What He Bargains (What He Wants, Book Nineteen) Read online

  For one thing, after crawling under the covers together, Jake had started to kiss her again, a deep and passionate kiss that stole her breath away. Their bodies seemed molded together, clicking into place like a lock and key that finally fit perfectly.

  His tongue entered her mouth as his fingers caressed her hair.

  “Raven,” he whispered, looking into her eyes as she looked back at him.

  And then, somehow, they’d ended up falling asleep for a little while. Maybe it had only been half an hour or something, but when they both woke up, he was holding her with his arms wrapped protectively around her.

  “I really hope we don’t end up regretting this,” Raven said, hearing him stir.

  “Why would we?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. You kept telling me how you couldn’t give me anything other than the business arrangement we had before.”

  Jake sighed. “All I can say is I don’t regret this even a little bit right now.”

  “Oh, that’s really comforting,” she laughed.

  “Maybe it’s not comforting,” he said, “but then again, neither is the fact that you lied to me about where you were earlier.”

  She turned her head to see his expression. “Are you angry?”

  “I just want to know, Raven. I want to be able to trust you.”

  She thought about it, but her insides seemed to tighten and twist when she opened her mouth. “I’m not sure I can tell,” she said.

  “Why, because you’re afraid I’ll be mad?”

  “I’m not sure. Maybe.”

  He took a deep breath and squeezed her closer to him, his hands rubbing her arm and leg, giving her tingles all up and down her body.

  “How about I tell you a little story first?” Jake said. “Maybe it will put you in the mood to talk.”

  “Okay, but I won’t promise anything.”

  “That’s fine, then. But I want to tell you a little something about my life. You know, after my fiancé passed, I decided it was time to throw caution to the wind and try and pursue my dream of being a singer/songwriter.”

  Raven nodded, glancing over her shoulder at him again. “That seems to have worked out pretty well for you.”

  He nodded. “But the thing most people don’t realize is that I started out as more of an indie rock kind of guy. I was writing and performing songs like the bands and people I listened to. People like Bob Dylan, Beck, bands like Radiohead and Coldplay. Maybe I didn’t write songs or sing exactly like any of them, but those were my inspirations. And my first demo had all of that stuff in it.” His hand caressed her back as he continued speaking. “Then I got my record deal, the label only really loved two of my songs. Those were the two most commercial, pop sounding songs, and also probably my two least favorite songs I’d written up to that point.”

  “Did they try and make you write more songs like those?” she asked him.

  “You’re very bright, maybe you should be a record producer,” he said, his voice light, seemingly enjoying being there with her and telling her the story.

  “I’m sure I’d be great at it,” Raven said, snuggling closer to him. She loved how this felt. Jake was opening up, and it felt real.

  It felt right.

  “Anyway, they sat me down and basically gave me an ultimatum,” Jake told her. “Write more songs like the two they already had picked out, or they’d find songwriters to write stuff for me and I’d record those other songs for my album.”

  “They wouldn’t even use any of the other songs you’d written?”

  “No,” he said. “They wanted all new ones that were more in line with the pop sound they wanted from me.” His voice had changed now, gotten angrier, almost bitter.

  “What did you do?”

  “I think you’re smart enough to know, miss record producer.”

  “You wrote more pop songs,” she said.

  “Yeah, I caved and did it. I’d come within inches of telling them to screw, going it alone and waiting for another break. But I wasn’t sure another break would come, and the label wanted to put major muscle behind me. I knew they were serious about breaking me as a big star, and I guess I wanted that more than I wanted my own artistic integrity.”

  Raven turned to face him, her hands pressing on his rock hard, smooth chest. “Anybody would’ve made that choice,” she said. “You know that, right?”

  He made a face, almost a grimace. “I told myself I’d do it their way for one album, just one—enough to make a name for myself. And then I would strike out on my own and do it my own way, write songs I actually cared about.”

  “But that didn’t happen either,” she said. She felt bad for him, even though he’d obviously had a wonderful career. He didn’t want this kind of career, it seemed, and yet he continued to do it for some reason.

  “After my album broke, it went huge, bigger than anyone thought. Nobody, not even my biggest supporters in the label, thought it would sell millions like that. And then the movie offers poured in, and one of them was clearly going to be a hit. I’d never acted before, and here I was suddenly working with great actors and an incredible director.”

  “Was that the movie Dark Rising?” she asked him.

  He nodded, closing his eyes. “Yeah, it was a dumb action movie and I knew it, but I was just happy to be in it at the time.” He opened his eyes. “After that movie went to number one on its opening weekend, everything changed. It was like I was on this track, and somehow there was never a good time to step off and do anything else.”

  “Like what? What else did you want?”

  He shrugged. “After doing a couple dumb action flicks, I wanted to do something indie, something dark and gritty. But each time I even thought about it, my agent would come to me with some amazing offer for tons of money. And every time I thought about cutting an album with the kind of music I love, the label would start talking about the next big tour and offer me even more money for my pop stuff.”

  Raven gave him a smile. “You can still do those other things, Jake. You’re young, you’re popular…you can do anything you want.”

  “Unless maybe I am the phony you said I was,” he sighed. “I think we both know that if I really wanted to, I’d have done it by now.”

  “I don’t know that at all,” Raven said, rubbing his chest and then kissing it. She kissed his chest and then started licking his nipples, tasting the saltiness of him. What she really wanted, was to slide down, kissing his stomach, and then go lower…

  “Hey,” he said, putting a finger under her chin.

  “Yeah?” she asked, eyes wide, guilty as though he’d caught her thinking dirty thoughts.

  “Now it’s your turn to share. I told you some shit that nobody knows about me.”

  She bit her lower lip. Suddenly her heart was racing. “Jake, I don’t think I can—“

  His eyes darkened. “I need to know where you were, Raven. I’m done messing around. I’ve put myself out there for you.”

  She thought about it, and realized it was true and it was time to come clean. She was in danger and the club was threatening her life and freedom by continuing to see Jake. He needed to know the truth.

  “I had to go to the Club Alpha office here in New York,” she said suddenly.

  His eyes narrowed. “Why the hell would you go there?”

  “They called me in and told me in no uncertain terms that I had to.”

  Jake slid up in the bed so that he was sitting straight up now. The covers slid down around his waist, showing his gorgeous, chiseled body. “Who told you that?” he demanded.

  “Max Mendez called me,” she said. “And so I went, and they basically threatened me,” she said. “They told me I had to stop seeing you immediately.”

  Jake’s eyes went cold and flat. “Hold on a minute, Raven. Back up and tell me everything. I mean, everything, every little detail.”

  She was scared of him now. He looked angry, as if she’d made him mad by telling him the truth about everything. Th
is was her biggest fear, and from the look on Jake’s face, her fear was coming true.

  Still, she had no choice but to keep going. So Raven slowly and calmly described everything to him, in as much detail as possible. She told him about the threats from Max and Scott, the horrible things Scott had said he would do to her if she disobeyed, she told Jake how they’d tried to get her to leave in that sedan and never speak to him again.

  She even told him how she’d gotten such a bad feeling before getting in the car that she’d cut and run, fleeing the scene.

  When Raven was done talking, she waited for Jake’s reaction.

  He was just sitting there, his face a dark mask, with no clear evidence on his face as to how he felt about what he’d just heard.

  Here it comes, Raven thought. The big kiss off.

  There was no way Jake wanted to deal with Club Alpha and certainly not just to defend her. She wasn’t important enough to him and never would be.

  He stood up, still just wearing his boxer shorts, and walked to where his pants were, picking them up and putting them on.

  “Are you leaving?” she asked him.

  He looked at her and didn’t say a word, just pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed it.

  Raven had no idea what was going on.

  “Hey,” Jake said into the cell phone. “It’s Jake. Get Scott on the phone right away.” There was a short pause and then Jake’s teeth bared. “Max, you stupid ugly pile of dog shit, did you hear me? I told you to get your master, get him on the phone now. I’m not wasting my time with you.”

  Raven could hardly move or even think.

  Was that Max, as in Max Mendez, that Jake had just spoken to like that? She couldn’t imagine it—it must have been a coincidence. And then Jake simply waited, his face unchanging, his eyes far away and cold.

  A minute later, he spoke again. “Scott, it’s Jake Novak. Remember me?” He sounded friendly but his expression was anything but. “Haha, yeah. Yeah. That’s fine, my man. Anyway, listen, I just wanted to give you a little heads up, Scott. Raven Hartley is with me now, understand?” His jaw set and the muscle flickered beneath the skin. “No, you little slimy fuck, you listen to me. I will bury you if you try to threaten or harm her in any way.” His voice was raising a little as he spoke. “Raven is with me and that means you and your trash organization have nothing—I mean nothing to do with her or with me. And if something happens to her—I don’t care if she gets a goddamn paper cut. I am coming for you, you got that Scott?”

  “Please,” Raven said, terrified now, even though her heart was soaring that Jake was actually standing up for her. She felt love for him that almost burst her heart, but she was also afraid for him, too.

  Club Alpha wasn’t some tiny little company that would run away from a fight. She knew that. She knew it deep inside. They would never just walk away from this situation if they thought it might hurt their organization.

  But Jake wasn’t responding to her, or even seeming to see her.

  Jake listened to the phone for a brief second before speaking again into it, and his every word seemed to be a promise and direct threat to Club Alpha. “I’m coming for you and everyone you know, motherfucker,” Jake growled. “So get ready, because you have no idea what I’m capable of.”

  End Of Book Three

  THE DEBT 4

  Jake Novak tossed his cell phone on the bed and then turned his attention to Raven.

  His eyes locked on hers as he stood naked from the waist up, his pants hanging low on his hips, showing off his six pack and then some. He was finely chiseled stone, completely perfect in every way physically.

  “That’s that,” he said, his voice even and calm, the scar above his eyebrow indicating that he knew how to fight and wasn’t afraid of it.

  Jake was more than just some gorgeous pop idol without substance—he’d stood up to the frightening and powerful men who wanted to hurt Raven. Club Alpha was dangerous, and yet he hadn’t backed down from them.

  Quite the opposite.

  Jake had finally taken her side, and he’d done it when his reputation and career were already on thin ice. In fact, Jake had just told the CEO of Club Alpha that he was going to come after him.

  His last words to Scott were still ringing in Raven’s ears.

  You have no idea what I’m capable of.

  Perhaps they didn’t know what Jake was capable of. And perhaps she didn’t either, but Raven was beginning to suspect that Jake Novak was capable of just about anything.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Raven asked, as she tried to process what had just happened. She was still sitting in bed, clad only in panties, bathed in sweat from Jake’s warmth from when he’d held her close.

  Jake’s mouth turned up at the corner, a tiny smirk. “I’m sure as I’ve ever been,” he said. “But what about you?”

  “I don’t know,” Raven admitted. She pulled the covers up to her chest, covering her breasts, even though he’d certainly seen and even touched them plenty by now.

  “What don’t you know?” Jake asked her, coming over and sitting on the edge of the bed.

  “I feel like I’m complicating your life,” Raven said. “That wasn’t the idea.”

  Jake’s tiny smirk turned into a full-fledged grin. “No, it wasn’t. But I like surprises.”

  “I’m supposed to help you reform your image, not get you into trouble with some shady underground company run by billionaires.”

  He laughed at that. “I’m not scared of billionaires,” he said to her, leaning across the bed and stroking her hair.

  “Well, I am. They seem like nasty people. I think they meant what they said about kidnapping me and making me disappear.” She shivered as Jake stroked her hair, loving the way he was touching her, completely overwhelmed that he was suddenly willing to fight for her.

  “Nobody’s going to make you disappear,” Jake told her. “Look at me, Raven.”

  She did look at him, and his liquid brown eyes were like nothing she’d ever seen. This was the Jake Novak, the man that millions of women and teenage girls lusted after, and he was far sexier with her then she’d ever seen him act in any movie.

  “How can you be sure, Jake? You can’t watch over me 24/7 and at some point, Club Alpha will make sure to get me back for screwing them over.”

  “Remember what you said to me?” he asked her, his hand moving to caress her cheek and then her shoulder.

  She shivered again. “What exactly did I say?”

  “You told me to trust you,” he replied.

  She sighed. “I’m trying, I really am.”

  “Nobody’s going to hurt you, Raven, and anyone who tries is going to wish they’d never been born.”

  “Club Alpha isn’t messing around, Jake. If you’d seen the look on that guy Scott’s face when he told me to sit down or he’d put my head through the window—“

  “Wait a minute,” Jake said, standing up again. “You didn’t tell me that, Raven.”

  She bit her lip, wishing she hadn’t said anything. “He didn’t do it, obviously, he was just trying to scare me.”

  But Jake’s entire demeanor had changed now. He slipped on his shirt. “Come on,” he told her. “I’m going to show you something important.”

  Raven was nervous. “What? What is it?”

  Jake gave her a grin. “You’ll like this, I promise.”

  * * *

  They were sitting in the back of a sedan with Jake’s driver in front, calmly navigating the busy Manhattan city streets. Jake was relaxed, legs outstretched in the roomy backseat, his window slightly open.

  The paparazzi had given them hell between the hotel exit and the car, but it was just a few steps and Raven was almost—almost—getting used to the yelling and incessant pictures being snapped.

  The car seemed strangely calm and quiet after all of that, and now they were apparently driving to some fancy restaurant called Koan—Jake assured her that Koan was some of the best Japanese food
he’d ever tasted.

  “I’m not really that hungry,” Raven said. She was dressed in black slacks, heels, and a black tank top with a white blazer over it.

  It was true, she wasn’t really very hungry and especially didn’t want to dine out at some trendy New York hotspot after everything she’d been through that day.

  But being with Jake was enough to make Raven want to try her best, to go out on the town if that’s what he wanted. After all, he’d stood up for her like a daring white knight, and he was making her feel like a princess because of it.

  What kind of princess doesn’t accept her valiant knight’s invitation to dine with him?

  Even if Raven was afraid that the rug could be pulled out from her at any moment, even if she wasn’t certain that Jake would continue to stand up for her, she didn’t want to assume the worst.

  Maybe this change is real. Maybe he’s actually falling for me. Miracles do happen.

  But when Raven looked at Jake he seemed oddly quiet and distracted. She thought it might be that he was angry about everything she’d revealed to him earlier.

  “Are you freaked out about all of that stuff I told you about Club Alpha?” Raven asked him. Jake was behaving as though everything was fine, but she sensed a coiled tension beneath the surface, like a snake waiting to strike.

  “I don’t freak out,” Jake said, looking out the window. “I just make moves.”

  “What kind of moves?”

  He glanced at her. “I think you know my moves pretty well.”

  She flushed and looked away from him. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

  “I don’t see the difference. Making moves is making moves. When I decide I want something, I make it happen. And if someone goes against me, they’ll live to regret it. Period.”

  “I just don’t want you to get yourself in trouble over me,” she said. “You seemed really angry when you yelled at those guys from Club Alpha today and I’m afraid you’ll do something without thinking it through first.”

  Jake glanced over at her, his expression incredulous. “You think I should let those guys get away with what they did to you today? Threatening you? Telling you they were going to kidnap you if you didn’t listen to them?”