Chapter Three
If Jared was a book boyfriend, she would have been all over him. As it was, he wasn’t, and she was keeping her distance. Freya loved his home, nearly as much as she adored the man.
No, she wasn’t going to think of him as a man.
“So, erm, how does this all work?” she asked, taking a seat in his sitting room after a grand tour. “Do I do your bidding?”
Jared chuckled. “Freya, you always have to rush everything. Don’t you think some things you should savor, take your time, enjoy, relish?”
“I’ve always been a dive in and get it done kind of girl.”
“And I bet you don’t have many fond memories of everything you’ve done?” he asked. He handed her a glass of white wine, as he sat down with a whiskey.
She was surrounded with everything Jared, and Freya was shocked by the fact she liked it. None of his essence seemed fake. The home had character. It wasn’t just a bachelor pad. She got a sense of comfort.
“Do you have an army of servants?” she asked, avoiding the question.
“No, I don’t. I have a housekeeper who comes in twice a week. That’s all I have, and she has been very efficient in running my place. I wish I could spend more time here. Work pulls me away.”
He was looking at her strangely.
“Have I pulled you away as well?”
Jared tilted his head to the side, and smiled. “More than you will probably ever understand, but that’s okay. I don’t have a problem with that. I like to be close to you in case you ever need it.”
She took a sip of her fruity wine, loving the taste, but then, she didn’t expect anything else.
“So I’ve got my own room, and we’re still working together. I don’t actually see the point of this arrangement,” she said.
“It’s simple, Freya. I want you to be close to me. I want us to get to know each other, and to have you relax around me. To give me the chance that you seem determined not to.”
“And if I don’t want to be here?”
“You can leave any time you like. I believe that you want to be here more than you realize.”
She licked her lips, and stared down at her wine glass.
“Tell me, Freya, do you like my company? No catty remarks, or being a bitch either. I’m wanting the truth.”
“Yes, I do.” She’d loved his company even when she was younger. He used to do this really bad magic trick when she was sad. It was old, but she had loved it so much.
“Then see it as I’m your roommate. I just wanted to change the décor.”
She laughed. “You miss your home.”
“Yes, I miss my home. It took me two years to buy this place.”
“Because it was so expensive?” she asked.
“Not at all. The price was easy. I could pay for it a gazillion times over. The biggest problem was the owner before me.”
She sat back and wondered if he had ever thought of reading books. He had the sexiest voice in the world. “Tell me.”
“The owner was very sick. He’d lost his wife several years ago, and he didn’t have much longer. His children just wanted him to sell this place, and to finish it. So that he could have a happy life.”
“That’s … sad.”
“I know. His kids loved him, and were worried about him.” Jared smiled, clearly remembering something fondly. “I sat with him many times. He told me that he had spent twenty years building this house for it to be perfection. His wife loved it, and he loved it. Moving out was … like he was severing his bond with his wife. He told me it was his final connection to her.”
“He didn’t want it to go to just anyone?” she asked.
“No. He told me that if I was a man-whore, I was to stay away. He wasn’t going to disrespect his wife’s memory by selling it to some loser who had no respect.” Jared laughed. “I opened up my soul to a dying man. I told him that I had no intention of turning this into any brothel. That I was actually looking for a woman that I could fall in love with for the rest of my life, and that we’d be together until our dying day.” Jared looked at her. “For two years I visited him, and when I finally got the place, it was rather bittersweet.”
“Why?”
“He died. He died before he could give me the key.” There were tears in his eyes, and he looked away, and she saw him struggling. “He’d left me a letter. Told me that if any woman didn’t fall in love with this house, and then me, they weren’t worth it.”
Her heart seemed to take a dive.
“I’m not going to ask you straight away, Freya.”
“I love the house,” she said, blurting the words out. “I’m not sure on the man yet.”
He laughed. “I didn’t expect you to. He didn’t say anything about women who’ve witnessed betrayals like you have.”
She finished off her wine. “I wish I had known him.”
“I wish you’d known a lot more men who are willing to stay faithful to their wives, Freya. It would make my life a whole lot easier, but then, I’ve never been the one to step away from a challenge.”
She liked that. “What’s the plan for tomorrow?”
With it being a Saturday, it was her day off.
“I’ve got to head into the office. A client wants to go over some last-minute changes.”
“I can come in. I’ve got some work I could finish. I wouldn’t want to be alone here all day. I don’t mind work.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“Then I’ll drive us both in.” He took her glass, and they walked upstairs together. “This is your room.” He pressed a kiss to her head, and turned to leave.
Freya touched the spot, and wished, not for the first time, that he had stayed.
Her feelings were driving her crazy. She also needed to apologize to Sophia for lying to her. Just thinking about that made her sick to her stomach.
****
“How is it going?” Alfie asked.
Jared looked away from Freya and Sophia hugging, to look at his friend. “She’s difficult, and refuses to give in. Everything I imagined she would be.”
“Sophia told me a little about Freya. Her mother had the worst luck in men.”
“Yeah, and she never listened to reason. All she ever did was what she wanted, and to hell with everything else. I warned her about Freya’s father. Did she listen? Nope. It was a constant battle. Of course, it’s made Freya hate men, and believe we’re all cheating assholes.”
Alfie took a seat opposite him.
“You’ll get there.”
“I see you’re happy,” Jared said.
“Very happy. Seeing Sophia that night was the best thing that ever happened to me. Waiting patiently for her to be ready was worth it. I’m the happiest man in the world.”
Jared watched as Sophia and Freya left the office, probably to go to the cafeteria. He liked to make sure his staff had the best coffee. He’d done a little experiment, and found shitty coffee made for shitty workers. Great coffee, great workers.
“Do you need any advice? Any help?”
“Nope. I need you to not interfere.”
Alfie held his hands up. “Our two women are like sisters. There’s a chance they’re going to share a lot of stuff, and Sophia talks to me a lot. I can share some information if it would help you.”
He looked at his friend, and the smirk on Alfie’s face told him he was holding something back.
“What is it?” Jared asked. “And what do you want?”
“I want to be best man at your wedding, and for Freya to be available to my woman. Sophia heard that she was staying with you, and was worried she wouldn’t see her friend again. She can be a little dramatic. So I said we’d come and see you.”
“I’m not holding Freya against her will. Sophia may visit whenever she wants.”
“Good.”
“What do you have for me? Clearly, you have something, as otherwise you wouldn’t have come here empty-handed.”
“You’re right.” Alfie took a seat, and placed a hand over the back of the sofa. “This isn’t concrete or anything but Sophia’s assumption.”
“What good is that for me?” Jared asked.
“She believes Freya is in love with you. You can take that view any way you want to. My woman thinks Freya is in love with you, but she’s so scared to even think of commitment that she is keeping you at arm’s length.”
Jared rested his ass against the desk. Even though he believed that Freya loved him, she could be so damn prickly at times that it made him doubt. “And you think Sophia’s to be believed.”
“They’re like sisters. I believe her. At first I didn’t, but look at the facts. She joined your working environment when she didn’t need to.”
“Her father offered her the alternative.”
“Or she wants to be close to you. How about this, after Freya spent time away with her dad, Sophia told me that she’d spend a lot of time talking about this mystery guy.”
“Now I’m listening.”
“Freya would talk constantly about her trips with her dad but never about her dad himself. She’d talk about a guy who’d play a magic trick to make her smile, or who would sit with her, and didn’t make her feel like a great inconvenience. Ring any bells?”
It rang a lot, and Jared found himself looking toward the door. She was attracted to him. Could it be that a little crush had developed into something more?
He had hope.
****
“Are you happy?” Sophia asked.
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?” Freya took a sip of her coffee. It was so good. This was one of the perks of working here. Such great coffee.
“You moved out of our apartment, and you’ve moved in with Jared. Are things going great with you?”
“I only slept there last night.”
“You’re sleeping with him?”
Freya paused. Her lies were coming back to haunt her. “There’s something I need to tell you, Sophia.”
“What is it?” Her friend was so trusting.
“I, erm, I kind of—no, I lied to you.”
“What about?”
“Sex.”
Sophia stared at her, waiting.
“Erm, I’ve never had sex before, and I didn’t have sex with Jared in his office. I … lied. I don’t even know why I lied. I just freaked out, and I wanted to tell you about my feelings for him. I don’t want everyone to think that my mom really did have an effect on me.”
“But she did?” Sophia asked.
“I think she did. I’m fighting it though. I want Jared so much, and I don’t want to keep thinking of Mom’s rants. I’m crazy, aren’t I?”
“You’re a little crazy.” Sophia chuckled. “Wow. You’ve not lied about anything else?”
“No, nothing else. I promise. Will you forgive me?” Freya asked.
“No, absolutely not. How dare you lie?” Sophia glared at her for an entire second, and then burst out laughing. “I don’t care. I’m hurt that you think you needed to lie, but I can see why. Your mother even scared me. All the men that cheated on her.”
“What if it happens to me, Soph? What if I’m going to get hurt?”
“Jared won’t do that to you. You’ve got to have some faith in yourself, and not keep thinking about your mother and her problems. Truth, are you having sex with Jared?”
Freya was so pleased, and knew she had to make it up to her friend somehow. She wasn’t going to lie to her again. “No.” She wanted to. Her dreams had been filled with him, and it had made for a very uncomfortable night. “We have separate rooms. We’re just going to get to know each other.”
“I thought you did.”
“We do but not like really close. It’s complicated, Sophia. He has this really beautiful house though, large rooms, and I even saw a library.”
“I know you love to read.”
“I know, right. He’s got this huge kitchen as well, but I can’t really do a whole lot of cooking.”
“You burn ramen noodles,” she said. “I get it.”
“We had breakfast, shared coffee, and talked about the news.” Freya frowned. “It was really nice.”
She didn’t want nice though. She wanted smoking hot, dirty, dreamy, all of it wrapped into one. The porn she used to watch didn’t help matters. As she was walking around his home, she was thinking of all the sexy stuff they could get down to doing. He’d been her crush, one that she’d thought she was over. Totally not, and being close to him was going to drive her crazy.
Before Sophia had arrived, Freya had struggled to focus on anything. Every now and again, she’d even caught herself staring at him as he’d been with a client. It was embarrassing. She really needed to get her shit together.
“You’re going to have to teach me how to cook,” Freya said.
Sophia burst out laughing. “You’re a danger to yourself and to everyone around you. I can’t do that.”
“Seriously?”
Her friend smiled. “You don’t have to cook to impress him. I’ve seen the way he looks at you, and he’s impressed already.”
“I want to be able to do something nice for him. Please, Sophia, this time I will pay attention to everything that you say.” She pressed her hands together, begging her. “I’ll do anything you want. I’ll be your partner in crime. Anything! Anything.”
Sophia was once again laughing. “You don’t need to do anything. I’ll teach you. It’ll be fun to see how much you’ve learned since the last time you asked.”
“I’ve not improved. Since you married Alfie, I’m very good at ordering food to last me a couple of days.”
Her friend shook her head. “That’s not good at all.”
“I know. I know.” She didn’t know why, but she really wanted to do something special for Jared, and men love food, and all that. She could do this. It would be a piece of cake.