Chapter Twenty-Nine
No, no, no, no, no! This couldn’t be happening.
Jude wasn’t here. Felicity wasn’t his wife. Bryna hadn’t been having a raunchy affair with the organizer’s husband.
She was going to blink, and this nightmare would disappear.
“This is Bryna?” Jude asked. Shock was clear in his voice too.
Oh shit! She had only ever told him that her name was Bri.
“The student who has been working with you on the charity event?”
She closed her eyes again, hoping to make this all go away. Please work!
Fuck! It wasn’t working!
Jude’s eyes met Bryna’s in disbelief and…horror. She was sure that she mirrored his expression. She wanted to say so much to him in the moment, but what could she say?
Yes, I’m a seventeen-year-old high school student. I’ve been meaning to tell you.
She didn’t think that was going to help anything.
“Yes! Isn’t she wonderful? She’s done the most amazing job,” Felicity said. She smiled brightly at Bryna.
His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as he swallowed.
Right about now would be a good time for some acting skills to kick in.
“Everything looks…great,” Jude said.
Smooth.
“I think so, too,” Felicity agreed.
“Thanks,” Bryna managed to get out. Her stomach was churning, and she was short on breath. She needed to get out of there, get some air, get her emotions under control. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to find the restroom.”
Without a backward glance at Jude, she turned and walked directly into the crowd.
She was horrified, and surely, everyone would notice. But she pushed through the benefit guests, toward the back of the room, anyway. She couldn’t believe what had happened. Tonight was supposed to be the night she and Jude worked out all their issues. They were going to be honest with each other, but she hadn’t expected it to ever happen this way!
And the look on his face when he had found out.
She choked down the pain. He’d been disgusted with her. She had thought that when she finally told him that she was still in high school, it wouldn’t matter because they would be on equal footing…equally in love.
But how could he look at her like that if he was in love with her? How could he love her if he had shown up tonight to be with Felicity?
She just needed a minute to think before panic set in. She rushed into the restroom, and the room was mercifully empty. She locked herself into a stall and leaned her head back against the door as she closed her eyes.
What the hell was she going to do?
She could not go back out there with Jude and Felicity.
Yet she couldn’t leave. She wouldn’t leave. This was her event. She had done all the work to get this thing running. She wouldn’t be scared off because he was here. She would simply avoid him at all costs.
That was possible. Right?
Her hands stopped shaking, and she straightened. After taking a deep breath, she left the stall and stared at herself in the mirror. She was strong. She was the queen. Later, she would figure out what the fuck was happening with Jude and why he had fucking lied to her.
She left the restroom and walked back toward the waiting room of guests. Halfway to her destination, a hand reached out from an open doorway and pulled her inside by the elbow.
“What the—” she cried.
Then, her back hit against a firm body, and a hand covered her mouth. The door was kicked shut, and she let out a muffled scream.
“Bri,” Jude whispered into her ear, silencing her outburst.
She breathed heavily in his embrace. Her body molded to his, and despite everything, she was turned on by his touch. She couldn’t help her body’s reaction to him. It had been too long since she had seen him, and even before she had gotten to know him, his body had set her off. He was still holding her against him, and she wondered if he was thinking the same thing.
How wrong would it be for him to take her right here with his wife in the other room?
God, she was sick. She was not that person!
He had fucking said they were separated. And she had believed him. She hated that he had lied to her about that, but she hadn’t known. Now that she did though, it changed everything. She would not be the girl on the side. No matter how she felt about him.
She wrenched herself out of his grip and faced him. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“We need to talk. Now.”
“That is the epitome of bad ideas,” she said in frustration. “Your wife is out there! I’m leaving.”
She started for the door, but he grabbed her again.
“Not before you tell me the truth!” he said. His eyes, which had been so beautiful and comforting, stared at her with anger and confusion.
“The truth about what?” she snapped. She smacked his hand away from her.
“About you. You’re a high school student?”
“You want the truth as if I’ve lied to you!” she snapped. She couldn’t believe this was happening right here, right now. “You never asked if I was in high school, if I went to college, what kind of work I was in. You never asked how old I was! You liked the mystery, remember?”
“I met you in a fucking bar. I shouldn’t have had to ask you how old you are!”
“Yes, because no one underage goes to bars,” she quipped.
Jude ran a hand back through his hair. “This is fucking ridiculous. Just tell me how old you are.”
“How old are you?” she asked. Even when he had asked her at point-blank, she still had to deflect the question. Seventeen. Why was that so fucking hard to say?
“Thirty-two.”
Bryna’s mouth hung open slightly. She had known he was older, but she had always told herself that he was probably twenty-seven. Only ten years older than her. Not fifteen. Christ!
She opened her mouth and then looked away from him. “Seventeen,” she whispered.
“Fuck!” he cried, whirling away from her. His hands were balled into fists, and he looked like he was going to punch his way through the nearest wall. “You’re a minor! This cannot be happening. We had sex.” His eyes found hers across the room. He was panicking. She could see the desperation in his face. “I took you out of the country.”
“Yeah, I was there for all that.”
“Don’t you understand?” he said, rushing back to her and grabbing her by the shoulders. He shook her softly as if to make the message clearer. “If anyone found out, I would be in a world of trouble—statutory rape, child abduction.”
“I’m not a child! And I consented to everything you did to me.” She looked him up and down.
“It doesn’t fucking matter that you consented. If you tell anyone it happened, then I’m ruined.” He shook his head. Then, his eyes turned demanding. “Promise that you won’t tell anyone.”
Bryna glared at him. Was this what they had come to? Promises for her silence?
“Why should I stay silent when you obviously don’t give a shit about me?”
He didn’t even blink. “I’ll give you anything you want to make this go away,” he insisted. “What do you want? Money?”
She stumbled backward a step. Her breathing was shallow. How could he offer it up so casually? He hadn’t even disagreed with her. Until that moment, she would have argued with Gates until it was her last breath. But Jude had offered her money to stay silent. Had he really been using her all along?
Even if he had actually liked her, she had never felt more disgusted. “I never wanted you for your money!”
“Oh?” His hand reached out and traced the B on her necklace.
She smacked his hand away. “You gave this to me as a Christmas present! All I wanted was you,” she told him earnestly.
“Did you think you could have me?” he asked. He seemed genuinely surprised. “You knew I was married.”
“You said you were separated, you motherfucker!” She smacked him across the face. The sound rang out in the small room. She didn’t recoil at the anger brimming in his eyes. She just returned the scathing look.
He grabbed her hand and yanked it hard to his side. “When we first met, I was separated from my wife. But ever since New Year’s, she’s been trying to get us to work things out. That is why I’m here with her.”
“I don’t want your excuses. Did you ever tell me the truth when we were together?”
“I told you what you needed to know. You liked what I was providing. You appreciated it. I was happy to give it to you.”
“Give what exactly? Your body? Your money? But never your heart,” she spat.
“You didn’t ask for that,” he said casually.
“I shouldn’t have had to,” she snarled. “Who are you, Jude? Where is the man I was falling for?” She felt her resolve weakening, the pain creeping into her heart, the tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. She couldn’t mask the torment, but she refused to cry in front of him. He didn’t deserve her tears, her mascara was too damn expensive.
“The man you thought you knew was a dream, Bri. An illusion. I can’t be that person for you.”
“I see that now,” she said. Her voice was steely.
Gates had been right all along. Jude didn’t love her. With the time they had spent together, the grand gestures, the gifts, the affection…she had thought that he loved her. But she had just been blinded by the fact that Jude was giving her all the things she wasn’t getting anywhere else.
She had thought that because he saw into the depths of her heart and understood her suffering that they were connected. Now, she didn’t know if that had all been an act for her benefit.
Had he used the line to get her into bed? Had he been playing a game with her the whole time?
Even that first night when she had gotten into his Jaguar, he had cringed at the thought of a gold digger yet…he had created one.