EIGHT
INSIDE THE CABIN, Faith paced the wooden floors, and her bare feet slapped the planks that complained with each step. Her tummy tightened to the point of nausea, and she swallowed past the pain-filled lump that crowded her throat. Steven should have been the cause of her turmoil. His blindness. His failing health. His betrayal.
Should have been. Instead, her mind was locked on the fact Jake had tried to stop her from leaving when she shouldn’t have left in the first place.
Hugging herself, she had a sudden realization the flame Jake had ignited inside of her was in danger, not from The Curse, but from herself. Maybe, instead of running, she needed to face her fear of rejection and heartbreak head on. Learn to be loved for who she was, cursed or not, and share with Jake the re-awakened feelings she never thought she’d get a chance to feel again. She had to let go of what she couldn’t control, and simply live.
“Faith!”
Jake’s voice, though distant, reached her ears, and she spun to face the screen door. He was coming…calling her name, the echo urgent.
Her insides fluttered, anxious, excited. For a minute, silently, she stood frozen. After she’d run off, was it possible he cared enough to come for her and not just to seek out his lodging for the night?
At a minimum, if he didn’t reciprocate her feelings, at least she’d finally allowed herself to feel the thrumming hint that more than a friendship or partnership had found her again. She smiled until her cheeks crimped with pleasure at her decision.
Jake’s cries faded…
But, she kept her heart as open as the door she now pressed wide.
Outside, stretching its branched wings into the fog-filled night sky, she should have seen death waiting within the old oak tree and within the spirit-crowded forest. The Curse summoned the ghostly silhouettes.
She should have backed away from under the weighted branches that curled over the cabin roof. That threatened to fall, to crush, and maim. And, backed away from the threatening stares of the waiting spirits.
But, though she glared at that massive tree with the leafed limbs that refused to let go of life as did the spirits, she took a step forward onto the porch. Then another, until she stood on the lowest step with the mist curling at her toes. Silently, she challenged The Curse, the misty fog that blanketed the lowland that split the cottages.
Though fear coursed through her in chilling waves, she didn’t tremble.
Yes. If a healthy partnership hovered on the horizon with their mutual goal of saving lives, she needed to start by saving her own.
NINE
ON THE DARKENED CABIN PORCH, Jake found Faith sitting on the lowest step, her feet planted in the dirt, her gaze focused on an oak tree draped in twisted, heavy branches that faded into the surrounding fog.
She didn’t turn her head or gaze toward him, even as he sat beside her. “Hey, you okay?”
In slow, steady strokes, she rubbed her denim-covered knees. “Death comes in many forms,” she answered. “Even when figurative, the sting can burn.”
A chill skittered down his back, but he rolled his brows forward, and agreed. He assumed she was talking about her and Steven’s split, but somehow, he felt her tone held more meaning, as if her injury was carved deeper than what he could see. “Moving forward doesn’t have to be painful, if there’s someone waiting for you that’s even better.”
In profile, she bunched her cheek and smiled. She continued to gaze at the tree. “But what if you’re stuck? What if you can’t break free from your beliefs for fear you’ll take down whoever stands in your way?”
He stared to where she looked, to that tree’s skeleton, the shadowed crook, the acute angle of the lower branch, and the trunk’s slant that hung directly over the fog shrouded cabin. Sure, the branch could come crashing down at any moment, as oaks were self-shedding. However, that tree had rooted there for hundreds of years. “Sometimes, you have to do right by the tree. Let others watch out for themselves. I think you pushed me away because you’re protecting me from something. A secret. A curse…”
She jerked her head toward him, eyes wide. “Steven told you.”
“Yeah.” He added a nod.
“Did he tell you I’m a direct descendant of a Founding Family? That a shaman cursed all descendants to a Lover’s Curse? That Steven changing his mind about loving me left him blind, and destroyed his dreams? The same thing will happen to anyone who…”
“Who falls in love with you.” He finished her sentence.
Her chest rose and fell, and she cupped her mouth. “I can’t bear the smell of coffee or the memory of—standing before all those people when he—he—left me.”
“Shhh…I know. It’s okay.” He pulled her against his chest and rubbed circles on her back, until her sobs quieted. Symbols, whether a loved one’s ring or an unused coffee pot, could stir emotions that sliced the heart and soul. He sniffed and drew a hand across the sting building in his eyes. “I’m guessing the pot was a wedding gift.”
“Yes.” She glanced up at him, her eyes glossy. “I shouldn’t be telling you these things. They’ve kept me stuck in the past when I want to move forward. You deserve someone, someone that’s not me.”
“Faith”—he thumbed his chest—“I’m not worried about curses, or your memories that don’t include me. We’ll make new memories, like we did today.”
She dragged her shoe across the silty earth, drawing an arch and then adding branches until she’d perfected her version of the tree. “Only a fool would put himself in harm’s way for no good reason. If I can stop that, I’m obligated to try.”
An inward breeze ruffled the canopy, and the resulting crack from somewhere deep in the trunk caused Jake to tense. Or perhaps the grip that clenched his insides was caused by Faith’s distress. He reached into her lap and covered her hand, giving her a gentle squeeze that, in turn, calmed him. He chuckled at how she humbled him. How she brought him to his knees and made him respect her resolve to stand tall as that pillar she’d sketched in the sand.
There he saw the similarity between this woman, this strong woman, and that magnificent tree, however distorted. “I see the tree, Faith.” He leaned his shoulder against hers. “I see it in the shadows, hollowed out from time. Weary, splintered. Raw. And still enduring. Just like I see you.”
She raised her head and met his gaze. “How can you understand me so well? You know nothing about me.”
Jake inhaled, ready to confess the answer. “It’s a feeling. You keep telling me to trust my feelings and they’re telling me we belong together.”
Threatening to spill unshed tears, she blinked several times. “We do?”
He tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. “Tell me you feel it, too. Tell me you want to step into the future with me.”
She glanced away, but with his index finger, he guided her chin so she’d look at him. “I let Chief make decisions for me. I put my instincts on the shelf many times and have seen the repercussions.” The hand he held, he pressed a bit tighter. “I’m not doing that ever again. Because I choose where I stand. I want you to choose to do the same.”
She lowered her head, adding a few more branches to the drawing. “At any moment, when you least expect it, a branch could come crashing down. That’s what uncertainty of our future would hold.” She faced him. “You could be trapped, injured, maybe even die. You could suffer The Curse like—”
And there it was…the darkness that flashed in her eyes, the concern and lies she believed that, if he chanced loving her, he’d be embedded in disaster. While his mind was still lost in saving her from her doubts and showing her he loved her, he slid one arm around her back, the other under her knees, and pulled her into his lap. “You deserve to be happy. We both do. If there’s a risk in loving you, then I’ll gladly accept that.”
She glanced away. “Then you’re a fool.”
He smiled as she lifted her gaze. Those blue eyes stared up at him. From the cabin’s light spilling outside, he saw
her gaze was more beautiful than any nightscape. “What if I am a fool? What If I called Chief Vizcaino and demanded he reinstate your position in pediatrics? What if I set my own limits on who I work with?”
She gasped. “You did that for me? Oh, Jake… What if you don’t pass probation?”
He shrugged then lifted his hands to palm her flushed cheeks. He smoothed away her tears. “I can’t control the future. Only this moment.”
To match hers, he parted his lips. He placed his forehead against hers, so she wouldn’t be distracted by the tree or the far-off bonfire’s glow through the thickening mist. “For someone I love, I’d risk being crushed. For someone I love, I’d risk my life and die right along with them. Because, Faith Cabrillo, you make me want to be your hero. I’ll never second guess that. I could question why, but the feeling simply exists, and it feels damn good when I’m with you.”
A gust shook the canopy, and the wind whistled through the fog that suddenly thinned. Several twigs trickled to the forest floor and landed with a snap.
“For you, Faith, I’d stop that tree from falling—no matter what.”
“Jake,” she breathed against his lips and kissed him.
Her kisses turned urgent when he’d expected a soft one. With the distant fire’s amber glow lighting the forest so the trees’ shadows seemed like an audience, he closed his eyes and enveloped her, drank her down.
“Coffee,” she whispered against his mouth. “I want to make coffee with you….”
He widened his smile, because he’d broken through her barrier. “Mmm, we’ll make beautiful coffee together. Trust me on that. Coffee you’ll crave for a lifetime…I’ll make sure of that.” When she leaned into him, he lifted her, stormed through the cabin door, and headed toward the bedroom.
TEN
THE PILLOW-TOP MATTRESS was not as luxurious as Jake’s lips that meandered down Faith’s neck, along her shoulder, and lower, like fallen stars that sprinkled her skin in searing kisses. As if he read her mind, he slid his hands up inside her blouse, lifted the shirt in one slow tug, and unsnapped her bra to expose her aching breasts.
Hands exploring, tongue trailing, Jake used his warm fingers to twist and pluck her breasts until the pebbles tightened with sensation.
She arched into him and threaded her fingers through his thick hair and, with her thumbs, traced the outline of his ears—perfect ears, both firm and soft. With her moans, and by the sway of her hips, she encouraged his discovery. Captured by the freefall, the exhilaration, the passion, how could loving Jake—yes, loving him—be wrong? “Jake…”
He pulled away for a fretful minute, and the cool air that replaced his warmth caused her breath to hitch. Then he was on her, his bare chest against hers, his weight filling her need that was growing to a vast and ever-increasing expanse. Simultaneously, their breaths combined until she began to writhe beneath him.
“I’ll make you feel so good, Faith, you’ll never want to leave this cabin.”
A heat wave flashed over her body, and she tugged him down, his mouth and hips tormenting her without giving her what she really wanted. Him inside her so deep, so thoroughly buried, that, he couldn’t leave her if he tried. She gasped against his lips, shared the air between them, and the decadent groans that emanated from deep within him became a constant she clung to, knowing she could please him, too.
He slid his hand to her waistband, skimming the denim, begging entry without words.
Undulating against his hand’s pressure, her breath caught. With a tug, her jeans fell to the floor.
“Beautiful…you’re so beautiful, Faith.”
His once-even voice became a ragged sound—the way a man holds inside his desire to both satisfy and be satisfied.
And release, she would give him. Again and again.
Breaching her panties, he circled his fingers on the tingle-filled knot, that bud his expert coaxing inflamed. Anticipating a long stroke, she cried out, rocking desperately, wanting, bucking against the building pressure that would not cease. Pleasurable seconds filled the entire night. “Please, Jake, I need—”
His hot kiss stole her words. But in that moment, with love stark in his eyes, she believed they had a chance to destroy The Curse. She moved his hand to her core, let him touch the wetness that burst from within. Ready, she was so ready to open herself to him, she spread her legs wider.
But he pressed back on his arms and those hazel eyes narrowed. With his hand on her panties, he fiddled with the little bow. “I. Want. You.”
His sense of control was either a gift or a curse, she wasn’t sure. She stared into his eyes, laden with desire, and saw his jaw clenching and releasing. Swallowing, she understood once that barrier of cloth was removed, there would be no turning back for either of them. Maybe already they were too late. “Then take me.”
With a snap, he removed that delicate lace that once spanned her hip. Then he froze.
She let out a deflating breath. Of course, he would stop. He was obviously having second thoughts after that brief pause—
He palmed her cheeks and kissed her hard, almost to the point of pain that came to a forceful halt. “I want you. Badly.” His shot his glare toward the nightstand to the left of the headboard. “I don’t have any condoms….”
He wasn’t prepared, and that only made her respect him more. Want him more. “I take it you weren’t a Boy Scout?”
He groaned. “How I regret that decision right now.”
Kissing his mouth, filled with a hunger of what he could give her, she felt her core weep with need. She rolled to her side of the bed, shooting her best attempt at a “sexy” look over her shoulder, and yanked open the drawer. She checked the expiration date, the cool air nipping at her legs, her swollen breasts. “It’s a couples retreat with full amenities. An entire box of ten.” A smile bloomed that she tried to conceal with her hand.
“That’s all?” He pumped his brows and grinned.
She giggled, handed him a condom, and lay beside him once again. The silvery orb in the sky cast light through the mist-filled window that highlighted Jake’s square pecs and the waves that rode his abs. “Beautiful…” she whispered. She let her hands feast on the strength his body held.
He took the condom and, in a fury, bit through the wrapper. With fervor, he rolled the barrier over his thick member.
She could no longer resist the temptation to reach out and touch the firmness pumped so thick, so powerful. She hissed a breath and began to shimmy down the length of his body—
Forceful hands gripped her shoulders and held her, just held her.
And she let him. Let the rhythm of his heart pound in her ear. Let his steadiness fill her. Let the moment extend to minutes…
“Lay back, babe,” he commanded. “Let me take care of you.”
“But, I want—”
“Not this first time.” He rolled her onto her back, his weight pinning her to the mattress. He slid his forearms along her shoulders while he fingered her hair.
The air in her chest, the blood that filled her veins, heated with desire. “I want to please you, too.”
“More than you know, you already have.” His hungry lips met hers, and the sweep of his tongue teased her mouth open.
In utter relief, she sighed and wrapped her legs around his hips, drawing him close, so that pleasurable extension of him neared the edge of no return. “Make me yours, Jake.” In her mind, she added, “Make me whole.”
His tender gaze met hers. He didn’t glance away or blink or stammer when he said, “Promise you’ll do the same.”
She nodded, and in one long thrust, he pushed his length into her, rousing that bundle of nerves, that place of pleasure she’d heard existed deep inside, but had never felt flame. For hours, seemed like days, he teased, withdrew and marched forward, retreated, then plundered in a tantric rhythm that would find no end.
“Faith, you’re heaven.” His voice caught. “Babe, heav—”
She opened her eyes to see his he
ad tilt back and jaw gritting his pleasure.
Her orgasm struck hard, a great flare that burst forth, as if somehow instead of him waiting for her to reach a peak, she’d been waiting for him. Pulses grabbed and propelled her to a place where thought didn’t exist. Only ecstasy that gained speed, height… “Oh, Jake…”
“Faith…”
Right in time, with stars and moon low in the sky and a new day still in its infancy, together they cried out each other’s names again and again. Felt the earth move, the wind whirl mist against the window pane. And in those final moments, she granted him his wish, and let him inside her heart, her very soul, as he took a chance on her in spite of the threat of The Curse.
ELEVEN
WITH THE AROMA of coffee so thick and rich it hung in the air, Jake licked his lips, the sensation tingling from kissing Faith all night long. He focused his gaze on her while she sipped her dark roast, her eyes closed and satiated. Just the way he wanted to keep her blissfully happy. “You’re so gorgeous, especially in my shirt…”
“You keep saying that, Jake Mitchell, and I just might believe you.” She smiled and gave him a playful look.
He crawled across the kitchen table, crinkling the day’s newspaper he’d been skimming. He planted his lips firmly on hers. And I might have to make you mine permanently…
At the suddenness of that silent pledge, he slid back into his seat, the wooden chair feeling less firm than it had a moment before. The newspaper fell open to the obituaries, and his mind skittered back to his past. To his memory of loss and pain. To unchecked feelings and unexplained facts. To patients and undiagnosed cases.
A steady knock on the door startled him and he lifted his head to see Faith dart toward the door. His beautiful Faith he didn’t want to associate with discomfort.
When the door cracked open, Jake breathed in the scent of the forest and all life had to offer.
Shadows and Stars Page 69
