Wild Irish (Book 1 of the Weldon Series) (30 page)

Benny stood as if he’d struck gold. “Wait a minute. What about you? None of these funny things happened until
you
came to town. You were with Alexi this afternoon and now she just takes off, not telling anyone where she is going. Then you show up wanting to know where she might go. How do we know it isn’t you she is running from? How do we know that we can trust you?”

Jesse didn’t need a thermometer to measure the room’s temperature. It turned decidedly chilly. “To hell with both of you. I’ll find her without you.” Jesse picked up the duffel bag of money and tossed it at Robert Jordan. “Tell your mother that I can’t be bought, and to keep her petty cash to herself.”

Jesse turned on his heel and walked from the Jordan home. As he stepped out on to the porch, his cell phone rang.

“
Jesse,” Nan’s voice came across. “The police just let me get to my answering machine. There’s a message from Alexi. She called me from the airport and said that she needed to take a few days to think. She’s going to the villa in France she and Roger were supposed to have gone to this week. Alexi’s father would know exactly where it is. It’s on loan from his friend.”

“
Thank God.” At least he now had something to grasp on to.

Robert Jordan stepped from the house. “Was that news about my daughter?”

“
Yes. She left Nan a message that she went to a villa in France. Are you going to tell me where it is?”
“Yes,” Robert Jordan said with conviction.

“
Why?” Jesse asked, surprised.

“
A man doesn’t beat down doors and stomp righteously from rooms unless he really cares. But first tell me your side about what happened twelve years ago?”

“
I was with your daughter in her bedroom. We’d been seeing each other for over a month and…well, let’s just say we were very attracted to each other is why we ended up there.”

“
And?”

“
And nothing. She was seventeen and had her whole life in front of her. I was nineteen and going nowhere fast. So before things went too far, I said good-bye. I knew I had no business being there in the first place, but there was just something about her that I couldn’t turn away from. There still is. But to finish the story, she fell asleep after crying and I left. The hall was dark and when I passed one of the rooms, something hit me on the back of the head. The rest of the story, you already know. Where’s Alexi?”

“
Give me your cell number and I’ll call you with the information just as soon as I get it.”

Jesse pulled out his wallet to hand Alexi’s father a business card. When he did another paper fell out. He picked it up and handed it to Robert Jordan. It was an invoice from a Sugar Girls Cleaners to Jordan’s Shipping Company. Jesse thought it odd simply because the bill for a fairly large sum, only cited services for one day. “I found this on the elevator when Alexi and I were leaving your office building this afternoon. Benny must have missed this when he spilled the files he was carrying. Here’s my card, too.”

“
It shouldn’t take me more than twenty minutes to get directions to the villa.” Robert Jordan put the invoice and Jesse’s card into his shirt pocket.

“
Thanks. After I pick up my passport, I’ll be at the airport sitting on go.” He turned and ran down the stairs.

“
Hey, Weldon.”

Jesse swung around.

“
How are you going to get there?”

“
I’ll get there. You can count on it.”

“
The Jordan’s company jet will be waiting for you.”

“
Sir, that’s not—”

“
When it comes to my daughter’s safety, everything is necessary. You just make damn sure you keep her safe, or there’s nowhere on earth you’re going to be able to hide.”

Jesse grinned and gave Alexi’s father a military salute. “Wouldn’t have it any other way, sir.”

On his way to the airport, Jesse called Paul. “I’m going to France. Keep an eye on things here. There has to have been some evidence left behind at Nan’s.

Jackson called as soon as Jesse disconnected from Paul.

“
Your bird has flown. Booked a flight to Atlanta. Why?”

“
Then to France. I know. Why is none of your business.”

“
Maybe. James is thinking about making it his, though. He’s thinking about picking up the pieces to her heart.”

“
Tell him, he’ll be picking his teeth up off the floor too. I can handle this. Hell, why am I even discussing my business with you?” Jesse shouted.

“
Don’t yell at me. You’re the one who called us.”

“
You,” Jesse said. “I called you. Throw James and Jared into it and there’s trouble. So tell those dumbass brats…”

“
What?”

“
Thanks. A very big thanks. It’s nice to know that when you’re a Weldon, you’re never alone.” Jackson was silent and Jesse thought he’d been cut off. “Jackson?”

“
Yeah. I’ll tell them.” Jackson hung up before Jesse could say anything else. Jesse hoped his words had hit a nerve inside Jackson. But for now he had another problem. He had to figure out what in the hell he was going to say to Alexi.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“
Damn,” Alexi muttered as she brought the rental car to a stop and looked through bleary eyes at the street sign. She wiped her brow with a pair of clean underwear she’d fished from her suitcase, and blinked. She’d finally found the road leading to the villa. Thank heavens. She’d been driving around lost for over two hours in a car with no air-conditioning under a Mediterranean sun that showed no mercy. She was hot, tired, and miserable. All she wanted to do was to crawl in bed and…

No.
She blinked back tears. She wouldn’t think about him. Every time she shut her eyes she saw Jesse as she had left him, sleeping and trusting her. Somewhere over the Atlantic, she realized that she’d taken the coward’s way out and her cell phone battery had died. She’d have to call Jesse as soon as she got inside. What she’d say to him, she had no idea. She just knew she had to face him at least via a telephone wire. Everything she’d said to him about hiding behind responsibility and sex to avoid a real relationship wouldn’t hold any water if she didn’t. It was an ugly truth to face that she was a runner and not a fighter.

She’d always considered herself a mature, levelheaded woman. But in one week’s time she’d gone from heading toward marriage with one man to falling in love with another.

Pulling onto the long drive marking her destination, she gazed up at the beautiful whitewashed walls of the villa. A red clay tiled roof peeked out from the surrounding lush vegetation. Bright flowers splashed color about like a vibrant Monet tapestry. She brought the car to a stop.

The salty breeze hitting her face warred with the steam inside the rental car and lost. She got out hoping to find a cool oasis for her worn emotions soon. The sting of tears filled her eyes again as she remembered the breeze from Jesse’s deck. Descriptions of the villa had included private and on the beach, but they had neglected to say beautiful. She gathered her things, tamping down the pang she felt about being alone, about not having Jesse to turn to and exclaiming how beautiful this place was. Maybe coming here wasn’t such a good idea after all. Maybe here she’d have too much time on her hands to think.

Wasn’t that the point?
Her conscience nagged. Wasn’t she here to think about what had happened to her over the last few days? To figure out how she could have been so incredibly stupid as to fall in love with a man who didn’t believe in it? With a man who’d already walked away from her at seventeen?

She fished out the keys then dragging her suitcase up the stairs, she counted off the reasons why she’d left Jesse. It was a good thing there were only two steps. Otherwise, she would have run out of reasons. Hell, it had only been days. Did she really give the guy a chance?

Deciding what to do about her feelings for Jesse was one thing. But cutting him off and running away before they’d had any real time together had been a dumb move. By leaving like she did she might as well have shouted on live TV that she loved him.

Inserting the key, she opened the door, picked up her suitcase and stumbled inside.

“
Where in the hell have you been?” Jesse asked marching into the entryway, cell phone in hand. “You’re hours late.”

Alexi blinked. Shook her head. Blinked again and then did a three sixty turn. Had she lost her mind? “Jesse?”

“
You got that right.” He walked up to her and grabbed the suitcase from her hand. She’d forgotten that she still held it.

“
How did you get here? How did you find me?” She just couldn’t fathom that this was real.

“
I could say that I’m just damn good at my job, but then if that were true, neither of us would be here, we’d be back in Savannah. When I learned from Nan where you’d gone, I spoke with your father and he told me where to find you and arranged for the company jet to get me here. I landed twenty minutes after the flight I figured you were on arrived.

“
My father told you?” She shook her head again. She could see Nan telling Jesse, but her father? He barely tolerated Jesse’s presence.

“
Yes.” Jesse set the suitcase down hard and it spilled open. She must not have latched it well after removing the underwear. Everything fell at Jesse’s feet. Sexy lingerie, bikinis, thongs, and her camera—with a bra attached--rolled onto his foot. He picked up the camera and set it on the telephone table. The bra, he dangled from his finger a minute, then folding it gently, he set it down too.

“
Come here,” he said gruffly, pulling her into his arms. “Thank God you’re all right.” He urged her further into the room.

Again, she pulled back, still trying to absorb that he was here. “Why did you come? Why did my father tell you?”

Jesse sighed. “He told me after I tossed your grandmother’s payoff at him, after he realized your life might be in danger.”

“
What are you talking about? What payoff? You frighten my father over the minor stuff that has happened.”

He crossed his arms and just looked at her. It was then she really saw him. He looked haggard, as if he’d literally been to hell and back. His lips were flattened in a grim line, and his unshaven jaw set to a harsh angle. His blue eyes were completely bloodshot. His clothes were wrinkled and his entire manner had a desperate edge to it—almost raw. This wasn’t the same man she’d left sleeping.

She reached out and touched his arm. “Jesse? What is it?”

“
What is it?” He exploded then grabbed her shoulders, backed her up to the wall, and pinned her with his body. “Everything! I can’t think. I can’t function. I can barely breathe. But mainly, thank God, you’re all right,” he said then he kissed her.

His mouth claimed hers as if he were a conquering warrior in the midst of a battle. Her heart leaped into a confusion of beats, but she welcomed him with her arms.

As she touched him, as she pressed her body to the fire raging in him, and met him kiss for kiss, passion for passion, he gentled his mouth upon hers.

“
Lexi, Lexi, Lexi,” he said softly, cupping her chin in his palms and claiming her lips again, softer this time.

“
Jesse,” she said, running her hands over his shoulders, into his thick silky hair, and down the muscled and pliant warmth of his body. She couldn’t touch him enough. He pulled at her clothes, shoving aside material in his need to get to her. Her blouse came off in a spray of buttons. She heard his shirt tear as he jerked it over his head. Shoes, socks, pants, skirt, underwear, nothing escaped their greedy hands and fiery desire. They fell naked to the couch and slid onto the soft carpet, the room spun as passion whipped into a frenzied storm.

He rolled her onto her back and slid between her thighs. She welcomed him, spreading her legs wider. He groaned and while looking directly into her eyes, he slid inside of her, filling her. Once they were together, once he was inside of her, it was as if the need for desperation ended. He stroked once and then paused, the serious look in his blue eyes deepened. She slid her hands up the muscled warmth of his arms to rest on his broad shoulders and wrapped her legs around his. He leaned forward and kissed her softly, his lips brushing hers as if offering a reverent thank you. He kissed her forehead, her eyes, her chin, her breasts, and then her lips again. By then, she was more than hungry for more, ready for him to escalate making love into the realm of the wild side. But he didn’t. He kept his gaze locked with hers, threaded his fingers through hers so they were palm to palm, and moved his hips slowly. The strained intensity of his face, the corded muscles of his arms and shoulders that shook with his efforts, showed her how much it cost him to move so very slowly, so controlled. She sensed with every fiber of her being that this time, this encounter with Jesse was different from everything else and he meant it to be different.