Jessie Slaymaker's Non-Existent Love Life (The Jessie Slaymaker Series) (20 page)

By mid-afternoon, Jessie realised she hadn’t eaten anything all day and she was suddenly ravenous. She hopped in a taxi to the famous Peninsula Hotel and enjoyed what she regarded as a decadent afternoon tea, meant for two, which she successfully managed to polish off without a moment’s hesitation. Sitting there in the opulent surroundings of the Peninsula, Jessie felt quite the colonial girl. The only trouble with sitting down and taking a rest was that she was now all too aware that she was alone. That would have been okay if she’d known there was no chance of anyone lovely being there to escort her around the city for the day. But Jack was in town. Or at least, she imagined he would still be. Thinking about it some more, it would have been really nice to have had his company today, showing her his own favourite sights and sounds in this great city.

Jessie had successfully managed to stop herself from overthinking the events from earlier that morning too much, but as she sat there sipping her tea she felt sad. Sad that maybe she’d ruined any chance of a relationship with Jack. Sad that she might never have sex with him ever again. If she thought about it seriously and forced herself to be objective, she knew she’d been kidding herself. If the roles had been reversed and Jack had shagged her sister under the same circumstances in which she’d boffed Charlie, then she knew she would have been absolutely fucking livid.

Jessie paid her bill and decided to take a roundabout walk that would eventually take her back to the Star Ferry for her return journey across the harbour, back to Hong Kong Island. She was tired, sweaty and she quite fancied getting back to the hotel for a swim in the rooftop pool before the end of the day to further mull over the palava she’d caused by letting Charlie into her room the previous evening. She’d been so busy over the past week, she hadn’t even gotten to explore the hotel’s facilities yet. Who knew, maybe she’d find some inspiration from looking across at the rooftops and come up with a way to win back Jack’s affection for her.

Chapter 52

This was not how it was supposed to have been. Not how Jack had pictured their reunion at all. He had imagined knocking on her hotel room door as she was getting dressed that morning. Maybe she would have been trying on some new lacy underwear when he interrupted her. Something in white, perhaps.

Instead he’d walked into a stale room that reeked of booze and sex. And oh yes, Charlie had been there. Jack didn’t know how he really felt. What he did know was that he was walking around Hong Kong with a real mixed bag of emotions racing through his body, and he felt utterly clueless as to how to deal with them.

Part of him was angry with Charlie for having shagged someone who he perhaps prematurely was coming to regard as his girl. But was that Charlie’s fault? He’d denied all involvement with Jessie to his brother previously, and he felt sure Jessie wouldn’t have divulged anything about the two of them to her boss. From appearances, it simply looked as though Charlie had been led by his cock. Nothing new there, then.

So that left Jessie. He’d genuinely thought that she was into him, and the fact that she’d jumped into bed with Charlie had stung unexpectedly. What was it she’d said earlier? That she’d only done it to be agreeable. So, maybe she hadn’t exactly
jumped
into bed with his brother, but did so to be agreeable. That wasn’t exactly a worthy excuse. Having sex with someone to be agreeable sounded so detached and unemotional. It was ultimately a copout and it was a ridiculous thing to do. Thinking back on the morning, Jack had been surprised when he’d seen her. She was still beautiful, of course, but she’d looked tired, and not her usual radiant self. Jack hadn’t noticed any post-coital glow about her. Not the way she’d looked after being with him, he thought, reminiscing from his own experiences with her. He unconsciously smiled a wry smile to himself at the thought that she hadn’t enjoyed herself with Charlie.

‘Good, it serves her right,’ Jack muttered to himself as he stood staring across the harbour from Kowloon to the towers of Hong Kong Island.

Jack turned to go—and there she was. A vision in yellow, looking bright and summery with her shapely legs on show. She was back to being radiant again, Jack noticed, as he watched her lean elegantly on the barrier, looking at the same view he’d been enjoying seconds before, a mere twenty metres away from him. She hadn’t seen him—or if she had, she was doing a good acting job of pretending she hadn’t. Jack turned back to the view, pondering his next move as he studied her sideways from behind his sunglasses. He was in a city of eight million people and he couldn’t get away from her. If she wasn’t in his mind, then she was there in person.

Perhaps subconsciously he’d chosen to come to a famous tourist attraction in the hope of seeing her. Jack didn’t think so though. For one, he’d thought Jessie would have hibernated in her room today, licking her wounds, and for another, he always came to this spot to think when he was in Hong Kong. This was more
his
city than hers and he could go anywhere he damn well pleased, he thought as he felt a surge of anger and passion rise inside of him. She was supposed to be feeling remorse for the hurt she’d caused him; not gallivanting around the city as though she didn’t have a care in the world, Jack thought bitterly, as a gust of wind fluttered her hair and dress to make her look even more picture perfect.

Who was he kidding? He couldn’t take his eyes off her. He was hooked. He wasn’t happy with her right then and there, but she had a hold on him that had weakened his self-control. If Jessie saw him then, walked up to him and kissed him, he knew he’d be powerless to stop her or his body from responding. Jack knew he should just walk away. He knew he should be on his own and brood. It wasn’t natural for him to feel so influenced by a woman.

‘You’re bloody magnetic, do you know that?’ Jack shouted across the distance towards her. He was reluctant to close the gap between them. That would seem too much like a concession on his part. But he found he could shout at her quite easily. Jessie’s head snapped back as she recognised his voice and turned to face him.

They stood frozen for a moment. Still twenty metres or so apart. Jack leaning on the railing with his head towards her, and Jessie just standing there, looking a little lost. Jack wondered what would happen next, and he felt pretty sure Jessie was thinking the same. The scene could have stayed that way for some time if a group of tourists hadn’t stood in the space between them and started taking numerous photographs. This was crunch time, Jack thought to himself. They couldn’t see each other clearly now, so walk away, or she’d have to come to him. He wasn’t going to budge, he thought stubbornly to himself. No way was he going after her.

After a minute, there was still no Jessie standing by his side. Through the tourist group he saw a flash of yellow dress disappearing off into the distance. She’d fucking walked off on him. Jack fumed as he started marching after her without thinking. So much for standing his ground and not budging.

‘What the hell are you playing at?’ he said sharply, grabbing her arm and spinning her round to face him. He couldn’t see what her eyes were doing behind her sunglasses, but her mouth seemed genuinely surprised that he’d gone after her.

‘I’m testing your magnetism theory,’ she said when she’d composed her face. ‘Seems to be working,’ she added sarcastically.

‘Don’t you think we have things to talk about?’ Jack asked, still holding her arm. He was finding it impossible to read her, so he took off his own sunglasses, hoping she would do the same.

‘I don’t play games, Jack. I’m not going to chase you,’ she responded flatly, looking down at her arm where he was holding her.

‘Is that your idea of an apology?’ Jack said, slowly letting go of her arm.

‘An apology? Are you serious? It’s not like we’re in love or anything, Jack,’ she said, half-laughing. Jack was stunned. He couldn’t understand why she was being so unreasonable. Her tone stung him.

‘Don’t make me out to be the bad guy here, Jessie,’ Jack said firmly. ‘In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s me who hasn’t done anything wrong here. You’re fucking warped if you think what you did didn’t affect me.’

‘I’m sorry Jack, but I don’t get it. You guys have meaningless shags all the time. I told you it didn’t mean anything, and as far as I’m concerned that’s all that needs to be said on the matter.’

‘But Jessie, I’m not just some guy. This is
me
. I know we’re not together formally, but you must be able to understand that it irritates the hell out of me that you’ve been with my brother.’

‘I guess,’ Jessie replied sullenly.

‘You guess? Is that all you have to say?’

‘See ya, Jack,’ was her response as she turned and walked away.

Jack was left clutching his head, feeling incredulous. That was it. He didn’t get women. Just when he thought he was beginning to understand Jessie, she went and threw a total curveball at him. He thought he’d been very measured with her, when he could have quite easily blown a gasket. He thought he’d given her every chance to be conciliatory, and fully expected her to make amends. But no, it was like he didn’t know this woman.

He’d obviously misread the whole situation. Badly. She obviously didn’t feel the same way about him that he did about her. She obviously hadn’t felt the same chemistry he’d felt when he’d touched her arm. He laughed out loud as it dawned on him what a fool he’d been and what a fool he’d allowed himself to be. He’d been played.

Chapter 53

Jessie felt utterly disgusted with herself. She knew she was in the wrong, but instead of owning up to her mistake, she’d gone into attack mode and had refused to take any responsibility for her actions or for the fact that she’d hurt Jack. She knew she’d behaved like a child, but for some reason unbeknown to her she’d been unable to stop herself. Jessie felt like she’d acted so badly and taken things so far, that it was too late for her to make amends.

Maybe it was for the best. She didn’t deserve Jack before all this, and she certainly didn’t deserve him now, after today’s sorry performance.

‘Good work, Jessie, you’ve well and truly pushed him away now,’ she said to herself, as she came up for air in the deserted swimming pool. He was just so bloody reasonable. Why couldn’t he have gotten mad and shouted at her? Why did he have to be so nice? No, she definitely didn’t deserve him. He was way to good for her.

Not wanting to go back to her room, Jessie decided to stay on the rooftop and dry out in the late afternoon sun. It was still plenty warm enough, and although her white bikini was a size too small, there was no one there to observe. The hotel shop only seemed to stock teeny tiny sizes, which meant the bikini bottoms were just about decent but the top didn’t leave much to the imagination. Jessie reclined on a sun lounger, put her sunglasses on and her headphones in. She was in the mood for something loud and turned the volume up to the maximum.

Despite the loud music, she must have dozed off, because the next thing she heard was a clank somewhere close by and she felt the sensation of falling. It took her a moment to realise what had happened. The raised head part of her sun lounger had collapsed, and she was now lying flat on her back. But there was something else. Someone was there.

‘You don’t want to burn,’ Jack said as she yanked out one of her ear buds and stared up at him, surprised and suddenly all too aware that her bikini was a teeny tiny affair that left her boobs falling out of every available opening.

‘Huh,’ was all she managed to formulate, still stunned by Jack’s sudden appearance.

‘Turn over,’ Jack ordered as he grabbed Jessie’s bottle of sun lotion from the floor.

Jessie did as she was told. Truth be told, she was pleased to lie on her front and not have to worry about falling out of her top. Yes, Jack had seen it all before, but that didn’t mean she felt comfortable with him seeing it all again, seeing as they were having issues at the moment. However, rolling over presented a whole other problem. Here, boobs may have been hidden, but now her bum was there for the whole world to see. She’d thought her bikini bottoms were passable before, but now they felt woefully small as she fought the urge to rearrange the small piece of fabric covering her derrière.

Jack poured the cold lotion over Jessie’s back and began working it in. His touch was a little haphazard and rough at first, but after a minute he seemed to calm down and find a nice calming rhythm. Jessie forgot about the smallness of her bathing suit and now found herself fighting the urge to groan in pleasure as Jack’s fingers worked their magic across her back and shoulders. More than once she felt his fingers skim the sides of her breasts, which had the immediate effect of turning her libido on. Jessie’s mind started to wander back into the gutter as she imagined making love to him on the sun lounger, which only served to ramp up her libido even more. Now she had to fight to stay silent. When he undid her bikini top and she felt her boobs free underneath her, she had to ball her hands into fists to stop herself from begging him to take her then and there.

It was probably a good job he moved onto her legs when he did. Jessie tried her best to think nonsexual thoughts as Jack poured more sun lotion onto her calves. Yes, calves were good. Not sexy at all. Thank goodness she’d had a thorough shaving session in the shower that morning. At least she could be confident that her legs were nice and smooth.

But then came the thighs. Jack started off massaging the lotion into each thigh separately. Then he seemed to decide on a change of technique. He pulled Jessie’s legs apart and kneeled in the space between her legs. He then proceeded to stroke her inner thighs, up and down, with an increasing rapidity. With each repetition he got closer and closer to the top of her legs and to the point where legs turned into something else. His fingers began to skim the edge of her bikini bottoms. Jack didn’t seem to like that and he managed to lift and tuck her swimsuit, leaving it even higher, and thus leaving Jessie even more bare-buttocked than she had been already.