JakesWildBride (13 page)

Although some of the thoughts that ran through her head during church were definitely not proper. Church brought her thoughts right back around to Tom.

“What was he thinking?”

Jake seemed to understand instantly. “He was trying to show his support for you.”

“By embarrassing me?” Lilah sighed. “You’re right. I just wish he could have shown his support a few days later.”

“Wouldn’t have been as effective. Face it, Lilah, he did you a favor.”

“I guess.” Intent on her own problems, Lilah ran smack into the back of Jake when he stopped suddenly.

“Brandi?”

“No, thank you,” Lilah replied. “I don’t really care for it, besides it’s much too early in the day for spirits.”

“Jake.”

Who was that? Lilah peered around Jake’s arm. A woman stood in front of the porch swing, her stance slightly combative.

“What are you doing
here
?”

Oh my gosh. Lilah didn’t need the animosity in Jake’s voice to tell her he wasn’t happy. The stiff set of his shoulders did that all on their own.

“I used the ticket you gave me.”

Lilah peered around Jake’s shoulder again. Brandi looked like her name sounded. Brown hair, cut in a pageboy, but highlighted with overtones of gold around her face. A skin-tight, cap sleeve shirt hugged her body in a most scandalous way, and left a gap of tanned skin open at her hips before the capri jeans covered her down to her calves.

“Use the other half and go home.”

Brandi flinched.

“Look, sorry.” Jake rubbed a hand through his hair. “It’s been a long morning. Why the hell are you here?”

“It’s about work, and other things.”

Jake stood there, immovable. Lilah couldn’t help but wonder at the wounded look in her eyes. It looked a whole lot more personal than work-related.

“Jake. Let’s go inside and offer your friend some lemonade.”

Jake started at Lilah’s hand on his forearm. He’d forgotten she was there. She could tell by the way his muscles stiffened.

“Sure. Excellent idea. Come on in. We’ll have a party.”

Brandi looked from Lilah to Jake. “Maybe this is a bad time.”

“No. We just arrived from church.” Lilah shouldered her way past Jake and introduced herself to Brandi.

“You went to church?” Brandi’s eyes widened and darted to Jake.

“Yeah. And now I’m h...back.” Jake shoved the key in the lock.

Lilah pushed open the door and chattered to cover the uneasy silence between Jake and Brandi. “You’ll have to excuse the mess. We just opened up the house yesterday and things are still in a bit of disarray.”

Lilah charged ahead into the kitchen, and pulled out a pitcher of fresh squeezed lemonade, courtesy of Mrs. Conroy. “Wait until you taste this. It’s the best lemonade in the county. Why, Mrs. Conroy has won a blue ribbon ten years running.”

Brandi followed slowly. She looked around the kitchen as Lilah poured tall glasses then garnished them with a sprig of fresh mint.

She handed a glass to Brandi. The other woman just stared at the glass for a few moments, then accepted it. She took a sip and then set down the glass with a snap and straightened her shoulders.

“Excuse me. I don’t remember Jake ever mentioning a Lilah. So I have to ask. Just who are you?”

Lilah opened her mouth and then realized she didn’t know what to say. I’m the bride who didn’t get married to Tom but who did get married to Jake. She had a feeling Brandi didn’t want to hear that.

What did Jake want her to say?

She looked over to him for help. He leaned against the door frame at the entrance to the kitchen, arms crossed over his chest with a lazy, amused expression on his face. He'd obviously gotten over his mad. “She’s my wife.”

“Wife!” Brandi’s gaze shot to him, and her face whitened. “You’re married?”

“As of about thirty-six hours ago. We’re newlyweds.”

“Married? To her?” Brandi waved toward Lilah and it wasn’t flattering.

The gesture pierced Lilah’s heart. A man like Jake could never want her. Although, this woman had no right to say so. Especially so incredulously. Lilah bit her bottom lip, to stop herself from saying something inappropriate.

Jake just leaned against the door jamb and smirked.

“You are married to her?” Brandi’s disbelief was clearly evident.

“Is that so impossible?” Lilah couldn’t eliminate the snap from her voice.

“Yes,” Brandi cried.

“Why?”

“Because he’s supposed to get married to me!” Brandi thumped her chest with the flat of her hand.

Oh great, the ex-fiancée.

“You jerk.” Brandi leapt the two feet toward him and swung her palm at his face.

Jake figured he deserved it, so he braced for the slap.

Lilah snagged Brandi’s wrist, and stopped her hand from connecting with his cheek.

“Jake is not a jerk,” Lilah said quietly. “I believe that you were the one who called off your wedding.”

Brandi wrenched her wrist away from Lilah, but Lilah held tight.

“He was supposed to come after me,” Brandi wailed.

That was news to him. “You told me you wanted out.”

Lilah let go of Brandi’s wrist and backed toward the parlor. Jake caught the movement in his peripheral vision and gave a slight shake of his head, hoping she’d take the hint. He really didn’t want to be alone with Brandi.

Brandi slumped. “I was just trying to get you to love me.”

“So you leave?” he said sarcastically.

“I’m sorry.” Tears pooled in her eyes. She squeezed her eyes closed and tears tracked down her face.

Ah, hell. Not tears. Jake looked at Lilah. She mouthed, ‘Put your arms around her,’ complete with gestures.

Awkwardly, Jake put his arms around Brandi and patted her back. A few months ago, he'd be thrilled about this but now? He felt...nothing. Brandi slumped against his chest and began to sob.

Jake wondered about that nothing. He’d been ready to marry this woman. He’d thought he loved her. He looked down at her body and admitted she still looked damned good. Sexy as hell. Her clothes magnified her assets. And if she’d told him this stuff one month ago, hell even one week ago, he probably would have jumped. Yet, now he felt nothing. No desire. No attraction.
Nothing
.

He respected her business acumen, admired her social abilities, but he suddenly understood that he’d never loved her. He had given it his best but he hadn’t loved her. And she had known what was missing.

“How did you know I didn’t love you?”

Brandi flinched at his words. She stepped out of his arms and wiped at the tears on her face with a steady hand.

“I just knew.”

A flash of white at the doorway caught his eye as Lilah slipped from the room. Lilah. She’d made him feel more in two days than Brandi had in two years. And somehow, loose dresses, buttoned from calf to collarbone, turned him on way more than skin tight clothes.

Jake caught himself staring at the doorway, smiling.

“How’d she do it?” Brandi eyed him speculatively.

“What?” Jake focused back on Brandi. “Do what?”

“You don’t even know.” Brandi looked at him assessingly. "Where did you kiss me for the first time?”

“Where did that come from?” Jake swore to God if he lived to be a hundred he’d never understand the female mind. Where did they come up with this stuff?

“You don’t remember,” Brandi said flatly.

He had the grace to look embarrassed. He didn’t remember.

“Where’d you kiss her for the first time?”

Up on a stage in front of Elvis. Not bad for Miss Priss. If he hadn’t thought it would hurt Brandi’s feelings, Jake would laugh. As it was, he realized if he lived to be a hundred, he would never forget that moment. Jake shifted away from her. “That’s hardly appropriate.”

She laughed. “Since when did you care about appropriate, Jake.”

He didn’t say anything. He was still pondering that he’d never forget that kiss.

“I wasted my time.” She picked up her traveling suitcase. “Have a good life.”

She hesitated, then leaned up and pressed a slow, lingering kiss on Jake’s mouth.

And he felt nothing.

***

Lilah wandered around his dad’s office wondering how Jake's talk with Brandi was going. Wondering if they were going to patch things up. Wondering why the thought of that hurt in a place deep inside.

She trailed a finger along the spines of the books that lined the shelves and mentally catalogued the various mementos from trips or friends.

She frowned and looked again. There were no pictures of Jake. She prowled around the office and made sure she wasn’t wrong.

But there were no pictures of Jake anywhere.

Lilah lifted the sheet covering the desk and folded it into a neat little square. She studied the top of the desk. No pictures of Jake here, either.

The click of the front door closing interrupted her discovery.

Jake walked toward the open French doors, but he stopped at the entrance and didn't set foot inside the room.

“Is she?” Lilah cleared her throat and tried to keep the surprise out of her voice. “Did Brandi leave?”

“Yeah.” He looked pensive. Jake glanced around the room, a grimace on his face.

“Are you okay?”

“What?” Jake glanced up from his contemplation of the sofa. “Oh. Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.”

“Is she coming back?”

“Somehow, I don’t think so.”

Those words struck a deep chord of happiness in her heart. But even more importantly, Jake was smiling. And when he smiled, he took her breath away. His eyes crinkled at the corners and laughter creased his face.

“So you’re okay.”

He continued to hesitate in the doorway. Lilah had a feeling this room didn’t hold too many good memories for him. Then Jake walked over the threshold and came up in front of her. He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek. “I’m great.”

He examined her with an intensity that was disconcerting. His gaze traced her body from her toes to her head. Lilah could feel the sexual ferocity in that look. Her whole body tightened and she tried not to remember their wedding night. But, oh my gosh, it was hard when he looked at her that way. They’d agreed, not to do this again. And Lilah knew she needed to stop him.

“Tell me about your daddy.”

Jake’s smiled disappeared immediately. Interesting how each time he’d been on the brink of kissing her, she’d brought up his parents and his mood changed in a blink.

He stepped back. “Why do women have this fascination for things in the past?”

“Just a quirk of genetics, I guess.”

Jake was silent.

“Your father?” She pulled the sheet off the sofa as she waited complacently for him to answer.

“Okay fine.” Jake shrugged. “My dad was the town doctor. Respected by all. Loved by his patients. How’s that?”

Lilah folded the sheet slowly. “Doesn’t tell me what kind of father he was.”

“He was a lousy father.” Jake glared at the sofa, then plopped down on the creaky leather. “The town Saint, Doctor Forrest was a lousy father. Are you happy?”

Lilah placed the sheet on the end table and sat down beside him. His scent, unique to him, drifted closer. Ignoring the way her heart sped up at his nearness, Lilah tried to understand him.

“What did he do?”

“Nothing. That’s the whole point. He did nothing.”

Jake looked defiant as he propped his feet up on the coffee table, the muscles in his legs flexed against the black dress pants. Lilah tried not to remember how those legs had supported her while she’d been wrapped around him. Naked.

“I’m luckier than most kids. He didn’t beat me or,” he tossed a significant look at her, “verbally abuse me. He just didn’t pay any attention to me–beyond making sure I stayed out of his office.”

Her heart ached for that little boy. But it was the man she needed to soothe.

“It must feel nice to realize that Brandi really did want you.” Lilah subtly tried to draw a parallel between Brandi and his father, but working with men wasn’t something she was familiar with. She mostly counseled young girls who, overall, were a whole lot more in touch with their feelings.

“Let’s just drop it.”

Her heart was breaking for the rejected boy still trapped inside of him. “This room has a lot of bad memories for you, huh?”

Jake edged closer to her. He uncrossed his arms and slung one over her shoulder. “You wanna help me?” He smiled.

Lilah licked her lips. She’d seen that smile, right before he’d suggested they do something wicked. “Depends.”

Jake edged closer. His palm dangled in the air, hovering over her breast. Her nipples tightened.

“Depends on what?”

“How.” Lilah tried to form a coherent sentence, but Jake’s other hand had come up to toy with a strand of her hair. His fingers brushed the sensitive line of her collarbone. Who knew? Oh, she wanted him to touch her. “How you want me….”