Bare Essentials
Page 39
Well, let’s give a round of applause for Kate, matchmaker and revenge seeker extraordinaire.
“You should probably know,” Angela continued, “Darren confirmed what Kate told me. About Dad and Edie being together before he married Mother. I guess…well, it doesn’t make it right, what they did, but I think I can see Kate’s side a little better now.” Angela cast a quick, nervous glance at Darren. He smiled and nudged her, obviously trying to give her courage. “I also, uh, should tell you, I know you only heard part of our conversation. Kate wasn’t the only one who said nasty things, Jack. I was pretty mean to her first.”
Angela expressing regret? He could hardly believe it. “If it’s any consolation,” Jack said, “whatever happened with Armand, whatever revenge you think he got on you? I don’t think Kate was involved. He’s just very loyal to her.”
Angela stared at him. “You’re in love with her.”
He gave her a rueful look. “Crazy, huh?”
“Wow.” His sister bit her lip, looking more nervous. “Jack, one of the mean things I said to her was that you, uh…”
Starting to feel very anxious, Jack leaned closer. “What?”
Darren took her hand, squeezing it to give her courage. “Come on, Ang. New leaf, remember?”
Angela spoke in a rush. “I told her you could never love her. And that you’d never marry a trashy Tremaine woman any more than our father ever would have.”
Jack sat silently for a minute, beginning to understand, to make sense out of what had happened yesterday.
Probably without even realizing it, Angela had pushed exactly the right button to hurt Kate the most. Because in spite of how put-together, confident and successful a woman she was today, there was still that vulnerable, defensive, wrong-side-of-the-tracks kid lurking underneath Kate’s beautiful exterior.
Kate’s childhood had molded her into the striking mix of sweet and tough, gentle and outrageous, smart and self-doubting.
Jack had fallen in love with all of her.
But she didn’t believe that.
“I’ve got to go,” he said. Dropping cash on the table for his uneaten breakfast, he barely spared a glance at his sister.
“I’m sorry, Jack,” she called as he walked away. “I’m sorry I hurt her.”
Not as sorry as he was.
* * *
RIGHT AFTER Kate’s long telephone call with Edie, she hung up, hearing her mother’s words again and again in her mind.
“Oh, honey, don’t you think for a minute I regret loving the man I loved. And don’t think I didn’t know how much he loved me. Heavens, John asked me to marry him more than a dozen times over the years, starting all the way back in tenth grade.” She’d laughed softly, as if remembering something warm and tender. “After Angela grew up and got married, I started to think we could really be together. Then her marriage failed. As did her second. And her third. Pat blamed John for his bad example and guilt made him stay. But we still loved each other. Why do you think I had to leave Ohio when he died? Do you think some narrow-minded people could have forced a Tremaine out?” Her voice had broken and Kate had somehow heard the silent tears she knew were rolling down her cheeks. “It was too painful to stay, Katey. Knowing he was gone.”
After she hung up, Kate shed more tears. This time not for herself. But for Edie.
A short time later she grabbed her purse and keys and went to find Jack. One thing her mother had said rang true…if she loved the man, pride had no place in the equation. Any chance for happiness was one worth grabbing.
She took a deep breath as she slowly drove by the Winfield house on Lilac Hill. No truck in the driveway. Thank God. She needed to see him, but she wasn’t ready to face his family.
She tried the downtown area next, cruising along Magnolia, looking for his golden hair shining in the bright morning sun. She still didn’t see him. Finally, thinking hard about where he might have gone in this town, she turned down a side street toward the Rialto.
Bingo.
Parking her SUV behind his truck, she walked to the front doors and entered the lobby. The overhead fixtures were off out here, but she saw a sliver of light from the main auditorium area. Pushing through the swinging doors, she paused in the back of the theater, looking around in the murky shadows of the cavernous, dimly lit room.
Jack sat in one of the old plushly covered seats in the back row. She saw him there at the same instant he saw her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I was looking for you. I went to the house, and the store. I finally figured you’d show up here. So I sat down to wait.”
He was right. Eventually, even if she hadn’t gone looking for him, she would have shown up here.
He remained seated, while Kate stood. She didn’t know what to say, now that she had finally found him. There didn’t seem to be an easy way to apologize for admitting what had once been the truth. She really had thought she could set out to hurt this man. This amazing man who’d captured her heart and soul.
It now seemed almost inconceivable.
Finally, as if realizing she couldn’t find the words to begin, Jack stood and extended his hand. She stepped closer, taking it, letting him pull her into the seat next to his own.
Finally she heard him say, “I’m not J. J. Winfield, Kate.”
She bit her lip.
“Maybe J. J. Winfield was someone you once wanted to get even with. But that’s not me.”
“I know,” she admitted. “Jack, as soon as I saw you, as soon as I realized who you were, I dropped any idea of revenge. I knew I was too vulnerable to you.” She lowered her voice. “I already liked you too much. I knew from the beginning I could care for you.”
“I knew it, too,” he said. “I never would have believed it if it hadn’t happened to me, but I knew from the first time I saw you something amazing was going to happen between us. I started to fall in love with you before I even heard your voice or knew your name.”
Her name. Yes, back to the issue at hand. Kate thrust away the thrill of pleasure that had raced through her body at hearing the word love on Jack’s lips. “My name. Who I am. That’s the issue, right? The reason you didn’t call.”
She felt his level stare as he carefully answered. “Kate, finding out your name, learning you were a member of the infamous Tremaine family, had absolutely nothing to do with me staying away from you.” He sighed, shaking his head. “You want the truth? Here it is. I couldn’t handle the guilt. I really thought my father had used and abused your mother, and I wasn’t about to follow in his footsteps. In case you didn’t know it, I don’t have a great reputation as a stick-around kind of guy.”
There was no question of doubting him, the sincerity in his voice was matched by the look in his eyes.
“So, when you asked me to live with you…”
He cocked his head. “You were upset about that?”
She glanced at her fingers. “I just figured it was history repeating itself. Tremaines are good enough to live with…”
She almost expected him to react in anger, but instead he laughed, long and loud. “God, have we ever been at cross purposes.” Turning in his seat, he grabbed her around the waist and lifted her over the armrest, pulling her onto his lap. “I’m crazy about you, Kate. I want the whole nine yards. Marriage, kids, P.T.A. meetings.”
Marriage? Kids? She choked on a mouthful of air and had to hack into her fist. When she could breathe again, she said, “P.T.A. meetings?”
“We’ll go together, unless, of course, you’re busy peddling sex toys at your store.”
She couldn’t even laugh, still too amazed to see what she wanted was truly within her grasp. “You’re serious? You want all that?”
He brought her hands to his lips, kissing her palm. “I absolutely want all that.” He pulled her closer, until her head rested on his shoulder. “I figured you’d laugh in my face if I started talking about that kind of stuff, though. You, Miss Lusty Vibrating Fingertip,
seemed to not only enjoy doing things backward, but you seem to want to make them as outrageous as possible. I kinda figured love and marriage stuff would turn you off…make you think I thought you were sweet or something.”
She sat up and punched his shoulder. “I am sweet, damn it.”
He gave her a hopeful smile. “Hopefully not too sweet for those slut-puppy boots.”
She lowered her lashes, giving him a coy look. “If you’re good. But in the meantime, get back to the L word you mentioned.”
“Lusty?”
Their laughter faded as Kate stared intently into his fine green eyes. “Love. Did you mean to use that particular word?”
He reached up and slipped his hand into her hair, caressing her gently as he tugged her mouth toward his. “Yeah. I meant to use that particular word. I love you like crazy, Kate.”
Just before her lips touched his, she whispered, “I love you, too, Jack.”
Epilogue
Six Months Later
LYING IN THE UNFAMILIAR king-size bed in their hotel suite, Jack listened to Kate get up and go into the bathroom. He’d thought she was asleep. Heaven knew, she should be after their strenuous evening. But maybe she was still too keyed up to sleep, too happy, excited and relieved that they’d actually made it. As he was.
Jack waited for her to come back, then smiled in the darkness as he heard the sound of the faucet turning and the gush of water in the tub.
A late-night shower.
What a way to start off married life.
He didn’t get up to join her right away, content instead to listen to her from the bed. He waited for the pulling of the plastic curtain, the clink of the rings on the metal rod. The gurgle turning to a hiss as the shower jets came on. Kate’s light, off-key humming.
Remembering lying in bed at the house in Pleasantville, listening to her all those months ago, he had to laugh. They’d come a long way. Physically and emotionally.
Unable to hold out any longer, he got out of bed, almost tripping on Kate’s white sundress and shoes, which he’d tossed to the floor earlier that evening in his rush to make her his wife in every sense of the word.
Her wedding dress. And the flip-flops she’d worn for the small beachside ceremony.
They’d had a perfect sunset wedding with two bartenders at the couples-only resort serving as official witnesses. A beach vendor had made Kate her bouquet and a housemaid had caught it. A steel drum player had riffed in the background, competing with the sound of the surf and the low, lyrical voice of the island minister who’d married them.
Considering their two mothers couldn’t stand one another, they’d thought it best to fly to the Caribbean for the ceremony. Maybe someday they’d all have to be together—probably when he and Kate started having kids. But for now, long-distance family relationships seemed the wisest solution.
Their families certainly wished them well, for which they were both grateful. Edie and her new boyfriend had thrown them a big engagement party at the retirement community in Florida at Thanksgiving. And his own mother—who had decided to give Mayor Otis a run for his money and seek her late husband’s seat—had done the same on New Year’s Day a few weeks ago in Pleasantville.
Jack still cracked up remembering the expression on Kate’s face when his sister Angela had hugged her, telling her how sorry she was her pregnancy would prevent her from being maid of honor. He’d had to cover his mouth so Darren wouldn’t see him snort with laughter.
The best party of them all, however, had been the bridal shower at Bare Essentials, hosted by Armand and Cassie. He hoped to God Kate had packed some of the gifts they got that night.
Unable to wait any longer, Jack walked into the bathroom. Seeing several conveniently placed candles and matches, he lit a few, then turned out the light. Kate’s silhouette shimmered through the shower curtain in the soft glow of candlelight.
She said nothing, obviously waiting for him in the semidarkness. When he stepped inside the tub, pulling the curtain closed behind him, she leaned back against his body and turned her head to look up at him. “I thought you were asleep. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“I wouldn’t have missed this. Our first married shower.”
She was hot and wet, slippery and lithe. Jack wanted to touch her everywhere. Pulling her closer, he knew she felt his hard-on slipping between her thighs. He groaned as she rocked back on it, rubbing her curvy backside against his groin. Sliding his arms around her waist, he held her tight as he bent to press his mouth to hers for one long wet kiss after another.
“Hope they paid the hot water bill,” she said when their lips finally parted.
Remembering some of the other showers they’d shared over the past few months, he hoped so, too.
“I love you, Kate,” he said as he pushed a long, dark strand of wet hair off her brow.
She rubbed her cheek against his palm, whispering, “And I love you.”
He kissed her again, sweetly, cherishing her tonight as his wife as much as he already cherished her as his mate. Finally, spying a bottle of body wash on the edge of the tub, he reached for it. “Want me to wash your back?”
She nodded, giving him a look of sultry heat. “And my front.”
Oh, without question.
“It’s a deal.” He grinned. “Just remember the rule…”
She rolled her eyes and gave him a disgruntled look. “Okay, I know. No singing in the shower.” Then she raised a brow. “Just don’t you forget your rule, either, angel.”
Remembering their first time together back on the stage at the Rialto, he chuckled. “No wings until I ring your bell.”
Their laughter, their loving…and their shower…lasted long into the night.
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ISBN: 978-1-4592-5609-5
BARE ESSENTIALS
Copyright © 2014 by Harlequin Books S.A.
The publisher acknowledges the copyright holders of the individual works as follows:
NAUGHTY BUT NICE
Copyright © 2002 by Jill Shalvis
NATURALLY NAUGHTY
Copyright © 2002 by Leslie Kelly
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