Battle Lines. (24 page)

“Yes I do.” She told his departing back firmly. Jake swirled round on his heel and strode over to her. Before she had a chance to do anything he had leant down and scooped an arm around her and pulled her to her feet and up against his body.

His lips found hers quickly. The pressure firm as he parted her lips. His tongue dipped into her mouth. His kiss left her breathless. She kissed him back, not putting up any fight. And then he let her go dumping her back onto the bed and swirled around and walked out of the room. Calling over his shoulder as he went.

“I told you, hate is the last thing you feel for me.” And then he was gone and Amanda was left with her arms crossed over her chest, sitting on her childhood bed, and fuming mad.

The next week ticked by excruciatingly, agonisingly, slowly. Amanda was forced to stay upstairs in her room so that she could ‘rest’ not that it was very restful.

The housekeeper brought all her meals. Her mother visited for several hours in the morning and Harry came in the afternoon to go over business and paperwork. But no Jake.

She knew he was there. Sometimes she heard his voice. On other occasions she heard the floor boards outside her door. She knew that he was there just outside the door but then he was gone.

Three days into her enforced rest Amanda asked Harry to explain what had happened.

“Well.” Harry began as he fidgeted. He was sitting at the foot of her bed and she was sitting crossed legged with her back resting against the pillows. “When I went to pick up my car on that day. Jake was already there. I tried to bluff my way out of it but.” He shrugged.

“Go on.” Amanda urged.

“Well he let me prattle on for a while then he held up paperwork that he had already found in my glovebox. My insurance documents. It had my real name on it. Again I tried to blag, you know, they belonged to a friend, but then he held up his mobile phone and then told me he had already made enquiries and he knew that I worked for you. He also knew every school I had ever attended and university.”

Of course he had, Jake had connections, and he was a multi-millionaire businessman thanks to taking over her father’s company. There would have been no stone unturned.

“But why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.

“I wanted to, I really did. But Jake…”

“Go on. It’s okay, you’re not in trouble. I know how persuasive Jake can be.” She told him and watched Harry relax a little.

“Understatement. Anyway, Jake invited me back to the house, well I say invited…” He grimaced. “Told me to explain exactly what was going on and so I had to tell him the whole story.”

“So he knew everything that day.” Amanda asked.

“And then some.”

“I don’t understand.” She frowned.

“Jake wanted to know why I would go along with it. So I had to tell him about my… miscalculation.”

“You told him about the statue fiasco.”

“All of it.” Harry agreed. “So then, when I finished he told me not to tell you and that I should continue to play along.”

“It was you, wasn’t it?” she asked him now.

“Me what?”

“That let Jake into the office. The sweets in my office.” Harry had the good grace to actually blush.

“Jake got me to meet him early Monday morning and he set it up and was gone before Marsha came into the office.”

“Harry…” She stopped and then shook her head. “I am sorry I got you into this mess.” She said.

“So you are not angry at me?” he asked her.

“No you were caught between a rock and a hard place.” She said.

“Yeah, wasn’t I just?” He moaned.

“Can you do something for me?”

“Erm… depends.”

“Can you go and buy three photo frames six by four, and some felt pens.”

“Okay.” Harry said raising his eyebrows and watching her for a moment.

“Thanks.”

So a day later Amanda sat on her bed working on a little project. When she had finished she popped the frames into a colourful paper bag and then decided that she would go down to see Jake. She might as well get this over with. She took a deep breath and held it for a moment before she headed for the door.

Chapter 26.

By the time she had made it down the stairs and was stood outside his study door. Amanda’s heart was thudding in her chest. Her mouth had gone dry and her mind was trying to talk her out of her decision.

She took a deep breath, she had to do this, even if Jake laughed at her. Please don’t laugh at me, she sent the prayer up.

Letting out the breath she raised her hand and knocked on the study door but no one answered. She waited, was he in? He had to be, his car was outside. She had seen it in the driveway through the window at the top of the stairs. She knocked again, louder, firmer this time.

“Come.” Jake barked and she reluctantly opened the door with shaky hands and stepped into his study. “What?” He said without looking up from his task. “If you are looking for mum she is not in and she will not be back until tomorrow. I told her to go stay with the Monroe’s overnight. She needs the break.”

“Oh okay.” She said lamely. Jake looked up then. He looked tired, weary.

“Did you want something? The housekeeper isn’t here today. I was going to arrange for some lunch in a little while but if you are hungry now.”

“No… no… its fine. I don’t want to put you out.” She said.

“There’s a first time for everything I suppose.” He said sarcastically.

“I don’t want to be any trouble.” She tried again.

“Too late.” He told her and then he sighed before saying. “It’s no trouble. Go back upstairs and I will get it sorted.”

And then he turned in his chair so that his back was to her. She had been dismissed. She watched as he began sorting through papers that sat on the other desk.

Amanda stood still, unsure what to do, but then gave herself a shake.

Quickly she walked closer to his desk and gently laid the paper bag with the photo frames on top of the work he had been working on and then turned and left.

Amanda ran back up the stairs and went back to her room. Her heart beating wildly and a cold sweat on her skin.

Once there she sat herself down on her bed. What now? She sighed. Then she got up and began to pace up and down.

Perhaps she should go back down. Apologise. Be honest with him. Tell him that she loved him, and she did love him. She knew that. Deep down she had always known that.

Was it too late? Had she messed everything up so badly that it couldn’t be fixed? She hoped not.

Once Jake heard the door click shut he threw down his pen on top of the work he had been pretending to look at and sat back in the chair before running a hand through his hair.

He had had to turn his back on her otherwise he would have got up from his desk and they both would have ended up naked and on his rug making love.

He groaned and ran a hand though his hair. Damn it. Already he could feel the throbbing need, the same throbbing need that had kept him awake since Amanda had been back under this roof. He could already feel a certain part of his body pushing against the confines of his clothes.

“Damn it.” He said in frustration and turned back to his desk. He noticed the paper bag instantly. Frowning he reached out.

He ran a hand over it before picking it up and sliding out the three photo frames inside. He looked at the first frame and then lifted it away to reveal the second. He smiled as he removed the second to look at the third one.

His heart thudded in his chest as he looked down at the words. He looked at them again, making sure that what he was seeing was real and not a figment of his imagination. and smiled as he read them.

Jake got up from his desk and casting one last look at the phrases written on the frames he strode out of his study and headed for the stairs where he took them two at a time.

Amanda paced the room, she should go back down there. She should just tell him. Get it over with. Then there would be an end to it.

No matter what happened after that she would know for sure. Amanda shook out her hands as she worked up the courage to go back down the stairs.

The door suddenly swung open and Amanda turned round to face Jake. She watched as he stepped into the room, stopping at the threshold.

They stared at one another. Amanda could hear the blood pounding in her ears. She opened her mouth and then closed it again as they continued to stare at one another.

“Say it.” He demanded.

“Ah… say what?” She asked, was that croaky voice hers?

“What’s on those picture frames. Say it.”

“You are right.” She said.

“Not that one.” He told her.

“I’m sorry.” She said though she knew that was not the one he wanted to hear.

“Don’t toy with me Mandy. I have waited a long time to hear it. Say it.”

“I love you.” She told him.

He strode across the room then. Scooping her up in his arms. His fingers finding their way into her hair as he pulled her too him and swooped down to claim her lips with his own.

Amanda wrapped her arms around him, whimpering against him.

“Well we finally got there.” He told her against her mouth. He lifted his head from hers. “I love you.” He told her hoarsely as he looked into her eyes.

“Oh Jake I’m so sorry.” She sobbed as he kissed her again.

“Don’t cry.” He told her as he kissed her jaw. The column of her throat down to her collarbone.

“Jake.” She whispered. She cried out as Jake swept her up into his arms.

“Something else I never thought we would make.” Jake told her as he laid her down on the bed and he joined her.

“What?” she asked in a daze.

“A bed. I wasn’t sure we would ever manage to make it this far.” He smiled at her and she giggled as she blushed. “Damn that’s a good look on you.”

She felt his fingers on the buttons of her blouse. Amanda reached up a hand and ran her fingers down the side of his face.

“I love you.” She told him.

“I have known that for over ten years, nice of you to finally catch up. Took you long enough.” He growled at her as he lowered his mouth to kiss her again as his hands found their way to her bare flesh.

It wasn’t too long before Amanda found herself out of all her clothes. Jake’s mouth explored her shoulder. Then down to her breast where he took a rosy nipple into his mouth and she groaned. Arching her back, her fingers finding their way into his hair.

“Jake.” She groaned his name.

“I love it when you say my name.” He whispered against her skin. “I love the way you feel. The way you taste. I love you. Tell me you love me.”

“I love you.” She told him breathlessly and was rewarded by a groan.

“Do you have any idea…” His fingers found the sensitive part of her between her legs and she moaned and arched her back, opening her legs to allow him better access.

“Show me.” She invited.

“Don’t worry, I plan to.” He promised her. His fingers became firmer. The wave beginning to build.

Jake kissed her, his tongue stroked hers. She held her breath and stilled for a second before she shuddered as wave after wave rolled over her.

“Jake.”

“It’s okay baby. I’ve got you.” His mouth traced down her throat and down to her breast. Where he took one rosy nipple into his mouth as his fingers drove her toward another orgasm. “Mandy.” He groaned against her skin just as everything stopped and she fell over the edge again.

Jake’s body covered hers then. She raised her hips to meet him and she sighed as he filled her. Wrapping her legs around him she used her heels to push him further inside her. “Damn it.” He groaned. “Slow down.” He demanded.

“Now Jake. Now.” She whimpered and Jake, for the first time ever, did as he was told.

Chapter 27.

Many hours later Amanda stirred beside Jake. Slowly she opened her eyes and stretched her body and then turned her head to look at the man she loved.

A smile touching her mouth as she watched him as he slept, a smile curving his mouth, his features soft and relaxed. He looked younger now.

She reached up a hand ready to touch his face but she stopped herself. It would probably wake him up and he looked so peaceful. She did not want to wake him. It was probably the best sleep he had had for a while.

Instead Amanda carefully got out of the bed and reached for a robe. She needed the little girl’s room and a drink anyway.

She softly padded her way out of the room and downstairs, stopping at the bathroom first and then headed to the kitchen.

She poured herself a glass of water and when she had finished she made her way back to the hallway.

Jake’s study door was open and Amanda changed direction from the stairs to the study door.

Memories of when she was a child, running in to see her father, played out in her mind. As she walked through the door she looked at the empty space by the window where her father’s desk used to be.

She smiled, she could almost see her father’s head looking up from his paperwork to look at her. A smile spreading across his face as he saw her.

She felt the sting of tears in her eyes. Jake had stamped his own identity on this room. Her father’s old oak desk no longer there. Jake’s own desk further inside the room over by the other window.

She smiled as she spied the frames with her words written on placed on his desk in a row.

She turned back toward the door, fully intending to go back upstairs but something caught the corner of her eye and she looked up at the bookshelf.

She gasped as she stared at the offending item she saw there. She wasn’t sure if she was seeing right at first. But, no, she was seeing it. How on earth? She shook her head.

The hideous thing stared back at her with its three eyes, at least she thought they were eyes. It was hard to tell for sure.

The damn statue. Jake. Jake had bought it. Of course he had, who else would have overpaid for that thing. But then she noticed that it was wearing something. She looked again unsure whether she could believe her eyes.

Jake! What did he think he was playing at?

She began to giggle, a little sound that quickly grew louder into a full laugh until tears rolled down her face.

That at least explained what had happened to those, she thought, as she looked at the lace knickers that it was wearing, her lace knickers, the ones she had not been able to find that day…

“What is all this noise?” Amanda spun round at the sound of Jake’s voice. He stood in the doorway in a robe and she knew nothing else underneath. She pointed to the statue. “Aah.” He said.

“You bought the statue.” She accused him.

“There was something about the little guy.” He shrugged before he walked over to her and took her into his arms so that he could kiss her.

“And what would that be?” She asked him.

“I don’t know. But it just looked so sad in your store room.” The tip of Jake’s tongue touched the pulse beating in her throat. “I missed you when I woke.” He told her huskily. “I thought you had run out on me again. Until I heard you laughing.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.” She said.

“Don’t be. I love hearing you laugh.” His teeth nipped her ear lobe and she sighed. “Besides there is something else that I would rather be doing than sleeping.” He said as his lips trailed a blaze of kisses back to her mouth.

“Why?” she asked. Jake lifted his head to look at her and frowned.

“You really need to ask that.” And then raised an eyebrow as his hand began stroking the top of her leg.

“No, not that. The statue.” She reminded him. “Focus.” She told him. He smiled at her.

“I am trying believe me.” As his hand worked its way up to her waist.

“Jake.” She admonished him but she did not mean it.

“I offered to help you Mandy. You were too stubborn.” He told her.

“I didn’t want you to bail me out.” She told him. Jake drew her even closer into the circle of his arms.

“Dad left the company to both of us Mandy.”

“That’s as maybe…” She began.

“The company is half yours. It always has been.” Jake tried again.

“Yes, but.” Amanda tried again.

“I was only offering what is rightfully yours.” But Amanda was already shaking her head.

“No you did all the hard work Jake. You stopped it going into bankruptcy. You have earned the right, not me.”

“You are very stubborn.”

“I guess. That statue is wearing an item of my clothing.” She said.

“Aah yes, well. He looked cold.”

“So you found them.”

“No, I have to confess that I took them before you woke up.”

“Should I be worried about that?” She asked.

“No, I just thought that when you woke you would want to run and hide. I had them as leverage.” He said. He bent his head to kiss her again.

“What about the picture.”

“Over the fireplace.” Amanda’s eyes went to the fireplace then she drifted up above it to the painting.

“How long has that been there?”

“It was hanging up there the day you came here.”

“It wasn’t I would have seen it.”

“Yes well sometimes you often have trouble seeing past the end of your nose.” He told her. She felt his hands on the belt of her robe as he untied the knot.

“So, am I going to get that item of clothing back?” She asked him as she felt his warm hands slip inside her robe and around her waist.

“That would depend.”

“On what?” She asked him as she brought her hands up his arms and around his hard muscled shoulders.

“Leverage.” He told her.

“Ah, you mean blackmail.”

“That’s such an ugly word. How about I’ll give them back if you agree to do something for me.”

“Maybe I don’t want them back that badly.”

“You do.” He told her.

“Okay fine,” She gave in. “What do I have to do to get them back.”

Jake laughed softly and it did funny things to her tummy. He brought his lips close to her ear to whisper. She gasped in shock and moved herself away from him to look up at him. He nodded. “You can’t be serious.” She told him as she felt herself blush and he laughed harder.

“Never been more serious in my life.”

“Jake… we… I… no.”

“Have I told you that that look, looks good on you. All hot and bothered and flustered.” He pulled her closer and kissed first, one blushing cheek before lifting his head to kiss the other. “Wow, there’s some heat coming off of those.” He teased her.

“Jake.” She complained as the heat in her face intensified.

He wrapped both of his arms around her waist and lifted her off her feet. “Wrap your legs around me.” He commanded softly.

“Jake. We couldn’t possibly.” She tried.

“Wrap your legs around me.” He repeated and she did as she was bid as she giggled nervously. “You are joking right?” She said breathlessly as he started to walk out of his study. “Someone might see us.” She tried again.

“Our nearest neighbour is a mile away. The garden and orchard are very secluded and apart from us there is no one else here.”

He strode through the kitchen to the back door, where he opened it and then they were heading down the path.

“Jake.” She complained. “I can’t believe we are doing this. Okay fun’s over let’s go back.” She said. But Jake continued on to the bottom of the garden path and then out of the gate and across the orchard until they came to the old oak tree.

“So then the only question is. Against it or under it.” Jake asked her as he kissed along her collarbone.

“Jake.” She gasped. Then felt the trunk of the tree at her back.

“I would suggest swinging from it but given your history with climbing this thing it’s probably not advisable.” He said as he opened her robe and his own so that they could enjoy skin on skin contact. “If you fell out of it then it might be embarrassing once we get to the emergency room.” Amanda giggled nervously.

“Jake. We can’t.” She tried again as she looked in all directions. She felt exposed, but she secretly felt a little excited too. Not that she would have admitted it.

“Live a little dangerously Mandy. It’s okay.” He kissed her throat. “You are enjoying it really.”

“No… I…” She sighed as Jake’s hand stroked along the curve of her bottom.

“You’re safe with me. I won’t let anyone hurt you. You should know that.”

“I do.” She told him. She ran her fingers through his hair. “It’s just that we… I…”

“There are many things I plan to teach you.” He told her as he slowly entered her and she groaned.

“How do you know I don’t already know these things?” She asked him breathlessly.

“In my study. That first time. I realised you were still a virgin.” Jake said.

“You knew?”

“Your reaction told me everything I needed to know. I could feel it. Your flesh was unaccustomed. You have no idea how hard I fought to slow everything down for you.” Jake told her.

She felt his hands on her hips. His mouth trailed kisses down to her breasts where His teeth nipped at her tender flesh. As he thrust inside her.

“Jake.” She sighed as she clung to him. It felt so good, and when Jake had finished showing her how to do it up against it. A little while later he gently laid her down in the soft grass and showed her how to do it underneath it too.

“I love you.” She told Jake much later as the sun began setting low in the sky.

“I know you do. You have always loved me.” He told her confidently.

“You could have been wrong you know.” She pointed out, just because she felt the need. There was no point in giving in completely, she decided.

“Me? Wrong? Never, not I, I am Mr super Jake the wonderful, remember?” He told her and he laughed as he reached for her again.

“You are kidding.” She gasped as she wrapped her arms around him as he kissed her. Then he pulled her on top of him and she found herself sat on top straddling him.

“You have ten years to catch up on.” He told her as his hands guided her hips so that he could fill her again.

“It looks like you are going to keep me busy for a while.” Jake reached a hand behind her head and pulled her down so that he could kiss her.

“I plan to keep you busy for a lifetime, future Mrs Michelson.” He told her, his voice thick with passion.

“You want to marry me?” She asked him.

“Of course I do, you should know that surely.” Yes, she guessed that she did.

“You could ask me.”

“And run the risk of you saying no. not a chance.” Jake wrapped his arms around her and moved so that she found herself lying on her back with Jake on top of her once again.

“I love you Jake.”

“Then say you will marry me. Put me out of my misery.” He lowered his head and kissed her throat.

“Um.”

“Um?” he lifted his head again to look down at her. She smiled then.

“Yes, of course I will marry you.”

“You… are gonna be trouble.” He complained at her.

“I’ve always been trouble.” She reminded him.

“That’s true.”

“You wouldn’t want it any other way.” She said as she ran a hand up his spine.

“Um.” He said.

“Um?”