Page 53 of Texting My Secret CEO
My heart pounds, but my head is telling me to just enjoy this, relax, let whatever’s going to happen, happen.
“Any ideas?” he says, sounding boyish and excited. He kisses the nape of my neck.
I turn my head, giving him more access. He groans and presses his mouth firmly against me, biting a little. I move away before he can leave a mark I’ll have to cover up on stream.
“Not a clue,” I admit.
“Really?” he murmurs.
“Jack, I don’t…”
Then I see it. Glistening on the shoreline. Hints of green glisten on a rock formation in the distance. We’ve done a loop around the city, and now we’re at the edges of a stretch of wide-open land… which we can access via a cove. A cove with emerald-green rocks, with what looks like a table and chair in the middle, a metal bucket, and the neck of a champagne bottle sticking out.
My first instinct is to smile as happy tears fill my eyes. I stare in wonder at what he’s done. For us. Forme. It makes me feel so special. I wish I could simply exist in this moment.
Instead, a bitter instinct grips me. I see my mother, a desperate smile on her face, flashing a silver bracelet at me as if that makes up for everything father did.“He’s not all bad, is he?”And it’s not the same, right? Jack hasn’t tried to control me, to hurt me, anything like that. Hiding on the floor isn’t the same as what Dad did to Mom.
But I can see what happens next so clearly. We’ll land on the shore. The champagne will flow with the jokes, the chemistry, and the closeness that feels so easy. He might even have a clamshell bed set up in a nearby cave, just like in the game.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, wiping the tears from my face. I think there are some sad ones mixed in with the happy ones.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
“We have to go back.
“Dakota…”
I spin to face him. “I’m telling you to take me back right now.”
For a terrifying moment, I think he’s going to argue. He tilts his head at me. Hurt and confused. I know how a so-callednice guywould react now. The resentment would burst out. The accusations.I arranged all this, and now you’re acting like a stupid spoiled brat.
“We’re leaving right this second,” he says instead, touching my hand. “I’ll tell the captain.” He climbs up the nearby ladder. I hear a murmured conversation. Then he begins to climb down.
I stand at the edge, watching as the magical cove grows smaller and smaller.
“It was too much,” he says huskily, hugging me from behind again. He brushes his lips along my neck.
“It was thoughtful,” I say honestly. “And beautiful. It’s just… I don’t know, Jack.”
Minutes pass in a somehow comfortable silence. I don’t sense him seething, resenting, hating like my father would.Leave her alone!Noah yelled once, “You’re being cruel, and I see throughyour smile,”a fourteen-year-old kid standing up to a fully grown man. Sometimes he could be so perceptive. He saw more than all of us.
“This is too big, too fast, isn’t it?” he says finally, kissing me on the cheek.
“Most women would love it,” I reply. “They’d cry, hug you, and they wouldn’t overthink.”
“Overthinking is a blessing and a curse,” he says quietly. “Trust me, I know the feeling.”
“Your… mom?” I ask, turning in his embrace.
He nods shortly, his jaw clenched. “Of course, it’s natural to think that I should’ve done more, should’ve noticed something was wrong. When something like that happens, it makes questioning everything else easier. A mind that won’t stop spinning. If I’m right, Dakota, and you’ve got something like that going on now, you don’t need to say anything. I get it.”
“I thought big, macho billionaires were supposed to get pissed if their women didn’t do what they wanted.”
“Their women,” he repeats, shaking his head. “I’ve never cared about being macho. Or a billionaire. I care about the game—and now you. It’s simple.”
“Sorry to break it to you, but youarebig and macho.”
He chuckles, tenderly rubbing his hand across my cheek. “I love seeing you smile.”
