What He Bargains (What He Wants, Book Nineteen) (17 page)

“Oh? What am I acting like?” she said, taunting him.

“Like you’re my damn…” his voice trailed off.

Her phone was buzzing again.

“I should answer that,” she whispered. “It might be important.”

“I don’t think so,” he replied, and grabbed the strap of her purse, pulling it off her shoulder and tossing her purse off to the side.

“Hey,” she cried out. “What are you doing?”

“What I should’ve done from the second I met you.” He grabbed one of the shirts from a hanger nearby. “Turn around and face the door,” he growled.

“I’m not—“

“I said, turn around.” The look in his eyes was so fierce and commanding that Raven immediately did as he said, as if she had no choice in the matter at all. As she stood facing the wall, she realized that rather than feeling afraid or angry with him for what he was doing—she was actually feeling excited.

You want this!
She thought, shocked by her own desire.
You actually want him to control you like a puppet, tell you what to do. What is wrong with you, Raven?

I don’t know.

And she didn’t know, not exactly. She just felt a strange relief that Jake still wanted her—he was here right now with her instead of being out there with Courtney Taylor or any one of the hundreds of groupies at his disposal.

He hadn’t fired her the way Courtney had said he would.

The thought that he’d chosen her above all else gave her a chill up her spine.

Jake grabbed her wrists and pulled them together behind her back, and then she felt him tying the shirt around them. Her elbows were bent so that her hands rested in the small of her back, and her wrists were now bound tightly by Jake’s shirt.

Her stomach and breasts were pressing against the door, her head to the side, cheek flat against the cool door as well.

“You think you can just come into my life and start screwing with me?” Jake asked her.

“No, I—“

Her response was interrupted by a stinging slap delivered to her right butt cheek. She inhaled sharply as the sting reverberated throughout her lower body. It seemed to trigger a cascade of heat down through Raven’s privates, and she closed her eyes and swallowed.

“Answer,” Jake said.

“I don’t think I can screw with your life.”

“But you are screwing with it,” he said. “I told you that you’re only to be my escort, I told you that you’d be paid quite well for doing nothing but staying with me and waiting until I need you. But you went and got yourself a little job, took a little piece of my life for yourself, didn’t you?”

“Because I—“

Another smack on her butt—this time the left side. She licked her lips and restrained a moan. Her pussy was starting to get wet, and she was ashamed of it. Somehow he was turning her on, and she didn’t understand how. Why did she like this? Why did she feel like she actually wanted it?

“Say you like fucking with my life,” he commanded.

“But it’s not true.”

Another spank, a little harder this time. “Say it, Raven.”

She wanted to smile, but didn’t. “No, I won’t say it.”

He slapped her buttocks again, and she felt a twinge of pleasure immediately in her nether regions, as if now there was a direct line between his hand coming into contact with her ass, and the way her pussy responded.

“Tell me you like fucking with my life. Say it.”

“No.”

He slapped again. And again. And again. He went from one side, back to the other, the slaps getting louder.

She was sweating now, perspiration beading on her forehead. Each time his hand met with her buttocks, she grunted a little and moaned a little at the same time. Soon it was rhythmic, like he was fucking her.

“Oh, shit,” she muttered, as she felt his hips suddenly thrust against her backside, felt his hardness through the thin material of her dress. His cock up against her, so hard, forcing its way between her butt cheeks momentarily. His lips pressed against her ear, his chest pushing into her back, hands on her hips.

“You like driving me insane, don’t you?” he challenged in her ear.

She was breathing heavily, and now the orgasm was very close as his cock stimulated her pussy from behind. They were both clothed, and yet he had this effect on her—as if he was deep inside her already.

“I don’t…I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she breathed out heavily, lying.

“Bullshit.” He pulled away from her and then his hand crashed into her buttocks, first slapping one cheek and then the other. “You. Fucking. Know. Exactly. What. You’re. Doing.” Slap. Slap. Slap. Slap.

And then she was coming, and it felt so good, so good that she couldn’t control how loud she was being, and she cried out, cried out as the shudder rippled through her body and Jake pressed against her again from behind, his bulging hardness pushing between her stinging butt cheeks once again.

He grabbed her by her hips and rammed against her.

“You goddamn drive me crazy,” he whispered. And then he was just standing close to her, completely glued to her, his lips on her ear, his breath hot against her cheek. “You know that you do it me,” he said.

“Jake,” she said, her eyes closed. “Jake.”

“Fuck,” he whispered wearily. And then he backed away, untying her wrists. The shirt that had bound them together fell to the floor at her feet. When she’d been released, she turned to look at him.

He was flushed. His bare chest was covered in a sheen of sweat. He looked at her, his eyes enigmatic, giving nothing away.

Neither of them said anything, but Raven felt like something needed to be said. She waited for him to tell her what it was all about, why he kept saying she was driving him crazy.

What exactly did he mean?

But then her phone was buzzing again, loud in her purse. The buzz was making the silence between them all the more obvious as her phone vibrated over and over again.

“I think you might want to answer that,” Jake said, running a hand through his damp hair.

She pressed her lips tightly together, opened her purse and checked inside. It said Skylar was calling. After it stopped buzzing, a text popped up.

It was from Skylar and it said.

Are you around? I need to talk to u. IMPORTANT
.

“I should call my friend back,” Raven said.

Jake turned away from her, she couldn’t tell if he really cared or not. “Sure. You take that call, Raven.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just—“

“Go do what you need to do, Raven.” He went to a row of clothes that were hanging nearby and grabbed a t-shirt from a hanger. He glanced at her and she could see the raw need in his eyes.

As she left the room to talk to Skylar, it occurred to Raven that there was much more to Jake Novak than she’d ever considered. His eyes told her that much, even if he refused to explain what any of it meant.

She left his dressing room, wishing that she could have stayed and found out what would have happened next.

But that had to wait. If Skylar needed her, Raven had to be there. She picked her cell phone out of her purse and called her friend back.

When Skylar picked up, she was crying. Raven could hear her sniffles plain as day.

“Hey, Sky. What’s going on? Are you okay?”

“I…I don’t think so.”

“Tell me what happened,” Raven said, her heart beating faster.

“I’m bleeding,” Skylar said.

“What? What do you mean? Where are you bleeding from?”

“My vagina.”

Raven closed her eyes. “You mean, like—you got your period early or something?”

“This isn’t my period. I just had my period, Raven.” Skylar started to choke up again. “Something’s wrong. I know it.”

“Well, don’t jump to conclusions,” Raven told her. “It could be anything.”

“I think it’s something bad, Raven.” Skylar’s voice was almost hysterical.

“I’ll come right now and get you. I’ll go to the emergency room with you.”

“No, it’s okay, I’m already on my way,” Skylar told her. “I can go by myself.”

“Are you sure?”

Skylar took a deep shaky breath and let it out. “I feel better hearing your voice, Raven. I think…I think I’m going to be okay.”

Raven wasn’t sure. She bit her lower lip. “Tell me what the doctor says. Call me or text me as soon as you get out of the appointment.”

“Okay, I will.”

And then they got off the phone.

Raven stood there, stunned a little by what had just happened. Skylar was in trouble, she sounded frightened. It didn’t seem like it was just some little thing that was going to turn out to be a false alarm.

In fact, as Raven stood outside Jake’s dressing room, a horrible feeling welled up inside of her.

Skylar’s going to need you and that’s way more important than whatever this thing is that you’re doing with Jake Novak.

She couldn’t just stand around partying at the concert when her best friend was going through something like this. It wasn’t right, and Raven didn’t care if Jake got angry and fired her or threatened her with a million different punishments.

Knocking on his dressing room door, Raven felt a determination she hadn’t felt in some time.

“Who is it?” Jake called out.

“It’s Raven.”

“What do you want?”

“I just wanted to let you know that I need to leave.”

Suddenly, the door was thrown wide open and Jake was standing there, eyes blazing. “You’re not leaving,” he said.

“Jake, I have to go.”

“You don’t have to do anything unless I say you do.”

“Well, maybe that’s what you think, but life begs to differ.” She decided it wasn’t even worth trying to tell him what had happened. Jake Novak would never understand the importance of anything that didn’t involve him.

Raven turned and started to walk away.

Then she heard Jake coming after her, and she turned to look at him, and in that moment, she had no fear of him. Skylar was what mattered right now, not anything else.

“You better tell me what’s going on,” Jake said. His jaw twitched.

She sighed. “My friend needs me.”

“What friend?”

Raven rolled her eyes. “It doesn’t matter. I need to go.”

“Tell me, Raven.” His voice lowered, and this time when she looked at him, she saw something that did surprise her. Jake looked a little…almost…concerned.

“My friend might be sick,” Raven told him. “She’s going to the hospital and I need to be with her.”

“Sick how?” Jake asked. There was no anger in his voice or his expression.

Raven sighed. “She’s bleeding. She has some kind internal bleeding and it might be nothing but I have a feeling…I have a really bad feeling about it.” And now she had to struggle to control her own voice and keep from crying.

“Of course you should go,” he said, nodding.

“Thank you for saying that.”

“And I’m going too,” Jake told her.

“But—“

“Come on, if it’s that important, we need to get there right away. I can help you do that.” He grabbed her by the hand and started walking faster and faster.

Raven was shocked by the change in Jake’s demeanor. Instead of trying to threaten her for leaving him, he was actually helping her.

Jake Novak was helping her and it had nothing to do with him. She couldn’t quite wrap her mind around it, but she was slowly becoming grateful that he was doing it.

The craziness around the arena would typically have created all kinds of problems, due to the traffic and congestion from the people steadily flooding the streets and the public transportation.

But Jake Novak made sure that wasn’t an issue, as he informed Kurt that there was an emergency and they needed to brought to the hospital as quickly as possible.

Soon they were hustled into a sedan and escorted by two police cars with flashing lights, clearing a path in front of them as they drove at high speeds.

Raven texted Skylar and let her know that she was on her way, and Skylar replied that it wasn’t necessary, but as Raven insisted, soon Skylar admitted that she wanted her there.

Once they got on the highway, the traffic broke up and they were simply driving fast, and there was a quiet as they finally settled back and Raven put her phone away.

She looked over at Jake, who was staring out the window, his expression thoughtful.

“Thank you,” she said, breaking the silence.

Jake turned and looked at her. “How’s your friend doing?”

“She’s just waiting right now. She says the emergency room’s busy.”

He shook his head. “We’ll take care of it.”

“Jake, you don’t have to do this,” Raven told him.

“Do what?”

“You don’t have to come with me and get police escorts…” but then Raven realized she didn’t want to discourage Jake from helping out.

The truth was, his presence was helping to keep her calm.

“Listen, if you’re worried about her then so am I,” Jake said, gazing evenly at her. “And if I’m worried about someone, I damn well pull strings wherever I can.”

“You’re right,” Raven said. “I’m glad you’re here.”

He smiled at her, but she could see that there was strain in his eyes, and then he went back to staring out his window.

E
ventually they arrived
at the hospital and were dropped off right out in front of the Emergency Room entrance. Jake led the way inside, where people who noticed him went wide eyed, like they were seeing a ghost.

Raven found Skylar sitting alone in the corner of the waiting room, reading a magazine, her face pale and harried.

“Hey, Sky,” Raven said, and Skylar looked up and saw her.

Skylar’s face transformed as a look of relief passed over her features. “Thank God you came,” she said, and then her expression crumpled. Quickly followed by tears.

Raven went and hugged her, and held her tightly. “Shhh….it’s okay. It’s okay, Sky. I promise.” She rocked Skylar gently and whispered encouragement in her friend’s ear.

Skylar sniffled and laid her cheek on Raven’s shoulder, and Raven stroked her hair, soothing her.

“Ummm…Raven?” Skylar said.

“Yeah?”