Twelve
Jake heard her laughter before he opened the door to his father’s library. He was relieved she was back, glad she hadn’t spent the night with Franklin.
“What’s so funny?” he asked as he entered the library. Eleanor and his father sat on the leather couch studying what he recognized by its tattered cover as the family scrapbook. “Or do I have to ask?”
Randolph eased back on the couch and Eleanor closed the book. “Don’t ask,” Randolph said. “I was catching Eleanor up on the family history.”
He had been telling Eleanor about his wife, Jake’s mother. That meant he liked Eleanor. A lot. He discussed his late wife with very few people. “Don’t believe anything he said about me.”
“Oh, I didn’t. He sounded too much the proud father. He had to be exaggerating.”
Jake studied his father, wondering what he’d said and wishing he’d heard some of it. “What have you been saying?”
“I’m an old man,” he said, standing up. “I’m entitled to say whatever I want.”
Eleanor chuckled. “I see my father isn’t the only one who’s not above using age to get his way.”
“Watch it, young lady,” Randolph warned. “I’d hate to have to report you to your daddy.”
Eleanor rolled her eyes. “Another similarity to Dad. You both seem to forget I’m an adult.”
“Humor us. If you’re lucky, you’ll have children of your own someday and you’ll understand.” Randolph looked at Jake. “Entertain Eleanor for a while. I’m going to bed.”
Jake saluted. “Yes, sir.”
“Jake, you don’t have to—” Eleanor interrupted.
Randolph waved his hand. “He wants to. If he didn’t, he’d be at his apartment or still out with Sherise.”
“Dad—”
“Okay, I’m going. See you two at breakfast.”
As Randolph closed the door, Jake took a seat next to Eleanor and rested his arm on the couch behind her. “Did you have a good time tonight?”
“I sure did. Your father’s a great host.” She yawned. “I don’t think I’ve ever met that many people in a single night before.”
Jake chuckled. “How many names do you remember?”
She waved a finger in the air. “I remember a lot of names. Matching those names to faces, now that’s another matter.”
Jake casually propped his right leg over his left. “So, ah, did Franklin enjoy himself?”
Eleanor glanced at him. “I think so.”
“That’s good.”
“I liked Sherise. She’s a nice woman.”
“Yes, she is.” Jake checked Eleanor’s eyes, hoping to see at least a trace of jealousy. Unfortunately, he found none.
“Is it serious?”
Jake caught her gaze. Maybe there was a trace of the green devil, after all.
“You don’t have to answer that,” Eleanor amended and he knew she wished she could take her question back.
“Oh, I don’t mind. No, it’s not serious. We’re friends. She dates other people and so do I. We enjoy each other’s company. Nothing more.”
Eleanor nodded as though his answer didn’t mean much to her. “I see.”
He wasn’t fooled by her gesture. “Do you?”
She gazed up at him, her eyes bright and her lips wet. He wanted to kiss her. He uncrossed his legs and decided to try it. When he leaned his head down to her, Eleanor’s mouth dropped open.
“It’s okay,” he teased. “I don’t bite.”
She scooted back on the seat, away from him. “I don’t think we should do this.”
Jake followed her. “Do what?”
She looked up at him again and he took advantage of her open mouth and kissed her. When his lips met the softness of hers, sparks shot through his body. She was so soft, so sweet.
She didn’t respond immediately, so he increased the pressure slightly, encouraging her to participate with him.
She pulled her mouth away from his. “Jake—”
“Don’t talk. Kiss me,” he ordered, taking her mouth in his again. This time she gave. A little. Enough to make him want more. He leaned closer until he had her pressed into the back of the sofa. “That’s it,” he encouraged. “Kiss me.”
Eleanor moaned into his mouth and he felt her hands go up to his shoulders, pulling him closer.
“Oh, yes,” he murmured, increasing the pressure even more. “I want you, Eleanor.”
Her arms dropped from his shoulders and she eased her mouth away from his. When she lifted her gaze to his, he saw that her eyes were damp.
He touched his finger to her cheek. “I do want you,” he repeated softly.
She looked up at him with clear eyes. “I want you, too.”
He grinned. Hell, he felt good. “I kinda guessed that.”
She grimaced. “How ungentlemanly of you to say so.”
“You’re beautiful,” he whispered, his finger tracing a path down her jaw. “And you smell so good.”
She released a smile. “Now that’s a lot better.”
“What are we going to do about it?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? We’re both adults. What’s stopping us?”
She eased away from him and stood before his father’s desk. He liked the look of her—wet lips, hair ruffled from his hands. “There’s a lot stopping us,” she said.
“Name one thing.”
“Your plans for my paper.”
He sank back into the couch, realizing they were going to do nothing about it. “That’s business. This is personal.”
She smiled sadly. “That’s where we differ. The paper for me is personal.”
He knew there was nothing he could say to change her mind. He wasn’t sure he wanted to. He couldn’t make any promises about the paper beyond the ones he’d already made. What he did there had ramifications far above the merger her father and his father had planned. No, what Jake did in Lamar was, to him, proof of what he could accomplish when he set his mind to it. It was evidence he could present to his father to show he was more than capable of doing a job well. No, there were no more promises he could make to Eleanor. “I understand,” he said softly.
She gave another crooked smile and quietly left the room.
Eleanor eased up the stairs to her room, her senses still taut from her encounter with Jake. She wanted him in the worst way. She admitted to herself that what she felt had been building since she’d first seen his picture when she was a little girl.
Eleanor and Jake. She’d dreamed of kissing him long ago, but she’d never imagined how powerful such a kiss would be.
Eleanor and Jake. Colleagues and competitors. There was no way they could sustain a love affair given their working relationship. Jake had a job to do and she had to protect her paper. She couldn’t let anything cloud her judgment about that. She couldn’t let Jake use her for his purposes.
That thought took her by surprise. What if Jake was using her? Though she didn’t think that was the case, she couldn’t immediately dismiss it. Maybe if she held on to it, she’d be able to fight her attraction for Jake.
She undressed and climbed into bed. When she closed her eyes, visions of Jake loomed above her and her mind took her to the place that held the beauty of what it would be to share her body with him, to indulge herself with his body. Yes, she wanted him. Though she wasn’t that experienced, she knew enough to know that making love with Jake would be exquisite.
She also knew she had to stop thinking about him. If she didn’t, she’d find herself going back downstairs to him. She wondered what he would do if she did. It didn’t take much imagination to figure out that answer.
Her breathing increased when she heard him ascend the stairs. It stopped altogether when he paused outside her door. If he knocked, she didn’t know if she’d have the strength to turn him away. She started breathing again when he left the door. She didn’t know if she was glad or sad t
hat he had gone.
She closed her eyes once again and tried to sleep. No such luck. Giving up, she climbed out of bed and went to take a shower. A cold shower.
***
“I’m telling you, I think we’re getting someplace. Jake couldn’t take his eyes off Eleanor all night.”
“Are you sure, Randy?”
“Of course I’m sure. I think he kissed her tonight.”
“At the party?”
“No, in my library here at the house.”
“Did you see them?”
“Not exactly,” Randolph hedged.
“What do you mean, ‘not exactly’?”
“I left them alone in the library, then I listened outside the door.”
Mathias chuckled. “No, you didn’t.”
“Well, for a few minutes I did,” Randolph explained. “I wanted to know if we were getting anywhere. And we are.”
“That’s good. Be careful and don’t get caught. Remember, they’re not supposed to know we’re matchmaking.”
***
“I know, Mat. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Eleanor bumped into Jake when he stopped suddenly at their arrival gate in the Atlanta airport.
“Why’d you stop?”
“I don’t believe it.”
She looked around him to see what had his attention. Her mouth dropped open when she saw Carl and Megan seated, practically in the same seat, swallowing each other’s face.
“Do you think they were hit on the head and lost their minds since we left them on Friday?” she asked.
Jake recovered and started in the direction of Carl and Megan.
“I see you two didn’t kill each other,” he said.
Megan pulled away from Carl and stood up. Eleanor noticed she didn’t let go of his hand. “Welcome back, you two. Did you have a good time?”
“We did,” Eleanor answered. Jake and Carl, wearing a Cheshire-like grin that she’d never seem him sport, had some male eye discussion going so she knew he wasn’t going to answer.
Megan smiled up at Carl. “I guess we’re ready to go, sweetie.”
Carl rewarded her with a kiss.
Eleanor shot Jake a bewildered glance. “Sweetie?” she whispered.
Jake shrugged his shoulders, indicating he didn’t know what was going on.
“So are you two going to tell us what happened?” he asked.
Carl draped an arm around Megan’s shoulders and pulled her close. Leaning into him, she slid her arm around his waist. “It’s a long story,” Carl said. “We’d better walk while we talk.”
Thankfully, the concourse wasn’t crowded. If it had been, there would have been no way for them to walk four-abreast. And it seemed Carl and Megan were not about to release each other.
“Do you want to tell him or should I?” Megan asked Carl.
“You can start, cupcake.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “I’ll finish.”
Eleanor saw the look that passed between them and knew there was a memory of sexual adventure associated with the words. Megan was no longer a virgin. She’d bet on it.
“Okay,” Megan began. “I sat around for a few minutes after you guys had gotten on the plane, then I went to the phone to find a rental car and a hotel room. There were no cars available anywhere.”
“She was muttering curses to herself when I found her,” Carl said, his voice full of warmth.
Maybe aliens have invaded their bodies, Eleanor speculated silently. Surely this couldn’t be the fighting couple she and Jake had left in the Atlanta airport two days ago.
Another affectionate smile passed between the couple. “Well, Carl came along and solved all my problems.”
Carl chuckled. “Megan’s memory is colored by the good time I showed her this weekend.”
“Well,” Megan agreed, “maybe I did scream at him a couple of times as he followed me down the concourse.”
Carl laughed.
“And I may have slammed the cab door on him and ripped his jacket.”
Carl laughed harder.
“And maybe, just maybe, I told the hotel desk clerk he was a pervert who’d followed me all the way from the airport.”
Carl laughed yet harder.
“But the worst thing I did to my sweetie is that I locked him out in the hall when all he wore were his briefs.”
Carl sobered. “Now that wasn’t funny, cupcake.”
Megan put a finger to his lips. “But I made up for it, didn’t I, sweetie?”
“Yes, you did,” Carl said, kissing her finger.
When they reached baggage claim, Megan and Carl volunteered to get the car while Jake and Eleanor waited for their luggage.
“Looks like I was right,” Jake said as soon as the other couple was out of ear shot.
“About what?”
“All that tension between Megan and Carl. I think they’re in love.”
“Or lust.”
“What’s the difference?”
Eleanor’s eyes widened. “If you don’t know, there’s no way I can explain it to you.”
“Are you upset about something?” Jake asked, giving her a quick glance before focusing on the conveyor that delivered the bags. “You’ve been acting weird all day.”
Yes, something was wrong with her. Her cold shower the night before last had done nothing to quell her desire for Jake, while he seemed to have recovered with little effort. Obviously, he hadn’t wanted her that much. “I’m fine. I just want to get home.”
“So do I.”
“You think of Lamar as home?” she asked, surprised at his words but also warmed by them.
He shrugged it off. “I like it there and I miss my team. Maybe there’s something to be said for the slower pace. Hey, isn’t that your bag?”
She watched as he retrieved first her bag, then his from the carousel. “Let’s wait for them outside,” he said, motioning to the door.
She followed him out, all the while thinking about his comments on Lamar. Was Jake becoming a country boy, after all?
Thirteen
“You’re blushing,” Jake teased. They were about halfway to Lamar and already Carl and Megan had put on quite a show.
Eleanor lowered her head. “It’s the moaning. Can’t they kiss in silence?”
“When it’s good, it’s good. Why don’t you talk to me? Maybe we can ground them out.”
“What do you want to talk about?”
“Us.”
There is no us, she said silently. “Okay, let’s talk about the paper.”
Jake chuckled. “If you insist.”
“Did you tell your father about my plans? Every time I tried to speak with him about them, he deftly changed the subject.”
Jake was grateful for his father’s hands-off approach on this deal. The Old Man was really letting him handle the project. “As well he should. This is my deal. He doesn’t make the decisions, I do. Didn’t I tell you that?”
She grimaced. “You did, but I didn’t believe you.”
“Thanks for nothing.”
“Don’t be insulted. I never figured Randolph Mason to be the hands-off type.”
Jake knew his father’s hands-off approach was because this project was so small, but he didn’t dare tell Eleanor that. “Mason Publishing is a big enterprise. He can’t have his hands in everything.”
“I guess you’re right. How do you feel having total control?”
“Responsible. I want to do the right thing, the best job, for all the concerned parties.” He wanted to exceed beyond any and all expectations his father had or had ever dreamed.
She patted his knee. “Do what I tell you and you’ll be fine.”
He sucked in his breath. “That’s the first time you’ve touched me since Friday night.”
That kiss. She’d wondered which one of them would mention it first.
“No comment?”
“No comment.” She glance
d back at Megan and Carl. Seeing they were oblivious to the world, all cuddled in each other’s arms, she spoke freely. “We’ve already decided the kiss was the beginning and the end.”
“You decided.”
She smiled coyly. “Unless you can do what you want by yourself, I guess that means I made the decision for both of us.”
“You’re a tough woman. You know that?”
“I thought you said I was soft,” she said, then gasped, wishing she could take the words back.
“Hey,” Carl interrupted. “What are you guys whispering about?”
Eleanor was relieved at the interruption. Jake placed a hand on her knee, turned quickly to her, and mouthed, “Later.”
“So you finally decided to come up for air?” Jake asked, glancing at them in his rearview mirror.
“If you want, Jake,” Megan chimed in, “Carl and I can swap places and let you and Eleanor have the back seat for a while.”
Eleanor turned around in her seat and glared at Megan. “I wouldn’t trust you two. You’d probably try to sit in Carl’s lap while he drove.”
Carl captured Megan’s lips for a quickie. “We’ll have to try that, cupcake.”
The look of pleasure and adoration on Megan’s face was one Eleanor had never seen there before. After years of leading men around by the nose, her friend had finally been bitten by that old love bug. Eleanor was happy for her.
“Where did cupcake come from?” she asked.
Carl opened his mouth to answer, but Megan covered his mouth with her hand. “Don’t you dare.” Carl chuckled and Eleanor saw his tongue come out and caress Megan’s hand.
Megan tore her gaze from him and looked to Eleanor. “I don’t believe I almost let him get away.”
Now Carl was the one who wore the satisfied look. Love looked as good on a man as it did on a woman.
Megan nudged Carl. “Tell her.”
Carl frowned down at her. “I’ll tell her later.”
“Tell her now, sweetie. You know I can’t keep a secret.”
“Don’t tell me you two got married?” Eleanor asked, shocked but at this point ready to believe about anything where these two were concerned.
Between the Lines Page 13
