Strip away tap that book.., p.15
Strip Away (Tap That Book 4), page 15
Jesse picked her up and she wrapped her legs tightly around him. They kissed each other desperately, eagerly. His hands ground into her ass and she wanted him, all of him.
“Whoa, guys, I wasn’t actually serious about you making a baby right now,” Sloane said.
Astrid broke their kiss, breathing hard, her heart racing.
Oh, God.
Sloane was just inside the doorway to the deck, giving them an amused look.
That was more than a little embarrassing. She tried to slide down to the floor out of Jesse’s grip, but he held her too tightly. “Jesse,” she said urgently. “Put me down.”
He grunted, like he disagreed, but he finally relented and set her on the hardwood floor. He glanced over at Sloane and grinned. “Next time knock.”
Sloane laughed. “Shut up.”
But Astrid took the opportunity to leave the kitchen. She fast-walked over to the door.
“Sloane, you embarrassed Astrid,” Jesse said.
“Me?” Sloane gave him a long look. “You’re the one with your hand up her dress.”
His hand had been up her dress? Yep. Her cheeks were on fire. She gave Sloane a nod, and went back onto the deck.
This was the second time today she had run away from Jesse.
She both dreaded the inevitable and yet wished desperately that it was Tuesday instead of Sunday so he could sign his contract and she could go back to pining for him for the rest of her life.
Operation Move On?
A total joke. A farce. A comedy of epic proportions.
This weekend wasn’t going to allow her to move on, not one teeny tiny microscopic little bit. Not for a mile or a minute or a millimeter or a millisecond or any measurement of time or space, big or small.
She was in love with Jesse.
Straight up, flat out, no holds barred in love.
Totally, one hundred percent in love.
Chapter Thirteen
Jesse arrived at the Minneapolis airport feeling more than a little cranky. After the cookout at Grace and Brandon’s, Astrid had declined to go boating, citing she needed to spend time with Sasha. Who, he was pretty sure, she saw all the time. Unlike him, who she did not.
He’d dropped her and Sasha off at Tap That at two in the afternoon on Sunday and he hadn’t seen her since. She’d given him a wave and a “See ya” and that was it. She’d returned to Minneapolis without seeing him again.
Of course, he realized it was only Monday. And she had known he was always bound for Minneapolis. Still, it felt like she was avoiding him.
Which was ridiculous. He was having dinner with her.
He was a fucking mess. Bottom line.
He got off of the plane and tossed his backpack on over his shoulder. He hadn’t checked any baggage. He wasn’t dressing up for his meeting with Jean-Paul because he’d been told it was a casual meet-up. That suits were not required. Now he was a little worried about having nothing to wear to dinner, but there was nothing for it. He’d packed light and all his suits were in Texas.
At the moment, he was wearing dark jeans and designer sneakers with a navy button up. It was the best he could do.
He was meeting Astrid and her parents at their house. To be honest, he would have preferred a restaurant. Their house was enormous, designed to look like some kind of European chateau. He’d only been there once, at twenty years old, but it had made him uncomfortable. It was like a movie set.
Normally, he just rolled with the punches in social situations but he had no idea what to expect going into this. Was Jean-Paul going to be waiting with a shotgun? Would there be an officiant there to marry them on the spot? He could almost guarantee Astrid would turn on her heel and walk out if that was the case.
Jesse made his way across the airport and toward the cab line. When he pulled his phone out of his pocket and took it off airplane mode it immediately started buzzing with text messages he’d received on the short flight.
He had texts from both Astrid and her father. They seemed to be competing with each other to show up on his screen. First one, then the other, then back to the first.
Jean-Paul had texted that he was picking him up at the airport in a car.
Then Astrid had written: AMBUSH. Dad is trying to ambush you. Get out of there!
That made him frown. Why did it matter if Jean-Paul picked him up?
There were more texts with variations of the same message and a text from Jean-Paul telling him where to exit the airport.
It didn’t make any sense to stand up Jean-Paul so he just texted Astrid a thumb’s up and made his way down to baggage claim and out to where cars were all lined up to pick up passengers.
Astrid was calling him. He declined the call because he had spotted Jean-Paul standing next to the passenger side of a black town car. Putting his phone in his pocket and a smile on his face, he reached out his hand to shake Jean-Paul’s. “Sir, thanks for picking me up. It’s good to see you again.”
Jean-Paul shook his hand and clamped him on the back. “What the hell happened to your face?”
Jesse’s nose was no longer that swollen but he had faint black eyes and the bandage still covering his glued chin. “Just a little accident where my face and the floor decided to make friends with each other.” Technically, it had been Astrid’s bony elbow that done the damage, but he didn’t feel like explaining how that had occurred.
“Occupational hazard.” Jean-Paul had a smile on his face and no sign of a firearm anywhere, so they were off to a positive start.
It went downhill from there.
First, Jean-Paul offered him a drink from the bar in the backseat of the spacious car. The driver, who had not said a word to him, pulled silently away from the curb.
“Oh, I shouldn’t,” Jesse protested.
Jean-Paul gave him a grin that made him nervous. “My wife has champagne chilling at the house, but I say we kick off the festivities with some bourbon.”
Between the questions about his face and the sight of the bourbon he was catapulted back to less than forty-eight hours earlier and how well all of that had turned out. He wasn’t quite ready to indulge again so soon. But he knew this game. “Sure, thanks.” He would sip very slowly.
Jean-Paul opened the bottle and poured a finger into a glass and handed it to Jesse. “So. You don’t object to a prenuptial agreement, do you?”
Jesse took the glass and tried not to react. Yep. He knew this game. Men like Jean-Paul liked to come in and out of casual and throw you off. “I don’t object at all. I don’t want you or Astrid to feel like I’m in this for the wrong reasons.” He almost winced at that statement. But he definitely wasn’t in it for Jean-Paul’s money, which was what this was about.
“Good. Astrid is getting a very small inheritance if anything happens to me, enough to take care of her, but nothing substantial.”
Jesse wasn’t sure what a small inheritance meant to a billionaire. But it didn’t matter at any rate. “I’m not exactly loaded, but I haven’t spent my money carelessly either. I have a nice nest egg. Besides, Astrid doesn’t seem materialistic.”
“She’s not. Which is why she’s not getting any of my money. She would be giving it away left and right.” Jean-Paul poured a second drink. “She’d be saving trees and children and shih tzus.”
“Shih tzus?” That was hard to envision.
“I just mean she would pass money to anyone with their hand out and I can’t risk that.”
Jesse thought that was one of Astrid’s most beautiful qualities but he kept his mouth shut. It wasn’t his money to dole out.
“You know I’ve always liked you.”
There it was again. Sharp topic shift.
“Thank you. I’ve always appreciated everything you’ve done for me.”
“So much so you slept with my daughter?” Jean-Paul raised his white manicured eyebrows.
Only one out of a hundred things he could say would be the right one here and he fished about for the possible correct response. He settled on, “I’m in love with Astrid.”
That wasn’t a lie. It was the absolute truth.
Jean-Paul nodded. “Excellent. I’m entrusting her to you.”
Maybe Jean-Paul hadn’t been in the same room with his daughter in about a decade because the Astrid Jesse knew didn’t need to be entrusted to anyone. She had herself all taken care of, just fine. “I think what’s amazing about Astrid is that she is a very accomplished woman. She’s traveled, she’s going for an advanced degree, she’s pushed herself physically to stay in uncomfortable conditions. She doesn’t need me.”
She didn’t. It was part of why she was so attractive to him. She didn’t need him.
Now if only she would want him in her life permanently, he would be happy as hell.
“I disagree. Which is why I’m prepared to lock you in for two seasons at the salary we discussed with your agent, but I’ll kick in a little on the side. How does a million for each year you’re married to Astrid sound?”
It sounded like it could suck dick, to be perfectly honest. Jesse was offended for himself, massively offended for Astrid, and offended on behalf of all the unsaved shiz tzus.
“I respectfully decline, sir.” And that was only because he was being polite because Jean-Paul was still his old mentor and Astrid’s father.
Jean-Paul slowly sipped his bourbon. “I’m not going any higher than that.”
“I’m not negotiating. I don’t want your money. I want to be with your daughter,” he said, firmly.
He didn’t expect pushback on that and he didn’t get it. Astrid was right. Her father was a businessman.
“You need to commit to staying with her for at least the two years of your contract.”
That gave him pause. He couldn’t ask Astrid to do that. There was no way. That would be completely unfair to her. It would put her life on hold. She wouldn’t be able to date or get married or do whatever things she wanted to do. Even if the thought of Astrid dating and getting naked with someone other than him made him want to punch out a window, he couldn’t ask her to sacrifice like that.
“I can’t promise that. I can’t make Astrid stay with me if she doesn’t want to. She’s her own woman, entitled to her own choices.”
Jesse sneaked a look out of the window. It felt like they’d been in the fucking car forever. Where was the house?
When he turned back, Jean-Paul was holding what looked like his trade contract. He was clearly prepared to rip it in half. “Are you sure about that? I can’t guarantee this deal will go through if you can’t guarantee me two years.”
Well. Shit.
Jesse took a deep breath and did what he needed to do for Astrid. “Then I suggest we turn around and you take me back to the airport. I’ll head back to Texas and finish out my career there.”
If they sat him on the bench or released him, so be it. He’d move back to Beaver Bend sooner than planned. Some things in life were more important than his career and Astrid was one of them.
Jean-Paul tossed back the remainder of his bourbon. “Of course. No dinner?”
“No dinner. I’m serious. Just take me back to the airport.” He didn’t think he could look at Astrid and hide the fact that he was in love with her.
She’d wanted him to be businesslike but the business they were conducting had concluded.
Now he just wanted to go back to Texas and lick his wounds in private.
“What do you mean?” Astrid stared blankly at her father. Her mother was in the kitchen with the caterer making sure dinner was ready, but Astrid had met her father in the foyer, prepared to face Jesse and be honest with him.
About her bucket list, about how she felt now. She had tried to call him and warn him that her father was going to try to make him sign a prenup and a host of other legal papers, but he hadn’t picked up and hadn’t answered her texts.
Now her father was standing in front of her, alone, saying that Jesse Lambert was in love with her.
“I offered him two million dollars and he didn’t take it. He definitely loves you.”
“You offered him money?” Astrid was appalled.
“Sure. I was trying to get a little something going. See what kind of response I could wring from him. He passed the test.”
Astrid paced back and forth on the marble floor, pushing her hands through her hair. “Dad. You can’t just try to bribe men to marry me. It’s okay if I’m single. I like my own company.” She did. She was looking forward to starting her graduate program and squeezing in travel whenever she could and focusing all her energy on accepting the fact that she loved Jesse and would always love Jesse and would never be with Jesse.
“I’m not bribing just any man. I was bribing Jesse. He didn’t take the bait because he loves you.”
She really wished her father would stop saying that. It wasn’t helping her find a cure for her crush turned into actual love. “He doesn't love me. Not even close. We barely know each other.”
Yet they had clicked instantly. Everything between them had been easy and fun and intimate.
He loved her laugh.
God, she wanted to cry.
“He said he loves you, Astrid.” Her father reached out and took her arms. “Stop pacing. You’re making my blood pressure go up.” He rubbed her arms vigorously. “Now come on, isn’t this what you’ve always wanted? Why are you upset?”
She barely heard a word he spoke past “he said he loves you.” Her heart was hammering in her chest. “What do you mean specifically by that, Dad? Did he actually use the word love? Tell me word for word what he said.”
“He said, in these exact words, “I’m in love with Astrid.” Simple as that. Just straight out, no hesitation.”
Her mouth fell open. She felt her spirits soar. Had Jesse just said that to please her father or was there any sort of truth to it? “What does that mean?” she asked her father, needing clarification or validation.
He laughed. “It means he loves you, kid. And why wouldn’t he? You’re an amazing and accomplished woman.”
She pursed her lips as she realized what her father had been doing. This had been his plan all along. “You’ve been very manipulative, Dad. That’s really not cool.”
“I have not been manipulative. I had nothing to do with the two of you, well, initially getting together. I just helped after the fact.”
This was a lot to unpack. “Why did he leave then? Where is he going?”
“Back to Texas. I already called his agent and we’re doing an online call later this week with the real negotiations. The deal was never at risk.”
Her father looked really pleased with himself.
“How does his leaving prove he loves me? Explain that part again.” It wasn’t that she was having trouble following, she just couldn’t comprehend that any of it could be true.
“He’s giving up his career to protect you.”
“Oh.” She thought about that for a second. “He really wanted to move up here.”
“I know. And he chose not to in order to make you happy. If he hadn’t actually said the words, which he did, that would show he loved you. End of story.”
It was incomprehensible to her still but her father had to be on to something. Even if Jesse didn’t love her, he cared enough about her to do what he thought was best for her, at great personal loss to himself. At the very least, she owed him a thank you, and her honesty. She had to tell Jesse she was in love with him.
“Can you get me on a flight to Texas?” she asked. “And get me his home address? I need to tell him how I feel.”
That she loved him and had always loved him and wanted to do life with him.
“I’ll make a few calls,” he father said. “I can have you at his house even before he gets there.”
Chapter Fourteen
Jesse stared at the board between the gate agent, blinking that his flight to Dallas was boarding.
What the hell was he doing?
He was absolutely certain he had made the right decision turning down Jean-Paul’s offer, if you could call it that.
But how could he go back to Texas without telling Astrid how he actually felt?
It might mean nothing to her. It probably wouldn’t change a damn thing.
But he’d never been in love like this before. So fast and so fucking hard. He had thought about Astrid every single second since he’d seen her Friday night.
He had to tell her.
He turned on his heel so fast he collided with a petite elderly woman. “I’m so sorry, are you okay?”
She blinked up at him. “Aren’t you that center forward for Dallas?”
He grinned. This was why he loved Minnesota. Everyone loved hockey.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You’re very big in person.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Then she just shook her head like it really didn’t matter that much to her and tottered over to the gate.
If he was with Astrid, she would have laughed at that. He loved that laugh.
He charged ahead through the airport to the rental car facility. He was going to see Astrid at her parents’ house.
Jesse stared at Jean-Paul an hour later. “What do you mean, she’s in Texas?”
Jean-Paul shook his head, though he looked like he was trying to contain a smile. “The two of you, I swear to God, you’re exhausting me. I have to keep explaining the most simple things. She wanted to talk to you, tell you how she feels about you, so I sent her on a private plane to Texas. She’s in the air right now.”
“I have no words,” Jesse said, running his hands through his hair. “None. This is insane.”
“I didn’t know you were going to change your mind and stay here. You’re less predictable than I thought you would be. I can get you on a plane in an hour or two.”
