Page 58 of Flyboy
Blowing out a breath, Jack looked forward, out the windshield. "Could you just let me know where you are from now on?"
Her back stiffened; sucking in a breath, she opened her mouth to argue when he spoke again.
"Please." He brought his eyes back to hers. "With Gina in the wind, I need to know you're okay."
Damn him. She could argue against him demanding to know where she was but asking? And nicely? Yeah, she had no defense against that. With Gina around, it wasn't only Penny who was in possible danger. She hadn't told Jack about the occasional slap she'd put up with as a child and while she wouldn't put up with them now, that wouldn't be a deterrent to Gina.
The last time she'd seen the woman before today, she'd received such a vicious slap to the face she ended up with a black eye. She could—and would—slap back now, but that didn't change the fact Gina posed a threat. Because Alyssa had something—someone—Gina wanted.
"Is Roark with Penny?"
"Yes. They're at the house."
"Good." Swallowing, she licked her lips and gave him what he'd asked for. "Okay. I'll let you know where I am from now on."
"Thank you."
Silence filled the car. It was a quiet she'd once been comfortable with. Now, any time she was around Jack, a tension she couldn't name tweaked her nerves. A little animosity, a little frustration, and if she were honest, a hell of a lot of rampant lust.
They had hardly seen each other since Monday morning when she'd woken wrapped around Jack like a leech looking for a feed. And oh, how he'd fed her. She had done the same Thursday morning, and honestly, if she'd found herself in bed with him more often, they'd have had sex every single time.
He hadn't complained about her disturbing his sleep, hadn't said a word actually. Instead, he'd let her take control—as much as Jack did when it came to sex—and let her leave their bed and lock herself in the bathroom after without comment.
Those heated minutes in the early morning hours had been the highlight of her week, possibly her whole month. She'd taken the physical comfort he offered without thought to how it would affect either of them emotionally. It didn't matter what she'd told herself back in February when she'd pushed Jack away, or what she'd said since then.
She'd lied.
She didn't want to bejustfriends.
And if that didn't make this marriage of convenience inconvenient, she was a monkey's ass. Then again, the way she had treated Jack from the minute she'd seen Penny on her doorstep definitely fell in the ass section of behavior.
She owed him an apology. Several. He'd gone out of his way to help her and Penny and she'd been a bitch to him any time he asked something of her. Something simple, like now, all he wanted was to know she was safe. He wasn't trying to control her or stalk her or stop her from doing what she wanted.
Movement down the street caught her eye and she remembered where they were. She couldn't apologize here. They needed to talk more than her saying ‘I'm sorry’, and here, outside Ry's house with all their friends due to arrive in an hour wasn't the place to start that conversation.
"Do you think it's safe to go inside now?" she asked, tipping her chin toward the house where their friends had hopefully finished whatever Jack had seen them doing. She wasn't going to think about that too hard. She didn't need those images in her head when she had to look both of them in the eye shortly.
He glanced over his shoulder. "Only one way to find out."
There was. Except neither of them moved. And when the quiet got to be too much, Alyssa snorted at their ridiculousness and yanked on the door handle, shoving her way out of the car.
Jack met her at the trunk and took all the bags in one hand. "Is that it?" he asked, his spare hand reaching for hers.
When he did nothing more than give her hand a quick squeeze and let go, she saw it as his way of saying they were all right. That in spite of the difficulties between them, he was still there for her.
Giving him a smile, she closed the trunk and moved around him to head up Ry's front path. "Not that I want to traumatize you any further, but where exactly were they when you saw them?" If they were in the backyard, they might not hear the doorbell.
"Kitchen."
"I thought you went around the back?"
"I did. Saw them through the window."
Alyssa thought about it for a moment, the position of all parties… "They were on the counter?" she blurted.
Jack shuddered beside her. "Yep. Let's not think about that, yeah? Because I'm going to need a drink or two to clear that image from my brain. Possibly a lobotomy."
Since the night they had gotten drunk at Davenport's—the night she'd flown to Vegas and married Jack—she'd barely spoken to Maz.
