Chapter 10

 

Lizzie

 

“Lizzie!” screeches yet another overly-dressed privileged woman as I try to sprint across the party as elegantly as possible in my silk evening gown.

“Hello!” I smile back, hoping she’ll let me through, but giving up when she steps in front of me.

“This is a wonderful event! So refreshing! I had no idea this building was here – and we live nearby!”

“It’s only just been finished,” I say, hoping she’ll pick up on the urgency and let me pass.

“Well it’s really a treat. Whoever created it is certainly talented.”

An image of Jax flashes into my mind and I shove it away, almost scowling as I do so.

“He is, but he’s a little unreliable. I wouldn’t ask him to build something for you unless you have plenty of time.”

“Oh really?” she says, touching her wrinkled neck. She leans forward as if about to feed me a rumor. “Say, whatever is happening with the auction this evening? I rather had my eye on you-know-who,” she giggles.

“Ah… We should have somebody lined up. It’s a surprise!” I say, laughing in the hope that she’ll buy it.

“Well,” she says, not buying it, “I hope I’m not disappointed.”

I nod politely and motion to step past. “I should check on the catering.”

At the kitchen entrance, Linda stops me.

“Five and a half hours, Lizzie. Looks like your boyfriend has left us in the lurch.”

“He is not my fucking boyfriend,” I hiss, with a spite that’s been building up in me for hours. “He is about as far from being my boyfriend as it is possible to be. If my boyfriend is here,” I stretch one hand to my left, “then that cocksucker is over here,” I stretch my hand to the right. “In fact, if I ever see him again, I’m going to—”

I’m interrupted by the whoosh of the party’s chattering changing direction. I spin around to see everyone’s backs, and a gentle clapping rise in volume until it becomes eager applause.

Linda clumsily stands on a table, and beckons me to join her. I pull my long gown up and climb up beside her, hoping that nobody turns back around and catches an eyeful of my panties.

“What were you saying you were going to do to him?” Linda says with a smirk.

It’s Jax, and he looks amazing in his tuxedo. It looks so good I could lick his clothes off him. It takes me a few seconds to notice the guy next to him, the one in the white tuxedo, the one straight out of the superhero movie that’s been #1 at the box office for the last three months running, the one the entire party is looking at and cheering on, while he gives them appreciative nods and waves, flashing that trademark dimpled grin – like Hollywood stars do.

Linda gasps. “Is that—?”

“Yeah, it’s Jax,” I say, interrupting Linda.

“Not him, the guy next to him! How the hell did he get him to come? Are they related? Jesus, I can barely tell them apart. We may as well have auctioned Jax off himself.”

Jax’s eyes meet mine and I smile. I wish there was something else I could do – sometimes a smile isn’t enough, sometimes you’re so overwhelmed that you feel like you’re about to explode, sometimes you want to do more than just smile, but for now, it’s enough. Jax smiles back, and nods. Then his gaze shifts to something behind me, and his face darkens.

I turn around and see James making his way toward me, dressed in a freshly pressed dark suit. He has a bouquet of red roses in his arms and he looks good—great, in fact—but I can’t believe he showed up. Even though I’ve been talking about this event nonstop for days, I hadn’t actually invited James to come (we both agreed it wasn’t his scene, and that the party would run too late for his early-morning work schedule). And with our breakup this morning, I figured I wouldn’t be seeing or hearing from him again.

But here he is now, smiling up at me. With a dozen red roses, and an apology in his eyes. The thing is, I don’t want an apology. I don’t want James. I want Jax.

I spin back toward Jax, but his back is to me as he cuts through the crowd, heading for the exit. He’s leaving.

“Jax!” I yell, but he can’t hear me over the cacophony of voices in the room. He’s disappearing amid all the shifting bodies, and I’m losing sight of him with every second.

I climb off the table, ignoring the fact that James is standing off to the side with a confused look on his face, and start pushing my way desperately through the crowd. Jax must sense something, because he pauses in the hallway and turns around, and I weave my way around one last throng of partiers and stumble against him.

“Jax, wait,” I say. “Where are you going? You just got here.”

“You look like you’re all set for the night,” he says. “And I just made a deal with the devil that I have to go close. I’ll see you around, though. Good luck with the auction.”

I grab his arm and pull. “But I’m not set—James and I broke up, this morning.”

He stares at me for a moment, the words sinking in. “You did?”

I nod vigorously. “Yes. He came here to apologize, I think, but it doesn’t even matter anyway, because the thing is—the problem is—” For some reason I’m stumbling over my words now. Why is it so hard to just say what I feel? “I didn’t want him. I want you. I mean, I want to be with you, too. Maybe we can make this work.”

He takes me in his arms and looks deep into my eyes. If we were ever going to reach a point where words weren’t necessary, this is it.

Our faces draw close, and we kiss. It feels like the first time – and it is. This kiss means something. This kiss is the kind you give someone who you care about. It’s slow, gentle.

We part slowly, like half-waking from a dream, and I take Jax’s hand so that I can lead him away from the bodies, away from the noise and the auction that’s about to start.

I pull him until we’re out of view. Until the sound of the party is just a distant throb. We’re by the pool, the LA skyline sparkling beyond the rolling hills. I spin around and look at him.

“The pool,” he says, his voice softer and more wistful than I’ve ever heard it. “You know, pools always remind me of you now.”

I smile. “That’s why I brought you here. Now what’s this deal with the devil you were talking about?”

His face freezes, and then his gaze is everywhere but on me. “I, uh…I had to call in a favor to get that actor here for the auction.”

My eyes narrow. “What kind of favor?” It better not be what I think it is.

Jax gulps. “Remember that night we had in the Ferrari, looking out over the city lights while I taught you how to use that mouth to its full potential?”

“Yeah...” My voice is ice.

“Well, we won’t be having any more of those. I mean, until I get a new Ferrari.”

It takes a second to hit me, and then my jaw hits the ground. “What?! You gave up the Testarossa for—for me?”

Jax only nods.

“But you love that car. That car is you. It’s everything to you.”

“Not everything,” he says, pulling me tight against him. Jax stares into my eyes and I can’t look away.

There’s a weirdness in the air. The good kind of weirdness. It’s the one you get when you’re doing something for the first time. The strangeness of exploring something big and exciting and new.

I open my mouth, about to say something, but before I can wake my brain up from this sleepy dream his hands cup my face, and he brings his lips to mine.

We kiss for what feels like an eternity. For the first time in my life I feel like I’m becoming whole. Like everything we’re feeling is the same, like our lives are only just beginning. When the distant chatter of the party gets louder, and the lights on the outside stage crackle on, we pull away from each other; changed.

“So?” Jax says, our eyes continuing where our lips stopped. “What do you say? Are you gonna give me a chance now?”

I look up at his face, knowing that it’s the last time I’ll look at him in this way. The last time I’ll see him as dangerous, as not-right, as just potential.

The last time I’ll see Jax and not be able to call him mine.

For once, I get to smirk. “Only if it’s my turn to be the teacher.”

 

THE END

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Read on for a sneak peek at Eve Jagger’s HARD: