mallory tried to muster up some of her usual resentment for being fetched and brought to Jake, but she was coming to realize that she didn’t really mind it all that much. Her impatience with his high-handed ways seemed unfair when she thought of what Jake had said to her before leaving her apartment; if he was willing to sacrifice everything he had ever worked for in order to have her, then she sure as hell could forgive him for sending a fancy car to pick her up.