Sweet Talk Boxed Set (Ten NEW Contemporary Romances by Bestselling Authors to Benefit Diabetes Research plus BONUS Novel) (20 page)

Heck, even her father had called with a message congratulating her—apparently, she’d made him look good on the Utah evening news for a change. 

But never in a million years would she have expected to hear from her
sister and mother
as well.  Never had the women ever expressed anything above curious, borderline sympathetic, dismissal of her interest in football.  So getting congratulatory texts from both women on Monday morning while she was just getting settled at her desk had been surreal.

When her sister proceeded to follow-up her exclamation-filled text with squeals of congrats, Leila finally began wondering if she’d wandered into a parallel dream world somehow.

“Ohmigosh, Leila!  I just saw the video!  Are you just cartwheeling with happiness right now?  I’m so excited for you.”

Yep, definitely an alternate universe. 

Leila looked at her reflection on her desktop screen to see if she looked different in this crazy new planet.  Glancing around at the dream aliens around her—who looked exactly like her co-workers—Leila replied with the truth for this rather delightful doppelganger of her sister, “Of course I’m excited.  Over the moon, actually.”

“I knew it!  All these years, you were playing the long game.  Go you.  I didn’t understand your strategy at first, but now I see you’re a secret relationship ninja.”  Another giddy squeal.  “OMG, do you think you guys are going to have a June wedding?”

Wait,
what?!

Momentarily so lost that she had to put a pin in the flashing image of Jackson that the word ‘wedding’ had inspired in her mind.  “Stacey, what the heck are you talking about?”

Her sister just continued bubbling over like a fountain about what color matron of honor dress she wanted to wear and what the theme of the wedding would be.

“Stacey!” she near-shouted.  And then hushed back down when her co-workers—
not
alternate universe aliens—all turned her way.  “Stacey,” she began again, “what video are you talking about, because I’m fairly certain we’re talking about two different things.”

Leila could almost hear the big sister frown she’d spent a lifetime pretending didn’t hurt.  “Why, Grant’s video where he gushed about you, of course.  He basically said he was going to propose to you this weekend.”

Grant. 

As in the ex who’d cheated on her with something akin to a harem of women.  As in the ex who she’d
finally
thought she’d gotten rid of after more than three years.  As in the ex who had been her main impetus for leaving Utah in the first place. 

That
ex?

And her sister was
congratulating
her for ninja-snagging that prized asshole? 

Somehow managing to quell her anger and not-all-that-surprising disappointment in her sister, Leila muttered a half-cocked excuse about needing to get back to work before quickly disconnecting the call. 

Barely keeping the string of expletives on her tongue at bay, Leila booted up her desktop computer and yanked the keyboard forward, angrily clacking out Grant’s name and hers—even the act of typing the two names together burning her fingers something fierce.  She scrolled through the Google results of old pages they’d made news headlines with in the past, down half a page to a YouTube video with yesterday’s date.

Seeing the annoying, egotistical uploader name she recognized well—
NextUSPrez
—she rolled her eyes and then clicked play on the ‘crowd video’ of a political rally in Utah.  Right, sure.  Grant had been posting videos from ‘his fans’—aka his campaign manager—for years.  Honestly, the fact that it took three years of dating and his cheating on her for her to figure out what a weasely little scumbag he was filled her with no small amount of embarrassment.

The video started up and the object of her embarrassment was front and center chuckling at some question he’d just gotten through answering.  When one of the not-very-many press folks asked him about his ex-girlfriend Leila’s sudden rise to fame as a sports reporter, he turned doting eyes at the camera.

Ugh, really?

“Yep,” he replied chipperly, “I’ve seen the interviews she did, and I’ve heard all the praise that has been coming from our very own Utah Miners fans.”  A cheer rang out from the crowd.  She wouldn’t put it past him for laying a soundbite of exaggerated crowd cheers as another layer to this whole circus act.  “I am so amazingly proud of her.  You all know I’ve always been her biggest fan.”

At this rate, her eyes would roll right out of her head.

“We’ve both been working hard chasing our dreams the past few years—she was finishing up her MBA while I’ve been pounding the political pavement here.”

Pain her though it did to admit it, aside from these embellished press video charades, Grant really was a fairly popular up-and-coming politician.  At twenty-seven, he was already being groomed for a long career in politics, with rumors of him becoming one of Utah’s youngest senators on record no later than ten years from now.

Not that she was following his career.  She absolutely wasn’t. 

The same couldn’t be said for her dear father, however.

For three years, her father had been tireless in his efforts to convince her to ‘come to her senses’ and come home to marry Grant.  Keep the political blood lines running strong in the family.  Funnily enough, Congressman Hart had never once thought that either of his daughters would be the ones keeping those political blood lines going.  Nope, he’d always hoped for a politician son-in-law. 

When Stacey’s husband had turned out to be a dud where voters were concerned, Leila’s father had set his sights on Grant, turning a blind eye to all that Grant had done to betray Leila’s trust.  The cheating, lying, getting recorded saying drunken, hurtful things about her to whatever blackmailing slut he’d been trying to bang that weekend.  

Her father’s response to it all was a condescending, “Leila, you’re making too big a deal out of this.  It’s not cheating when you two are simply dating in college.  Grant was just sowing his wild oats quickly so he could be ready to settle down with you, sweetie.  Can you blame him for having found the love of his life so early in life?  He was simply trying to get it all out of his system before you two marry.  So he could be faithful to you for the rest of your life.”

There were simply no words.

After trying to pitch that insulting load of crap on her, Leila wasn’t at all surprised to see the congressman in question standing off to the side looking proudly at Grant as the dolt continued with his verbal sewage, “Leila and I have remained close the past few years.  I really wanted her to focus on her studies, and now her career.”

Ha!

There was a chance that exclamation had left the silence of her brain and had exploded past her lips, but she was too far sunken into the shock and disgust over this farce Grant was concocting for the press.  After doing a politician chuckle that sounded identical to her father’s, Grant gave another doting look to the camera.  “But it’s been getting harder for us to be apart.  Leila’s flying home this weekend, and I have a few more surprises up my sleeve to spoil her while she’s back by my side.”  A short chuckle was followed-up by a look of sickeningly-sweet adoration.  “Yes, you all caught me, I said ‘more’ just now.  I’ve already sent her a surprise out in Arizona to show her how overwhelmingly proud I am of this milestone in her career, and how much I want to continue to share and support her amazing achievements.  Her amazingness, period.”

“
Awww,
” gushed a voice from behind Leila’s chair. 

Leila almost jumped ten feet into the air, before scrabbling to shut off the offensive video.

“Leila, that is so sweet, so your mysterious boyfriend is a politician?  You’re such a lucky girl to have a great guy like that.”

Her entire body convulsed in an epic shudder of revulsion.

Which everyone mistook for shivers of happiness, of course.  Looking around, she saw at least a half-dozen folks smiling at her, and two more women with their hands to their chest nodding dreamily.

Fan-freaking-tastic.

While setting them straight was undoubtedly a top priority, at the moment, Leila wasn’t thinking about any of them.  She scanned the room to find the one person she
was
thinking about.

It took her only a second to find the set of quietly intense hazel eyes she’d been seeing with increasing frequency whenever she closed her own eyes at night. 

Right now, those eyes were hooded, closed-off and expressionless for the first time since they’d met.  She quickly stood to head over to his office and clear everything up.  But her path was blocked by a ginormous bouquet of several dozen lavender roses. 

Her favorite.

Or at least that’s what Grant had kept
telling
her the entire time they’d dated.

Truth be told, flowers weren’t really her thing.  Never had been.  And the fact that Grant had used a bouquet very similar to this one to apologize for his cheating and all the humiliating comments he’d made behind her back just sealed the casket shut on her ever changing her mind about jumping on the floral band wagon.

Leaving the delivery boy standing there in utter shock, she simply shook her head at him to decline the delivery and bee-lined it over to Jackson’s office.

***

A tidal wave of jealousy was crashing over Jackson as he shut himself in his office.

That goddamn political asshat had gone on camera and hinted at proposing to Leila this weekend.

The fact that Leila had looked mad enough to spit nails over the video had only managed to calm Jackson down a fraction.  He felt unhinged.  The very idea of Leila marrying someone else was…unbearable. 

“He’s my ex,” came a quiet voice from behind him.

Jackson spun around in surprise.  He hadn’t even heard the door open.

“The video,” explained Leila.  “That guy is my ex.  As in past tense—thankfully and non-negotiably in my past.”

On some basic level, he’d of course figured that out.  But it didn’t matter; his brain, his entire damn body had
needed
to hear her say those words.  “So you’re not going home to Utah this weekend?”

“I am.  But it’s for my sister’s birthday party.  I leave Friday night and come back Sunday night.”

He kept his voice modulated as he asked the question burning his gut, “Will this ex of yours be there?”

She sighed with what sounded like undiluted disgust.  “He’s a family friend so I’m sure he will be.”

Another rush of jealousy clobbered him as he continued roughly, quoting the video, “Where he plans on ‘spoiling’ you.” 

Even the sentence sent every cell in his body into a violent rage, his entire being physically rebelling at the notion of another man spoiling Leila.

“I’m not Grant’s to spoil.”

Damn straight. 

You’re mine to spoil.

It was the farthest thing from a warranted demand, or even a rational thought.  But it felt so mind-wreckingly right that it took all his control
not
to demand she think and demand the same thing, too. 

Knowing he’d never be able to hold back the words—not without her looking up at him with all those silent questions in her eyes that he was certain she didn’t even realize she was asking—he walked over to his desk drawer and pulled out a gift he’d gotten for Leila.

Wordlessly, he held it out to her.

…And felt the whole damn world tilt on its axis when she gifted him with the most expressively delighted smile he’d ever seen grace her lips. 

“You got me a cigar?”  A laugh that sounded born of pure wonder and joy tinkled out of her at the end of that question. 

And just like that, all the jealousy boiling in his marrow faded away. 

All that existed was her smile.  Her laugh.

Her.

“You mentioned you’d enjoyed a few puffs at your buddies’ poker games in the past, but had never had the chance to light one up on your own…so I got you one.”  A small smile escaped him.  “I figured you could light it up at your fantasy football draft this summer and remember this past weekend—how hard you kicked ass at the NFL Draft.”

The smile disappeared.  As did the laughter. 

And in its place was a rainbow of emotions in colors he’d never seen before.  “Jackson, it’s…perfect.  It’s the most perfect gift anyone has ever given me.”

Though the sentence sounded like fodder, especially following the huge rose bouquet that had arrived at her desk not ten minutes ago, her tone of reverence defended the truth behind her words, said in a whisper that sounded like a shared secret for his ears only. 

And the way she was looking at him right now...hell, that one look filled him with a fierce desire to give her a lifetime of perfect gifts.  For every single day of her future, and every single day of her past where she should’ve been cherished in that way.

She rushed forward before he could make her promises he couldn’t keep.  Hugging him quickly, she murmured softly, “You’re amazing, Jackson.”

“The feeling’s mutual, sunshine.”  He brushed a kiss to her forehead.  “Have a good time with your family this weekend.”

An incredulous laugh shot out of her.  “I doubt that’ll be possible, but I’ll try.”

With a stuttered breath, she just stood there a bit, her shoulders lifted as if she were trying to find the exact way to phrase her next thought. 

He waited until she could find the words. 

“It’s going to be…weird.  To be there.  And not here, I mean.”  She chuckled and squeezed her eyes shut for a beat, the redundant clarification.

But for him, he got it.  “I’m going to miss not having you around for a change.” 

It was true.  They’d been working six days a week, sometimes seven, for weeks now.  She’d become a regular fixture in his life.

“I figured you’d be happy not to have to babysit me for a change.”  Her voice dropped.  As did her gaze.  With an inquisitive peek out from under her lashes, she asked casually, “Do you have any big plans for this weekend?  A hot date?”

He pinned her to the spot with a silent response meant to answer her question unequivocally.