by Scott, J. S.
After leaving the restroom, she looked around the crowded ballroom, her eyes automatically seeking out Jared. She saw him almost immediately even though the big room was crowded, his back to her, sitting at a table with his brothers and Jason Sutherland while they waited for the sumptuous buffet to open.
Dodging bodies to make her way across the room, she was stopped when a hand curled around her upper arm, ceasing her forward progress.
“Your aura is almost fixed, honey.” Dressed smartly in a purple dress and matching shoes, Beatrice smiled at Mara.
“Is it?” Mara smiled at the elderly woman fondly.
“Yes. That man of yours is looking good, too . . . in more ways than one. I’m liking his aura now. Something positive happened to him,” she said sharply. “He’s nearly healed.”
Mara wanted to tell Beatrice that Jared was never sick, but she knew it wasn’t true. His entire emotional being had been injured, and he’d been stuck. “I’m glad. But he isn’t exactly my man, Beatrice.”
“He will be,” the older woman answered slyly. “I’m glad you’re not lonely anymore. A sweet girl like you shouldn’t be so alone.”
Oh, God. I hope Jared will be mine forever someday. I might keep telling myself not to expect it, but I can’t help wanting it to happen.
She hugged Beatrice tightly, smiling even broader because she’d referred to her as a sweet girl. She was hardly a girl, and she wasn’t all that sweet, but she knew it was the older woman’s term of affection. “I’m glad, too,” she whispered quietly.
Beatrice patted her shoulder. “I’m off to find Elsie. If she drinks too much champagne, she gets wild.”
“Oh, I won’t keep you then,” Mara answered, biting into her fresh lipstick to keep from having images of an eighty-something-year-old woman dancing on tables from too much champagne.
Beatrice wiggled her fingers in good-bye as she turned to go find her friend.
Mara giggled when Beatrice was out of hearing range, and continued on her trek across the crowded room toward Jared. She’d known Elsie and Beatrice most of her life, and she adored both of the quirky women.
Finally, she halted, unable to get past a bulky older man to reach Jared. She hesitated as she heard her name mentioned, unsure if she should intrude on a conversation about her.
“I have to tell Mara,” Jared said irritably. “I just don’t know how. She cares about me now. We have a business together. How do I tell her that I bought her house, that I was planning on getting her evicted from that home as quickly as possible?”
Mara’s heart clenched. Jared was the buyer for her house? Jared had purchased her home and was going to have her thrown out on the streets?
“You need to just tell her. She’ll find out eventually. There’s a fire investigation happening now, but she’s going to know once you start building it up again for investment property,” Jason told him calmly. “I assume that’s why you bought it. It’s prime real estate in a coastal town with an old home sitting on it. You got a good price, right?”
“Yes,” Jared said angrily.
Oh, my God. He just wanted my home. He felt sorry for me because I was going to be displaced, but his primary motive from the beginning was to get that house. It belonged to a Sinclair at one time. That’s why he was interested in the property history, his family history. Bastard! And I helped him find out everything he wanted to know.
No wonder he’d helped her, wanted to help her start a business. He’d felt guilty. Remorse was a weakness for him. He’d proven that over and over by never forgiving himself for Selena’s and Alan’s deaths.
He pities me.
“He never really cared about me,” she whispered, horrified that she’d let him help her just to nullify his guilt.
She cares about me now. His voice, those words kept echoing in her mind. She’d told him she loved him, and now he was worried about how to break things off without hurting her. His desire had been real; he couldn’t fake that. But he really didn’t love her. He felt sorry for her.
Mara started to hyperventilate just as the man in front of her stepped aside and her eyes met the icy stare of Evan Sinclair.
“Mara,” Evan drawled, probably to stop the men from talking.
She shook her head, wanting to be in denial about Jared’s betrayal, but she couldn’t.
Don’t make a scene. This is Sarah’s wedding. It’s her day.
Struggling to breathe, tears starting to trickle unchecked down her face, Mara did the only thing she could do. Her heart feeling like it was being torn from her chest, she bit back a sob and fled.
CHAPTER 20
Away from prying eyes, Mara had bawled her eyes out in the home that she’d lived in all her life. Seated on the soot-covered floor in the kitchen, the only room still partially standing, she’d let go of her sorrow about everything: her loneliness, hopelessness, the pain of missing her mother, and most of all the betrayal of a man she loved.
Her arms wrapped around her upper body, she rocked on the floor, wondering where she could go from here. She’d thought she might find comfort in the old kitchen where she’d spent so much time with her mom, but all she felt was shame and failure as she sat in the burned-out remains of what had once been her home.
“I’m not so sure all will be better in the morning anymore, Mom,” she whispered huskily, as though her parent were listening. “And I don’t think you’d be very proud of me for being such an idiot. I guess maybe I thought that I loved him enough for both of us, but I was wrong. So wrong. He told me he didn’t believe in love, and he doesn’t. I just didn’t want to listen.”
“He loves you,” a low baritone spoke above Mara, startling her. That last thing she’d expected was for anybody to answer her heartbroken ramblings.
Mara swiped the tears from her face as she glanced up to see Evan Sinclair standing over her, big and intimidating. Strangely, she wasn’t the least bit surprised to see him there. Was there anything the man couldn’t find out? Her location had probably been easy. “What are you doing here?”
He grimaced and then lowered his bulky body down beside her. “This is my favorite tux,” he grumbled, sounding unhappy that he was soiling it.
“You can leave. There’s no point in you being here. The house isn’t safe, and the fire is still under investigation.” She was too distraught to care that she was in a restricted and potentially dangerous area, but she didn’t want Evan to get hurt.
They weren’t quite touching, but their shoulders were close as they both leaned back against what used to be the kitchen cupboard.
“You’re here,” Evan answered, as though that explained everything. “Jared loves you. I think you need to know that. He’s looking for you. I doubt it will be long before he thinks of coming here.”
“Why did you come here?”
“This is where it all began. I think it’s human nature to return to the place where you were happy once when you’re troubled,” Evan said gravely.
Mara turned her head and gaped at him, surprised that he was so insightful. “Jared and I are done. I don’t know what will happen to the business now, but I can’t live with him anymore. It’s pretty obvious that everything he’s done was out of pity and guilt.”
“Then you can use my house,” Evan offered stoically. “And my offer still stands to help with your business. Same terms. Although I doubt it will be necessary.”
“You feel sorry for me, too,” Mara replied, feeling pathetic.
“I don’t do business deals because I feel sorry for someone, Mara. I do it to make money. Your business is extremely viable, and the growth potential is enormous.”
“Jared and I signed contracts.” An agreement I insisted on making. Now, she wished she would have lagged a little more. It was going to be a lot harder to end a business arrangement that was completely in writing.
“You did more than that,” Evan
mentioned irritably. “Maybe my brother didn’t always believe in love, but he has since you came into his life. He bought the house because he was already head over heels for you. Maybe he didn’t realize it then, but he knows it now.”
“Why would he do that if he cared about me?” Mara asked, puzzled by his observation. She felt compelled to listen to him because, like it or not, Evan Sinclair was rarely wrong.
“The same reason that he almost ran in to his own death the night of the fire. To protect you. If I hadn’t caught him in time, he would have run into that damn inferno after you. He didn’t know you weren’t inside, and like the hothead he is, he plowed ahead into the fire to rescue you when you were already safe. I caught him just in time.”
“Jared went after me into the fire?”
“Yes.”
“He could have died,” Mara said shakily.
“There is no could . . . he would have died. The house collapsed completely the second I pulled him out,” Evan corrected angrily. “How in the hell can you doubt his affection for you? He literally walked through fire to try to save you, and he didn’t give a damn if he died doing it.”
“I didn’t know,” Mara replied, dazed by Evan’s revelation. “Then why did he buy the house in the first place?”
“Not for the reasons you think,” Evan said enigmatically. “You’ll have to ask him.”
“Not for profit or because it once belonged to a Sinclair and he wanted the property back in the family again?”
Evan balked. “Like any of the Sinclairs need the money? We have literally hundreds of properties that are or have at one time been owned by a Sinclair, historical properties. Why would he be so obsessed about owning that particular property? Think, Mara. Your reasoning is irrational.”
“It’s emotional,” she confessed. “I love him, but he’s never told me that he loves me.”
Evan rose gracefully to his feet for a man his size and held his hand out to her. “After he risked his life for you, don’t you think you owe him a chance to explain and an opportunity for him to let you know he returns your affections?” He lifted a lofty eyebrow at her.
Mara was still reeling with the knowledge that Jared had almost died because he thought she was still in her home when he arrived during the fire. “He would have died for me. He would have died on the off chance that I was still in the house. He didn’t even check.” She put her trembling hand in Evan’s and let him pull her to her feet.
“Emotion does strange things to people,” Evan replied drily.
“You came into the fire,” Mara reminded him.
Evan shrugged. “I knew you were in there, and I was fairly certain that I had enough time to get you out.”
Mara examined Evan’s detached demeanor. “But it was still a risk.”
“A calculated risk,” he countered aloofly. “It happens in business all the time.”
Mara took a calculated risk of her own and wrapped her arms around Evan’s neck and hugged him. “You still saved me. Thank you.”
She laid her head on his chest and hugged him tightly, waiting, breathing a sigh of relief as his arms came around her awkwardly, returning the embrace.
“No need for all this,” Evan said in an uncomfortable, husky voice.
“There’s every need,” Mara argued. Evan Sinclair needed somebody to care about him, show him some kind of affection. And although he was an easy man to dislike, Mara felt just the opposite. She adored his manipulative ways because they were proof of how much he cared, even though he couldn’t show it.
“I swear to God, I’m going to kill you,” Jared’s furious voice bellowed from behind them.
Mara let go of Evan slowly and turned to face Jared, the pure wrath on his face jolting her into motion.
“I told you to claim her before someone else did,” Evan cajoled, calmly wiping soot from his tux as he turned and started walking away.
“Goddammit, get your ass back here. I’m going to kick it until you can’t walk,” Jared vowed through gritted teeth.
Mara flung herself at Jared as he lunged toward his brother. “Don’t, Jared. Please don’t. You’ll regret it. He was trying to help me.” Wrapping her arms around his neck, she lifted her legs around his waist so he had to bear her weight. He’d either drop her or stop going after his brother.
Calculated risk.
He halted and propped his hands under her ass to hold her up. “I’ll find him.”
“No, you won’t,” Mara told him soothingly, running a hand over his jaw. “What you saw was completely innocent. I need you to believe me.”
The tension in his body started to relax. “I’ve always believed in you,” Jared growled.
“Then take me home,” she begged. “Please.”
He hesitated for a fraction of a second, his expression still raw and enraged. Mara hugged him tighter and put her head on his shoulder, trusting him completely to make the right choice. The last thing she wanted was to put a void between Jared and Evan. She had no idea why Evan had chosen to tweak a tiger by its tail in provoking Jared that way, but after he saved her life and cared about her as a person in his own peculiar way, she didn’t want Evan to get hurt. And she knew that once Jared threw a punch, it would wound Evan greatly, and not just physically. It would kill Jared to have taken a shot at his brother in anger. It just couldn’t happen.
“Fine. You’re going home with me, and then you can explain why my brother had his hands on you and you were in his arms. Again,” he demanded in a graveled voice.
“I’ll explain.”
Without another word, Jared carried her out of the house and into his car. As he put her gently in the seat, he said fiercely, “You. Belong. With. Me.”
His touch and the ferociousness of his words soothed her soul. She didn’t know what the truth was about why Jared had bought her house, but she already knew it wasn’t for nefarious reasons. She trusted him, and she vowed right then and there she’d never doubt him again. He’d given her his faith by not going after his brother, and he’d been willing to die for her. If he never wanted to give her the real reason behind his purchase of her house, she didn’t care. She loved him, and she finally knew with absolute certainty that he loved her back.
Jared was silent as he led her into his house instead of the guest house, taking her by the hand as though he was afraid she’d disappear.
“Explain,” he said irritably. “What the hell did Evan mean by his comment? Are you two attracted to each other? Is he really what you want? Does he want you?”
Mara busied herself making coffee. “Sit,” she requested as she watched him pace.
He sat at the kitchen table, his glare never leaving her.
“Evan knew I was upset by what I’d heard about you buying my home.” She lifted her hand as he started to speak, signaling him to let her explain. “He found me first. I guess all I wanted was to go home, but that’s not my home anymore. All he tried to do was make me understand that I wasn’t giving you a chance to explain, and I should. He was right. He also told me that you foolishly ran into my burning house to try to save me.” She slammed a cup into the coffeemaker with more force than she needed to. “You could have died, Jared.”
“I didn’t,” he grumbled. “And I wasn’t about to let you die in that fire.”
“But you could have. You would have if Evan hadn’t stopped you.” The reality of that statement hit her straight in the gut. “I hugged him. I wanted to thank him for saving me, and I wanted him to know that somebody cares. Evan is troubled. I don’t think he’s happy. I wanted to see if he’d hug me back.”
“He did. The bastard.”
“Reluctantly,” Mara mused, sliding a cup of coffee in front of Jared. “He’s not used to affection, Jared. No, I don’t have any secret longing for your older brother. I love you. I love you so much that I was temporarily insane when I thou
ght you might have betrayed me. I’m sorry.” She put another cup in the machine and waited for her coffee to finish.
“You don’t need to be sorry. I should have told you a long time ago. I was afraid you’d hate me,” he admitted despondently.
“Don’t be upset with Evan. I don’t know why he was encouraging you to be angry, but he isn’t interested in me that way. He’s been more like a brother or a friend to me. I think you already know Evan was yanking your chain. He’d never betray you that way. None of your brothers would.” Pulling the cup from the coffeemaker, she added creamer. “I hope you can believe that, because it’s the truth.”
“I believe you.” He didn’t look at her as he took a sip of his coffee. “I think Evan was trying to get me to do something I should have done a long time ago.”
“What?” She sat down at the table beside him.
“Claim you as mine.”
“I don’t think Evan would push you to do something you don’t want—”
“I want to. I’ve always wanted you, and Evan knows it. I love the bastard, but he’s manipulative as hell.”
Mara smiled at Jared’s disgruntled look. “I think he means well.”
“He’s conniving,” he grunted. “Likes things to work out the way he wants them to be, or the way he thinks they should be.” He heaved a loud, masculine sigh. “I should have told you about the purchase of your house.”
Mara’s heart hammered as she asked hesitantly, “Did you offer me help because you felt sorry for me because I wasn’t going to have a home?”
He finally met her eyes, his deep jade glance piercing her. “No. I wanted to fuck you. It was more than that, but that was my primary goal in the beginning when I offered to help you. I won’t lie to you. I wanted you the first time I saw you. My dick knew how I felt about you immediately. It took my brain a while to catch up.”
Mara’s breath hitched as his penetrating gaze impaled her, holding her eyes captive. “Tell me why you bought the house in the first place.”
“Because I knew the house was a death trap, Mara. I’m an architect, and I know old houses. I couldn’t inspect everything, so I bought the damn house and looked at what had—or should I say hadn’t—been done to it over the years. The fire was my fucking greatest fear come to life. I wanted you out of there before it happened. I was too damn late, and it nearly killed me when that house caught fire.” He paused for a moment before continuing in a forlorn tone, “I knew you’d be upset that the house had been purchased, but at least you’d be alive,” he said huskily. “I also knew you’d probably hate me, but I couldn’t leave Amesport knowing you were living in a house that was dangerous. I couldn’t do it.”
