Serpent in Paradise

by Jayne Ann Krentz

  The door opened behind her before the stark silence could be broken. Melissa and Adam came through, shutting it again behind them. Melissa was holding the wineglass Amy had dropped on the carpet, and Adam still clutched a stained paper towel. They both looked at Jase.

  “Is this the father, Amy?” Melissa asked, never taking her assessing gaze off Jase.

  “Yes,” Amy managed shakily. “But he doesn’t believe me. Isn’t that funny, Mel? The one possibility I hadn’t considered. That he was telling the truth and that he wouldn’t believe me if I told him I was pregnant.” Summoning a brave smile, which came out rather strangely, she turned and opened the door to her apartment. Instantly, Melissa was at her side, unobtrusively moving to lend her silent support as Amy faced a roomful of curious guests.

  Out in the hall Adam considered the tall man standing in front of him. Jase was gazing blankly at the closed door. “You look,” Adam said conversationally, “as if you could use a drink.”

  “You may be right.”

  “Come on inside and I’ll get you one,” Adam opened the door and stood waiting.

  Jase looked into the crowded room, dazzled momentarily by the cheerful noise, the fashionable clothing and the prospect of seeing Amy again. “I’m, uh, not used to this sort of thing,” he explained wryly to the stranger holding the door.

  “Amy says you can handle a bar full of drunken sailors back on Saint Clair. Dealing with a room full of partying San Franciscans should be a snap for you.”

  Jase hesitated. “Amy talks about me?”

  “Incessantly.” Adam grinned dryly. “When she isn’t talking about the baby, that is.”

  “The baby.” Adam repeated the words as if they were a foreign language.

  “Come on, I’ll get you that drink” Adam smiled. “I’m Adam Trembach, by the way.”

  Jase decided he could like Adam Trembach very easily. “Jase Lassiter.”

  Adam chuckled. “I know.”

  Twenty minutes later Jase found a relatively quiet corner of the room, a Scotch and soda in his hand. There hadn’t been any rum at the liquor table. So he’d made himself the Scotch and soda while Adam refurbished his Manhattan. The two men stood quietly, sipping their drinks and watching the lively crowd. A few of the more curious guests came over to introduce themselves. Adam handled them diplomatically, making the introductions and then banishing each guest in turn.

  You’ve got a nice touch,” Jase drawled as Adam gently sent a streaked blonde in a black skintight gown on her way. “I could use you for a bouncer at The Serpent.”

  Adam laughed. “Something tells me it would take more than casual diplomacy to deal with the crowd you get on Saint Clair.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. The crowd’s changing a little. Just before I left the island yesterday, a friend told me that one of the cruise lines was making inquiries about putting Saint Clair on its list of ports of call.”

  But even as he spoke, Jase’s attention was only partially on the conversation he was trying to hold with Adam. He couldn’t take his eyes off Amy. She moved across the room, chatting with her guests, laughing at the easy jokes of some of the men, making sure everyone had plenty of the excellent food and drink.

  Although she hid it fairly well, Jase could see that she was getting through the evening on her nerves alone, and God knew that made her an accident waiting to happen. He watched the painstaking care she took whenever she handed a glass to someone. When she passed around an hors d’oeuvre tray she did it with both hands, although it obviously wasn’t very heavy.

  She was pregnant.

  “I beg your pardon?” Adam said politely.

  Jase realized he must have mumbled something aloud. He reddened. “I said I can’t believe she’s pregnant,” he muttered.

  “Oh, she is. No doubt about it. Mel’s spent the past couple of weeks laying her options on the line for her. There aren’t that many for a woman, you know. Adoption, abortion or keep the kid.”

  “An abortion!”

  “Umm,” Adam nodded as if they were discussing the weather. “But Amy wouldn’t even think about that possibility. Or adoption either. It was pretty traumatic for her. She’s just beginning to relax. Been edgy ever since she got back from Saint Clair, you know.”

  “She gets that way when she’s a little anxious. She gets a bit clumsy,” Jase explained almost affectionately. “I spent half the time she was on Saint Clair rescuing falling glasses of wine.”

  “Did you?” Adam’s voice was politely neutral.

  “She can’t be pregnant,” Jase repeated disbelievingly as he recalled how he’d spent the other half of the time with Amy on Saint Clair. This time Adam said nothing. It was hardly something a woman like Amy would make up, Jase thought uncertainly. In the few days they’d had together, he’d come to know her. He’d trusted her in a way he hadn’t ever trusted a woman before in his life. And she trusted him She’d believed him that morning when he’d explained to her that she hadn’t taken the risk she thought she had by sleeping with him. And she’d trusted him with her life. She’d known he would save her from Haley, she’d told him later.

  And she’d trusted him enough to offer him a home.

  Jase had come several thousand miles and through a couple of different cultural climates to claim the home she had offered. But never in his wildest dreams had he expected that home to include a baby.

  The evening seemed to drag on interminably. Jase was beginning to think Amy’s party would never end, and then, quite suddenly, long before he was ready to face her alone, it was over. Even Melissa and Adam were saying good-bye, the last ones out the door.

  Amy shut the door behind her sister and Adam and then turned to confront the only person left in the room. Jase saw the tension in her over-bright eyes and noticed the way she clung to the doorknob, her hands behind her back as she faced him. My God, he thought, she’s so very vulnerable. She puts on such a bold air, but underneath she’s so very soft and vulnerable. Instinctively he took a step toward her, setting down his empty glass on a nearby end table.

  She halted him with her stark words. “Why did you come, Jase?”

  He looked at her. “Isn’t it obvious, Amy? I came for you. I came to find you. You talked about a home...”

  Her mouth twisted bitterly as she carefully moved away from the door. “Well, I’m sure you’ve had some second thoughts during the evening, haven’t you? That home I offered now comes equipped with another man’s baby. I’m sure you’ll want to reconsider the proposition under those circumstances. After all, it’s not as if you have to feel any sense of responsibility... Jase!” She broke off her brittle monologue with a startled gasp as he crossed the room in three swift strides and seized her around the waist.

  He lifted her just far enough off the ground so that she was forced to meet him eye to eye. His tightly drawn face was only inches from her own, and his gaze burned with a frightening intensity. Amy held her breath, more terrified than she would have believed possible.

  “Another man’s baby, Amy?” he demanded in a voice that was deadly calm.

  “Th-that’s what you believe, isn’t it? That it must be another man’s child I’m carrying? You really don’t think you got me pregnant, do you?” she whispered, searching his face.

  “Has there been anyone else since you came back from Saint Clair?” he asked savagely, his strong hands still clamped around her waist.

  “No,” she blurted, tentatively trying to steady herself by putting her hands on his shoulders. The feel of him was so comfortingly familiar. But his expression was anything but comforting.

  “And you weren’t pregnant when you came to Saint Clair?” he persisted.

  “Jase, there’s been no one else for years.” Her mouth was dry as she stated the truth. Her gray-green eyes were wide, reflecting her nervousness as well as her underlying honesty.

  �
��Then that leaves me, doesn’t it?” Jase said coolly.

  Amy lowered her lashes despairingly. “Yes.”

  “Then we’d better see about getting married as soon as possible, hadn’t we?” he asked as he slowly lowered her to her feet.

  “Jase! Are you saying you believe me? You believe the baby’s yours?”

  “Would you lie to me about a thing like this, Amy?”

  “Oh, no, Jase. Never. I couldn’t lie about this,” she breathed, unable to absorb the implications of what he was saying.

  “And do you really think I’d lie to you?” he went on, curling his hands around the curve of her shoulders. “Do you think I was lying that morning when I told you I was sure I couldn’t get you pregnant?”

  She let out a deep breath. “No,” Amy admitted. “I know you believed it yourself when you told me. But when I got back to San Francisco and realized that I was going to have a baby, I nearly went crazy. I was so angry at you, so hurt that you hadn’t followed me home. The thought that you had deliberately used me, without any regard for the consequences I would have to face alone, left me so furious I haven’t been able to think straight. On top of that, I felt so utterly stupid!”

  “Because you’d trusted me?”

  She nodded numbly. “It was more than that. I was angry because I’d believed you, but I was just as furious with myself because that first night I hadn’t even worried about the future. I didn’t have any excuse at all for the first night, Jase,” she said huskily.

  His hands lifted to cradle her face. “Sweetheart, you couldn’t have felt any more stupid than I did that night in The Serpent when I tried to take Murdock apart and you turned the hose on both of us. I listened to you offering me a home in front of fifty witnesses and I just let you walk out the door.”

  She waited uncertainly. “And the next morning? Jase, the next morning you said you didn’t think you could make it back in the States. Right from the very beginning you’d told me I was all wrong.”

  “You were the only right thing that’s happened to me in over ten years. Maybe in my whole life,” he rasped. “Honey, please believe me. I really did think I had no business trying to follow you back to San Francisco. I told myself you were better off without me, that you’d get over the affair in time and you’d be glad I hadn’t tried to take you up on your offer. Amy, I have nothing to offer you in return, don’t you see?”

  She smiled tremulously. “I wouldn’t say that. I seem to have brought home one heck of a souvenir from Saint Clair.”

  “Oh, Amy!” He groaned heavily, pulling her against him, his mouth in her hair. He was silent for a long moment, savoring the feel of her and the wonder of what she had told him. “Are we really going to have a baby?”

  “I think,” she said, her words muffled against the fabric of his shirt, “that you’d better have a talk with my gynecologist.”

  His hands moved along her back. “I believe you, sweetheart. I’m not doubting what you’ve told me.”

  She lifted her head. “I know. But you’re bound to have a few questions on the matter. I sure as hell did!”

  He gave a husky, half-choked laugh. “I’ll bet you did. God, Amy, I’m so sorry—” He clipped off the words, shaking his head ruefully. “No, I’m not sorry. How could I be sorry? Back on Saint Clair I told you I’d give anything in the world to be able to make you pregnant, to watch you growing nice and round with my baby. I’d given up any hope of ever having a real family. How can I even think of saying I’m sorry when I’ve finally got everything I’ve ever wanted? What I’m sorry about is that you had to come back to the States and face the whole thing alone.”

  Amy stood silently in his grasp, thinking of what she’d been through during the past few weeks. After a moment he went on slowly. “Adam said Melissa talked to you about giving up the baby, but you wouldn’t do it.” He scanned her face as if searching for something very crucial. “Why not?”

  She gathered her courage. “For the same reason that I stood in front of fifty customers in The Serpent and made a fool of myself by offering you a home. Because I love you, Jase.”

  “Oh, God, Amy.”

  “Why did you come several thousand miles to take up an offer from a woman who was totally wrong for you?” she whispered, touching the side of his cheek delicately with her fingertips.

  He smiled crookedly, eyes gleaming. “Because I love you. And love seems to make a man selfish and possessive and determined to try anything. I’ve spent these past few weeks telling myself that if I really cared for you, I’d stay out of your life. But I woke up two days ago with a hangover that nearly killed me, and I suddenly realized that whether it was in your best interests or not I didn’t think I could live another day without you. I had to find out if the offer was still open.”

  “The offer would have remained open for the rest of my life,” she told him, her voice husky with the passion of the words.

  “Even though you were ready to take my head off the moment I appeared?” he teased softly.

  “I suspect that it’s a part of loving to want to clobber the beloved one occasionally.”

  His smile widened into a very male grin. “I remember the day I wanted to beat you for risking your neck in front of Haley’s gun!”

  “Now we know which of us is the more dangerous. I followed through on my impulse to clobber you.”

  “While I restrained myself? Umm, you’re probably right,” he mused, nuzzling the nape of her neck with his warm mouth. “But then, they always say the female of the species is more dangerous than the male.”

  “She has to be tough. She’s the one who takes the biggest risks,” Amy explained complacently.

  She lifted her head, inviting his kiss. Jase accepted the invitation with all the hunger and passion that was in him. He took her mouth, setting his seal on her once more. Then he lifted her head, turquoise eyes deep and brooding.

  “It’s not going to be easy, you know, Amy. The only thing I know how to do is run a place like The Serpent. After the baby is born, I’m going to take my family back to Saint Clair. Does that worry you?”

  Amy stared at him, some of the rosy glow that had enveloped her beginning to fade as the first hint of reality seeped back. “Jase, there’s no need to go back to Saint Clair. I make enough in my boutiques to support all three of us. There will be plenty of time for you to look around and find something here in San Francisco that suits you.”

  He sighed, unwilling to dampen the warm wonder of the moment. “I came to take you back to Saint Clair with me, Amy, not to settle down in San Francisco. I don’t fit into city life anymore. I can’t come back.”

  She silenced him with her palm against his mouth, her lips curving in gentle denial. “We have months and months ahead of us to talk about it, Jase. We’ll worry about it after the baby is born. I love you.”

  “And I love you!” He shuddered with the force of his feeling as he pulled her close once more. “My woman, my wife, the mother of my child. My God, how I love you!” The kiss he gave her was reverent. “I’ve spent so many nights wanting you, sweetheart. So many nights...”

  She twined her arms around his neck. “I’m here now.”

  “In my arms,” he whispered disbelievingly. “And pregnant. Oh, God, Amy, I’ll be so careful with you, but I’ve got to have you again.”

  Her eyes glowed. “You don’t have to be that careful,” she teased lovingly. “I haven’t suddenly become a fragile piece of crystal.”

  “Haven’t you?”

  And he made love to her that night as if she were indeed made of delicate crystal. At least he did so until the obvious evidence of the passion he remembered so well convinced him that Amy wouldn’t shatter in his hands.

  He was the one who felt shattered when it was all over. Shattered and then made whole.

  Chapter Twelve

  After Jase’s first
conference with Dr. Jessica Carson, Amy privately decided she would never forget the idiotic grin he wore when he emerged from her consultation room.

  “It seems,” he explained very carefully to a wryly amused Amy, “that there are very few certainties when it comes to dealing with the physiology of human beings. Especially the reproductive physiology.”

  “Tell me about it,” she mocked, remembering her own shock upon hearing Dr. Carson explain a few of the scientific facts of life.

  “She says,” Jase went on, looking pleasantly dazed, “that it might even happen again.”

  “Oh, Lord,” Amy groaned, “you don’t have to look so awestruck with the wonder of your own power!” But secretly she was delighted. It wasn’t until she had faced Jase the night before at the party that it had occurred to her how easily he could have denied his responsibility. In all good conscience he could have chosen to believe the doctor’s verdict of ten years ago and refused to accept that he was the father of Amy’s child. His trust in her the previous night would warm her for the rest of her life.

  As she lay in his arms the night after he’d had the consultation with Dr. Carson, Amy told him very seriously how much his unquestioned trust had meant. Jase grinned, putting a hand on her still-flat stomach with possessive pleasure.

  “Amy, I love you. I’d trust you with my life and my honor, and as it turned out, I was able to trust you with the life of my child. What more could a man ask of a woman?”

  He drew her closer, his fingers seeking the lace hem of the elegant nightgown she wore. Slowly he probed the feminine shape of her, enjoying the curve of her thigh and the swell of her hip. His lovemaking, Amy had discovered the night before, was now tinged with a new kind of tenderness, a luxuriously gentle passion, as if Jase now knew he had all the time in the world. She nestled closer, seeking his warmth.

  His kisses were deep, drugging things, filling her mouth and then showering across her breasts. When he claimed her totally, forcing his knee gently but firmly between her thighs and fitting himself solidly to her softness, it was a clear act of possession, but there was no doubt that Jase was as enthralled as the woman he possessed.