Chapter 3

Chapter

Three

Jagger was a confused mess inside.He kept trying not to react to Belinda screaming at him. Her punch had been decent, but he'd been hit so many times it wasn't even a bee sting to him.

Bee sting. His Bee. She stings like a bee, but her honey is so sweet. How many times had he said that line to her when she was peeved at him or feisty about something and she'd immediately diffuse and given him lots of sugared honey kisses?

He couldn't go there or he'd storm into the plane, shove Shawn away, and kiss her and kiss her. They had a lot of lost time to make up for. He gritted his teeth and thought through what she'd said in the midst of her angry diatribe.

Why did he ‘ditch' her? Something about how could he live with himself after breaking her heart? What was she talking about? She had everything flipped upside down.

He wanted to demand answers, but he was afraid to get too close. She was glorious, a small firecracker. The way she had expressed herself was hilarious, despite the anger. Dang, he wanted to hold her and kiss her until she stopped being angry at him. That used to always work.

Shawn and Bee exited the plane. She hung back and looked at everything but him while Shawn angled straight for him.

"Jag." Shawn gave him a look he'd never seen from his friend—calculated and perceptive, like he knew a secret about Jagger that no one knew. Shawn would be the last person to spill any secrets, so that was comforting, but what had Bee said to him?

His heart thumped far too quickly. Did she want to give them another chance? Maybe she wasn't with Mike. Was she single? Was there any chance she was single and interested in Jagger?

Jagger had sworn not to contact her, but she'd come to him here in this paradise turned purgatory. Pastor Ralphs couldn't claim Jagger had anything to do with this. He wasn't one to acknowledge God's hand in anything, but everybody around him did. Wouldn't that be ironic if, somewhere in his peace treaty with heaven, they negotiated a clause where Belinda was miraculously brought back to him? Pastor Ralphs would certainly protest and lobby against that.

Tilting his head to the side, Shawn walked away from the group and Jagger kept pace with him. He was a jumbled mess. He glanced back, hoping to see if she had a ring on, but his gaze was drawn straight to her enchanting blue eyes. For a moment, she was staring at him like he might have a chance, but then she turned away and spoke to Paul.

Jagger was on a vicious roller coaster ride with no safety harness. No matter how strong he was, he couldn't hold on. Nobody on earth could keep from being thrown from this dipping, racing, out-of-control rickety car with no hope of survival.

When they were a fair distance away, Shawn pivoted to face him. "I think she loves you."

"Pardon me?" Jagger shoved his clenched fist against his heart, but it didn't slow its frantic pace.

Shawn smiled. He didn't smile often. "That's not what she said, but her eyes …" He lost his smile and got serious. "This is a mess. Every show has been a mess for one reason or another. Jules and I are concerned Mercedes's dad is … You know how much Franz loves her, and his money-grubbing cousins are hoping to bully him into them being his heirs. It's a nightmare." He shook his head and waved that away.

Jagger was confused. He understood Franz's deep love for Mercedes and desperation to not be alone in the world. What did that and his billion-dollar inheritance have to do with the shows being a mess?

"This one is a real nightmare from the first moment. I'd blame Mercedes and Julie, but you know that's not how I operate." Shawn rubbed at his jaw.

Shawn wasn't one to place blame or use a scapegoat. Jagger appreciated that about his friend. Shawn was loyal to those in his circle, and though he had an even sadder past than Jagger did, he didn't complain or place blame. He simply went forward, appearing like a jerk with his serious nature and how fiercely protective he was of his small friend group—especially Mercedes and Julie. It made sense that his loyalty to the ladies would have him blindside Jagger with Bee's unexpected appearance.

"I won't blame Mercedes or Julie," Jagger said.

He'd calmed down enough to not feel betrayed by his friends. They'd pulled a fast one on him, but if there was any possibility that Bee still loved him, if they had a shot at a second chance, he'd praise their names. Could it be possible that she'd thought she loved Mike, but over the years she'd longed for Jagger?

"Is Bee married?" he demanded of Shawn.

"I wouldn't think so. Mercedes and Julie are proud of their matchmaking skills." He smirked. "They wouldn't choose a participant for the show who was already married."

That was great news, but …

"Wait." Jagger tasted bile. "Mercedes and Julie want to match Bee with Lieutenant Braven?" He couldn't sit back and watch that. Seeing her laugh with and hug and kiss Mike had destroyed him. Fourteen years and he still couldn't force those memories from his mind's eye.

"How should I know what those two think?" Shawn's brow furrowed. "If I could figure out the mind of those two women…" He shook his head. "But I don't think so. I'm pretty sure Mercedes and Julie are praying for you to find love."

Jagger couldn't respond. He wanted to beg Mercedes, Julie, Shawn, anyone who could help him have his Bee and her love in his life again, but he couldn't be that transparent.

He looked at the pain that could be in his future and had to admit, just to himself, that he was terrified. He'd rather go through BUDs training again, without his current skill set and experiences, than open up to the agony of losing Bee fourteen years ago.

But he was Captain Jagger Lemuel. He had faced situations that the strongest men cowered to and led his men right through the door. He had to face his fears and storm through this one with guns blazing.

Shawn studied him as he pondered. His friend's blue eyes were much too perceptive, but he moved on. "Miss Ralphs said she'd do the show if we cut the footage of her initial outburst and if you agree to pretend the two of you don't know each other for the camera."

"Oh." He hadn't seen that coming. Pretend they didn't know each other? Was that possible for either of them with her spice and his determination to get some answers? "What about when the camera isn't rolling?"

Shawn shrugged. "I don't know if you want to find out. She said if you find her alone, in a spot where the camera isn't rolling, the outburst she had earlier will seem like nothing."

Jagger chuckled at that. It was so Bee. He'd take any verbal lashing from her, any punch, if they could somehow erase her cheating on him, loving Mike and not him, being happy with Mike and not him, Jagger making her cry...

He shook all of that away.

"Can you agree to that?" Shawn asked.

"Will we spend the whole week with her and Paul during the show?" he asked.

"Only at night. You'll be chasing them and … you remember the laser tag type episode they did for Axel Dexter's reality show?"

He nodded. At night? Were they all staying in Mercedes' huge house together?

He thought about Axel Dexter's reality show, he thought they'd called that episode "Romancing the Island." Ironically, Stuart Falslev and Wes Hunsaker, who'd trained Aiden and Chalisa in Magna a couple of weeks ago, had been the two men chasing the participants around the island of Puerto Rico.

Things could change a lot in a couple of years. Stuart and Wes were both happily married to princesses and living on Magna.

The only ‘princess' Jagger would ever want was his Bee, and she was angry at him, claiming he'd ditched her when he'd done no such thing. And he couldn't even pin her down and talk to her about it. Unless he could get her alone without the cameras. Would the stinger come out then?

"So. You'll pretend you don't know her," Shawn stated as if it were settled.

"Around the cameras," Jagger conceded.

He had claimed to Nick Jacobs last week that he'd do anything for Shawn and Mercedes, even play the villain and fight to stop a charitable woman from winning a million dollars, but this might be too much.

Being around his lost love, chasing her down and shooting her with a laser tag gun, but pretending he didn't know her, not getting any answers to the gnawing questions of why she'd ditched their love when she somehow thought he'd ditched her, not being able to hold and kiss her and feel that desire and fire that he'd never found with any other woman. Not that he'd ever really tried. He'd gone on scattered dates throughout the years and had kissed a few women, but none of them had ever been in the realm of the kisses he'd shared with Bee. Was it just young love and he needed to let it go?

"Great. Thanks." Shawn clapped him on the shoulder and then turned and walked back to the group.

Jagger followed more slowly. He focused on Bee. He shouldn't have. She was everything he'd ever longed for—spicy, fun-loving, adventurous, intriguing, enticing. He'd never been able to run from her memory and alternately cussed her dad for the promise he'd extracted from him and making him watch Bee kiss Mike before knocking him out, and cussed himself for being a stupid eighteen-year-old punk who'd agreed and honored that promise.

He'd always forced himself to let it go. It was his past.

But now his past was right here. For a week. And he had to pretend he didn't know her in front of the cameras?

She stuck out her tongue at him and then focused on Shawn doing the intro spiel. Jagger smiled. He loved her sass, and he'd missed her. Horribly.

He would find a way to get her away from the cameras. He would get some answers, take any hits or stings she wanted to give him, and he would kiss her for a very long time. Fight through this pain like he would any other battle.

Jagger smiled to himself. He liked this plan. For the first time in fourteen long years, he didn't have to fight with himself to not contact her like he'd promised her father. She was right here. Finally, he'd know why she cheated on him, what she'd done to keep herself busy and mature into an even more appealing beauty over the past fourteen years, and if they had any hope for the future they had once planned and dreamed about.

He doubted it. His heart was scarred from years of battles and learning to fight, steeling himself emotionally, not trusting in heaven or most men—Hays, Shawn, and his SEAL unit being the exceptions—and being cold and hard.

The only woman who could melt him was feet away, and she wanted him to pretend they didn't know each other.