He looked down at his phone and shook his head. God, he knew he was setting himself up for heartbreak. Knew it. Yet he was like a moth hypnotized by the flame.
“She’s not going to be in New York the same days as I am,” he told his phone.
Jax so badly wanted to fool himself into believing that was the reason he was going to text her.
“Great,” he muttered to the phone. “My subconscious has already decided I’m going to do it. ”
His phone didn’t comment. Just stared back at him sending telepathic Text Lexi, Text Lexi vibes.
He shut off the engine and rolled down the window, letting the cool Los Angeles pollution roll in.
“Okay,” he told his phone. “It’ll be an easy way for her to brush me off, and I can stop thinking about her, right?”
He really was going out of his mind.
“Or it could open the door in case she’s been feeling the same way I have. ”
Chances were not good. He’d never met a woman who had that kind of self-control. If they wanted a guy, they found a way to get the guy. Which usually included subterfuge, lies, betrayal…stealing six-figure contracts.
“Fuck me. ”
That was just what he was doing by starting this. He was asking to get fucked again. Maybe he was more like Veronica than he was like Lexi after all, because he certainly wasn’t learning from his mistakes.
He jerked out his work phone again, checked his calendar, and called Russ back. After finagling with him for ten minutes and promising the man another five days of his life, Jax hung up and tapped into his messages.
Then created a new one to Lexi.
Seventeen
Lexi closed the lid of her computer and wandered to the other side of the loft and her bed, pulling off her shirt as she walked. She was exhausted. The mental stress was killing her. The crazy hours were draining her. Instead of feeling invigorated by her business as she had for so many years, she felt sucked dry. Like it aged her a year every month.
This wasn’t what she wanted. But she also knew she had to go through the rough spots to get to the good stuff. And she hadn’t decided whether this partnership with Galliano was one of the rough spots or a black hole. She’d fallen into some of those along the way too.
Already in bare feet, she tugged off her jeans, untangled her hair from the ponytail holder, and rummaged through her drawer for Jax’s T-shirt. She’d brought it home from New York and had been sleeping in it ever since.
Her phone vibrated against her desk, signaling a text message.
Lexi glanced toward it and sighed. Rubi, sending her some follow-up inspirational note or shooting her an idea, she was sure. Rubi was such a good friend. Lexi was lucky to have her.
She dragged her sorry self to the desk, picked up the phone, and returned to her bed, where she fell into it with a groan. She lifted the phone to read her message.
A hot burst of shock slammed her stomach. Lexi gasped and sat up, holding the phone with both hands, scanning the message again and again, trying to convince herself she was mistaken.
But she wasn’t. The message was from Jax.
Jax.
“Oh shit,” she murmured.
JAX: Hey, Lexi. Hope I’m not bothering you. I’ll be heading to New York next week. Would love to see you if you happened to be in town.
“Oh my God. ”
She put a hand to her chest, bit her lip, and scraped it between her teeth. Her heart beat hard and erratic. She couldn’t believe it. Jesus, she couldn’t freaking breathe.
Okay, this was fate. Just like he’d said in New York. It had to be.
She hit REPLY. The message box opened, and the cursor blinked inside.