Chapter Seventeen

Although it was hard to leave Jenna so soft and warm and cuddled against him, possibly for one of the last times ever, unless he could figure out a way to convince her they would be great together, Zach slipped out of bed.

Last night had been, well, life changing, as cheesy as it sounded. And had only convinced him further that he could not—would not—let this be the end of things between them instead of the beginning. Zach had learned the hard way that he had to work for what he wanted, be willing to give the blood, sweat, and tears for it. And he’d never failed. From getting into an Ivy League school to starting a company with Elliot to rebuilding when that had fallen apart. He had set his mind to something, did all the research necessary, gathered the tools and people necessary to make his dream a reality, and gone for it. He had never failed. And, he decided as he pulled on his shorts, this project was no different. He would make Jenna see that they would be great together, no matter how long he had to wait or what he had to do to convince her. He would not fail at this, the most important project of his life.

It was an uphill battle, there was no doubt about that. Despite what she said, she was still grieving. He’d hoped he had made a small difference, but there would be more recovering to be done, according to the internet, which was maddeningly short on information on exactly how much time this last step would take. He wasn’t good with “it happens when it happens” and “everyone’s timeframe is different.” He wanted a date so that he could put it in his calendar and make plans.

But if there was one thing he’d learned from Jenna so far, it was that not planning things could be pretty great sometimes, too, even if it still made him uneasy to just wing it.

He took one last look at her, her lashes dark against her cheek, her hair a riot of curls on the white linens. Her bare shoulder peeked out from the covers, creamy and soft. She had a small scar there, hardly noticeable, probably from a long ago childhood mishap. He didn’t know. But he wanted to. And once he was successful, he would have a lifetime to learn all about Jenna and all her mysteries. His insides felt warm and weird when he thought about that. Learning all her secrets, sharing some of his.

Unable to help himself, he leaned over and kissed the mark. She stirred slightly.

“Go back to sleep, beautiful. I’ll be right back with some breakfast.”

Zach forced himself to leave the room before he threw everything to the wind and crawled right back under the covers with her. No, there would be plenty of time for that. Now was time to plan. To convince Jenna to give him a chance. Give them a chance. A real one.

Breakfast in bed would be a great start. But he wanted to bring it himself rather than order room service. Add some special touches. And talk to the concierge about some other things he had ideas for to make this last day with her special. To make his case to Jenna. Show her he wasn’t always an over-logical workaholic. That he could be…romantic? Unthinkable only a week ago, now it seemed like he had become that guy.

After the non-dinner on the beach and the striptease, Zach had gotten an email from Marcy saying that she had finished up the presentation and sent it to the printer. They were supposed to deliver a final copy for Zach to approve that morning. And then it would be Project Jenna until they left the resort and flew home. That gave him approximately twenty-four hours to convince Jenna that this didn’t have to end with check-out time. Twenty-four hours to convince her to give him a chance. Twenty-four hours to come up with a plan to make it all work. Which was good because right now he had nothing. Nothing except that he wanted to make this day perfect for her.

He slipped out of the hut and took the path to the main building. The sun was up, barely, and the fresh breeze from the ocean made him inhale deeply. He was actually going to miss this place, he realized. Hell, maybe he’d book the whole place so that they could have some real privacy next time.

…

The knock on the hut’s door woke Jenna from a very nice dream. A dream that involved Zach and her and…pink dolphins? That was weird. But the part where she felt warm and cared for and that she had a companion was wonderful.

The knock came again, and she blinked herself awake. She sat up in bed and looked around the cabin. As the cobwebs of sleep fell away, she vaguely remembered Zach saying he would be right back. Breakfast. Yeah, he was going to get them some food. Maybe he’d forgotten his key.

Jenna jumped out of bed and pulled on the fluffy hotel robe that was on the end of the bed. She went to the door, almost giddy to open it and see Zach standing here, that soft look in his eyes and his offering of sizzling bacon and hot coffee…

“Coming,” she called as he knocked again.

Jenna threw open the door, prepared to give him a good amount of teasing over the forgotten key.

Shock ricocheted through her body, freezing pretty much all language functions.

“Elliot,” she said breathily.

He was dressed in a button-down shirt and slacks, his hair and the rest of him perfect, as usual. He looked at Jenna with narrowed eyes, taking in her disheveled state. Self-consciously, she clutched the top of the robe together with one fist.

“A little late for modesty, isn’t it?” he asked as he walked past her into the hut. “Well, isn’t this…quaint?” he said, his voice edged with disgust.

“Hello, Jenna.”

She looked back to the door, shocked for the second time.

“Niki. What are you—”

“She’s the one who told me where you were,” Elliot said in clipped tones. “And who you’re with.”

She turned back to Niki, sure there was some kind of mistake. She would never—

“You don’t deserve him,” she said, looking at Jenna with a kind of disdain she’d never seen from Niki before. “You always got everything you wanted. Clothes, a nice house to live in, the spoiled little rich girl.”

“I—that’s not true,” she said. Had she been jealous of her all these years?

“Oh, please.” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’ve always been little miss perfect. But abandoning Elliot like that and then running off with another man—you were probably screwing him the whole time, weren’t you?”

The cold, sharp tendrils of betrayal wrapped around Jenna’s voice, making it difficult to speak. All she could do was shake her head and utter a low, “No. That’s not how it was.”

“Right,” Niki said with a huff. “Elliot deserves so much better than you.”

She’d had enough. “Niki, I think Elliot and I need to talk. Alone.”

It was time to lay down the law and let Elliot know that although she was sorry for the way things had ended, it was over between them. There would be no do-over. No wedding.

“Where’s Zach?” Elliot asked.

“Zach…isn’t part of this,” Jenna said. “This is about you and me. And I think we should talk about this privately.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Niki said and flounced over to the sofa, where she sat down as if she owned the place.

“Fine.” She ignored Niki—she’d deal with that whole bag of betrayal later—and approached Elliot.

“Look, Elliot. I know I owe you a better explanation than it just wasn’t right. And I’m sorry for the way things have ended up. I’m sorry about the wedding and all the expense.” She paused, looking up into the face of the man she’d once thought would be her family. The one she’d spend her life with. Now he was almost a stranger, and she wondered if in her desperation to keep something of the life she’d lost, she’d done them both wrong. “I’m sorry, Elliot, that I let things get so far before I realized that we are two people who never should have gotten engaged.”

“Obviously,” he said, and for a split second, she thought she saw a flicker of the kind boy she’d known before his gaze turned hard again. “Sorry doesn’t even begin to cover the humiliation, the huge expense, and the pain you’ve caused. My parents were devastated.”

But not Elliot.

“I hope you’ll forgive me one day…but it’s over between us. And there’s really nothing else to say beyond that. I’m not coming back to you.”

Jenna tried to see the man she’d cared about. That’s how she wanted to remember him. She had ended things badly. And she’d always feel terrible about that.

Niki snorted. “As if. He’s done with you. When we went through your email to get the information on this dump, we found all kinds of interesting things. Like how you spent all your parents’ money.”

“You went through my email?” Suddenly, Zach’s suspicions came into clear focus. Had Elliot really only ever pursued Jenna because he thought she had money?

Before she could confront him on that, or the hacking of her private email, the door opened and Zach appeared holding a tray of food and a large bouquet of tropical flowers. A large yellow envelope was wedged under his arm.

“I’m back. And I’ve got bacon,” he said before looking up to see the room full of people. His face turned from soft and smiling to hard and ready to do violence as soon as he laid eyes on Elliot. He shut the door then crossed the room to set everything on the table before confronting Elliot.

“You’re not a stupid man,” he said with a quiet, deadly voice Jenna had not heard before. “I would have thought Jenna leaving you at the altar then following up with a phone call was enough to let you know this is over.

“Are you okay, Jenna?” he asked without taking his eyes off of Elliot.

“Fine,” she said. “And I can handle this.” The two were staring each other down like two rams about to lock horns.

Elliot ignored Jenna, instead stalking toward Zach, stopping inches from his stiff form.

“I knew you were still bitter about my forcing you out of IDS,” he said to Zach. “And I invited you to the wedding to give you the opportunity to come back to work for me.”

Zach gave a short bark of sarcastic laughter. “Come back to work for you? To the business I built? That’s really big of you. You want me at IDS because you’re in trouble. You need me to do the hard work.”

Zach had been forced out of the company? He hadn’t mentioned that part. Just that they had parted ways.

“You stole Jenna,” Elliot accused.

“He didn’t steal me, Elliot,” she said. “I was—”

Ignoring her, Elliot jabbed a finger in Zach’s direction. “And now you’re trying to steal Tower Media from me.”

When Zach’s jaw hardened, Elliot continued. “At first, I wondered how you even knew that Tower was a critical target. That was top-secret stuff. Nobody knew about that. Nobody knew that they were looking for a new firm.” Elliot turned to her. “Except Jenna.”

Zach crossed his arms over his chest but said nothing.

“So when Niki came to the penthouse and told me that she’d heard from Jenna and that she was here”—he spread out his arms to indicate the hut—“with you…well, it didn’t take a statistical genius to figure out that you had stolen her right off the doorstep of the church and brought her here with the intention of seducing the information you needed about that account right out of her.”

At first, it didn’t click. Tower Media. They had discussed that, she remembered. She’d mentioned it when she was talking to Zach about what a workaholic Elliot had been lately, worried about this account. And Zach had asked a few questions.

Wait. No. Was it possible that there was some truth to Elliot’s claim?

Jenna looked from Elliot to Zach and back again. Both men were looking at her.

“Jenna, you can’t possibly believe him,” Zach said dismissively. “You can’t possibly think that this whole week, everything…it was all just to get some information out of you.”

But it made sense. She’d always thought it was weird that Zach, a confirmed workaholic and busy CEO of his own company, would just drop everything to help a woman he didn’t even know. Fly her out of town on his private plane. Wine her, dine her, and yes, even seduce her. Why else would he do all that unless he wanted something from her?

She’d been so clueless about Elliot wanting her for the inheritance he’d assumed she was sitting on. Obviously, she couldn’t tell the difference between a man who cared about her and a man who only wanted something from her.

“Did you help me because you wanted to get back at Elliot for taking your business away?” Jenna asked. She couldn’t keep the tremor from her voice.

“Jenna, I…” The angry tension in his face turned to something else. Something like guilt. “At first, when I realized who you were, maybe. A little. But I did want to help you. I—”

“Ask him who he’s meeting with on Thursday,” Elliot interjected, a smug tone in his voice.

She turned back to Zach and noticed the yellow envelope next to the flowers. With a raw empty ache in her belly and hoping like hell that she was wrong, that Elliot was wrong, Jenna opened the flap of the envelope and pulled out a freshly printed presentation folder.

Tower Media, it read in gold foil letters.

Elliot was right. Zach had been using her this whole time. First to get back at Elliot for, what, a business partnership gone bad? And then to pump her for information on a client Elliot needed and Zach wanted. Jenna was just the pawn. A stupid, secondary character to the revenge drama that had been playing out between these two men from the beginning. Poor, pathetically desperate Jenna was too dumb to figure it out.

She pushed the folder back into the envelope and set it back on the table.

“Jenna, it’s not like that,” Zach said, but she could hardly hear him now. Blood rushed in her ears, and she thought there was a very good chance she might pass out. She felt humiliated, stupid, and more alone on this earth than ever before. Even more than on the day she’d buried both her parents. Even more than the first night alone in that house after they were gone and she’d accepted that they were never coming back. This betrayal went bone deep, and she felt a little sick, like she’d been punched in the gut.

“Stop,” Jenna said emotionlessly, barely able to even look at him. “Don’t make this worse.”

Zach stalked over to her. “Be reasonable. I care about you, Jenna. I—I love you.”

Elliot laughed. “Wow, nicely played. Pull out the love card.”

“Shut the fuck up,” he said to Elliot. “Jenna. You have to believe me.” His eyes searched her face, and for a split second, she almost believed him. No, she told herself. She’d seen the evidence, and it had all made sense. She’d wanted to believe he cared about her. Wanted to believe that of anyone and everyone. And she’d been wrong. Every time.

Jenna refused to show any of the three who’d stabbed her in the back any sign of weakness. Not Niki, her only family, who’d sold her out to Elliot and was most probably sleeping with him already. Not Elliot, who was willing to fake love and marry her for her money. And certainly not Zach, who’d only wanted information and revenge on his enemy by screwing his girl.

“Get. Out,” Jenna said.

Three pairs of eyes focused on her.

Elliot looked smug, obviously assuming she’d been talking just to Zach.

“All of you. Get. Out.”

No one moved. They were obviously used to the old Jenna. The Jenna who tried to be nice to everyone, even when they didn’t deserve it. The Jenna who was a people pleaser, who never caused a scene…well, except when she’d run out on her own wedding.

“The queen has spoken,” Niki mocked from the couch. She got up and moved to stand beside Elliot. “Just like the spoiled little brat she is.”

Something broke loose inside Jenna. A fury she’d never known before. She’d put up with all the bullshit for long enough.

She cocked her head and looked at her cousin. “I’m sorry, Niki. I really am,” she said. “I’m sorry that you think you were slighted in life. I’m sorry that your parents dragged you through an ugly divorce that turned you into such a bitter person who only sees the worst in everybody and everything that happens to you. I’m sorry that you think I have such a wonderful life while you’ve been cheated out of something. And I’m sorry that the only time you feel better is to hurt someone else.” Jenna realized her voice was rising in volume, but she didn’t care. “But family or not, I am done putting up with your nasty comments, insinuations, and attacks. Done.”

She was on a roll now and couldn’t stop the words if she’d wanted to. It was like decades of holding her tongue in order to keep the peace all let loose at once.

“And you,” Jenna said, turning to Elliot. “I made a mistake. A lot of them. But I didn’t wreck your business. And I’m not responsible for your parents’ unhappiness at our not getting married. Did you ever really care for me? Or was it just the money you thought I had?”

Elliot opened his mouth to reply, but Jenna didn’t want to hear it. “If you’d paid even a little attention to what I was going through and offered a hand or even a shoulder to cry on while I was dealing with the estate, we could have avoided the whole wedding mess completely, because it would have been clear there was no point in marrying me for money I didn’t have. But no. You were wrapped up in your own problems, and I…I didn’t want to bother you.” She took a breath. “If we’d gone through with the wedding, the whole marriage would have been like that. You doing your thing and me not wanting to bother you.”

It was true, she realized. Even if the money had not been a factor, they would have been miserable, and it would have been as much her fault as his.

“I didn’t set out to ruin your business. I didn’t know anything about it.” She stepped closer. “We were friends, Elliot. Long before we were anything more. Our families were friends. And friends don’t use each other the way you used and manipulated me.”

She turned to Zach. The look in his eyes, so full of pain and panic and, yes, anger, too, almost derailed her. “You,” she said, fighting to keep her voice even. “Your betrayal is the worst of all.” She swallowed hard. “You made me believe in myself again. And it was a lie. All of it. From the beginning. Every word.”

Then, even as the Earth tilted on its axis, Jenna walked to the bed on quivering legs, willing herself not to collapse. “I’m going to the main building to shower and change at the spa. I don’t want to see any of you here when I get back or I will call security.”

Then, with as much dignity as she could muster, she grabbed an armful of clean clothes, slipped on her sandals, and left the hut, calmly closing the door behind her. She refused to cry until the shower was running and her tears mixed in with the warm water sluicing over her face and body. She stayed in there, thinking seriously about never coming out. But eventually her fingers began to pucker, and she knew she had to deal with things.

Jenna dressed slowly, practicing what she would say to Zach. Practicing how she’d tell him to get out without betraying that she’d fallen in love with him. Because that, at least, she knew for sure. And it sucked.

Jenna returned to the hut prepared to do battle, but it was empty. Just like she’d asked.