Jenna nodded. Kate was so down-to-earth and such a good listener. It would do her good to talk to her old friend.
“And that’s it, as far as messages go,” Raelynn said, handing over the stack of notes to Jenna.
“Thanks,” Jenna said.
“Nice flowers,” Raelynn said, smiling at Jake.
“Want to stay and join us for dinner?” Jake asked.
“No, I don’t think so,” Raelynn said, glancing again at the flowers. “My husband is cooking tonight and I want to be home to eat with my kids.”
“Some other time then,” Jake said. “With you and your family.”
“We’d love it. Thanks.” Raelynn grabbed her lunchbox and purse. “Remember, I can’t come in tomorrow morning until ten. Tommy has his dentist appointment.”
“No problem. I can handle it,” Jenna smiled.
Raelynn departed. As soon as she had, Jake said, “I’ll call my mother and tell her to back off.”
Her shoulders stiff with tension, Jenna locked the door behind Raelynn and pulled down the shade over the front door. Turning on her heel, she ignored the dinner and the flowers and headed for the back of the shop. “You’ll just make things worse if you do.”
“She’s got no business calling you or coming here. Never mind throwing Melinda a welcome-back party at their summer place.”
Her head held high, Jenna stormed into the sewing room in the back. She plucked pattern paper off the rack, a ruler and a pencil. Pulling up a chair, she slipped off her sunshine-yellow blazer and began making stencil letters and numbers for Alexandra’s alphabet dress. Head bent, Jenna concentrated on her work. “Obviously, she still thinks of Melinda as part of the family, and she wants me to know she and your father are intent on the two of you getting back together.”
Jake stood next to the long rectangular table where Jenna sat and folded his arms in front of him. “It doesn’t matter what my mother wants.”
Jenna shot him a sharp look. “Doesn’t it?”
Irked that Jenna just assumed everything had to be the same now as it had been in the past, Jake pushed away from the wall and reminded her calmly, “They don’t run my life, Jenna.”
Jenna went back to concentrating on her work. “Maybe not, but they can sure do a heck of a lot to make us all miserable. I’m not going through that again, Jake. I’m not going to be made to feel like I’m not good enough simply because I don’t come from some old-money background.”
Jake didn’t want that for Jenna, either. In fact, he intended to do everything in his power to protect her from just such snobbery. Not that it mattered to him what people thought of what he did or did not do. “Why do you care what others think about you?” he asked curiously.
Jenna pushed away from the sewing table. She stalked past him with another lofty toss of her red-gold hair. “I just do, okay?”
“No, it’s not okay,” Jake shot back, resenting her doom-and-gloom attitude. Achingly aware that the last thing he wanted to be doing with Jenna in their rare time alone was fighting, he closed the distance between them. “Not,” Jake continued sternly, looking down into her face, “if it means you’re going to let someone else come between us.”
Jenna whirled to face him. Her feet were planted slightly apart and her clear blue eyes were glittering. “That’s a funny thing for you to be accusing me of,” she remarked silkily.
Jake drew a calming breath. “I admit I let my parents pressure me into walking away from you before, but that’s not going to happen again.”
Jenna regarded Jake thoughtfully, reminding him a little of a lioness on the warpath. “Why not?” she demanded.
“Because you’re not underage,” Jake answered, tearing his eyes from the snug fit of her sheath dress. “And you’re not in an emotionally vulnerable place. You’re an adult with your own life now. And so am I. And so are your sisters.” They didn’t have to worry about any of the things they’d had to be concerned about before.
But once again, Jenna didn’t see it that way. Sighing, she spun away from him in a drift of freesia perfume. “There’s a lot more to it than that, Jake.”
Jake clamped his hand on her shoulders and held her in front of him when she would have run. “I don’t care what my parents or anyone else thinks. I want to be with you, Jenna. That has never stopped. And it never will.”
“Don’t say it,” she ordered, giving him a look that said if she had her way he would never ever get any closer to her than he was at that very minute.
“Why not?” Jake demanded gruffly, refusing to let anything, including her fear, drive them apart. “It’s true.”
“Jake—”
The next thing she knew their mouths were locked in a searing kiss. Holding her tightly, he continued until desire swept through her in dizzying waves, and she arched against him wantonly, no longer caring what common sense dictated, only caring that this never end. “You want to be with me, too, Jenna. I see it in your eyes. I feel it in your kiss.”
Jake bent his head and kissed her again. The look in his eyes robbed her of breath. She had never seen such desire. “I don’t want to be hurt again, Jake.”
“I’m not going to hurt you, Jenna,” Jake promised huskily, the vulnerability in his voice getting to her the way no smooth seduction technique ever could have. “I’m going to love you,” he promised, brushing the hair from her face. “And you’re going to love me. And this time no one, no one is going to come between us.” Jake swept Jenna up into his arms and carried her upstairs to her apartment, not stopping until he had reached her bedroom and lowered her onto her bed.
“You say that now,” Jenna protested, as he followed her down onto the bed and stretched out beside her.
“I’ll say that the rest of my life.” Jake’s arms slid around her back. He brought her close so they were touching in one long, electrified line. “We should have had a wedding, Jenna. We should have had a wedding night. We should have made love.” He framed her face with his hands and brought her head up to his.
“You don’t think I’ve dreamed about that?” Jenna whispered as she trembled in his arms. “You don’t think I’ve wanted that, too?”
Jake’s gaze softened tenderly as he kissed her temple, her cheek, her lips. “I know you have. As much as I have.”
“But it’s not that simple,” Jenna told him as her fears threatened to overtake her once again.
“It is that simple,” Jake said firmly. “It’s as simple as this kiss.” He gently touched his lips to hers. “And this touch.” He laid his hand against her breast, feeling the nipple bud beneath his palm. Again, he brushed his lips softly, insistently against hers. “It’s as simple as the way you tremble, and the way I need you.” He took her hand and pressed it against him, letting her feel the strength of his passion, the urgency of his need for her. “We let others keep us apart for a long time, Jenna,” he said hoarsely as her hand closed around him, his warmth and hardness penetrating through the denim of his jeans. “Let’s not let the mistakes we both made in the past, the hurts we suffered then, or the fear of what the future holds keep us apart now.” His body trembling with the effort his restraint was costing him, he pulled her fractionally closer. “I want you. I love you. And I have always loved you, Jenna. Always,” he said, meaning the words with all his heart and soul. He wove his hands through her hair and lowered his mouth to hers. “And I’m not going anywhere until you know it’s true.”
JENNA HADN’T EXPECTED any of this. Not his kisses, so hot and sweet and wild. Not his touches, so soft and gentle and urgent. And certainly not her own response.
She knew she wanted him. And had for a very, very long time, if the truth were told.
She hadn’t expected her knees would go weak the moment she looked into his eyes and knew he intended to make love to her then and there. She hadn’t expected the silky dampness between her thighs or the overwhelming warmth that coursed through her at the first touch of his hand on the uppermost curve of her breast. But she was
trembling. She was quaking from head to toe as he slowly unbuttoned the back of her sheath, eased it over her shoulders, worked her arms free, and pushed it down so it fell around her waist. His eyes darkened as he took in the sensuous curves of her breasts, and the pink, jutting nipples, crowning against the transparent lace.
“I’m afraid,” she whispered as he gently caressed the rounded curves, from base to tip, and back again. Over and over again, in a series of ever shrinking, ever more sensual circles.
“There’s no need to be, Jenna.” Jake’s lips followed the path his fingertips had blazed, not stopping until his lips closed over the transparent lace and hot, aching crowns, one by one. “You will always be safe—and loved—with me,” he whispered, the darkness of his hair nestled against her skin.
Jenna felt safe. And loved. Desired. Cherished. Even understood. But she had felt all those things before, only to have the rug pulled out from under her. “Jake—”
“Just trust me, Jenna. Trust me.”
And as he bent to kiss her again, hotly, rapaciously, she did.
She might not know what the future held, but she knew about the present. She knew she wanted him more than life. She knew she loved the feel of his hands on her skin as he slipped off her dress and then her hose. She knew she had never felt anything more gentle than the touch of his hands on her skin as he caressed first the outsides, then the insides, of her thighs. She had waited so long for this. Too long. No more, she decided recklessly.
Jake’s eyes darkened as he scanned her lovingly from head to toe, his eyes leisurely drinking in every inch of her. “You are so…beautiful.”
She felt beautiful when he touched her and looked at her like that.
“So are you.” Eager to see and feel more of him, Jenna unbuttoned the front of his shirt, spread the edges wide. His chest was broad, lightly suntanned and firmly muscled, and covered with a mat of thick velvety-soft hair.
Jenna ran her fingertips through it, loving the heat and satin-smoothness of his skin, the flatness of his stomach and the tautness of his flat male nipples.
Jake groaned as her hands swept lower still, to the waistband of his jeans. Pushing him back so he was lying on the bed, she knelt astride him. Clad only in lacey bikini panties and matching demi-cup bra, she unbuckled his belt and unzipped his jeans. Fingers trembling only slightly, she tugged off his boots, peeled off his jeans.
His legs were as firmly muscled and covered with enticing whorls of dark hair. But it was the hard ridge of arousal, visible beneath the plain white cotton of his briefs that caught her attention.
Jake caught her by the shoulders. The next thing she knew she was on her back. He was astride her. “I want this to be as wonderful as it can possibly be for you.” Eyes dark with mischief and affection, he peeled off her bra. Dispensed with her panties. Kissed his way from breasts to tummy to thighs, then spread her legs wide. The next thing she knew his hands were beneath her, cupping her bottom, tugging her toward the edge of the bed.
He slipped to the floor and knelt in front of her, lips and tongue tasting the insides of first her knees, then her thighs. Higher still, until he found her, until she was arching off the bed. Moaning her pleasure, she gripped his shoulders, not sure whether she was trying to hold him at bay or bring him closer, only knowing she had never…ever done anything like this, felt anything like this. It felt so good to be wanted and touched. It felt so good to be held by him and against him. Desire trembled within her, making her go all soft and syrupy inside.
“That’s it,” Jake murmured as she whimpered and fell apart in his hands. “Let me love you the way you were meant to be loved by me.”
And then he was joining her on the bed. Pushing her back, so she was lying across the bed. Shoving off his briefs, and draping his hot, virile form over her. Once again, his hands were beneath her, cupping her bottom and lifting her toward him, spreading her thighs. Her heart pounding, her body strung tight with anticipation, she expected him to enter her. Instead he pressed against her, poised to enter, and then he kissed her, until the world was spinning, her whole body quaking and yearning. “I want you, Jake.” Oh, how I want you.
“Jenna…Jenna…I want you, too.”
“Now?” Jenna’s chest constricted, making it difficult to breathe.
“Now.” Jake shifted her hips again, pushed inside.
Not easily, as she had hoped and he had seemingly expected, but slowly, with difficulty. Jake paused in midstroke, something akin to panic on his face. “Jenna?”
Not about to back out now, not when they’d come this far, Jenna kissed him hotly and rapaciously. “Deeper, Jake.” Jenna tightened her arms about his neck and lifted her hips. “Go deeper,” she pleaded, loving Jake the way she always had, with every fiber of her being. As he moved, so did she. The barrier was broken. Jenna felt a flash of pain, followed swiftly by a feeling of well-being. Then Jake was moving again, slowly, carefully, lovingly. Allowing her the time she needed to accommodate him. Taking her to new and wonderous heights. And when she urged him on, he followed, taking her with him, shattering her control even as he lost his.
“YOU DIDN’T TELL ME.” Jake wrapped Jenna in his arms and buried his face in the fragrant softness of her hair.
Loving the way she felt in his arms, Jenna cuddled closer. “I didn’t think you needed to know.”
Jake’s arms curved a little tighter around her bare shoulders. “That you were still a virgin?”
Jenna loved the way their naked bodies fit together beneath the sheets. “It wasn’t for lack of trying to replace you in my life,” she murmured, draping one of her slender, silky legs between his hair-roughened ones. “I…dated.”
“But…?” Jake rubbed a hand up and down her spine.
Jenna traced patterns through the mat of hair on his chest. “When it came to more than kisses, it just never felt right.” Her cheeks pinkened.
Jake sighed contentedly. “I know exactly what you mean. If it’s not right, it’s not worth it. I found that out quick enough. I only had to make that mistake once to realize it was not a mistake I was going to make again.”
“You’re saying…?” Jenna shifted her weight and rolled gracefully onto her stomach.
“Since my marriage ended, no one. In a lot of ways,” he teased, waggling his eyebrows and exaggerating every syllable to comic effect, “I’m just as chaste as you are.”
Jenna flushed with warmth as she propped her chin on her fist. He acted as if that were such a great thing. “You sure knew what you were doing just now,” she teased.
“I’ve read up on the subject,” Jake drawled, his voice sobering once again. “And dreamed. Of course, you were always the stars of all my dreams.”
Looking into his eyes, Jenna believed that was so. It amazed her to find Jake had waited for her, almost the same way she had waited for him. Although maybe that shouldn’t have surprised her, she realized slowly. Jake was the kind of guy who never had been willing to settle for second best when he could have the ultimate by just waiting. As far as Jake—and she—were concerned, the two of them together were the ultimate couple.
Jenna traced Jake’s lower lip with her fingertip. “Why did it take you so long to come after me?”
Regret flashed in Jake’s silver-gray eyes. “I convinced myself there was no going back, that you were better off without me. I felt I’d already hurt you enough.”
Jake looked over at her. When their glances meshed, Jenna saw the tenderness in his face, the love, and knew it was true. “What changed your mind?” she asked on a trembling breath.
“Seeing you on TV, being interviewed,” Jake confided, his voice dropping another rough, husky notch. He shifted her onto her back and rolled so he was on his stomach next to her, looking down at her. He framed her face with his hands. “And finding out you were every bit as alone as I was.”
Jenna’s brows knit together. They hadn’t said anything about her love life in any of the TV interviews she had done—she hadn’t allowed
it. “How did you—?”
Jake smiled and sifted his hands through her hair. “Lilah and John McCabe. I got in touch with them when I decided to move back to Laramie. I wanted a recommendation for a pediatrician for Alexandra. While they were giving me their new daughter-in-law’s name, they also mentioned that you were just as lovely and sought-after as you had always been. Only problem was, you weren’t interested in other men, and hadn’t been since we broke up.”
Jenna flushed, groaned and comically covered her eyes with her hand. Sighing her exasperation loudly, she dropped her hand and looked back at Jake. “I should have known that’s what happened. Since all four of John and Lilah McCabe’s sons got married, everyone in this town has had wedding fever. And everyone’s gotten it into their heads that all four of us Lockhart girls should be next.”
“Can’t say I disagree with that,” Jake grinned, as he bent to kiss the nape of her neck. “Especially since you waited for me all this time.”
Jenna aimed a playful punch at his chest. She didn’t want Jake thinking she was that ridiculously romantic because the truth was, she had lost all her starry-eyed naiveté long ago. “I did not do that.” After the first…oh, three or four years, she hadn’t held out any hope at all Jake would ever come after her again.
Jake grinned and shifted so he was on his back and she was draped over top of him once again. “Say what you want, Jenna,” he chided, the heat in his eyes telegraphing his intention to make her his all over again. “But the simple truth of the matter is you waited for me all this time.” He rubbed his hands lazily up and down her spine. “You saved yourself for me. And I’m going to make sure you are never sorry you did.”
Ignoring the tingles of awareness shimmering through her, Jenna pushed away from him and sat up. As much as she loved making love with Jake, she didn’t want to go back to being the naive teenager she had been. She didn’t ever want to be blindsided like that again, and the only way to insure against that was to keep their relationship in perspective and not have any unrealistic expectations about what the future held for them—the way they had done before.
The Bride Said, Finally! (The Lockharts of Texas) Page 12
