The Anatomy of Jane (10 page)

“Way to go.” The door opened and Irene stepped in; my shoulders drooped. She was the other beautiful broken woman in my life who was driving me insane.

“Why did you bring her here?”

“I wanted to see how you’d react to her all dressed up,” she replied, leaning against my door. “I heard you fighting on Friday, and that was the first time I’ve seen you so engaged with a woman. You like her.”

Walking up to her, I made sure she understood I was not playing around. “Do. Not! Drag her into your mess, Irene. You are twenty-eight years old, so fix things yourself. Last time you used people, how did that work out for you?”

“Fuck you,” she hissed before exiting.

Why did this shit happen to me?

Nothing is painful.
Jane’s voice echoed in my mind, and I suddenly felt the urge to find her…only to apologize, of course.

When I said I had an addiction to Maxwell Emerson, I was not being facetious. In the four years we had been together, I had never been with anyone else…that fact alone was insane. I, man-whore Wes, had been and was in a monogamous relationship? Even my own mothers were shocked when I told them. It wasn’t that I couldn’t, I just had never found a person who could satisfy the raging lust I felt all the goddamn time. Then I met him and he was raging along with me.

Feeding an addiction…living with codependency…stalking...love
—call it whatever you will, but I was never that far away from him, which is why when Senator Elspeth Yates begged me to personally cater her event that evening, I said yes, even though I’d sworn to myself I’d never cater any event. When the prime minister of France wanted to eat my food, he came to my restaurant like everyone else.

Which begged the question: what the fuck was I doing there?

“This needs more vinegar! Chop the basil now and wait ten minutes once the—” I stopped mid-sentence when I saw Jane rushing down the stairs. She was dressed in emerald green and her face was puffy and pink. She had her shoes in one hand and the train of her dress with the other.

“Tell me you see her,” my sous-chef exclaimed. “Do you know her?” he asked, confirming I wasn’t dreaming.

“Bloody hell,” I whispered and was awed at how beautiful she still managed to look even while obviously upset.

“Chef?”

“Chop the basil now and wait ten minutes to grate the truffles on top of it,” I said to him, not taking my eyes off her as she ignored all the kitchen staff and moved toward the back patio. Taking off my chef’s apron, I moved to the fridge and took out a single chocolate and vanilla parfait with cherry sauce.

“Spoon,” I snapped at one of them.

“Here, Chef.”

“Nicklaus the kitchen is yours.”

“Yes Chef,” he nodded, not looking up from his dish. It was one of the reasons why I could trust him. Pulling the door open, I was immediately hit with a blast of cold air, which oddly didn’t seem to affect her at all. She sat on the steps, staring up at the night sky.

“Come here often?” I asked, taking a seat beside her. Her head turned to me so fast I thought it would snap off.

“Why are you everywhere?” she groaned, brushing back her hair.

“That is not the reaction I was hoping for,” I muttered, handing her the dessert and getting back up.

“No, sorry,” she called out before I took a step.

“Are you sure? Because I don’t do well with crying women.”

“Is that why you brought the dessert?” She smiled, taking a bite. She paused, glancing down at it. I grinned and sat back down.

“I’m amazing. Go on, you can say it.”

She made a face at me, struggling. “It’s all right…not orgasmic though.”

“It shouldn’t be. At least not with the first bite,” I said, watching as another spoonful entered past her full lips. “A great orgasm doesn’t happen remarkably fast, Ms. Chapman. It’s the buildup and the path that gets you there.”

She stared at me, no longer eating, so I took the spoon from her mouth, scooped up more chocolate, and brought it back to her lips. They parted for me. “You feel everything first, your mouth watering. The shiver has gone up your spine…the tingling in your ears and hands. Your nipples are getting harder and harder as your pussy gets wetter and wetter. You should be moaning with pleasure, savoring every inch of it to the point that it is driving you insane, not screaming out, and not giving in. It is then and only then”—I fed her the last bite—“that I let you cum.”

She gasped and swallowed with eyes wide. She turned away from me, and I smirked like the dirty sinner I was.

“You are all right, Ms. Chapman.”

“Shut up!” She put her hand over my lips, covering them. “You and that damn accent and your fucking dessert are confusing me.”

I waited for her to take her hands off. When she did, I told her the truth. “You aren’t being confused; you’re being turned on. Your nipples are proof of that.”

“It’s cold!” she snapped, placing her hands over them.

“It was cold when I came out, and they weren’t like that. Believe me, I would have noticed if they were.”

“How can you be flirting with me when you are in a relationship?”

Good fucking question. Max was the first person to ever capture my attention like this and now here she was like a damn hurricane I couldn’t ignore.

“But I guess it’s fair seeing as Max kissed me.”

“He did what?” The little wanker!

“Don’t get jealous. He was doing it to protect me from this—” I didn’t give a shit. Reaching over, I did what I’d been dying to do from the very first night she’d caught us. My lips were soon on hers and I could taste the chocolate, cherry, and vanilla on her tongue. Her lips were just as soft as I’d thought they’d be, and I wanted—no, I needed more. Moaning into my mouth, she almost gave in before breaking away.

“Now it’s fair,” I told her, trying to catch my breath.

“You two are insane!” she snapped and got up to leave. I wanted to go after her, but due to the rather large situation I was having between my legs, I thought better of it.

Her lips would be beautiful on my cock…on Max’s cock.

“Bloody fuck,” I gasped out.

Why had I flirted with her? Because she was beautiful and I wanted her, but also because I knew Max wanted her too. Whatever the excuse the little shit made in order to kiss her was a bunch of bollocks. He had kissed her because he wanted to. The fact that he wanted to turned me on.

“Fuck! Go down!” I yelled at my cock.

Both of them were going to kill me.

“Can you believe she had the audacity to show her face?” I heard one of the women whisper when I got back upstairs. Following their gaze, I saw two women staring at Irene as she spoke with Max.

“No, why? What happened?” another one whispered.

“Well, three years ago she fell for this total fraud. She kept showing him off, some hotshot Wall Street broker. Turns out she knew he was a fraud, but he was blackmailing her. She was a total junkie, and he said he was going to expose her. She convinced so many people to trust him with their money while all the time knowing they’d have losses. She selfishly just wanted to save herself. It was a huge scandal. She only avoided jail time because she’s part of the Emerson family. Instead she exiled herself to France. Who knows what kind of trouble she got in there. It must have been horrible if she’s back here groveling for attention again. Hopefully she does her aunt a favor and goes somewhere.”

I didn’t want to hear any more. Grabbing two full glasses off the serving tray, I took a couple of steps back before bumping into the women and spilling the wine all over their dresses.

“Oh my god!” I gasped out

“Have you lost your mind!” Little Miss Gossip screamed at me with her hand in the air.

“I’m so, so sorry!”

“You haven’t even begun to be—”

“Ladies.” Max came up beside me. “I apologize for this, please, let the maids assist you in cleaning up. I promise I’ll personally reimburse you both.”

“It’s all right, Mr. Emerson.” They tried to be cute and I wanted to roll my eyes. However, when their glares shifted onto me again, I pretended to feel terrible.

“I’m so sorry,” I repeated again as they left.
Good fucking riddance.

Max turned to me, eyebrow raised. “I saw you spill the drinks on them on purpose.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” I shrugged.

“Thank you.” The corners of his lips turned up and he looked, for the first time, really cute. “And I’m sorry for earlier.”

“I must have been gone longer than I realized for you to develop a whole new personality.”

“I swear you just enjoy aggravating me.”

“Just a little bit.”

“You do know tomorrow I’ll just make sure you have a shit load of things to clean,” he replied.

“I quit. Remember?” I was done with their penthouse.

He shook head. “Didn’t you hear me? You don’t make the rules. You are the worker bee. I told your boss I wanted you as my maid. If not, then I was done with her service. She’s going to pressure you to come, because like I said, everyone is self-servicing. I bet she’ll even threaten to fire you if you don’t show up.”

“You asshole! Why are you tormenting me?” I groaned.

“Simple. You’ve seen things, and I’d rather not deal with another maid. So I expect to see you bright and early, Ms. Chapman, or I’ll come and get you myself.”

“I hate you—”

“Maxwell.” At that moment, a woman stepped forward wearing an asymmetrical black dress. Her black hair was slicked back and her blue eyes were openly staring at me. I knew she was his mother, the infamous Elspeth Yates, and she was gorgeous.

“Mother,” Max said, standing straighter, if possible, and also tenser. “You look beautiful as always.”

“Thank you dear. Are you going to introduce me to your
friend
—”

“Fiancée,” he corrected, and I looked around praying there was another woman beside him. Nope, just me.

The fucking asshole.
Had he not heard a word I’d just said to him?

“Actually ma’am, I rejected him. Jane Chapman. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. Your home is stunning.” I reached out to take her hand and she stared at me in confusion.

“You rejected my son? Why?” she asked, not shaking my hand.

“He’s a conceited, narcissistic asshole.” I dropped my hand. “And on that note, I’ll excuse myself.”

Proudly, I walked back over back to Irene.

“Bravo,” she clapped for me. “But in his defense, he gets incredibly nervous around his mother. He probably said the first thing on his mind to get her off his back.”

“Please say I can go now.”

She nodded and never was I so thankful. These people and their drama were far too exhausting.

Screw the life of the rich and famous. I’ll stay a maid.

Chapter Six

“Home sweet home,” I muttered tiredly as I turned the key to my apartment. It was after two in the morning by the time I got back. Stepping inside, the first thing I noticed was that the window was open. I never left it open.

I screamed when a man grabbed my hair and threw me into the wall. The door slammed shut as I fell to the floor. I didn’t look up. I didn’t want to see his face…if I saw his face—