Jessie Slaymaker's Rules of Engagement (The Jessie Slaymaker Series Book 2) (12 page)

Jack’s face tensed ever so slightly at the mention of his brother’s name.
Good one
, Jessie sarcastically applauded herself. She just needed to shut the heck up about his flaming brother for once in her life. Jack was still tetchy, and rightly so, about her having ended up in bed with Charlie when they were in the early stages of their budding romance.

‘What’s gone wrong? I thought you were having a great time,’ Jack replied, not a huge amount of sympathy in his voice.

‘Far from it,’ Jessie continued, choosing to ignore his tone. ‘When I got to the office on Monday, the promotion I thought I had was no longer available, and so I’ve been plodding along in little more than a graduate’s role over the past week. It’s been just awful.’

‘Right. Is that it?’ Jack asked plainly, smiling at her. ‘I thought something bad had happened.’ He clearly didn’t get how disappointed and humiliated she felt about the whole thing.

‘What do you mean, is that
it
? Thank you for your sensitivity. This
is
bad,’ Jessie ranted, totally surprised by his lack of empathy.

‘Well, it can’t have been that bad, seeing as you’re only just bringing it up now,’ Jack retorted.

‘Well, it is,’ Jessie replied, furiously blinking back tears.

‘I’m sorry you don’t like your job,’ Jack sighed. ‘But from the way you were talking, I thought it was something life-threatening. It’s just a job, Jessie. Don’t take it so personally. This kind of thing happens all the time,’ he added more gently, giving her shoulder a gentle knead.

‘Well, not to me it doesn’t,’ Jessie sulked. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feel of Jack’s fingers massaging her tense muscles. Maybe he was right. It
was
just a job, and she shouldn’t get herself so het up with everything. She had Jack. That was the most important thing. And considering this was basically the first time he’d touched her all week, maybe things were finally looking up. ‘That’s so good,’ she hummed at him.

‘Any time,’ he soothed. ‘There’s more to life than work, you know.’

‘Hmm. Hey, are you feeling better?’ Jessie asked hopefully. Her eyes slowly opened and focused on him. He did look better. A lot better. Rather yummy, in actual fact.

‘A bit,’ he said absently, continuing to rub her shoulder.

‘Are you going out?’ Jessie suddenly asked, noticing that he was wearing proper clothes for the first time all week. In fact, he looked to be quite dressed up. And clean-shaven.

‘I meant to text you earlier. I’m just popping out to see a few mates for a catch-up beer. I won’t be late,’ he said, suddenly springing up off the sofa. ‘Actually, I’d probably better shoot,’ he added, checking his watch and shovelling his wallet and keys into his pockets.

‘Oh,’ Jessie said, unable to hide her surprise. Well, if you could hold on for twenty minutes, I could get ready and come with you,’ she offered.

‘No offence, Jess, but it’s kind of a blokey thing. They’re not bringing their significant others, and I think you might feel a bit left out of the conversation.’

‘Right-O. I get you,’ Jessie said, getting up off the sofa with a sigh. ‘No girls allowed. I wanted to take a long bath anyway,’ she added, heading towards the bedroom.

‘Enjoy.’ Jack gave her a quick kiss as she passed him.

‘You too,’ Jessie said wearily.

‘I’ll try. Don’t wait up,’ he called as he closed the front door behind him.

‘But I didn’t think you were going to be late,’ Jessie moaned to herself, and went to run her bath. She knew she should be thankful that Jack seemed to be in better spirits. It was just unfortunate for her that as soon as he was feeling better, he’d prefer to go out on the razzle with his buddies rather than spend some quality time together.

So much for not being late. It had gone four o’clock the next morning before Jack had finally rolled through the door. And unsurprisingly, considering the hour, he was also completely trashed. There were no two ways about it. He’d made an incredible racket when he came in, and Jessie ended up having to steer him into bed. Once there, he’d passed out almost immediately and pretty much snored his head off from the get go.

Unable to sleep with Snoring Beauty’s non-stop deafening symphony next to her, Jessie started up a text conversation with Tom to entertain her.

Jessie:
I talked to Jack…

Tom:
What did he say?

Jessie:
Not much. Just that it wasn’t the end of the world.

Tom:
He’s right.

Tom:
Surely you got some wine, sex and a bit of sympathy though.

Jessie:
None of the above. He went out and got seriously pissed up instead.

Tom:
Bastard.

Jessie:
I know.

Tom:
What did you do?

Jessie:
Stayed in and plucked my eyebrows.

Tom:
Rock ’n’ roll… Not, you saddo.

Jessie:
Thanks.

Tom:
What are you doing today then to top your Friday night?

Jessie:
Not much—should be house hunting but can’t be arsed.

Tom:
You should do something. Get out and about.

Jessie:
Jack will be hung over all day and I have some journals to catch up on.

Tom:
Whoa there! It’s the weekend, you don’t HAVE to work.

Jessie:
Well… my boss did invite me to have a pedicure with her.

Tom:
Do that then.

Jessie:
Don’t want to. It’s weird. I already said no. She’s all young and hot and she makes me feel like an OAP.

Tom:
Jessie, it’s a blooming pedicure. What’s the worst that could happen?

Jessie:
I suppose…

Tom:
It’s a chance to network, and I’d hazard a guess that barring Jack, you don’t really know anyone yet. In fact, I insist that you go. Call her now and tell her you changed your mind.

Jessie:
Okay. Maybe…

Later that morning, having left Jack in bed to sleep off his hangover, Jessie was sat next to her new boss, chatting away amiably whilst their tootsies were being pampered to within an inch of their lives. Although Jessie had had her doubts about going, she shouldn’t have, as she was now feeling the most relaxed she’d been since starting work. Perhaps Jack and Tom were right in that she did need something outside of the office. Maybe pedicures would be her extra-curricular activity from now on. She was in a soothing, calm, lemongrass-scented environment, sipping green tea with plinky-plonky music on repeat in the background. If this was what fabulous Hong Kong was going to be like from now on, it was definitely something she could get used to.

Out of the office, Rachel seemed to be a completely different person. She was still intimidating in a I’m-just-so-damn-confident kind of way, but she was chatty and inquisitive along with it. She didn’t mention work once, at least not in a serious boss-to-subordinate sort of way, but instead she seemed genuinely interested in Jessie’s life. She was also actually a bit of a gossip and chatted away incessantly about this so-and-so and that so-and-so from the bank. Of course, Jessie had no clue who any of these people were. All the names and faces seemed to be entirely different from the people here on her previous visit.

Rachel also seemed to love talking about her latest boyfriend, and he kept cropping up in the conversation—so much so that Jessie felt like she knew all about him even though she hadn’t even met him yet. His name was JP, he hailed from London, and she called him her ‘bit of rough’, which automatically suggested someone of considerable stature in Jessie’s mind. The woman was absolutely besotted with the guy, as evidenced by her going seriously gooey-eyed whenever she brought him up in conversation.

‘I like your earrings,’ Rachel said, looking at Jessie’s sparkly lobes and taking a break from talking about JP.

‘Thanks,’ Jessie replied, smiling. ‘A present from my boyfriend, Jack.’

‘He moved here with you, didn’t he?’ Rachel asked as she grabbed a nearby magazine from a waiting pile.

‘Yes. We came together,’ Jessie replied. As far as Jessie was concerned, Jack was still in the doghouse for deserting her last night in favour of the boys.

‘What does he do?’ Rachel asked, flicking her gaze across to Jessie.

That was a stumper. What
did
Jack do exactly?

‘He used to work in publishing in Shanghai. But I think he wants to do something different here. He’s got a few irons in the fire,’ Jessie said, polishing the truth a touch. In all honesty she didn’t have a clue what Jack actually wanted to do in Hong Kong. She didn’t even know if
Jack
knew what Jack wanted to do.

‘That’s nice of him to follow you here,’ Rachel said, returning her attention to the glossy magazine in her lap. There was something in what she’d said that rankled Jessie. Something that made Jack out to be something of a puppet. Jack didn’t just
follow
her here, did he? Surely he came because he wanted to have a life here. Of course, with her, but surely he actually wanted to come for himself as well. Right?

‘OMG,’ Rachel suddenly exclaimed loudly. Jessie looked across at her companion to see if maybe something had gone wrong with her pedicure. Everything looked to be fine on that front, yet Rachel had stopped leafing through her magazine and her face seemed to be frozen in place as she stared open-mouthed at something on the page.

‘What?’ Jessie asked, leaning over to get a glimpse of the offending picture.

‘I can’t believe that,’ Rachel said, shaking her head slightly, building the sense of drama.

‘What is it? Has Angelina had another tattoo? Or a baby?’ Jessie quipped.

‘No. I can’t believe
she’s
pregnant. I mean, whoever would be stupid enough to get themselves embroiled with that family must need their head tested,’ Rachel said disapprovingly.

‘Who?’ Jessie asked politely as she tried to play down her own curiosity, returning to her own magazine flicking.

‘Have you ever heard of Sonia Shum?’ Rachel asked as she scanned the article.

At the mention of that particular name, Jessie instantly felt her blood run cold. It was a name that, uncharacteristically for Jessie, inspired nothing but dislike and ill feeling. It was Sonia Shum who had been pulling Charlie’s strings into framing her and sleeping with her. It was Sonia Shum who had essentially blackmailed Jack into staying with her and being her lap dog. It was Sonia Shum who had basically kept her and Jack apart when they should have been basking in each other’s glory, falling blissfully in love with one another.

‘I’ve heard of her,’ Jessie answered coldly.

‘Well, she’s a notorious billionaire heiress who splits her time between HK and Shangers. She’s a complete nutjob if you ask me, though. A right control freak. Anyway, somehow she’s gone and gotten herself pregnant. I can’t think how though. She has a terrible reputation with men. I’m surprised anyone would go near her. Did you know, it’s common knowledge that the last guy she was seeing was a right wimp who was at her beck and call the entire time?’ Rachel leaned in and lowered her voice conspiratorially. ‘Apparently it was all fake and for publicity from her point of view, but when she binned him he took it really bad. He was so cut up, he had to run away back to England so he wouldn’t run into her around here.’

‘How pregnant is she?’ Jessie asked deliberately, choosing to ignore the gossip about Jack’s departure, which was clearly a story perpetuated by Sonia so as not to lose face. But Sonia pregnant? There was no need to panic, Jessie told herself as she took a deep breath. She just hoped to hell that they were still talking the first trimester and nothing longer.

‘It says here she’s believed to be five or six months gone,’ Rachel replied obligingly, holding up the picture of a clearly pregnant Sonia Shum. She was wearing a tight-fitting body con dress to some fancy event, and the dress left no illusion whatsoever as to what was growing in her stomach. Nor did the healthy fullness to the woman’s face and figure. In fact, the pregnant glow seemed to emanate from every pore. Everything about her screamed ‘woman with child’.

Jessie couldn’t speak. She went totally numb. Five months pregnant. The thought that Sonia Shum was pregnant silently reverberated within the confines of Jessie’s head. Five months ago she’d been seeing Tom in England, which meant that Jack had been living with Sonia in Hong Kong. It couldn’t be his? Surely not. Could it? Jessie ran the numbers again to check. Jessie was extremely good with figures in her day job, but she willed her basic arithmetic to be wrong for once. However, the numbers didn’t lie. The timings matched up. Of course, she didn’t know what Sonia’s private life had been like during those weeks, but she did know Jack had been a part of it. Which meant there was a very real possibility that Jack—
her
Jack—was the father of Sonia Shum’s unborn child.

‘Holy fuck,’ Jessie exclaimed quietly, as the full realisation dawned on her.

‘Is something the matter?’ Rachel trilled. ‘You’ve gone white as a sheet.’

Jessie just stared numbly at the photo, unable to respond.

‘O-M-FUCKING-G,’ Rachel practically shrieked, causing all the other ladies getting their feet prettied to look over at them. ‘It’s
your
Jack, isn’t it?
He
was the poor sap chained to Sonia Shum!’ Rachel’s intelligent mind quickly put two and two together based on Jessie’s reaction.

‘And… is
he
the father?’ Rachel whispered, her eyes growing wider and wider, when Jessie still didn’t respond. Jessie got the distinct impression Rachel was enjoying herself, putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. Possibly a bit too much.

‘But judging by your silence, you didn’t know she was pregnant. Which means he probably doesn’t know either. OMG, Jessie. This must have come as a total shock. I’m so sorry,’ she said, dramatically clutching Jessie’s hand.

‘I don’t know,’ Jessie finally said quietly, removing her hand from Rachel’s grasp. She hardly knew Rachel, yet Rachel seemed to have figured out all of Jessie’s dirty laundry in a matter of a few seconds. All she wanted to do was scream O-M-FUCKING-G herself, but instead she forced herself to show some poise and neutralise her features as she returned to her magazine-flicking until her pedicure was finished.