Suddenly His - Jessa Kane Page 0,18
subtle eye twitch. “I’m sorry, what?”
I don’t give him time to recover. “I asked how long you’ve been watching me,” I say clearly, trying not to fidget under his penetrating blue stare. My nerves are almost enough to quiet me, but his reaction tells me my theory isn’t crazy. So I trust my gut and keep going. “I couldn’t figure out why you would bid on me remotely. Why you would show up and join that club…all for me. How did you even know I was at Winston Creed’s house that night, unless you were having me followed?”
He tilts his head, regarding me as if my line of questioning is adorable. “I make it my business to know everything happening in my world, Maisy. I might not have belonged to the club, but those men are more or less my contemporaries.”
I shake my head. “No. You make it your business to know what’s happening in my world. And if you lie to me one more time, I’ll leave and you won’t see me again.”
A note of panic dances across his features.
“My mother is your housekeeper,” I say, pressing on. “That is how you know me, isn’t it? How you knew my address?”
Again, he says nothing. I think, because he wants to lie.
But his chest is rising and falling faster now, the skin around his mouth tense.
It’s the final confirmation I need to know I’m right.
Garnering my confidence, I close the distance between me and Jack. Run my hand up his silk tie. “You’re so determined to make me think you’re a bad man. A pure asshole, as you put it. So why are you paying my mother a fortune every week to clean your house? Why did you swoop in and try to save me on Friday night? Bad men don’t do things like that. Only complicated ones.” I mold my palm to his rigid jawline and study his expression. It’s hard, shuttered, but his eyes are another story. They don’t want to look at me, but he can’t seem to help it. He’s waging a battle. Doesn’t want to show me a hint of vulnerability. “The pay increase started six months ago,” I whisper. “Is that how long you’ve been watching me?”
Several beats pass.
“Yes,” he rasps finally, closing his eyes.
“That pay increase was for my benefit?”
He finally leans in to my touch with a gruff noise, then nods stiffly.
I already knew the truth, but it sinks in now, opening up a wound in my chest. “My mother didn’t tell me. She said we were broke. It’s why I didn’t register for classes this fall.”
Rage crackles to life around him like a brush fire. “What?”
Heat presses to the backs of my eyelids. “I don’t know what she’s been doing with the money. Paying rent, yes, but—”
“I’ve been paying the rent,” Jack growls.
My mouth snaps shut, another shovel of hurt and betrayal dropping on top of the pile. “You pay her on Fridays. An automatic payment…and she immediately withdraws the full amount. She must be keeping the cash somewhere.”
“Away from her own daughter,” he bites off. “You. The one it was intended for.”
It feels like there’s an arrow piercing my heart. My own mother has been playing me. It’s no wonder I lash out. “It’s no different than what you’re doing.” I drop my hand from his face and back away. “Playing keep away with money. Manipulating me.”
Jack follows me, his expression tortured. “What the fuck am I supposed to do? You won’t come to me on your own. And you shouldn’t.”
“Because you’re a bad man,” I supply, my back meeting the glass door.
“Yes, goddammit.” His hands slap down on either side of my head, leaning down until only an inch separates our faces. “Why do you think I stayed away for six months when I wanted to kidnap you off the street and rope you to my fucking bed?”
My nipples turn turgid, achy. His mouth is so close, his mint breath caressing my lips and I’m almost dizzy under the sudden slug of heat.
“Now I can’t stay away, angel.” His right hand drops from the door, gripping the flesh between my legs roughly. “Not from this. And not from you.”
“Jack,” I moan, my thighs squeezing around his hold. “Wait…”
“Wait?” He shoves his fingers into my panties, stroking his middle digit through my wet folds, once, twice, before pushing it deep inside me. “If you didn’t want your pussy tickled, you wouldn’t have come here dressed like Daddy’s little girl.”
Those words