Hurts So Good (15 page)

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It had only been a fucking day since he had eaten lunch with Jane, and already Mack was antsy to see
her,
or hell, he’d even take a damn text. When they left each other’s company he knew she was going to see her ex and talk to him, make sure everything was ended because she wanted more to happen between them. She was a good girl, and if he hadn’t really wanted to do right by her, he might not have cared that she was taken. He wanted her that badly. But the fact of the matter was he wasn’t a scum-bag, and sure as hell wouldn’t want some asshole putting his dick in his girl when they were still together. But Jane had said she would call him when she was done. But fuck, an entire day had gone by and he hadn’t heard shit.

The sound of gravel crunching in his driveway had Mack getting off the couch and going over to the window. He pulled the blinds aside, saw Taylor’s truck, and cursed. He wasn’t in the mood for this
shit, that
was for fucking sure. He went over to the front door and opened it just as Taylor got out of his truck. He made his way forward, and the porch light showed Taylor’s nasty looking black eye and the swollen side of his face. Mack opened the door and scowled.

“Dude, I’m really not in the mood for this shit. If you want to go another round, we can do this in the ring at the center. I’m not about to piss off Harlond again, and right now I’m pretty fucking tired.” Taylor stopped a few feet from him.

“Mack, I’m not here to start more shit or finish what we started in the locker room. I just came by to apologize.” Mack leaned against the porch banister and crossed his arms over his chest.

“You came all the way out here just to apologize?
For what?”

Taylor narrowed his eyes. “Dude, seriously?” Mack didn’t respond. “Look, I didn’t know that was your
girl,
and you’re right, I shouldn’t have brought her to the fight to begin with, and I sure as hell shouldn’t have left her alone, even if there were bouncers around.” Mack pushed off the banister and glared at Taylor. “Okay, okay, regardless if there were the fucking Navy-SEALs at the fight, I shouldn’t have left her alone. I know that, and I’m sorry, okay?” They stared at each other for several minutes, and finally Mack heaved a deep exhale and hung his head for a moment.

“I’m not saying sorry for why I hit you, because you deserved it.” He looked up to see Taylor smirk. “But I probably could have handled it a bit differently.” Taylor nodded, rubbed the back of his neck, and then looked behind him at his truck. “But you could have called me. I would have been cool with an apology over the phone instead of you coming out here.” He grinned.

“You wouldn’t have answered anyway.”

Mack chuckled. “Nah, I wouldn’t have.”

“Okay, well that was it. I got a fight in an hour.” He turned and started walking back to his truck, but stopped and called over his shoulder, “I’m glad you found a girl that you’re willing to fight for, Mack.” He got in his truck, cranked the engine, and pulled out of his driveway. Mack didn’t move for several minutes, and kept playing Taylor’s words over and over in his head.

Jane was definitely worth fighting for, and he wouldn’t stop until he made things right, and she was finally his. No matter how long it took, or how much he had to show her that he was worthy of her love.

Chapter Ten

The work week flew by for Jane, but keeping busy was what she needed right now. She hadn’t seen Mack, but had talked to him a few times on the phone. Although he wasn’t pushing her for any more than she was willing to give, Jane was having a hard time staying away. But she needed this week to think, to prioritize everything, and to not just jump into another relationship when one ended—even if said relationship was with the big Russian fighter she was in love with. They had already wasted so much
time, and being away from Mack—even
if only for these five short days—seemed far longer than that.

“Hey, are you okay?” Celine leaned against the doorframe and looked at her curiously.

“I’m fine. Why do you ask?” She threw a few pieces of paper in her drawer, turned off her computer, and leaned back in her seat before Celine even said anything. Finally the other woman shrugged.

“No reason. I was just wondering how everything went with the ex. And—” She looked behind her when Barton, one of the attorneys that had transferred to this office, called out that he was going. “See you Monday.” Jane stood and grabbed her purse and jacket, but stopped a few feet from Celine, who was now looking at her again. “Well? Everything go okay?”

Jane shrugged. “I guess. I mean Graison and I broke up, but it wasn’t this explosion like I feared, and he knew that our relationship just wasn’t going anywhere. We split on pleasant enough terms, I guess.” Celine didn’t move out of the doorway, and Jane cocked an eyebrow. “What?”

“And what about the other guy, the fighter?” The corner of Celine’s mouth lifted up, which was contagious as Jane started to smile, too.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him all week, because I felt I needed a bit of time to get my thoughts together. We’ve talked, and both came to an understanding that taking our time and just seeing where this goes isn’t such a bad idea. I don’t want to rush into anything, but then again I really do.” Celine was quiet for a little bit, and Jane could practically see how hard she was thinking.

“Yeah, not rushing into anything with the guy you’ve been in love with for nearly half your life isn’t something you want to do. Okay.” Jane took a step back, and although there wasn’t any malice or accusation in Celine’s voice, Jane knew it was a jab. Celine turned around, but before she took two steps she looked over her shoulder and said, “Have a great weekend, Jane, and hopefully the time you’ve spent thinking isn’t time you have lost forever.” Jane stood there until the sound of Celine’s heels faded down the hallway, and the sound of the front door closing left Jane in silence. Celine’s words hadn’t been anything monumental, but then again they had. She stood there for a few more seconds, and then reached into her bag for her cell. After dialing Mack’s number, and getting his voicemail, she hung up without leaving a message. She could go
home,
wait and see if he called her back, and talk to him then. Or she could just head over to his house, and do something she had never done before—take control of something she really, really wanted. Celine might be young, but she was right, and all it had taken was Jane hearing that wasted time was lost time. Enough time had passed between them, and she was sick of it, and Jane was going to do something about it.
 

She locked up the office and headed to her car. It was going on six in the evening. The sun was just now starting to descend, and the excitement of what she was about to do drummed inside of her. Mack wasn’t the last guy she had been with sexually, but he had been the one she had compared all others to. It had taken only that one time, that moment when he had taken her
virginity,
and Jane was ruined for all others. She hadn’t realized it then, hadn’t really seen it until this very moment, but subconsciously she had been comparing every man to the Russian that she was still in love with. God, she hated the fact she hadn’t come back to Absinthe and checked up on Mack herself, but she wasn’t going to worry about the past anymore, and sure as hell wasn’t going to keep it from letting her have the future she was meant to have. She wanted to go to his house, but first she needed to go home, get cleaned up and looking presentable, because being clean and fresh was a must for what she had planned.

An hour later and she was driving quickly through town until she got to the outskirts. She had tried to call him again, because she didn’t just want to come over unannounced, but he hadn’t answered again. Jane took a left onto the long road that would lead her to Mack’s house. She hoped he was home, because her entire body was on fire with what she was going to do. She was nervous, slightly scared, but God, she was aroused beyond belief.

“Are you seriously going to just go over there and seduce him like a feral animal in heat?”

Talking to
herself
wasn’t helping, and in fact had her growing even more wet as she said her inner thoughts aloud. His house came into view, and her pulse increased when she saw his truck parked in the driveway. Lord, she could feel her heart pumping so fast, could hear it in her ears, feel it in the base of her throat, and felt lightheaded from the sudden rush of adrenalin that claimed her. Jane had had enough of “catching up”, enough of apologizing for things that couldn’t be changed, and wanted to look forward to her future. After cutting off the engine, she took a minute to catch her breath, and to visualize how exactly she was going to go about this. Jane had never been an assertive type of girl, and although she had a backbone, and tended not to take shit from people, she also thought of herself as more submissive when it came to the bedroom. Could she actually be the dominant one, especially to a guy like Mack that screamed testosterone, dominance, and who was used to taking control? The thought of trying was exciting enough, and she found herself out of her car, walking up the stairs to his porch, and standing in front of his door. Her hands shook as she lifted one of them and brought her knuckles down on the wood. It took a minute for the sound of his footsteps on the other side to pierce the pounding pulse in her ears. She felt drunk right now, and when he opened the door and stood on the other side in nothing but a white towel wrapped loosely around his lean hips, she grew even more intoxicated. His skin was slightly pink and still damp from his obvious shower. His short black hair was in wet spikes around his head, and she watched a bead of water make its descent all the way from his temple, down his jaw that was dusted in an extremely attractive five-o’clock shadow, over his defined
pecs
, and continued its path down his ridiculously chiseled abdomen. Lord, it had to be illegal for a man to be so hardly packed with muscle. His body screamed the word
male
. She should have been embarrassed, or at least felt shame over her blatant examination of Mack, but all she felt was the exhilarated rush of her lust moving through every inch of her body.

Jane slowly moved her eyes back up his body, following the same path that drop of water had made, only in reverse. When she was looking in Mack’s face again, it was to see the same intense need reflected in his eyes. “I tried calling.” Her tongue felt so thick and her throat so dry. She hadn’t known what to say, and so the first thing that had come to mind was what she had spoken. It took him a moment to speak, and although he looked so damn good right now, Jane didn’t miss the very tired expression on his face.

“Sorry. I was downstairs working out and then jumped in the shower.” His voice was so deep, so masculine, that she curled her fingers into her palms and told herself that this was what she had been missing. His voice hadn’t really hanged. It sounded harder now, more mature, but it was still so sharp and gruff that she could picture that time so long ago when he had been on top of her, and how he had been moving that very big length in and out of her body. Her pussy clenched, but it didn’t stop the flow of wetness that spilled out of her. Her panties were uncomfortably wet, and her clit throbbed like it had its own pulse. They had only been standing here for a minute at the most, but it felt like this nearly silent interaction had been going on for hours. “Come in, Janie.”

The way he said her name, like a soft caressing memory, but also filled with need, was almost as powerful as if he had reached out and touched her. She stepped inside, and he shut the door, closing her in, and blocking off her escape. The scent of him filled her nose. It was a slight smell of fresh water and soap.

“You’ve been busy this week?” He spoke low, but she knew he had been disappointed each time she had turned down his invitation to see him this past week.

“Yeah.
Work has been pretty hectic.” That was the truth, but she could have made time for him. But these past five days Jane had done a lot of thinking, and that was what she had needed to get her head in the game and understand that she wasn’t going to stop this from progressing. Looking over at the three pictures on his wall, the ones that he had said were the most important people in his
life,
a wave of emotion filled her when she saw hers amongst those. She looked at the picture of Sunny, and although she couldn’t stop the jealousy that reared its head, it was more the envy that this young woman had gotten to spend all these years with Mack, and she hadn’t.
 
“Do you ever think that what we had was just a teenage thing?” Jane sure as hell didn’t think so, but she really wanted to know what he thought. When he didn’t respond right away she turned around, and everything inside of her froze at the expression on his face. He looked pissed, and when he took a step forward, stalked toward her like a damn predator, all strength Jane had when she had first come here vanished. She counteracted his movements, turned and back up until she found herself with her back to the front door. Though she placed her hands flat on the wood behind her, the cold from it did nothing to quell the sudden rush of heat that filled her. He moved closer until he was only a few short feet from her. He still had yet to respond to her question. Jane felt like a magnet was pulling her eyes down, and as she gave in to the need to stare at his chest, then down to his abdomen that looked like he was hiding paint rollers under the tan, hard skin, and lower still until she reached the edge of that white towel, a small sound left her. He was hard, damn hard. His erection tented the terrycloth like it was trying to break through it, and as huge as it looked covered by the
fabric,
Jane wouldn’t have been surprised if it succeeded in that task.