By Candlelight

by Janelle Taylor

  Kate hoped he was right, but she had her doubts. Marilyn was somewhat less hostile, but it didn’t mean that Kate had been accepted with open arms. No, judgment was still reserved.

  What happens when they learn the truth?

  “Did your father have any ideas on the sabotage?” Kate asked.

  “Not really. He’s just glad nothing worse has happened, yet.”

  The guest house had been nearly overrun by a wisteria whose trunk was as thick as a small oak and whose branches wound around the place in a choking embrace. Jake had to practically kick the front door open—not an easy task for him in his current state—as it was wedged shut from dampness swelling the wood.

  Once inside, however, Kate’s memories swirled. The air was warm and close as she glanced to where they had made love so long ago. Now brittle leaves covered the floor, but there was an old blanket rumpled in the corner.

  “What do you know?” Jake whispered, amused. His mood was high. Unlike Kate, he felt the evening with his parents was a success, as far as their relationship was concerned.

  “Don’t think I’m going to cuddle up with you in that,” she said repressively. “It’s probably full of bugs and mildew.”

  “Where’s your adventuresome side, my love?”

  “Locked away until we get back to Portland.”

  He dragged her close, his lips against her crown, his breath tickling her hair. “Can I talk you into coming back to my place when we get there?”

  “Mmmm…” She closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder. “Oh, I don’t know. There’s April, at home, and work tomorrow. If I were smart, I’d go straight to bed.”

  “That’s the idea.”

  “My bed,” she said, her lips curving into a smile.

  “Your bed would be fine,” he deadpanned.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “I know exactly what you mean,” he murmured hoarsely, his tongue rimming her ear. He drew her mouth to his, his tongue making a tight, insistent foray into the hot, moist cavern.

  Kate let it happen. She wound her arms around his neck and sighed. August heat settled around them as Jake’s taut body fit hers neatly against his. If Kate had any doubts about his intentions, the throbbing muscle pressing at the juncture of her thighs made the situation decadently clear.

  “I am not lying down on that blanket,” she murmured between small kisses he was planting on her mouth, cheeks and jawline.

  “We can always stand.”

  Jake brushed aside her sweater and systematically began unbuttoning her sleeveless blouse. The release felt good, for Kate had been stuffy and hot and sticky inside his parents’ house. Now, with her blouse open and Jake unsnapping the front clasp of her bra, she sighed with relief as her breasts spilled into his hands.

  “God, Katie, you’re beautiful,” he whispered, his fingers massaging the bud of her nipple until she wanted to cry out from desire. Her own hands gripped his shoulders hard.

  But a question loomed in and out of her conscience, and suddenly she knew she had to voice it. “Why did you blurt that out about marrying me?” she managed, even while her senses overheated. It had only been a few hours since they had made love, but it felt like a lifetime. And Jake’s touch was driving her crazy, warming her blood and spiraling her emotions into a swirl of blinding need. She moaned in spite of herself, and Jake groaned, bending down to suckle one erect bud.

  He staggered a bit unsteadily.

  “Maybe we’d better sit on the floor,” she suggested, sliding downward. “Despite what you say, you’re in no condition to stand.”

  The tiles were cold, but Jake’s warm hands quickly made her forget her discomfort. When he resumed his hot perusal of her breast, she wound her fingers in his hair. “Jake!” Her body trembled violently as his hands cupped her buttocks, holding her against him hard.

  “I wanted her to know we were getting married,” he answered her with difficulty, desire making it hard to think. “I had to stop my mother from turning nasty.”

  “Why would she—be nasty? Oh, Jake…” Kate clung to him as he slid his mouth downward.

  “It’s her nature. Don’t talk anymore,” he pleaded. “Later…”

  His fingers dug at the snap of her jeans. Kate was mindless. Weak and willing, she watched as if from a distant haze as he divested her of every scrap of clothing. His thumb hooked into her scant, lacey briefs, dragging them down her legs. Then his face was too near the center of her femininity for him to resist, and as his tongue hotly pleasured her, Kate arched her neck and cried out, “Please …please…”

  When it seemed that Kate would the from wanting him, he tugged at her own hands, dragging them to where his manhood strained his zipper. Kate massaged him through his pants until he groaned and dropped his forehead on her bared shoulder.

  Quickly Kate divested him of his pants and boxers, and then his body was hot and hard against hers. Her own body was on fire, and when he grasped her hips and positioned himself to take her, she eagerly clung to him, a moistness invading her insides as the tip of Jake’s masculine shaft teased against her, back and forth, titillating to the extreme.

  “Katie…,” he whispered again.

  “You said don’t talk!” she gulped.

  “I love you.”

  “I love you mo—oh!” He thrust inside her so deeply that she cried out, not in pain, in pleasure. Then Jake was moving rhythmically, slowly at first, stabbing into Kate’s hot sheath until Kate was squirming with need, hanging on to him for dear life, her hips rising and falling to meet his ever-increasing thrusting.

  She cried out, climaxing faster than she ever had, her breath fast and uneven. Her mouth captured his, hard and demanding. Jake’s sweat-dampened hair flopped over his forehead, his features strained. The spiraling, liquid pleasure went on and on, Kate’s moans and soft pleas working a magic of their own.

  “Oh, God.” With his own hoarse cry, Jake spilled his seed into her, collapsing against her, so they were both pressed up against the tiles, gasping, their knees and thighs and bodies trembling in tandem.

  “Next time—the blanket,” he panted, and Kate laughed shakily above her thundering heartbeat.

  He didn’t pull away from her at once, and Kate wrapped her arms and legs around him, enjoying the moment. Eventually, he dragged himself back, and their glorious union ended.

  “It wasn’t like this when we were here eighteen years ago,” she whispered.

  “No.” He smiled lazily, reaching for his clothes. “God, I missed you.”

  She gazed at him with all the love she felt shining from her eyes. Momentarily Jake was arrested by the beauty of her. Long, shapely legs joined together with a soft thatch of blondish hair. Slim waist, smooth, taut skin, breasts that just begged to be touched and caressed. Above that, the face of an angel. She was gorgeous, he conceded, though for years he wanted to forget her appearance and concentrate instead on her calculating, ambitious heart. Now, though, with all his love out in the open, he pleasured himself with the sight of her. Her lips were softly pink and right now swollen from his kisses. Her lashes drifted downward over eyes that glimmered with secrets and sensuality.

  “I didn’t bring you here to have my way with you,” he admitted, “although I’m not complaining.”

  Kate began dressing as well, sliding on her jeans until painted pink toenails peeked through the end of one denim leg. Nothing had ever looked sexier to Jake. “Oh?” she asked.

  “There’s another reason.”

  When Kate finished snapping her jeans, pulling on her sleeveless blouse, and buttoning up, she gazed at him questioningly. Jake had slipped on his own jeans, but he was still shirtless. He was wondering just exactly how to do what he had planned when she suddenly slid her hands up his hair-dusted chest, caressing his pectoral muscles.

  “What other reason, gorgeous?” she asked, her voice lilting.

  “This,” he said simply, withdrawing a small black case from his pocket.

  Kat
e froze, her eyes widening. For a moment she seemed as if she wouldn’t take the ring case. “Here,” Jake whispered, pressing it into her palm.

  With trembling fingers Kate opened the elegant case. Amidst black velvet sparkled a marquis diamond large enough to make her wince. “Oh, Jake.”

  “It’s what I would have bought you years ago if I could’ve afforded it then.” He chuckled. “Maybe it was good to wait.”

  Because she seemed completely undone, Jake took the engagement ring from its velvet sheath and gently slid it on to the third finger of her left hand. Light sparkled and glimmered, refracting off the marquis’s facets. “I can’t believe this,” she choked out.

  “Will you marry me?” he asked.

  Kate couldn’t find her voice. She nodded, laughing when Jake dragged her into his arms and kissed her all over her face and neck.

  “Soon,” he demanded. “Marry me soon.”

  “As soon as you want,” she agreed, throwing caution to the wind.

  “Then start making plans, because I want to start a family as soon as possible!”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Kate pulled back the covers of her bed, shivering in the heat. She was cold inside and out, and no amount of summer heat could dispel the chill that was soul-deep inside her. The marquis diamond mocked her. It was so beautiful, so incredibly exquisite, but it was given to her without benefit of all the facts.

  I want to start a family as soon as possible…

  Only she could no longer have any more children.

  The headache building at her temples was a product of her own guilt. Unwittingly she had added another lie to compound the first, though this second one was a lie of omission. When Jake had blurted out his thoughts, she had thought she would pass out. She actually swayed on her feet, and he instantly wanted to know what was wrong. When she couldn’t answer, he drew his own conclusions, blaming himself, though it had nothing to do with him at all.

  “I should have said something before,” he declared, alarmed at Kate’s sudden weakness and mistaking its cause. “I’ve always wanted children. A child. And I knew it wouldn’t work with Celia. Never even considered it. In fact, I’d pretty much given the idea up because I’d never loved any woman but you.

  “But now we’re together and I just assumed you’d feel the same,” he admitted, his gaze troubled.

  “It’s not—that,” Kate whispered.

  Jake’s eyes searched hers. “You do want children? I mean, another child?”

  “I would love another child,” she choked out, aching inside. “But I never thought—it’s just that—things have been moving so fast!”

  “I know. I’m rushing.”

  “It’s okay,” she assured him quickly. “Really. I love you. I want to be with you.”

  “But…?” he asked, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  Kate had struggled for what felt an eternity. The truth was so wickedly unfair. “I would love to have a child with you,” she said again, fighting for each syllable. “I can’t think of anything I’d want more.”

  “Then that’s what we’ll do!” He was relieved, a grin spreading from one corner of his mouth to the other. “As soon as possible. As soon as you’re ready!”

  She had been unable to burst his bubble, unable to tell the unpalatable truth. She had spent the trip back in a numb haze where her defense was a hearty smile—perhaps a bit too hearty and false—while Jake spun dozens of plans for them, his joy impossible to squelch.

  But the truth was there would be no more children. Kate could no longer conceive. Ben had wished for a child of his own as well, and when it didn’t happen right away, he’d had his sperm count tested and guess what? No problem there. Since no other children were ever conceived, Kate had accepted that she was no longer fertile. Once again, she realized how much of a blessing April was; without her, Kate would have never borne a child.

  So now there was an added complication to their proposed marriage. Now Jake would learn he couldn’t father a child in the future, but surprise, surprise! He already had one!

  A knock on her bedroom door broke into Kate’s tense thoughts. “Yes?”

  “Can I talk to you?” April’s voice was muffled through the panels.

  “Sure.”

  She came inside, looking troubled and anxious herself. Tomorrow’s rehearsal! Kate realized with a start, feeling guilty that she had been so absorbed with her own problems that she had completely forgotten about her daughter’s. “You want to go over your lines again,” she said, patting the spot beside her on the bed.

  “Actually…no. I mean, yeah, I do. But there’s something else.”

  “The explosion?”

  “No, no…I’m fine with that.”

  “What?”

  April’s gaze fell on the diamond, and Kate sucked in a breath. She had shown April the engagement ring as soon as she had walked through the door, and April had acted as if she were thrilled to death. But maybe that had been an act. Maybe the truth was about to hit her square between the eyes.

  “Jake kind of surprised me with it,” Kate said to allay her fears. “We don’t have to rush anything. I don’t mind—”

  “No, that’s not it. I told you, I’m so happy for you I could almost cry!” A smile quivered on her young lips.

  “Then, what is it?”

  “Mom?”

  “Yes?”

  Her reluctance was a palpable thing. Kate’s heart began to pound slow and hard. Oh, no. She braced herself. Ryan. April. She saw it coming at her so hard she actually flinched, waiting for her worst fears to hit like a freight train. “You’re pregnant!” she whispered.

  “What?” April’s jaw dropped in outrage. “No way! Oh, my God! How could you think that?”

  Kate had closed her eyes; now she squinched open one lid, afraid to believe her ears. April was the picture of affront. Her eyes snapped with disbelief and anger, and yet she seemed like she wanted to laugh, too.

  “Hell, no,” she swore, but Kate let it go since she was obviously poleaxed by her mother’s attitude. “I just have something I need to discuss with you.”

  “Okay.” Kate was growing more curious by the minute, and it was a welcome diversion from her own dire thoughts.

  “Have you been sleeping with Mr. Talbot—Jake?”

  “April!” Now it was Kate’s turn to be affronted.

  “Because you were married to Dad a long time, and it’s a whole different world out there now,” she rushed on. “I mean, there’s AIDS and STDs, kinds you’ve maybe never even heard of. I’m not saying Mr. Talbot—Jake’s—got any of those things. Pray to God not! But, you should at least demand an HIV test. You can’t tell me there haven’t been some women in his life, and he was married once, you said. Every time you have sex with someone, you have sex with every partner they’ve ever had and whoever they’ve had sex with and so on and so on. It isn’t safe!”

  Kate just stared, open-mouthed, at her daughter. Jake had explained that he had always used protection with any woman he was with, and that he had even taken an HIV test a few months back to assure himself on that score. She, of course, had only been with Ben. And though she and Jake had been a little lax on protection, it was because, she now knew, Jake had been half hoping for a child, while she hadn’t had to worry about pregnancy because it wasn’t an issue for her.

  “I’ve paid attention in health class,” April finished with a certain amount of pride. “And it’s not wise to risk your health. You’re my mom, and I love you.” Her eyes were full of emotion. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you just because you’ve been out of the dating scene. AIDS isn’t discriminatory.”

  “April, honey…” Kate was beyond speech.

  “Promise me you’ll be careful.”

  “Don’t worry,” Kate assured her, moved by her daughter’s concern. “We’ve talked about this. I won’t be making that mistake.”

  April’s chest heaved in a sigh of relief. “Thank God!” she cried, f
lopping down beside her mother on the bed. “I’m glad that’s over. I’ve been working myself up for hours to have this little talk.”

  “I appreciate it,” Kate said with humor.

  “Now, will you help me with my lines?”

  “I thought you’d never ask,” she said dryly, giving April a hug. If only her own secrets, worries, and shocking news could be dispensed with so easily. Kate couldn’t help dreading the morrow when she would have to figure out how to break things to Jake—and April.

  The following day Kate accompanied April to the commercial shoot, then abandoned her to her fate as she was needed at the talent agency. In fact, the pace of Rose Talent seemed to have increased a hundred fold, with she and Jillian rushing around like mad. At this rate, she would have to hire another assistant, which was comforting as she hadn’t forgotten about the balloon payment she owed on the business.

  Was it because word had gotten out that Talbot Industries had hired not just someone from Rose Talent, but Kate Rose’s daughter herself? Possibly. Whatever the reason, Kate wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth; she was just glad she would be able to have a more positive talk with Billy Simonson, her accountant, next time he called.

  As soon as she had a spare moment, Kate put a call into Jake, irritated to feel her heartbeat begin to accelerate just at the thought of the task ahead of her. It wasn’t anticipation she was feeling; it was fear. Her palms sweated and her blood thundered in her ears. By the time Jake actually picked up the phone, Kate was a complete mess.

  “Hi, there,” he greeted her warmly. “I’ve been missing you.”

  “Have you?” Kate circled her mouth with her tongue. “You know, we’ve really got a lot to talk about. I can’t even begin to start.”

  “Is this about cold feet?” he asked carefully.

  “You know how I feel about you,” she assured him in a rush. “I’ve just got to sort things out and make plans. I need some time with you—to talk about some things.”