Firestorm (30 page)
Authors: Ann Jacobs
“You said you didn’t have deep emotions left to give. But Jake, you do. You may hate Alice. But at least you feel something for her. It would break my heart to see you tied to me when I know you’ll find another woman someday who can teach you to love again.”
“I’ve found her,” he said, and he leaned closer and rested his cheek against her hair.
“She’s you.”
“What?”
“I love you. Really, deep down, love you. And I’m not about to let you go.”
He leaned back and focused his dark, compelling eyes on her face at the same time he took both of her hands and anchored them to his hard-muscled chest.
With all her heart, Kate wanted to believe him. She'd dreamed that someday he'd come to love her the way she loved him. Still, the picture of him looking at Alice with absolute hate in his eyes haunted her.
She had to be sure.
Jake cupped her chin in one big callused hand, forcing her to meet his gaze.
“Honey, maybe I wanted everybody to think I’m flat out crazy over you because it’s the truth. It was, even though I hadn’t come to grips with my feelings, myself. I never meant to hurt you.”
The raw, painful timbre of his deep voice touched Kate’s gentle heart. “It does hurt, knowing you asked me to marry you to make people believe you were over caring about Alice.”
As much as she wanted to believe Jake’s belated declaration of love, she couldn’t set aside all her doubt.
“Hell! You think I proposed so I’d have someone to rub in Alice’s face when she came around trying to get me to help get Yates off the hook, don’t you? Well, I didn’t.
“What made me do it at the time I did was the Old Man. He’s tired and sick, and he gave me an ultimatum. He called me to his hospital bed and gave me the choice between settling down and giving him some grandchildren, or being shoved—like a round peg in a square hole—into the presidency of GreenTex.”
Kate’s hard-won self-control snapped. “And you think I like knowing you picked me for a convenient broodmare, any more than I enjoyed thinking you wanted a smokescreen to hide your real feelings? Jake, I have some pride.” She tried to pull away, but he held her fast.
“Honey, I'd have asked you anyway. Probably today, the minute after I realized I don’t want to live without you. The moment I figured out that you mean more to me Ann Jacobs
Firestorm
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than Alice ever did.” He paused, and the quickened beat of his heart beneath her fingertips matched her own ragged pulse.
“No. I’d have waited, just long enough to go and spend the last cent I could afford, buying you something like this—maybe even bigger. I’d have wanted you and the whole world to know how much you mean to me.”
Before she could stop him, he’d worked the ring off his little finger and put it firmly back where it was before she’d given it back to him.
Where Kate wished she could be certain it belonged.
“Come here, Kate,” he murmured as his mouth descended on hers.
His kiss was sweet with promise, hot with the incredible chemistry that brought them together from the start.
When he let her go, she looked into his eyes and saw more than desire. For the first time, she thought she saw love.
“I love you so,” she whispered, needing to touch him as she began unbuttoning his shirt. “Love me.”
“I do. I will.” He reached out and touched her, and her throat constricted. She fought back more tears—this time tears of joy.
Every time he’d come to her with mindless passion, they’d ignited a firestorm that had scorched her with its desperate urgency. Now, it was as though his love banked the flames.
A gentle breeze ruffled her hair, and he played for a long time with a wayward strand, his features somehow softened now. No more handsome, no less rugged than before. But he seemed at peace with himself for the first time since she saw him at the derrick in the light of a setting sun.
He warmed her slowly, as though loving her was the only concern in his world.
And when she slid off his tie and unbuttoned the starched shirt he’d put on to go to court so she could enjoy touching his supple, deeply tanned skin, he shuddered and moaned as though he’d feared never to have her hands on him again.
“For you, honey. This time it’s all for you,” he murmured when he stopped her from unfastening his belt and extending her explorations.
Slowly he aroused her with his hands and mouth, and she paid his magnificent body equal homage. Clothing disappeared piece by piece until they lay naked in the shade of towering pine trees, their bed a mossy bank of the small pond. Her place.
Now it was his place, too. Theirs.
When he finally knelt between her legs and slowly filled her with his hot, hard cock, they came in unison. It was as good as always—yet better than before, because their hearts as well as their bodies moved together in perfect harmony.
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Afterward they lay together on the bed of velvety moss, breathing in the fragrance of the piney woods. She brushed back the dark curls from his sweaty forehead, letting go of the last of her doubts.
Kate finally believed—in Jake, in their love and their future.
His eyes opened, and his dark gaze locked with hers. His lips curved into a lazy half-smile. “We’re gonna be so good together, honey,” he whispered as he caught her hand and brought it to his lips. When he untangled their legs and helped her up, she realized he had made love to her this time without protection.
Finally he’d given her his trust.
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Epilogue
“Congratulations, Jake!”
Another pair of beefy hands was pummeling him between the shoulder blades.
He’d be damn lucky if he could still walk after all his friends got done congratulating him. Turning, he returned a punch to Mel Harrison's unguarded shoulder.
“Thanks. Hey, I wanted to tell you thanks for bringing the band to play tonight.
Hours on end of music like that would've driven me insane.” Jake gestured toward the staid group that was playing a medley he thought must date back at least to World War II.
“Wouldn't have missed it for the world.”
Ordinarily, big shindigs like this bored Jake to death, but he’d enjoyed sharing the spotlight with Kate and romancing her in front of a crowd that ranged from the cream of Houston society to roughnecks who worked with him out in the fields.
Their part in the extravaganza was almost over, would be as soon as Kate got back downstairs from changing into whatever the hell a going-away outfit was. If he hadn’t been in such a hurry to get her alone again, he would have encouraged her to stay here longer, just so he could look at her in her wedding gown.
She’d come to him, practically floating in an ivory cloud with touches of a violet sky. And when they’d danced that first dance, her eyes had shone with love.
He was certain she’d been touched when she’d realized it was him singing, “Love, Look at the Two of Us.” The look she gave him made his heart constrict in his chest.
“Did I thank you and the band for the extra time you all put in, playing background music for me so I could tape the voice-over?” he asked Mel.
“Your mother did. Besides, the guys loved doing it. It isn't often that small-time folks like us get the chance to record at a grade-A studio.”
Jake was glad Kate had thought to have his mother get Mel's band for their reception.
“Was Kate surprised?” Mel asked.
“Yeah. I’m not usually big on romantic gestures, so I think it meant a lot to her.”
Jake resisted the urge to loosen the bow tie that was getting more uncomfortable every minute while he glanced around the ballroom again. “When does your band go on again?” He gestured at the combo across the room that had just finished playing some highbrow-sounding waltz.
“Now. Be happy, Jake,” Mel said, and then he was gone.
Four hours. Kate had been his bride for four hours now. And they were going to have a baby.
Jake grinned when he saw Shana and Bear dance by, seemingly oblivious to everything except each other. Deb and Scott were dancing, too, her diamonds catching the light and nearly blinding him when he looked their way.
And there was Leah, looking slim after her son’s birth last month as she coaxed Ben onto the floor again. His parents and Mama Anna smiled and waved at friends and acquaintances from their seats at the head table.
The entire wedding party had been on the dance floor earlier when Kate had told him their lovemaking down by her pond six weeks ago did more than cement those deep emotions he’d finally unleashed. The radiant look in her aqua eyes had let him know how happy she was to be carrying his child. He hoped she knew how thrilled he was.
Hell! He’d wanted to shout out the news for all Houston to hear. Fortunately he’d caught himself in time. Even he knew a formal wedding was no place to announce the impending parenthood of the bride and groom.
“Jake?”
He loved the way Kate spoke his name. There was nothing he didn’t love about his wife.
“Ready?” Kate looked good enough to eat in a new outfit that matched her pretty eyes.
“I’m ready if you are.”
“Then let’s go.” Taking her hands, Jake traced the gold band that anchored Kate's engagement ring while she gently twirled the plain gold band she’d placed on his finger a few hours ago when they said their vows.
She was his fairy princess, the woman who made him twice the man he’d been before. She gave him back his feelings, made him whole again.
Feeling fiercely protective, as if she were made of spun glass instead of flesh and bone, Jake wrapped an arm around Kate and led her through the throng of noisy well wishers.
Pelted with fragrant rose petals, urged on with raucous advice from the men who worked his oil wells, Jake and Kate walked away from their wedding, into a life he trusted would be full of love.
Also By Ann Jacobs
Love Magic
Love Slave
Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.