Page 107 of Lead Me On
“Jane, this isn’t—”
Mr. Jennings’s door opened. “Hey, Chase.”
Jane stifled a groan.Great. Ascene at her office. “Chase, you need to—”
Mr. Jennings stepped past her. “Are you ready to go?”
“Yep,” Chase answered.
Jane froze. “Wait a minute. What’s going on here?”
He winked. “We’re going to lunch, Jane. Want to come with?”
“No!” she yelled, but Mr. Jennings’s words made perfect sense now.I hope it won’t be awkward…Crud. “Mr. Jennings, you didn’t put this on your schedule. I’m…”
Chase’s smile widened.
“Oh, just go,” she muttered.
“Bye, Miss Jane,” Chase said with another wink that made her face flash hot. But when he turned to follow Mr. Jennings out the door, more than just her face burned.
She knew why he’d cut his hair so short. That sneaky, slimydog.With his head buzzed she could see all of his tattoo. The way the black ink curved lovingly up his strong neck and cupped the base of his skull. The way the tendrils narrowed like flames before they faded away.
Oh, God, she wanted to lick him so badly. She wanted to follow that ink with her tongue all the way from his arm to his skull. His hair would be rough and prickly under her mouth…. Jane shivered.
“Oh, crud,” she groaned, but that wasn’t the least bit satisfying. She glanced around as if someone might have snuck back into the office, and then Jane put her shoulders back and said, “Shit.” Then “Fucking bastard.”
The cursing helped her feel a little better. Not much, but a little.
She couldn’t date Chase, no matter how much she missed him. After all these years of striving to transform herself, she couldn’t just throw up her hands and admit defeat. Not for aman.She’d be telling herself and everyone else that it didn’t matter how fast and far she ran, she was still Dynasty Alexis.
Dynasty, who liked big men with criminal records. Who had emotionless sex with men in their cars. Who got turned on by steel-toed boots and tattoos and dirty T-shirts. Chase brought all that out in her, so it couldn’t matter that he was also kind and considerate and generous. Itcouldn’t.
Sniffing, pretending it was allergies and not emotion, Jane wiped her nose and glanced at the clock. The men had been gone for only ten minutes. She’d give it another thirty before taking her own lunch. She couldn’t see Chase again.
The sight of that tattoo would break her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“MOM?” Jane opened the screen door and stuck her head inside her parents’ house. “Dad?”
“We’re here, sweetie!” Her mom rushed out, black heels clomping on the wood floor. She’d dressed down, though. She was showing no cleavage, and Jane was pretty sure her mother had picked out the plain blue sweater in Jane’s honor.
“The pizza should be here in a few minutes.” She gave Jane a quick hug, as if afraid her daughter would pull away if she squeezed too tight. “We’re in the den looking through old pictures. I’m thinking of trying scrapbooking.”
Jane followed her mom past the kitchen to the sunken living room, remembering how excited they’d both been about this house when Mac had announced he was buying it. A den. Afireplace.It had seemed like a fantasy.
Jane had thought everything was going her way when she was nine. She’d even dreamed that her real dad would move to Colorado when he got out, and she’d get to have everyone she loved in her life. Her mom, her stepdad, her new little brother and her real dad, too.
When I get paroled, the first thing I’m going to do is take you to Disneyland, baby girl.
She vividly remembered sending off for a Disney brochure. She’d kept it under her pillow for months.
Calling Chase a bastard had been unfair. She knew what a real bastard was like.
Lost in thought, following her mom, Jane didn’t register at first that it wasn’t Mac going through photos with her mother. It was Grandma Olive. Oh, Jesus.
“Look who’s graced us with her presence,” Olive said.
