Page 131 of These Summer Storms

She thought about that, about the fact that without him, the trust would still be in play, the game would still be afoot, and there would be a different referee—someone else to play judge and jury. If the Storm family knew how to do anything, it was manipulate a situation to get what they wanted. They’d been trained by the best.

Because of that training, Alice still struggled to believe Jack wasn’t in it for some other, nefarious reason. Franklin would have been, wouldn’t he? But the thing was…she didn’t want to believe that Jack was their new puppet master, pulling all the same strings.

Before she could say so, he spoke, his gaze focusing on hers, the hand at her thigh going still. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” she said.

“This thing. Between us.”

Her heart began to pound. “Is there a thing between us?”

“Yes, Alice,” he said, his voice lower than it had been, “if the events of the last hour are anything to go by, I’d say there is.”

Good. Her, too. “Go on.”

“Is it because you think your father would have disapproved?”

The question should have made her angry—the thought that she might sleep with someone just to get back at her father, her mother, the whole family. But it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility in a family like theirs, anything for attention from the patriarch. Even the negative kind.

She’d done it before, hadn’t she? Hadn’t she chosen Griffin, at least partly, to spite her father? “You are a very bad decision on paper, JackDean. By all accounts, my father adored you, I watched you work a room today like I’ve only ever seen Franklin do, my family can’t stand you, and I’ve seen you punch two people in less than a week.”

“Justifiably.”

“Fair,” she allowed. “Maybe it’s because of all that, and all the strange, unexplored shit that’s coming up this week, that I can’t stop thinking about you and—worse—how much I could like you.”

He nodded. “Maybe.”

“But also”—she shrugged one shoulder—“maybe it’s simpler than all that. Maybe I just like you.”

“Maybe I just like you, too,” he said.

“Yeah, that’s the part that worries me most,” she replied, quietly. “Everything is out of control. I just want to feel in control again, and this isn’t that.”

“Sweetheart,” he said, that word warming all the corners she’d planned to reserve. If he was playing her, he was great at it, and she was done for. “This can be whatever you want. No matter what happens. That’s the truth.”

God, what a gorgeous promise that was.

Alice couldn’t help herself, leaning forward and kissing him, tasting him again, fresh, with all these new revelations between them. It was slow and soft and he lifted her onto his lap with ease, so he could kiss her back until they were both out of breath.

She broke the kiss and set her ear to his chest, listening to his heart beat heavy and fast. Jack leaned his head back on the couch and they stayed like that for long minutes before she finally said, softly, “You’re much sweeter than you’d like people to know, Jack Dean. Not at all the villain you set out to be.”

“I didn’t set out to be a villain,” he said.

“No?” She deepened her voice, mimicking him. “I never said I was a good guy.”

That raised brow again. “Okay, first, you do a terrible me.”

“I thought I did you kind of well, actually,” she teased.

“Watch it or I’ll make you do it again,” he warned, toying with a lock of her hair.

Yes. Please.She put her head to his chest again, and they lingered there, in silence, before she said, “What’s the worst thing you’ve done?”

“Ugh.” He winced. “You don’t have to ask it like I’ve been roughing people up and making unscrupulous deals all day.”

“Is that not what you do?” she asked, all innocence.

“Mostly, I do things that would keep me out of prison.”

---