Page 80 of Work It Out
That’s where she’d failed. Trauma had torn her apart down to her last cell. She’d given herself time, but she’d starved her heart of the kind of love it took to rebuild. Because, no matter the outcome, the process was painful, and she’d been so tired of hurting. Then Jake had come along, force-feeding her his sweet smiles and his insane willingness to put himself out there, not only in front of millions, inviting scrutiny and pain, but with the people closest to him as well. She might’ve taught him how to sculpt his body, but he’d taught her how to rehab her heart.
It was scary as hell.
His hand slipped into hers, and he tugged her toward the large tents set up along the edge of the forestland behind Bigbone’s one long strip of businesses. Of course, they had to cross a third of a mile of open scrubby field to get there, giving everyone plenty of time to stare at them.
Walking toward the crowd, she buzzed like one enormous exposed nerve. She could’ve sworn every person watching knew exactly what they’d been up to all night and what a mess she’d made of the morning. Why were so many people still here, anyway? Tons of them were at the booths and stations set up by businesses like Explosion. Others were milling around in an empty field. Shouldn’t they be wandering around the forest searching for fake rocker pigs? There ought to be some benefit to being obscenely late.
Suddenly, Jake tugged her to a stop. Rayah looked around with a frown. They were barely halfway to the tents. He turned her so that her back was to the hubbub, waiting until she locked eyes with him.
“Hey.” He pressed his lips to her forehead, tangled their hands together, and held them against his heart. As she waited for him to tell her why he’d stopped, the hoarse breaths grating from her throat and the frantic beat of her heart finally registered. She was a disaster.
One deep breath, then another.
“There she is.” Jake brought the back of her hand to his lips.
“How do you do that?” she wondered aloud. “How do you read me like that?”
He chuckled, the low, sultry sound traveling directly to the parts of her only he had truly touched. “Cupcake, it isn’t as hard as you think. How anyone would believe you could lie about anything important is beyond me. Everything you allow yourself to feel winds up all over your face.” A cold wind whipped past, tugging some hair free of her topknot to play around her face. He tucked it behind her ear. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. We’ll get back in your clown car, fire up the gerbils, and go back to the cabin.”
She let the commentary on her car pass. It was a squeeze for him. “But Jean will be mad.”
“Yep.”
“And it’d hurt Zandar’s feelings.”
“Probably. But they’ll get over it.”
“I don’t want them to have to get over it.”
He released her hands and shoved his into his pockets. “Rayah, if you can’t do this, they’ll just have to understand.”
“Can’t?” Rayah demanded, hackles rising. “It’s not that I can’t, I…”
His lips twitched, and she knew she’d been had. But her fear had taken a back seat the second he’d riled her up. “You suck.”
“True,” he purred. “But I think that might be one of your favorite things about me. I also lick and nibble.” He leaned close, his hot breath in her ear. “And don’t worry, cupcake. Later, if you still want to use my poor body to polish your own sucking skills, I’m willing to take one for the team again.”
How could he turn her on, calm her nerves, and make her laugh all at the same time? “Big of you.”
Jake looked down between them. “Dude, she noticed.”
“I know you’re not talking to your dick right now.”
His rounded eyes spouted pure innocence. “What? You can’t take it back now, Rayah. You’ll make him sad, and he’ll go into hiding.”
“We have to discuss your propensity for talking to body parts as if they were autonomous. It’s weird.”
Down he looked again. “See, man. I knew she meant it.” His silver gaze bounced back to her, and those sexy dimples creased his cheeks the way they always did when he was about to say something outrageous. “I don’t think he believes me. You should give him a very gentle high five. More of a pet really.”
She threw back her head and laughed. “You’re ridiculous.” Towing Jake behind her, she continued toward the crowd.
He slapped her ass. “Ri-dick-ulous. Solid pun, cupcake.”
Rayah glanced up, knowing she was smiling like a crazy person and simply not caring. Even when she noticed the craning necks and prying eyes of the huddle of Explosion employees, she couldn’t wipe the grin off her mug, didn’t want to. She was tired of giving a shit about what other people thought about her choices. More importantly, she was tired of insulting the people in her life, because really, if they cared about her half as much as she loved them, it wouldn’t matter if she made a fool of herself or got her heart broken. She’d still have them.
Blaine’s eyes narrowed when they stumbled up to the group. “You look…happy.”
Seriously, her smile would break her face if it grew any bigger. “I am. Turns out not being insanely sexually frustrated substantially improves my disposition.” If they were going to talk about her sex life, they might as well have decent info. “Who knew multiple orgasms were so good for your mental health?”
