A Patchwork Romance

by Jacobs, Ann

  “Make love to me, Jared.” Her crystal blue gaze met his, full of passion and promise. He couldn’t wait any longer. Trembling with the effort to hold back, he positioned himself and thrust into her tight, wet sheath.

  Something was blocking his path. Suddenly it gave way. Her gasp made him cringe. The truth tore at his heart.

  She’d been a virgin.

  “Sweetheart, I’m sorry. You should have told me.” Kissing away her tears, he told himself to be still, give her time to recover.

  “It’s all right. I wanted you to…”

  That was something. “I’m incredibly glad you wanted me to be your first. But you still should have told me. I could have made it easier for you.” He’d hurt her, made her cry. He wished he could take her pain, make it his own. “I’d have been more careful, made it better for you.”

  “Hush. It’s all right. More than all right.” She shifted and took him deeper into her tight, wet sheath.

  He gritted his teeth and prayed silently for control. Mindful of her tenderness, he tempered his thrusts. While his cock was screaming for him to slam into her again and again, to hurry and find release, he rocked his hips against her slowly, gently.

  She felt so hot. So tight. When she opened to him and wrapped her legs around his waist, he gritted his teeth. She began to move to his rhythm, at first tentatively then with more assurance. The sweet, hot friction built until he could hardly bear it.

  He held on as long as he could. Primal urges took over, though. He had to come. Conquer her. His whole body shaking, he gave up and exploded at the moment he felt her inner muscles constrict around him and heard her soft gasp of surprise—of pleasure.

  Exhausted, he rolled to his side, taking her with him and holding her close. The tears he felt on her cheeks reminded him of the gentle rain.

  Incredible. He’d never thought being the first would matter to him, but it did. Her gift awed him, convinced him she must have deep feelings for him. He could do much worse than taking her, making her his own for a lifetime, not just for this night.

  He lay beside her, thinking. Intermittently through the night, he dozed. As he looked through the window at the gently falling rain, he listened to the soft cadence of her breathing and began to plan the way he’d win her. He’d bind her to him with ties of gentle emotions, not the business connections he’d once thought would cement him and Marcie.

  One thing he was pretty sure of, Althea would hate Atlanta. No matter. They’d spend most of their time here. He’d keep his condo for those times he couldn’t take care of details over the phone or on the computer. On those trips, he’d see that she had fun, take her to shows. He came up short. Did she like musicals? Drama? Comedy? He had no idea what she cared about, other than her family, her quilting and the co-op she’d planned to run with her dead fiancé.

  She was hardly more than a stranger. A stranger who was making him a quilt and showing him around the mountains he'd stayed away from for twenty-four years. A stranger who'd given him a precious gift he didn't deserve.

  It was a bit premature to be thinking of engagement rings and eternal vows. But Jared could get that co-op going for her. All it would take was money, and he had plenty. Maybe his accountant could come up with the way he could deduct whatever he’d spend on it.

  Stirring in her sleep, Althea pulled one hand out from under the covers. Jared reached over and clasped it. What kind of ring would she like? he wondered. Then he caught himself. Not now. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

  What they both might be feeling was a healthy dose of the lust. After all, she'd made it clear from the day they spent together in Helen that she wasn't looking for anything permanent.

  “Jared?” Eyes still closed, she rolled over against his side.

  His cock hardened again, as though they hadn't made love just a few hours earlier. “Morning, sweetheart.” He pulled her up against him, stroked her back. “Are you all right?”

  “Perfect.” She snuggled closer, rubbed her lips along the side of his neck. “Is making love always as good as it was last night?”

  “God, I hope so.” He hesitated to ask, but he had to know. “Althea, why me?”

  “Why me what? Oh, you mean—”

  “Why did you pick me to be your first lover?”

  She traced the seam of his lips with the tip of one finger. Her smile revealed nothing except satisfaction—he hoped. “You made me want you. You have to know you’re one very sexy guy.”

  This morning he felt sexy as hell, and he wanted nothing more than to roll over her, make love with her until they were both too tired to move. But something stopped him. She’d almost married the deputy who’d died. “Why didn’t you sleep with Bill?”

  Her smile almost masked the sadness in her eyes when he reminded her about the guy she’d have been married to if he hadn’t met a bullet while doing his job. “I don’t know. We decided together to wait until we got married. Well, that day never came. I promised myself after he died that if I ever found myself wanting to have sex with a man, I’d do it then and there. Life’s too short to put off the sort of pleasure I just found last night with you.”

  Her eyes welled with tears, but she shifted her lower body and caught his cock between her thighs.

  Jared couldn’t quite persuade himself he wasn’t jealous of a dead man, even though that envy didn’t make sense. Still, she’d loved this guy. At one time she’d obviously equated passion with love. Logical deduction told Jared she must love him now or she wouldn’t be lying in bed with him, her thighs cradling his arousal between them.

  Althea must love him, at least a little. Part of him wanted to shout with joy. Another voice in his head told him he should be trembling with fear. Speechless, he let his action tell her what he wanted—at least in the immediate future.

  Bending his head, he licked her pink, sensitive nipples until they pebbled up. Then he drew one turgid peak into his mouth and suckled.

  “Please.” When she reached down and gave him an intimate caress, she smiled—a beautiful, inviting smile that touched his heart. “Come inside me now.” She whispered the words close to his ear then flicked his earlobe with her tongue.

  No way could he turn down an invitation given so sweetly. With one smooth thrust, he seated himself. Raising his head, he took her mouth, thrusting his tongue inside. The side-by-side position didn’t allow deep penetration, so he set a slow, easy pace. It felt so damn good he’d have liked to go on forever.

  For a long time they lay there, enjoying the sensations of being joined so intimately yet moving easily, not racing toward completion. The sense of urgency inside him simmered then bubbled over when she moaned and strained to take him deeper. “Oh, yeah, sweetheart. I’ll give you all you want.”

  He rolled her over to her back and took her hard and deep. She met his every hard thrust. Her nails dug into his shoulders, and she tightened her inner muscles around him as though she’d never let him go. “Yes,” she hissed.

  “Come for me. Now.” He raised his upper body on his hands, used the leverage to go deep then almost withdraw before slamming into her again, each time harder than the last. She tightened around him almost painfully and screamed with pleasure.

  Her climax triggered his own.

  “I’m going to have to get some quilting done tonight,” Althea said later as she was dressing to go and open her shop.

  Jared started to suggest she hire the woman with the grandkids to finish his quilt, so Althea could spend her spare time playing with him. Then he decided he’d better hold his tongue. “All right. I’ll check out a new game or two while you work. And I’ll fix our dinner tonight, so you can get the quilting done.” If he had his way, that quilt might not get finished before winter—some winter several years in the future.

  After Althea left, Jared got up and called Harriet Tucker. He checked in later with his company’s accounting manager while waiting for the realtor to arrive with a list of potential co-op sites that met the requirements he’d se
t forth earlier.

  ▪ ▪ ▪

  Althea wouldn’t have believed the way Jared made her feel if somebody had tried to explain it to her before last night. She hoped she wasn’t blushing now, but her cheeks felt awfully warm. Smiling at the middle-aged tourist who’d come into the shop looking for a Wedding Ring quilt, she tried to concentrate on business and banish the delicious feelings she’d discovered to the back of her mind.

  Looking at the woman’s soft, expertly made up face, her designer jeans and top and the large diamond center stone in the ring on her hand made Althea wonder if someday Jared would want her to turn into a fashion plate. She hoped not, because—

  “Did you make this quilt?”

  It took a minute for the woman’s question to register. “Why, yes, I did.” She’d spent most of last winter piecing and quilting the king-size quilt that seemed to attract more than its share of customers’ attention, but which so far hadn’t sold.

  “How much is it?”

  The price tag was there, in plain sight. “Eighteen hundred dollars.” If this customer bought the quilt, the money would go a fair way toward fattening Althea’s down payment on the property for the co-op. Glancing at the woman’s face, she didn’t get a feel for whether or not the sale was likely.

  “I meant, what will you take for it?” Her customer slid a perfectly manicured hand across a point of the star. The stone in her engagement ring caught the sunlight that filtered in through the shop window. Shards of reflected light made the jewel-toned fabrics glow.

  This woman didn’t look as though she needed a discount. “Eighteen hundred dollars.” Holding her breath, Althea waited for a response.

  A frown. A pursing of lips. A more thorough examination of the quilt and then a sigh. “All right. I still think the price is too high, but this quilt is perfect for my guest room.” Drawing out her wallet from a Prada tote bag, the customer handed Althea a credit card then waited for her to fold and wrap her purchase.

  The Mercedes sports car she got into was a carbon copy of Jared’s, except that it was silver.

  No one else came in the store before noon, leaving Althea free to think about last night. About Jared. She loved how he kissed and suckled her in the most intimate secret places…and how he made her beg for more. Last night he’d coaxed out sensations she’d never felt before, not even with Bill.

  It had to be a myth that sex was better when both parties were in love, but she still spared a moment to regret that she and Bill had missed their chance to experience the pleasure she’d discovered with Jared.

  Her memories had dulled with time, but she recalled the mildly pleasant feelings she’d had when Bill had touched her. Would he have been able to take her to the heights Jared did?

  Chapter Eleven

  Jared had never felt better. He breathed in cool mountain air still damp from the rain as he followed Harriet's sedan on a winding, two-lane highway. The wind blew his hair, and that reminded him how good Althea's fingers had felt when she’d tangled them in the strands of hair above his ears and held on to him to her while he tasted her honey.

  The last-place Harriet had taken him showed promise—plenty of acreage and access for shippers. It even boasted a sturdy warehouse that had been built a few years back and abandoned soon afterward, when its original owner went belly-up. Jared didn't like the location much, though, because it lay several miles northeast of Blairsville. If they put the co-op there, Althea would have to make a long, treacherous drive every day from Big Bear Mountain.

  Mentally Jared crossed his fingers. The site where they were headed now was less than three miles from his place, about as close to Dahlonega as it was to Blairsville. When Harriet pulled in at the junction of the highway and a secondary road, he followed and got out of his car.

  “You could put a good-sized building here," Harriet said, gesturing toward a concrete slab that bore traces of some construction that was long gone. “The slab’s no good, I'm afraid.”

  The cracked concrete didn't look as if it would hold up under Jared's weight, much less support a building. “You said this site has fifty acres?”

  “Yes. The plot is nearly square. It can handle several buildings the size Althea has in mind. Zoning here is for light industry because of the quarry across the road. The owner will probably deal, because the land has been on the market for nearly two years.”

  Jared nodded. “He’ll have to deal. His asking price is way too high. Make a verbal offer. Start out at five thousand an acre.” Jared was well aware the owner was asking nearly three times that much. “If I have to, I'll go as high as ten thousand, but I'd like to get it around seven.”

  No way was this land worth what the owner was asking. For a manufacturing business, the location was fine. But it wasn't worth a damn for vacation housing or as a tourist attraction, not with that rock quarry across the road that made for a less than scenic vista.

  “You want me to make an offer on this property?” Harriet looked perplexed. “There’s no way Althea can get a loan big enough to finance this property, let alone build on it.”

  “There won't be a loan. And the offer will be coming from Cain Software, not from Althea.”

  The woman gaped. “You're going to…” Then she smiled. “Althea must be thrilled.”

  “It will be my company buying it. Not me. We'll buy the land and build whatever kind of facility is needed. Then we'll give it to the co-op and take a tax write-off. I understand things like this are done all the time.” Jared smiled, glad his accountant had explained this morning how making Althea's dream come true could actually save Cain Software tens of thousands in federal and state income taxes.

  Harriet shook her head and frowned. “Maybe folks do that all the time in Atlanta, but they don't around here. Jared, you’d better run this by Althea. That girl has a bundle of pride. I doubt she’ll sit still while you hand her what she’s been rock hard-headed determined to put together all by herself.”

  The realtor’s words made Jared pause for a moment, but then he discounted them. Althea had never expected to build her co-op singlehandedly. He couldn’t see what difference it would make whether the seed money for it came from him or in bits and pieces from dozens of businesses in Blairsville and Dahlonega.

  “Just make the offer,” he said shortly, giving the site one last look. “And let me know right away what the owner says.”

  Harriet shot him a dubious look, but she assured him she’d tender his offer. “I’ll call you as soon as I can get hold of the owner,” she told him as she got in her car. “If we can agree on a price, I’ll draw up a contract, unless you’d rather leave that to your company’s attorneys.”

  “I’d better. My accountant says the papers have to be drawn up a certain way if we’re going to get the tax write-off.” With that, Jared slid behind the wheel of his car and started the engine.

  The secondary road wound around a mountain, past a sparkling trout pond. When Jared saw an angler snag a good-size fish, his mouth watered. He’d fix a trout dinner tonight, complete with fat home fries, hush puppies and coleslaw like his mother used to make.

  “Damn it.” He hadn’t the first notion of how to fry a fish, let alone make a hush puppy or the creamy dressing that used to make his mother’s coleslaw taste so good. As he negotiated a hairpin curve, he considered taking Althea out to eat but discarded that notion.

  Their relationship was too new and too compelling for him to want to share her, even for the short time it would take them to eat at a restaurant. He’d stick with his original plan and bake the frozen lasagna he’d found on his last trip to the grocery store in Blairsville.

  To take his mind off the fried trout he didn’t see in his immediate future, he visualized the co-op. The thought of a group of mountain women visiting as they worked on crafts they’d learned at their mothers’ knees made him smile.

  They’d need open, airy rooms with plenty of natural light and space for projects in the making, he decided when he recalled the
way his mom had squinted while working on a quilt or weaving a basket next to the single window in their old cabin. He made a mental note to specify big windows for the workrooms. Maybe skylights, as well.

  By the time Jared pulled into his garage, he had formed a pretty good idea of what he thought Althea’s co-op should look like. He’d also changed his mind about eating out. They’d go to that rustic place on the highway that led to Blairsville, the one where the smell of frying trout had been seducing his taste buds every time he drove by. The lasagna could stay in the freezer another day.

  ▪ ▪ ▪

  Six o’clock came faster than Althea expected. Trina’s sister-in-law, Ellen Wells, had come in after lunch. It had been all Althea could do, not to cry when Ellen laid three show quilts on the counter and then related her sad story.

  Apparently Ellen’s husband had cleaned out their meager savings two weeks ago, before he took off for parts unknown. Now Ellen had four hungry kids and nothing to feed them with, except the fancy quilts she’d hoped to win money prizes with at craft fairs in the fall.

  Nothing could have kept Althea from dipping into her precious savings to buy two of those quilts. It didn’t matter that she had no idea when she might be able to sell them. Single-bed size quilts were slow movers, especially when they weren’t matched pairs or in patterns suitable for children’s rooms. She hadn’t been able to think rationally, knowing Ellen’s plight.

  She shook her head as she climbed into her SUV. Things like Ellen’s problems came up so often that the reality of a co-op always stayed a stone’s throw out of reach, but Althea knew she couldn’t sleep nights if she didn’t help out wherever she could. The money she’d paid to Ellen would keep four kids from going barefoot and hungry, even if it pushed her timetable back for starting the co-op she hoped would help make financial freedom possible for many more women in the community.