“You don’t need it.”

“I do, Goldie,” I said weakly. There was something about her that made me weak, that made me feel needy and I couldn’t control it.

“Jett, you’re such a confident man who knows what he wants and when he wants it, what makes you question my loyalty to you?”

I took a deep breath and thought about telling Goldie about Natasha but found myself unable to speak. She needed to know, it would be so easy to tell her but would she think differently of me?

“Jett, I wish you would talk to me.”

“I was engaged once,” I said quickly.

“Oh…”

Fear started to prick the back of my neck and my stomach churned. I couldn’t do this. Just from her little response, I knew this wasn’t a good idea. There was no way I could tell her right now, not when we were so far apart. I would only be damaging what we had.

“Hey, I have to go. I forgot I had to sign a couple of things before I went to bed.”

“Jett, don’t. Don’t you pull away from me.”

“I’m sorry, Goldie.”

I pulled my phone away and ended the phone call, hating myself for not being man enough to tell her. I was a confident man but when it came to her, I was so fucking weak.

Chapter Twenty Six

“Let Love In”

Lo

“What the fuck,” I said as I looked at the blank screen on my phone. He hung up on me. Jett hung up on me.

Oh hell no!

I got out of bed, threw on a pair of yoga pants and a sweatshirt and grabbed my purse. I was not about to let Jett get away with pushing me away. I didn’t care if I wasn’t supposed to go out alone. If he wanted me safe, then he was going to have to not fuck around with me and talk. I was growing irritated more every day with his evasiveness. There was only so much a girl could take.

Being as quiet as possible, I stepped out of my room and walked down the stairs to the back entrance. The stairs creaked under my feet and I just prayed that Diego was a heavy sleeper. When I reached the door, I checked the locks first, then opened it as slowly as possible and slipped out of a small crack. I looked behind me before shutting the door to make sure Diego didn’t see me. The coast was clear, so I shut the door and walked through the back alley until I hit Royal Street. Bourbon was still roaring with drinkers so I stumbled near my old dwellings and flagged down a taxi.

The ride over to the Garden District was quiet and almost eerie as I passed the wonky trees that lined the roads and the trolley tracks that were vacant of tourists and runners. I didn’t travel much at night so it was odd to see the quiet side of New Orleans.

The taxi pulled up to the Lafayette Club which was dark besides Jett’s office window on the third floor where a dim light shone through the window pane. The tall, white pillars and dark lanterns seemed intimidating in the dark as I paid the driver and walked to the back of the house where I still had a key to get in.

The driveway was vacant as I walked to the back door and slipped the key into the lock. As I turned, I heard a rustling next to me and my stomach dropped as I tried to unlock the door faster. Fucking spooks.

I opened the door and was about to shut it when someone grabbed my arms from behind. I screamed bloody murder and slapped my purse around to nail the arm grabber right in the head.

“What the fuck?” Kace said as he gripped his head.

Chest heaving and tits blazing, I swatted him in the shoulder and said, “What the hell do you think you’re doing sneaking up on someone like that? Christ, only creepy perverts do things like that. Is that what you are, Kace? A creepy pervert?”

Kace looked at me with a menacing look but I held my ground. He could have said something rather than grabbing me.

“Not when I think some psycho is trying to break in.”

“With a key?” I held up my key and he examined it, then huffed.

“What are you doing here? Is Diego with you?”

“That is none of your concern,” I said while I tried to walk past him but the cinder block wall that was Kace’s chest wasn’t allowing me to pass.

“It is when you’re not supposed to be walking around by yourself, especially at night.”

“Oh don’t act like you care.”

He got right in my face and said, “You know I fucking care so don’t test me. Why are you running off by yourself?”

“It’s none of your business,” I said, growing frustrated now. “I just need to see Jett, okay?”

“Something happen between you two?” Kace asked as his voice softened.

“Not really, he just…I just need to see him. Please, Kace.”

“I’m not going to stop you but he’s not going to be happy about you being here by yourself.”

“I couldn’t really give two fucks. Please just let me by.”

Kace nodded but grabbed my hand before I walked by him. His thumb ran against the back of my hand as he said, “If you need to see Jett again like this, call me. I’ll come get you. I don’t want you out there by yourself, okay?”

I nodded and brushed a polite kiss against his cheek. “Thanks, Kace.”

The walk up to the third floor had my nerves twisting in knots. Kace was right, Jett was going to be so pissed at me but right now, I didn’t care. I just had to confront him, to talk to him. He was not allowed to run away from me.

When I reached the top of the stairs, I saw that his office door was slightly cracked open with a little light filtering from it. With a deep breath, I walked to the door and peeked in. Sitting at his desk, with his elbows on the desk and his head in his hands, pulling at his hair, was Jett. He was shirtless, showing off his glorious muscles that I now knew Kace helped with forming and there was a glass of bourbon sitting next to him.

Pushing the door open, I let myself in. He looked up from his desk and the look of shock on his face made the knots in my stomach twist even tighter until his gaze softened and he pushed back from the desk, showing me he was only in his boxer briefs. My gut clenched from the sight of him.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, trying to look behind me. “Is Diego here?”

My hands twisted together as I realized I should have been a little smarter about this. He was going to yell, I could feel the calm before the storm.

“He is not.”

Stepping forward, I could see his chest start to heave with anger.

I held up my hands and said, “Before you get angry, I want to tell you that I’m mad at you. You can’t just hang up on me like that and push me away when things get tough.”

“When things get tough?” A sarcastic laugh escaped Jett’s mouth as he said, “This is already fucking tough. I have to have you stay with another man because I can’t keep you here. I have fear every day that something is going to happen to you, that I’m not doing my job of protecting you. That’s what’s tough, not some stupid conversation on the phone.”

Stupid? Was that what he really thought?

“It wasn’t stupid.”

“That’s not what I meant,” he said while pulling on his neck. “There are so many more important things to worry about—”

“No!” I shouted, interrupting him and shocking him a bit. “You’re not allowed to decide what’s important and what’s not important because right now, we don’t know very much about each other so when you go and say something like you were engaged, it’s important to me to learn about that because I want to know you, Jett. I want to know what makes you tick.” I stepped forward and got right in front of him so I could place my hands on his chest. “I don’t want to just know this body, I want to know the man too. If this has a chance of working out, I need you to not push me away and open up to me. Are you afraid I’m going to judge you?”

“Yes,” he said while holding his head high and not skipping a beat.

Trying not to be thrown off by his confession, I stood back and said, “Well, that kind of stings.”