Page 68 of A Dark Fall
“Come on then—let’s see if these domestic skills of yours are as good as you think. I’m starving. It’s been a loooooong day.”
“Starving? Pretty sure I can sort that out.” He winks.
I at least have the manners to blush slightly as he leans down and opens the passenger door for me. I climb into the seat as graciously as possible in my dress before he closes the door and puts my case in the boot.Once in the driving seat, Jake leans over to kiss me, running his hand up my bare thigh and slipping it under the hem of my dress. My whole body reacts, a bright, sharp shiver coursing over me as I return the kiss, heating under the sound of him moaning low against my mouth.
“You look completely fucking hot, by the way, Doctor,” he murmurs into my mouth, his fingers curling into the skin of my thigh, needy but tender too. “Been thinking about you all fucking day,” he says, nuzzling against my neck.
I keep my eyes closed and smile. “It’s nice to see you too.”
He brings his mouth back up to mine and licks at my lips before pulling away to start the engine. Then he turns to look at me expectantly.
“Seat belt,” he orders after a moment.
When I reach behind me to pull it on, I see Ben getting into a black cab, talking animatedly on his phone. Since he’s looking in my direction, I assume he knows I’m inside, though, thankfully, the tinted windows mean he can’t see me looking back.
As soon as my seat belt clicks into place, Jake pulls out into the traffic, and we head east along Hyde Park.
“So, long day?” he asks, glancing at me briefly before turning back to the road.
“Long and boring. These things normally are. Not as exciting as the nightclub business, I’m sure.”
He nods. “Yeah, you have no idea the lives I’m saving daily in that place. It’s fucking exhausting,” he sighs, and I giggle.
As I slide back in the chair, I feel something ridged dig into my back. I reach behind me to grab it, pulling out a small plastic fire engine toy. I give it a confused look as I hold it up.
“Aw, yeah, Paul said his kid lost that somewhere,” Jake says absently, looking back to the road. “He borrowed the car the other day while his was getting serviced. Toss it in the back.”
I reach behind me and place the toy on the back seat. “So, what did you get up to today?” I ask, turning to look at him. “I hope you didn’t spend all of it in the kitchen. That would be way too 1950s housewife.”
“Not quite.” He smiles, not expanding further. Something tells me not to press it either. No matter—I’m going to see where he lives. Where he spends his time when he’s not with me. I’m inordinately excited. It’s ridiculous, really, considering all that’s happened between us so far.But I feel as if this is my firstrealchance to get to know a side of him I haven’t seen yet. One he hasn’t let me see yet. You can’t hide things in the place where you live and feel utterly relaxed. My house reflects me and my personality—trinkets I’ve collected from places I’ve been, books I’ve read, photos of me and my family and friends in every room. Jake’s home will open him up to me finally, I’m sure of it.
Yes, after tonight, I’ll know a lot more about the self-confirmed mystery that is Jake Lawrence.
About twenty minutes later, we arrive at the entrance to an underground garage at a converted warehouse on St Katharine Docks, not too far from where he took me for dinner. Jake presses a button on his dashboard, and the large roller door opens. Inside, he parks smoothly into a space marked 10/1. Unbuckling my seat belt, I take a deep breath to steady the butterflies that have started fluttering in my stomach.
I’m going to see where he lives.
This is a seminal moment, surely. Bringing me one step closer to being “safe hands,” as he called it.
Jake gets my case from the boot and walks around to meet me as I’m closing the passenger door. He slips his hand into mine and gives me a cute smile then pulls me toward the entrance to the stairwell. A bank of elevators sits on one side, and he lets go of the case to press the button to call one. While we wait, he circles his thumb softly over the skin of my hand, glancing at me with that same sweet smile: relaxed, but with definite promise behind it. I want to kiss him again.
I lean forward, closing the distance between our mouths, but as I’m about to touch my lips to his, the doorway to the garage swings open, making me pull back. Through it struts a tall, tanned girl dressed in a tight white crop top and high-waisted jeans, her heels adding at least six inches to her height. As she comes to stand next to us, I get a waft of strong, thick perfume that, mixed with the butterflies, makes my stomach churn with something oily. She looks around at Jake and smiles brightly.
“Hey, Jay. How are you?”
Jay? She calls him Jay? Oh, I don’t like that.
“Yeah, good, Dawn. You?” He flashes her a small, tight smile and nods before turning to watch the counter crawl down to garage level. He gives my hand a gentle squeeze.
“Great, thanks, yeah,” she says, swinging the set of keys at her hip. “How’s the club doing?”
“Really good, yeah.” Jake doesn’t give her more than a glance this time before the lift springs open and he stands back to let me in. He gets in behind me, and Dawn gets in last, and we travel up in a strange silence until she exits at level 5. As she does, she glances back at Jake with a look so subtle she may as well have given him a lap dance.
I look sideways to see his reaction, which, from here, appears to be one of mild awkwardness. It’s all the confirmation I need.
Jake steps forward to press level 10, and the doors close.
“I guess you never called,” I mumble.