Irresistible Lies

Irresistible Lies

Juliette
White

Irresistible
Lies

Juliette
White

Copyright 2013 by Juliette White

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the
U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
distributed or transmitted in any form by any means, or stored in a database or
retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places
and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or
dead, is purely coincidental.

Chapter 1

He
had finally found her.

It
had taken Jamie five years to track Grace down, since she had pretty much
fallen off the face of the earth. But now he had found her.

He
had the name of the company where she worked, and he had the address. He also
had an appointment to meet with her boss. He was so close, so near to her.

He
had never been more anxious in his life.

There
was a very good chance that Grace would still hate him. He harbored no
illusions where she was concerned. He remembered the day their relationship
ended perfectly, and he remembered the look on her face when he had dropped her
off at her college dorm room for the last time. It was a look that said, “I’ll
never forgive you, you bastard.”

It
was a look he deserved.

Grace
had always been the one, and it hadn’t taken him long to figure that out. They
had met at a bar, of all places, and their attraction toward one another had
quickly developed into something more. One evening spent with her rich laughter
and big brown eyes, and he was way past smitten. One night with her in his bed,
and he was in love.

Grace
was funny, beautiful, smart and stubborn, and she cared about Jamie more than
he ever imaged anyone would. It continually amazed him how much love she had to
give and how much of it she gave so freely to him. It humbled him. Grounded
him.

They
had spent nearly three years together, attached and addicted. They treasured
their relationship as the most important aspect of their young lives, promising
each other loyalty, honesty and devotion above all else. They talked of the
future with certainty—where they would live and how many kids they would
have.

Then
graduation came.

Grace
had a job lined up at a public relations agency in New York City, and Jamie had
a job offer from an investment firm there. Grace was thrilled. She wanted them
to get an apartment together. It was the beginning of the rest of their lives,
she said.

Except
Jamie didn’t want to work at an investment firm. He wanted to go into business
with his friends, who were starting their own brewery on a tract of land
upstate. It was exciting. It was an adventure. It was stupid and risky.

Jamie
knew Grace would have supported him every step of the way, even if she would
have been secretly disappointed in his choice. When he told her his decision,
she even managed an encouraging smile. But Jamie knew there was a very good
chance he and his friends would fail, and he couldn’t stand the thought of
bringing Grace down with them.

He
couldn’t take the risks he wanted to take with Grace in the picture. She made
him want to be responsible. She made him want to take care of her. He needed to
have nothing to lose.

With
Grace, Jamie had everything to lose.

The
level of commitment their relationship required had never bothered him before,
but he felt he was at a crossroads in his life and worried that if he didn’t
take this chance, he would always regret it.

So
Jamie decided that they would break up, just for a while, so he could focus on starting
the brewery. He told himself it was the right thing to do for both of them and blocked
out the reality of the situation—that the woman he loved wouldn’t be his
anymore. Instead he pictured himself years later, successful and established,
standing on her doorstep and sweeping her right off her feet.

He
was doing the right thing for them and their future.

Or
so he thought.

He
remembered perfectly trying to explain his reasoning to Grace and regretting
the words even before they came out of his mouth. He tried hard to hold on to
the certainty that he was doing right by her even as he forgot how that made
any sense.

“Why
are you saying this? You don’t love me anymore?” They were sitting on Jamie’s
bed in his small apartment, face to face. Her simple question had hit him like
a blow to the stomach.

“Of
course I love you. I just need to do this. I will always regret it if I don’t
give this a chance. If I take that job in New York City...”

“I
don’t care about New York City.” Her brown eyes were filled with confusion and
hurt, and it nearly killed him. “Go upstate. We can make it work. I’ll come
visit you every other weekend, and we’ll talk on the phone every single day.”

He
was holding her hands, willing her to understand. “What if you spend the next
five years with me and at the end of it I have nothing to show for myself? What
will your parents say? You’ll have wasted all that time with someone who
doesn’t deserve you.”

“You
think I care about money?” She was trying not to cry, but he could tell the
tears were on their way. “You think that matters to me? I don’t care about any
of that stuff. I love you.”

She
kissed him, her lips pleading with his, and he tasted a salty tear when it hit
the corner of her mouth.

He
pulled away gently. “This doesn’t mean I don’t want to be with you, Grace.
You’re all I’ve ever wanted, you know that.”

“It
doesn’t sound that way. Since when is money more important than us being
together?”

“It’s
not.” And it wasn’t. She just didn’t understand that he was doing this for her,
so he could make her happy in the long run. “I just need a few years to give
this a real shot and really dedicate myself to this business. I won’t be able
to give you the time and commitment you deserve right now.”

She
tried to pull her hands away but he held onto them. “Sweetheart...”

“So
you’re just letting me go? It’s over? Just like that?”

A
big, heavy tear rolled down her cheek, and he released her hand to brush it
away with his thumb. “Grace, listen to me. When my crazy, big ideas finally
work out, I’m going to be somebody. And I will come and find you, wherever you
are, and I promise I will give you everything you ever wanted. A big house, two
kids, and we can travel the world. All the things we’ve talked about.”

“Why
do we have to wait to be together? Why can’t we be together now?”

“Because
I’m not ready for all of that yet.”

She
yanked her hands away. “What are you talking about?”

What
was
he talking about? He couldn’t
find the right words, and they were all coming out wrong. “I need to take these
kind of risks while I’m young. I need to take this time to figure things out,
figure out who I am and what I want. I know that I want to be with you, and
that I want to marry you, someday. But not yet. Not right now.”

He
knew he had hurt her when her voice went cold. “I never asked you to marry me.”

“I
know. What I mean is, our relationship is very serious. At this point in my
life, I...” He drifted off, at a loss for words that wouldn’t make him sound
like a complete asshole.

He
watched realization dawn in her eyes. “You’re not ready for this. For me.”

His
voice was so small that it was almost a whisper. “Just... not yet.”

It
was like a switch had flipped in her. His crying girl turned into an angry one,
and she pulled away from him, looking at him like she had never known him at
all.

“Do
you really think I’m going to sit around and wait for you, Jamie? I won’t.”

He
felt hot fear spread though him. “Grace, please don’t say that.”

“If
you’re not ready for me now, you never will be. I would have given you
everything. I
have
given you
everything. And I deserve so much better than this.”

The
ice in her voice was unlike he had ever heard from her, and it scared the hell
out of him.

She
wasn’t going to wait for him. He had been so sure of her devotion that he
hadn’t even considered the possibility. It was always going to be him and Grace
at the end, all he wanted was a little time.

But
maybe she wasn’t going to give it to him. Maybe this was going to be the day he
lost her forever.

He
had never felt more like a jerk in his life.

Grace
stood up, crossing her arms over her chest. “I can’t believe you would do this
to me.” Another tear fell, and she swiped at it with an angry hand. “I’ll never
forgive you for this. You’re the biggest liar I’ve ever met.”

“I’ve
never lied to you.”

“You
told me you would never hurt me. You told me you would always love me.”

Their
eyes met, and he wanted so badly for her to understand what was in his heart
like she always did. But it was like the cord between them had snapped.

“I
still love you,” he said.

“Just
not enough.”

She
waited for him to deny it, but he didn’t say a word. He was frozen in time, outside
of his body, wonde
ring if this were going to turn out to
be the biggest regret of his life, or if it were just one of those real-world
decisions everyone was always talking about that just had to be made.

“I
have to go.” She started packing up her things, pulling clothes out of the
dresser drawer that he had given her when he had moved into the apartment.

“Hey.
It doesn’t have to be like this. Don’t just cut me out of your life.”

“I
don’t want to hear any more.” She turned away from him. “Take me home. Take me
home now.”

“No.
Wait-”

“Now,
Jamie. I can’t be around you anymore.”

“I
don’t want you to leave. Stay.” He reached for her and winced when she took a
step back. “Let’s talk about this.”

“You’ve
made it perfectly clear what you want.” She looked away from him as though
disgusted. “Take me home or I’m calling a cab.”

What
choice did he have? Even if he told her he changed his mind, it wouldn’t
matter. She would never trust him again.

Grace
cried silent tears during the ten-minute ride from his apartment to her dorm,
and he didn’t say a word. Almost as soon as he pulled out of the driveway, he
was in full panic mode. His heart was beating out of his chest, and all could
think was that this was all wrong.

He
parked the car and turned to say something to Grace, but she had already pulled
open the door. She gave him a scathing look, but he could see the pain behind
it. She was tough, but no matter how she wiped at her cheeks she couldn’t hide
the tears that stained them.

Tears
he had put there. The man who had swore to never hurt her.

“You’ve
broken my heart,” she told Jamie, her expressive eyes dead. She slammed the
door before he could say a word.

As
he drove away, he decided that he was going to do whatever it took to get Grace
back and make things right. He realized, too late, that life without her wasn’t
life at all.

There
was only one problem. Grace was gone. She didn’t come to graduation that
weekend, and none of her friends would tell him where she was. When he called
her cell phone, it was out of service. Her parents and sister wouldn’t answer
their phones when he called, and when he showed up to their house and knocked
on the door her father gently asked him to leave, telling him Grace didn’t live
there anymore.

In
desperation, Jamie finally showed up at the agency in New York City that had
hired her. He was told that Grace had quit before her first day.

He
did everything he could think of to find Grace. He couldn’t stand the idea that
he had hurt her so badly that she had quit her job and moved away. Or maybe he
was giving himself too much credit. Maybe she was happier without him. Maybe
she had found someone else. He drove himself crazy thinking about it.

He
hadn’t stopped searching for her for five years. He checked phone books in
every town he visited, called their old friends to find out if they had heard
from her, entered her name in a search engine almost every single day and attended
every alumni event their university had, hoping that just one time she would
make an appearance. None of these tactics had worked until last week, when her
name had come up in a press release when he searched her name online. Grace
Jones had been promoted to an account manager at Bradden Media, a public
relations and marketing agency in Charlottesville, Virginia.

So,
he did what any lovesick man would do. He called the agency and made an appointment
to meet with the owner, Mr. Charles Bradden, and discuss what the company could
offer his growing business, Four Brothers Brewery.

He
stopped himself just in time from making an appointment with Grace, worried
that if he tipped her off she would find a way to avoid him.

And
he couldn’t have that.

He
had spent the past five years looking for her after all, and when he found her
again, he intended to keep her.