Free The Storm Inside by Alexis Anne

everything. “Jake, you should come, too! You can see everyone that way!”
    My heart stopped as all eyes, even Jake’s, swung over to me.
    Weirdness levels skyrocketed. We’d only just barely managed to survive a ballgame and a dinner party. Wasn’t a weekend away—at my parent’s house, filled with memories of our old life—pushing things too far and too fast?
    Or maybe it was just what I needed. Push it hard and get it over with. If I was lucky, come Monday morning I would be able to confidently look Jake in the eye and tell him I didn’t love him anymore. That he and I could finally move on.
    “Let’s do it,” I said firmly and before I lost my nerve.
    Jake’s eyebrows shot up and cheers filled the room. Plans were quickly made, not that I listened to any of them. Jennie was taking care of it all.
    Thirty minutes later the party started breaking up. Jennie and Sylvia were in the kitchen cleaning, Ricardo was putting our things back where they belonged and taking out the trash, Heather and Sharon had already left.
    “You don’t have to come,” I said as I walked Jake to the door.
    He had a sly grin, the kind that said he was more than happy to come for the weekend, and not just as friends. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world, darlin’.”
    Darlin’ . I swallowed at the way it sounded coming from him. Sweet and reverent. It promised to be both adoring and sexy. The way the letters rolled off his tongue and his voice gruffly vibrated behind them… could easily change their meaning. I liked the way it sounded. I liked that it was directed at me.
    Which was all wrong.

 

     
    Chapter 5
     
     
    It was Thursday night and Jennie was out on her first date with Andrew. I told her to bring me home dessert. Meanwhile I was enjoying my evening alone. I had the music blasting, a pizza open on my bed, and I was giving myself a pedicure.
    Because I was alone and expecting to stay that way, I was wearing dark gray leggings, a sports bra, and a giant racerback tank. My hair was piled up into a messy bun. I was twisted like a pretzel to reach my toes and singing at the top of my lungs, so I didn’t hear him come in.
    Not until I saw him lounging in my doorway, watching me with a look of pure amusement. “What the hell are you doing here?” I yelled at Jake over the music. “You scared the shit out of me!”
    That only made him chuckle. He looked different. He’d clearly just come from work. He was dressed in a very sharp three-piece suit. Dark gray, pinstriped, and obviously tailored to his frame. My mouth went a little dry as I looked him up and down.
    The twinkle in his eye said he’d seen my longing look. Crap.
    I pointed at the remote just out of my contorted reach and Jake smiled more, shifting away from the doorjamb to lower the music.
    “Sorry I surprised you. Having fun?” his amusement at my position clearly giving him fits.
    I glowered at him. “I was supposed to be having a nice night alone.”
    “I know. Jennie is on her date. She asked me to run by and grab some stuff for your parent’s house.” He paused long enough to give me stern look. “You keep the key in the same place, don’t you think you should change that?”
    I finished the nail I was working on and untwisted myself. “You could have knocked, or called, or texted. You do know how those things work, right? That isn’t on your ‘learning curve’ is it?”
    I noticed as his eyes longingly wandered over my pizza so I picked up a piece and shoved it in my mouth, intentionally baiting him.
    “Yes, Eve, I know how to use a phone. I will try to give you a heads up next time, though I must say surprising you is working out for me so far.” Cocky bastard. But he was right. So far his ‘surprise’ visits had earned him multiple occasions to talk to me, the obvious confidence of my best friend, and now, a few uninterrupted moments alone in my bedroom, of all places.
    I threw my pizza at him, which he, of course, deftly caught and