Ink Enduring (Montgomery Ink #5)(27)

Maya took his hand and slid her thumb over his red knuckles. “What else did he say?”

“That I wanted him still,” Jake said softly. “That he wants me.” He paused. “That I want you.”

Maya’s gaze shot up, and she stopped breathing. “What?”

Jake’s heart raced, and he looked down at the woman who had been by his side for as long as he could remember. She was the one who filled him with hope, laughter, and the pain he had when he couldn’t have her.

She was everything.

And maybe Border was, too.

Instead of thinking about what that could mean. He used his free hand to cup her face and lowered his lips to hers. She gasped into his mouth, and he pressed harder, needing her taste, needing her. This was what he’d been missing, what he’d needed in his life. Years of being her friend, of wanting nothing more than that because she made him happy and he made her feel the same was worth it washed away. The hunger from that night in the bar roared back, hitting him right in the gut. He wanted her. Needed her, and would do anything to keep her.

It felt right.

It was right.

Maya let him kiss her for a few moments before pulling back.

The punch to the jaw shouldn’t have surprised him, but it did.

“What the hell, Jake?” Maya yelled. “You can’t just kiss me like that. You can’t just change things like that.” She took two steps back and raised her chin. “We’re friends. Or did you forget that?”

“I didn’t forget anything, Maya. How could I? But we both want this to change.”

Maya snorted. “Oh, so you’re reading my mind now? Tell me what I’m thinking about now.” She glared. and Jake shook his head.

“You want to hit me again.”

Maya sneered. “Lucky guess.”

Jake tried to get his breathing under control. It wasn’t easy when her lips were all swollen and wet from his kiss and her eyes held that heat he had seen the first night he’d met her.

“We want things to change, Maya. I do. I know you do, too.”

“Stop telling me what I want.” Maya closed her eyes and inhaled through her nose.

“Then tell me what you’re thinking?”

She opened her eyes again, and he couldn’t read the emotion there. “I’m thinking that things are moving too fast and yet not fast enough. You were just with Holly, Jake. Yeah, it’s been a couple of weeks, but that’s not a long time in the grand scheme of things. I know she mentioned me when you two broke up, and I don’t want that to be the reason you’re doing this. I don’t want Border’s words to you to be the reason for this.” Maya paused. “I’m worth more than having other people be the reason someone wants me. It took me a long time to realize that. But I’m worth more.”

Jake shook his head and took a step toward her. When she didn’t move back, he took it as a good sign. “I’ve been thinking about you for longer than that.”

When she looked doubtful, he continued.

“I’m serious,” he said softly. “I’m not proud to admit that I didn’t love Holly. I thought I did, or I thought I could, but I didn’t. I thought she was who I needed to be with in order to move on to the next phase of my life because I couldn’t have who I wanted.” He shook his head. “And that makes me an *.”

“It kind of does,” Maya murmured, and Jake snorted. Leave it to Maya to be completely honest about that in a time like this. “You’re saying you wanted me before this?”

Jake nodded. It was all or nothing. Because if he hid who he was, what he wanted, he’d mess everything up. This was Maya, his Maya. He couldn’t afford to be scared and lose her because he couldn’t voice what he felt, or what he’d felt in the past.

“I did,” he said. “I wanted you when I came to Montgomery Ink for the first time and you were with that guy.”

Maya winced. “I knew that, but it was too late then.”

“Is it too late now?” Jake asked, his heart in his throat.

“I don’t know, Jake. We can’t just rush into a change like this.”

“Are we really changing things? Or are we just opening our eyes?” He reached out and touched her cheek. When she didn’t pull away, Jake took that as a win.

She didn’t answer him, and he wasn’t sure she could at the moment.

“We’re still friends, Maya. No matter what happens, we’re friends. We have to be.”

Maya met his gaze, indecision in her eyes. “What about Border? What about the past? Because it’s not just you and me in this. There’s another person who isn’t Holly. I don’t want to stand in the way of you two, but…I don’t know, Jake.”

“I don’t know about Border either. I loved him once, Maya. He’s back, and I don’t know what he wants.” He closed his eyes a moment before studying her face. “I don’t understand how things could be happening all at once. I should have stepped up to you before this, but it never felt like the right time. But now he’s back, and I don’t know what to do. Or maybe, I do, and it scares me because I want you, Maya. I want you in my life, and I don’t know how to keep that and not hurt everyone in the process.”

Maya took a deep breath and seemed to come to a decision. “Then have him, too. Be with him…and maybe be with me, too.”