Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 115737 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115737 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
I wince, but a flash of anger creeps up on me. The sooner he’s out of there, the better. He stands and pulls me to my feet, brushing my hair from my sticky face. ‘I need to fix your door before I go.’ Taking my hand, he walks us through to the hall where my door is literally hanging off its hinges. There’s no way Jack’s fixing that. He’ll be here all night.
‘I’ll call a locksmith.’
‘I’m not leaving you with your door like this.’
‘Then you shouldn’t have smashed it down,’ I mutter.
‘Then you shouldn’t have brought a man—’ My hand zooms up and covers his lips, and his eyes widen. Then his mouth opens and shifts a little, and he bites down on my hand.
‘Ouch!’ I yell, retracting quickly, but my split second of a chance to retaliate is stolen from me when he seizes me around the waist and pins me to his body. Taking my arms and draping them over his shoulders, he gets nose to nose with me. I scowl. He chuckles lightly. I have no idea why. Tonight has been about as funny as a horror film. ‘Why the hell are you laughing?’ I ask indignantly.
‘Because if I don’t laugh I’ll embarrass myself and cry like a fucking baby.’
I sigh. ‘You’d better go.’
His shining eyes dull immediately. ‘I don’t want to leave you.’
‘You don’t have any choice,’ I point out, detaching him from my body and moving towards the door before I beg him to stay.
‘Can I see you tomorrow?’ Jack asks. ‘I’m in the office all day but can get away for an hour for lunch.’
I fight my hands to my sides when he stops in front of me, giving me hopeful eyes. After everything, I just want to charge at his waist, tackle him to the floor and hide in his chest. And hide him from her. ‘You’re in the office? But it’s Saturday.’
‘I have stuff to catch up on.’
And it keeps him out of the house. ‘Where?’ I ask.
‘There’s a little place at the back of the docks.’
‘That’s a bit close to your office, isn’t it?’
‘It’s Saturday. No one from the office will be around.’
‘Okay,’ I agree, without hesitation. If Jack’s comfortable with it, then there’s no reason for me not to be. ‘Noon? I’m seeing Micky for coffee at ten. Shouldn’t be more than an hour.’
‘Noon,’ Jack confirms, stopping at the door and giving the splintered wood another inspection. ‘Call the locksmith straight away and text me when they’ve been.’ He turns and gives me stern eyes.
I sigh. ‘I can’t text you.’
‘Yes, you can and you will. I won’t sleep until I know it’s done.’
Is he becoming a bit complacent? All the signs suggest it. Bashing down my door, meeting for lunch, telling me to text him when he’s going to be in bed. I know he’s made a decision, but he still needs to tread carefully, as well as think about how and when he’s going to do what needs to be done. Cold waves ripple through my bloodstream at the thought.
After kissing my cheek, he wanders down the path. ‘I’ll text you the address of the restaurant.’
‘Okay. See you tomorrow.’ I push my door closed as best I can, then go in search of my phone to call a locksmith. They can’t specify a time, so once I’ve let Jack know, I’m given little choice but to sit on the couch and wait for them to turn up, when I’m so desperate to fall into bed and shut my mind down. But there’s no hope of that happening. He’s leaving her. You’d think it would be what any woman who’s in love with a married man would want to hear, but given everything I know, I’m full of dread rather than elation.
Dread for Jack.
My Jack.
Chapter 20
I come awake to banging – relentless, panicked banging. Diving up in a daze, I stumble down the hallway to my front door, trying to straighten my sleepy mind while shaking my dead arm awake. It’s full of pins and needles, which results in my hand refusing to grip the handle of the door in order to turn and open it. I mentally encourage my muscles to wake up as the banging continues, my head rattling more with every impatient thump of the door. ‘Hold on!’ I yell, swapping hands and wrenching the door open.
I growl before my sleepy eyes tell me who the culprit is. I soon wake up when a blurry silhouette of a person becomes Jack. He looks a little flustered. ‘What are you doing?’
‘It’s one o’clock,’ he grumbles, pushing me inside and following, shutting the door behind him. ‘You didn’t acknowledge the address of where we were meeting for lunch, and you didn’t fucking turn up.’ He points a finger in my face. ‘I’ve been worried sick!’