What He Bargains (What He Wants, Book Nineteen) (54 page)

Jake turned away from her for a moment and she watched as his broad back expanded and then contracted as he stood there, breathing and thinking. Finally, he turned around and faced her. “I need to take a walk,” he said. “I can’t do this right now.”

“Please, don’t go—“

“Leave me alone for one damn minute,” he said, and then he quickly left, giving her a wide berth as he exited the cabin.

She stood in the doorway and watched him walk off into the woods. Her stomach roiled as she took out her cell phone and saw that it had no service. How would she contact anyone if something happened?

What if she wanted to leave? They had no car, no form of transportation or communication with the outside world. They were miles away from any help. Jake could fall and break his leg walking in the woods and she’d never even know where he was or have the ability to call for an ambulance.

Not to mention, on the off chance that one of their enemies somehow figured out where they were hiding. They’d be sitting ducks, alone in the wilderness with no ability to flee or call for help.

Then the tears came. Jake had somehow gotten her to trust him completely, to put herself in his hands without even having the faintest idea what he intended to do to get them out of this mess.

So far, from appearances, it seemed that he wanted to hide from the world in this remote cabin and polish his gun collection all day.

It was no way to live and it wasn’t going to solve anything.

Jake had a tour to promote his new album that he needed to finish, and his reputation was at stake. Not to mention the financial toll of cancelling such a big tour after everything else that had gone wrong recently.

On top of that, Raven had her own responsibilities. She hadn’t been in touch with Skylar, and her friend needed her support. Skylar was sick and scared and now Raven had just disappeared on her without a word about where she’d gone.

As Raven waited for Jake to return, the sky darkened and then it began to rain. The rain was heavy and without mercy, and she heard it spattering rhythmically on the rooftop and windows.

If Jake had been there with her, it would’ve been romantic. They could have cuddled up together, kept one another warm.

Instead, she was shivering and alone and frightened.

The minutes ticked by as the rain continued to pour down from an angry sky. Hours later, he still hadn’t come back.

B
y the time
Jake came back to the cabin, Raven had nearly given up hope. Her heart filled with relief when he came through the door, soaked from head to toe. He’d gone out shirtless and his upper body dripped with the rain. His pants were completely waterlogged, and Jake pulled off his shoes and then his pants immediately after getting inside.

Raven ran over to him. “Are you okay?” she said, wanting to hug him and yell at him all at once.

Jake didn’t even look at her. “I need a drink,” he said, as he stepped out of his pants. He was in his boxers, which were also completely wet and clinging to his legs and hips.

“Jake, you can’t just leave me like that. I was scared. My cell phone doesn’t work—“

“I said, I need a drink.” He strode into the kitchen and rummaged for a moment before coming up with a bottle of vodka.

“Do you really think that’s such a good idea?” Raven said.

Jake looked at her and his eyes were darker than the skies outside. “I think it’s a fucking fantastic idea, actually.” He spun the cap off the bottle and it fell to the ground and rolled under the sink. Then Jake tipped the bottle to his lips and took a long drink, closing his eyes as he did so.

Raven couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “So now you’re just going to get drunk? Is this why we came all the way out to the middle of nowhere?”

“Maybe,” he replied, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He rested his hips against the countertop and waited, the bottle casually propped up on his leg. “Maybe that’s what the doctor ordered. I’ll knock myself out and wake up tomorrow and the world will look different.”

She glared at him. “And maybe I’ll look different, too. Isn’t that what you forgot to say?”

Jake’s lip curled. “Everything’s not always about you, Raven.”

“That’s because it’s always about you, Jake.”

He smiled. “Now you’re getting it.”

“I just wish I hadn’t gotten it now, when I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere with you.”

His smile disappeared. “It’s so horrible, isn’t it? Being stuck with such an awful guy like me. I feel bad for you. I don’t know how you stand it.”

“Why are you acting like this, Jake?” she said. “One second you promise to protect me and the next you act like I’m some monster trying to destroy you.”

He shook his head and took another swig of vodka. “Don’t try and figure me out. There’s nothing to solve. I’m not going to suddenly open up and make sense of the world for you. So just stop trying already.”

Raven stared at him for what felt like an eternity. She became more and more aware of the fact that Jake simply wasn’t going to really ever respect her. He’d told her over and over again that he couldn’t meet her needs, but she’d kept hope alive. She’d let him lead her on, believing the little comments he’d made about caring for her and protecting her.

But apparently, what Jake thought of as protecting her didn’t have anything to do with respecting her as a person. She was just a piece of property, another toy, another thing that he owned and refused to give up.

That kind of protection, she didn’t want or need.

“You know what?” she said.

“What?” Jake asked, his voice sounding bored. He readied the vodka bottle for another swallow.

“I’m so done with this.” She glanced outside and saw that the rain was letting up. Good. She would’ve gone either way, but it was better not to have to walk in a downpour.

Raven started out of the kitchen and Jake didn’t move to stop her.

She got to the front door and asked herself if she was seriously going to just leave in a fit of anger.

You could get lost in the woods and die out there.

I’m not staying here with him. No way. I’m not going to put myself through this anymore.

But where are you going to go?

She didn’t know. Her only thought was to get back to the path they’d driven down and then follow it out to the road, and once she got service back on her phone, she’d call for someone to come and get her.

Raven pushed out the front door and felt the drizzle from the ashen sky overhead. Her bones already felt chilled and achy and she whimpered a little, like a child going into a dark basement without anyone to keep her company.

Don’t chicken out now, Raven. He’ll only laugh at you if you turn around and come back inside because you got damp from some drizzle.

The thought of Jake laughing at her was too infuriating. She continued walking, part of her already regretting this hasty decision, while another part of her urged her feet forward.

Show him that you’re stronger than he thought you were. Leave him. Leave him and his condescending bullshit behind.

Raven lifted her chin and put her shoulders back as she strode into the forest. She knew the general direction to go in, and luckily, she could see the footprints Jake’s shoes had left in the muddy ground as he’d dragged the supplies from where the car had dropped them.

Faintly, as she got further away from the cabin, Raven thought she heard a voice.

It echoed, morphed so that she couldn’t be sure who it even was.

The voice was calling her name. It was definitely Jake, and he was shouting for her, but she kept stumbling forward through the dirt and leaves and mud and underbrush of the forest. Raven realized she’d been crying for the last few minutes, but it had begun mixing with the rain, which had once more begun pouring down.

So much for staying dry
.

It didn’t matter, though. She would walk to that stupid path and follow it all the many miles out to the closest main road and call Danny. Danny would come and get her and tell her how she should’ve listened to him and stayed away from Jake.

Jake was bad news.

Everything had gone wrong for her after she’d met Jake Novak.

Raven kept walking, and then she belatedly realized that Jake had stopped calling her name. It figured, she thought, that he’d given up so quickly.

He couldn’t even be bothered to call her name more than a few times, that was how little she truly meant to him.

Only, a few minutes later, she heard something behind her. It sounded like an animal moving in the brush, and then as she turned, Jake was there, wearing jeans and a t-shirt and he was soaked to the bone again, and the rain started pouring down even harder and thunder crashed above them.

“Leave me alone!” she yelled at him, crying as she said it, because she was angry with herself for being so glad to see him.

“Raven,” he said, holding out his hand. “Come on.”

“No! Fuck you!” she screamed, and then turned and started to run.

Jake ran after her and she tried to run faster but the ground was soft and her feet were slipping and then he’d gotten hold of her around the waist and was hoisting her, pulling her against his body.

“Stop running,” he said. “Just stop.”

Raven tried to get away but he held her tightly. “Why do you treat me like shit? Why? What did I do to make you so mean to me?”

Jake continued to hold her tight. “Come back to the cabin with me. Please.”

“No. I hate you, Jake. I hate you so much.”

His eyes narrowed and she saw that her words had genuinely hurt him. “I don’t blame you for hating me. But come back with me, at least for tonight. If you still want to leave tomorrow morning, I’ll escort you myself.”

“I don’t need an escort, asshole!” she screamed. “I don’t need you!”

He let go of her. “I tried,” he said, sighing, and turning his back to her.

She laughed and threw up her hands. “You call that trying? Are you serious? What a joke. You’re nothing but a quitter!”

He spun around again and his eyes were blazing now. “Don’t test me, Raven,” he said, walking towards her. The rain abated momentarily but he was dripping water down his face and body.

“I’m not testing you,” she said. “You’re the one making this impossible and you know it. It’s not my fault.”

They glared at one another for a moment, and then Jake stepped forward and wrapped his hands around the back of her head and pulled her face towards his and kissed her long and hard. His lips were desperate and greedy and Raven felt her will to resist giving way to her intense desire for him.

She moaned in her throat as she allowed her tongue to move, entering his mouth and meeting his tongue, and his hands slid down to her back and then grabbed her buttocks.

He pressed his body against hers.

The rain started up again and became a downpour and she didn’t care. Jake grabbed at her shirt and ripped it off her, exposing her bare skin to the world. Raven took hold of Jake’s shirt and pulled it over his shoulders and then threw it to the side.

She slid her hands up and down his chest, hungry to feel him all over. She leaned down and licked his chest and nipples and then kissed down his flat stomach, tasting salt and water and sweat. She reached his belt line and unbuttoned his jeans and then unzipped them, still kissing.

Jake pressed his hands against her head, grabbing her hair and holding it tightly as she slipped his hard cock out of his boxers and immediately began sucking him, taking him deeply into her mouth.

She’d never wanted something so badly in her life as she wanted Jake Novak at that moment.

Raven sucked him, licked his shaft, and she could tell from his stiffness that he was as turned on and out of his mind as she was.

Jake backed away from her and she looked up at him, not knowing if something had changed, if he was going to tell her to stop.

But then he’d gotten on the ground with her and was pushing her backwards so that she was flat on her back, while he stripped her naked, taking off even her panties. The rain was soaking her naked body and she could feel the dirt and leaves on her back, even in her hair—and she didn’t care at all.

Jake’s wet mouth was between her legs, and she cried out in abandon, her thighs quivering as he slid his tongue into her folds and touched her deepest place.

He sucked on her pussy, his hands controlling her hips, bringing her body towards him, his strong shoulders visibly working as he buried his face between her legs.

She cried out again and again, because he felt so good, and it was all such a release. Jake flicked her swollen clit with his tongue, and then he sucked it, and Raven came with such force that her hips arched up and Jake reached his hands up and slid them to her breasts.

“Fuck me,” she cried out. “Please, please. Please I need you inside me, Jake.”

He hesitated. “Are you sure?”

“I need you.”

And then, it was as if something inside him broke, and she saw it break—the look in his eyes told her that whatever resistance he had to this closeness between them had finally given way. The levee had really broken, and his passion suddenly became that much more intense.

He took off his pants and boxers so that he was as naked as she was.

The rain hadn’t stopped, but neither of them seemed to care at all. Their slick bodies needed each other, and Jake’s mouth was on her nipples, sucking and licking and kissing and then his mouth was on hers.

His passion was unbridled, and he inserted his hardness into her, ever so slowly but insistently pushing into her sacred space that had never been filled before.

Raven clutched him to her, as everything inside of her was so filled with heat and warmth and she couldn’t take it.

A moment of sharp, piercing pain made her tense up.

“Are you all right?” he asked, stopping momentarily, his expression one of concern.

She nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

The sharp pain faded to a slow, sweet ache.

It overwhelmed her, how good and beautiful and right Jake felt inside of her.