Wild Fire (The Fairy Tale Match Series) (28 page)

“How can you say that? She is
listening to him. She could easily accept what he says and where does that
leave things?” Walter frowned.

“Don’t get yourself into a snit!”
Victoria sneered. “You’re only worried you won’t get the chance to sample her
charms yourself. What you and Jake see in her I can’t imagine.”

“I don’t suppose you can. But again,
what now?”

“Oh don’t worry yourself. Now comes
my favourite part. I will put the final nail in the coffin of their
relationship. It really won’t take much.” She laughed nastily. The sound of a
second knock had both of them jumping in fright. Silently, Victoria shoved
Walter into the bathroom, a finger on her lips advising him to stay silent.

She opened the cabin door, a sexy
smile on her lips, sure it would be Jake on the other side. Instead she found a
small woman with tightly bound hair and a pair of glasses perched on her nose.

“Hello, I’m Miss Porter, the manager.
I am so sorry to trouble you, but I have been asked to contact you by Mr
Carter. He has requested for me to give you a full refund with his apologies
but the cabin has been incorrectly booked. He asks for you to please find
alternate accommodations with immediate effect.” The woman coughed nervously,
handing Victoria an envelope.

Victoria seethed. “Why hasn’t Mr
Carter come himself if he wants me to leave?”

“I don’t know, I am only following
his instructions.” The woman looked like she wanted to be anywhere but where
she was.

“Well, really. I booked up and paid
just like everyone else. He can’t just kick me out!” Victoria’s voice rose
several octaves, starting to sound shrill.

“Actually, there is a clause in the
contract for all guests that Mr Carter can refuse to allow someone to stay on
the ranch for any reason. It is still his private property so he reserves the
right to withdraw accommodation at his own discretion. He is well within his
rights to ask you to leave, as long as monies you paid to stay are refunded.
And they have been.” Miss Porter smiled apologetically.

Victoria narrowed her eyes on the
woman. “Well, you can’t expect me to move this late in the day. I will have to
stay tonight and try and find somewhere else tomorrow. That is the best I can
do!”

“I’m sure that will be satisfactory.”
Miss Porter nodded to her. “I will leave you to it. Good afternoon.”

Walter came out of the bathroom as
soon as the woman had left. “What now? How can you implement anything if you
aren’t even staying here?”

Victoria waved an impatient hand at
him. “For what I have in mind, we only need this evening. We will need to act
fast and I will need your help if it’s going to work.” Her golden eyes gleamed
maliciously. “If we play our cards right, we can still pull this off.”

Nodding with satisfaction, Walter sat
beside her on the sofa as they swiftly planned their next move.

*****

“I don’t like the look of this
Lotta,” Flo said as she fluttered round the outside of Victoria’s cabin. “We
should be in there finding out what they are up to. Who knew they even knew
each other?”

“We can’t interfere. We must tread
very carefully when the big test is in full swing. If we try and influence
things in the wrong way, we could ruin everything and lose our wands in the
process. We must wait and see how things play out,” she nodded firmly, but
Lotta was just as worried as Flo.

“But something doesn’t feel right
with all of this,” Flo said her hand fluttering to her throat. “I can’t help
feeling something is going on that we are not aware of.”

“I agree.” Lotta had been feeling
something stirring in the wind for a couple of days. Trouble was in the air,
but she was unsure what would happen.

“So what do we do?” Flo asked, her
plump face concerned.

“We watch and we wait,” Lotta told
her firmly.

“Shouldn’t we watch in there?” Flo
pointed to the cabin. “We need to know what’s going on.”

“That we are not allowed to do.
Victoria is part of the big test and we are forbidden from poking our noses in
too much.”

Flo grumbled. “We are fairy
godmothers. How come we can’t just make a happy ending come about?”

“You know we’ve never been allowed to
just make these things happen. We give our charges what they need to find true
love, but we can’t force it to happen,” Lotta lectured. Flo fluttered round the
cabin, pressing her small ears to the walls and door, the sound of her
complaints wafted round Lotta.

She understood the agitation Flo was
feeling. She felt it too. Something was going on, but she wasn’t sure what. It
was closing in though. And fast. She only hoped both her and Flo would be able
to help when it hit.

Jake swore repeatedly as he strode
into the house. His day just kept going from bad to worse. First all the hassle
with Kerry and Bill that morning, then the Sheriff had dropped by to confirm
the feed had been full of poisonous plants. No surprises there! Jake couldn’t
help but be thankful Charger had survived the incident and no other horse had
been affected. Unfortunately, depending on how you looked at things, nobody
else in the area had any incidents to report. It was the Sheriff’s opinion that
The Twisted Tree Ranch was the target of this madman. That didn’t sit well with
Jake. He hadn’t a clue as to who would want to harm his horses. It was a
horrible feeling to know someone out there really had it in for them.

When Laura had turned up looking like
a ghost after Victoria filled her head with doubts, it was just the icing on
the cake. Walter backing a horse into him so he fell into a pile of manure was
the cherry! He now stunk to high heaven and was in severe need of a long
shower. Muttering to himself all the way up to the bathroom, Jake slammed the
door shut. He stripped off his fouled up clothes and stuck them in the laundry
basket. He put the shower on and stepped in without waiting for it to heat
properly. Cold needles of water cut into him, before turning warm and finally
hot.

Soaping himself vigorously, he let
the hot spray of water flow over his head and down his body, trying to soothe
away the stress of the day. As bad as everything else had been by far the worst
was that he’d not seen Laura since she’d left the barn earlier and he had no
idea how she was thinking or feeling at present. He was very much afraid that
he’d made one too many mistakes for her to forgive.

He desperately wanted to see her and
to know that everything was going to be okay between them. He hoped the time
she was taking to think helped her to see that he was serious about them. He’d
wanted to strangle Victoria, but was happy at least that his manager had
informed him she’d issued the request for Victoria to leave, which she would be
doing the next day. At least something had gone right.

He washed his hair thoroughly before
turning off the shower. His mind full and his heart heavy, he threw his towel
around his lower body and made his way into his bedroom, rubbing a second towel
over his damp hair as he went. He stopped, surprised to see the room darkened
from the closed curtains. Two candles glowed on his chest of draws, casting
shadows over the room. He could make out the shape of a feminine form tucked up
in the bed. His heart tripped over. His gaze caught sight of Laura’s clothes
sprawled over the floor. Smiling, he realised she must have come back to the
house while he’d been in the shower and decided to wait for him. He couldn’t
think of a nicer way for them to make up.

Whipping the towel from his lower
body, he kicked the bedroom door shut and made his way to the bed. “Sweetheart,
I’m so happy to see you. I’ve been so worried. I take it this means you forgive
me?”

Her arms snaked out to wind
themselves around his neck, her lips offered up to his. He could barely make
her out in the shadows the pillows created across her face. His lips descended
on hers as her legs kicked the covers from her body and wound themselves around
his waist, hooking him to her forcefully. He fell across her, feeling her skin
against his, her breasts pinned to his chest.

Passion filled him as he felt her
hands slide over his back. They kissed deeply, passionately. He felt so
relieved to have her here with him again that he didn’t even hear the sound of
the door opening behind him.

*****

Walter was really happy with himself.
So far everything was running to plan. He’d managed to tie Bill up with a huge
workload that would keep the man busy for the rest of the evening. Kerry had
solved the problem of getting rid of her for him, by heading out to meet Dan.
He knew from overhearing her phone conversation that she was unlikely to be
back at the ranch before morning. That cleared the house perfectly for their
little plan!

Dumping Jake in the horse manure had
been sheer genius. He had no choice but to head straight for the shower. There
was no threat of him finding Victoria before she was ready and he would be
suitably naked for the little scene they were cooking up. All he had to do was
time Laura’s arrival just perfectly. He hoped she wouldn’t be much longer. The
timing of this had to be exact. They wouldn’t get a second chance.

Hot anticipation slid over him,
making his breathing quicken in his excitement. It wouldn’t be long before a
distraught Laura would seek comfort from a very willing Walter. He licked his
lips, imagining the taste of her kisses, soon to be all his. He craved a taste
of the passion he’d seen her giving to Jake. His skin fair itched to feel her
beneath him. He watched as he saw Laura heading towards where he was hiding by
the kitchen door. Luck, it would seem, was on their side. Not long now, almost
there! He smiled, not his usual charming smile, but one of a feral hunter

*****

Laura headed back towards the house,
feeling exhausted. She’d had a long time to think things through and had come
to the grand conclusion that she wanted to move on and forget what had happened
in the past. Thinking on what Jake had said, she could understand the
difficulty he had in telling her what had happened. She had felt just as
humiliated by Brad. Would she have wanted to tell anyone if she’d begged him to
take her back? She sincerely doubted she would. Shame was a hard thing to
overcome. Especially if you wanted the one you loved to respect you.

Jake should have told her with the
arrival of Victoria, but she wouldn’t hold it against him for not doing so. She
also refused to hold what had happened two years ago over him either. She
couldn’t be angry with him for feeling he’d loved someone enough to want to
hold on to them no matter what. Could she really blame him for thinking he’d
loved Victoria in the past? As he said, it was the past. They were the future.
She had to trust in what he chose right now, not then.

Feeling much happier, she thought
about asking Bill and Kerry for the house to themselves for the evening. She
wanted to cook a special meal, like the one they hadn’t got to have before. This
time it would be perfect. She wasn’t sure she’d have time to make it a
surprise, but that wouldn’t matter. It would be just the two of them. She
grinned in anticipation of the romantic night ahead that she was rapidly
planning for them.

She was almost to the house when
Walter stepped out of the shadows, making her jump at his unexpected arrival.
His face looked grim as he spotted her.

“Walter, what on earth are you doing
lurking in the shadows like that? You scared me.” Laura clasped a hand to her
chest in an effort to still her rapidly beating heart.

He looked instantly contrite. “I
didn’t mean to scare you. I was simply waiting for you to come back. I wanted
to catch you before you went inside.”

“Why, is something wrong?” Laura
asked puzzled. Walter was acting very strangely. He seemed almost like he was
on something with his eyes shining brightly and his agitated movements.

“I’m so sorry Laura. I did try to
warn you,” he said suddenly. “You should have listened to me.” He shook his
head sadly at her, as if greatly disappointed. “I am here for you, just know
that.”

“What are you talking about? Did you
hear me and Jake arguing again? It wasn’t really anything big. You don’t have
to worry about me.” Laura tried to shove off the foreboding feeling she was getting
looking at his face. His expression was so serious, he was beginning to scare
her.

 “I really think you should come with
me. You don’t want to go in there tonight.” He looked up at the second floor.
Laura followed his gaze, her eyes falling onto Jake’s bedroom window. The
curtains were drawn and it looked as if someone had lit candles in the room
from the way a flickering glow framed the gaps in the material.

“What do you mean?” she asked, her
voice hollow with dread. A cold chill began to descend on her and she could
barely breathe. The sense of pending doom settled over her like a black cloak.

“He sent Kerry and Bill out a little
while ago. Then she arrived. I tried to tell you, but you simply wouldn’t
listen to me. I am so sorry.” Laura didn’t want to hear any more. She couldn’t
believe he was saying this to her.

“Surely you’re not trying to tell me
Victoria is in there?” she laughed, but the sound was bordering on hysterical.
“Jake wouldn’t do that to me. He told me it’s me he wants. Why would he say
that if he didn’t mean it?”

“Who knows what was in his mind. All
I know is I saw her going in there. You really don’t want to see it. Come away
with me, Laura.” He held his hand out to her, but she pushed past him.

“I don’t believe you.” In her mind
she could still hear Jake warning her that Walter was not her friend. Was he
just saying this to make her think the worst of Jake again? He sure wanted her
to walk away without checking what he was saying was true.

He sighed long and loud. “See for
yourself then, if you really must. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

She walked into the house, her heart
heavy with dread. Slowly she climbed the stairs, a strange detached feeling
falling over her. She almost felt like she was looking at everything from a distance.
Her mouth bone dry, she reached Jake’s room. She could see the flicker of
candles more easily now, through the cracks in the door.

Slowly, her hand shaking, she quietly
opened the door. Shock held her in place as she took in the scene before her. The
couple on the bed didn’t even look up from their passionate embrace, too caught
up in the moment to even know they’d been interrupted. The room was dark,
except from the flickering candles but she could still make out their forms
well enough to know exactly what she was witnessing. Jake, completely naked,
lay sprawled over an equally naked Victoria. They were locked in a passionate
embrace, her legs wound tightly around him, their lips locked together. She
could hear their soft moans of delight drifting over to assault her ears.

Pain slammed through her chest like a
knife. She didn’t think she could breathe.  He’d lied to her. All this time
he’d wanted Victoria, not her. Why couldn’t he have just let her go, instead of
stringing her along? Sleeping with her when he’d had no intention of a future
with her! Had he used her to make Victoria jealous? Had that been his plan?
Tears fell from her eyes as she closed the door on the couple, not wanting to
confront them. She simply couldn’t face his deception or Victoria’s gloating
when she felt so vulnerable.

She slumped against the wall, for a
moment unsure what to do. Feeling sick, she knew she couldn’t stay where she
was. She had to get away and fast. Stumbling down the hall on shaking legs, she
entered her room. Swiftly she dragged out her bag and packed a few items,
including her passport. She couldn’t spend a moment longer in that house. She
hurried silently down the stairs and out to the driveway, almost running to her
car. Walter came charging towards her, calling her name. She refused to stop.
Before he could reach her, she’d slammed her car into reverse and took off.

She drove into Willow Creek and
parked in her usual spot, unsure what to do or where to go. Breaking down, she
cried helplessly. She knew she couldn’t stay in town any more than she could
remain at the ranch. She couldn’t face Jake every day and the way he’d treated
her. She couldn’t see Victoria together with the man she loved. Suddenly she
understood her mother’s need to go home to England after she’d lost Laura’s
father. Distance is what she needed. She felt bad, knowing she’d be leaving
Martha in the lurch, but hoped in time she could forgive her. She took the
money from her bag that Martha had given her, writing a quick letter, she
stuffed it in with the money and sealed the envelope. Getting out of the car,
she quickly went to drop it into the diner’s letterbox. The least she could do
was give the money back to help Martha pay any remaining debts.

Feeling bad, she made her way back to
her car. More than anything, she wished she could have had the courage to stick
things out and make a life for herself here in Willow Creek, but she knew she
couldn’t do it. The pain of running into Jake would kill her. It would seem she
was as weak as her mother when it came right down to it. Wiping her eyes on a
tissue, she pulled her phone from her bag. She scrolled to Kerry’s number and
rang it. It took several rings before Kerry picked up.

“Hey. What’s up?” Her voice sounded
so blissfully cheerful. It was painful to hear.

“I need you to do something for me,”
Laura could hardly speak past the lump in her throat. She swallowed several
times to try to clear the tightness and to stop her tears from flowing all over
again. She needed to get this done.

“Laura! What on earth is wrong? You
sound terrible!” Kerry sounded really alarmed.

“Just please, don’t ask me. I need
you to pack up my clothes and send me whatever is in my room that I don’t have.
Please ship it back to me in England. I will, of course, send you the money to
do so. I will text you an address to send them to, but don’t give it to anyone,
especially Jake. Will you do that for me?”

“You’re going home? Why? What’s
happened?” Kerry sounded frantic. Laura could hear Dan’s voice in the
background, rapidly asking questions. She could picture Kerry waving him off
impatiently. Her heart broke all over again. She would miss them both terribly.