Give Us a Chance (26 page)

"You know we're not...going to do it tonight, right?"

"I assumed we weren't."

"And you're okay with that?"

"I just want to be with you, Ivy. It's up to you to decide when you want us to go there."

I never in a million years thought Jake Wheeler would wait for sex. Maybe he really does like me as much as Callie says.

The room is silent, and then he asks, "Why did you want to stay here tonight?"

"I told you, I didn't want to say goodbye."

"But why?"

Saying this means exposing my feelings to him, and I'm afraid to do that. But he's been honest with me, so I need to be honest with
him
.

"Because I want to spend time with you. I like you, Jake. I like that you say what you think. That you're honest. That you're good to your family. That they're important to you, like mine is important to me. I like that you understand me and listen when I tell you about my mom, because most people don't. And I like that you go out of your way to help other people, like fixing my dad's bathroom, and that you hide the fact that you're paying for the supplies, which I know you are."

"Not all of them," he says softly. "Now it's my turn."

I flip onto my back. "To what?"

"Say what I like about
you
."

"You don't have to."

"I want to." He looks at me through the shimmer of the street lights filtering through his blinds. "I like that you're incredibly talented yet you still want to get better. I like that you're strong, which you have to be to put up with all the assholes in construction. I like that you're as close to your family as I am to mine, because family's important to me. I like that you're kind and caring and..." He pauses. "I like that you were willing to give me a chance because this has been one of the best weeks of my life."

He exhales, as if it took everything in him to admit that to me. And I'm sure it did. But he still told me, because like I said, he's open and honest about his feelings, which makes me want to trust him.

"It's been one of the best weeks for me too," I tell him.

He turns me toward him and kisses me, and the feel of his lips and his body pressed against mine is all it takes to lead us back to where we were last night, pleasuring each other without having sex. I could've easily had sex with him tonight but I wanted to wait. Things are going really well between us, and maybe this isn't fair to him given how much he's proven he can change, but I still have this fear that he'll break up with me once we have sex. So for now, we'll just keep doing what we're doing.

We fall asleep and don't wake up until the alarm goes off at six thirty. I shower and get ready for work and we have breakfast together. Then he takes me back to my apartment to get my car and we go our separate ways. We agreed to take tonight off from each other because he has to catch up on work and I want to go see my dad and Liza.

"How's the mantel coming?" I hear Nick's voice and cringe. I've been in a good mood all morning, focused on my work but also thinking about Jake, and I don't want Nick coming in here, ruining my mood with his rude comments and condescending tone.
 

"It's coming along fine," I say, continuing to sand the edges of the mantel.

"I was gonna ask Nash if I could help you finish it. I'm almost done with the window trim."

God, I hope Nash doesn't agree to let Nick help. I don't want him anywhere near me.

"What about the stair trim?" I ask.

"He can hire some other guy to do that. That's a rookie job. Someone with less experience can do it. I specialize in detail work. I should be doing the mantel." I hear the bitterness in his tone. He wanted to do the mantel because he knows it'll get noticed by people when authors are in here doing a reading. And when Nash does the grand opening and gives tours of this place for the press, he'll point out the mantel and the intricate details carved into the wood, and he'll likely mention my name.

Nick wants it to be his name that's mentioned, not mine. That's the only reason he wants to do the mantel. He has no interest in doing something with this much detail. I've watched him work. He lacks focus and he's sloppy, always rushing through the job just to get it over with. Saying he specializes in detail work is a joke. He has no patience for that. That's why Nash assigned him the window trim. But Nick still screwed it up. Nash reviewed his work last week and made him redo two of the windows. I'm guessing Nash wouldn't have even hired Nick if it weren't for Tom. He was probably part of the deal. I bet Nick couldn't even get a job on his own.

"Hey." I hear Jake's voice and quickly turn around, a big smile on my face. It's completely stupid, but I actually missed him, even though I just saw him this morning. "What's going on?"

Nick answers. "I'm talking to Ivy about the mantel. What are
you
doing here?" The smug grin on Nick's face says he already knows the answer to that. He's so damn nosy. I don't know why he's so concerned with my personal life.

"I had to talk to Nash about something," Jake says. I'm glad he didn't say he was here to see me. I need to keep this thing between Jake and me quiet, at least at work, although Nick already knows, and I'm sure he's told the other guys.

"So why are you in
here
then?" Nick asks. "Nash is in the office."

Jake walks over and stands in front of me, blocking me from Nick. "I wanted to see how the mantel is coming. It's a signature piece of the project. It's going to get a lot of attention."

Damn. I wish he hadn't said that. It'll just piss off Nick even more, which I think is what Jake was going for, but pissing off Nick will just make things worse for me.

"Which is why I should be doing it," Nick says. "I'm older than her. I have more experience."

I see Jake's jaw tighten. "You may be older than her but you're not—"

"Jake," I interrupt. "The mantel's not very far along so maybe you could come back later."

He glances back at me and reads my expression, which is pleading with him to let this go.

He turns back to Nick. "Why don't you get back to work?"

"You're not my boss," he says.

"I own the company that hired you," Jake says. From his tense stance it's clear he's angry, but his tone remains cool and collected.

"Your DAD owns the company." Nick smirks. "You just ride around in his SUV all day."

"I manage projects," Jake says. "And make a lot of hiring decisions. And by your attitude just now, it's clear you're not interested in working for us again."

Nick's eyes dart down, then to the side, and I see his neck move as he swallows. "I never said that."

"You didn't have to." Jake points to the door. "Now get back to work."

Nick grits his teeth, and clenches his hands as he turns and walks out the door.

Jake handled that perfectly. I thought he'd blow up at Nick but instead he kept his cool, keeping the upper hand, making sure Nick knew who was in control. Jake was the same way when he managed the Victorian. He'd get mad when a worker was being an asshole, but he never lost his cool, and people respected that. It's why he's such a good manager.

"Is he always coming in here bothering you like that?" Jake asks.

"No." I lower my voice in case Nick's listening outside the door. "Just leave this alone, Jake. I can handle it."

He shuts the door. "So he HAS been bothering you."

"I told you, I can handle it. If you or Nash get involved, it'll only get worse."

"What has he done? Tell me."

I sigh. "He's just jealous that I get better projects than him. He thinks it's because I'm dating you. His friend, Lance, saw us together at Rodeo Freddy's, and then Nick saw me leaving to have lunch with Jen and Callie."

"That has nothing to do with what projects you get assigned."

"Nick doesn't see it that way."

"Don't talk to him anymore. Stay away from him."

"That's hard to do when we work together. Jake, don't worry about this. I've handled assholes in the past. I can handle Nick."

"I wish we could get rid of him, but he came as a package deal when we hired his dad."

"I kind of figured that." I smile. "So did you come all the way here to see me?"

"Actually, I have to meet with Nash about some stuff. Seeing you was an added bonus." He glances back at the door, which has a glass panel in it. "I really want to kiss you right now but I can't risk someone seeing us."

"We'll just have to save it for later." But I don't want to wait. I want to kiss him right now. It's so tempting when he's right in front of me, looking really hot in black dress pants and a button-up shirt, the scent of his cologne lingering in front of me. He had to dress up today because he has some big meeting this afternoon about a possible new project.

"Well, I should get going." He reaches for my hand, holding it for just a moment before letting it go. "I'll call you later, okay?"

"Yeah. See ya."

He leaves and I get back to work, my mind still on Jake. I wish I knew where this was going. I don't want to keep falling for him if this is just going to end. But it has to end eventually, right? It's not like we're ever going to get serious. I know Jake doesn't want that, and neither do I. So why am I doing this? Am I a glutton for punishment? Am I going to end up at the same place I was at last spring? Alone and hurt by yet another guy?
 

Jake isn't Ryker, but that doesn't mean this relationship won't end the same way.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Jake

Three weeks have past and I'm still dating Ivy. I've now dated her for an entire month, which may seem like nothing to some people, but to me, it's a huge deal. And with any other girl, it would've seemed like the longest month of my life. But with Ivy, it's flown by.
 

We haven't spent every night together, but she spends at least three nights a week at my place, sometimes more. We still haven't had sex and I have no idea when we will, but the wait is nearly killing me. This is the longest I've gone without sex in years, and now I'm with this girl I'm completely crazy about, insanely attracted to, sleeping next to, and I can't have sex with her.

She says she needs more time. I think that's only because I keep getting accosted by other women everywhere I go, thanks to that most eligible bachelor shit. Ivy's often with me when this happens, and afterward, she gets quiet and withdrawn and doesn't want to do anything more than what we've already done. She sees those women approaching me and thinks I'm going to cheat on her. I keep telling her that's not going to happen but I don't think she believes me.

"That was my dad," Ivy says, crawling on top of me and straddling my lap. I'm sitting on the couch, watching basketball. Ivy just got here, but her phone rang as soon as she walked in the door. "He wanted to thank you again."

Last weekend, my brothers and I remodeled the bathroom for Ivy's dad. It took two full days of nonstop work and it's still not quite finished. But I can finish the rest myself. There are just a few minor things left to do.

"He's already thanked me a million times." I grab her ass and pull her closer.

"I know, but he wants to make sure you know much he appreciates all your work. He still wants to pay you something. Your brothers too."

"He's not paying us. Your dad needed the work done and we were happy to do it. End of story."

"But—"

"Stop talking and kiss me. I haven't seen you all day."

She smiles that smile that makes my damn heart beat faster. This girl. Shit. I thought I'd fallen hard for her that first week we were together, but that was nothing compared to how I feel now. When she's not with me, I can't stop thinking about her. When she's not in my bed, I wake up looking for her. I can't seem to get enough of her, and that scares the shit out of me. I still don't know what we're doing here and neither one of us is ready to talk about it.

Her lips press softly against mine, then she lets out a breath. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." I didn't see her earlier today and not much last weekend either. She wanted to help with the bathroom remodel but I kicked her out. It was already cramped enough in there with the four of us guys trying to work. So Ivy and Liza went out with Jen and Callie all weekend, and Steve, Ivy's dad, stayed home to answer any questions we had. Callie set up a buffet of food for us at every meal, like she always does when we do projects like this. My brothers and I work for free at least once a month for people in need. It's our way of giving back to the community. And Callie always brings over food so we don't have to spend time going out.

"Three days is too long," I say as I kiss her. I didn't want to kiss her in front of her dad, and she stayed at his house all weekend, so we haven't been together like this since last Friday.

She kisses me back. "Let me go change and then we'll continue this."

It's after eight and Ivy's spending the night so I'm assuming she wants to put on one of my t-shirts, which is what she usually wears to bed when she's over here. She loves wearing my shirts, and I like it when she wears them because she doesn't wear anything else, except a pair of sexy panties.

"Which one do you want?" I ask. We're in my bedroom now and I open the drawer that has all my t-shirts, freshly washed and neatly folded.

"The one you're wearing," she says, slinking over to me in just her red lace bra and matching panties. I swear, she's going to kill me with this no-sex thing. I want her so bad.

"Why this one?" I point to my shirt.

"Because I want it off you." She slides her hands under my shirt, her body pressed up against my erection. The thing's always up, always hard, when Ivy's around, waiting for her to say yes. Desperate for her to say yes.

"If I'm gonna be shirtless, then you shouldn't be wearing a bra."

"Fine."

She steps back and I yank my shirt off and toss it on the floor. I'm left wearing a pair of basketball shorts. I took a shower right before she got here and just threw on some shorts and a t-shirt. I didn't even bother with boxers.

I stand there and watch as she unhooks her bra and takes it off.