Firestorm (13 page)

“You need to work on your self-image. You’re plenty good enough for any man, including that gorgeous hunk of Texas oil man you’re obviously mooning over.”

Pausing, Becky got up to rescue Rachel before Carey could finish yanking all her hair out.

“Getting that man to love me would be nothing short of a miracle,” Kate murmured, glad she hadn't told her friend just how much she wished for that particular miracle, or how she had settled for one memory-making session in Jake’s arms.

Would Becky condemn her for reaching out and touching the kind of joy she’d thought was beyond her reach?

Ann Jacobs

Firestorm

76

Kate didn’t think so.

After she’d sent Jake away last night, she wished so hard that he’d come back. Now all she wanted was for Becky to take her babies and go home so she could be miserable in peace.

She saw speculation in Becky's expression when somebody tapped at the kitchen door. “It must be Jake,” she said needlessly as she got up to let him in.

* * * * *

“Becky, this is Jake Green. Jake, Becky Friedman,” she said, hoping her cheeks weren’t as flushed as they felt. “Oh, and the little girls are Rachel and Carey,” she added when he hunkered down to say hello to the dark-haired toddlers who were gleefully slamming spoons onto pans and each other.

“They’re Becky’s,” she said needlessly.

“Looks like they’re having fun,” Jake observed.

Kate couldn't help but envy the babies. She saw open, uncomplicated joy in his expression when he picked up a spoon Rachel had dropped.

“Here, honey,” he said softly as he placed the makeshift drumstick back into the toddler’s chubby hand.

“They like coming to Kate’s. I think it’s because she always finds some new, amusing toys for them to play with.” Becky gave Jake a twenty-four-karat smile.

Kate couldn't help the jealousy that tweaked her while her friend flirted with the man she wanted so desperately.

“I like coming to Kate’s, too,” Jake replied, shooting Kate a look that heated her from head to toe when she finally grasped his double entendre. “Sorry I interrupted your visit, though.”

Becky looked first at Jake, who was still crouched down beside her children. Then she picked up her purse and diaper bag. “We’d better be getting along now, Kate. You know how Stan hates to come home and find us gone off somewhere.”

Automatically, Kate protested them leaving. Her heart wasn’t in it, though.

She hadn’t really wanted Becky to come today, and now she wanted…yes, she wanted more of Jake. She wanted him to look at her with the easy affection he gave Rachel and Carey. She wanted him to want her the way she wanted him.

Most of all, she wanted to share more than his passion, more than wild, satisfying sex. More than the fleeting closeness she felt but he denied in the wake of their stormy lovemaking.

Ann Jacobs

Firestorm

77

She shook off her wistful fantasies and went with Jake to help Becky get her toddlers situated in the car for the short drive home.

“Come home with me,” Jake said as they walked back to the house.

He’d thought Kate's talkative friend would never leave. Despite her protests that she must hurry, Becky had chattered a mile a minute while she and Kate buckled the little girls into their matching car seats. Then, she stood outside her car and talked some more. The only word he or Kate had been able to get in was an occasional monosyllabic response to Becky’s nonstop commentary.

“Please,” he added when Kate didn’t respond immediately.

“What?”

“I asked you to come home with me. To Houston.” He watched color come to Kate’s petal-soft cheeks, and it was all he could do to keep from reaching out and touching her.

“Why?”

“The Old Man wants me home while he has some minor surgery. I thought we might have fun shopping and sightseeing in New Orleans today, then fly to Houston tomorrow afternoon.”

“You want to sightsee in New Orleans in the middle of summer?” She sounded incredulous.

“Well, maybe not sightsee. But we could do the mall in air conditioned comfort. Or we could hole up in the St. Charles Hotel and enjoy each other for twenty-four straight hours,” he offered with a grin.

Damn. His cock was working on another painful hard-on. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you, honey?”

“I’d like for you to quit calling me ‘honey,’” Kate snapped. “And why on earth would you want to take me to New Orleans? I’m sure you could find yourself another

‘honey’ there to…to copulate with.”

“For God’s sake. You’re no starry-eyed little girl. You’re a twenty-eight year old woman, Kate, and if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll admit you want me as much as I want you.”

He paused, taking in every nuance of expression in her stormy aqua eyes. “You do want me, don’t you?”

“Yes. But sex isn’t all I want. I want some tenderness, some caring.”

Jake watched her tremble, saw the tears welling up at the corners of her eyes.

“I want to be more than a convenient female body,” she insisted.

Ann Jacobs

Firestorm

78

He shoved his hands deep into his pockets, trying to control the hard-on that clouded his thinking. Damn it, he should be able to squelch the unwelcome emotions that engulfed him.

“You’re not just a convenient female body. I’m not a tender man, but if romancing is what you want, I’ll do my damnedest to give it to you.” He reached out, stroked her cheek. “I want you with me. And I don’t want you here without me as long as there are people out there trying to destroy the well.” Before he could stop himself, he pulled her to him and had her nestled snugly against his throbbing cock.

Tension flowed from every pore of her skin where it touched his. From the pattern of soft, moist puffs of breath she exhaled against his shoulder, he was able to guess the exact moment when she began to calm down.

He shouldn’t be surprised. He’d known from the start that she wasn’t the kind of woman to go for a casual fuck.

Understanding that, he gave himself leave to accept Kate’s unspoken conditions.

For as long as they were together, he would enjoy the softness, the caring, the gentle passion that was Kate Black.

And he would give back as much of himself as was left to give.

“I’d like to go home with you,” she whispered against his chest.

Was she a witch who could read his every thought? Had she known he’d give in to her demands?

Without words, he led her into her bedroom and watched while she packed a suitcase with clothes that had seen better days. They’d have to do some shopping, after all.

* * * * *

Four hours later Kate was smiling, but her eyes were unusually bright.

Why should she be fighting tears? Jake set an armload of boxes and bags onto the bed in their hotel room and ambled over to caress her cheek.

She was soft, so soft, and the aqua sun dress he had insisted she wear when she’d picked it out at Macy's made her look young and vulnerable. He had promised her tenderness, and he'd be damned if he didn't actually feel that way toward her.

Almost as much as he wanted to strip her naked and bury his cock in her hot, tight pussy, he wanted to protect her. Damn it, she brought out feelings in him that he’d have sworn had died with his unborn child.

“Kate. What’s wrong, lady?” Very gently, he gathered her in his arms.

Ann Jacobs

Firestorm

79

He heard the softness in his own voice, and he realized he wanted to touch her with words as well as with his body. With gentleness he hadn't realized until now he still possessed, he stroked her back above and below the low scooped neckline of her dress.

“Wrong? Nothing’s wrong. Everything is just so…overwhelming I guess would be the word.”

Kate toyed with the hair at the nape of his neck, her slender fingers sending shock waves straight down to his cock.

“You mean, knowing you’re soon gonna have enough money to buy out the damn stores if it strikes your fancy?” he asked as he lowered his hands to cup her round, tight ass.

“No. I don’t know.”

“Tell me, Kate.”

“It’s not the money. I’ve had money before. Until Pop got sick, I never wanted for anything. Here, with you, everything seems, well, larger than life, for want of a better description.”

His cock was feeling larger than life, for sure, but he quashed the thought of tossing her onto the bed and taking care of business right away. He sensed her discomfort from the way her hand trembled when she reached up and touched his face with wide-eyed wonder.

“Honey, we Texans do everything in a big way,” he quipped to lighten the tension.

“Hey, look. We can see the courtyard from here.” He turned her so they both faced French windows framed with curtains so sheer he could see through them.

“Oh, Jake. What are those vines? The ones with the rose-colored flowers?”

She clasped her hands together like a delighted child while he strained his eyes against the afternoon sun to get a better look.

“Bougainvillea. Mom has some out by the pool at home. They grow like weeds, and they’ve got spines that’ll dig in and tear your hide off if you aren't careful.”

He grinned when he saw Kate’s delighted expression. “Do you like flowers?” he asked, recalling that her yard had been pretty much devoid of blooming things even before the fires.

“I love them. But the yardman was first to go when Pop's money started running out. We never had blooms like those out there, though. Not even when Mother took care of the flower beds.”

“I think they need a subtropical climate. They grow in Houston, but I tried to start some at my ranch a hundred miles or so northeast of there, and frost killed them the first winter.”

Ann Jacobs

Firestorm

80

“I guess with the way you travel, you hardly ever get to spend time at home,” Kate said sympathetically.

“I usually manage to loaf around the ranch for three or four weeks a year.” If he’d had his way, he’d have spent more time there and less in Houston, where Alice had dug in for the duration of their marriage.

Although he’d bought the land soon after marrying Alice, Jake hadn’t built a house there until after their divorce. Without the wife and children he’d planned on having when he bought the place, he found the ranch an unbelievably lonely place to be.

Maybe that was why he had grabbed onto the Saudi assignment like a lifeline.

Now, with Kate at his side, he yearned for the comforts of home.

That thought disturbed him. Yeah, he’d promised Kate as much tenderness as was in him, but he dared not give this woman the power to hurt him. Better that he keep his mind on pure, hot sex and fuck the troublesome emotions.

Deliberately, he wrapped his arms around her.

“Do you have any idea how much I want to fuck you?” he whispered, but the raw words came out tempered with tenderness. Emotions that scared Jake senseless.

“Jake.”

Hearing her murmur his name brought him back to reality. And her exploration of his cock through the rough denim of his jeans helped him bury those unwanted feelings in an ocean of white-hot desire. Groaning at the gentle torture, he grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips.

“Slow, baby. Slow and easy. We’ve got all the time in the world,” he crooned, but her rapt expression of wonder made him wild.

When she cradled his face with both her hands, he reached behind her and unzipped her dress. “Let’s get you naked,” he said, and he slid the dress over her hips to the carpeted floor.

“Wait. I bought something. Close your eyes,” she said excitedly, pulling away and hurrying to search among the bags and boxes on the bed.

“What?”

“You'll see.”

He turned around and saw that Kate apparently had located one small bag while dumping the clothes she had just bought onto a chair.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“This.” She opened the bag and handed him a box of contraceptive sponges. “I read somewhere that men don't like using, uh, condoms. I thought I’d try these.”

Her blush was nearly as bright as the hot pink box he held in his hand.

Ann Jacobs

Firestorm

81

“I haven't had time to go to a doctor and get a prescription for the Pill,” she added, twisting a handful of her satin slip nervously between her fingers.

“Do you know how to use these?” he asked, knowing even then that he wouldn’t chance riding bareback. But he couldn’t help feeling warm inside, knowing she’d done this to heighten his pleasure.

“I can read directions.” Obviously Kate wasn’t keen on having him explain what to do. “If you'll give them here, I'll take care of it.”

“Okay.” He handed her the box.

Kate’s surprise made him feel too good to let him spoil it. When the time came, he'd just slip on a rubber, too. And he'd tell her, if she asked, that it was a habit he couldn’t shake.

Grinning despite himself, he watched her disappear into the bathroom. Then he stripped down and sprawled across the bed—after stashing some protection in the drawer of a bedside table. Anticipating the pleasure that awaited him, he re-opened the drawer and ripped open one of the tiny packages. Carefully he hid it under a fat, soft pillow.

* * * * *

“I—It’s done.”

Already embarrassed from having handled herself so intimately when she’d wrestled the sponge into place, Kate felt like slipping through the elegant floor beneath her feet.

There was Jake, sprawled naked across the king-size bed, his magnificent body lit by bright sunlight streaming through the open windows.

She was naked, too. Her mouth was dry, but between her legs, moisture was pooling. And her breasts felt tight, as if they were reaching out for the heat of his hands and mouth.

Suddenly she couldn't move. All she could do was stare at him. He seemed totally relaxed, with long-lashed lids concealing his dark, mesmerizing eyes.

In repose his face looked younger, less intimidating, even now, when the stubble of a beard darkened his strong jaw. If she could have moved, she would have gone to him and traced the contours of his thin but sensual lips. She’d have touched the bridge of his shapely nose and the prominent cheekbones beneath deep-set eyes.