As soon as the words exited my mouth, I started to regret it. Asking her not to hurt me only made me feel even vulnerable and admitting vulnerability wasn't something that I did often. For one thing, it scared me to death to let her know how much leverage she had against me. It also took away from my cold and ruthless exterior.
She turned on her side and pressed her warm body against my back, holding me tightly. "I would never deliberately hurt you. Don't you trust me Jared?" She whispered and I could feel her lips against my back. "Can you please turn around?"
Turning, I was face to face with her. She looked me in the eye as she spoke. "I can't believe you would-" I slid my hand around the back of her neck, pulling her closer and silencing her words. The kiss was soft and comforting in ways that my words would never be. My hand caressed her cheek and as I pulled back to look at her again and she smiled. Her hands moved slowly down my back, pulling me closer until there was no space left between us and I could feel her heart beating against my skin. "It's been a long time since I've experienced feelings like these and I just want to protect my heart.. that's all."
We lay there in silence for the longest time until she ultimately pushed herself back to look at me. "I've been there too, and I know what it feels like to have your heart ripped out and then crushed. I would never do that to you."
I concentrated on her lips as she spoke and thought to myself how unprepared I was for this. I thought about it in the car on the way over, but this was so far off from what I had imagined would actually happen. Not that I was disappointed or anything, in fact, I was glad it happened this way. "I know."
She sat up and stretched her arms over her head. "Want to go get some food? I'm kind of hungry and don't want to eat too late."
I smiled, and sat up staring at the butterfly tattoo on the back of her shoulder, remembering the day I dared her to get it. Even though I could see the concern in her eyes, she didn't back down from that dare. She glared at me defiantly while having her skin permanently marked with whatever design I had chosen for her. It could've been something truly awful and she would have had to live with it. She was the first woman in a long time to actually challenge me and not fall all over herself trying to impress me. Her fingers snapping in front of my face pulled me from the memory. "Jared I asked if you wanted to go and get some food."
"I'm sorry." I pulled her against me and backed us into the bathroom. "Let's save some time and shower together."
Two hours later we were sitting in my favorite restaurant, making plans to spend as much time as possible together this week. I knew that between both of our schedules time would be really limited, but I didn't care.
Once back at the hotel, she told me that she was going to see if Luke needed anything and I went back up to my room to wait for her. I decided to text Shannon and was busy talking to him for a while, but when Jen still hadn't come back an hour later, I called her phone. I was sent to voicemail and decided to go back through my messages to find out her room number.
I pulled on my jacket and walked down the hall toward the elevators. Pressing the button, I stood there wondering if Luke had given her something to do that took longer than expected. I stepped inside and slammed my thumb on the number six. The doors closed and when they opened on at her floor, I walked down the hallway to her door.
I wasn't expecting to find Luke in his pajamas answering the door. Jen was crying hysterically in the background. Pushing past him, I stepped inside and she instantly ran into my arms. Her face was all red and her eyes were already swollen from crying, but still the tears continued to pour. "What's wrong?" I asked, looking from her to Luke.
She was crying so hard, she couldn't respond. I watched her dart across the room to her ringing phone. Luke leaned in to speak quietly to me. "It's her father, he's had a heart attack. I got her on the first flight out and was about to go looking for you. Jared, I really can't leave. I've got filming in the morning, but I believe someone should be with her." This
