Crashing Into Love (18 page)

He was feeling again. That had to be a good thing.

One last uppercut, and the other stuntman crumpled to the ground in a perfectly orchestrated death.

“Cut!” the director yelled. “Nice ass-kicking.”

Jake waved and took his battered body off the set to where Trace was waiting with a giant thermos full of ice water.

“You’re the best, Trace. Thanks.” Jake eyed her black miniskirt and T-shirt. Trace rarely wore skirts, and based on her smile, he had a feeling her partner was back in town.

“Thanks. Would you mind if I left to meet Carla?” Trace and Carla, a model, had been dating on and off for three years.

“She’s back in town?” Jake was happy for her, although he had no idea how she put up with Carla’s air of pretentiousness. Jake had known Carla before she began dating Trace. She ran in some of the same circles he did, and he’d always felt she was anything but down to earth, while Trace was as real as they came.

“For the weekend, and I figured since you weren’t shooting, I’d take advantage.” She raised her brows.

“Yeah, sure.” He guzzled the water.

“Awesome. Oh, and she’s coming to the cast dinner with me next Friday. You said that was fine, right?” She reached for his empty thermos.

“Of course. Whoever you want to bring is cool with me.”

“I arranged for your driver, so you’re all set.”

“Thanks, Trace. Listen, I know Carla will probably take care of a car for the two of you, but feel free to arrange for it on my account, okay?”

Trace arched her pierced brow, which sported a silver barbell rather than her typical silver hoop.

“Jake, you’ve gone soft on me.” Her blue eyes had gone soft, too.

“
Pfft
. I offer that stuff to you all the time. You just never take me up on it.”

“Yeah, but you don’t usually do it until the very last second. Usually when your driver picks you up, I get a text that says,
Hey, you need a ride?
” She laughed and walked away.

“Trace,” Jake yelled.

Trace turned. “I almost forgot. Fiona’s off at six. She said she’d meet you at your trailer.”

“How’d you know I was going to ask about Fi?”

“You had that sickeningly mushy look in your eyes. Soft, Jake. Soft, soft, soft.”

“That’s not what she says.” He winked, and Trace waved, shaking her head as she walked away.

Back at his trailer, Jake showered and texted Fiona.
I’m at the trailer. Have a surprise for you.

His phone vibrated a few minutes later.
A yee-haw cowboy surprise? Should I bring my spurs?

He’d forgotten how quick-witted Fiona could be. What he had in mind hadn’t been sexual, but as his mind traveled back to making love with Fiona, he felt a rise in his pants. It had been forever since just thinking about a woman had brought that reaction. He liked this whole
feeling
thing. How the hell had he gone so long without it?

He was still thinking up a response when someone knocked at the trailer door. Jake pulled it open, anticipating Fiona. His smile fell flat at the sight of Megan Flexx.

She climbed the steps and leaned in for a kiss.

Jake leaned back. “Megan. What are you doing here?”

“I’m filming across the lot.” She narrowed her eyes and twirled her long dark hair around her finger. She blew a bubble with her gum, popped it loudly, then sucked the pink stickiness into her mouth in one fast inhalation. “Heard you were still here and thought we could…replay a few scenes from last month.”

Jake’s eyes darted around the lot, looking for Fiona—or the press. The last thing he needed was a shot of Megan wearing a black dress short enough to qualify as lingerie entering his trailer.

“I’ve got plans, Me—”

She pushed past him and walked into the trailer. Jake followed her toward the bedroom.

“Megan. I don’t have time for this.” He put his hands on his hips, and Megan turned in to him and pressed her body to his.

“We’ll be quick.” She hooked her finger in his belt hoop, and he gripped her wrist.

“No.” It was a first for him, turning down a quickie from Megan, and it felt like a first—strange and uncomfortable. Then again, he was turning down the hottest actress in the business.

She furrowed her brow and stuck her lower lip out in a crazy, sexy pout that would bring most men to their knees. It pissed Jake off. Not so much that it was coming from Megan, but that he’d created a take-me-as-you-want-me situation with not just Megan, but plenty of women, and now he had to clean up his own damn mess.

He abhorred messes.

She wrapped her free hand around his neck. “Oh, you want to play rough tonight? I’m all in.”

“Jake?”

Jake felt the blood drain from his face. He turned as Fiona stepped into the trailer. Her beautiful smile fell like lead as her eyes swept over them and filled with pain. She turned and hurried out of the trailer.

“Fi.”
Fuck
. Jake dragged Megan to the door. “Out. Now.”

“What the…?” She stumbled down the stairs.

“Sorry, Megan.” He pulled the trailer door shut and scanned the lot. Fiona was nowhere in sight.
Damn it
.

“She’s gone, Jake.” Megan set her jaw in an angry frown. “What the hell was that all about?”

“I’m trying to be a good boyfriend, and I’m sorry that I don’t have time to explain. It’s not you. It’s me, and all that appropriate shit. I’m no longer available.” He pulled out his cell as he ran in the direction of the parking lot.

“I thought that was a PR stunt,” she yelled after him.

“Not if I can help it,” he mumbled as he spotted Fiona hurrying across the blacktop.

 FIONA FOUGHT HARD against the tears that burned her eyes. Her chest ached.
I’m an idiot. Was that his little surprise? A threesome with Megan Flexx?
Her phone rang as she stormed across the lot with one thing in mind—getting the hell out of there as fast as she possibly could.

“Fiona!” Jake’s frustrated voice chased her.

She fisted her hands and gritted her teeth.
I was stupid to come here and think this would work.

A heavy hand landed on her shoulder. She stumbled, and Jake caught her in his damned strong arms.

“Fiona.” Every muscle in his face was pinched tight.

She twisted, trying to free herself from his grip, but he was holding her too tight. “Jake, let go.”

“Fiona, it’s not what it looks like.”

She froze at that stupid cliché. “Is that directly from a movie, because I’ve only heard it about a million times before. And it sounds just as lame coming from you as it does on the big screen.” A tear slipped down her cheek and she looked away.

“Fi.” His tone softened. “I promise you on all that is good in this world that I was not doing what you think I was doing. I might be a lot of things, but I’m not a cheat.”

She wanted to argue that point, to push at his chest, yell at him, and let the crazy that was brewing inside her out, but Jake was right. In the years they’d dated, he’d never once cheated on her, and he’d had ample opportunity. She knew what he was like now. He didn’t try to hide that from her. But in her heart, she trusted him. She still believed that Jake Braden’s word was good as gold, even if she’d lost sight of everything he’d done to make her feel comfortable and jumped to conclusions. If he said it wasn’t what it looked like, she knew he was telling her the truth.

He wiped her tears with his thumb and wrapped an arm around her waist.

“I’m sorry, Fi. I know how it must have looked. Megan came to the door, and I thought it was you. She walked inside before I had time to think. I turned her down, and I’d do it a million more times. I don’t want her.” He crouched a little so he was looking up at her downcast eyes with emotion so fervent it weakened her resolve. When he whispered her name—“Fi”— and brushed his thumb over her lower lip, her anger wilted even further.

“You’re holding me really tight,” was all she could manage.

“I’m not letting go.” He smiled, and it made her cheeks flush with embarrassment for overreacting.

She brought both fists to his chest and banged them lightly against his muscles.

“This is hard.”

“Well, I work out every day,” he teased.

She touched her forehead to his chest. “You kept telling me you were going to screw up, and when I saw you with her, I thought…”

“I don’t blame you.”

She met his gaze. “Yeah, but there’s a part of me that thinks I’m being stupid for believing you, because you keep telling me that you’re not the same guy you were before. How do I know
what
to believe? Maybe you made a mistake and you’re trying to cover it up, or—”

“Or maybe I didn’t and I don’t want to be blamed for something I
didn’t
do.” He searched her eyes and his gaze hardened. “I’m not the one who left you, Fiona. I’m not the one who chased you down and made me fall for you again, either.”

“I know, but—”

“But nothing.” He released her, and she wished he’d scoop her back into the safety of his arms. “I get that this sucks and that it looks like I fell right back into who I’ve been for all these years.” He ran his hand through his hair and turned away.

A lump lodged in Fiona’s throat, and when he turned back, the anger in his eyes had twisted to pain, and it slayed her, rooting her to the ground. He closed the distance between them and reached for her hand.

“Fiona, I don’t know how you thought all this would go, but none of this is going to be easy. People have expectations, and granted they’re expectations that I’ve created, but that doesn’t go away in a day, or a week, or…”

She held her hand up and shook her head. “Stop. I get it, okay? I feel stupid for storming out, and I feel stupid for feeling stupid!” She banged her head on his chest three times, trying to figure out what to do. She trusted Jake through and through, but she’d let jealousy consume her. She took one deep breath, then another, trying to bring her rational mind to the forefront.

“Fi.” He lifted her chin and smiled. “If I had walked in on you and some guy, I’d have gone ballistic. You didn’t do anything wrong, so you shouldn’t be upset for storming out. And I can promise you that I’d never humiliate you by cheating on you. I don’t think I knew if I could really say that to you before now, but now I’m sure. That’s not where I’ll mess up. I don’t even know how I might mess up, but it’s been a long time since I’ve had a girlfriend. Just know that I’ll never hurt you in that way.”

“Okay.” The honesty in his eyes did her in. He may have changed in a lot of ways, but in her heart she didn’t really believe he would cheat.

“I’m the one who alerted the media to our relationship, remember? Would I have done that—or gotten tested for every sexually transmitted disease known to man—if my plan was to hurt you?”

“You got tested?” He’d said he would, but she didn’t expect him to run out and have it done so quickly. This floored her—and spoke volumes about Jake’s integrity and his feelings for her. Now she felt even more stupid for assuming the worst.

“Yes, I got tested. Fiona, I do what I say I’m going to do. That hasn’t changed, and neither has my ability to be faithful, which, believe me, surprises me as much as it probably surprises you.” He laughed. “I don’t mean that how it sounds.”

“Yeah, you do.” She felt the tension rolling away. “I shouldn’t have assumed the worst.”

“No, you probably should have, but now we both know that you don’t have to. When I said I’d screw up, I didn’t mean by fooling around with someone else behind your back. I’m not sure what I meant, but now I’m sure it wasn’t that.”

“So, you
want
a monogamous relationship?” She hadn’t thought to question it before this. In her mind they were already there, but she hadn’t realized until just now that clarifying that it was what Jake wanted was probably a good idea, despite the fact that he’d gotten tested.

 “Here I was thinking we were already on the same page. Isn’t that what you want? What all this was about?”

“Yes. Definitely yes, but we never said it, so…”
Now I feel even more stupid
.

 He folded her into his arms again and kissed her forehead. “We’ve never had to say things with words, Fi. We just need to figure out how to navigate the rest of the world, and we’ll either sink or swim. I’m a really good swimmer. The question is, how long can you hold your breath?”

I’ve held it for the last few years. I’m pretty sure I can hold on a while longer.

Twenty minutes later they walked hand in hand into one of the buildings. Fiona convinced herself not to feel stupid for assuming the worst about Jake, and she could tell by his easy steps and the smile on his lips that he wasn’t upset with her about how she’d reacted. She only hoped that Megan Flexx wouldn’t say something that made her feel foolish.

“Where are we going?” Fiona asked. The building felt like a warehouse, with high, exposed-truss ceilings and hallways that echoed as they walked. They passed a doorway, and Jake draped an arm over her shoulder.

“It’s a surprise. You know, actors and actresses come to the sets and they rarely get to see much more than the places they run their scenes. They give tours to strangers who will never work a day on a set, and they see more than the people who are sweating their scenes out day after day. And then there’s you.”

He stopped in front of a closed door and turned to face her. He rested his forearms on her shoulders and fiddled with her hair, making her heart do all sort of leaps and flips.

“You’re here every day, helping your friend without being paid, because you wanted to get my attention. You put your own job on hold, your own life on hold, for that matter, and all you wanted in return was a chance at us being together again.”

She crinkled her nose. “I sound like a loser, don’t I?”

“No. You sound like my lucky charm.” He pressed his lips to hers in a sweet kiss. “You deserve to have some fun other than pure enjoyment of my incredibly awesome body.”

She rolled her eyes and choked back,
It’s that cocky side of you that makes me want to play with your body right now.

“So…” He pushed open the door, revealing an enormous room with rack after rack of clothing and costumes. He took her hand and led her inside, closing the door behind them.