Jake took his glasses off, setting them on the table before leaning close. “I thought you’d appreciate me sitting close so no one can hear what we’re talking about.”
Shoving him with no effect, Bri grumbled. “We don’t have anything to talk about. Just give me the pictures and videos and I’m out of here.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” He had the gall to wave down a passing waitress. “Hey there, babe. We’d like two Cosmos. Make ‘em strong.”
“No!” Brianna shouted, too loudly. Trying to temper her voice, she added, “I’ll be driving soon. I don’t want to drink.” The server glanced back and forth between the two of them, standing awkwardly until Bri said, “Just bring me a water.”
“Boy, living with Lambert sure has turned you into a bore,” he goaded, grabbing a few nuts from the snack mix bowl and popping them into his mouth as soon as the waitress left them alone.
“Don’t even say his name,” she protested, pushing on him again to try and get him to move to the other side of the table. Instead of working, it only made Jake snake his arm behind her shoulders and yank her tight against his body.
His words against the shell of her left ear sent shivers through her body. “Don’t you just love this game we’re playing? It’s so cute that you still try to play hard to get with me when we both know I’m gonna win every single time.”
He was so damn smug, and it scared her. She hated how he’d boxed her into a corner, but even more than that, she hated that her body was starting to betray her already. It recognized what her brain was fighting.
“Knock it off, Jake. It isn’t gonna work this time.” Even she heard the waver in her voice, but she tried to be brave. “I don’t even know why you’re wasting your time on me. Surely, you can manage to get a date or two without having to harass me.”
He was close enough she felt his breath on her cheek as he answered. “Believe me, it sort of pisses me off too, but let’s face it. There’s just something special… explosive… between us. I know you miss it as much as I do.”
Brianna refused to let her mind go there. She had to be strong.
“Very funny. I don’t miss your verbal and physical abuse.”
“Potato, potàto. You say abuse. I call it discipline.” He paused and added, “A punishment fuck,” in a low growl.
She hated that her core physically constricted at his raunchy words. “I know what you’re doing. It isn’t going to work on me.”
“We’ll see about that,” he said just as the waitress returned with a Cosmo and glass of water. “Just throw these on my room bill, will you, babe?”
Bri caught the annoyed look on the server’s face at the term of endearment. “Sure thing, Mr. Davenport. Just let me know if there’s anything else I can help with during your stay.” The server hesitated like she was about to say something more before moving along.
She was surprised the woman knew his name, but as soon as she’d left them alone, Jake couldn’t help but brag. “Her name is Meredith, and she’s one of the reasons I always come out to see you when I’m in town. Just like every other woman I’ve banged since you left me, she’s a complete bore in bed.”
“You slept with the waitress?”
“We didn’t sleep, although it was boring enough, I almost knocked off mid-fuck. Probably just like you do with vanilla Lambert every night.”
“You don’t know the first thing about my husband… or my marriage.”
“I know he’s never given you an orgasm even close to those I’ve given you.”
Don’t go there, Bri. Stay strong.
“He’s also never almost put me in the hospital. What’s your point?”
“My point is I know you, probably better than you know yourself. You need me, Bri. The pain… the pleasure… I can smell you, you know. Your brain may still be fighting it, but your body is already priming itself for my dominance.”
She didn’t deny his accusation, but she did reject it. “I’m done letting my body make stupid choices. Now, I’ll wait here while you go upstairs. You promised to give me the hard drive you have everything stored on. I’ll wait here,” she repeated.
Jake smiled that sexy grin that had trapped her the first night they’d met. She saw the humor in his eyes. Threatening her and those she loved was all just a fun game to him. He picked up the Cosmo and downed the strong cocktail, slamming the empty glass down with a thud just before pushing to his feet to stand at the end of the table.
Reaching into his pocket, he came out with a hotel key packet, a large 917 handwritten on the outside.
When she didn’t reach for it, he threw it onto the table in front of her. “You want the hard drive you’ll have to come and get it. I’ll take a photo of it when I get upstairs and text it to you, just so you know I really did bring it with me. You’ll have five minutes after I text the proof to you to come to my door to pick it up in person. After the five minutes, I’ll start sending texts to your husband instead.”
The asshole didn’t even give her a chance to speak, not that it mattered. He wouldn’t have listened to anything she said anyway.
It was a trap. She knew it. She’d come all this way for nothing. Once again, Jake Davenport had manipulated her into an impossible corner. If only she hadn’t been stupid enough to get trapped by him last fall, she’d maybe take her chances today. Markus wouldn’t have liked hearing about her sexual history, but he might have understood.
But it was moot. Once she’d had sex outside her marriage even once, Jake had won. And he knew it. The videos with threats to Tiffany and her brothers were bad enough. The photos of Bri having sex with Jake was worse.
The photo with the Chicago Tribune proving the date of her fall. That was game over.
Bri sat there, spinning her stupidity over and over until the ding of a new text felt like a knife to her heart. The asshole had the nerve to take the photo of the hard drive as part of a selfie. He’d taken off his tie and jacket. The button of his shirt collar was undone, looking casual and relaxed. Only the icy blue of his eyes betrayed the danger that was Jake Davenport.
Bri looked at her watch. It was 3:25pm. She had five minutes of happiness left before her marriage blew up spectacularly.
Chapter Four
Lukus
“Mr. Lambert, you may present your closing statement.” The hard-as-nails Judge McKinney nodded in the defense table’s direction, an almost-smile on her stern face.
Lukus Mitchell held his breath as his best friend pushed to his feet next to him, buttoning the jacket of his expensive suit. At his going rate of four-hundred and fifty dollars per billable hour, and even more for court appearances, Markus could afford a closet full of designer threads.
I’m lucky he’s giving me a family discount.
Fuck, he wanted this fiasco to be over. They were getting close to the finish line, he just hoped the outcome was worth waiting for. As Markus started his prepared closing statement, Lukus watched the twelve-person jury, looking for any hint of what the group of seven men and five women were thinking after listening to a full day of testimony.