Page 19 of Fight for Me
Colt gave Jake a last once-over and released his hand, turning back to Lexie.
“That’s great, babe. I hope he does as he’s told.” Colt’s smile was tight, and Jake grit his teeth to keep words from tumbling out. Nothing he could possibly say about this guy would be nice.
That did not change when Colt tugged Lexie tighter against him and kissed her again, making an obvious show of drawing it out. Jake clenched his jaw and looked out the window. He couldn’t leave anyway, since they were blocking his path to the door. Besides, he didn’t want to give this guy the satisfaction of walking away.
“What do you say we get out of here?” he heard Colt ask Lexie, his voice pitched low. “It was great to meet you,Blake, but I’ve got to get my girl home,” Colt added at a normal volume, turning away without waiting for Lexie’s answer. He grabbed her laptop bag off the back of her desk chair and slung it over his own shoulder, turning with her toward the door.
Lexie glanced back as she was propelled out of the office. Her eyes found Jake’s, and she held his gaze for a moment beforeColt started talking again, saying something about a sale he’d made earlier in the day. Then they were gone.
Jake leaned back against the wall and cursed his own luck. Of course Lexie Preston was with someone; why had he ever assumed she wasn’t?
Because she seemed into you. And because she’s never mentioned him.
Ever.
At all.
Jake ground his teeth and pushed to stand, figuring the happy couple had had enough time to make it to the elevator. Why couldn’t she have said something? It wasn’t that hard to drop into conversation. She’d probably gone home and laughed at how desperately transparent he’d been on the soccer field. He’d almost kissed her, for goodness’ sake, and she couldn’t have warned him?
She did start babbling like a crazy person, his memory reminded him, but he roughly pushed the thought away. Breaking a tense moment was not the same as coming out and saying “Jake, I’m sorry, but I have a boyfriend.”
He was still fuming when he reached the parking lot and yanked open the door of his old pickup truck. A car horn blared to his left, and he looked up in time to see Colt wave from the driver’s seat of a shiny, black convertible, his face stretched into a victorious grin as he passed in a cloud of dust.
Jake watched the BMW disappear over the rise, feeling bile churn in his gut. Why would Lexie ever want someone like him when she could have a guy like that? Sure, Colt was a tool of the highest order, but he could give her things Jake never could.
Give her a little more credit, would you?his brain chided, and Jake instantly felt guilty. Lexie wasn’t that kind of girl. Sure, she came from money, but she didn’t seem to live for it. Even so,Jake couldn’t help but wonder if she would ever really be happy with less.
And right then, he sure felt like a whole lot less.
4
“Why did youhave to do that?” Lexie snapped. She smoothed her hands over her hair to keep it from flying every which way, since he’d insisted on putting the top down on his convertible.
“Do what?” Colt asked, his face full of false innocence.
“Be a jerk for no reason,” she replied, her anger building as she mentally replayed the last ten minutes. “Jake is my friend, and you acted like a dalmatian that found a fire hydrant.”
She wasn’t really surprised—that was how Colt always acted when he found her talking to other men—but she’d been hoping Jake wouldn’t experience it firsthand.
“Your friend, huh? That’s interesting,” Colt said, cocking his head as if considering her words. “I hear about everything you do with Olivia and Kate and Robin. Is there some reason you’ve never, not once, mentioned the existence of this guy you work with in any of your stories from the past three weeks? Seems likeif he were just ‘a friend,’ then I would have known about him before I waltzed in and found him pinning you to your desk.”
“He wasn’t pinning me to my desk!” Lexie huffed as she secured her hair with one hand and turned toward him. “And wearejust friends. I’m allowed to have those, you know. I don’t have to tell you about every single one of them.”
“You have to tell me about the ones who are into you.”
“You think every guy is into me!”
“That’s because they are!” he shot back, and Lexie could tell he was getting angry. And maybe he had a right to; he wasn’t that far off, after all.
But then again, didn’t trust go both ways?
“Why do you have such a problem with this? I don’t get to pick my coworkers any more than you do, and I’ve seen your sales rep roster. Some of those women are gorgeous, and I’ve never complained about that.”
“I have aproblem,” he said, smacking his hand on the wheel, “with you prancing around letting every guy in the county drool over what’s mine.”
Lexie knew she shouldn’t push him, but this time, her words refused to stay bottled up.
“What’syours?” she spat, letting her hair go so she could gesture with both hands. “First of all, I don’tpranceanywhere, and second, I am not an object to be owned! I do notbelongto you or anyone else. And third—”
