JakesWildBride (3 page)

“This is none of my business.” Jake pushed the pedal down jerkily and sped down the street. Tom lived behind the church, about five minutes away. At the rate he was driving, they would be there in two.

“Slow down,” Lilah ordered.

“Just trying to get you over to Tom’s quickly.”

“Well, we don’t want a speeding ticket. Goodness, what would people think?”

“That we were trying to get someplace. Fast,” he answered drily.

“We have plenty of time. I’ll just go and we’ll get this misunderstanding all straightened out.”

She
would
be married tomorrow. And that’s all there was to it.

Jake shifted gears again and wished himself anyplace but in this car, in this town. He really didn’t want to be around for the next half hour or so, but he couldn’t leave Lilah at Tom’s. And there was no way Tom could bring Lilah home. Even when Jake had left him, Tom had still been half-skunked. Jake supposed he should warn her.

Screw it
. She wouldn’t believe him anyway. Jake had been there and
he
couldn’t believe how much scotch Tom had put away. He didn’t want to get sucked further into this melodrama.

She gripped the dashboard with white knuckles and he realized he’d sped up again.

“Slow down.”

He deliberately jammed on the brakes, so the tires squealed as they jerked to a stop behind a small foreign import in front of Tom’s house.

Jake stared at the quaint cottage with the cobblestone exterior and arched wood door. The place looked like something out of an old Grimm fairy tale. No fairy tale ending for Lilah. In that moment, he felt a flash of sympathy for her. She seemed like a nice enough person. A little too concerned about what other people thought, but who was he to judge?

Maybe he was too unconcerned about what other people thought.

Nah
.

Still, this was going to be tough on her.

“You can leave now.”

The feelings of tenderness evaporated. She issued the words in that butter-soft Southern accent, which could make the most vituperative command seem like a gentle request. The deceptively sweet tone reminded him of his mother and he stiffened.

“We’ll see you at the weddin’ tomorrow.” She dismissed him with a flick of those ocean deep blues.

It would serve her right if he did leave.

“I’ll wait,” he said neutrally. He owed it to Tom to at least see Lilah home after they were done. Jake slouched down in the seat of the car and pretended to close his eyes.

“Suit yourself.” Lilah practically flounced up the flagstone walkway, the frilly veil hitting her right in her prime ass.

Get your eyes off her butt, Forrest.

Jake watched through slitted eyes as she slowed when she neared the front door. She raised her hand resolutely toward the knocker, but before she could lift the heavy ring, the door swung open.

Ah hell. Suddenly the compact car in front of him made sense. Jake wrenched open the car door and ran up the walk, but it was too late.

Lilah stood frozen, her arm in mid-air.

Tom and Marion were lip-locked and wrapped around each other, their embrace silhouetted in the glow of the porch light over the door. One of Tom’s hands held the doorknob. The other fisted in Marion’s dark hair, while her arms were clenched tightly around his naked chest.

Lilah was gasping for breath as Jake leapt the last few feet to grab her by the arm. Lilah made a soft murmur of distress.

Tom broke off the kiss. His face was etched in horror. “Jake!”

“Marion?” Lilah wrenched her arm from Jake’s grasp.

“Lilah,” blurted out Marion.

Christ. It was like some bad sitcom. Only there was nothing funny about the devastation on Lilah’s face.

“Tom,” Lilah whispered. “How could you?”

She whirled and stumbled. She muttered a very un-ladylike curse. Maybe she wasn’t such a little Priss after all. Lilah righted, visibly pulled herself together and turned back to her ex-fiancé.

“How could you?” Then, Lilah drilled Jake with a look. “Let’s go.”

She straightened her shoulders and walked elegantly to his car.

Tom looked miserable in the soft yellow light. “Why did you bring her here?”

“Because she insisted she had to see you.”

“But I never meant to hurt her.” Tom stared down at his bare feet forlornly.

“Poor Lilah.” Marion sighed, and tugged her blouse up onto one shoulder.

“Yeah, well maybe you two should have thought of that before you cheated on her.”

“I didn’t--"

”Semantics, my friend.”

Tom took a step forward, then stopped. What the coffee hadn’t accomplished, the last few moments had. Jake could see that Tom was miserably sober.

“Can you do one more thing for me?”

Jake thought about how hard the first favor had been, but he owed Tommy. He did. Only he was pretty sure he wouldn’t like what was coming. “Yeah, sure.”

“Take care of Lilah tonight.”

Jake sighed. It looked like he was stuck with her for a little longer. And he tried to feel only frustration and disgust.

But that moment, when she’d been standing so close to him, gripping his shirt in her hands, kept coming back to intrude on his frustration and disgust. That moment when he’d had the insane urge to press his lips to hers.

That feeling of intense connection was haunting him. Stop. No connection. Lust. Yes, it was lust. Nothing else.

It couldn’t be anything but lust.

At least that’s what Jake told himself as he strode down the walk to the car.

Tom and
Marion?

“You okay?” Jake bent solicitously, to help her into the car.

Lilah shook her head slowly. Her arms, legs, and heart were brittle, like an old woman’s. This had to be a mistake. Her Tom wouldn’t do this. He knew how much she needed help. A queer sort of numbness stole over her body, and she felt as if she were floating.

In the back of her mind, she thought she really ought to be crying, but she had no tears. She was empty. One giant void. With nothing left to fill her, not sorrow, not anger, nothing.

She slid down into the luxurious leather of the fancy car and waited. The cocoon of the veil she still wore settled around her protectively, holding her in, holding back her scream of denial.

“You, ah, want to go home?”

“Could you….” Her throat, tight as a magnolia bud, made speaking difficult. She cleared it and started again. “Could we just drive around for a while?”

“Sure. Anyplace specific?”

“Anyplace fast.”

She caught his little grin of surprise and ignored it. After all, what did it matter if he was laughing at her? In another few hours the whole town would be laughing at her. She slumped down further in her seat.

Jake headed sedately for the highway.

This wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted fast. Fast and far, so she could forget and crush the numbness into something else. “Go faster.”

“Aren’t you worried about what people will think?” His voice was edged with laughter this time.

“They have bigger things to think badly of me for, so I might as well go for it,” she retorted.

The laughter was gone.

“No one will think this is your fault.” Jake hit the freeway and punched up their speed. “You, ah, want to talk about it?”

Oh, that was a heartfelt invitation. It was clear he didn’t even want to touch this. “No thank you.”

“Really. I might be able to help.”

“How could you help?” she scoffed. The edge of sarcasm prodded at her numbness.

“I was supposed to get married.”

That roused her out of her state of lethargy. “You dumped your fiancée and you think this will help me?”

“She dumped me,” he answered matter-of-factly. More as if he were talking about the weather, than a broken heart.

“You sound real choked up about it.” Then what he said hit her. “Who would dump
you
?”

“Hey, a compliment. I’ve moved up in the world.” He grinned at her and her heart stopped. He was downright sinful when he grinned, inclusive and private, like that. Like he had a secret only they knew. Like she was privy to something intimate and forbidden.

“Why? You must have some terrible deep dark secret.”

“Nope.” But his hands tightened on the steering wheel.

Her eyes widened at how rude she’d just been and she started babbling. “You leave your dirty laundry all over the house, you pick your nose at the dinner table--”

“I’m emotionally detached,” he said starkly.

“What?”

“That was her reason. She felt I was emotionally detached.” Jake’s voice was soft, calm, but the white knuckles of his fingers clenched on the padded leather wheel gave him away. So maybe Jake did know how Lilah felt.

“I’m so sorry.” Lilah laid a comforting hand on his arm. His warm, bare arm. The surge of attraction she’d felt earlier in the evening came back. She wanted to run her fingers along the corded muscles of his forearm. The heat from his body seared her and she pulled back quickly.

“It was true. She knew when we got engaged.” Jake shrugged. “If you want the truth, it was more devastating to my company when she broke it off, than it was to me.”

His words sounded cold, but there was a layer of something else she couldn’t figure out.

“How was it bad for your company?”

“She's one of my vice presidents, and she wants to leave to a competing firm.”

“Ouch.”

“Mmm.” He gave a non-committal hum. “I didn’t want her leaving to adversely affect my employees.”

He was a good guy.

The thought shocked her. It occurred to her that she knew nothing about the man. She was so used to thinking of him as a wild bad boy. Because all she really knew about Jake Forrest were stories from his youth. His and Tom’s.

Suddenly the awful truth hit her. Fighting with Jake, learning about his problems had distracted her.

“I’m really not getting married,” she whispered.

Ah, hell. Jake watched her facade crumble. The reality of her situation had just hit her. Please God, just don’t cry. He snuck a quick glance, but she didn’t seem to be crying. She just stared out the windshield at the blur of trees along the highway as dusk settled into the Louisiana countryside.

“What could have happened? How could Tom betray me like this?”

“I don’t think he meant to--"

”Answer a question,” she demanded.

“Ooookay.” He just hoped it was an easy one.

“They had, had just,” she sputtered, “you know.”

Jake could feel the color creep up his face and he couldn’t figure out why. ‘You know’ was the least explicit term he’d heard since he was fifteen. “Yeah.”

“But he was so
good
.” She wailed. “How could Tom do that with her when we’d never....”

Never
?

He didn’t realize he’d repeated never until she shot him a dirty look. The Priss queen was back.

“We were waiting until we were married,” she said primly.

Wow. Jake didn’t know what to say to that. The one question he wanted to ask wasn’t very appropriate.

“I haven’t had ‘you know’ in six years,” she said glumly.

Well, that answered that question. She wasn’t a virgin. Christ. How had Tom passed up sex with her while they were engaged? She had a body built for a wet dream and she’d been Tom's. Maybe she didn’t like sex. Yeah, that must be it. Miss Priss was frigid.

“I was really looking forward to tomorrow night. I
needed
tomorrow night.”

Apparently not frigid.

What did he say to that statement? How about tonight?

Jake blew out a frustrated breath as a vision of Lilah, naked and sweaty, popped into his mind. Her ice blond hair skimmed the tops of her absolutely magnificent breasts, cupped by his hands, as she rode him like a cowgirl.

Okay. Get a grip. Best friend’s fiancée.

Ex
-fiancée, his conscience whispered.

Still, a really bad idea.

“I’ve tried so hard. How am I ever going to do this without Tom?” She put her head in her hands, her veil a frosty cloud that cocooned her body.

Jake tried not to notice her neat, bare fingernails and long capable fingers. Or, when she hunched over, how the neckline of that awful dress gaped giving him his own peep show.

Focus on the conversation, pal
. Yeah, she can’t do this without Tom. He frowned. “Do what?”

“You wouldn’t understand.” Her shoulders shook.

Please, don’t be crying
.

Lilah straightened back up and turned to pierce him with a stare. “What did you do when she dumped you?”

“Got very, very, very drunk.”