Chapter 30

Hal

Hal frowned as he heard Jesse release a long, shaky sigh from the other end of the line. She had sounded tense, and her reaction to his call had made him all the more worried that something wasn’t right.

“Hey,” he spoke again, letting his concern seep into his voice. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s nothing,” Jesse snapped her answer quickly. “Just something here at the office.”

“Oh,” Hal said, relieved.

“Yeah,” Jesse sighed again, and Hal clearly identified anxiety in her tone. “Look, this is a bad time for us to talk. And you can’t keep calling me here at the office.”

Hal was taken aback at her sudden brusqueness, but he recovered quickly.

“Well, if you don’t want me to call you on this phone, you’ll have to give me the number to your cell,” he said easily. “And if this is a bad time to talk, we’ll have to set up a time to talk later.”

Hal heard Jesse sigh again, and he smiled to himself at being the cause of her irritation.

“Fine,” she said and began to rattle off a chain of numbers. Hal scrambled to jot them down as she listed them off.

“There,” she said as she finished. “Are you done?”

“No,” Hal said in return, allowing some of his own irritation to creep into his tone. “We haven’t decided on when we’re meeting up to talk since you’re so busy.”

There was silence on the other end of the line, and Hal briefly worried if he had come on too strong and overplayed his hand.

“Alright, okay,” Jesse said, her tone much more docile. “What if you came to my place around six?”

“I can do six,” Hal said, allowing a satisfied smile to creep over his face.

“Okay,” Jesse said, her voice sounding more subdued and somewhat defeated. Hal frowned at the tone, and he got the nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” he asked again.

“Like I said, it’s work,” she said quickly. “Can we please just talk about this tonight?”

Hal was dissatisfied with her answer, and he wanted to know what was going on right here and now. He could tell, though, that she was in a real state of distress, and he knew that if he had to, he could wait for her explanation.

“Yes,” Hal answered, keeping his tone soft. “Yes, of course.”

“Thank you,” Jesse breathed into the phone.

A brief silence passed between them, and Hal searched for words to say to fill the gap.

“Well …” Jesse beat him to it. “I’ll see you tonight then.”

“See you to …” the phone went dead before he could finish his goodbye, and he scowled down at his phone before shoving it roughly back into his pocket.

Hal braced his hands on the edge of his counter and shook his head. Before he knew it, though, his frown of irritation had transformed into a smile, and a soft chuckle passed his lips.

“What’s so funny?” Hal turned as he heard Adam’s familiar voice as he entered the kitchen.

“It’s funny that domestic animals live a higher quality of life than most humans,” Hal quipped.

“It’s Jesse, isn’t it?” Adam raised his eyebrow, and Hal let out a long sigh.

“Of course it’s Jesse,” he freely admitted, opening up the fridge to withdraw a plum from the bottom drawer.

“And what have you done to her now?” Adam pressed, crossing his arms.

“Why am I always the villain with you?” Hal diverted the direction of the conversation, feigning hurt in his tone. Adam let out a short bark of laughter and shook his head.

“Because I know you,” he shot back. “So what’s going on between you two now?”

“I’m going over to her place tonight,” Hal said simply.

“And?” Adam prodded, and Hal frowned.

“She seemed a little bit unsettled,” Hal said.

“Happens to the best of us, I suppose.” Adam nodded, sitting down at the breakfast bar.

Hal grunted and bit into the fruit in his hand. He had a feeling that this was more than just an instance of being slightly unsettled, but he couldn’t really figure what it was.

“She said it was work,” Hal offered after he swallowed the bite he had taken.

“I’m not surprised,” Adam said flatly.

“No?” Hal raised an eyebrow, and Adam gave him an odd look.

“Wouldn’t you be a little unsettled if you worked under Elaine Beck?” Adam pointed out.

Hal frowned. Even the mention of Elaine’s name was enough to get him irritated. She knew how to get under anyone’s skin, and she never hesitated to do it. He hated the idea of her being anywhere near Jesse.

Hal suddenly remembered that the only reason he had met Jesse in the first place was so she could interview him for Elaine’s magazine. He had only done that to get the woman off his back, and it had somehow turned into one of the most intriguing instances of his life. In reality, he had no real respect for The Edge, and he thought it was a shame that Jesse was working there when it was very clear to him that she was capable of so much more.

“Elaine should be working for Jesse,” Hal murmured, mostly to himself.

“Well, be that as it may …” Adam shrugged and left Hal to fill in the rest.

Hal brooded about Jesse’s unfortunate circumstances. He wondered if there was anything he could do to change her situation. Even if there was, she was highly unlikely to accept any help from him. She took a lot of pride in her work, and she would never allow him to pave the way for her. He couldn’t help admiring her for that.

“I wouldn’t worry myself too much,” Adam spoke up again. “She’s got a lot of spunk. She’ll get through whatever it is that’s got her down. And then she’ll have plenty of time to keep putting you through the ringer.”

Hal laughed at Adam’s words. His friend was absolutely right. Jesse certainly kept him on his toes, and he wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Since he had been with her the previous night, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He was glad they had stopped where they did. He didn’t want her to think that he only wanted her physically, and he knew that if he had acted on his desire, that was the very impression she would have gotten.

Still, it had taken a lot for him to call the cab and watch it take her home. He was achingly hard, in spite of all the alcohol in his system, and he had spent quite a bit of time last night with his cock in his hand, imagining the feeling of her soft skin against his own, and wondering how her voice would sound in a throaty moan.

Hal felt his cock surge a little even at that memory, and he shook his head to keep himself in line. He vaguely wondered if it was a good idea to go to her home later that evening.

Even so, good idea or bad, they had made the arrangements, and at six in the evening, he would be at her door, just as she had said.

He could hardly wait.