Jake's Biggest Risk (Those Hollister Boys) (21 page)

“What’s that?” Jake asked grumpily.

“Necking in a car and getting busted by the cops with your pants unzipped.”

To her astonishment, he burst out laughing.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

H
ANNAH
FOCUSED
ON
the forestry vehicle moving slowly ahead of them on the road and was grateful that Jake remained silent. The first ten miles were the most nerve-racking since the elevation dropped quickly, but her watchful tension didn’t fully ease until the denser forest closed around them.

The forest ranger obviously agreed that the worst was over because he turned into the Silver Fir Campground and waved as they passed.

“Nice guy,” Jake commented at last.

“Who probably thought we were crazy as loons to go up to the point with bad weather predicted,” Hannah returned crisply. From now on she was checking the predictions herself
before
going anywhere with Jake.

“Don’t start on that death-wish thing again,” he warned. “I have a healthy appreciation for being alive. I just prefer taking a certain kind of photograph.”

What’s wrong with diversifying?
Hannah thought wryly. “Okay, I take back the near-death-wish thing, but your ‘certain kind of photograph’ could still get you killed.”

“Why do you care?”

“Because Danny idolizes you.”
Among other reasons.

“I didn’t mean for that to happen. I won’t tell him any more stories. Maybe that will help.”

Hannah smiled sadly, thinking about the way Jake had stopped taking pictures of Mount Baker because she might get wet. Or how he’d helped out after Badger and Danny got sprayed by the skunk. For that matter, his friendship with his longtime photography assistant was endearing. There was a good person inside Jake, even if he didn’t want to see it.

“It isn’t just the stories,” she said. “And Danny would think he’d done something wrong if you stopped telling them. But when you leave, he’s going to read about you on the internet and never stop hoping you’ll come back. He doesn’t have a father like his friends, but now he has heroic Jake Hollister, intrepid photographer, to look up to.”

“
Crap
. I’m no hero.”

“There are all kinds of heroes, Jake, including guys willing to take the time to tell stories to a kid. And if something ever happened to you...”

“I’m not reckless, Hannah.”

She no longer knew what to think. Her heart was too involved—so much that she’d found herself wondering if things could work out if they both made compromises. It wouldn’t change her concern about Danny losing someone he loved, but Jake
had
shown he could be a good father if he wanted to be.

Of course, it was ridiculous to have those thoughts. Jake was famous, both for his photographs and disreputable father. An internet search on his name turned up thousands of hits, and many art critics called him the Ansel Adams of the twenty-first century.

That was huge.

He’d end up in history books, be the subject of encyclopedia articles and was probably already in
Who’s Who in America
. That kind of man didn’t get serious about small-town schoolteachers.

Hannah flexed her fingers on the steering wheel, glad Jake had focused on his cameras, probably to avoid the awkward moment.

It was still wet, but the sun was peeping out through the clouds, creating a rainbow. In Washington the weather was often like that—it could be storming one minute, and the next minute sunlight could be glinting against rain-washed surroundings.

“See the rainbow?” she asked, pointing. It arced through a section of the sky, seeming to begin and end in turbulent, silver-crested clouds. “Jake,
look,
” she repeated.

“Uh, yeah,” he said, barely glancing up. Apparently rainbows didn’t inspire his photographer’s eye the way the steep slopes and ice of Mount Baker had done. He’d been fascinated by Mount Shuksan as well, thinking it
was
Baker when first spotted.

They turned off to stop at Nooksack Falls, and though it wasn’t a glacier-covered mountain peak, Jake spent the rest of the afternoon photographing the waterfall. Hannah read, occasionally watching him work, marveling that he could be surrounded by breathtaking beauty and still see no mystery or wonder in it.

Finally Jake packed his cameras away again.

“I’ll drive,” he said as they put his equipment back in the cargo area. “So you can get some rest...in case you’re interested in continuing what we started earlier.”

“I’m interested.”

Making love with Jake could make things harder in the end, but at the moment she didn’t care.

Jake’s eyes gleamed, yet he insisted they drive all the way to Bellingham for lodging...then asked for two rooms at the registration desk, albeit
adjoining
rooms.

It was a nice hotel, the kind with bellhops, and one of them helped bring their belongings up to their rooms, though Jake moved his own photographic equipment. While he didn’t seem to mind
her
handling his gear, he wouldn’t let anybody else touch it.

“Thank you, sir. Is there anything else?” the bellhop asked eagerly after receiving a generous tip. Until then he’d been polite but not enthusiastic. Now it seemed he couldn’t do enough for them. “Money talks” wasn’t a cultural lesson Jake needed to learn about America, or maybe it was just true of most cultures.

“No, that’s all.”

When they were alone, Jake held up the plastic card key for her room. “It’s your decision.”

Hannah took the key and lobbed it over his head, into the room beyond. Even if it
was
a mistake to have sex with Jake, she’d made her decision.

He smiled and took a step backward. “Please, come in.”

“Don’t mind if I do. May I freshen up?”

“Not at all. My house is your house.” He stopped and grinned.
“Literally.”

She went into the bathroom and nearly screamed at the sight of her hair, mussed and barely contained by its French braid. If the forest ranger
hadn’t
guessed what they’d been doing behind those fogged windows, he was unbelievably naive. Undoing the braid, she combed her hair as much as possible with her fingers.

When she came out, the connecting doors between the two rooms were open and Jake was examining his wallet. “I’m going to run downstairs for a moment,” he said, looking up.

Oh, great
.

He needed condoms. It was a good thing they’d been interrupted earlier; she could imagine his reaction to a potential pregnancy. She wasn’t sure how she’d feel about it herself. While she wanted another child, she didn’t have a future with Jake, and it wasn’t easy being a single mother of
one
kid, much less two. And would she be making the same mistake she’d made with Steven? Hadn’t she learned anything in the past eight years?

Hannah showered quickly and changed into a nightshirt from her bag. It wasn’t romantic or sensual, but better than clammy jeans. She turned back the bed and sank back on the pillows, hoping Jake would hurry...and that the hotel gift shop carried what he’d gone looking for.

* * *

J
AKE
WALKED
AROUND
the small shop in the lobby and finally located a discreet display of condoms. There were several different kinds, and he grabbed a box without paying attention to which one it was. Protection was protection; the important thing was using it. And normally protection was something he was
very
careful about, which made the interlude at Artist Point disturbing for more than one reason. He hadn’t been carrying anything with him, and he wasn’t convinced they would have stopped if they hadn’t been interrupted.

Of course, Hannah might have had a cooler head and put the brakes on, but there were no guarantees.

Hannah was different from the women he’d known before...though he didn’t want to think about those differences too much. Nevertheless, surely she understood that he wasn’t someone to plan her future around. He frowned as he waited in line to pay for the condoms. Maybe he should talk to her and be sure they were seeing the situation in the same way, even if it cast a chill on things.

Back at the room he walked in and saw Hannah in the bed.

“My clothes were still damp,” she said, gesturing to the oversize T-shirt she wore. Clearly she’d discarded her bra along with the rest of her clothes, and his mouth went dry.

“Uh, Hannah,” he said, sitting on the edge of the mattress. “You remember that I’m...well, not
permanent
. Right? This is a break...a vacation from our real lives.”

She rolled her eyes. “Just shut up and kiss me.”

“Is that a movie quote?”

“I think so.” Hannah frowned. “Probably. Hell, I don’t know. Ask me when I care.” Wiggling a little, she pulled off her T-shirt and threw it across the room.

Any thought of doing the prudent thing flew instantly out of Jake’s head. His view of her on the hood of the Jeep had only been a taste of better things. He sat on the bed and fastened his gaze on the rounded slopes of her breasts, her quickening breaths causing them to rise and fall.

He put his finger on the hollow of her throat and slowly drew it down, tracing each responsive peak in turn.

Her hands reached for his arms and she arched backward into the pile of pillows. He teased her nipple with the tip of his tongue, then blew on it. A satisfying squeak sounded in Hannah’s throat. Jake opened his mouth around her, drawing hard on the sensitive crest, loving the restless shifting of her legs.

He trailed his right hand down along her waist, finding the curve of her hip and sliding his fingers between her thighs.

* * *

H
ANNAH
GASPED
.

It had been so long since she’d been with a man that she instinctively clenched her legs before relaxing them. He brushed the apex, teasing and tempting before easing into her core. Almost instantly wave after wave of pleasure shuddered through her body.

When her heart finally slowed, she opened her eyes to see Jake watching her intently.

“Don’t get too smug,” she ordered. “And you’re way overdressed...except for a condom. You did get condoms, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I got them, and it would be a shame if they went to waste.”

Hannah levered her way to a more upright position, using extra shoulder action, which drew his attention back to her breasts.

“I agree. About all those clothes...?” she said deliberately.

“You want to help?”

“I’d rather watch.”

Jake slid off the bed and pulled his shirttails free at the waist before beginning to unzip his jeans, at which point Hannah started humming.

He stopped. “What’s that?”

“A striptease deserves music. That’s ‘Let Me Entertain You’ from
Gypsy
. It’s a movie about a famous stripper.”

“Another movie, huh?”

“Growing up I used to regularly spend weekends at Huckleberry Lodge, especially after my great-uncle passed away. Great-Aunt Elkie loved movies. She had all the cable channels, and the guy from the video store would come out every week to show her the list of new releases. She ordered
a lot
of them.”

Kicking his pants across the room, Jake stood with his boxers only.

“Why don’t you help me? I dare you.”

The sexy glint in his eyes was part laughter, part white-hot heat. Hannah climbed to her feet and had the satisfaction of seeing Jake’s chest contract as she deliberately brushed her breasts against his arm. She slid her fingers under the waistband of his boxers.

Jake clearly had more experience than she did, but she refused to show any uncertainty.

“Do you enjoy this?” she asked, stroking down the lower part of his belly, finding his erection and exploring it, then tugged his shorts free until they dropped to the floor.

He didn’t say anything, but his groan told Hannah all she needed to know.

“Not bad, Mr. Hollister,” she murmured. She pushed him onto the middle of the bed and studied his body the way he’d examined hers. There were the scars, some jagged, some others straight and even. His body was also lean and muscular and incredibly well formed. Dropping to her knees next to him, she deliberately let her hair trail up his legs, a strangled sound coming from Jake’s throat.

* * *

J
AKE
COULDN
’
T
STOP
another groan from escaping his chest. Hannah wasn’t behaving the way he’d expected. She’d looked at his scars, but hadn’t expressed sympathy or shown any particular curiosity. Instead she’d gone straight to seductive moves that were making his blood boil.

Opening the box of condoms, she pulled one out and dropped it on his stomach with a challenging smile.

He pulled her down on top of him, wrapping his arms around her slender waist and fastening his mouth on hers. Hannah tasted sweet, and he slowly rolled on his side to look at her as the condom slid against her belly.

Picking it up, he brushed his fingers against her neck, across her breasts and down to tease the soft curls at the apex of her legs. She squirmed.

“Slowpoke,” she gasped. “I’m one up on you.”

“Watching your pleasure is...pleasurable, as well.”

“Sadist. Right now, you’re just torturing me.”

Suddenly unable to wait any longer, he jerked the package open.

“Let me.” Hannah rolled it over his erection, and the minute she was done, he tugged her on top of him. She was hot and ready, and they moved together like waves surging and ebbing, yet the pressure inside only grew and grew until he couldn’t restrain it any longer.

* * *

T
HE
NEXT
MORNING
Hannah woke up before dawn and quietly tiptoed into the adjoining room with her bag. Having sex with Jake couldn’t be repeated. It was exactly what he’d said: a vacation from their real lives.

Yet when she looked back at him lying sprawled naked on the mattress, her abdomen tightened all over again.

Look at the scars,
she reminded herself. Death wish or not, there were plenty of them, a clear indication of the risks he willingly took.

Jake’s leg, broken in the plane crash, was punctuated with red lines where the surgeon had pieced it back together. A six-inch jagged mark on his opposite thigh had the earmarks of a horrific gash that had probably healed without benefit of stitches. There were three long white slashes over his right ribs that looked suspiciously like claw marks. His knuckles and hands had dings and bashes, some older, some looking more recent.