The Debt 4 by Kelly Favor Read Free Book Online

testy moments.”
    She smiled.   “Thanks for saying that.   For being understanding.”
    “That doesn’t mean you should just get away
with it though,” he said, starting to move towards her.   His eyes were dark and intense and
needing of something—something that Raven knew all too well.  
    “Jake, you know we can’t keep doing
this,” she said, putting her hand out.
    “Can’t keep doing what, Raven?” he
smiled, pretending not to know what she was talking about.
    “You know what I mean,” she replied.
    “We can do whatever we want.   Nobody’s here but you and me.”
    “It’s confusing things.”
    “I’m not confused,” he replied, still
moving forward.   “And I don’t think
you are either, actually.”
    “I just wish I knew sometimes what was
really going on between us,” Raven told him.
    Jake’s expression changed to something
resembling suspicion.   The eyebrow
with the scar arched a bit.   “I was
under the impression we both knew exactly what this is.”
    “Are you saying it’s purely business?”
    “Obviously not.”
    “Then what?”
    He shook his head slowly.   “You know what it is.”   He grit his teeth.   “Don’t make me say it, Raven.”
    “Say what, Jake?”
    He ran a hand through his perfectly
styled hair.   His bicep bulged as
his arm flexed.   “Don’t make me
define it.   I told you, I can’t be your boyfriend.   I can’t give you some term to put on
this and make it all neat and tidy.”
    Hearing him say it again hurt badly.   She remembered the way he’d looked into
her eyes in bed, the way he’d touched her face, her hair.   The way he’d protected her from Club
Alpha, even fighting the CEO to put a stop to their tactics.  
    And yet here he was denying everything
right in front of her, like none of that meant a thing to him now.
    “If all you want to do is use me to work
out your anger at Jimmy Fallon, you should just leave.”   She gripped the Diet Coke almost as
tightly as she’d held the phone earlier while on the phone with her mother.
    Jake laughed, holding his stomach.   “Are you serious?   You think I’m here because of Jimmy
fucking Fallon?”   He laughed again,
his face reddening.
    “It’s not funny,” she said.   But even she had to admit that it
sounded ridiculous when said out loud.
    He kept laughing.   “I hate to break it to you, Raven, but
that’s not why I came here.”
    “I’m glad this is entertaining for you,”
she said, the humor draining from the situation as she thought about what he’d
said just a moment prior.   He’d told
her—yet again, and in no uncertain terms—that he couldn’t give her
what she needed.   And here she was,
like a fool, finding new ways to convince herself that he’d changed, that he
was falling for her.   “Why do you
keep coming to my room?” she said.   “Why can’t we just keep this professional, and only be romantic when
we’re out in public?”
    “I don’t like being interrogated,” he
said.   “I’m here, that’s all that
matters.”
    “I need to know why,” she said.
    “You need me to spell everything out for
you,” he said, his jaw clenching.
    “Maybe I do, Jake.”
    He shook his head.   “You push me to the edge.   You really do.”   His eyes were completely fixed on her,
and he seemed to be both angry and wanting her at the same time.   Strangely, that was how she felt, too.
    “Just say it,” she told him.   “Tell me the truth and then whatever
happens, happens.”
    “Fine.”   He took a deep breath and looked down
before finally meeting her gaze again.   “I’m here because I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” he said, his
brown eyes as gorgeous and captivating as anything she’d ever seen in her
life.  
    And the way he said he couldn’t stop
thinking about her, the thrill that went through her body was unreal.
    She looked away from him, trying not to
be hypnotized by his magnetism.   “This
is all just really