Chapter 28

At some point after their outdoor endeavors, the pair made it back inside the safety and warmth of Nik's home and up to the bedroom. Jane fell fast asleep as soon as her body met the comfort of the bed. She had a busy day. Lots of excitement and adventure can really take it out of a girl. Nik doesn't have the same luck with sleep.

Nik tosses and turns in bed, trying to find the perfect position to fall asleep but eventually gives up and just lays there, staring at the ceiling. He is exhausted, but how can you sleep while the guilt of a terrible secret eats away at you. Was it wrong for him to have sex with her knowing that they are going to have to say goodbye soon? How on earth is he going to tell this woman, that he finds himself falling for more and more every moment, that she isn't safe with him, that they can't be together anymore. Does he even have the heart to turn her away? Fuck this is stressful.

The minutes tick by painfully slowly, only increasing his guilt and anxiety. Who the fuck hates him so much that they want to ruin his life and the life of someone completely innocent from whatever shit Nik must've done to royally piss that person off? Nik typically keeps to himself so he was never close enough to hurt anyone enough to warrant this type of blackmail. He doesn't even have any friends. It's always just been him and his assistant, who he should probably pay more with all the shit they have to deal with.

A few hours of restless agony shuffle by. Bright white rays of California sunlight beam across the floor of his bedroom. Seeing that the day is starting, he groans and gets out of bed. He isn't going to lay here and sulk any longer. He needs to figure out what to do and what to say to Jane before she wakes up.

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The chirping of birds and the mechanical whirring of the sprinklers outside wake the other sleeping member of the household. Jane sits up, stretches, reaching her arms high to the sky, and yawns. That was some of the best sleep she has had in years. She didn't realize just how much she needed this vacation until right now.

She reaches beside her, searching for her lover, only to be met with cold empty sheets. She frowns and shimmies out of bed to go find him, not concerned with her bedhead or lack of clothing. She just wants to find him. She feels this need gnawing at her insides to be around him right now. She doesn't push it away or ignore it because she knows she wants to be around him anyway.

She heads downstairs first to look for him. She checks the living room, kitchen, and even peeps out the backdoors to see if he is by the pool. Unfortunately, he isn't in any of those places. She wraps her arms around herself and trudges back up the stairs to check the library, the only other room in the house that she remembers from the tour at the beginning of the week.

The heavy wooden door groans as she slowly pushes it open. It's too fucking heavy, and she is way too tired to be doing all this manual labor so early in the day, so she settles for only opening it halfway and peeking her head around the side of the door. She spots Nik sitting on the sofa with his head in his hands. I guess the loud door didn't break him from whatever thoughts are in his mind at the moment. Must be serious. She shuffles across the room and gently sits on the couch beside him, waiting for him to greet her. When he doesn't immediately notice her presence, she lightly taps him on the shoulder.

"Oh, Jane. You're up." Finally realizing that she is here, he looks up and gives a sheepish grin.

"What's wrong? You look stressed. Is there anything I can do to help?" Jane offers, examining his face for an answer but finding none.

He sighs and returns back to his previous hunched over, head in hands, position. "I'm fine. Something just came up and it concerns you and I've been racking my brain all day to think of a way to talk about this with you without freaking you out too much."

"I'm sure I'll be fine. It can't be that big of a deal. I'm a big kid," Jane wonders what could be causing his anguish, what could be so important that he doesn't know how to approach the topic? She can't think of anything that would be able to shake him up. He is the rich, calm, and collected half greek god who typically is the one causing the stress.

"I've been getting strange messages the past few days from some unknown number. Initially, I ignored them because I thought it was a prank or that the person was bluffing about having the means to fuck my life up, but last night some things were mentioned that made me nervous."

Not wanting Jane to look at him for the next part, he scoops the naked woman up off the couch from her previous position and sets her on his lap. He hides his face in the nape of her neck and takes some breaths while he formulates his next few phrases. Jane remains silent, not wanting to interrupt whatever is going on inside his head.

"They said that they were going to hurt you to get to me. I have no clue how anyone even knows about whatever this relationship is. We've been semi-careful to ensure that no one at work noticed us that one day and for all anyone else knows, we met outside of our professional field which is true, we did. But the fact that you are technically one of my employees makes this all a bit touchy." He sighs after spilling all of his worries from the past however many hours.

"Well, I mean, what do they even have on me? It can't be that bad right?"

"I don't know. They have a photo of us at my grandparents' restaurant and insinuated that they had other, more incriminating photos of us together. Like, explicit photos."

"Oh," Jane whispers, her heart rate speeding up and her palms getting sweaty. The possibility that her nudes might be leaked to the whole world is mortifying. She struggles with her own thoughts on her body enough, potentially having millions of strangers seeing her and criticizing her would destroy whatever truce she has made with herself and her image throughout the years.

"Yeah and I don't want you to get hurt. They are trying to use you to force my hand regarding business matters and I don't know what to do. The only thing that seems safe is to just let you go. To forget each other, lose each other's phone numbers, and just end what we have here before your career is ruined and before Pharmcorp loses investors and credibility. I don't know what else we can do. I don't want to throw you under the bus to save the company, but I can't let the company fail. There are so many people who rely on our cost-effective pharmaceuticals and so many jobs on the line." All these thoughts come gushing past his lips, faster than the speed that any normal conversation would be at. She can feel his shoulders slump and his hands clench into fists.

When his words finally hit her, finally reach her, she feels dampness on her cheeks. She raises her hand and feels the trails of tears that are flowing. She has cried before and she has been hurt and abused, but something about not getting to see Nik, not being able to spend time with him, and goof around, it kills her.

She knows that it's abnormal to feel this strongly towards someone you've known for maybe a week or so, but this whole week has been so magical. Their connection at that bar was instant. They just click together. Sure the sex is fantastic, but sex is sex. Spending time with someone and just exploring and experiencing new things together has been a dream. A dream that she isn't ready to end.

"Jane, please say something. I need to know how you feel. What do you want to do? It's your decision ultimately because although my reputation is involved, you would be the most affected by the situation."

"I-I don't want to go. I can't go. Not talking to you, not seeing you would kill me." The tears blur her vision and she tries to choke back her sobs to respond clearly but it's so hard.

"Hey, hey," Nik turns her so she is facing him now. He wipes away her tears with the pads of his thumbs. Hearing her feelings stirs something in him. Seeing her so upset and broken because of something that's his fault breaks his heart. "You aren't going anywhere if you don't want to. It's okay to feel sad and scared and hurt. This is a lot. I'm not going to force you to pack your bags and walk out of my life forever. I just wanted to let you know that you have that option. If anything becomes too much for you, that door will always be open for you, okay?"

"I don't even want that damn door to exist." This time she is the one hiding her face in his neck.

"Okay, okay. So no door. But what do we do? I can't keep you here because I don't know if they have access to this space. I could send you to a hotel for a few weeks while I try to figure out who this person is. Would you be okay with that?"

"No. I don't want to be away from you and you aren't going to spend money on some fancy hotel room just to keep me safe."

'What a stubborn woman,' Nik thinks to himself. "Okay, no hotel room. The only other place I can think of would be to ask my grandparents' to let you stay with them. I don't think I would be able to stay with you because, in order to keep you safe, I need to distance myself. It will also make it harder for the blackmailer to get more dirt on us." Jane nods into his shoulder. If they can't be together, she will settle for being with his family and learning about him through their stories. She likes the old couple and it's the closest she will have to being with Nik for the time being.

"Okay."

"Okay?" Nik questions, preparing himself for whatever fight lay ahead.

"Okay." Jane finalizes her response. There's no turning back now.