JakesWildBride (16 page)

He rubbed a hand over his face. “You wanna help or what?”

“I’ll help.”

Jake gestured up the stairs. "There's an extra bedroom full of boxes. We’ll start in there."

Lilah climbed the stairs, feeling like an old woman.

Jake strode into the guest bedroom like a man facing execution. He squared his shoulders and turned to Lilah. "You take that box. She likes glittery stuff, so if you see anything you think she might like, put it in this box here.” He lifted up an empty box.

Lilah glanced at the list. Some porcelain figurines. Crystal stemware. His grandmother’s jewelry. Nowhere did it mention pictures of Jake.

She lifted the flaps on the dusty box and pulled out the first item. A baseball trophy.
MVP. Jacob Forrest
. “Would she want this?”

Jake looked up and snorted. “No.”

She realized she had been through most of this house and never seen a kid’s room. Lilah thought about it. “Where’s your bedroom?”

“What?” he asked absently.

“Your bedroom. From when you were a kid.”

“Oh. They remodeled before I left for boarding school.”

Right before he left? What kind of parents were these? Lilah traced the shaped of the baseball player in his ready to hit stance.

“There’s box over there labeled garbage. Toss it in.”

“Are you sure?”

“Lilah, she didn’t want me. She sure as sugar isn’t going to want a trophy from,” he lifted the hefty figurine. “1990.” He slam dunked it into the box.

“She didn’t want you?” She tried not to sound shocked.

“Nope.” He pulled out another trophy. This time for tennis.

“But--"

"Trust me.” Jake tossed the trophy into the box, wincing as it banged into the other ‘garbage’.

“They told you they didn’t want you?”

“I overheard them arguing, when I was eight, nine maybe. I don’t remember exactly.”

Lilah knew he was lying. She remembered the first time her father had told her she was evil. She would never forget it. And she had tried ever since to be a good person.

“You overheard them.”

“They were planning on getting divorced until I came along. They hated each other and they resented me. So they stayed together to give me a two parent home.”

She’d bet good money that was when Jake started turning into a troublemaker. It had probably happened overnight. The switch from sports star to wild boy.

Jake shrugged. “The best thing I ever did for her was leave.”

“She was a terrible mother,” Lilah said vehemently.

“Yeah.” He looked at her gently. “But I’m over it. Leaving was also the best thing I ever did for
me
.”

She wanted to know. “What made you leave?”

He avoided her eyes. “I realized one night that the only one I was hurting was me. And if I kept it up I would ruin my whole life just to get back at them. So I told my father I wanted to go to boarding school.”

His father. “He didn’t mind?”

“Honestly, he seemed relieved.” Jake hesitated a moment. “And he made the arrangements immediately.”

His father. The town doctor. The physician she’d gone to as soon as she’d told her aunt she was pregnant. Another thought occurred to her. “He tried to talk me out of keeping the baby.”

Jake looked up from his contemplation of another trophy. “Who?”

“Your father.”

“My father examined you?”

She blushed. “Don’t look like that.”

Jake grimaced. “I just really don’t want to imagine that he’s seen the same parts of you that I have. That’s a picture I really don’t want in my head.”

“He hasn’t. Hadn’t” she corrected.

“So what did dear old dad do?”

“He tried to talk me into giving the baby up for adoption.”

He had said she was doing herself and the child a disservice by keeping her.
Let someone who really wants a child in their life take the baby. They will thank you and the child will thank you.
But she remembered the sadness on his face when he’d said that.

Jake turned away from her. “That’s the gene pool I come from. And I’m a chip off the old block. I’m emotionally detached, remember?”

Jake seemed to be cautioning Lilah.

She wanted to tell him, his father seemed sad. “But--"

”Forget it, Lilah.” Jake ripped open another box. “It’s old news.”

***

Lilah ran for the bathroom.

Third time today. Jake got up slowly from the table and snagged a can of Sprite from the refrigerator. The truth of her pregnancy was beginning to sink in. She believed she was going to have a baby.

His baby.

What if she was right?

Lilah stumbled out of the bathroom and Jake handed her the can silently. He didn’t want her to be right. Even the fact that the top few buttons of her dress were open and her cleavage played peek-a-boo with his gaze couldn’t distract him.

“You okay?”

Her eyes were glazed with tiredness, but her look was distant. “Peachy.”

Jake helped her over to the kitchen table.

“If this,” he couldn’t bring himself to say the word. A coldness settled in his gut. He didn’t want children. “Is true. We have to make some decisions.”

“I already have a list.”

“You do?”

She gave him an exasperated look. “What did you expect me to do? Sit around and wait for you to take care of me?”

“Well, no.” He wouldn’t mind taking care of her. The idea shocked him, but it was true. He just didn’t want to take care of a baby. “I guess not.”

“I’m a big girl Jake. I’ve been taking care of myself for years.” She was acting distant, almost cold.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Once I throw up I feel much better.”

That wasn’t what he meant. And she knew it.

“We have to talk about,” he gulped again. “About this.”

Her face blanched.

“No, we don’t.” Lilah pushed out of her chair jerkily. She rounded the island and widened the chasm between them. She stared at him across the broad expanse of countertop. “You were right. We should wait until we know for sure.”

“But--"

"Just put it out of your mind, Jake.” Lilah grabbed a sponge and began wiping down the countertop on the island. “That’s what I did.”

Lilah was acting very remote. What the hell was wrong with her? Did she not want this baby? Jake’s coldness grew. Was he really going to repeat the mistakes of his parents? Was his baby going to grow up with a mother who didn’t love him?

No
. No child of his was going to be raised in a home without love.

“You were the one who was so hot to dismiss it. Why are you all of the sudden wanting to talk about this?” Lilah dropped the sponge and clasped her arms around her stomach.

“We need to discuss...stuff.” Prenatal care. Delivery. Day care. College. Jake began to sweat. He really didn’t want to talk about this yet. So why had he pushed?

Because Lilah was acting strangely.

“I don’t want to discuss stuff.” Lilah laughed bitterly. “Look at you, you can’t even say the word.”

“Baby.” Jake blew out a breath. He hadn’t been struck down dead. Of course, he also hadn’t acknowledged that the baby was his either. One step at a time.

“Baby.” Lilah’s face was deathly white.

She looked about as upset as he felt. “Oh my gosh.”

“The baby,” he said again firmly. Jake strode around the island to remove the physical barrier between them.

“We can’t talk about this. Talking about it will make it real.”

She didn’t want the baby to be real? “You don’t look very happy.”

“Gee, Jake,” Lilah said sarcastically. “A lot has to happen before I will get to the happy stage.”

He took a step closer to her. “Look I know you’re worried about this whole thing looking bad.”

“You think I’m worried about looking bad?”

“Yeah. You know, bad, wild, whatever.”

“You jerk!” She pushed him. “You really think I care about that right now?”

“Then what are you worried about?”

“I’m worried about the baby.” Fear hovered in her eyes. “What if I lose this baby?”

Jake stood there. Speechless. He hadn’t even thought about her feelings about the baby.

She clutched at her stomach protectively. “I don’t want to lose the baby.”

“Lilah, calm down.” Jake put his arms around her and pulled her close. “Don’t get yourself so upset.”

She took several deep breaths, blowing out through her mouth slowly.

He stroked a hand down her back and murmured nothings as she trembled. He tried to forget how silky smooth her skin felt. “It will be okay.”

“Jake, I want the baby. I want the baby.”

A tightness he hadn’t even realized was there, eased within him. “Okay.”

How could he have thought her cold? She wasn’t cold. She was terrified. Terrified to lose a baby that was still a fetus. Whose life could be counted in hours not days. What would it be like to have a mother like that? Jake’s mother hadn’t wanted him. But Lilah wanted her baby. There was no comparison.

“I want the baby.” Her head was buried in the curve of his neck and her breath blew against the sensitive curve of his ear.

“I know you do.” She wanted his baby.

They had made a baby together. In one night of hot, sweaty, mindless sex. They had created a life.

Lilah curved into his body. Jake tried not to respond as her breasts pushed against his chest. She was hurt, confused, scared.

And he had a hard on.

He shifted, hoping she wouldn’t notice.

Her arms went around his neck, and pulled him closer. He knew the exact moment when she realized.

“I know. I know. I’m a jerk.” He shifted slightly.

Lilah pressed her hips closer. Her nose nudged the tip of his earlobe.

Jake tried to step back. His erection was growing with every subtle pulse of her hips against him. “You, ah, can push me again later, when you’re feeling better.”

“I want to feel better now.” She nipped at his ear.

He should not be turned on right now. He should not.

“We shouldn’t do this.” Lilah had to hear the desperation in his voice.

“It’s a little late to worry about that now isn’t it?” Lilah pressed little kisses along his jawline.

“This won’t solve anything.” Jake tried to reason with her, but he couldn’t quite stop his hands from sliding down to cup her ass.

“I know.”

“We’re going to have the same problems.”

“But at least we’ll feel better.”

Jake wasn’t so sure about that. He tried to shock her into stopping. “It’s not dark out.”

“That’s okay.” Lilah cupped him through the heavy denim of his jeans.

Sweat beaded his brow. “We’re in the kitchen.”

She unzipped his pants, pushing them down to reach inside his briefs. “We’ll go upstairs.”

“Where is Miss Priss when you need her? To hell with it.” Jake lifted Lilah onto the island and worked at the buttons on her dress until her breasts were exposed. He brushed his knuckles along her nipples, smiling in satisfaction as her head tilted back in abandon.

A pretty pink flush spread over the pale skin of her breastbone. Her nipples poked through the sedate white cotton bra, begging for his mouth.

Jake scooped her breasts from the confinement of her bra and obliged. He pressed her breasts together and sucked both her nipples into his mouth.

"Oh my gosh." Lilah's hips rocked against his cock in time to the pull of his mouth. Her generous breasts, milky white and flush with arousal, spilled over his hands. Lilah squeezed her knees against his hips and burrowed her fingers through his hair. The scent of her rose between them as Jake licked his way down her body.

Lilah gripped his shoulders and pushed him upright. Then she shoved his jeans around his knees and wiggled out of her panties. "Oh my gosh, Jake."

His new four favorite words.

Jake knew he should wait. Should prep her more but suddenly he couldn’t delay one more second.

Jake pulled her toward his straining erection and sank into her hot, wet heat. Christ. She felt so good. Even if this was wrong. How could anything that felt this good be that wrong?

Lilah rocked into him, her bare buttocks perched on the edge of the Corian countertop. Lilah pulled his head up and smashed her mouth against his as her legs gripped his waist. Her slick channel fisted him as he powered in and out of her body. Lilah met him stroke for stroke.

And together they screamed over the edge.

Lilah slumped, her arms dangled over his shoulders and her legs fell limply from his waist.

Jake stood quietly as little shocks of release pulsed through him. She’d blown his mind. Once again.