In the Arms of a Stranger (4 page)

“You
think
?”

He patted the cushion.
  “Sit with me.”

Bri eyed the spot beside him warily.
  “Not until you tell me why you’re really here.”

“There’s no ulterior motives, I assure you.
  I just wanted to talk for awhile.”

She could
almost hear Chad stiffly informing her that the proper thing for a lady to do would be to sit in one of the arm chairs.  Feeling rebellious, she plopped down by Jake’s side.  He slid his arm around her shoulder and it seemed so natural to have it there, Bri didn’t bother to protest and simply let her head rest against his shoulder. 

“So what do you want to talk about?”

“What happened last night.”

She jumped to her feet, shaking her head.
  “There’s nothing to talk about.  We made a mistake, that’s all.”

Jake grabbed her hand and pulled Bri down onto his lap, locking her there in a firm grip.
  “A case of mistaken identity, yes, but it
was
not
a mistake.”

“Please don’t try to feed me any lines about it being fate.”

“You don’t believe in fate?”

“That we’re preordained to follow certain roads in our life regardless of the winding path we take to get there?”
  She shook her head.  “No, I think everyone’s destiny depends on the choices they make.”

Jake grinned.
  “Like your choice to make love to me that last time?”

Bri scowled.
  “Can’t you just forget it ever happened?”

“But I don’t want to forget it.”

“Well you have to, because it can never happen again.”  She struggled for a few minutes in a futile attempt to free herself, then gave up with an exasperated sigh when he only laughed and pulled her closer.  “Jake, this is highly inappropriate.”

“It’s also highly enjoyable.”

Bri could hardly deny how good it felt to be held in his arms, but it didn’t negate the fact she was marrying another man soon and shouldn’t be fervently wishing Jake would just shut up and kiss her.  Which, of course, was exactly what he did.  He gently massaged her lips with his mouth, his tongue doing an erotic dance around hers for what seemed like an eternity yet at the same time not nearly long enough.

“I’ve always thought kissing was extremely over rated until last night,” he said huskily, blazing a moist trail down the side of her neck.

“Jake…Jake please, you have to stop.”  Brianne shivered, desperately fighting the hunger that was mounting inside of her.  It was a losing battle.

“Why?
  We both want this, Bri.”

Tears stung her eyes.
  “I want a lot of things I can’t have.”

He brought his head up, frowning at the moisture clinging to her lashes.
  As much as he wanted her, he couldn’t bear to see Bri looking so unhappy.  For now, it was enough to know she wanted him too.  So instead of kissing her again, which is what he really wanted to do, Jake settled back against the sofa and cradled her to his chest.

“Tell me about your family,” he said softly.

Bri relaxed against him, relieved to be on safer ground.  “My parents live in the south of France most of the year but have a house on each coast and condos here and there in the States so they have a place to stay when Daddy returns to open up a new store like he’s doing in Jackson.  My sister, Miranda, and I hated being dragged all over so we finally put up enough of a fuss that my parents agreed to let us live with my grandmother, Missy.”

“How old were you?”

“I was fourteen, Miranda was fifteen.”

“Is Missy the one your mother said you take after?”

Brianne laughed.  “I’m sure she thinks so, but I would hate to think I’m that outlandish.  Missy is a recluse, which isn’t a bad thing in her case.  She says and does things that make people think she’s got a couple of screws loose, but the truth is she just loves to shock people and gets a kick out of watching their reaction.  I suppose I do have a tendency to say what’s on my mind, but honestly I don’t do it for the shock value.”

“And that rubs Mr. Perfect the wrong way, doesn’t it?”

Bri let out a heavy sigh.  “Everything I do these days seems to rub him the wrong way.”

“Then why are you with him?
  Why aren’t you with someone who loves you just the way you are?”

“Because maybe he’s right.
  Maybe I should think before I speak and worry about what people will think of me.  I should take life more seriously and dress and act appropriate to the situation instead of…of…”

“Instead of being
you
?”  Jake interjected.

“What about you, Jake?
  I’ll bet you always consider what you say before you speak, and I would also bet you weigh out all the consequences beforehand too.  You know exactly the right thing to wear and when it’s proper to speak your mind or not.  I would stake my life on the fact you have never embarrassed the woman you were with by doing something stupid.”

“Good God, you make me sound as boring and predictable as the Chadmeister.”

Bri choked back her laughter and slapped his chest playfully.  “Stop making up such horrid names for him!”

“So how did you and
Chad
meet?”

“At a friend’s birthday party.”
  Getting even with him for the jabs at Chad, she asked, “What about you and Annie Greensprings?”

“I assume you mean Brandy,” he said with a chuckle.
  “One of my brothers set me up with her.  He said he was worried I was working too hard and thought I could use a distraction.”

“I’m sure she
has been all that and more.”  Her voice was more than a little icy, spurred by the sharp twinge of jealousy when she visualized just what sort of distraction the platinum blonde provided for him. 

“No, I
would say she was more of a convenience.  My interest in her was lukewarm at best, even at the beginning.  You, on the other hand, are extremely distracting.”

“Only because you’re bored with her.”

“Miss Carrington, you would catch my eye no matter where I was, what I was doing, or who I was with.”

She smiled up at him.
  “Quite the smooth talker, aren’t you?”

“Not hardly, sweetheart, I’m just being honest.”

She stared into those dark eyes of his; the memory of him looking down at her as they made love so vivid she could almost feel him inside of her. 

“Jake, I…I think you should leave now.”

The corner of his mouth tipped up in a lop-side grin.  “Because you want to kiss me again?”

She shook her head slowly.
  “Because I want to do much more than that.”

With a groan of pure agony he rose with Bri in his arms then set her on her feet.
  Cupping her face in his hands, he leaned down and gave her a soft kiss. 

“Now I’m going to prove to you that I
am the strongest man in the world.”

Brianne giggled.
  “What are you going to do, bench press the sofa, maybe do a round of one armed pushups?”

“Oh
, no, what I’m about to do requires a hell of a lot more strength and determination than that.”  Gently brushing his knuckles against her cheek, Jake heaved a regretful sigh then turned and walked out the door.

The room suddenly seemed
 very cold and empty without his dominating presence, but her respect for Mr. Jake Malone jetted up considerably since he’d lured her down the hallway at lunch time and kissed her.  If he had pressed her even a little, Bri had no doubt she would have folded like a house of cards and wound up in bed with him again.  But she would have regretted it in the morning and the guilt would have been even greater than it was now. 

Jake had known that, and rather than give in to his own desires he
had considered the consequences for both of them and left before it went too far.  She only hoped that self-restraint of his was strong enough to endure the next month of working together on this project because hers was seriously lacking where Jake was concerned.

The thought to
ask her father if he would reassign someone in her place for the Jackson project crossed her mind, but only fleetingly.  He would want to know why and there was no explanation she could provide that would be plausible enough for him to accept without question.  Besides, she was looking forward to working with Jake and getting to know him better.  He made her laugh and didn’t judge her the way Chad did, and in all honesty, she liked it that he was so obvious about his attraction towards her. 

Jake made her feel beautiful and feminine
.  Oddly enough, she felt safe with him, as if nothing bad could ever happen to her when he was there.  Chad had never made her feel like that.  Quite the opposite; Bri had the distinct feeling Chad would leave her to fend for herself if he thought stepping in to defend her would reflect poorly on him in any way.

She wished it wasn’t so late so she could call Miranda.
  Her sister would listen, but even more importantly she wouldn’t lay blame on Bri for what had happened.  No matter what she did or what embarrassing predicament she got herself into, Miranda simply accepted it as part of Brianne’s personality and helped her figure a way out of it.  The only problem was, Bri wasn’t sure which situation she wanted help getting out of; her involvement with Jake or her engagement to Chad.

“For Pete’s sake, stop fidgeting,” Chad hissed under his breath.

Brianne gave him a blank stare.
  Had she been fidgeting?  If so, she wasn’t aware of it.  Obviously, she must have been because Chad looked thoroughly irritated.  Mumbling an apology, she took a sip of wine and scanned the room for the hundredth time for Jake.  She’d missed him at breakfast because Chad had shown up promptly at seven in the morning and insisted she dine with him.  They had just finished eating when her parents arrived and informed them Jake and Brandy would be there shortly but Chad skirted her away before they made an appearance.

They were supposed to
get together with her Dad and Jake at lunch to talk business before the meeting later in the afternoon with the two architects who had drawn up the floor plans.  Bri had missed both lunch and the meeting too.  It seems Chad took it upon himself to speak to her parents.  Somehow, he convinced them it was more important for her to spend time with him instead of attending the meetings since he was leaving the next morning and wouldn’t be able to see her for at least two weeks. 

Suffice it to say, Bri was not in a very good mood when he told her and had remained sullen during their lunch in Jackson.
  She’d been even more upset with him when he dragged her to several exclusive men’s shops where he made an ass of himself by looking down his nose at everything the sales clerks showed him.  She’d held her tongue, but Chad was skating on some pretty thin ice right now.  It was only because they were at the dinner party her father had arranged for all the contractors that she didn’t blast him with a tirade for wasting her whole day.

She’d hoped to mingle and get to know some of the people she
would be working with, but for some reason, Chad was sticking to her like glue.  As a result, Bri avoided lingering too long with any one person, horrified by the idea he might chastise her for something in front of them.  These people needed to respect her authority and that wasn’t likely to happen if her fiancé made some contemptuous remark about her while she meekly took the verbal abuse.

Bri
was just beginning to think Jake wasn’t going to show at all, having missed dinner and the short speech her father gave afterwards, when she spotted him across the room.  Her heart picked up a couple of extra beats when a slow smile spread across his sinfully handsome face as his eyes locked with hers.  Her spirits instantly soared when he started making his way towards her; even seeing Brandy in tow couldn’t dampen them.  Jake had nearly reached her when Chad grabbed her around the waist and whisked her in the opposite direction.

“What are you doing?”
she protested, glancing back as the crowd swallowed up both Jake and Brandy.

“I want to dance.”

“But you hate to dance!  We haven’t been dancing since the night we met.”

“I…uh…I know how much you like it though
, so I just figured…”  His voice trailed off and after taking her wine glass and setting it on a nearby table, Chad pulled her onto the dance floor.

It was a slow dance, one meant for romance and starry-eyed gazes between lovers
.  Except Chad wasn’t looking at her at all, and if he had been, he certainly wouldn’t have seen an expression borne of affection on her face.  Her heated glare was totally wasted on him because his eyes were darting from left to right and back again as if he was looking for someone.  After several minutes of being yanked around the dance floor, it finally dawned on her what was happening. 

Chad was deliberately trying to keep her away from Jake!
  Had he figured out there was something between them on his own or had he seen Jake slipping out of her room last night?  No, he would have raised hell if that was the case, but obviously he suspected something.  Had she not been so absorbed in her own thoughts, she might have noticed the way Chad’s body went rigid and that his arms tightened around her.  As it was, she didn’t have a clue how uptight he’d grown until he suddenly stopped dancing and loosened his hold on her.

“You don’t mind if I cut in, do you?”
  Jake’s deep voice sounded from behind her.

Chad’s pinched expression belied his polite words.
  “Not at all.”  Leaning down, he brushed her cheek with a quick kiss.  “I’ll be waiting at the table, honey.”

Puzzled,
Bri watched him walk away.  Chad rarely used terms of endearment, and if he did, it was always when they were alone.  “I don’t think he’s very happy about this,” she told Jake as his arms encircled her waist.

“If you were mine, I wouldn’t be very happy about it either.”

Bri stared at his chest.  If she looked at him, Jake would know just how much his words pleased her.  “You were so late getting here I thought something might have…distracted you and you wouldn’t show at all.”

Jake’s heart surged at her less than subtle suggestion that he and Brandy had been having sex.
  It meant she was jealous, and being jealous meant she had feelings for him, didn’t it?  He pulled her closer, thoroughly enjoying how soft and feminine she felt pressed up against his body.  She was wearing heels tonight, but even with the added height she was still a good eight inches shorter than he was.  Jake had no choice but to lower his head so they were cheek to cheek in order to speak without being overheard.  That was the excuse he gave himself anyway.

“
My office called.  I had to put out a few fires and was stuck on the phone for over an hour.  That’s why we were late.  You sounded a bit concerned that I might have been doing something a little more…recreational.”

Appalled that he
could read her so easily, Bri forced a small a laugh.  “What you do with your time isn’t any business of mine.  I just thought it was rather inconsiderate of you to be so late without calling to let me…my father know what was going on.”

“I had Brandy call Phillip as soon as I knew I was going to be tied up for awhile.
  I’m sure he would have told you if he’d known how much it bothered you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!
  You’re heading the Marketing and Design team so of course it’s important that you be here.”

“So you didn’t miss me at all today?”

“Jake,” she said warningly.

“You missed me, you know you did.
  Why are you with him, Bri?  You can’t possibly love a man who treats you like a second class citizen.”

“I suppose you think you’re a better choice?”

“Immeasurably.”

“Have you forgotten I’m engaged?
  And even if I wasn’t, you have a girlfriend.”

“Not after today.”

Bri’s head snapped up.  “What do you mean?  Oh, Jake, please say you didn’t break it off with Brandy because of me.”

“I
had already come to the conclusion her time was up before I even got to Jackson.  Being with you just made the decision easier.”

Her time was up?
  Bri turned her eyes away, staring blankly over his shoulder.  She couldn’t believe she actually considered breaking it off with Chad to have an affair with Jake.  And that’s all it would be, she thought dismally.  Inevitably, he would get bored with her just as he’d done with Brandy.  How long would it last before he decided
her
time was up too; a week, a month or two, and then what?  She would be left all alone to nurse a broken heart and deal with the guilt of disappointing her family and hurting Chad. 

“Bri?”

She blinked, drawing her eyes back to his face.  “I can’t do this, Jake.  We’re playing a dangerous game and nothing good can come of it.”

“You’re wrong on both counts.
  I realize you’re not experienced enough to know this, but what happened between us was far more than mere sexual pleasure.  It went deeper than that, much deeper.  I’ve never felt like this about anyone, Bri, and I’m certainly not playing any damn games.”

Her smile was sad, resigned.
  “If things were different, I think I would have fallen madly in love with you, Jake Malone.  But I promised myself to another man, and for once in my life I’m going to do the responsible thing.  I’m marrying Chad and nothing you say or do is going to change that.”

Jake didn’t try to stop her when she pulled away and wheedled past the other couples on the dance floor to join Chad.
  He’d felt the change in her mood the moment he told her Brandy’s time was up and could almost hear the wheels turning in that pretty head of hers.  She thought he was only after a brief fling, that he would get tired of her and cast her off as easily as he was ridding himself of Brandy.  She was dead wrong about that.  And Bri was also dead wrong if she thought he would simply bow out and let her ruin her life by marrying Chad.  Oh, no, Jake set his jaw determinedly, this was far from over.   

 
                                                                ***

Brianne left the party early and drove into Jackson hoping to get in a
few hours of shopping before the stores closed up for the night.  After returning to her room and donning a pair of jeans and knit sweater, she’d run her hands over the slinky dress she’d worn to the party and knew in her heart that she was doing the right thing.  It was time to start behaving like the wife Chad wanted her.  It was also time to stop igniting desire in the eyes of men like Jake Malone with clothes that followed every curve and did more than hint at what was hidden beneath.  It would take several trips into town to replace her wardrobe but at least she would be able to show up at breakfast wearing something that would meet with Chad’s approval for once.

Ignoring the brightly colored skirts and dresses or anything that was meant to cling with its elasticity, Brianne sifted through the fine cottons, selecting items one or two sizes larger than she normally wore.
  Chad preferred to see her in dresses rather than slacks; it was only the length of her particular attire that he objected to, so she was careful to choose only those that went no higher than the top of her knees.  Oh, it was so depressing to pick out such bland colors, she thought as she steeped even more of the nondescript clothes over her arm.  But it would please Chad and that’s what she wanted, wasn’t it?

The night air was crisp and cold; even so she drove back to the hotel with the window rolled halfway down.
  She needed to clear her head and stop letting thoughts of Jake Malone invade every waking moment.  It was simply ludicrous to consider calling off her wedding just because she’d developed this obsession over the man, although her fascination with Jake was understandable.  He was her first lover…no, make that her
only
lover, and it had been truly wonderful so it only stood to reason that she would feel some emotional attachment.  All she had to do was keep some physical distance between them for the next month and then everything would go back to normal.  Well, except for the part where she had to convince Chad she was still a virgin.

Brianne pulled up to the hotel entrance and was immediately greeted by the parking Valet and a Bell Hop.
  Worn out from shopping and chilled to the bone from foolishly leaving the window down, she was grateful she didn’t have to do anything but stand back while the Bell Hop loaded all the bags and boxes onto a cart.  Unfortunately, once he dumped them on her bed, Bri realized she was going to have to look at them again and wasn’t altogether sure she had the stomach for it.  All she wanted to do at that moment was strip down and thaw out by jumping into a nice hot shower.  She’d just kicked her shoes off when there was a familiar tap on her door.

She should have been irritated.
  She shouldn’t even have opened the door at all.   But after forcing herself to buy all those mundane clothes and being responsible for all of two hours, Bri needed a little bit of herself to break free for a while.  Baby steps, she told herself as she hurried to the door.  Tomorrow, she would be good for a whole four hours and then maybe the next day she could tack on another hour or two.

Jake started apologizing the minute she opened the door.
  “I know it’s late and I’m probably the last person you want to see…”

“No, I…I’m glad you’re here.”

His face registered genuine surprise.  “Really?”

Laughing, Bri grabbed his hand and tugged him inside.
  “Don’t look so shocked.  I’m in dire need of a friend and you’re the closest thing I have to one right now.”

“That didn’t sound entirely like a compliment.”

Bri dropped down onto the sofa and curled her legs beneath her.  “Well I meant it as a compliment.  I’m comfortable with you, Jake.”  He arched a dubious brow as he sat down beside her.  “I know that sounds strange considering our conversation tonight, but it’s true.”  She looked down, plucking at an imaginary piece of lint.  “I can be myself with you and don’t feel like I have to make excuses for what I’m wearing or worry about saying something stupid.  And before you start in on me, I don’t want to talk about Chad or why I’m still going through with the wedding.”

“This may come as a surprise to you, but I’d rather not talk about your fiancé either.”

“Good,” she smiled.  “How long can you stay?  I was about to take a hot shower to get the chill out of my bones but it can wait if your time is limited.”

“There’s no hurry
.  I can stay as long as you want me to.”