The Debt 3 (2 page)

He smiled slowly.
 
“And you think you can handle all of
me?
 
All of Jake Novak?”

“Don’t talk about yourself in the third
person, it makes you sound arrogant.
 
That’s lesson number one for your personality makeover,” she said,
smiling a little despite herself.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Yes,” she said, “I know I can handle all
of you.”

His hand reached out and cupped her butt
and pulled her into him, as his face turned towards hers.
 
She was pressed against his rock hard
body now, and he was warming her, heating her up like fire.

“It’s going to be fun,” Jake whispered,
“watching you try.”

“But this can’t happen,” she said, prying
herself away from his grip.
 
She
wanted him too much and he knew it.
 
He was toying with her in his own way, and she felt the need to turn the
tables once more.

Jake’s eyes narrowed.
 
“What can’t happen?”

“This,” she said, trying to control her
breath.
 
“You and
me in private being…being like this.”

He folded his arms.
 
“Like what?”

“Intimate.”

A grin spread across his face.
 
“That wasn’t intimate.
 
That was nothing.”

“Whatever it was is too much,” she
replied, pushing the hair out of her face, trying to cool her hot skin and
cheeks.
 
She felt flushed.
 
“No more messing around.
 
No more spanking, no more touching each
other, nothing.”

Jake’s smiled dwindled.
 
“We have an agreement.
 
Two nights a week—“

“That was before.”

Now his eyes were cool and his expression
was increasingly serious.
 
“You
can’t just back out of our contract.”

“You said you were letting me out of it
five minutes ago.”

“That was before,” he replied, throwing
her own words back in her face.

“I’m not going to do
any
of that anymore,” she told him, backing away from him.
 
“I’m no longer your escort in any way
shape or form.
 
That’s finished.”

“You’re acting like you didn’t enjoy what
happened between us last night,” he said.
 
“And we both damn well know that you loved it.
 
I can still remember the sounds you
made.”

Raven’s heartbeat started to
increase.
 
The way he was staring at
her, the look in his eyes—
he was starting to take away
her will
,
her defenses were already crumbling
.
 
“Last night happened, I know that,” she
said calmly.
 
“But it won’t continue
to happen.
 
It won’t be like that
between us ever again.”

Part of her was screaming to stop pushing
Jake away like this.
 
Part of her
wanted him so badly, wanted to be close again, to be spanked again, to be
touched and held again by him.
 

But another part of her said that this
was the way to put things right.
 

Stand
up for yourself, become Jake’s equal and stop bowing down before him.
 
That means no more groveling, no more
submitting to his every demand, no more messing around with a guy who won’t
even kiss you while he’s touching you everywhere else.

Jake stared at her a long time, and Raven
didn’t know what he would do next.
 
If he came towards her and took hold of her right then and there, she
was too weak to fight.
 
She wouldn’t
be able to overcome the intense desire she was feeling, the craving to return
to what had transpired last night.

But Jake didn’t force the issue.
 
After a long time of just looking at her
with those dark brown eyes, he finally looked away.
 
“I need to go make a few calls,” he said
softly, and then started for the door.

“What does that mean?” she said, as
walked away from her.
 

“It means just what I said,” he replied,
and then he was opening the door and it was shutting behind him as he left the
room.

***

Raven didn’t know what was going on.

Jake had left her room and now she was
confused, left wondering whether he had decided that she wasn’t worth it now
that she’d told him her “services” would no longer be on offer.

It was even stranger when she thought
about how Jake had offered to let her out of the contract first, and then
seemed enraged when she accepted that offer.
 
Yes, she was willing to help him get out
of this situation with the media, but that didn’t mean they could keep playing
games on the side.

The games had to end
,
it just made sense
.

But nothing with Jake Novak really made
any sense.
 
And now she was stuck
waiting around in her hotel room, wondering if or when she’d ever hear from
Jake again.

She was sitting on the couch, trying to
find news stories about Jake on TV, when her phone rang.
 
Instantly, she sat bolt upright, excited
at the thought that perhaps it was Jake calling her.

The only thing better than that would
have been a knock on the door and hearing his voice when she asked who was
there.

But when she picked up her cell and
glanced at the caller I.D., it was a foreign number she’d never seen
before.
 
And that made her nervous.

Still, she answered on the off chance
that it was someone important trying to contact her.
 
When she said hello, the man’s voice on
the other end was vaguely familiar.

“Hi, Raven,” he said.
 
“Jake gave me your number, I hope you
don’t mind.”

“Who is this?”

“This is Kurt, Jake’s manager.”
 
Once he said his name, it all made
sense.
 
His voice sounded somehow
deeper on the phone than it did in person.

“Oh,” Raven said, a little shocked.
 
“I didn’t expect your call.”

“I told Jake that I wanted to call you and
touch base.
 
Jake just told me that
you’re going to play a big role in helping us deal with this media shit
storm.”
 
Kurt laughed at this,
seeming not to be at all concerned.

 
“What exactly did Jake tell you?” Raven
asked him.

“Just that he was cancelling the
remaining Boston shows, refunding everyone’s tickets and paying all the crew
and performers, essentially losing us millions of dollars.”
 
Kurt said it like it was no big deal,
like he was only talking about the small details of a weekend fishing trip.

“I had no idea Jake was cancelling the
Boston shows,” she said.

Kurt laughed some more.
 
“Yeah, he certainly is.
 
He also said that your close friend is
seriously ill and Jake wants to be there for you both during this difficult
time.”

“He told you all of that?” Raven said,
awe struck.
 

“Of course he did.
 
Jake and I tell each other important
things like that.
 
For instance, he
wants me to book an interview with one of the major news outlets so that you
and Jake can go public with your relationship.
 
He told me that too.”

Raven couldn’t believe what she was
hearing.
 
Jake was actually going
through with it—with her suggestion to pretend to be in a serious
relationship together.
 
Jake had
called his manager and started putting the plan into motion without even discussing
any of it with her first.
 
 

“Wow,” was all she could muster.

“Wow?
 
Is that all you have to say about it?”
Kurt chuckled.

“I didn’t know things were moving so
fast.”

“Jake does move fast,” Kurt told
her.
 
“Anyway, I’m aware that you
two aren’t truly a couple, that you haven’t known Jake for more than a few
days, and he knows even less about you than you know about him.”
 
He threw it out there casually, but she
sensed a deadly serious intention behind the manager’s words.

Raven was getting a tingling sensation
all along her scalp, now her stomach was tightening, and it was getting harder
to breathe.
 
“I know Jake enough to
feel like he doesn’t deserve to lose his career over some poorly thought out
comments he made years ago,” she said.
 

“How sweet of you to say,” Kurt said, and
now all of the friendliness had left his voice.
 
“But I’m not buying anything you’re
selling, and I think that Jake would be making a tremendous mistake to trust
you.”

“That’s not fair,” she replied.
 
“I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Let me tell you something.
 
I’ve known Jake since Afghanistan.
 
I was in combat with him, and we went
through things together that have given us a lifetime bond.
 
I’m going to protect Jake now, just like
always.”

“Jake doesn’t need to be protected from
me,” she said, her hand slippery as she gripped the cell phone tightly.
 
“You don’t know a thing about me.”

“I know that you’ve been paid for
services rendered,” Kurt said coldly.
 
“I think we both know that you’re no angel.
 
You’re doing this to get something from
Jake.
 
I’ll make it a lot simpler
for you.
 
I’ll give you a hundred
thousand dollars to get up and leave right now, walk away and never come
back.
 
Leave Jake alone.”

Raven felt like a load of bricks had just
been dumped on her head.
 
“A hundred
thousand dollars to leave him alone?
 
Are you joking?”

“I’m not joking, I don’t joke about that
kind of money.”

“Why would you give me that much money
just to go away?” she said, knowing he was simply trying to test her, trying to
get a reaction from her.

“I’d do it in a heartbeat, because your
little scheme is going to cost Jake much more than a hundred thousand
dollars.
 
If he goes through with
this ridiculous plan, he’ll lose millions upon millions, all his endorsements, many
of his fans, and his career might be over.”

Raven was shaking.
 
“I don’t want your money.”

“One hundred thousand dollars would pay
for a lot of medical treatment if what Jake tells me about your friend is
true,” Kurt said icily.
 
“Unless,
that is, you and your little partner are just a couple of scam artists trying
to pull one over on him.”

“You think my friend and I made up the
tumor on her cervix, the one that a reputable doctor just biopsied last
night?
 
Are you a complete idiot?”
Raven said, anger rising in her chest like a burning piece of shrapnel.
 
“My friend might be sick with cancer and
you’re making these disgusting accusations.”

Kurt’s voice calmed again.
 
“I don’t know if your friend is sick or
not.
 
And I don’t really care.
 
I don’t give a shit about either of
you,” he said, his voice lowering to almost a whisper.
 
“But I’ll tell you one thing.
 
If you try and attach yourself to Jake
in any way, you’ll
wish
everything
had been made up.”

“I haven’t lied about anything, and don’t
threaten me.”

“This isn’t a threat,” he said
slowly.
 
“I’m telling you that you
have exactly thirty minutes to except my offer of one hundred thousand dollars,
no strings attached.
 
Just send me a
text to this number that says you accept.
 
I’ve got your information, I’ll have the full amount wired to your
account and then you will simply leave the hotel, along with your friend, and
never say another word to Jake.”

Raven swallowed, her heart racing, and
she was sweating and trembling.
 
“I
told you—“

“I know what you told me,” Kurt said
softly.
 
“But think about this
money.
 
It’s real, and you’ll be
able to use it for anything you want.
 
More than enough to help you and your friend.
 
You’ve got half an hour to decide
whether to take the money or not.
 
After that, the deal is off the table.”