“Home?”
“Aye, lass. Home.”
“Oh, James!” Catlynne gasped and hugged him, smothering him with kisses.
“Easy lass, time enough to smooch once we get out of here.” He kissed her slowly, deeply. “That’s an aye to my proposal?”
“Oh, aye. I’ve always wanted my very own personal Scotsman.”
He laughed. “It just struck me. How Jack brought us together. Like a plot from one of your books.”
“Proper justice for all those horrid reviews. You fell in love just like a hero in one of my stories.” Doubt shadowed her eyes. “You are in love, James, aren’t you?”
“Ridiculously, deliriously, ecstatically, madly.”
“Good, because I love you, too. Will you marry me in the kilt?”
James wiggled his eyebrows. “Aye, we’ll have a Highland wedding. After, I’ll even show you what a Scotsman wears under his kilt.”
Gathering the green sheet around his hips, he sat up so he could kiss her properly.
“See, my books told you how wonderful love can be.”
He pulled her against his chest holding her tightly. “I might’ve taken a little time for the point to be driven home. But let’s say, my love, I got it in the end.”
Be sure to visit Deborah’s website
www.deborahmacgillivray.co.uk
Double Dare
Michelle Scaplen
• Delaware – It’s illegal to get married on a dare
Janie fed four quarters into the jukebox, her hands shaking as she pressed the buttons that would play her selection. “You Shouldn’t Kiss Me Like This,” Toby Keith’s ballad about a woman kissing her best friend, and the man so amazed by the kiss he finds himself feeling emotions for her he never felt before. Tonight she planned to put that theory to the test.
With the sounds of the opening chords filling the room, she walked up to Jake who sat at the bar with his business partner, Rick Mason, and tapped him on the shoulder. When she saw his face, she realized her mistake. He was never in a good mood when he spoke to Rick. But it was too late. If she didn’t go through with this now, she never would.
“Excuse me,” she said, hoping her voice didn’t betray her fears. “Jake, may I speak with you alone for a second?”
Jake gave Rick a heated look, then flashed her a smile. “Sure, I’m finished here anyway.”
She led him to the dance floor and before she lost her nerve, asked, “Dance with me?”
His arms went easily around her. Whether it was Jake beating up the boys who teased her in high school, or giving her moral support when she went on her first teaching interview, Jake had always been there for her. Even though he’d never admit it, he was the kindest man she’d ever known. How could she not be in love with him?
“Everything all right?” he asked, concern etched in his dark brown eyes.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and stepped into his embrace. Jake stood over six feet tall, and if she meant to do this right she needed to move closer to him. “…Cuz I’ll just close my eyes and I won’t know where I’m at, we’ll get lost on this dance floor…” The sweet lyrics rang in her ears. It was now or never! Janie stood up high on her tip toes, closed her eyes, leaned in closer, and kissed her best friend.
But he didn’t kiss her back. Jake’s mouth and eyes were opened wide as if in complete shock. “…Spinning around and around and around…” And that’s exactly how it felt, as if the dance floor, not her and Jake, spun in circles. She pulled away from him, and beside the loud roaring of blood rushing in her ears, she heard the sound of everyone around her laughing and whooping it up.
Janie felt her face burn with embarrassment and saw the look of first shock, then pity on Jake’s face. The tears would come, but she would hold them off until she was alone outside. Pulling away, she only stopped to grab her purse before she ran outside without looking back.
“Janie, wait!” Jake started after her. What the hell had just happened? One minute he sat arguing with Rick, the next he was being kissed by his best bud. “Janie!”
“Forget it dude, she’s gone,” Rick said from behind him with a slap on the back. He laughed. “That had to be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Screw you, Rick.” She must be hurting, Jake thought as he tried to move away from Rick, but the dance floor was now packed as a fast paced 80s song played on the jukebox. “I’ve gotta find her.”
“She’ll be fine.”
No she wouldn’t. He knew she had about as much self-esteem as a pin. Sweet Janie, it must have taken all the strength she possessed to get up the nerve to kiss him. Kiss him? What the hell had that been about? “No, she won’t be,” he reaffirmed.
Mason put a hand on Jake’s back and led him to the bar. “Just chill out a minute and have a beer.” Rick signaled for the bartender and put up two fingers. “What are you going to say to her anyway?”
Jake shook his head. He hadn’t a clue. “I don’t know. Apologize?”
“She doesn’t want to hear that,” Rick said, then paused and took a long pull on his beer after the bartender brought the two bottles over to them. “She wants to hear you’re madly in love with her.” He started laughing again, a sick drunken laugh. “She wants to hear you want to marry her.”
Could that be? Janie Smith, the shy and slightly overweight girl he’d known since kindergarten was in love with him? “You’re crazy.”
Rick started to wobble out of his chair. The man was definitely drunk. “Ask her to marry you, she’ll say yes. Trust me.”
“No way,” he replied. “It was just a kiss.”
Rick put his arm around Jake’s shoulder but he didn’t know if it was a show of affection, or he needed to do it to steady himself. “Ask her to marry you.” Then, with a grin added, “I dare you.”
“Dare me? What are you twelve years old?”
“No man, just bored. I’m looking for some fun.”
Rick and Jake owned First’s Auto Body for six years, and Jake had been trying to buy him out for over five of them. They’d wanted to buy their own shop since high school. Jake was the brains behind everything, while Rick, or more precisely, Rick’s father, was the money behind it. Now that Jake made enough money on his own, he wanted to run the place himself. He was fed up with his partner’s laziness and unprofessional behavior.
“Come on, Rick. You’ve known Janie almost as long as I have. She doesn’t want to marry me.”
“Are you kidding? She’s followed you around since I can remember.”
Yeah, she had, but it’d always been all right with him. She’d never been like the beautiful, bone thin women he always dated, but she was smart, funny, and an honest to goodness friend. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean—”
“Ask her. I dare you. I know I’m right.” Rick took another long sip of his beer. “You know what?” he said. “Let’s make it interesting. You ask Plainie Janie to marry you, stay married to her for six months, and I’ll sign those papers for you.”
Jake didn’t think about how this would affect Janie’s feelings. He didn’t think about anything but owning the shop full out. He put his hand out, Rick took it and gave it two strong pumps.
“Deal,” they said at the same time.
Janie slammed her apartment door, threw her purse on the table, and fell onto the couch. She wiped the last of the tears from her eyes, willing herself not to let another one fall. All these years of a great friendship, and she’d thrown it away in a matter of seconds.
“So?” Donna, her good friend and roommate came out of her bedroom wearing a tattered bathrobe and fuzzy slippers. “How did it go? What happened?”
Janie leaned her head on the back of the couch and sighed. “How did it go? How do you think it went? I made a total ass out of myself.”
“Oh honey.” Donna was next to her in a second, then wrapped her arms around her. “I’m so sorry.”
Janie pulled away, quickly stood, and walked into their tiny kitchen. “It�
��s no big deal,” she lied. “Jake and I will have a big laugh about it before you know it.“ Too bad Jake was probably already laughing about it now with his jerk-off of a business partner.
She took the tea bags down from the cabinet and turned on the kettle. Changing her mind, she turned it off again, then reached in the refrigerator and took out a beer. Maybe if she got good and drunk she’d forget this night even happened.
Donna followed her to the kitchen and sat in a chair. “Of course you will. I’m just sorry I couldn’t be there with you tonight.”
Janie sat next to her. “I know you weren’t feeling well, don’t worry about it.” She took a sip of beer, then realized nothing was going to make her forget what happened. ”I’m going to bed.”
Two hours later, just minutes before she finally fell asleep, Janie heard the buzzing of the intercom. She quickly got up and answered it before it disturbed Donna. “What?” she asked, her voice rough from lack of sleep and too much crying.
“Janie, it’s me. Let me in.”
She froze and took a moment to calm herself before she pressed the button again. “It’s two in the morning, Jake. Go home.”
“I know what time it is. We need to talk,” he called back, his voice as smooth and calm as always.
Might as well get it over with. “I’ll be down in a second.”
She put on Donna’s bathrobe to cover her threadbare Mickey Mouse nightgown and walked down the flight of steps leading to the front door. When she saw him through the glass, she almost turned and ran back upstairs. God, he was so good looking, with light brown hair cut short and stylish. A strong, lean chest and thick muscled arms bulged through his black t-shirt. What had she been thinking when she kissed him? Did she think Mr. Perfect, Mr. Prom King would kiss her back, then admit his undying love for her?
When she didn’t open the door right away, he knocked on the window. She took the last few steps to the door, opened it, and suddenly found herself held tightly in his arms as he passionately pushed his lips to hers. After the moment of shock, she relaxed and kissed him back.
She’d dreamt of this moment for as long as she could remember and it was finally happening. Jake Fielding was kissing her. On the lips, tongues dancing, bodies pushed together, kissing her. Her dreams were never this good.
He pulled away and caught his breath. “Marry me.”
Janie stumbled back, but Jake’s hand was quickly on her arm steading her. “What?”
“I’ve been driving around all night thinking about this. We’ve been best friends forever, have no secrets between us, and have a million things in common. Why waste our time looking for someone else, playing stupid mind games, going on date after date with the wrong person? Marry me, Janie. It makes sense.”
“But you don’t love me.”
“Of course I do.”
She shook her head. “I know you do,” she said, “but it’s not the romantic kind of love. It’s not the kind where you think about me constantly, where you smile at just the thought of being near me, or where your heart beats faster whenever I touch you.” Not the kind of love I feel for him
He let out a long breath. “But it’s the best friend kind of love, and isn’t that more important?”
“Well…” He pulled her into his arms again and kissed her more tenderly and she couldn’t think of what she’d just been about to say. This time they were sweet little kisses with their eyes open, and she saw his were sparkling with affection.
She looked closely at his face, the bright lightbulb above them lighting every perfect feature, his perfect smile, his perfectly shaped nose, his perfect everything. She had to pull away from him when the realization hit her. “This is never going to work. I’m just me—Plainie Janie. I’m fat, and nothing special to look at, while you have women falling at your feet.”
For a second she thought she saw a flash of anger on his face. “Have I ever once said anything bad about the way you look, Janie?”
No, but he’d never said anything good either. She shrugged. “I guess not.”
“Listen, Sweetheart,” he said when he took her hand, “this could work. I really think so.” Then he did something she would remember for the rest of her life. Jake got down on one knee and kissed her hand. “Janie Marie Smith, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
~~~
Three weeks later Jake stood at the front of the church, his tie suddenly feeling too tight. “What am I doing here?” he asked his brother, Steve, his best man.
“Screwing up a perfectly good friendship.”
Leave it to his brother not to pull any punches. “No, I’m not. It’s all going to work out, you’ll see.”
“No, it’s not. You’re going to hurt one of the sweetest girls we know, and all because of a childish dare.”
“It’s not about the dare. It’s about getting Rick out of my shop.”
“Great, try explaining that to her six months from now, ‘Gee, Janie, sorry about tearing out your heart and then stomping it into little pieces, but now I own my own auto body shop. We can still be friends, right?’ Let me ask you something Jake, if you knew some other man was going to do this to her, what would you do?”
He’d probably beat the living tar out of them, he realized. “Shit,” Jake mumbled.
“Yeah, shit is right.”
But it was too late to do anything about it, because the organist began playing and everyone rose. He watched numbly as Donna walked down the aisle, then his six-year-old niece dropped flower petals with each careful step she took.
Then Janie appeared. The girl who helped him pass tenth grade English, the girl who held his head when he threw up in the toilet the first time he’d gotten drunk, the girl who’d cried along with him when his father died. The woman who was about to become his wife.
He could see her nervous smile through her thin white veil. There was no way to stop the wedding without hurting her. And he cared about her too much to do that. This won’t be so bad, he thought. If things didn’t work out, they could remain friends afterwards, right? Maybe he could even tell her about the dare and she’d be willing to help him get Rick out of the shop and agree to a divorce if that’s what they both wanted.
Of course, then he wouldn’t be able to kiss her again, and he’d really loved those kisses. He never would have thought she could make his blood run so hot the way she did when her soft, sweet body pressed up against his. God, he was a selfish son of a bitch. Divorce her in six months? He’d be a fool if he did that.
~~~
It was a beautiful wedding, the reception went flawlessly, but now as they say, was the moment of truth. The beginning of their marriage.
Janie stood looking out on the balcony of the Bethany Beach hotel room shivering from the cool winter’s air. Who was she kidding. The ocean breezes had nothing to do with her goose bumps. Very soon she’d be making love to her husband for the first time.
Jake had been wonderful throughout the whole ceremony, taking her cold clammy hand into his strong, warm one. He matched her every nervous smile with a reassuring one. And while her voice was a mere whisper while she spoke her vows, his was deep and sure.
During the reception when they danced their first dance to Toby Keith’s song, Jake wrapped her in his arms making her feel warm and secure. He danced with her smoothly, and at the end of the song he dipped her back and kissed her wildly while their guests cheered him on.
Another thing that shocked her was when Rick had asked to dance with her. Jake, who she knew wasn’t a jealous man, vehemently objected to it. It was fine by her. She wanted to save every dance for him.
~~~
Jake paced the room. What the hell was his problem? His wife stood outside on the balcony while he was inside. It was his wedding night for crying out loud, they should be in bed making love. And he wanted to make love to her—hadn’t thought about much else all evening long.
His wife was Janie, not some model thin, stuck up snob that would judge everything
he said, everything he did. She’d be kind and patient. Willing and accepting. He wouldn’t have to make a move on her, or impress her with his charms. And that was why he was so nervous. Because for the first time in his life he was going to make love to a woman who meant more to him than a good time.
“Janie,” he called out, “come inside. It’s cold out there.”
“Okay.”
He handed her a glass of champagne that she placed on the table after taking a tentative sip.
He sat and patted the cushion next to him. “Sit.” When she was beside him, he tucked a lock of hair that had come loose from it’s pin behind her ear. She looked beautiful, he thought, then wondered if he’d said that to her tonight. Her skin glowed just as a bride’s should, and her brown hair was piled on top of her head showing off her emerald green eyes. “We’ve been married for five hours, and I’m already a lousy husband. I should have told you when I first saw you walk down the aisle how incredible you look.”
She looked as if she tried to hold back tears, and his heart lurched in his chest.
“No, I don’t.”
“Mrs. Fielding, are you calling your husband a liar?” When she shook her head, he said, “Good, are you nervous because we’re going to make love soon?”
“Petrified.”
God, he loved how they could be so honest with each other. “Me, too,” he told her, “never more so in my life. But I know this is going to better than we’ve ever had with anyone else. Are you ready?”
She nodded and he took her hand and led her to the bedroom. After he flipped the light switch he asked, “Lights on or off?”
“Off.”
“Alright.” He switched the light off. “But next time we do it my way, and I want to see you when I make love to you.”
No Law Against Love Page 13
