Jessie Slaymaker's Rules of Engagement (The Jessie Slaymaker Series Book 2)

Jessie Slaymaker was a happy bunny indeed. In fact, she couldn’t remember exactly when the last time was that she’d felt such pure unbridled joy. The reason for her abundant happiness? That would be on account of a night full of earth-shattering orgasms. They sure were powerful mood enhancers, and try as she might, she couldn’t get the slightly goofy grin she was wearing to dislodge itself from her aching cheeks. Not that she really wanted it to go anywhere.

When she’d woken up that morning, she’d never in a million years thought she’d be sleeping naked in Jack Davenport’s bed that very same evening. Granted, she actually hadn’t been doing a tremendous amount of sleeping, and it wasn’t actually Jack’s own bed—she was in his hotel room—but the end to the day was definitely more positive than the start.

A lot had happened to Jessie in the span of twenty-four hours. The last time she’d woken up, she’d been Tom’s girlfriend. Tom had been, and still was, a catch: a real man-about-town, fine-looking, successful, and a great friend. A best friend, in fact. Only trouble was, he was more attracted to men than he was to Jessie. Nonetheless, about six months ago Tom had divulged to Jessie his realisation that he was in love with her—and that he wanted to give a heterosexual life with her a go. They’d subsequently taken their friendship of so many years into new, uncharted waters. And emotionally, their transition from friendship to romantic relationship had been all Jessie could have ever hoped for. But physically… as hard as they’d tried to have a physically loving and intimate connection, they’d just never been able to surmount that final hurdle.

‘What are you thinking so loudly about?’ Jack asked. He lay on his side, watching her.

‘Not much,’ Jessie lied. She’d been thinking about quite a bit, in actual fact. The events of the previous day had turned her life topsy-turvy, and her thoughts were racing as she tried to make sense of it all.

‘Jessie,’ Jack said in a probing tone, feathering light kisses down her neck. ‘If this is going to work between us, we need to be honest with each other.’ Although he was tickling her with kisses in a playful way, his words carried an undercurrent of seriousness.

‘It’s the middle of the early morning. We should be asleep,’ Jessie said, half-heartedly pushing him away. ‘Plus, I can’t tell you everything. You wouldn’t want to hear
everything
that goes on up here.’ She tapped her temple gently.

‘Jessie?’ Jack asked, clearly suspicious now, his brooding chocolate-brown eyes slightly narrowed. He was utterly gorgeous, in a breathtaking way. Jack was all dark eyes, lightly tanned skin, and dark hair that would always look slightly scruffy, no matter what efforts he took to tame it.

‘I don’t know. It’s nothing really,’ Jessie sighed, as she tried to relax and enjoy the intoxicating attention from the Adonis-like man next to her.

‘Talk me me,’ Jack said, suddenly fixing her with a serious look.

After another sigh, Jessie pushed him off her gently and sat up, folding herself into a cross-legged sitting position. There was no way they could have a real conversation when he was touching her like he had been. She clung tightly to the bedcovers around her as though it was an extra layer of security against her naked skin.

‘I just worry that I should feel more guilty about things with Tom. I mean, we were together for all those months… and two minutes after it ends, I’m in bed with you. I should feel sad, shouldn’t I? Yet, I’m ashamed to say, all I feel is…’ Jessie quietly trailed off.

‘Relief,’ Jack supplied.

‘Yes,’ Jessie said. A tear appeared from nowhere and rolled down her cheek.

‘I feel it too,’ Jack admitted, gently brushing Jessie’s tear away with his thumb. ‘Although things were different between Sonia and I. We weren’t even friends, not like you and Tom—and we were barely even civil with each other at the end. But then, the fact that she’d been screwing me over may have had something to do with that.’ His voice had an undisguised bitterness. Sonia had effectively been blackmailing Jack into staying with her; she’d taken advantage of Jack’s fear of her tycoon father, who had all kinds of unsavoury connections.

‘But Tom
is
my friend. Or at least he was,’ Jessie said wistfully. ‘He’ll be drowning his sorrows somewhere, and all the while I’m flying high with you. It’s not fair.’

‘I can’t say that Tom’s not experiencing some heartache right now, because I’m sure he is. But he’s a grown man, and I’m sure he’ll bounce back,’ Jack said reasonably. ‘I’m sure you guys will be good friends again one day, after some time. But feeling happy is nothing to feel guilty about. Just be happy.’

‘Yes, boss,’ Jessie replied with a smile and a mock salute, then leaned in to kiss him. ‘And you must be happy too,’ she added.

‘Don’t worry. I am,’ he mumbled as he went back to nuzzling her neck. ‘Anything else I can help you with?’

‘Well… in the interest of being all honest, there is something,’ Jessie began in a solemn tone.

Jack immediately sat up to look at her properly. Jessie thought he looked a little apprehensive, and she couldn’t help but indulge herself with an inward smile at the realisation that Jack liked her. This gorgeous man really
liked
her. She could see it in his eyes.

‘You can take that worried look off your face,’ she said, grabbing his hand. ‘I am literally over the moon, and you can’t get much higher than the moon, to be here with you. But…’

‘How did I know there was going to be a but?’ Jack asked the room humourously, but there was still a visible tension in his jaw.

‘I know it’s still incredibly early days for us, and I’m probably jumping the gun here and about to ruffle feathers that have no business being ruffled, but I feel like I should get this off my chest,’ Jessie rambled.

‘What is it?’ Jack asked, giving her an expectant look. ‘Go on, throw your monumental spanner in the works,’ he dared.

‘It’s just that…’

Jessie stalled as she tried to find the right words to phrase what she really wanted to say. At last she gave up and simply blurted it out.

‘I want more.’

‘I see,’ Jack replied cautiously, as though he didn’t quite follow her. ‘And what does
more
entail, exactly?’

‘I know this feels right between us, and I know I want to be with you and see how things progress,’ Jessie said earnestly, still gripping his hand. ‘But I need more in terms of my whole life—and I want you to be on board with this. Before Tom and I got together, I was offered an amazing job in Hong Kong, which I turned down to be with him.’

‘So you want a new job?’ Jack asked, still a little perplexed.

‘Maybe. And I know I’m not explaining myself very well. But I realise now that I need something else outside of just being part of a duo. Whether that’s my job, or interests, or friends, I don’t know. But that job offer felt like a chance to stop treading water, to get out of my rut and let an exciting and quite possibly scary wave wash me to a different shore.’ She looked at Jack with pleading eyes, willing him to understand her inarticulate ramblings as she tightened the sheets around her.

‘Right. I get it,’ Jack said simply as he looked at her for a moment, processing her words. ‘You want a new challenge. That was one of the reasons why I left China.’

‘Yes,’ Jessie replied, beaming at him, relieved that he knew what she’d been getting at. ‘I
need
exciting new challenges.’ Tom hadn’t understood this about her. He could never see why she would even contemplate the idea of moving halfway around the world to have an adventure, when everything she held dear was supposedly right under her nose, here in England. But Jack was not Tom. Jack was completely different.

‘Well, if that’s all, then I am well and truly open to trying exciting new things, wherever they may be around the world,’ Jack said with a cheeky smile. ‘But just so I know, everything is alright between us, and this is not just your convoluted way of trying to give me the flick?’ Jack asked teasingly, waving a finger backwards and forwards between them.

‘Yes, so far, so good,’ Jessie laughed, finding it impossible not to beam at his faked look of uncertainty. She pulled him to her. ‘But it has only been a few hours,’ she added in between kisses.

‘Well, Miss Slaymaker, if excitement is what you want—no, sorry,
need
—then we’d better get started, for there is no time like the present,’ Jack announced before disappearing under the covers. Jessie let out a giggle as she suddenly forgot all about holding up the bedsheets.

A loved up couple strolled hand in hand through the hotel foyer on their way out the door. It was blatantly obvious that, as far they were concerned, they were the only inhabitants of their very own private universe, in which the sun always seemed to shine and the birds did sing. They were so totally and utterly consumed with each other, in fact, that they failed to notice the all-too-familiar man and woman sitting in the hotel cafe, watching their every move like hawks. One was a scorned woman, only recently made single, and the other was her profligate on-again, off-again partner in crime.

‘What do you make of that, then?’ the man asked the woman when the happy couple disappeared from sight.

‘Merely a fling,’ the woman replied, swallowing visibly as though trying to rid herself of a nasty taste. She sipped her coffee with all the poise and elegance of a supremely confident and wealthy woman. ‘As soon as he figures out she’s not worthy of him, he’ll kick her to the curb like he does with all of his women.’

‘And what if he doesn’t?’ the man asked, clearly trying to ignite a reaction in his companion.

‘Then maybe he’ll need a little nudge in the right direction,’ the woman replied slyly.

‘Yeah, right,’ the man chuckled softly. ‘My brother’s a hard-headed fool—you know that. I reckon he’ll need more than a “little nudge”, as you put it, when it comes to Jessie. I’ve never seen him look like that. Maybe he’ll need something like blackmail, if you know what I mean,’ he goaded, raising a finger to the side of his nose.

‘Oh, but wait,’ he continued. ‘You already tried that, didn’t you? And it worked so well.’ He didn’t even attempt to hide the sarcasm in his voice. ‘You couldn’t keep hold of Jack even when you had him right under your thumb.’

‘Bitter, are we, Charlie? You’re just peeved I want
him
over you,’ the woman responded cattily, narrowing her eyes.

‘Not at all, Sonia. You forget: I know why you want Jack.’

‘Just behave yourself and remember that
I’m
the one pulling the strings here, and therefore, you do as I say. I haven’t forgotten that you ruined things for both of us last time—you and that Jessie.’

‘Okay, I hear you. What do you want me to do?’ the man asked, unenthusiastically.

‘It’s simple really. I want him. I want her gone,’ Sonia said coldly. ‘I know it’s not as easy to get things done here in England, so first let’s just wait and see if Jack’s little lust-fest blows over of its own accord. At this stage, I want surveillance only. Focus on her. Any morsel of anything remotely incriminating on her, and I want to know about it. Jack’s a fickle fellow. He won’t stick around long, once he finds out about the skeletons in her closet.’

‘Yes, boss,’ Charlie replied, giving her a half-hearted salute. ‘But you obviously don’t know Jessie. She’s as straight as an arrow. Honest as they come.’

Sonia shot Charlie a withering look, which had the immediate effect of shutting him up.

‘I don’t mean to be rude, Charlie,’ she began with zero sincerity. ‘But shouldn’t you be… well, you know… doing what I’m
paying
you to do?’ Her venomous eye contact didn’t waver once. ‘Plus, as I’m sure you can appreciate, I don’t want to be seen in public with an unscrupulous fellow like yourself for any longer than is strictly necessary. Aren’t you a wanted man?’ she added primly, dusting off some imaginary lint from her immaculate jacket.

‘Right you are,’ Charlie huffed, clearly annoyed. ‘Message received, loud and clear. Even if it is an utter waste of my time, seeing as all they’re doing is going to lunch,’ he muttered. His chair screeched loudly as he stood up and stormed off in Jack and Jessie’s wake.

Jessie and Jack were having what Jessie regarded as a terribly civilised lunch at a well-to-do eatery with starched white tablecloths and lots of cutlery, when Jack decided to drop his elephant-sized bombshell of a suggestion.

‘I’ve been thinking,’ Jack began, still chewing on his overpriced club sandwich.

‘Uh-oh,’ Jessie replied, rolling her eyes automatically. ‘Should I brace myself?’

‘About what you were saying earlier,’ Jack continued, ignoring her childish display.

Jessie felt her mind cloud. What with all the sex, euphoria, and sex she’d experienced so far that morning, she’d undoubtedly said quite a lot of passion-induced things to this man. She racked her brain trying to figure out which bit he was referring to. She hadn’t done anything stupid and asked him to move in with her or anything, had she?