What He Bargains (What He Wants, Book Nineteen) (60 page)

“I hope you’re right,” she said. She wondered what it had looked like when Jake’s men had hit the Club Alpha people back twice as hard. She imagined it hadn’t been pretty.

“If I’m wrong and those Club Alpha tools decide to keep at it, they’re going to find out just what I’m capable of.” Jake seemed to take some pleasure in the prospect, his mouth breaking into a slight grin as he took yet another bite of his sandwich and chewed happily.

After they were both done eating, Jake went and rolled the carts outside and left them in the hallway for the staff to take away.

He came back inside, to where Raven was on the couch, waiting. “What now?” she said.

“You’re demanding,” Jake laughed. “We just ate, and you want to know what’s next?”

She smiled at him. “I mean, I don’t care if you have things to do. I can entertain myself.”

“Yeah?” Jake laughed, putting his hands on his hips and looking down at her. “What’ll you do to entertain yourself?”

“I don’t know, maybe watch some TV.”

Jake licked his lips. “Or maybe you can try entertaining me.”

Raven felt her pulse instantly begin speeding up, just seeing the look on his face. Suddenly, she realized just how high her dress had ridden up her thighs, and how much cleavage she was showing.

“I—I’ll do whatever you want,” she answered as casually as possible.

Jake grinned, his eyes suddenly gleaming. He grabbed the remote control and turned on the television, changing the channel to a music station. Suddenly, a heavy bass line and slithering keyboards cut through the air, and a sultry voice sang lyrics that Raven wasn’t familiar with. “Let’s switch places,” he said. “I’ll sit where you’re sitting, and you get up.”

Raven wasn’t sure what Jake had in mind, but just the same, her nipples had grown so stiff that they were poking insistently against the thin material of her dress. She got up and they moved past one another, as Jake sat on the couch.

The music was loud, the beat thumping in her ears.

She smiled uncertainly. “What now?”

“That’s your favorite question lately,” Jake said, crossing his legs and relaxing back into the couch. “But lucky for you, I’ve got the answer.”

She shifted her feet, waiting for him to continue.

“I want you to dance for me,” he said, his eyes darkening.

She froze in place. “Dance?”

“I want you to give me a lap dance.”

She couldn’t be sure if he was serious. Initially, she thought to tell him no. It was embarrassing. Dancing for Jake Novak? He was an incredible dancer, and she’d make a fool of herself trying to move for him.

But then, a lap dance wasn’t the same as trying to do the waltz, and Raven was growing more excited as she anticipated what it might be like to tease Jake in that way. She felt comfortable in Jake’s love for her, and she wanted to please him.

The music was already on and Jake was waiting, watching her expectantly. She didn’t want to disappoint him, didn’t want him to think that she was too afraid to take a risk.

And yet she was so inhibited, that as she tried to sway to the music, she felt her cheeks turning red, her whole face flushing with embarrassment. Her body suddenly was stiff and wooden, and her sense of rhythm was lost.

Jake watched her, nodding ever so slightly. “I want you to lift your dress a little,” he said.

Raven was grateful for direction. She needed something to hang onto, some vague idea of how this should work and what Jake wanted from her. She grabbed the material of her dress in a bunch, and slowly began pulling it so that it rode up her thighs.

And then, as she saw the lust in his eyes, she walked towards him, so now she was standing directly in front of him, her legs spread, and his feet were sticking out so she was nearly straddling him, but not quite.

Raven began sinking down, and Jake grabbed her hips as she swayed and undulated to the music. The beat of it made sense now, as she allowed herself to move in time, not worrying about being perfect, not worrying about anything but showing Jake what she was capable of.

As his hands traveled from her hips down to the bare skin of her legs, Raven pulled away, teasing him.

“Come back here,” he said. “I want you to sit on my lap.”

“Why should I?” she asked, arching an eyebrow, then turning and acting as if she was going to walk away from him.

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her down onto his lap, and it worked out that she was facing out toward the rest of the hotel room, and now she really was straddling him, giving him the lap dance he’d requested.

The music was building in ferocity, and she grinded her butt against Jake’s lap, feeling him stiffening and prodding into her. She moved herself on top of him, throwing her head back as she felt the stimulation of his cock against her pussy.

Jake’s hands slid up the front of her dress and pulled her breasts loose, and as they popped out, she gasped audibly, but continued riding him.

He slid his fingers over her nipples, squeezing them, pulling her bra down.

As the music began to slow down again, Raven suddenly realized that it wasn’t the drums that were making all the noise. Someone was knocking on their door, over and over again.

“Shit,” she cried out, turning to Jake. “Who’s that?”

“I don’t know,” he said.

She sprung away from him and started to fix her dress. She felt like a teenager whose parents have just come home and caught her in the act with a boy in her bedroom.

What if it was the hotel manager, responding to a complaint?

What if it was someone from Club Alpha?

The knocks came louder, and now it was like incessant pounding. Jake was on his feet and walking toward the door. He peered into the keyhole and his shoulders relaxed, then hunched a little, as if he’d seen something he didn’t like.

Jake turned to her. “Just be cool,” he said.

She’d gotten everything tucked away, but felt sweaty and rumpled. “Be cool about what?”

“We’ve got visitors.” And then he was opening the door and two people entered the room. For a moment, the first person to come through the door was so unexpected that Raven didn’t recognize her at first.

But then her brain adjusted to the fact that female pop star Courtney Taylor had just randomly shown up to Jake’s hotel room. Following right behind her was a slender man in a dark leather coat and dark pants, thinning hair that was still expensively styled and gelled.

“Nice pad,” Courtney said, as she came inside like she owned the place. Her honey blond hair spilled down around her shoulders and her lips pouted effortlessly as she spotted Raven.

“Jake, good to see you,” the man said, offering his hand, and Jake reluctantly shook it.

“Nobody told me you were coming to see me,” Jake said, his tone wary, as he closed the door and watched Courtney twirling around the room.

She was wearing a flowing blue dress, boots, and she had a long scarf wrapped around her neck. “I missed you,” Courtney told him, stopping her movement briefly to give him a cute yet reproachful look.

She’s flirting with him
, Raven thought, her stomach souring.

“Hi, pleasure to meet you,” the man said, now offering his hand to Raven. He smiled and she noticed his teeth were a little crooked and one of his eyes was slightly off center. “You must be Raven,” he announced.

“Yes,” she said, shaking hands with him. His skin was soft and smooth and almost slippery.

Raven felt like he knew what they’d been doing just as he’d been outside the hotel room knocking, as he gave her an even wider grin. “My name is Sander Edwards the third, and I’m with the label.”

“He’s the president of the label, to be precise,” Jake said, watching Sander with a cautious expression.

“Just thought we should pop on by,” Sander said, stuffing his hands in his pants pockets and rocking back slightly on his heels. “After all, you’ve sort of disappeared and left us a bit in the lurch.” He said this with a wide smile, as if it was something enjoyable and even worthy of praise.

“Yeah, well…things have gotten very complicated recently,” Jake said.

Courtney was back to gliding around the room. “What are you doing in here all day, holed up by yourselves?” she asked, wrinkling her nose a little. “Don’t you get bored?”

“We haven’t been here that long,” Raven told her.

Jake shot Raven a warning glance, as Courtney’s eyes narrowed. “So where have you been, then? Because nobody seems to have a clue.”

Jake scratched his jaw. “I’ve had a lot to deal with recently. It’s nothing I can really talk about—it’s personal.”

“Oh, personal,” Courtney said, nodding as if that explained everything. She peeked through the partially open bedroom door as she went by it.

“I heard from your lawyer a few hours ago,” Sander said, moving closer to Jake. “He mentioned something about you wanting to postpone the tour indefinitely.”

Courtney broke into the conversation. “And then I talked to Sander and I assured him that Jake Novak would never do that to us, wouldn’t screw us and all his fans and the promoters—the Jake Novak
I know
wouldn’t just run out on his commitments,” Courtney said, stopping to look at Raven as she said this.

You barely even know him
, Raven thought.

Raven felt as though the accusation was that somehow this was all her doing. She looked to Jake and then back to Courtney. “Jake makes his own choices,” she said, her throat tight, anger starting to boil in her chest.

“I would hope so,” Courtney said, blinking innocently.

Jake glanced at the floor as he spoke. “The thing is, as painful as it’s going to be, I’ve decided not to continue with my tour.” He finally looked up at Sander, who was smiling still, as if it was frozen on his face.

“Painful?” Sander asked. “Painful for whom?”

“For everyone,” Jake said, still looking at him.

Suddenly, Courtney began laughing hysterically. She was shaking her head and laughing so hard that it became awkward listening to her.

“Is something funny?” Raven asked her, feeling like she truly wanted to slap the girl’s obnoxious face.

“This has to be a joke. Jake, please tell me you’re putting us on right now.”

“It’s not a joke,” he replied evenly.

“Look, whatever’s going on with you,” Sander told him, “all you need to do is ask for my help. We can take care of this, Jake. We’ve always been good to you, haven’t we?”

“You’ve been fine, Sander.”

Sander’s smile faded for the first time. “I hope I don’t need to explain to you that we’ve got an ironclad contract, Jake. You’re a smart man.”

“I’m not continuing the tour. I can’t do it anymore.”

Courtney was staring at him now, and the good-natured pretense had drained from her expression. She looked more like some kind of feral dog, her nostrils flared, eyes wide with a desperate expression of need and fear and mistrust.

“I want to show you something,” she said in a low voice, taking out her cell phone and quickly hitting the touch screen. She walked close to where Jake was standing, and handed her phone to him.

Jake took it, a puzzled expression crossing his features. “I see it,” he told her.

“That’s our video—the one of us singing together. Do you see how many views it has?” she asked.

He nodded, shrugging. “So?”

“So,” she said, “it’s got almost two hundred million views.” She leaned close to him and began touching her cell phone as he held it.

Raven hated how she was brushing her bare arm against Jake’s arm, her beautiful hair grazing Jake’s shoulder. He was giving her a sidelong glance, and Raven wondered if he was perhaps remembering how stunningly pretty and seductive Courtney Taylor was in the flesh.

Was he thinking how she might look out of those clothes, laid out on his bed? Raven tried to shake off her fear and insecurities.

Jake loves me.

“Now what am I supposed to be seeing?” Jake asked, a bit of impatience creeping into his voice.

“That’s your most recent music video from your solo album,” she replied. “Look at how many views it has, Jake.”

He frowned. “Eighty three million.”

“Not even half of what we got together, with some silly little video that was shot by an amateur.”

Raven felt herself grimace, since Courtney was referring to her. She’d been the one to shoot that video. She was the one that Courtney was calling an “amateur” dismissively. But Raven kept her mouth shut for the moment.

Jake handed Courtney back her phone. “I’m not sure I get the point,” he said.

“The point should be obvious,” Sander told him.

“The point is that you and I are a great team,” Courtney said. “Don’t you see the potential of this tour? For both of us?”

Jake shook his head. “It’s not about that.”

“Then what is it about?” she said. “Do you think you’re too big to fall, Jake? Are you really as arrogant as everyone’s saying you are?”

“If you thought you were going to come here and change my mind by showing me some YouTube videos, you were mistaken.”

“I’m trying to help you avoid making the biggest mistake of your life,” she said. “You and I can go back out on tour tomorrow and sell out every venue in the country, in the world. We can make it fun again, Jake. My new single is blowing up all over Europe and Japan—“

“You’re going to have a wonderful career,” Jake told her softly. “But I don’t want that kind of career anymore.”

She threw up her hands. “There’s no talking sense to him! He doesn’t realize that he needs me way more than I need him.”

Raven couldn’t keep quiet anymore. “How many views does your last video have on its own, Courtney?”

Courtney spun and glared at her. “You should know better than to involve yourself in the business of successful people who actually create art, who actually do things.”

“It’s a simple question,” Raven said.

“And you’re simply not worth my time,” Courtney said. “I’m putting you on ignore.” She turned back to Jake.

Raven took out her own cell phone and looked up the video herself. “You’ve got two million views on your latest video, Courtney. Correct me if I’m wrong, but two million is way less than eighty-three million. Like, Jake could probably film himself eating a hamburger and get more views than your latest single did.”