Lovers of my book The Carrero Influence – Book 2 will love this brand new alternate chapter.
This is chapter 7, part 3, re-written from Jake Carrero’s perspective as per requested by you, the lovely fans. (The Dance)
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!!
Read at your own risk!!
Jake felt the inner pain and dread loosening a little, watched the way Emma remained calm and continued to gaze up at him with unveiled adoration. This really was different for her this time. His tense muscles relaxed as warm realisation hit him, he really had her after all. She wasn’t running or closing down, she wasn’t even pushing him away. Still in his arms and touching him freely.
‘I love you… I think I’ve been in love with you for a very long time…’ Jake let it out, like a wave of relief, something that had been on his lips for what felt like an eternity and had never had the courage to say to her. Smiling at the release and suddenly not feeling so scared anymore. Emma however burst into an instant mess of tears. Jake pulled her against his chest, confused and a little unsure how he was meant to take this at all. All he could do was hold her, stroke her hair and pray to god she was ‘happy’ crying.
‘I… I…’ She stammered and then got even more emotional, falling to pieces in his arms and gripping onto him tightly as flood gates of tears and sobbing opened up. All he could do was cling right back on and bury his face in her hair helplessly. His heart upping a bear and fear coming back to gnaw at his insides. Emma wasn’t much of a crier and whenever she did he hated it, made him feel pretty much like it did now. As though his insides were being twisted out in the most excruciating way and he just wanted to take it away for her.
‘Don’t cry Bambino… Please Emma… I didn’t think telling you I loved you would cause this.’ He said hoarsely, tensing his arms around her and just trying so hard to mould her every line and curve to him while supporting her. ‘Say something…’
Anything please…. Tell me you want this.
‘I… love… you.’ It came from her so breathily, between sniffs. Jake immediately breathing out in complete relief and suddenly aware he had been holding his breath. His body went into warm and fuzzy overdrive and for once in his life understood all that girly mushy crap about butterflies and inner tingles. The overwhelming euphoria of three little words from the only person who mattered changed everything in that one moment.
Jake lifted her chin gently, unable to stop the goofy happy smile breaking across his face and kissed her softly, he could do this for an eternity and never tire of how good she felt. How kissing her seemed to make the world stop turning and everything make sense; he could kiss Emma every second of everyday for an eternity and know it would always feel this good.
His gentle meeting of the lips set her off again into another flood of hormonal tears, only this time Jake didn’t crumble into insecurity, he smiled instead and watched her with a small shake of the head.
‘Jesus Emma… If I’d known this was how it would be, I would’ve brought some tissues and a lot of chocolate.’ Tangling his fingers in her soft, silky hair, no longer pained at her tears because he knew sometimes girls cried when they were happy. In this case he had no doubt his beautiful girl was happy. Her giggle through tears confirmed it and he sighed against her once more.
What am I going to do with you?
Emma looked up under lowered lashes, her make up doing a pretty good job of staying put for the most part despite the waterworks and smiled at him coyly. It had the same effect as a thud to the chest.
‘They’re happy tears.’ She smiled once more, another sniff and some signs of regaining composure. Emma pulled her bag forward and began to search for something, he assumed a tissue, seeing as now her face was starting to get little rivers of black running subtly down them. It only made her even more god damn adorable to him and he impulsively lifted his hand to her face to start removing the traces of make up as they fell.
‘Should I be crying too then?’ He smiled down at her, wiping her cheek with his thumb and then switching tactics to his jacket sleeve and dabbing at her instead. He didn’t care if this was a ten-thousand-dollar suit, his baby needed a tissue and he would let her use his entire shirt if she wanted it. He wiped the most of her upset away before caging her in against the wall to just take her in. Every little detail of her in its full glory had his heart soaring, he moved in close so he could breathe her in.
‘I don’t think I want to see you cry.’ Emma blinked up at him cutely, a face so innocent and serene that he had no resistance to her.
‘Good. I’m not much of a crier and you’re doing a grand enough job for the both of us… I’m happy though, you have no idea. I never thought we’d get here. I didn’t think this was how you felt about me.’ Jake moved in impulsively, wanting contact with her at all times and rested his brow against hers. She leaned up suddenly and bravely and kissed him this time, Knocking the wind out of him momentarily and pretty much making him the happiest guy on the planet in that second. It only ignited his deep longing for her and passion brimmed in milliseconds, bracing her face to him by sliding his hand behind her neck so he could deepen the kiss and caress her tongue with his. Emma groaned under her breath which in turn made him groan, still clueless to how much power she always had over him.
Jake pulled away before he lost all control completely and ripped her dress open, unable to just break free he sucked in her bottom full lip and gently slid away. He loved the taste of her in every way and could only imagine how much he was going to devour every single inch of her skin when he got her alone.
The way Emma was looking up at him told him that would be sooner rather than later, the unleashed raw look on her face of sheer lust had his body stirring and heat rising within. He wanted her so badly it was almost painful.
‘If we keep doing this then I can promise you I won’t be a gentleman for much longer.’ He warned her, voice soft as his focus stayed on the slightly kiss swollen set of perfect lips. The red lipstick was still in place and weirdly unsmeared.
‘Oh, I always knew you weren’t a gentleman.’ She jested, biting her lip seductively and staring right back at Jakes own mouth. She wasn’t helping calm his libido one little bit.
God, I want to kiss you and fuck you nonstop.
‘Hey! I’ve been very well behaved. You have no idea the kind of thoughts that went through my head concerning you.’ He caught her wrists and pinned them up over her head, loving how it made her both vulnerable and open to his control but the way it made her bust rise up from her dress a little, peeking a little riskily on the verge of overflow. He wanted her naked more than anything and still glued to her body it was really hard to keep the obvious sign under control in his pants.
‘None of that surprises me, you and your ex-rated mind. I always knew you had Casanova tendencies.’ Emma grinned up at him, shifting her pelvis closer and almost nudging him.
‘Cheeky!’ He threw her a fast, chaste, kiss and let her go, more than aware that he was about to lose his shit and fuck her against the wall if they kept this up. He had little control around her normally so this was only testing all his powers to the very verge of his limits. ‘You’re beautiful, and you’re all mine!’ He moved his body from hers and leaned in for another soft kiss, something he knew would be an addiction from here on in. Having this ability to just kiss her whenever he wanted was like all his birthdays coming at once and he intended to use it to its full potential.
‘I’m still mad at you.’ Emma slid her palms across his stomach, sending shivers of anticipation through him, her hands smoothing within his jacket which was open and sliding up across the muscles in his chest. He had to steel himself against the urge to turn to jello. Her eyes followed her progress and the tiny hint of a smile tugged at her lips, he couldn’t stop looking at her.
‘I don’t blame you, Bella.‘ He frowned. ‘I’m mad at me too,’ Jake replied regretfully, smoothing her hair back behind her hair and taking a moment to focus on untangling a strand from the dangling diamond cluster earring. He needed to calm down his playboy impulses if he was going to romance her into a happy ever after. She wasn’t going to be some one-night piece of fun for him, Emma was all he had been waiting for in life. The other half to his soul. He watched her carefully, regret at so many lost months eating at him, knowing if he had just been honest with her long ago then he would have always had her.
‘Makes a change from being mad at me, I guess.’ Emma’s smile changed to a smirk as he regarded her. Lost in how many times he could have changed the course of their relationship by saying three little words to her.
‘I only got mad with you because of how I feel about you Emma… It was ripping me apart. I didn’t know how to behave around you or how to deal with all this crap inside of me… Over emotional men are just narky shits.’ He softly smiled, knowing it was lame as apologies went but he intended to spend every day for the next fifty years making this up to her. That time had been the worst torture of his life and even knowing he was being unfair to her at times, he couldn’t help it. She truly was breaking his heart back then.
‘I get mad at you because you’re an asshole sometimes; nothing to do with emotions or love.’ She joked, smiling widely with a hint of amusement in those gorgeous pale eyes. She moved to run her fingertips softly across his mouth again, drawing his attention to how perfect they gelled. Each touch tailored to the other almost intuitively and how she could weaken him so easily.
‘We need to make this work.’ Jake sighed. ‘I can’t walk away again… I don’t want too. This past month has been unbearable, like I had my insides wrenched out.’
‘Are you asking me to be your PA again?’ She asked softly, looking him dead in the eye with a hint of the old Emma confidence seeping back in. He couldn’t help but smile at her.
‘I’m asking for way more than that, Miele.‘ His hands had moved back into that blonde curled hair he loved so much, fingertips grazing her scalp as he entangled its silky smoothness between his fingers. He loved that every time he touched her hair it not only felt good but released more of her delicious scent that intoxicated him.
‘Tell me what you want from me, be specific.’ Emma has gone into full on PA mode, that stern yet inquisitive look, she was waiting for him to lay his cards on the table before she let too much of her own hopes out. Typical Emma, still guarding her heart until she was sure he wasn’t going to trample on her.
I love you Bambino.
Jake did not hesitate in doing what she needed.
‘I want you… All of you… I want us. Just you and me and no one else. No games, no hiding, no more misunderstandings… I want you to be the one woman I share my bed and my life with. I want a real relationship with you Bambino.’ He didn’t think he could spell it out any clearer than this and she deserved his full honesty after all he had put her through. Somehow though, even knowing she felt this way too, it was still terrifying to just lay his soul bare out there.
Emma threw herself against him so suddenly it almost winded him and wrapped herself tightly around him like a child would to a parent. She squeezed him as tightly as she could.
‘I want that too.’ She whispered so softly it was barely audible and his heart swelled ten fold, he slid his hand back into her hair, resting her head against him and cradling her close.
‘You better not be crying again.’ He joked, warming more when she tilted back to look up at him with wide happy eyes and the most gorgeous of Emma smiles, the one thing that had always captivated her to him was that genuine smile. Even aeons ago when they first met, any hints of her genuine smile had floored him.
‘No tears… Brownies whatsits.’ Emma attempted some sort of disastrous salute that had him grinning like a kid, pushing her hand down with an indulgent look, she maybe wasn’t so perfect at everything she did but she was perfect enough. And highly amusing at times/
‘This… Us… It’s really happening?’ Jake needed to say it aloud, needed to get to grips with the fact this was real and she wasn’t just a dream, resulting from a major emotional breakdown at losing her.
‘It looks that way.’ Emma wiggled her fingers into Jakes and pulled his hand to nestle against his own chest beside her face, he could feel the soft sensation of her breaths on his wrists and it was sending tingles all through him. It felt like they had always been this way with each other, so familiar and right.
‘You may need to pinch me a couple of times to actually believe it, Shorty.’ Jake slid her off of his body so he could bridge the height difference and kiss her once more, his hand freed from hers was now skimming across the softest expanse of creamy throat, across her shoulder slowly. Her skin felt like softest velvet.
Emma looked suddenly so very serious, her facial expression dropping in an instant and her body tensing as quickly, she looked up at him with wariness. Obviously some thought had crossed her mind that she didn’t like and he braced himself for the impact.
‘What about Marissa?’ Her voice broke subtly, emotion under the surface and pain in the depths of those eyes, he cursed internally. Hating that this was one situation he couldn’t just wipe away, even for her.
Fuck.
‘I don’t want her! I didn’t want her! It was a stupid drunken mistake. I’ll be there for the baby, but as far as she’s concerned, she means nothing. It’s you, it will always be you.’ It’s all he had, the best he could do, knowing that it was something he would need to deal with soon. He traced her eyebrow gently, trying so hard to erase that god damn soul crushing look of doubt in her eye. She was thinking about the one thing that could potentially ruin what they hadn’t even started yet.
‘How do you feel about the baby?’ She asked sheepishly and he knew there was no getting around this in that moment. She wanted to feel secure and it was his job to make her that way.
‘I’d be lying if I said I was happy… I’m not… But I did this and I need to take responsibility. I hadn’t ever thought about having kids, so this is all pretty overwhelming right now.’ Jake screwed up his face at the thought of that retched whore Marissa crossing his mind’s eye, all smug and repulsive. He shook her away just as quickly with a creeping sense of disgust that he ever went down that path.
‘Don’t walk away from your child.’ Emma blinked up at him earnestly, her mind obviously following through to what it was like in her own childhood with a guy who didn’t want a kid. Jake leaned in to kiss her again, this time to try and erase some of that self-doubt and heartache almost impulsively. He hated that guy for ever doing that to his beautiful girl.
‘That’s not me Emma… I’m nothing like your father. I won’t walk away.’ He pushed her forehead with his assuringly. ‘Can we drop this conversation for now as I’ve something I would much rather be doing.’ Jake grinned, determined to take her mind elsewhere and her body too if she was willing.This topic would only upset both of them and kill the joy and happiness of this moment between them. Enough of the delaying and standing in a dark hall surrounded by strangers, He wanted to take her home and make this thing real.
‘Such as?’ Emma smiled warily, sudden doubt as to his motives and it only made him want to grin. Always a little unsure and childlike, it was something that had always drawn him to her and made him want to take care of her. She had no clue who vulnerable and naive she often came across, even in full blown school mistress PA mode.
‘Taking my girlfriend home and fucking her brains out. It’s long overdue.’ He grinned, hitting her with a ground moving kiss in a bid to recapture some fire between them, hands sliding around her possessively and pushing her back into the wall to support them both.
Emma kissed him back with equal fever and passion, her body moulding to his and hands sliding up inside between the buttons of his shirt. She was obviously on the same track and showing no resistance, bodies igniting with raw lust and on the verge of losing control. He knew there was no stopping them now, he was taking her home as soon as he stopped kissing her and never letting her go again.
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