The Scale (Martha's Way) (19 page)

“I’m not sure which one of you my soon-to-be-wife is going
to kill first,” he continued while taking hurried steps toward them.

When he reached them, his warm brown eyes scanned her
untamed curls, her swollen lips, where she could still feel Jason’s lips. His
eyes rested on Jason’s jacket covering her ripped dress.

He knew.

“How’s my favorite girl doing?”

I’m not your favorite
girl, my twin sister is.

Self-conscious, her hands clutched the front of the jacket.
Minka lowered her head in order not to meet his eyes. As she did so, she noticed
the easy smile on his lips, not a note of jealousy or envy on his handsome
face. In fact, he looked amused as he looked back and forth between her and
Jason.

Jason slid an arm around her waist and pulled her against
him. “Sorry, we…”

“Jason Charles Montgomery,” Keely called between clenched
teeth, marching toward them. “I’m going to murder you.”

All heads turned toward her sister approaching them with
Claire and Rita not too far behind. When she finally reached them, she settled
into Blake’s waiting arms.

“That was more than one hour,” she screeched.

Blake tightened his arms around her and placed a kiss on her
head. He grinned from ear to ear, enjoying the situation. Minka shifted her
weight from one leg to the other.

Jason glanced at his watch. “Barely over one hour,” he
responded, completely unaffected by Keely’s anger. He turned his attention to
Minka. “I’ll pick you up in a few hours.” His lips touched hers as he turned on
his heels to his Jeep.

“Oh, Jason,” Rita’s voice followed. “Can you give me a ride
to town?”

His body came to a stop. Minka caught her breath as he
turned to look at Rita. If the other woman noticed the frustration in his eyes,
she didn’t show it. Instead she smiled invitingly at him.

“Where’s your car?”

“By West Chop,” she explained, referring to a popular
restaurant in town. “I met Claire and Keely there to discuss flower
arrangements and we drove here together.”

“Rita, I…” his voice trailed off. He looked at Minka.

The pretty woman chuckled, shook her head. “A ride and a
drink for old time’s sake, Jay.” she purred. “I promise I’ll be good and maybe
we can forget about the other night.” She turned to Claire and Keely, and
grinned. “Jason stopped by and I kicked him out. We haven’t talked since.”

Keely crossed her arms over her chest and smiled back at
Rita. “Oh, when was that?”

Rita shrugged. “Saturday night. We got into a little tiff,
but…”

“Rita, stop,” Jason interrupted, cutting her off.

Minka remained still by his side. The words burned her to her
very core. She was smart enough to know the other woman was trying to get under
her skin. That fact did not make the pain less arduous.

He was watching her. She felt his stare on every inch of her
body. Instead of meeting him head-on, she stepped away from the group. “I need
to leave.”

“Minka,” he called out.

There was something in his voice. Remorse, she thought. He
reached for
her,
she took another step back,
distancing herself a little more from him.

“I have to go.” But damn it, her car was back at the hotel.

It was Blake who reached into his pocket and pulled out a
set of keys. “Keely and I will pick up the car later,” he said gently. But she
recognized the sympathy in his voice. It was similar to the first time they
met.

She took the keys and started to walk toward Blake’s SUV. As
she drove past Jason’s Jeep, she noticed Rita easing her slim body into the
spot she had been only minutes ago, the same place where Jason had made love to
her. She also noticed her sister in Blake’s arms and the joy in his face.
A man obviously in love.
He lowered his head to take
possession of Keely’s lips.

Minka blocked the images out of her mind’s eye and turned
the car on the main road toward Edgartown. Warm tears flowed down her cheeks.
She didn’t bother to brush them away. Instead she cried away the bedlam Jason
brought into her life. The realization she had merely been a substitute because
someone else turned him down for physical pleasure was disheartening. A little
voice reminded her that in some ways she was doing the same to Jason, using him
to get over someone who was out of her reach. Therefore, the realization he had
done the same to her shouldn’t crush her as it did, but it did, and she had no
control over it.

The admission of her hypocrisy failed to bring her any
comfort. If anything, it only expanded the wound. It might have started that
way, but her attraction to him ran deeper. Jason Montgomery could never be a
substitute, at least not on a physical level. She doubted emotionally as well,
if he ever chose to give himself completely to someone.

With a swipe to her cheek, she dried the tears. It would be
so easy to get on the next ferry and run where no one else could follow her,
run to a place where she could find calm from the wreckage her life was quickly
becoming. A place where she would not have to deal with the torment she felt
standing between Blake and Jason. A place where she didn’t have to figure out
exactly why it didn’t bother her as much to watch Keely in the arms of her
fiancé as it did seeing Rita getting into Jason’s Jeep.

* * * *

“I’m excited,” Lily exclaimed on the other end of the phone.

Minka
smiled,
delighted her friend
was going to be on The Vineyard at the end of the week. Looking out the window
from the hotel room, the weak smile escaped her lips as she watched the
vacationers strolling on the busy street. She listened to her friend as they
finalized the details.

“I booked a room at The Gosnold. A cute little cottage named
after the British explorer Bartholomew Gosnold, who apparently sailed to the
island in 1602.”

She knew better than to convince her friend to stay with
her. To think just a few hours ago, she had agreed to give up her room and stay
with Jason for the remainder of her stay on the island. “I have a few places we
can go visit.”

“What about Mr. Sexy? Where is he going to be?”

“I…” She hesitated as her mind wandered to the scene
earlier. “I’m sure he’ll be busy.”

“Trouble in paradise?”

Minka explained the events to her friend from the time Jason
entered the room to their encounter with Rita after they returned back to the
inn.

“So, now you’re not going to stay with him?” Lily asked once
Minka finished. “It’s possible he just gave her a ride.
Nothing
more.”

“It’s too much.” The reality was Jason was out of her
league. Whether for a night, a week or two, she needed to stay away from him.

“I guess having fun for once could be too much.”

Minka chose to ignore the sarcasm in friend’s voice. “It’s
not that.”

“Then what is it? You think he’s sleeping with her too?”
There was a slight pause on the other end of the phone, but Minka remained
quiet. “You’re looking for an excuse because you like him and he’s not Blake.
Minka, you can’t feel guilty for liking someone that’s not your sister’s
fiancé.”

A silence fell between them. Although she knew there was
validity to Lily’s words, Minka’s insecurity still lingered. In her eyes, Rita
was better fitted for Jason. The other woman had a bigger personality, was easy-going
and more sexual. Everything she lacked. The landline in her room rang. Minka
asked Lily to hold and she answered the other phone.

“Miss Greene,” the innkeeper greeted her in her usual
friendly voice. “Mr. Montgomery is here to see you. Should I send him up?”

The unexpected announcement caught her off balance. He had
come to her. Her eyes lingered on his jacket and, keeping her voice leveled;
she confirmed that Jason be let up to her room.

“Jason is coming up.”

“Well, my friend, go have some fun,” Lily teased. “I’ll see
you in a couple of days. Love you.”

After ending the conversation with Lily, she hurried to the
mirror to fix her tear-stained face and inhaled a deep breath.

She opened the door after the knock, and performed a quick
survey of his appearance. He was still in his suit minus the jacket. Although
still wrinkled from being with her, his shirt was now neatly tucked in and his
face looked strained.

Tension filled her. Was he here to tell her he had
reconciled with Rita?

“Invite me in,” he demanded.

She stepped aside, allowing him entrance to her room. He
stood in the room, big and badass, taking in all the details. His expression was
a perfect blend of dark and stormy, revealing nothing until his gaze rested on
the bed and he clenched his jaw. She widely skirted it and walked past him to
the Lorraine armchair, where his jacket was neatly laid. She picked it up and
handed it to him.

“Thank you for lending it to me.”

“I ripped your dress. The least I could have done.”

Their fingers brushed against each other as he took the
jacket from her, sending waves of electricity through her. A reminder of the
hold he had on her—at least physically. She pulled away quickly, as if his
touch scorched her skin.

For a moment, he seemed to hesitate and wanted to say
something, but instead he gently placed the jacket on the bed. She remained
standing by the chair with her arms crossed over her chest, keeping as much
distance as possible between her and the pull of his touch.

He stood quiet, watching her. His gaze hooded. She wished
she had a poker face to hide the pain that she knew she showed. Minka tried to
focus her attention on anything but the large man whose presence consumed her
and the bed that lay behind him. But, she couldn’t look away as he closed the
distance between them.

He stopped inches away from her and put his arms around her,
a loose grip, giving her enough room to pull out of his hold if she felt the
urge to do so. She stood stiffly in his arms, afraid to relax. And she couldn’t
help but wonder if his arms had just been around Rita.

“I’m sorry about earlier. Who I am should never bring you
pain.”

His voice was tense and held a level of sincerity. Her body
folded in his arms and her head lowered to his chest. He tightened his embrace.
Stillness filled the room.

“Rita and I slept together on and off for a while,” he
murmured. “She wanted something I couldn’t give her.”

His voice was very matter-of-fact with little emotion. She
processed the words and tried not to think of Jason tangled up with Rita. No,
she wouldn’t allow herself to think about him with another woman, to compare. A
little bit of pain pulled the strings of her heart and squeezed around it.
Things like that shouldn’t bother her; just like Rita or the kiss at Vapor
shouldn’t have bothered her.

With measured steps, she pulled out of his arms and met his gaze.
“A relationship,” she spoke the words softly. That realization left a void
inside of her.

“That’s not who I am, Minka.” He ran a hand through his hair
with exasperation. “I hurt her, I guess, and for that I apologized today. But I
needed to come here to let you know I am not sleeping with her. I don’t want
her. I want you.”

She rubbed her hands over her arms, fighting back the tears
that threatened to run down her cheeks.

“I would never lie to you.” His voice was steady, solid, and
genuine.

She believed him.
 
But honesty couldn’t expunge pain or heartache. And often it was the
hardest thing to digest.

She was twenty years old all over again.
Drunk
with Phil, the football star on campus.
She had given herself to him in
a moment of impulse. He wouldn’t even talk to her the next day.

She swallowed away the images of the past. The tears of
rejection that flew so freely on her cheeks earlier threatened to come back.
Blinking rapidly, she turned away from Jason.

But, standing there in her room, she was all too aware of
him. “The other night, the first time we slept together…”

His body pressed against her back, but his hands didn’t
touch her. Minka closed her eyes, fighting the desire to lean her weight on his
hard chest. “You weren’t a substitute. I was having a tough day, and I admit I
did go visit Rita. Quite frankly, I went to see her because she was familiar
and…accessible.”

“I get it.
It’s
fine,” she replied,
and hoped her voice sounded indifferent.

“We didn’t sleep together. She kicked me out, actually,” he
admitted. “By the time I made it to Vapor, sex was the last thing on my mind. I
just wanted to kill some time, relax, and have a drink.”

She nodded. “It shouldn’t bother me.”

“It would bother me if I found out the same night I slept
with you there was someone else.”

His admission caught her off-guard. “It would?”

“Yes,” he answered without a beat.

Confusion clouded her brain. She turned to face him again.
“I want to believe you, Jason.”

One finger traced her face. “If I wanted sex that badly,
Rita wasn’t my only option.”

Ouch. The words stung. “Sure,” she responded, trying to
cover her pain.

“God, Minka that came out wrong.” He stepped away and turned
his back to her, thrusting his hands in his pockets.

He let out a deep breath then turned to face her. His blue
eyes sparkled with something she couldn’t explain.

“I want you,” he added softly. “It blows my mind how much I
want you. It scares me because I’ve never wanted anyone this much and you’re
only here until next week. But I want your two weeks here with me, every free
second of it, to be with me.”

Her body shook with the reality of what Jason was presenting
to her. The physical need scared her enough. He was too intense sexually, too
emotionally removed—and her desire for him was too excessive. Two weeks at his
house would not lessen it. If anything, she guessed her yearning would only
increase, leaving her broken and shattered once more.