Something Wicked This Way Comes, Volume 2

The moment Tyrone had called him aside and told him what had happened, Jake had furiously thrown everyone but his buddy out of his apartment. He’d asked Tyrone to repeat the story again to make sure he hadn’t missed anything.

“She was crying when you found her?” Jake asked.

“Yeah, man,” Tyrone confirmed. “I ain’t exactly known for having much of a heart, but whatever piece I got left broke for that girl.”

Just as Jake’s was breaking now. He had assumed Robyn would head straight home, but she hadn’t. If anything bad happened to her, he’d never forgive himself.

Goddamn it! He should have known better than to bring a wonderful lady like Robyn into a den of vicious she-wolves. And all for some dumbass party he should have thrown months ago to get it over with.

Still scouring the streets, Jake felt his cell phone vibrate in his jeans pocket. He stopped dead in his tracks and fished it out, praying it was Robyn.

No. But it was from Nicky. A text message.

Robby’s home safe and sound but she won’t talk to nobody. She took a bath, our Ma fed her some soup and put her to bed. Thought you’d wanna know. Nicky

Jake sighed as relief flooded through him. He typed back a reply as fast as his big fingers would let him.

Thank God. Be there in 10. Let me in. Jake

She wasn’t talking, but she was safe. That was a start. “Taxi!”

Chapter Six

Unable to sleep, Robyn pulled on her favorite warm and fuzzy red bathrobe with matching slippers and padded into the kitchen. There was a bottle of Chianti that Uncle Vito had somehow missed and she was pretty sure that bottle had her name written all over it. As she unscrewed the cork, a devastating reality hit her in the chest harder than a wall of bricks.

Life with Jake could never work out.

For all they shared in common, the worlds they inhabited were far too different to reconcile. Now that Robyn understood the rules in his realm, she knew she couldn’t be a part of it. With the exception of Tyrone, she’d feel constantly under scrutiny by the others…and always coming up short. That was no way for a woman to live. It would suck the life and self-esteem right out of her.

She plopped down at the kitchen table and drank a swig of Chianti straight from the bottle.

For the past month there had been one burning question in the back of her mind and now the answer smacked her in the face. Why, Robyn had wondered a dozen times, had Jake never tried to make love to her? She grimaced, mortified by the idea that while he enjoyed her company, her body might be repulsive to him.

She closed her eyes and sighed. Tonight she would allow herself to feel like a broken-down Humpty Dumpty, but tomorrow she would put herself back together again. She didn’t need all the king’s horses and all the king’s men for that—Robyn DiMarco was a strong, proud, beautiful, Italian-American woman who could handle the job all by herself.

Robyn raised the bottle of Chianti back to her lips. A knock on her front door startled her, almost making her chip a tooth. She cursed under her breath as she placed the bottle on the table and stood.

Her family was aware she wanted this night alone and for all they knew, she was already sound asleep. She should have been aggravated, but Robyn realized they were simply worried about her. Resigned to the inevitable “talk”, she decided now was as good a time as any to get it over with.

“Ma,” Robyn said, opening her front door, “you and Pop can come on in and—”

Robyn stilled. Her pulse skyrocketed. She hadn’t expected to see him. Not this soon, anyway. He hadn’t even buzzed her intercom to ask to be let into the building. How had he gotten inside?

“Jake,” Robyn breathed out, her gaze raking over him. He was even more soaking wet than she’d been when she’d first arrived home, which was saying a lot. “What are you doing here?”

Jake drank in the sight of her, a dozen different emotions waging war inside him. She looked so fucking cute in her fuzzy red bathrobe and slippers—they matched the color of the polish on her finger- and toenails—but now wasn’t the time for that.

“Don’t ever leave me like that again,” Jake said hoarsely, stepping in uninvited and closing the door behind him. He locked it just to make certain they weren’t interrupted. “I was worried sick! Do you have any idea what you put me through? Or your family, for that matter?”

Her lips worked up and down, but no words came out. She took a giant step backward, away from him.

“Tyrone told me everything,” Jake continued. “I am sorrier than words can say that what happened to you actually happened, but you scared the shit out of me! Don’t ever do—”

“Jake,” Robyn softly interrupted. She held up a palm. “This isn’t going to work out.”

Jake stilled. His dark eyes widened. Her words shook him to the core.

Jesus, don’t leave me now. It took me my entire life to find you.

“I don’t accept that,” Jake ground out. “How can you just give up on us that easily?” He raised a fist and pounded it into his other palm. “I won’t fucking let you!”

Her green eyes, usually so sparkly, looked dim. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, “but your world is too different from mine.”

“That’s not my world, and it never was. I might have tried to convince myself otherwise for several years, but it never felt right. You feel right. We feel right. For fuck’s sake, Mulberry Street feels right!”

Robyn bit down on her lower lip. He didn’t know if that was a good sign or a bad one.

“I love you,” Jake said wearily. “I’m in love with you. I want to marry you and get you pregnant like yesterday. I won’t let you walk away, baby.” His voice sounded hoarse even to him. “I need you too fucking much.”

Robyn’s beautiful eyes teared up. He really wished he was better at reading women because, again, he didn’t know if that was a good sign or a death sentence. Either way, he didn’t like her crying. It tore at his heart.

“Why, then, have you never tried to make love to me?” Robyn quietly asked.

“I didn’t want to scare you off! I was waiting and praying like hell you’d make the first—”

Jake’s eyes narrowed in dawning comprehension. “Is that what this is about? You think I’m not physically attracted to you?”

She nodded.

Jake shook his head to clear it. He ran a hand through his dark hair that Robyn hadn’t wanted him to cut off.

“You want the truth?” Jake murmured. “The whole truth?”

Robyn’s entire body seemed to tense. “Nothing but.”

“Okay, you asked for it.” Jake’s eyes narrowed further. “The truth is that the moment I saw you, my dick got so hard it was painful. That was the pain that got lost in translation, not my damn knee.”

Robyn’s eyes widened.

“The truth is I was muttering to myself in the bistro that day because I was trying to talk my erection down so I could approach you and ask you out.”

Could her eyes get any wider? Jake took a step toward her.

“The truth is I have had to masturbate three times a day—every fucking day—since the moment I laid eyes on you to keep from throwing myself on top of you like a damn animal.”

She visibly gulped. He took another step toward her, completely closing the distance between them.

“The truth is…you are the sexiest woman I have ever seen in my entire goddamn life, and there’s not a supermodel alive who can hold a fucking candle to you.”

Robyn searched his face, as if looking for clues that he was telling the truth.