Wed by Wednesday (Passion in Paradise #4.5)

by Sarah O'Rourke

  Finally reaching the door, he stumbled inside the old, derelict structure. Hell, they didn’t even use this barn any longer, but it would have been easy for Orla to have gotten turned around in this whiteout. “Orla? Tidbit, are you here?”

  “J-jethro?” he heard a fragile, thin feminine voice call out to him. “Jethro, is that you? P-please be you,” the voice called from somewhere toward the back of the barn.

  “Tidbit, I’m here,” Jethro yelled back, trying to follow the sound of her voice. “Call out, baby! I’m comin’!” he ordered, looking in every empty stall he passed for her.

  “A-at the back! I’m at the back! I found hay… and a b-b-blanket,” she shouted, stumbling over her words.

  Reaching the last vacant stall, Jethro’s heart skipped in his chest as he spotted Orla, curled up on her side in the corner, covered in hay and an old, decayed horse blanket. Overjoyed to see her, but still scared spitless, he lunged across the paddock toward her. “You hurt?” he asked harshly, frantically jerking off the rough blanket to make sure she was unharmed. “Talk to me, Orla,” he growled, his gloved hands running over her limbs, looking for any sign of injury. “Answer me, damn it!” he bit out, cupping her cold cheeks and forcing her to look at him.

  “N-n-not hurt. J-just c-cold. So c-cold, Jethro,” Orla chattered, as she began to shake violently.

  “Shit,” Jethro grimaced, reaching for the blanket again and wrapping it around her. “Hang on, Tidbit. We’ll get you back up to the house and get you warmed up in no time. A nice warm bath and some cocoa will put some heat back in that body.”

  “I’m s-s-so sorry! I g-got lost, J-jethro. W-wanted to surp-prise you b-by gettin’ in the eggs,” she said faintly as he picked her up in his arms. Looping her arms around his neck, she buried her face in his throat.

  Hissing when her icy skin touched his neck, Jethro held her closer, his mind already exploding with all the ways this could have ended so much worse for her. Now wasn’t the time to berate her, though. Not when her lips looked almost blue. Shit, he was terrified that, when he removed her shoes and gloves, she’d have frostbite. “We’ll talk about it once we have you warm, dry, and safe, Tidbit. Just hold onto me, and let’s get back up to the house.”

  “You’re m-mad, aren’t you?” Orla mumbled into his throat.

  Mad? Was he mad? He didn’t think so. Worried as fuck? Hell, yeah. Terrified for her? Sure. Fighting the desire to shake her until her teeth rattled for attempting something so amazingly stupid? Absolutely! But mad? Nah, not him! He was just fine.

  And if anybody that really, truly knew him believed that, he had some swamp land on top of Old Smoky he’d love to sell them for a great price.

  Of course he was fucking mad! She could have gotten herself killed. Over some fucking eggs!

  But he’d deal with all that anger later, he told himself as he began the long trek back to the big house through the snow as he held Orla securely in his arms. Right now, he just wanted to get her someplace warm before hypothermia set in and did more damage than he could repair. “Stay awake for me, baby,” he demanded, purposefully jostling her in his arms as he drew nearer the house.

  “I’m ‘wake. J-just cold,” he heard her mutter, the feel of her icy nose dragging against his collarbone assuring him that she was still with him.

  “Not far now, Tidbit,” Jethro returned tightly, bouncing her gently in his arms as he reached the porch steps. He wasted no time as he climbed them quickly and let them back into the house. Reaching the kitchen, he lowered Orla to sit on the kitchen counter and quickly unwrapped the now wet blanket from her body.

  Watching as she was wracked with shivers, Jethro growled in frustration as he looked around the kitchen for something to dry her body. “Stay here, Tidbit,” he ordered, leaving her alone for a moment as he rushed to the living room to snatch a quilt draped over the back of the divan. Returning to the kitchen a moment later, he found Orla sagging against the kitchen cabinets, clutching the edge of the counter for balance. “We need to get you out of those soggy clothes before you catch your death, Orla,” Jethro shared worriedly, already reaching for the hem of her long dress and pulling it over her head in one swoop. Dropping the cotton dress to the ground, he helped her peel off her slip and panties next, wrapping her in the warm dry quilt he’d carried in from the sitting room.

  “J-Jethro, I’m s-so sorry. It was silly, b-but, I wanted to help you…”

  “By doing what? Getting yourself killed?” he bit out sarcastically as he moved to add a few logs of wood to the wood stove in the corner of the kitchen. “You could have frozen to death if I hadn’t found you in time! And for what, woman? A few fuckin’ farm eggs?” he asked, his anger and aggravation rising back to the surface now that he had her semi-safe and back inside the warm house.

  “I said I was s-sorry,” Orla repeated, closing her eyes as another shudder claimed her thin frame.

  “Shit,” Jethro swore, slamming the door to the wood stove closed before quickly moving back to her. “Let’s get you upstairs and into a hot bath. I think that’d do you more good than anything else,” he suggested, reaching for her to lift her off the counter.

  Holding a hand out to stop him, Orla shook her head. “I can do it.”

  “You sure? Because last time I left you on your own, you wandered off into a fucking snowstorm instead of following my directions and staying safe inside the house,” he spat, unable to get a hold on his rage. Christ, couldn’t she see what she’d nearly done? To herself? To him? “It was stupid, Orla! Stupid and thoughtless! What if something had happened to you? What if I hadn’t been able to find you? What then?”

  “Stop shouting at me,” Orla replied, finally yelling back. “I made a mistake. A mistake, Jethro! You’ve known me for five seconds in the grand scheme of things! Given that, I’d say that if something had happened, you’d have been fine. Just fine! And don’t pretend otherwise!”

  Closing the distance between them, Jethro gripped Orla just below her shoulders and shook her once. “Are you insane? You think I’d have been fine?”

  “You barely know me,” Orla whispered, avoiding his blistering gaze. Instead, she stared over his shoulder at the wall. “You’d probably have been sorry because you’re a good man, but yes, you’d have been fine.”

  “You can say that after what we shared together last night? You think you were just some warm body to me, Orla? Any girl will do, is that it?”

  “Yes. I mean, no! I don’t know!” Orla retorted on a shout. “You’re confusing me.” She bit her bottom lip and shook her head.

  “Well, let me clear things up for you,” Jethro snapped, gently shaking her again. “You fucking matter, Orla. To me and to my family. If something were to happen to you, you should know that, NO, I wouldn’t be fucking fine. I’m not sure fine would even be a word in my vocabulary any more. You just don’t get it, do you?” he asked, his jaw tensing in frustration as he stared into her sad gaze. “Last night, something happened for me. I’m not a man that believes in all that touchy feely mumbo jumbo bull shit that gets spouted by poets looking to get laid, but I AM man enough to be able to admit that last night you touched me… and not just my body, woman. My fucking heart. My goddamned soul. Other than my family, I don’t let anybody close enough to have that kind of power over me. Except, last night, I did. With you! I opened up my heart to you and let you into it. And bad news for you, Orla… there’s no exit sign. Once you’re in it, you’re in it for life! Now, you said you wanted to belong somewhere. To feel like you were a part of a family again. That’s what you told me yesterday, wasn’t it?”

  “You know it was, Jethro,” Orla whispered shakily, blinking back tears as she drew the quilt closer to her naked body as she stood on her bare feet in front of him.

  “Well, now, you DO belong somewhere, damn it! You belong with me! Get that shit through that thick head of yours, Orla. Let the knowledge sink in deep. Today, you almost took all that I just was lucky enough to find away from me. You say
that you think I’d have been just fine if you’d died out there in that snow. Tell me, Tidbit, if the shoe was on the other foot would you have been just fine if I’d had a wreck on the way home and driven my truck into a tree and died? Could you have just got up, dusted yourself off, and been fucking fine knowing you’d never see me again? Never be held by me again? Never feel my arms around you again?” he asked, watching as each of his questions landed a direct hit on her face.

  “Stop it!” Orla whispered, blanching at the image his words conjured inside her head. “You’re being deliberately cruel! You know that I’d be heartbroken!”

  “Do I, Orla? Do I know that? I wanna hear you say it. I want the truth. Maybe I don’t know that. I could very well mean so little to you that you’d have just bounced back fine if something happened to me?”

  “Stop saying that! No!! I wouldn’t have been fine! I’d never have been fine again! If anything happened to you, it would crush me! Devastate me! Don’t you dare say I’d have been fine,” she screamed, taking a step toward him only to get her foot tangled in the long quilt and stumble.

  Catching her before she could fall, Jethro jerked her against him. “No kidding, Orla,” he bit out harshly. “For the record, I believe every word you’re saying. My only question is, why do you think it would be any different for me?”

  “B-because, it’s just different for men. You don’t lead with your heart like women do,” Orla replied, her voice breaking even as her eyes blazed up at him furiously.

  “So, your heart IS involved when it comes to this attraction between you and me then,” Jethro drawled slowly, narrowing his yes on her.

  “Of course it is,” Orla snapped before pressing her lips together and frowning at him. “I could never have let you touch me like you did last night or done what I did to you if I hadn’t lov-….” she abruptly quieted, slapping a hand over her mouth.

  “Finish it, Tidbit,” Jethro urged softly, wrapping his arms around her and tightening them when she would have tried to bolt from his arms. ”Nuh uh. You’re not going anywhere,” he denied when she struggled against his chest, her hands pressing against his chest as the quilt got tangled between them. “Have courage and keep going, Baby Girl. Keep going so that I can say it back,” he added softly, his focus solely on her. ”C’mon. Say it for me, baby. Please,” he implored huskily.

  Dropping her hand from his sternum, Orla swallowed hard, her pretty face terrified. “I-I couldn’t have done what we did together if I wasn’t already in love with you,” she finally managed to whisper, sniffling as two tears ran down her pale cheeks.

  “Yeah, I know how you feel, darlin’. I know because it’s the same for me. I thought I knew what I was feeling last night when you let me have a part of you no other man has ever gotten and in return gave me the sweetest lovin’ I’ve ever had. But today, when I realized you were missing… when I was uncertain where you were or if you were safe or not… I knew, Orla. I absolutely knew without a single doubt that you’d done the impossible and captured my heart. I knew, and I was terrified I’d lose you before I could ever tell you that somehow - without even trying – you wiggled your way into my soul. And darlin’, I never plan to allow you to escape. I promise you that.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Orla

  Orla stood, frozen with a racing heart, as she stared in Jethro’s open, honest gaze with his words still hanging in the air and tried not to faint. Dear God, she thought wildly, he actually meant every word of what he’d just said to her. He really, sincerely did! His proclamation hadn’t been a figment of her overwhelmed mind or a product of an overactive imagination. Nope, she’d heard him right. And men like Jethro… they didn’t offer false platitudes or hollow promises. There were no pretty words or empty gestures with those kind of guys. No way. Men like her Jethro said what they meant, meant what they said, and didn’t waste their valuable time on people that didn’t matter to them.

  And the fact was, she mattered. She mattered to him a lot.

  So, when he said he loved her and would never let her go, she knew she could be one hundred percent assured that every word he spoke was a hundred percent truthful. No deceptions. No misunderstandings.

  Opening and closing her mouth like a fish out of water, she tried to speak… to make him understand that she felt as if he’d just handed her the world on a silver platter, but no matter how hard she tried, the words wouldn’t come.

  “I swear, Orla, before you utter one word back to me, think about what you’re gonna say and know that if you voice one single doubt about my sincerity and love for you, I’m gonna turn you across my knee and wear that shapely ass out,” Jethro warned when she opened her mouth to try and talk again.

  Hitching her breath as she recalled just how excited she’d become last night when she’d experienced his hand spanking her bare bottom, Orla shivered again, but this time it had nothing to do with being cold. Eyes bright, she smiled and leaned more heavily against him as she lifted her face to his. “Promise?” she asked throatily, her low voice filled with longing while she watched Jethro’s eyes darken with desire.

  This time it was Jethro who was speechless – for all of three seconds. “Woman, you’re a dream come true,” Jethro growled, jerking her into his chest before lowering his hands to cup her ass through the quilt and claiming her lips for an intensely erotic kiss.

  Sighing into his mouth as she pressed against his chest, Orla moaned as her sensitive pebbled nipples scraped the blue chambray of his shirt. Sliding her arms around his neck, she felt the quilt fall around them to pool at their feet, both of them too consumed by each other to worry about something as trivial as the temperature. “Oh, Jethro,” she murmured as he released her mouth to trail scorching kisses down the slope of her neck, pausing every few inches to stop and lazily suck at her flesh while the hard length of him rose insistently, throbbing against her soft belly.

  “Fuck, I need you,” Jethro confessed hoarsely, groaning when Orla’s back arched and she pressed her mound against his aching dick.

  “I love you, Jethro, and I want you, too,” she whispered back to him, almost desperate to feel him wrapped around her…inside her. “Please, Jethro,” she urged breathlessly, rubbing her breasts against his chest as her arms tightened around his neck. “Make the ache stop. Make it stop for both of us,” she begged.

  Staring down into her eyes, he felt indecision warring with vicious need. “I can make the ache end for both of us, but do you understand what you’re asking me for, Tidbit? We can’t go back after this happens. Once I make you completely mine and fuck that tight, virgin pussy, you’ll be mine. I’ll own that pretty smile of yours,” he said, touching her lips before moving his hand to cup one luscious breast. “These tits of yours… they’ll be mine, too.” Slowly sliding his hand from her breasts to cup her between her legs. “And this sweet honey pot you’ve got hiding down here…every fucking drop of that will be forever mine. So, I’ll ask you again. You sure about what you want from me, sweet Orla? Because if you are, I’ll sure as fuck give it to you. Now and every chance I get until the day I die. I’ll give you everything I have, but you gotta be sure for me, Baby Girl.”

  “I love you more than I ever dreamed it was possible to feel for a man, Jethro, and I want you so badly that my whole body throbs with it. I don’t know exactly how to make you understand. It’s like, you’re the sizzle to my pop. You seem to get me, and nobody has ever taken the time to try to do that. It’s like I didn’t know I was missing a piece of myself until I met you and you filled the void. So, yes, I’m completely sure about what I’m askin’ you to take me upstairs and do with me. I want you to be a part of me. I want you to make me a woman and give me my happy ending. And if you let me, I’ll do my best to give it back to you just as good. I know it might be a sin to anticipate our weddin’ vows, but I don’t wanna wait because when you know the one you’re with is the one you’re meant to be with for life, a gal wants that life to start together right that very second! Beside
s, I might not get the hang of the naughty business the first time. I think I need to get a head start on learning how to please you so that I’ll be really good on our wedding night.”

  “Darlin’,” Jethro muttered as he grinned, pressing a wet kiss to the vulnerable patch of skin underneath her ear, “You get any better at pleasin’ me in the bedroom, and you’ll have to jumpstart my heart, but I’ll be happy to teach you everything I know about bein’ naughty if you’re wantin’ to get a little practice before our weddin’ night.”

  “Only a little?” she pouted sulkily, batting her eyelashes at him. “Well, I’m sorry, but I just don’t think that’s gonna do at all, Jethro,” she denied, edging closer and closer to him as her fingers played with the dark hair at the base of his neck. “I feel obligated to tell you that I was always kind of a slow student, and I’m thinkin’ that we might need a dedicated teacher like you to guide me along,” she guessed with a saucy wink.

  Jethro’s hand contracted around the firm curves of Orla’s ass as he smiled wickedly. “That so, Miss Pearson?”

  “Yes, sir,” she declared breathily, nodding enthusiastically. “I promise I’ll be the most dedicated pupil you’ve ever seen.”

  “I should hope so,” Jethro responded deeply, squeezing one rounded ass cheek for emphasis. “You’d hate to see me bring out the paddle, wouldn’t you, Tidbit?” he asked, licking the shell of her ear as his hot breath cascaded over her neck.

  Orla moaned, slanting her head as his lips coaxed another shudder from her naked body. “P-paddle?” she asked on an exhale.

  “Mmmm… bad little students sometimes need to be disciplined,” he informed her huskily as his hands found purchase on her ass again. “Wrap your legs around me and hold on, Orla,” he ordered gruffly. “I think it’s time you and I carried this lesson upstairs to my bedroom.”

  Hopping up and hitching her legs around Jethro’s lean hips, Orla squeaked as he hiked her up his body. Giggling when she regained her balance against him, she tightened her arms around his neck and bent her head to nibble his neck as he carried her through the house to the stairs. Nearly vibrating with excitement in his arms, she knew every step he made was carrying them toward their destiny and she couldn’t wait to experience everything with him.