To Protect the Heart of a Brazen Woman [Brazen Sisters 6] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Rita Sawyer

  “Beau took Charlie on an impromptu vacation. She’s thrilled. Anything else I can live without.”

  She totally understood that his brother and niece were the most important things in his life. He was right to want them out of the picture, but if someone was out to seek revenge then he needed to be focused on finding and stopping them, not protecting her.

  “You don’t need to worry about me.” She was a big girl and could take care of herself.

  “Even if that were the case, which it’s not, do you really want to put your sisters at risk?” He had her there.

  “No, I don’t, but that doesn’t mean we need to go away together. School starts in a week, but I’ll have Jessie explain the situation to my professors. I can go down and visit Frankie in Boston for a few weeks. And you can stay here and deal with your issue.” And they’d have a buffer of space between them.

  Truthfully, having some room between them would probably be a good thing, since it seemed like neither of them had come to terms with his relationship with Kerri, however insignificant he thought it was. She wasn’t sure she could spend time alone with him without losing what little strength she’d found to keep her from falling back into their same old patterns. She wasn’t happy about him seeing someone else, but it had shown her she might be able to live without him. Being forced to live with him would only make it harder for her to believe that.

  Chapter Four

  Jake didn’t need to think over her suggestion. It just wasn’t an option. He already knew there would be too many uncontrollable scenarios putting her in that situation.

  “That won’t work,” Jake said with a shake of his head.

  “Well, I think it would, and I’d like to spend some time with Frankie.”

  Jake figured Frankie would love showing her around town and introducing her to all of her fiancé Hal’s friends. “Sorry, your visit will have to wait. You’re staying here.”

  “Why?”

  He wanted to tell her it was because he’d just gotten her back and couldn’t stand to watch her leave again, but he held back. Jake never had trouble telling the truth—hell, even just telling it like it was—until Bobbie. For her, he’d lie just to spare her feelings, but not if it put her in any kind of danger. Keeping her safe was his first priority. He had to protect her the best way he could, which meant keeping her with him.

  Somehow he needed to get her to see it, too. “Because it wouldn’t be safe enough. There would be too many ways for her to find access to you, maybe even putting your sister at risk. You need to be someplace secluded. Out of reach, yet protected at all times, which is why I’ll be staying with you.”

  “If you’re with me who’s going to track this woman down?”

  “There’s already people on it. My job is to watch over you until they call and say they’ve got her.”

  Bobbie didn’t respond. She glanced over her shoulder at the path. Jake wondered if she was thinking about running. She had to know she wouldn’t get far. He knew from the second he got the message about the threats that nothing about getting Bobbie to agree to being under his control would come easily. She came from a family of strong-willed women, and she could give them all a run for their money.

  The only thing he could do was expose her as a threat to her family. “Bobbie, I don’t want to push you, but we don’t have much time. I understand how close you are to your sisters and that you won’t want to put them at risk, especially with two of them being pregnant.”

  “I’m thinking.” She sighed as she walked over and sat on one of the big rocks protruding out of the ground.

  Just when he started to think he might have to handcuff her and drag her off, she stood up and asked, “Where are you planning on taking me?”

  “My cabin.” Jake figured it would be the best place for them to hide out.

  “Jake, that thing is nothing more than a shack. You do realize that with us both out of sight the whole town is going to be talking.”

  He knew it was wrong, but he hoped it would wipe out any talk of him and Kerri that was still lingering around town.

  “They’ve been talking for years, but it’s actually something I’m counting on.”

  “We’ll need to fill my sisters in on what’s going on.”

  “I plan on it. They need to be prepared, because I think Patrice will talk to one or two of them trying to find out where you are.”

  “Damn it. If you think she’ll approach them, then why the hell do I have to leave?”

  “Because they’re of no use to her. If she comes it’ll be for you.”

  “But won’t she try to use them to get to me?”

  “No. You may be her target, but only because it’ll get to me. Patrice is not a criminal mastermind. One of the reasons we were able to catch her in the first place was because she refused to deviate from her plans.”

  “What did she do?”

  “She embezzled four million dollars from an accounting firm where she worked. They still haven’t found the money yet.”

  “So we’re probably not in any real danger.”

  “I didn’t say that. She shot the cop who shot her boyfriend when we arrested her.”

  She gasped. “I would have led off with ‘she could be armed and dangerous.’”

  “Yeah, well, I wouldn’t have run off and made the sheriff chase me down.”

  “I wasn’t running from the sheriff, I was running from…”

  “From what? Say it.” He grabbed her wrist and pulled her up against him.

  “You.” She put her free hand on his chest, but she didn’t push him away as he’d anticipated. “I was running from you, Jake.”

  He let go of her hand and slid his arms around her waist, keeping her from escaping. “Why? You know you have no reason to be afraid of me, ever.”

  She nodded, her gaze never leaving his. “And I believe you when you say there’s nothing between you and Kerri.”

  “Finally.” He started to lower his head and she pulled back a touch, so he stopped.

  She looked down at her hands on his shirt. “That doesn’t mean there can be anything between us.”

  Jake had made too many mistakes, but to let her go on believing that would be the worst. He raised his hand and gently tucked the lock of hair on her cheek behind her ear. She didn’t move as he ran his fingers along her jaw to her chin. He tipped her face up and lowered his head, pressing his lips to hers.

  She sighed and he felt her lean into him. Jake touched her bottom lip with his tongue and she willingly opened for him. Her hands slid up to his shoulders and she clung to him as he ravaged her mouth. It wasn’t a gentle kiss, and she gave as good as she got. Her breasts were pressed against his chest and her hips ground against him. His engorged cock throbbed behind the confines of his zipper, begging to be released. She had to know this could quickly get out of hand. He started to ease away and she nipped at his lip. The painful little bite made him smile.

  “You’re wrong. There will always be something between us.” He let her step out of his embrace.

  “Meet me at my house.” She turned and stomped away, and he let her go.

  He knew he was doing the right thing, but if he was still sane at the end of this it would be a fucking miracle. Being alone with her would be a fantastic, particular form of torture.

  * * * *

  Sam and Jessie had done as Jake asked, well, sort of. A bag was packed and waiting by the door, but that didn’t mean he’d be taking Bobbie anywhere. Jessie glanced at her sister, Georgie, sitting on the couch with her fiancé, Tyler, and his sister, Stephanie. Her twin, Joey, was sitting a few feet away in one of the oversized chairs. Her husband, Cameron, was in the kitchen with Sam’s husband, Trent, and Jessie’s husband, Victor. If Jake planned to take Bobbie somewhere he was going to explain to the whole family where and why.

  Sam pulled back the curtain and peered outside. Jessie noticed the look Georgie tossed at Joey, who just laughed.

  “I don’t understand the
problem. I thought you all wanted Jake to stake his claim.” Trent walked into the room holding a small plate with a big piece of chocolate cake on it and dropped into the chair.

  “Where’d he get cake?” Joey demanded to know just as Cameron walked into the room with an even bigger piece and joined her, sitting on the arm of her chair.

  “Finally admitting he loved her is what we expected. This is something different altogether,” Jessie said.

  Jessie watched Tyler glance at Cameron, Trent, and Victor, who were all chewing. He shook his head. “How?”

  “I’m not sure. He just seemed determined that she listen to him. And the ‘pack a bag for her’ thing was odd, don’t you think?” Jessie knew her sisters would understand, but she wasn’t so sure about the guys.

  “Well, she’s finally twenty-one so maybe he’s decided it’s okay to run off with her?” Victor’s smile told her he thought it was an amusing option.

  “If we thought that was all there was to it we wouldn’t have called all you here.” Sam let the curtain fall and waddled over to her husband.

  “You would have just let him take her?” Stephanie hadn’t been around long enough to know the dynamics of Bobbie and Jake’s relationship.

  “We wouldn’t have been able to stop her,” Georgie explained, patting the girl’s shoulder.

  “What’s the plan?” Cameron asked as he fed Joey the last of his cake. “Is there a plan?”

  “No, we’re pretty much going to have to play this by ear. We’ll give him a chance to explain and go from there.” Jessie figured they didn’t have much of a choice.

  “I can’t just sit here and wait.” Sam headed for the kitchen, and unsurprisingly to all of them, her husband jumped up and followed.

  “I want a guy like that.” Stephanie sighed with a dreamy look in her eyes.

  “What you want to do is forget all about boys and concentrate on school.” Jessie did her best not to laugh at Tyler’s dictate.

  Tyler had yearned to have his sister in his life for years, but now that she was there he was in a constant state of confusion. He was trying to a find an even keel between spoiling her and being the overprotective big brother. Jessie knew exactly what he was going through. She’d been the same way after their mother died, and even worse after their dad passed. She’d had her grandfather to help her, so she was going to do the best she could to help Tyler.

  “He’s right, Stephanie. Save the guys for college. They’re smarter and more fun then.” Jessie and her sisters all laughed, while their significant others groaned.

  They were still laughing when the front door flew open and Bobbie charged into the house. She wiped at her cheeks, but not before Jessie saw the tears. Bobbie looked at everyone and bolted up the stairs.

  “Was that Bobbie?” Sam asked as she rushed into the living room.

  A flat chorus of “Yeah” filled the air.

  * * * *

  Bobbie slammed her door and dove onto her bed. She groaned into her pillow. Jake wouldn’t be far behind her, but with her family holding court downstairs it would buy her some time. She rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. Why had he kissed her? She covered her face with the pillow and screamed. Did he think he could use their desire to bend her to his will? She was strong enough that she would never let it happen.

  The moment his lips hit hers Bobbie let him take what he wanted, not bothering to hold back her own desire. She knew fighting him would have only made him more determined to prove he could get to her. And truthfully kissing Jake wasn’t something she ever wanted to stop doing. She would though, because even though he said there was nothing between him and Kerri, Bobbie wasn’t sure he was ready for anything more than a few stolen kisses between them.

  It only cemented in her mind that whatever his plan was Jake couldn’t really think it was a good idea. Bobbie could only surmise that he couldn’t come up with anything better. Obviously, she didn’t have a choice but to go along with it until she came up with a more suitable option. The second she did she’d put it in motion.

  She got up and walked over to her closet. After pulling out her duffle and tossing it on the bed, she grabbed a few pairs of her favorite lounge pants. She tossed them on the bed then ransacked her drawers for more clothes. Bobbie didn’t bother to fold her things. Instead she just stuffed everything into the bag and yanked the zipper up. She threw the bag toward the door with a semi satisfying grunt.

  It was so quiet downstairs she had to fight the urge to go down and make sure everything was okay. Instead, she grabbed her robe and headed for the bathroom. She took a shower, letting the hot, pulsating water work some of the tension out of her shoulders. The scent of her lavender bodywash was just what she needed. It cleared her mind enough for her to come up with the start of a plan. Bobbie found it odd that she always got her best ideas in the shower.

  She didn’t have to pretend she was angry with Jake. That came pretty naturally right now. Faking that his touch no longer affected her would be a waste of time, because he’d be able to tell. Besides, deep down she wasn’t sure how long she could hold out. So if they were going to spend time together, why not show Jake what he was giving up by pushing her away?

  She’d start slow, but since Bobbie had no idea how the time was going to work on this she’d have to make each lesson count and move on to the next one. She shut the water off and stepped out of the shower. The first thing she had to do was go downstairs and explain things to her sisters. No, not just them. This was big, so she had to tell her entire family what was going on.

  She smiled, thinking about how quickly their little unit had grown from just the six of them to a family eleven, with two new additions on the way. Everyone had someone except for her and Stephanie. Being newly reunited with her brother, Bobbie figured Stephanie was content, unlike herself. It wasn’t as if she was jealous and wanted a guy just because her sisters had found someone. Hell, she’d chosen her man long before they all did. Well, except for Jessie, which no one had even been aware of until he just showed up one day.

  As she smoothed lotion along her legs, she decided what really bugged her the most about the whole thing between her and Jake was she totally understood his reasoning. At seventeen, everyone had probably considered her attraction to him, a twenty-four year old man, as just a crush. No one put much stock into the fact that she’d said she loved him. Over the past five years it had become painfully obvious to everyone that he held similar sentiments for her, even though he probably wished he didn’t. He saw their age difference as a major obstacle, as if it would be dishonorable to act on it.

  In her opinion, Jake was too damn honorable—by far—when it came to her. Seven years wasn’t really that much in the great scheme of things. She hoped at some point he’d put an end to the nonsense. Now that she was finally twenty-one, there was no plausible reason for him to keep his distance any longer. Unless he really was interested in someone else, which he claimed he wasn’t.

  And technically, his birthday wasn’t until next month, so she could point out at that right now there were only six years between them. Not that she thought many people would consider the difference between twenty-one and twenty-eight that huge. So Jake had two choices. Either man up, or get the hell out of her way. By the time she finished getting dressed she had decided that once this confinement was over he’d make the choice or she’d make it for him.

  She picked up her duffle, and with it slung over her shoulder, she headed down to the living room, where she figured her family was still waiting.

  Chapter Five

  Jake had made a dozen calls putting everything in place. He had enough food and supplies in the back of his truck to last a week or two. Last night he’d gone to the cabin and spent hours sweeping and scrubbing every inch of it, hoping to make their stay a little more comfortable for Bobbie. Jake turned onto the driveway and was happy to see her car, not that he was worried she changed her mind. She agreed to go with him, and if nothing else she, was a woma
n of her word. What did surprise him just a little was that all of her sisters’ cars were parked in front of hers.

  After his incident earlier with Bobbie, he should’ve assumed that Jessie and Sam would’ve called their sisters and their spouses to tell them what happened. Of course, then her sisters would have called their men, too. No doubt they were all in the house waiting for him. They’d probably laughed their asses off about the hard time Bobbie had given him as they came home to make sure everything was okay. He was going to have a hell of a time living it down, especially with the guys.

  They’d all had to deal their own obstacles when they got involved with a Brazen woman, but as far as he knew, none of them had gotten a bucket of suds thrown in their face. Well, at least he was only going to have to explain what was going on once. Before he even stepped on the first step of the porch Jake heard the voices coming from inside the house. He paused, listening to see if one of them belonged to Bobbie.

  “I can’t believe he made her cry again,” a female voice he recognized as one of the twins said.

  “Georgie, we’re not sure Jake found her,” Jake heard Tyler say.

  He hated that Tyler was wrong in giving him the benefit of the doubt. What he hated even more was himself for knowing he’d made Bobbie cry. He knew it wasn’t the first time and probably wouldn’t be the last. Bobbie tried not to let it show, but her emotions always seemed close to the surface, though she didn’t let them rule her in any way. And more importantly, she didn’t try to use them to get what she wanted.

  In the past, Jake had a few experiences with women like that. He remembered one in particular who would turn into damned watering pot if she thought it was going to be to her advantage. Even though there had been plenty of times where it would have been warranted, Bobbie never used her tears against him.

  “Should someone go upstairs and talk to her?” a soft, unfamiliar feminine voice asked.

  “She’ll come down when she’s ready.” Sam didn’t sound like they had much of a choice.