She Built Him. She Broke Him: His Blood, My Secret

Chapter 5: Fire and the Flame

Jason stepped back through the glass door, his eyes locked on mine.

"Anna, please. Do not start. Just hold on for one second. I can explain," he said, his voice dropping an octave.

"Explain what, Jason?" I folded my arms across my chest. "That you’re planning secret dinner dates for them now?"

Jason pressed both hands to his forehead. "Oh, my God."

"Which one is it? Vera or Carly? Is it a threesome?"

"Why do you always have to assume the worst of me, Anna?"

"Because that is all you have given me lately! You are doing the worst, so I am thinking the worst."

"I am trying to make this right, but you are not letting me!"

"Make this right?" I snatched my phone from the bed and shoved the screen toward his face.

"Look at this. Look at what you have turned me into. I am a spectacle of humiliation, a joke to the world. They are laughing at me in the comments, Jason."

Jason took the phone slowly. He scrolled through the headlines, and for a second, the coldness in his eyes vanished.

He looked like he had been slapped.

"Anna. I am so sorry. I swear to you, I did not mean for any of this to happen."

"You ignored me," I whispered, the tears finally breaking through. "You didn't acknowledge my sacrifice, everything I did to build this with you. I left my architectural pursuit for your career, and now you treat me like furniture."

"We were fighting. You were not talking to me, and I was angry." Jason said, his voice rising with a desperate edge. "In the car, I tried to reach you. I tried to touch you, and you were completely shut down. You told me off without saying a single word."

"After everything you put me through the past few days, don't you think you deserved that?"

"But I did not do anything!" Jason snapped. "I did not do a single thing. Not with Vera. Not with Carly. None of it!"

"I just heard you on the phone, Jason! You're booking a private room. You are ordering white roses." My voice cracked.

"It is for you!" Jason stopped dead and turned to face me. "All of it. The room, the shipment, the Rolls Royce. Every single piece of it is for you."

I blinked, the air leaving my lungs. "A Rolls-Royce?"

Jason stopped pacing. He looked at me, caught between anger and a deep, aching regret.

"I heard you last night.’ He continued, “I heard the things you were not saying. I know I have been absent. I know I have been so wrapped up in the expansion that I stopped seeing the woman who made it all possible."

He exhaled a long, shaky breath. "I wanted to surprise you. I wanted to remind you who you are to me. The reservation, the private room, the flowers. Carly has been helping me plan the surprise because I did not have the time to do it myself."

I searched his face, my heart hammering. "But you said, Vera."

"Vera invited me to a charity gala. I was going to call her tonight and turn her down because I planned on being at dinner with my wife."

"And the gift she sent?"

Jason shook his head. "I honestly do not know. Maybe she is pushing boundaries. Maybe I was too friendly and gave her the wrong idea. But Anna." He closed the distance between us and cupped my face in his hands. "You need to understand. I care about you. Only you."

His eyes were really honest now. "I love you, Anna. I love you and nobody else. I am a fool, but I am your fool."

The wall around my heart didn't just c***k. It collapsed.

"I love you too," I sobbed, leaning into his touch. "And I am sorry. I did not mean to doubt you so much, it's just..."

"Stop." His voice was soft, commanding. "I know how you felt. I know why you felt it. That's my fault, not yours." He tilted my face up, forcing me to meet his gaze. "But there is nobody else, Anna. There has never been anybody else. You are the only woman I see, my love. Always."

I looked into his eyes, searching for the lie I had been bracing myself for.

It wasn't there.

There was only the man I fell in love with four years ago.

I kissed him first. It was desperate and hungry. He returned it without a second of hesitation, his hands sliding from my face to my waist.

He lifted me easily, my legs wrapping around his hips, and laid me down on the bed.

He broke the kiss just long enough to look at me; he wanted me too, and he didn't need to ask.

He kissed my neck, his tongue tracing the line of my collarbone, while his hand moved down my body.

His hand slid up between thigh, caressing slowly.

When he found my slit, I gripped the sheets so hard I thought they would tear.

He didn't rush. He worked me slowly with his middle finger, reading every sound I made.

The more I tried to hold myself, the more deliberately he moved, faster and faster until I broke loose.

"Ah, Jason," I moaned his name like a prayer.

"Come for me, Anna," he whispered against my ear. "Just for me."

I didn't have a choice. The o****m hit me like a tidal wave, rolling through my body until I was shaking beneath him.

His phone buzzed on the nightstand. He didn't turn.

He didn't give me a chance to catch my breath either.

He positioned himself between my thighs and pushed into me so hard I cried out.

The phone buzzed again. And again. Jason didn't care.

He moved with an urgency that told me how much he had missed me. I rolled my hips to meet him, matching his rhythm, my fingers digging into his back.

For the first time in months, the distance between us was gone. There was no Vera, no Carly, no McCoy Resorts. There was only us.

I cried out his name as I reached a second peak, my whole body vibrating. Jason groaned, his forehead dropping against mine. He came into me, I felt his warm release.

My hands held his waist. “Put it all in daddy," I gasped.

He thrust harder until he finished. His forehead still on mine. He leaned in and kissed deeply.

The phone didn't just buzz this time. It rang loudly.

"s**t," Jason muttered as he reached for the phone on the side stool, his face with annoyance.

"Who is it?" I asked, breathing heavily.

He saw the name on the screen and frowned. He swiped to answer and put it on speaker.

"Carly, why are you calling me more than twice?" he barked, his protective tone returning.

Carly’s voice came through the speaker, distorted and frantic. She was crying.

"Mr. McCoy… the hotel… the flagship… It's on fire."