To Love Jason Thorn (Page 35)

When Jason called me to let me know he was just a few minutes away from the apartment, I chose to wait for him outside to avoid Marcus’ intense glares.

His Spyder pulled in, and I practically ran to the passenger side before he could get out.

“Why are you waiting outside? What’s wrong?” he asked as soon as I was inside.

I took a deep breath and his scent hit me. My eyes rolled into the back of my head.

“Huh?” I asked distractedly. “Yeah. Nothing. I didn’t want to make you wait.”

“You look beautiful, Olive,” he said, his eyes moving over me slowly.

Since I had no idea where he was taking me, Char had thought it would be the safest bet to keep it simple with a black dress. I ran my hands over my thighs, smoothing and pulling the dress down a little in the process, which wasn’t all that helpful, so I linked my hands in my lap and let it go. While it felt like it was too short at that moment, I knew it looked good on me when I was standing. I especially liked how it looked from the side; the dress curved around my ass perfectly.

“Where are we going?” I asked after I was buckled in and he pulled away from the curb.

“I thought Soho House would be best for privacy. At least we won’t get photographed.”

“Oh, the private club thingy? You have a membership?”

“Yeah. I’m not a huge fan; I prefer the privacy of my own home, but sometimes I have to meet industry people there for lunch or other business meetings.”

“I understand.” Did that mean we were about to have a business meeting?

The rest of the ride was awkwardly quiet. Apparently neither one of us had anything more to say, which I didn’t think boded well for me.

After he pulled into the garage and completed the check-in, he casually put his hand just above my bum—practically jumpstarting my heart—and guided me to the elevators.

When the silence became too much, I asked, “Is everything all right?” I didn’t mind comfortable silences, but I had a feeling that something else was going on with him. He looked distracted.

He was frowning when he looked down at me. “Yeah. Why?”

I gave him a sad smile. “I don’t know. You aren’t talking. You seem tense and not so happy to be here.”

His eyes softened and he gently tugged at my hair. “It’s not you, little one. Just had a stressful day.”

Nodding, I swallowed and looked away from his warm eyes.

Exiting the elevator at the top floor, we walked up the stairs and through the somewhat crowded bar, and then into the coolest dining area I’d ever seen in my life.

The entire rooftop was filled with lush olive trees and other plants. The lanterns and twinkle lights hanging through the branches lit up the whole space and created the perfect setup for a romantic evening. But, from the look on Jason’s face, I could see that this was far from a romantic evening for him. Trying to ignore the beautiful view of LA, we followed the front desk girl to a table that was mostly out of the sight of the other patrons.

“Jason!” some guy yelled just as we were about to sit down. I couldn’t see the owner of the voice, but Jason waved at someone and sat down across from me.

“One of the producers of my last movie,” he explained with a smile on his face. I smiled back at him.

Without any further conversation, we ordered our drinks and food, and then I simply waited for Jason to spill the beans.

“I thought you would enjoy the atmosphere here,” he said right as a waiter brought our drinks. Jason had downed his whiskey before the poor guy could even place my Lemon Drop in front of me. He ordered a new one for himself and suddenly pushed back his seat and rose up.

“I need to say hi to a few people, I’ll be right back,” he said and walked away from me.

Staring at his back in shock, I reached for my cocktail, took a sip, and then another big one.

The waiter came back with Jason’s second drink, but Jason hadn’t returned yet. I had to force myself to smile when he gave me a snobbish look.

“Awesome,” I muttered, taking out my phone to text Lucy.

Me: I’m sitting on a beautiful rooftop, surrounded by olive trees and twinkle lights—alone.

Lucy: What do you mean alone?

Me: I don’t know what exactly, but something is wrong with Jason. We just sat down, ordered our food and drinks, and he jumped up and left to say hi to a few people.

Lucy: That doesn’t sound too ominous. I’m sure he’ll be back.

Me: Well, it is. He’s been acting weird from the moment I got into his car. No eye contact, no nothing.

I leaned forward a little to see if I could spot him. Sure enough, he was standing next to a group of ten or twelve people who were having dinner. A beautiful blonde woman joined the group and instead of sitting down, she came to stand next to Jason when she saw him. She touched his arm, leaned in to whisper something into his ear, and said something funny enough to make Jason throw back his head and laugh. Then his hand sneaked around her waist…and I sat my ass back down.

Perfect.

Remembering I wasn’t out with Jason but with Jason Thorn didn’t ease my worries. I’d take the other guy any day.

Me: I don’t think I’m feeling well. I want to come home, Lucy.

Lucy: Hey, it’ll be okay. You are a cat. A purring, content one. I’m sure he wanted to talk to you about the movie. Didn’t you say so yourself? If he upsets you, I’ll kick his ass, don’t worry.

There was no way that cat crap would work this time.

Before I could text back, Jason returned to the table, muttered an apology, gave me a strange look, and reached for his drink again.

Feeling deflated, I played with the edge of the table and kept sipping my drink as I tried to focus on the beautiful view.

At some point, he asked a few questions about how my new novel was coming along, and I answered all of his questions with unnecessarily long answers. Eventually though, I gave up trying to engage him in conversation when he started texting with his agent.

Our food came—we had both ordered salmon—and—surprise, surprise—we ate in silence.

If picking at the poor fish counted as eating, that is.

My phone vibrated twice, but I didn’t check to see who it was. No matter how many times she texted, I was no cat—especially not a purring one. Halfway into our awkward and very disappointing dinner, I gave up on the food too and just leaned back in my seat to gaze at the city skyline. I hated sulking in general, but sitting across from Jason and sulking…well, it was all kinds of wrong. Even so, there was no way I could act like I was having the time of my life at that moment either.

“Olive?”

So lost in my own head, I flinched when I heard Jason’s thick voice.

“Yes?”

He tilted his head and furrowed his brows. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know. Are you?” I asked back.

He scratched at his stubble. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve barely said a word to me ever since we sat down, Jason. Not that you were a chatterbox in the car, but you literally spoke maybe twenty words to me. Since you were the one who invited me out, I have no idea what’s happening, but I’m going to wait until you finish your dinner so you can take me home. Better yet, if you can tell someone to call me a cab…do they even do that here? Anyway, if they do, I can get myself home.”

A few tables to our left, a group of people roared with laughter, drawing my attention away from Jason. Why couldn’t we be laughing with joy like that? Jason was going to take me to a movie set, the movie set that was being set up for the world I’d created. I was going to see Isaac’s room, touch the bed where he woke Evie up in the middle of the night just because he couldn’t wait to kiss her for the first time. I should’ve been the one laughing my ass off with joy, not sulking in front of a sex god.