by Soraya Lane
But this time she tensed, was nervous about what he was about to do her, until… oh. He’d skipped past her panties, was pressing kisses to her inner thigh, stroking his fingers down her other leg at the same time.
“Jake…”
“Relax,” he ordered, hardly taking his lips from her skin. “Just relax and enjoy.”
Jake let his fingers glide across Faith’s thigh. Her skin was like silk and her lace underwear was enough to make him groan – he hadn’t been expecting sexy lingerie, especially when 12 hours earlier she hadn’t even owned a bra.
Stop. Thinking about the fact he’d seen the very pert outline of her breasts through her flimsy tank top while in his kitchen this morning, and now he could move half an inch and see the same full breasts bare, wasn’t going to help him slow down.
Jake slipped his fingers beneath the lace, yanking her panties down and grinning at her gasp. Faith was like a drug, an addiction he hadn’t even known he had until now. He let her kick them off the rest of the way before bending his head, wanting to pleasure her before giving in to his own needs.
He’d expected more shyness, reluctance even, but it seemed Faith had forgotten all about being demure. She rocked her hips up towards him, inviting him, and he didn’t need any more encouragement. Jake closed his mouth over her, tasting her, teasing her, licking and sucking her most intimate parts. He had to force himself to go slow, to taste her like she was the most delicate flower, because he needed to stay in control. And from the way her thighs had closed around his head, he was guessing she liked the pace.
He reached up her body, wanting to touch her breasts, desperate to flip her over and feel the heavy, soft fullness of them in his hands, but trying hard to be patient.
Faith moaned again, her back arching off the bed. Jake moved his tongue faster, kissed her, suckled – didn’t stop even when she reached down to grab a fistful of his hair, body rigid and then soft, like she’d turned to marshmallow.
“Jake,” she whispered, eyes shut even though she was saying his name and smiling.
He didn’t answer, just took his chance to flip her onto her stomach, to press himself against her, every inch of him.
Faith turned her face to the side, eyes suddenly open, but Jake wasn’t going slow now. Now he needed to have his wicked way with her.
“You haven’t told me to stop yet,” he whispered in her ear, leaning down to kiss her.
When her tongue slipped inside his mouth he took hold of her hands, holding her in place.
Faith gave a half-hearted struggle before surrendering. “Maybe I’ve liked what you’ve been doing.”
That was all Jake needed to be pushed to the edge. He couldn’t wait any longer. He rolled away to fumble in his bedside dresser for protection.
Faith gasped as Jake thrust inside her. He wasn’t going slow, not anymore, and she didn’t want him to. He slid inside her fast, still holding her down, making her spasm with pleasure all over again. She could feel her orgasm building, a slow, burning heat inside her.
Jake was moving faster now and she loved the weight of him behind her, on top of her, his hot breath in her hair as he thrust. But no matter how much she was enjoying it, the heat and sweat of Jake making love to her, she wanted to see him. Wanted to watch what he was doing to her and look into his eyes.
“Stop.” The word came out as more of a pant than a sharp command, but he still stopped.
Jake ran a hand down her spine as he pulled back, and she saw confusion in his gaze when she looked over her shoulder.
“On your back,” she told him, staring straight into his eyes as she turned over.
Jake’s eyes flashed with heat again, all hint of confusion gone as he obeyed her.
“You’re the boss,” he said, moving to lie back on the bed and putting his hands behind his head.
Faith climbed aboard, her thighs on either side of his thickly muscled legs. She ran her hands down his chest, exploring every inch of him, touching his muscles, before lowering herself, settling on top of him and starting to rock back and forth.
Jake’s hands didn’t stay behind his head for long. As soon as she started moving, he cupped her backside, fingers kneading her skin before transferring to her breasts like he couldn’t get enough of her. Soon he was holding her hips and making her move faster, his body moving up to meet hers.
But he never looked away. Jake’s gaze was trained on hers, and even when she knew she was close, knew she was about to climax, she forced herself to keep her eyes open and locked on his. Even when he let out what sounded like a growl, held her in place as they both surrendered to their pleasure, the only thing she could see were his wicked dark brown eyes.
Faith collapsed onto Jake’s chest, letting him hold her, loving the feel of his hands on her skin and his mouth on her hair. And even still, she could see his eyes… the gaze that made her thankful she’d decided to come back to Fairview. Because being with Jake was exactly what she’d needed, and it was a night she’d never forget for as long as she lived.
Jake stretched and opened his eyes. He was greeted by a head on his chest, long hair draped across his body. He usually woke to a dog taking up half the bed – not warm, bare breasts on him and a leg wrapped around his own.
He heard a noise, raised his head, then gave Faith a nudge.
“Faith,” he said as she moaned, clearly not ready to wake up yet. “Faith, wake up honey.”
She lifted her head and looked at him. “You’d better have a good reason for waking me up,” she mumbled as he ran his hand through her hair.
“Tom’s up. I heard him calling out.”
“Shit!” She pushed the sheets back and leaped up, scrambling for her clothes and yanking them on. “I meant to sneak back down, not go to sleep up here with you.”
Jake just smiled, never taking his eyes from her. She was hopping around trying to pull her jeans up – he only wished that she was getting undressed instead of putting her clothes on.
“I didn’t pick you as the love ‘em and leave ‘em type.”
Faith did up her top button, pushed her hair off her face and jumped back on top of him, pressing a quick kiss to his lips before leaping back off the bed and yanking open the door.
Jake listened to her run down the stairs and call out to her son, smiling as he heard Sam bark back, like she was calling out to him. Last night had been… unexpected. But now that he’d had Faith in his bed? He was starting to wonder why he’d insisted on being a loner for so long. Because having company felt good, and going back to being alone wasn’t sounding so great after all.
CHAPTER SIX
FAITH stood in the kitchen, leaning on the counter as she watched Jake and Tom. Her son was more the exuberant Labrador than Jake’s dog – running alongside his new best friend, no doubt asking a million questions. Any worries she’d had about being here, they were long gone. Jake had been nothing but kind to them, even though she knew how hard he’d found it having Tom around, and last night had made her more interested in staying than leaving.
She turned away as they disappeared through the field and poured herself a cup of coffee. She made it strong – she’d need all the help she could get this morning. Faith crossed the room and sat back down at Jake’s computer, logging into her email account and scrolling through. She had messages from the insurance company, her father’s lawyer, and the local bank, which meant dealing with a lot of crap and making some heavy hitting phone calls to claim what was hers.
Faith took a long sip and sat back, resisting the urge to shut the computer down and run off after Tom to see the horses. She could do with hanging over a railing and watching her son learn to ride, or whatever it was that Jake had planned for him this morning.
A knock at the door made her sit up straighter. She’d been here a few days now and no one had ever stopped by.
Faith rose, pulled on her sweater and headed for the door. But the person she saw on the other side made her want to slam it shut again. Sheriff Brewst
er was standing on the porch with his arms folded, shiny gold badge on display.
She swallowed and leaned against the door jamb, trying to pretend like seeing him hadn’t rattled her. The truth? She’d never been so shit-scared. Not since he’d as good as told her she was a tramp and forced her out of town. Cold laced her spine. She’d tried to block it out, to not think about it, but the fact he was here told her that her suspicions were probably true and he was here to make sure she kept her mouth shut.
“Ms. Walker.”
He tipped his hat but she just stared at him. Words were failing her, so she kept her mouth shut rather than say the wrong thing.
“Jake gave me a call, he was worried I hadn’t been doing enough to find out who’d set your daddy’s house on fire.”
Faith took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. She was a confident woman now, not a girl, and she needed to behave like one if she wanted him to take her seriously. He’d sent her packing once, but whether she left Fairview again or not was her choice now, not his.
“The house was mine, Sheriff, and I’m pretty certain there’s only one person in this town who’d want to burn me alive.”
He laughed. The bastard had the nerve to laugh.
“That sounds like a pretty hefty accusation, Ms. Walker. I wouldn’t be going around running my mouth like that, if I were you.”
“Was there a purpose to your visit? Or did you just want Jake to think you were actually doing your job?” Her tone had a bite to it and she was pleased.
“Everything okay here?”
Faith’s body went rigid as she heard Jake’s voice. Less than a second later he was standing by her side.
“Where’s Tom?” she asked, not bothering to look at the sheriff to see his reaction.
“He’s fine. Just playing with Sam on the grass. I forgot something and came back.”
Faith relaxed, taking strength from Jake. He might not know about her past, about why she hated Fairview – or parts of it – so much, but she knew he’d protect her no matter what. He’d already proven what kind of man he was, and he wasn’t the kind to let a woman find her way into trouble if he could do anything to help it.
“I was just saying to Ms. Walker here,” the sheriff said, sending a sickly sweet smile in her direction, “that we’re unfortunately no further ahead in our investigations over the fire.”
Jake frowned. “The fire chief has finished his report though, correct? I was told that the fire had been confirmed as being started by a fire bomb through the window.”
The sheriff just nodded. “Correct. There will be no insurance problems that I can foresee, which means Ms. Walker will be able to settle her affairs and move on.”
“By move on, you mean away from Fairview?” Faith asked.
Jake gave her a confused look, but he didn’t say anything. The sheriff shifted his weight before taking a few steps backward.
“I’d best be on my way. We’ll be in touch if there are any further developments.”
Faith stared after him, thankful that Tom hadn’t appeared until the sheriff was in his car. Her son raced around the side and she forced a smile on her face, not wanting him to see how upset she was. She’d brought Tom up with all the love one person could muster, telling him constantly what a blessing he was, so the last thing she needed was for him to feel unloved, to figure out that he had a connection to people who hadn’t even wanted him to enter the world.
“Hey, baby,” she said, crouching down to give him a big hug.
He let her, patiently standing there while she held him, putting his arms around her neck.
“Jake’s going to show me how to catch a horse, and maybe let me ride bareback.”
Faith laughed. She didn’t know why she’d let the sheriff rattle her – it had been the shock of seeing him after so long, not that she wasn’t capable of standing her ground – because when she was with Tom, she knew that all the shit she’d dealt with had been worth it.
“That sounds great. Why don’t you run off with Sammy, find his ball maybe? I just need a quick word with Jake.”
She ruffled Tom’s hair as he bolted off with a smile on his face, before turning to Jake. His expression was unsure, but his eyes… they were telling her that he didn’t really give a crap what was going on, so long as she told him what it was all about. Only she wasn’t so sure she was ready to answer the questions she saw burning in his gaze.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“WHY are you looking at me like that?”
Jake could have asked her like what, but he hadn’t exactly been pretending like he hadn’t noticed.
“You’re acting like Sheriff Brewster’s the one who torched your house.”
She took a deep breath, staring straight back at him. “Yeah, well maybe he did.”
Now it was Jake’s turn to give her a hard stare. “Faith, what’s going on?”
She sighed, looking up at the sky before returning his gaze. “He’s Tom’s grandfather.”
Jake would have been less surprised if she’d sucker punched him. “Grandfather?” How was that even possible?
Faith crossed her arms and shut her eyes, opening them only after she took a visibly deep, shaky breath. “You asked why I’d come back? What had happened?”
Jake was waiting. He took Faith by the arm and steered her into the house and to the sofa in the family room. They both sat down, but he never took his eyes from her face.
“I think you need to start talking. No more pretending like we can just live in the now without giving a shit about the past. Not after last night,” he said.
She took the hand he held out, linked her fingers through his and clasped it like she needed every ounce of strength she could muster or borrow. He needed to hear this as much as she probably needed to get it off her chest.
“What happened to one night?” she asked with a smile.
He shook his head. “To hell with one night.”
“When I was sixteen, I was dating the sheriff’s son.”
“Phillip?” She’d dated Sheriff Brewster’s son, the asshole son of a bitch who’d not even bothered to stop and help when he’d been desperately trying to flag down a car the night of Rachel’s accident?
Faith was nodding so he clamped his jaw shut and listened.
“We’d been going out for a bit, and to cut a long story short, he talked me into having unprotected sex, made me feel like I was stupid for not wanting to just rip his clothes off, and I ended up pregnant.”
“Shit.” Jake didn’t really know what to say, and he sure as hell didn’t think that adding the fact that he already hated the guy to their conversation was going to help her.
“My mom died when I was in seventh grade, so I had no one to talk to. I kept it a secret until people started guessing.” A tear slid from her eye and Jake reached forward to wipe it away, brushing the back of his fingers gently across her cheek. “When my dad found out, he kicked me out of the house. Phillip’s dad, Sheriff Brewster, finished up the one-two punch by making it pretty clear what they all thought of me, and in the end I left.”
Jake froze. “How long ago?”
She shrugged. “Eight, nine years now.”
He remembered her. He’d been older, his first year out of school, but he’d seen her, had heard the talk about her and never given it much thought, other than to think it was bullshit, backwards kind of behavior from everyone involved. “They kicked you out of school, too, didn’t they? Your dad kicked you out and the school didn’t even step up to help you.”
“How do you know?” she asked, looking at him like she all of a sudden didn’t trust him, like he shouldn’t know any of what she was telling him.
Jake took her other hand now, holding both of them, searching her face. He needed to tell her the truth, knew she’d want to know. “Because one day I saw a young, terrified girl with a big belly struggling to get on a bus.” His voice was low, knowing how much it would hurt her going back into the past. He knew first hand that it w
as easier to block the memories out. Keep the past in the past where it belonged.
“That was you?” she asked, wide-eyed. “You were the one who helped me get on? Who carried my bags around and told the driver he should know better than to let a young pregnant girl do her own lifting?”
“Yeah, that was me,” he admitted, giving her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “I used to be pretty outspoken.”
She laughed, shaking her head. “You were one of the only people who helped me then, and you’re one of the only ones who’ve helped me this time around.” Faith leaned forward and placed a soft kiss against his cheek, lips warm and soft to his skin. This time when she spoke, her voice was husky and low. “I guess I owe you double thanks then, huh?”
“You must have been a few years behind me in school, because I’d already graduated by then. But I’ve never forgotten how terrified that girl looked when I helped her. Like she’d lost everything in her world.”
Faith took his hand, turned it over in both of hers. “That girl ended up in a shelter,” she said, her chin held high as she told him.
She was strong and proud, he’d give her that. He doubted he’d ever met anyone so determined.
“I figured out how to look after my baby on my own, and I made myself forget all about this place. The only way I looked was forward, and I made it.” She laughed. “God only knows how, but I survived.”
“You only came back because your father died, didn’t you,” he asked. Jake put his arms around her when she released his hand, pulled her against him. She turned, so her back was against his chest, leaning into him and looking out the window at the land.
“Yeah. The miserable bastard kicked me to the curb, but he must have felt guilty about it in the end, because he left me his house.” She leaned her head back against his chest and looked up at him before going back to staring straight ahead. “Honestly? I thought he’d rather leave his money to a cat shelter or a stranger over me, but I guess he had a change of heart.”
