Rise of the lowly janitor

Insecure

*Jake POV*

Two weeks later, I wake up to find my hot mess looking at me. She has been really irrational and insecure since I arrested George.

“Morning, Beautiful.”

She does not respond to my greeting but gets straight to what I can only conclude has been on her mind the whole time I was sleeping.

“Do you still love her? Do you want her back?”

I look at her with a confused expression wondering how she reached that conclusion.

“She was involved yet you only arrested George,” she adds.

I can’t help but laugh at her accusations. George and his crew used Leticia’s key to enter the racetrack twice before the attack on the president. The idiots planned the whole thing there. They always stood where they thought there were no cameras but they were so wrong. They did not count on the mirror in my basement room reflecting everything to the camera across them.

“That’s because she is innocent on this one,”I explain this to Tanya for the third time.

As much as I wanted her guilty, we established that Leticia was not aware of her key being used. Even George says so himself in one of the footages. She did lose her job at the club but we could not find any grounds to arrest her.

“Or you wanted George out so you could…”

I pull her into my arms and squeeze her buttocks before pressing her against my crotch. “So I could do what?”

I can’t hide the desire in my voice. I was trying to shut her up but having her bootylicious body against me like this wakes up my beast.

“Jake!” she cries when I turn over, pinning her underneath my body.

Pinning her arms above her head and strangling her legs, I nibble on her ear before pressing my full length into her.

“I am so over that woman but you clearly don’t believe me so I will let my spear do the talking.”

She gasps and wraps her legs around my waist and I know that I have won, for now. An hour later, she is wrapped around me, exhausted. Now I can speak some sense into her.

“Do you know how beautiful you are?” I ask. I really don’t get how she sees Leticia as a threat.

“Mmh.”

“Tanya!”

I can’t believe this! She wanted to talk but now she won’t even open her eyes to look at me.

“I am exhausted, Jake. s*x is a workout for those not in ARF, you know.” She yawns and mumbles.

I can only shake my head, plant a kiss on her forehead and let her sleep on my chest.

An hour later, she finds me in the kitchen making brunch and is ready to start where she left off.

“It has nothing with how beautiful I am. I was always more beautiful when you chose her the first time.”

“Seriously? Woman, I already told you that I never chose anyone over you. I had no idea that you were into me.”

“I don’t believe you. I fell right into your arms the first time we met. I spent so much time with you and all you spoke about was her!”

I do my best to maintain a straight face. I am learning very fast that women can be impossible and worse if they think you are not taking them serious.

“Babe, we spoke about this. You were way out of my league…”

“Because I’m a gold digger. I thought you….” she interjects and I know where this is going.

The social media trolls have been on her case about the type of men she dated and have been using that to prove that I could not possibly be a nobody. I don’t even have a social media account nor do I care what people say about me, but she does. I know everything that is being said because she religiously reads shows it to me.

I place my finger on her lips. “Shhhh. None of it was about you. It was about how I saw myself. I was a janitor staying in the basement of a racing club.”

“I didn’t care about that, Jake.”

Her shacky voice pulls all my heart strings.

“I know, Babe, and I am sorry.”

“Are you?”

“Babe.”

I seriously can’t believe that we are even talking about this, but she seems very serious and hurt.

“Can you honestly say you did not notice how I was always around you?”

I let out a sigh. She did come by the racetrack a lot but I thought she was there to support her sister. Now that I think about it, she would remain behind and chat with me even when Mia left. It’s one of the things we fought about with Leticia. I guess I did have a bias towards how I viewed her and I can’t be certain that it was not about her history. There is no way in hell I am admitting this though.

I wrap my arms around her waist and look straight into her sexy eyes instead.

“You have been with men who used you and did not appreciate your worth. Babe, you are a diamond I did not and still don’t think I deserve. I wondered what was so special about me every time you sat and spoke to me.”

“Jake,” her soft voice tells me that I am winning this battle, but also shows me what has been staring me in the face all along. Her past really crushed her self esteem regardless of what the world sees when they look at her.

“There is no scenario where I would chose another woman over you, ever,” I continue while she buries her face on my chest and breaks down.

A part of me feels guilty as I pat her back. She has really stood by me all along. She is part of the reasons I did not sink when George and Leticia tried to destroy me, yet I have been so focused in discovering myself and paid less attention to what she needs.

“You are not defined by what faceless people out there say about you, Tanya. Nor the assholes who used you. You are my woman, my anchor and there is no lifetime I would not treasure you.”

I mean every word of it. Even when George tried to trample on me and crush my self esteem, her friendship was a reminder that I mattered and that not everyone successful saw me as a failure.

“I love you, Jake. I did from the first time we met. You don’t have to say it bac..”

“I love you too. Well, I fell in love with your Mom when I was ten years old and completely star struck the first time we met.”

She playfully hits my chest. “Shut up.”

“I love you too, Tanya Drew, soon to be Miss Universe.”

I think this is the first time I am actually confessing my feelings and it feels just right.

She smiles through her tears. “I don’t know about the Miss Universe part. The contest is in a month’s time and I don’t think I am ready.”

There goes her self doubt again but I’m on it now.

“I do and even if those judges are bribed, you will be my Miss Universe.”

I honestly don’t know of anyone as beautiful and suitable for the role. Besides her beauty and kindness, Tanya does a lot of charity work and her foundation which supplies sanitary products to girls all over the country is just exceptional.

She giggles and I hope I have managed to crush whatever doubt she had about us and herself.

“What are we eating?”

I let out a laugh. I really love how she lets things pass so quickly. “I ordered your favourite meal.”

She gets closer to me and seductively licks and bites her lower lip. “I can’t wait.”

I burst out into laughter. “Not that, junky. I mean real food from the BEAT.”

“Fine, I am starving for food,” she says with a sulking pout.

“I took a day off today. You can always have all this later,” I tease as I take out the plates.

“Until the president calls and I am all alone until midnight,” she complains. That has happened twice or three times before, but I was still settling into my role and collecting all the evidence for the feds to use in court. That’s all done now.

“Not today, Babe, I promise. The president knows that I am spending a day with my woman today,” I reassure her and start dishing out the food.

I hold my breath when I hear a knock at the door. I seriously hope I don’t become a lied today.