“Ughhh what is that?” I groan as I burrow farther into the warm body next to me that seems like it is moving away. I grab Jacob, trying to keep him and his body heat pinned to me. “Don’t get up.”

  He chuckles. “I have to, baby, it’s my phone.”

  “What time is it?” I press a hand to my head, trying to ignore the light streaming through his blinds. It’s not totally offensive, if I was still sleeping, but now that I’m awake, I need the curtains drawn and a lot more time with a naked Jacob. We’d made love at least two more times last night before finally drifting off to sleep for the rest of the night and now my limbs felt loose and sore and I wanted to soak in his bathtub with him.

  “What’s up, Trey?” he says and I roll my eyes before turning to face him.

  “Really? At…” I turn my head to the clock on the nightstand. “Eight in the morning?”

  “Wait… slow the fuck down, man, what?” His face goes through a range of emotions of what seems like shock to confusion to anger before he pulls his phone away from the phone and puts him on speaker so I can hear. “Say that again, I have you on speaker and Whit is here.”

  “Jesus fuck, you two. You couldn’t have covered your tracks a bit better?” My heart pounds in my chest at the implication that we’ve been caught. “Chloe was luckily able to cover for you two, as long as Parker doesn’t at some point compare notes with your parents. He really has a camera tracking you?”

  Jacob’s eyes find mine and I can see the fury behind them. “Excuse me?”

  “Stop. No. Just cameras at our house,” I say, trying to calm Jacob down, although I know he’s going to have a few questions when we get off the phone. “Trey, you’re speaking in code, what’s going on?”

  “Whitney, where is your phone? Everyone has been trying to get a hold of you.”

  I blink several times, realizing that I haven’t seen my phone since last night. “I brought your purse in.” Jacob nods to the chair and I hop out of bed and grab my phone out of my bag. I always keep it on vibrate, but I also sleep with it next to me so I can feel it if anyone calls me.

  “Holy fuck. Nineteen missed calls?” Calls from my parents. From Parker. From his assistant. From Unknown calls in New York. Parker’s mother. Thankfully that one was only an hour ago. “What is on fire!?”

  “Apparently Parker got into a car accident in New York. He’s alive and evidently going to make it, but he’s banged up and he had to go into emergency surgery.”

  “WHAT!?” I drop the phone from my hand. “Oh my God.” There are a million questions going through my head right now, but I put a pin in them for a second since Trey said he was alive. “Okay, where do they think I am?”

  “Luckily for you, Chlo and I left soon after you guys did and Chloe said Jacob brought you to Chlo’s house because you didn’t want to stay at your house alone,” Trey explains. “So, you’re fine, but… you need to get your ass to New York.”

  “Why the fuck would she do that?” Jacob barks.

  “Because it’s her fiancé.”

  “Ex-fiancé,” Jacob interjects.

  “Does he know that? Do his folks? Do Kev and Michelle? I’m going to say a fuck no on all accounts given that you’re probably still inside of her, so yeah, she needs to go to New York, or she’s kind of the worst.”

  “I… DAMMIT. Laura is calling again,” I say in reference to Parker’s mom. I pick up the phone and slip out of the room. “Laura… oh my God, I just heard!”

  “Where have you been!?” I hear shrieked into the phone and I pull my ear away. “The hospital and some of his friends have been trying to get in touch with you all night.”

  “It’s eight in the morning, Laura. I’m sorry. I just woke up, and I must have been asleep when the hospital called.” I press a hand to my forehead.

  “It’s an emergency and you’re sleeping beauty.” She sighs. “I can’t believe it!”

  Laura Anderson was dramatic and very much an overreactor by nature so I can only imagine the whirlwind she’s been since she heard. Luckily her and Parker’s father live in Colorado and I’ve only had to deal with her a handful of times, none of which were particularly enjoyable. It wasn’t that she was necessarily mean, she was just… a little judgmental maybe? She always found ways to make little digs or comments to and about me and it was obvious that she preferred Parker with his previous girlfriend. A girlfriend she still had a relationship with.

  It was weird but whatever.

  “I just heard, I… I guess I’m going to try to get a fly out there for today?”

  “You guess!? My baby is all alone in New York—”

  “Well, he’s not all alone. His coworkers are there.”

  “I’M NOT THERE!” she shrieks and now I hear shuffling and I wonder if she’s packing.

  “Are you…?”

  “Of course, I am, Ben got us on a noon flight. You need to book your flight before it gets too late.”

  “Of course, I’ll check right now—”

  “Ours is Flight 1958, non-stop to JFK,” she interrupts.

  “Got it…” Although, I’m not sure why I needed to know given that assumedly she’d land in New York before me. “Ummm did the doctors say anything? About his condition?”

  “That he was going into surgery and it was a little touch and go until they got him stable last night.”

  “Do you know what happened?”

  “No… car accident… I don’t… Whitney, my baby!” she wails.

  “I know, I know. He’s going to be fine though, alright?”

  “You… are you sure?” Her voice is small like a child’s almost, and I know she’s a pain in the ass but I do feel for her in this moment. He is her child.

  “Yes. He’ll be okay, Laura.”

  She sniffles and then I hear her talk to I assume Parker’s father. “No, don’t pack those. Those shoes won’t go with any of the clothes I packed.”

  Alright then, priorities.

  “Okay, let me get packing and get a flight out of here,” I say just before I hang up the phone, not before hearing Laura scream ‘hurry!’ one more time.

  “You’re going?” Jacob asks from the entrance to his bedroom. I am very aware that I’m still naked but he’s put on a pair of briefs that doesn’t do anything to hide his cock that is hardening as he roves his eyes over my body.

  “I have to.”

  “Do you?”

  “Jacob, no one knows so I kind of have to. How would that look? And even if I am planning to break up with him, I don’t want him to… I don’t want anything bad to happen to him. He’s not a terrible person, no matter how badly you want him to be.”

  “He touched my woman. Fucked my woman. And had the nerve to ask him to marry her.” He closes the distance between us and pulls me into his arms. “He’s the worst.”

  I sigh, knowing his possession of me is about to get even more intense. “You understand why I have to go?”

  He nods before leaning down and tucking his face into my neck before placing a hot open-mouthed kiss to the skin. “Can I come with you?”

  I pull back and stare at him with wide eyes. “How in the hell are you going to explain that?”

  “I’ll say I’m flying somewhere else. I don’t have to tell your parents everything.” I press a quick peck to his lips before going back into his room. I’m grateful that he brought all my stuff in, so I put on my bra and pull my dress over my head and put my underwear in my purse not wanting to put on the panties that very well may be still wet from last night.

  “How am I going to explain you being there to Parker and his family and friends?”

  “I don’t have to come to the hospital, I can just be nearby if you need me.”

  “Baby, I won’t be able to see you.” I know he’s feeling territorial that I’m about to fly across the country to see another man when I’ve been in his bed all night but letting him come with me is the worst idea. “I know how this must look and if the situation were reversed, I’d be pissed but JP…” I wince, hoping that my use of his nickname will calm his irritation. I move over to him where he’s leaning against the wall and put my hand on his chest. “Baby, please try to understand.”

  He lets out a breath through his nose and shakes his head. “I get it, Whitney. I’m not mad at you either, I’m just…” He grabs me and pushes me against the wall and grips my face with his hands. “You are fucking mine. All mine.”

  “All yours,” I repeat.

  “I just got you back and now you have to go to New York to tend to some other man.” He drops his forehead to mine. His eyes close slowly and I hear him take an inhale.

  I raise my hand to his cheek and his eyes open and I see the uncertainty behind them. “Nothing’s changed. I’m still ending it. It’s just a slight complication.”

  “And what’s this about a camera?”

  I let out a sigh and head into his en-suite bathroom to brush my teeth. I grab his toothbrush from the cabinet and apply the paste and the smug look that passes over his features makes me smile. I spit out the toothpaste to speak. “You know about the camera he has on the outside of the door. I told you. It’s just to monitor who comes in and out of the house and for packages.”

  “And evidently when you don’t come home? Whitney…” He lets out a sigh and presses off the doorjamb to sit on the closed toilet. He looks up at me and grabs my arm, pulling me into his lap. “Was he… controlling? It sounds like he’s been keeping a close eye on you. I heard your phone calls in the bar…” I wince, remembering that those conversations weren’t the best portrayals of our relationship.

  “JP…”

  “He’s never gotten aggressive with you, right?” His lips find my chin and he drags them along my jawline. “I’ll kill him, you know.” He pulls back and gives me a stern look.

  “No.” I shake my head.

  “Don’t lie to me.” He gives me a look that makes the space between my legs flutter and I do my best not to fixate on it because we don’t have time to do anything about it.

  “I’ve never lied to you,” I whisper. My tone is soft and quiet and I hope he realizes that my guard is all the way down with him, again.

  He nods in understanding and I get out of his lap and turn off the still running water before I finish brushing my teeth.

  When I’m finished, I hand him his toothbrush with a wicked grin, I say, “Can you give me a ride?”

  He raises an eyebrow before snatching it out of my hand and slapping my behind as I leave the bathroom. “Tease,” he grunts.

  Nearly eight hours later, I’m in New York sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic as I make my way to New York Presbyterian Hospital where Parker has been admitted. I’ve talked to two of his co-workers, his mother and his Doctor and now I have somewhat of a clear story as to what happened. Parker and two of his associates were on their way back to their hotel in their private car when another vehicle ran through an intersection and slammed into the side of their car going almost sixty miles per hour. Parker was sitting on the side where the car made contact and thus suffered most of the injuries but all four of them, including the driver, were expected to make full recoveries.

  “Then bring your sexy little ass home tonight.” One of the reasons I’m not too opposed to sitting in this traffic is because it gives me time to talk to Jacob. “I didn’t get a chance to reunite with it properly.”

  I ignore the first part of his comment, because he and I both know that I can’t hop a plane and come back home tonight after spending half the day traveling. I trap my index finger between my teeth and bite down gently. “Oh?”

  “Don’t act coy, Whitney. Like you don’t love anal.” His voice is low and that one word vibrates throughout my whole body. “Like you’re not ready to come the second I get my dick in that tight hole.” I’m vaguely aware of the cab driver as I close the partition so he’s not alerted that I’m breathing like I just ran a marathon.

  “I do love it.” Chalk it up to doing it for the first time with the man you trust most in the world. The man who also took your virginity and did anything sexual with. Despite the horror stories, I found it not so painful and actually a little enjoyable after a few times. After a month or two, it was an orgasm I craved. A full body high that was incomparable to anything I’d ever felt.

  “All I had to do was rest a vibrator against your clit or rub it with my fingers and you’d be begging for my cock.” I squeeze my thighs as I try to quiet the low hum between my legs. “Your tiny little body underneath mine as I rocked into your ass, gripping your hips as it sucked every ounce of cum out of me.” My breathing has become erratic and I’m fully aware that I’m sitting in the back of a taxicab on the way to see my soon to be ex-fiancé as the man I’ve loved since I was old enough to know what that word even meant is attempting phone sex with me. “I can picture your back right now, glistening with sweat, your hair matted to your skin after a time I took you particularly rough. Riding you so hard your body would practically collapse.”

  I whimper.

  “You still with me, baby?”

  “Mmmhm.” I let my eyes close and let my head drift back against the headrest as I picture him. Picture us.

  “Call me when you’re alone later. I’m not done with you.”

  I arrive at the hospital twenty minutes later, my body wound so tight after my conversation with Jacob and no release. I only brought a small weekender tote packed with the basic necessities so I’m able to move through the hospital quickly. I’m brought to the floor where Parker is and I’m grateful to learn that he’s stable and not in ICU. When I turn the corner, I hear his mother before I’m even to his room and I let out a deep sigh at the thought of her torturing whatever Doctor assigned to his case. I spot Savannah, Parker’s assistant sitting on a bench in front of the door, her laptop perched in her lap typing away. She looks like she hasn’t slept all night and a part of me wonders why she wasn’t in the car with him.

  “Whitney,” she says as she looks up at me.

  Her dark curly hair is wild and untamed unlike the tight ponytail it’s usually pulled into. She pushes her glasses onto her head and hops up to give me a hug. Her brown eyes fill with tears when she pulls back.

  “Thank God you’re here. Mrs. Anderson hates me,” she says, referring to Parker’s mother.

  “Laura hates everyone but Parker.” I give her a small smile and look toward the door where I still hear her barking orders like she has ten years of schooling and a medical degree. Savannah was young, probably about my age. Fresh out of business school. Wide-eyed and bushy tailed about the world and not one of those assistants trying to sleep with her boss. I couldn’t read her at first. Perky, enthusiastic and always willing to give one hundred and ten percent. It was foreign to me that she hadn’t fallen into the allure of trying to seduce her boss for a leg up like so many other assistants and interns at Parker’s company. “One of the good ones.” Parker always said.

  “How long have you been here? You weren’t in the car?” I ask and then realize how that may be perceived. “I’m glad you weren’t,” I say, touching her shoulder. “I just assumed…”

  “Mr. Caldwell and Mr. Kent were with him. They left the club and I don’t know what happened. Next thing I knew I was getting a call from the hospital and Mrs. Caldwell was hysterical. She and Mr. Kent’s fiancée had gone back to the hotel in a different car.”

  I briefly wonder why they’d left their significant others to go somewhere with Parker, but maybe the women were tired and left sooner?

  As if she can hear my thoughts, she speaks up. “Mr. Anderson was a little… agitated.” She bites her bottom lip, like she’s struggling to let the words leave her lips.

  “What do you mean?”

  “He was a little drunk. And umm… Mr. Caldwell and Mr. Kent weren’t exactly helping the situation.” I blink my eyes at her several times. Parker wasn’t a stranger to alcohol but he liked being in control. He didn’t like that alcohol made him someone else. He hated that it made him shed his protective shell he wore and made him more social with “people I don’t even like.” His words. So, to hear him out drinking with Nick Caldwell and Owen Kent, who were always the drunkest at any given work event made me wonder what brought all this on.

  “I see. Do you know why he was agitated?” I’m not looking at her. I’m staring at the door, wondering what I’m about to walk into. She doesn’t respond and when I turn back to look at her, she’s staring at me. She tucks an errant curl nervously behind her ear and shifts her weight back and forth between her feet as she looks down avoiding my gaze.

  “No.” She answers in a way that leads me to believe she does know and isn’t telling me. Like she’s worried she’s said too much already. Like the answer has to do with me.

  Great.

  I let out a breath, leaving my bag with Savannah before pushing my way into the room. I draw the curtain back and the room goes silent as all three sets of eyes fall on me, a nurse, Parker’s mother and Parker. His brown eyes soften a little when he sees me and I see a smile pull at his lips but he isn’t the first to speak which is surprising given that he’s not intubated.

  “Finally! Didn’t your plane land an hour ago?” Laura asks from where she stands. Firmly planted right next to Parker’s bed, his hand in hers. Her red hair by box, not nature though she swears it is, is pulled back into a low ponytail and her brown eyes are cold and icy like they always are when they’re directed at me.

  “Umm traffic,” I whisper, before letting my eyes fall to Parker.

  I don’t know why I’m suddenly overcome with emotion. He’s fine, he is expected to make a full recovery and yet I feel like the dam is about to burst. Maybe it’s guilt over cheating on him. Cheating on him at probably the exact moment he was getting in an accident. Everything going up in flames both physically and metaphorically. Only he didn’t know that I’d struck a match and decided to set fire to our relationship.

  Fuck, I am a terrible person.

  It was easy to avoid this thought when I was around Jacob. I wasn’t terrible. I was a woman in love and he was back in my life. I can’t be faulted for being in love, right? Things happen.