Faded Cotton (Erotic Romance) (5 page)

“Seth, why is the other drivers seat
empty?”

Seth dismissed her question with his hand and
ushered in the serving staff for the first course. A crisp green
salad laden with sweet vinaigrette was served, capturing everyone’s
attention. The water was clear and refreshing from deep red goblets
with clear stems. The bartender delivered mixed drinks and American
brewed beer.

“I like to keep my friends happy! To good
friends, family, love and happiness! Cheers!” Seth raised his glass
in toast.

Lifting her glass, Laurel realized Jen
Delaney was obviously uncomfortable.

“For Pete’s sake, Adam! Uncuff and ungag the
girl!” Adam reddened at the laughter all around.

“She won’t shut up and she keeps trying to
run off!” He protested, grinning.

A very muffled noise came from his beautiful
captive, “_uh_ _ew!!” The room erupted in laughter; even the guards
in the room lost their composure. No one had mistaken her response;
“Fuck you!” was pretty clear, even through a gag.

Laurel sought to quell the situation,
“Captain Delaney, please stay for dinner.” She took a sip of water
and then added, “...actually you have to, because you
ain’
getting off of this damn island any sooner than me!” Laurel turned
a warm smile toward the young lithe blonde.

Jen’s stomach growled and she slumped,
looking up at her captor.

“Undo the lovely Captain, my dear,” Laurel
commanded.

Jen’s eyes shot daggers at Adam MacClain as
he leaned over to whisper to her, his lips accidentally brushing
her ear, “No one here will hurt you. This is for your own
good.”

He cautiously removed the silk scarf gag and
unlocked the cuffs. She rubbed her wrists, wiped her mouth with the
back of her hand, and adjusted her seating. She was red-faced,
partially from embarrassment, partially from being so uncomfortable
in the presence of Adam MacClain. Looking at the table, she
identified her goblet and grabbed the drink.

She chugged the icy water. Emptying the
vessel, she set it down with a tap on the wood table and surveyed
the exits. Laurel noticed.

“Jen, dear, forget it. There are more guards
here than Custer had horses. Enjoy your dinner. I know these guys.
You are here for the duration, honey.”

Adam replaced Jen’s glass with his full one
in an apologetic gesture. Adam caught her gaze for a moment.
Unaccustomed to being restrained, Jen was seething.

Jen Delaney was just as turned on, as she was
furious. Her captor was as gentle as he was handsome. He had to
chase her down more than once, but was never rough. His touch was
exciting
. Calm down girl
, Jen thought to herself. Good
grief, it had been a while.

She considered it and couldn’t remember the
last time she had even had a date. She didn’t have time for that.
Her emotional side had her thoughts scattered and she needed to
refocus. She met Laurel’s eyes and relaxed a bit. Dinner. That is
what she needed to focus on.
Sit tight, eat.
Her
self-preservation instincts took over.

Laurel, not wanting to press the perched Jen
Delaney into bolting and disrupting dinner, redirected the
conversation. She was used to taking the hostess’s role and took
over naturally in the absence of the mystery guest, whose seat of
honor was still empty. “Seth—our main course?”

With a nod, the serving staff quickly filed
in and out, removing empty plates, replacing them with a delicious,
tender steak, and steamed vegetables—American cuisine in the
islands. She loved it.

As the group was nearing the end of the main
course, conversation and laughter filled the room. Family,
politics, real estate, horses, and ‘SEAL talk’ dominated the
conversations. Laurel was enjoying being together with all of them.
More drinks came, and each guest finally seemed at ease.

Just as Laurel started to relax, the doors to
the sitting area opened and the guards snapped to attention, as did
the rising Navy personnel. Captain LaGrande had entered the room
with an authoritative countenance. He took his position at the end
of the table.

“At ease, men.” It took a millisecond to
register in Laurel’s mind who the mystery guest was.

Laurel wasted no time letting Jake LeGrande
know just how she felt about him. Twenty-eight years of bottling up
the pain he caused her, made the tectonic plates of her conscience
shift; the result was violent.

“Jake,
why
am I here?” Laurel’s rage
was obvious.

“Sweetheart, we can discuss the details
later.” He took a deep breath.

Aimed at Jake LeGrande’s head, a sharp steak
knife sailed with deft precision, and a
whoomph,
over the
center of the table. It stuck with a reverberating
thud
in
the wall post behind his head. He had ducked just in time.

Jakes voice was deep, stern, and remarkably
calm.

“Study. Now.” He pointed through the French
doors and she got up from the table to follow him with a storm of
questions. What the hell was the meaning of all this? Why was the
bastard in charge? Did he think a son of a bitch like him could
keep her here? She has hurling insults and décor at him at the same
time.

Seth closed the doors behind them and nervous
chuckles rose from the guests hearing the heated exchange. More
laughter came as they heard the sound of a vase shattering.

“Dessert anyone?” Seth smiled nervously.

__________________________

“Laurel, calm down, please,” Jake pleaded
with her, ducking the vase. “Give me a chance to explain.” He knew
she would be mad at the way things had been handled, but he had no
choice. When she was tired of throwing things at his head, she
quieted, but was still mad.

“You bastard. You have an explanation,
now
? Do you think I trust you now one iota after what you
did to me? You intolerable fuck!! Have it all figured out now, just
like then? Ugh! I hate you!”

“I know I hurt you. I was a kid for God’s
sake! It was twenty-eight years ago. I didn’t have the balls to
tell my father to go to hell, that I lov....”

She cut him off. “And so you suddenly have
grown a pair and you think you know what’s best for me now? You
intolerable fuck!”

“You said that once already,” he chuckled
softly.

“Uuhhh!!” She turned her back to him,
attempting to compose herself. It didn’t work. Jake had to duck to
his right this time.

He shook his head, “You never could hit the
broadside of a barn,” he grinned softly and crossed his arms.

Hot tears streamed down her weary face,
exhaustion had taken any sense of reason and calm away from her.
Interrupted only by her sniffs, a long silence filled the room.

Jake uncrossed his arms and stepped toward
her. “Laurel, please, this is for you, to keep you safe. I couldn’t
live with myself if something happen to you.” Emotion gripped him,
his normal cool demeanor replaced by anguish that contorted his
face.

“What do you give a shit?” She quivered,
upset and exhausted. Eying the Ming Dynasty vase on display to her
left, Jake strode up quickly and quietly behind her before she had
a chance to grab it. She tried valiantly to escape his grasp as he
snaked his arms around her. Her resolve floated away, and she
surrendered. His arms felt so good, tight around her. Her body’s
response made her mad at herself.

Laurel’s voice wavered, she barely whispered,
“Jake, let me go.”

Letting out a deep sigh of regret, he relaxed
his arms. “Can we talk about this quietly now?”

She shrugged as if to shrug off the invisible
hold he still had on her. “I want to know why I’m being held here,”
she said quietly. “What does this have to do with you or any of
them?” She waved a hand toward the dining room. “A good number of
people I love are sitting in that room, probably in some kind of
danger, and I’m even more worried for the ones that aren’t
here.”

He took a deep breath. “It’s classified.”
Jake was aggravated and losing patience.

“Bullshit!”

Jake, growled. “I can’t tell you any more,
maybe later, but not now. The barn fire and you losing your brakes
are not coincidental. Laurel, somebody wants you dead. It’s what I
can do. I can control this situation; I don’t have the same
security measures available to me in the States. I did this so I
can protect you and them.” Jake gestured back over his shoulder to
the dining room.

Laurel looked around the huge study with its
wall-to-wall bookshelves, large bar, and extensive collection of
expensive artwork. The leather chairs made her think of home.

“What about the farm? The horses, the
cattle?”

Jake attempted to reassure her. “We have a
trained team of people that are taking care of everything. Adrianne
and her family are guarded. Believe me, everyone you are even
remotely connected to has protection.”

“So how is it that I am suddenly a matter of
‘national security’, hmmm?”

He shook his head knowing he couldn’t explain
everything to her yet.

“Sweetheart, I’m going to do everything I can
to take care of you. Just think of this as a grand vacation,
please.”

Jake
did
want to protect her and see
her happy. He loved her, why couldn’t she see that? The twist in
his stomach made him feel like he’d taken a nine-inch blade to his
gut. She’d said it. She hated him. He couldn’t stand the ache. He
looked at her once more, turned, and walked out the door toward the
beach. He had to distance himself from her so he could think.

__________________________

If only he hadn’t bowed to his father’s
demands. If only he’d had the balls at eighteen that he had now, no
one would have been able to sway him. For the first time in a long
time, Jake LeGrande gave in to emotion.
Big ole’ tough Navy
SEAL, yeah right.
Yeah, tough, except when it came to her, only
her.

Why he let things go so far as to walk away
from Laurel, he would never know. The only good thing about that
was his son, Jess. Jake sat in the sand and buried his head in his
hands, elbows propped on his knees. How could he have let his
father convince him that Laurel wasn’t for him, that he should
marry a “good girl” like the preacher’s daughter, Sue?

Seven years of his life, he had wasted trying
to make that woman happy, just to come home from a mission and find
her gone, his son left with his parents. She didn’t say a word when
she ran off with the Pentecostal revivalist that she later wrote,
“moved her”. The note on the kitchen table had said, “I don’t love
you,” and that was all. Their divorce had been quick and
uncontested. She got nothing. He’d given up everything.

Jake walked down the beach to get some air
and lit a stogie. Not a habit he partook of much, but when things
twisted him up, it helped him feel in control again. Thoughts of
Laurel crashed into each other. All those years he had watched over
Laurel and Adam to make sure they were taken care of. She’d said
she hated him, and it stung hard.

He’d been mesmerized by her from the first
time he’d sat behind her in high school Algebra class. Her long,
golden brown tresses falling on his desk when she leaned her head
back, made it difficult to leave class on more than one
occasion.

Here she was, together with him, more
beautiful than the last time he’d kissed her. But she hated him. He
wondered if he would be able to make her see, what he had done,
he’d done for them.

__________________________

Laurel sat alone in the study. She’d never
had an explanation from Jake and she didn’t think it was going to
make a difference now. Jake had never shown up that afternoon at
the ice cream shop on Fifth Street. The red and white 1950’s décor
style restaurant, with its chrome-trimmed tables, would come to
hold some of the best and worst of her memories.

The whole town knew before she did that Jake
was going to marry Sue. The pain had outweighed the humiliation by
a mile. She smiled to herself. That was, of course, how she got
together with Jahn.

She’d driven her sister, Addy, to work at
Summer Dairy and then picked up feed and supplies for her dad.
Addy’s shift was short so Laurel waited for her. Addy was on break
when she had told her what she had heard about Jake getting
married. No wonder she hadn’t heard from him in days. Laurel sat in
a booth alone to wait for Addy to finish, tears streamed down her
cheeks making hard splats on the flat, red surface of the table as
she stared into space.

Jahn had come in with a rowdy bunch of
friends, but she hadn’t noticed any of them. Jahn always thought
Laurel was beautiful. He talked to her at school whenever he got
the chance, but he knew she was seeing Jake. Respectful of another
man’s territory, he had kept his distance for the most part. Jahn
MacClain wasn’t going to stand by and watch the girl cry her eyes
out, though. She tugged at his heart.

She was buried in painful thought and staring
through a veil of hot tears when Jahn slid into the seat across
from her. He pulled out several napkins from the holder and placed
them in front of her. She slowly looked at him, her mind
questioning why he was there.

“Umm, you got a little ...uh....” He took a
napkin and cleaned her face, snot, tears, mascara and all.

“That’s better,” he said and took her chin in
his hand. “Why so sad?”

“Sue fucking Treese,” she said barely
audible.

“Huh?” He wasn’t quite sure what she
said.

“Sue Treese,” she slammed her fist on the
table and the words came louder.

“Sue fucking Treese, he’s marrying that
BITCH!”

“Whoa there, cowgirl,” Jahn shot up, slipped
an arm around her and guided her out of the booth, moving past his
buddies with an apologetic shrug. By that time, she had a full head
of steam, and the whole restaurant knew about “Sue fucking
Treese”!