Lovers of my book The Carrero Effect book 1 will love this brand new alternate chapter.
This is chapter 13, part 5 (more to follow) re-written from Jake Carrero’s perspective as per requested by you, the lovely fans.
Please note there is swearing and sexual references and this is not suitable for those under 18 years of age.
Read at your own risk!!
The holiday- Part 5 ( Chapter 13, book 1)
‘You were saying?’ He smiled at her and let her loose a little.
‘Shut up.’ Emma toppled, sliding in his embrace, swaying a finger under his nose in the most adorable fashion and looking every bit the cute drunk student with her short wispy hair. ‘Not another word, Carrero.’. Finding her amusing he motioned the locking of a key over his lips and pretended to throw it away before casting her a wink and pulling her back in for another slow groove. Another bout of Emma’s terrible balancing act but he didn’t care, it was an excuse to hold her a little closer and enjoy how she felt being against him. An excuse to wrap his arms a little tighter and pull her a little more closely than he ever dared when it was just work.
He finally gave up when it became obvious the only way she was going to manage dancing anymore was in his arms this way and he grinned her way. He could take advantage of it or he could do the decent thing and put her down, grudgingly he chose the decent thing as she always made him feel like he wanted to be better.
Too freaking cute for words. Too god damn intoxicating.
He tugged her by the hand, watching her unsteady wobble and the way her big eyes watched him adoringly, he had to give her that much. She knew exactly how to wind him around her little finger with just a look whether she meant it or not and he had no will to ever refuse that face. He slid an arm around her shoulders pulling her close to support her and possibly take advantage of holding her once more. He couldn’t help but listen to her drunken rambling with a smile, she was making very little sense but he just liked the sound of her voice. It was something he never tired of hearing. She wasn’t one of those girls who talked incessantly , in fact she didn’t talk enough if he was being honest. Emma was reserved most of the time, even in conversation and he liked the version that appeared when drunk. That version of her let any damn thing out of her head as soon as it hit her brain and that was a girl he was crazy for, incredibly sweet, a little too adorable and a lot of sexy.
Back at the table, Jake had practically carried Emma with an arm around her waist to the others who were mid-story about a trip they had taken last summer. Jake could hear Hunter reminiscing over the Ibiza party they had thrown for his birthday, that one time they had ended up drunkenly stealing ski jets and going on a middle of the night adventure while too drunk to be doing anything of the sort.
Jake guided Emma to the group of standing men this time instead of the seats where Marissa had switched to a seat directly beside where he had been, sliding a casual arm around her shoulders and pulling her close so she would stay away from that vicious look Marissa had all over her face. Emma didn’t seem to notice his over-familiar handling of her so he took that as encouragement that she was fine with being a little man handled. He handed her a drink and leant in to catch up with what his friends were talking about, Leila was on her feet too standing between the twins and he couldn’t help notice that Daniel was avoiding looking her way. The boy was completely hopeless when it came to Leila and he wished he would just sort his act out and tell the girl how he really felt about her.
‘Yeah so Jakes like, I’m sure we can make it…. And he goes speeding off on his fucking jet ski, right in… Doesn’t give a fuck.’ They all burst into laughter and looked towards Jake as Daniel patted his back. Jake was trying to remember the point in the story and mildly aware Marissa was trying to catch his eye again, he ignored her best he could but she was making him uncomfortable with the efforts she was applying and he cast his mind back to that midnight romp in which they managed to get stuck out at sea with a storm brewing and had ended up using a cave for shelter.
‘What choice did I have?’ Jake cut in, finishing Daniels memory. ‘Daniel would have had us sleep out there at that rate, not that he would have minded. Daniels always trying to get in the sack with me, the boys still trying to deny his feelings.’ He joked, taking a swig of his beer and relaxing as he felt Emma’s eyes on his profile, looking adoring and kissable as ever. God the urge to just lay claim to her in front of everyone right now was killing him. He wanted her badly and cuddling up together was making things so much worse.
‘It’s kind of heartbreaking to watch him suffer… Unrequited love.’ Richard broke in, stifling a grimace as Daniel slapped his back a tad too aggressively.
‘Fuck you. Both of you.’ Daniel spat a little harshly.
‘You know when you know…right?’ Vincent threw a wink at Daniel and three of the four men burst out laughing, Daniel rolled his eyes and gave them the finger.
‘Tried so damn hard to let him down gently, he’s just too sensitive.’ Jake ruffled Daniels hair.
‘I’ve caught him sobbing into his Hagen Das a few times, when you stood him up Jakey.’ Richard shoved Daniel in the ribs playfully and winked Jakes way.
‘He stole my Endless love CD when you missed his birthday bash last year. Perfect crying anthems on there.’ Leila quipped in throwing a huge smile at Jake and he smiled back, Leila had been trying for months to be okay around Hunter and this trip was the first time in so long they had not tried to kill one another on sight. They two had some serious history between them.
‘I swear to god, you guys better stop with this shit. Even if I was that way inclined, I wouldn’t jump Carrero’s bones. I know where he’s been, I have standards.’ All three men looked at Jake with eyebrow wiggles and he only sneered at them. By their standards his whites were a hell of a lot cleaner, he had at least some morals when it came to the women he pursued in the past.
‘Umm, I think I’ve way higher standards than any of you three.’ He defended himself with a frown. Suddenly feeling uncomfortable with the topic while Emma was standing so close and almost scrutinising his profile, he couldn’t look her way when talking about past conquests. God, she had no clue he wasn’t even doing that anymore.
‘Questionable.’ Leila threw him a look. He didn’t need to see more to know she meant Marissa and almost grimaced at the memory. Everyone could make mistakes, even hellish ones like that. ‘But you’ve improved a lot.’ She then smiled at him concealing nothing. A big hearty, winky type of smile and he felt that hint of warmth knowing she meant Emma, Leila wasn’t so dumb after all and maybe it was her he should offload to rather than Hunter. Get a female perspective.
‘Leave her out of this.’ Jake warned, squeezing Emma a little more tightly. He may have liked the way Leila was thinking but he had to make sure none of them got the wrong idea for her sake. He also wasn’t exactly too enamoured with the way Marissa seemed to be honed right in staring at them both and giving him her best fuck me now eyes. He regretted picking a place in her line of sight to stand.
‘You know when you know, Right?’ Vincent smirked Jakes way knowingly and he really wanted to throat punch him in that second. Like a performing fucking circus the other two men joined him in knowing looks and all three winked his way slyly. He glanced to see if Emma noticed anything untoward but she was busy resting her head into him innocently.
Assholes.
‘Daniel certainly seems to think so.’ Jake made kissing noises at Hunter in a bid to cover the moment of complete awkwardness, letting go off Emma to haul Daniel into a head lock and plaster his cheek with wet, noisy kisses. Fucker could take that for initiating all this in the first place.
‘Fuck off, you creep.’ Daniel fought as everyone laughed. Everyone lightening up from the all too serious turn in that conversation much to his relief and he could see even Emma was smiling. Jake came back to put his casual arm back around her possessively and ignored Marissa once again hitting him with a sexual pout.
Piss off, for the love of god.
‘Admit it, you’ve been planning the Hunter Carrero wedding since you were just a little girl. It’s kind of sweet really.’ Jake prodded Daniel with his beer bottle and received two fingers on one hand and one on the other as a response. It was an attempt to keep his focus off of what Marissa was now doing with her tongue in the bottle she was holding, he had never had the urge to push it down her throat this badly before.
‘You’re riding dangerously close to a Hunter free existence. Then we’ll see which dude is crying into his Hagen Das. We all know that Mr Smooth Carrero has the biggest man crush on me.’ Daniel picked up a beer, mock threw his hair back like a woman and fluttered his eyelashes.
‘In your dreams pretty boy. I’m hoping for a threesome with the twins.’ Jake winked at Vincent and Richard who threw on matching ‘EWWWW’ faces. Everyone laughed, even Marissa this time which meant she had to stop blowing off the bottle and giving him orgasm looks. He felt that draw for a moment of a guy who definitely had not had enough sex of late and watched for a mere second as she bit on her lip suggestively, memory serving him right of what she used to do with that mouth before sense got the better of him and Emma laying her soft head against his heart almost made him feel guilty even pondering it for a second.
Jake adjusted his hold so he could pull her closer and rest his arm further around him. This was the only girl who belonged near his heart whether she wanted it or not. He switched his beer bottle to his left hand so it hung in front of her and gently took her empty cocktail glass and laid it down glancing at her happy face for a moment and only being reassured that bringing her on this trip was the best thing. He had never seen her so chilled or smiley in all the time that he knew her and even being grossly man handled by him tonight hadn’t brought out one PA telling off. Maybe she was warming to him after all.
Daniel started rehashing another trip last year, another summer vacation a group of them had gone on. There had been sixteen of them that time and of course Marissa, she had tried to get into his bed on more than one occasion and he had even woken up with her nakedly writhing on top of him trying to get him hard. He had considered it for all of ten seconds before shoving her ungracefully to the floor and then proceeded to fuck every girl she had brought with her over that next couple of days just to piss her off. Marissa looked his way devilishly, obviously remembering his little backlash and he felt smug for a moment. He maybe had no feelings for the girl anymore but getting some sick payback for what she had done to him always got a reaction. They seemed to keep doing this around in circles year after year until he had met Emma…. Now it no longer interested him at all and he had no intentions of trying to beat her at any more games of seduction ever again.
The waitress came with a tray laying down another round of drinks on the canopied table. Jake handed Emma a fresh cocktail with his free hand, his mouth lingering close to her temple a little longer than necessary as he smelled her, weird and probably a tad obsessive but she always smelled edible. Tropical fruits and sort of slightly sexual in a way and he liked to just do it, because he was fucking weird when it came to her and he had long ago stopped even questioning the shit he did around her.
Hunter started eyeing him oddly, waving his phone around and talking about some vague memory that Jake could barely remember. He was flicking his phone at Jake enough that he finally took the hint, letting go of Emma and leaning in to see. He was being strangely secretive by only showing it to Jake and then he saw why.
There was no picture only the start of a text which read.
Jake… She seems totally into you tonight…Fucking get in there… Look at her man, she’s all over you.
Jake looked at Daniel with a warning frown but couldn’t help but feel a little torn. Emma had been cuddling up to him as much as he was into her since standing here, all the flirting on the dance floor with him and now looking at her glaring Marissa down he was starting to wonder if he should make a play for her or not. He didn’t know if it was the alcohol or not, Emma was different on this trip, had been since they arrived and maybe he should stop acting like a woman and just go for it. Daniel was obviously seeing something he wasn’t.
He caught Marissa once again giving him the bedroom eyes and sighed internally. Staring at her for a moment to give her the back off signals and feeling Emma looking his way.
God she looked beautiful with that hair.
He couldn’t help that same rush of lust whenever he looked at her and being drunk was certainly not helping at all, he pulled her in instinctively for a kiss, part of him saying DO IT and then chickened out and hit her on the cheek platonically instead. She was making him all kinds of nervous now that he was even considering trying to make a move on her tonight. He wasn’t sure whether to listen to Hunter or not, he had zero clues when it came to Emma, still no way closer to ever reading her but Leilas encouraging smiles his way and now Hunter giving him a green light had his palms getting clammy and his throat drying up.
Fuck…He was scared shitless.
‘You’re very quiet…… Want to go back to the boat?’ He said to her softly, hoping that maybe if he got her alone then he would relax and be able to read her signals a little better. Decide if she wanted this or not. Decide what to do instead of freaking out like an amateur over here.
‘Yes, please, I’m so tired, it’s been a long day.’ She smiled at him and his crotch most definitely stirred, Emma’s husky tone was a little too inviting for platonic thoughts.
Fuck maybe Hunter was right, Emma was definitely looking at him in a way he had never seen her look.
‘Oooh, party on the boat.’ Leila chanted and jumped up, impressively bouncing her boobs, all male eyes immediately followed because that’s what men were designed to do, seek out impressive tits when jiggling. Even Leilas, even though Jake realised how weird that was and felt a harsh dig to his ribs. Looking down he could see one very unimpressed look from Emma, he knew this look. Her haughty little PA glare which signalled she was not happy with him, feeling suddenly euphoric that she had just given him the green light he had been looking for he gave her an apologetic shrug and wink.
Baby, tonight you are going to be kissed senseless.
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