She went there and when she arrived he turned fully to her, his hands coming to her waist then sliding around to hold her loosely. She lifted hers and rested them lightly on his chest, tipping her head back to look into his troubled, green eyes.
“Are you okay?” she asked softly even though she saw he was not.
“No,” he answered harshly, giving her the answer she expected.
She moved an inch closer and his arms around her tightened.
“Are you going to be okay?” she asked.
“Are you okay?” Jack asked back and she nodded. Then he sighed before muttering, “Then I’ll be okay.”
That was such a Jack answer. So much so it made her heart and her belly warm.
So Belle moved closer and his arms got tighter, drawing her against him and her hands pressed into his chest.
“I’m sorry you had to endure another scene with Miles,” she said gently.
“And I’m sorry he got to you which should not have happened,” Jack returned again being very Jack, thinking of her and not himself.
“I promise, I’m okay. He just made me angry, that’s all,” she assured him. “And, um, now, what he’s done is making me worry about you.”
Jack took in her words and sighed again before saying, “Don’t worry about me, poppet. You know this isn’t the first time. I’m used to it.”
That didn’t make her feel much better.
“That was… it was… it seemed different.” She hesitated then asked, “What exactly was that?”
Jack lifted a hand to cup her jaw, his thumb moving out to stroke her cheek and his voice was not harsh in the slightest when he replied, “You know, my love, that Yasmin and I were once together. What you don’t know was, during a fight when Yasmin had broken it off with me in a way she did not intend to be permanent, Miles sought her out, got her drunk and had sex with her.”
Belle gasped.
Jack nodded.
“I’m sorry to be blunt, poppet,” he muttered. “But that’s what happened. Yasmin admitted this to me and, not surprisingly, we were then done in a way that was very much permanent.”
She could not believe this and yet she could. Miles had a knack for being a very big jerk and Yasmin had a knack for messing up her life.
Still, she hated it that Jack seemed always caught in the middle.
So Belle pressed even closer and she did the only thing she could think to do.
She whispered a heartfelt, “I’m sorry.”
“I was then too,” he replied and his thumb stroked her cheek again before his hand slid down to curl around the side of her neck. “Now, I’m not.”
Belle gave him a small smile and his eyes warmed when he saw it.
Then they grew intense and he continued, “I don’t know what he said to you but I can well imagine. And I want you to know that not only are Yasmin and I done, we have been for a long time. Our relationship has changed to something we both enjoy that would never shift again. And, my love, that wouldn’t have happened even before you. And although we have that history and it isn’t pleasant, now, with you in my life, it doesn’t matter anymore.”
“I’m sorry to say you imagined well, honey, but I didn’t believe him. Not even for a second. Not only because you’re you but also because Yasmin’s Yasmin,” Belle assured him. “I knew all that before you told me.”
“Good,” he murmured and Belle gave him a squeeze. “What I did not know,” Jack went on, his eyes losing focus and for the first time they drifted to her ear, “until today, was that he had feelings for her for some time prior to that.”
Yes, she got that was a surprise not just to Jack but to Yasmin as well.
“And the third woman?” Belle asked, Jack’s gaze came back to her and regained focus.
“I have no clue.”