The Lover’s Game (No Exceptions #2)(27)
Author: J.C. Reed

He cut me off. “And I haven’t broken that trust.”

“Oh, you did,” I hissed, narrowing my eyes. “You broke that trust the moment you met with your brother behind my back and kept secrets. Secrets I had every right to know. Why couldn’t you just tell me that he’s free? That you missed him so much you had to visit him?”

His eyes widened in surprise, and then he blinked, composing himself.

“How do you know—” He stopped midsentence. Wrinkles creased his forehead as he blew a ragged breath. “There’s a reasonable explanation for it.” He wiped a hand over his face, hesitating, and then his shoulders slumped in defeat. “Look, I get that you’re pissed at me, but it’s just…complicated. You need to trust me.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and regarded him coolly. “Tell me, Jett.”

He pressed his lips into a tight line, and my heart sank in my chest. Whatever the explanation was, I knew instantly that he wasn’t going to share it with me.

“I can’t,” he said quietly, his expression softening a little. “I have my reasons. You need to trust me.”

“What reasons would that be?”

He clamped his mouth shut.

“Okay.” I smiled bitterly. “Tell me just one thing, Jett. Just one. That’s all I’m asking for. Did you or did you not log into my account and delete one email related to the estate?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think you…”

“Just answer the question.” I stared him down, cutting him off. “Did you or did you not?”

“I did.” Sighing, he raised his arms in surrender. “But I have a good reason. You…”

My brows shot up as another pang of anger washed over me. “What the hell! Are you controlling me?”

“No, that’s not it.”

“What other reason would that be?”

“I can’t tell you, Brooke. You have to trust me.”

“I don’t have to do anything.” The thought that after everything we had been through he was still keeping secrets from me hurt. My vision blurred with unshed tears of disappointment. “Get out!” I crossed the room in a few steps, then turned around, unable to hide my disgust for him. “The only reason you won’t tell me is because you can’t come up with a lie that quickly. Don’t even pretend otherwise.” I opened the door and waited for him to leave.

He shot me a confused look but made no move to leave. Instead, he crossed his arms over his chest and regarded me coolly. “Why would I do that, Brooke?”

There were so many possible reasons I could have thrown at him, but I decided to keep it short and simple.

“I don’t know. Maybe because you sided with your brother, and you both want to kill me to get my estate?” The words escaped my lips before I could stop them. It was too late to back off now. “That’s the other reason why I wanted to sleep with someone else, so I could move on from you.”

He drew in a sharp breath as an array of emotions crossed his beautiful features. Shock. Disbelief. Anger. And then a cold hardness, as though his heart had just turned to ice.

“You thought I wanted to kill you?” he asked slowly, his voice so forceful that I recoiled. “Brooke, are you even listening to yourself?”

I jutted my chin out, standing my ground.

Silence filled the room. Seconds passed. I had never seen Jett so angry. From the way his hands had balled into fists, he looked like he was about to punch a wall. Then again, I had never been so angry myself. What answer could I give him, anyway? That, yes, I had thought he wanted to kill me? That I couldn’t trust him and it was over? I tensed when he moved past me. I expected him to touch me again, to utter thousands of excuses. Instead, he grabbed his clothes and turned to leave. Without another word, he walked out, slamming the door behind him, the thud reverberating from the walls. I jumped in shock but still didn’t move, doing nothing to stop him. It was only when I heard a car door slam outside the window and tires screeching that I knew he was gone.

Out of my life.

Out of my baby’s future.

Loud sobs escaped my throat. I sank to the floor and buried my face in my hands. I should have been filled with pure anger, yet buried beneath all those negative feelings for him, there was guilt—for hurting him, for choosing that day to break up, for even giving up on love. My heart was hurting in so many places, and while I hated him, I hated myself more.

The nausea in my stomach intensified by a hundredfold.

Why couldn’t I feel anger inside me? Why was I fighting an array of emotions—stupid, stronger feelings that urged me to run after him, to explain the situation, to tell him that he was still the only one for me, that I wanted him more than anything else—even when I resisted in my mind?

I wanted to tell him that, in spite of his cheating, I couldn’t stop loving him, and I had no idea why. The last thing I remembered was the awful sickness as I dashed to the bathroom to empty the remnants of my stomach.

Chapter 14

Love is an unpredictable thing. It never listens to you. It doesn’t follow your commands. It is like a stubborn cat, eager to chase the next running mouse and to catch it for a trophy. I felt like that mouse, with a sense of ominous, impending doom hanging over my head and no knowledge of which direction to take. I was running in fear, hoping that one day I’d bump into the door that would lead me to freedom, and Jett wouldn’t be waiting on the other side, ready to capture me, ready to make me fall for his wicked charm again. With his sexy smile and his green eyes, he had enslaved my body like no other man. I had no wish, no desire, and certainly no need to fall blindly into the next trap, and Jett Mayfield certainly was one.

Our entire relationship had been so intense that I knew it couldn’t be healthy for my soul. The moment he had kissed me, I had instantly wanted him, as though my body was programmed to react to him, just as my mind couldn’t stop thinking about sex when he wasn’t around.

I felt as if I was lost in a dark mausoleum, and he was like the phantom of the opera, shrouded in darkness, with the power to sing to me in my sleep and appear in my dreams. He only had to speak my name in that sexy Southern accent of his, and I would turn to butter in his hands.

I laughed darkly at the comparison of Jett with the phantom; the irony wasn’t lost on me. I just hoped I wouldn’t end in a straightjacket. After all, my love and desire for him not only turned me blind; it also rendered me insane.