But then, so had he. He was dressed in a beautifully tailored suit that made his shoulders seem all the broader and, while he wasn’t wearing a tie, the white open-necked shirt combined with the dark blue of his suit intensified the navy-blue of his eyes.
Jaz opened the door a little wider. ‘I’ll just get my wrap.’
Jake stepped into her flat and closed the door. She turned to face him as she draped her wrap over her shoulders, a little shiver coursing over her flesh as she saw the way his gaze went to her mouth as if pulled there by a powerful magnet.
The air quickened the way it always did when they were alone.
‘Is something wrong?’ she said.
He closed the small distance between their bodies so that they were almost touching. ‘I have something for you,’ he said, reaching into the inside pocket of his jacket.
Jaz swallowed as he took out a narrow velvet jewellery case the same colour as his eyes. She took it from him and opened it with fingers that were suddenly as useless as a glove without a hand. Jake took it from her and deftly opened it to reveal a stunning diamond pendant on a white-gold chain that was as fine as a gossamer thread.
Jaz glanced up at him but his face was unreadable. She looked back at the diamond. She had jewellery. Lots of it. Most of it she had bought herself because jewellery was so personal, a bit like perfume and make-up. She hadn’t had a partner yet who had ever got her taste in jewellery right. But this was...perfect. She would have chosen it herself if she could have afforded it. She knew it was expensive. Hideously so. Why had Jake spent so much money on her when he didn’t even like her? ‘I’ll give it back once we’re done,’ she said. ‘And the ring.’
‘I chose it specifically for you,’ he said, taking it out of the box. ‘Turn around. Move your hair out of the way.’
Jaz did as he commanded and tried not to shudder in pleasure as his long strong fingers moved against the sensitive skin on the back of her neck as he secured the pendant in place. She could feel the tall, hard frame of his body against her shoulder blades, his strongly muscled thighs against her trembling ones. She knew if she leaned back even half an inch she could come into contact with the hot, hard heat of him. She felt his hands come down on the tops of her shoulders, his fingers giving her a light squeeze as he turned her to face him. She looked into the midnight blue of his inscrutable gaze and wondered if her teenage crush was dead and buried after all. It felt like it was coming to life under the warm press of his hands on her body.
He trailed a lazy fingertip from beneath her ear to her mouth, circling it without touching it. But it felt like he had. Her lips buzzed, fizzed and ached for the pressure of his. ‘You look beautiful.’
‘Amazing what a flashy bit of jewellery can do.’
He frowned as if her flippant comment annoyed him. ‘You don’t suit flashy jewellery and I wouldn’t insult you by insisting on you wearing it.’
‘All the same, I don’t expect you to spend so much money on me. I don’t feel comfortable about it, given our relationship.’
His eyes went to her mouth for a moment before meshing with hers. ‘Why do you hate me so much?’
Jaz couldn’t hold his gaze and looked at the open neck of his shirt instead. But that just made it worse because she could see the long, strong, tanned column of his throat and smell the light but intoxicating lemony scent of his aftershave. She didn’t know if it was the diamond olive branch he had offered her, his physical closeness or both that made her decide to tell him the truth about that night. Or maybe it was because she was tired of the negative emotion weighing her down. ‘That night after I left your room... I... Something happened...’
Jaz felt rather than saw his frown. She was still looking at his neck but she noticed the way he had swallowed thickly. ‘What?’ he said.
‘I accepted a drink off one of the guests. I’m not sure who it was. One of the casual seasonal theatre staff, I think. I hadn’t seen him before or since. I was upset after leaving you. I didn’t care if I got drunk. But then... I, well, you’ve probably heard it dozens of times before. Girls who get drunk and then end up regretting what happened next.’
‘What happened next?’ Jake’s voice sounded raw, as if something had been scraped across his vocal chords.
Jaz still couldn’t meet his gaze. She couldn’t bear to see his judgement, his criticism of her reckless behaviour. ‘I had a non-consensual encounter. Or at least I think it was non-consensual.’
‘You were...raped?’
She looked at him then. ‘No, but it was close to it. Somehow I managed to fight him off, but I was too ashamed to tell anyone what happened. I didn’t even tell Miranda. I haven’t told anyone before now.’