But for now she wanted to enjoy whatever he was offering, and when he did leave she wouldn’t have any regrets.
Chapter 12
Leah glanced up from her book when she heard the sound of a drill outside the house. Pushing out of the chair, she crossed to the window and gasped when a man’s face came into view.
Reese!
She clutched her chest, wondering what on earth he was doing outside her window. Not her window exactly. She had driven over to Jocelyn’s house to finish doing laundry when her dad’s washing machine had suddenly gone on the blink.
Reese had seen her through the window at the same time she’d seen him and through the glass she could read his expression. His frown spoke volumes. He wasn’t happy at seeing her and within minutes he had made his way to the front door and was knocking hard.
She crossed the room and snatched it open. “What are you doing here, Reese?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “I could ask you the same thing.”
She decided biting each other’s heads off wouldn’t accomplish anything so she said as calmly as she could, “Jocelyn went away for the weekend and when Dad’s washing machine broke down I decided to come over here and use hers. And I thought she mentioned that you and your brother were going to the races in Kentucky this weekend.”
He leaned in the doorway, apparently annoyed. “Little Danny got sick so Daniel wanted to hang around.”
“Is little Danny okay?”
He resented hearing the concern in her voice. “Yes, it’s just a stomach virus but Rita almost went bonkers because he’s rarely sick. Since the trip was cancelled I decided to fix that floodlight outside that’s been giving Jocelyn trouble.”
“Oh. Then don’t let me keep you.” She was about to shut the door when he stuck his foot out, halting it from closing.
“You think you can just dismiss me like that? After all these years don’t you think you owe me some type of explanation, Leah?” he asked angrily.
Leah breathed in sharply. Coming face to face with Reese again a little more than a week after their first encounter wasn’t good. There was nothing she could tell him, nothing she could say to make things right, so it was best not to say anything at all. “No, I don’t owe you an explanation.”
She made an attempt to close the door on him again, but in anger he shoved it open. She took a step back when he stormed in and slammed it shut behind him. “The hell you don’t,” he roared as if all the anger he’d been holding inside him had suddenly snapped.
“Have you lost your mind, Reese?”
“I lost my mind years ago since I must have been crazy to get mixed up with the likes of you in the first place,” he said, anger seeping out of his every pore. “You are one ungrateful, selfish, self-centered human being.”
“Get out!”
“Make me. I won’t leave until I’ve had my say.”
“I won’t listen.” She turned away and walked toward the kitchen.
He was right on her heels. “Oh, you’ll listen. When I think of all the time and love I put into this place for you and for you to treat me like dirt and—”
She turned around, almost coming nose to nose with him. She stared at him in shock. “What are you talking about?”
“This house, damn you, was supposed to be ours. I built it for you and was going to surprise you with it on your birthday but you hauled ass. You left without looking back, letting me know I was nothing more to you than a trinket to play with. You cared nothing for me. All your words of love were nothing but lies!”
Leah went completely still, frozen in place. She blinked her dazed eyes. “What do you mean you built this house for me?”
“Look around, Leah. This house has everything you always said you wanted in a home. I built it with my own hands for you. I worked with your dad during the day and worked here late at night, sometimes past midnight, and on weekends, sometimes tired to the bone, just to give you what you wanted, or what you claimed you wanted—a place to live with me as my wife, to raise our children. But you never meant any of it.”
His words were too much. She hadn’t known. No one had ever told her about the house. How could Jocelyn and her father not tell her? Just as the hold on his temper had broken earlier, so did the floodgates of pain she had held within her for five years. She wanted to scream and fisted her hand into her mouth to stop from doing so, but that didn’t stop the fierce tremors that racked her body.
“What the hell’s wrong with you, Leah?”
Reese’s temper cleared enough for him to see that something strange was happening to Leah. It was as if all the coloring had left her face and she was shaking. He reached out and touched her and she pulled back from his touch. She resembled a creature gone wild and began backing away from him, looking at him as if she didn’t know who he was. She had a crazed look in her eyes. He took a step toward her. “Leah, what’s wrong?”
“No, don’t touch me again. Don’t come near me. No! No! Please no.”
He swore and took a step toward her, concerned. “What’s the matter with you, Leah? Tell me what’s wrong. Why are you looking at me that way? I wouldn’t hurt you, you know that.”
“No! Don’t come near me. Don’t you dare touch me again. I belong to Reese and you can’t do that to me. I won’t let you. I hate you!”
Reese wasn’t entirely sure what was going on here but he knew Leah had gone into some kind of shock, as if she was reliving something bad that had happened. The thought of what that could be was like a punch in his stomach.
“Who do you think I am, Leah?” he asked quietly, deciding to use another approach. “Who do you think I am?”
“I know who you are, Neil. And I won’t let you hurt me again. You won’t ever force yourself on me again.”
Neil? Reese frowned. The only Neil he knew was Neil Grunthall, but the man was dead. In fact, come to think of it, he had died around the same time Leah had disappeared. His eyes flamed as a thought entered his mind. It was one he didn’t want to consider but was forced to, knowing what a bastard Neil Grunthall had been and how the man had hated his guts. “Did Neil touch you?” he asked with deadly calm.
It was as if she hadn’t heard him. She kept backing up and when he walked toward her she picked up a vase off Jocelyn’s coffee table and held it high like a weapon, ready to throw it at a moment’s notice. “You come near me and I’ll kill you. I couldn’t defend myself before but I can now.”
“Oh, Leah.” Her words, spoken in such a heart-wrenching and tortured tone, broke everything inside of Reese and there was no way he could not go to her at that moment.
“No! I said not to come near me!”
When he got close she made good on her threat and threw the vase at him. He ducked out of the way, and it shattered on the hardwood floor. The sound made her jerk and that was all the time Reese needed to close in and grab her.
“No, Neil, let me go!” she cried out. “I belong to Reese. Don’t do this. Don’t hurt me again. I love Reese. Please let me go!”
She fought him, kicked and bit the knuckle on his left hand, but his arms wrapped around her like steel beams, refusing to let her hurt him or herself. “It’s okay, baby. I’m Reese and you do belong to me,” he whispered quietly against her struggles. “Neil is dead, Leah, and he won’t hurt you again. He won’t hurt you again.”
He said the words over and over before he finally began getting through to her. When he did, she broke down and began crying in earnest. The tortured sound, similar to the sound of a wounded animal, tore at his heart and brought tears to his eyes. “It’s okay, baby. It’s okay.”
When she went limp he picked her up and walked over to Jocelyn’s spare bedroom. Shoving open the door with his shoulder, he carried her over to the bed and placed her there.
He drew back and gazed down at her. She refused to open her eyes and look at him. “Leah,” he said gently, “rest and we’ll talk.”
She turned away from him and faced the wall. “No,
please leave,” she said quietly, sounding defeated, humiliated and embarrassed. “I want to be alone.”
Her words tugged at his heart. There was no way in hell he would leave her alone. He remembered Jocelyn saying that she would be returning to town around noon that day and he intended to stay put until she got there. “I’m not leaving, Leah. I’ll be in the living room if you need me. Try and get some rest.”
He then turned and walked out of the room, quietly closing the door behind him.
When the car came to a traffic light Bas glanced over at Jocelyn. They were about to get on the interstate to head back to Newton Grove. She had the seat reclined to a comfortable position and was resting with her eyes closed. At least he thought they were closed but he couldn’t tell beneath the dark sunglasses.
During breakfast she hadn’t had a whole lot to say and had avoided discussing what they’d shared last night. But with all the memories flooding his mind, he couldn’t think of anything else.
She looked different this morning. More rested and relaxed. Her hair fell in glossy curls around her shoulders and the lime green of her skirt and matching sweater made her dark coloring that much more beautiful. He remembered last night and how she’d stood there while he’d loved her with his mouth. He hadn’t regretted anything about what he’d done and wondered if she had. There was only one way to find out.
“You okay?” he asked quietly.
She glanced over at him and smiled. “Yes. Is there any reason why I wouldn’t be?”
He shrugged. “You’ve been quiet this morning.”
She sighed and stared ahead. “I’ve been thinking.”
“Oh. You want to share your thoughts?”
She glanced back over at him. “I was wondering how to convey my thanks to you for giving me something really special last night.”
He felt a rush of pleasure that she didn’t have any regrets about what they’d shared. “Conveying your thanks isn’t necessary because you gave me something special, as well.”
She raised her brow. “What?”
“A chance to savor a special part of you.”
Heat sizzled her skin and a yearning erupted in the pit of her stomach when she thought of how he had done so. “Yes, but you took things a step further when you exposed me to your incredible experience and masterful skills.”
He chuckled. “Did I do that?”
She angled her face toward him. “Yes, you did.” Moments later she said, “And I’ve decided to go to your brother’s party with you after all.”
He smiled then, pleased with her decision. He glanced over at her when the car came to a stop at another traffic light. He wished she didn’t have her sunglasses on because he wanted to look into the depths of her dark eyes, see if they held some clue as to why she’d made that decision.
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
“Mmm, I was just thinking that you have such a pretty face.”
She laughed. “Thanks, and if you keep saying such nice things, I might want to keep you around.”
He grinned. “That’s what I’m hoping.”
An angry Reese paced Jocelyn’s living room, getting angrier by the second. Why hadn’t anyone told him what had happened to Leah? How could they keep something like that from him? And to think that for five solid years he had hated her, despised her, tried to eradicate her from his memory…his heart.
The scene that had played out in this very living room less than an hour ago had his stomach in knots. Neil Grunthall had forced himself on Leah! The thought of her defenseless against Neil made Reese’s entire body shake in rage.
He sighed, trying to recall what Jocelyn had almost let slip the other day when she’d come to Leah’s defense. She was certain her sister wasn’t pregnant because, according to Jocelyn, he was the last man Leah had been involved with. What she hadn’t said was that someone had forced himself on her.
He doubted he would forget for as long as he lived the crazed look in Leah’s eyes when he had touched her. Hell, he could just imagine what had played out in her mind. He’d watched a special episode on rape victims on CNN once and according to the reporter, some women never fully recovered from such an ordeal and were encouraged to seek some type of professional counseling. He wondered if Leah had done so.
Had that been the reason she had left town all those years ago, he wondered. Considering the timing of everything, a part of him knew that it had been. Why hadn’t she come to him and told him what had happened? It would have given him sheer pleasure to kill Neil Grunthall with his bare hands. If the man wasn’t already dead, there was no way he would be living now.
But hating Neil wouldn’t undo what he’d done to Leah. The woman he loved was now his main concern and yes, he loved her. He had never stopped loving her and he vowed then that if her spirit was still broken from all of this, he intended to repair it.
More than anything he wanted Leah to know he would always be there for her, no matter what.
Pleased that Jocelyn had no regrets about last night, Bas set his mind on getting them back to Newton Grove. She had mentioned a baby shower for a friend she wanted to attend that afternoon.
He picked up the cup of coffee and took a sip, appreciating the taste, and smiled when he thought of another taste he appreciated—the one belonging to the woman sitting beside him who had dozed off to sleep. With the windows up, her luscious scent filled the confines of the car and he couldn’t stop the desire that quickly encircled his gut. It was difficult to recall the last time he’d wanted a woman so much.
He tried to rationalize his attraction to her. She was a beautiful woman but he had met beautiful women before. What was there about Jocelyn that made him feel emotions he’d never felt before? In his book she was P and P: proper and passionate.
He’d seen her proper side one evening when she hadn’t been aware she was being observed. It had been a social ball a couple of weeks ago that Ms. Sadie’s group of older ladies had given for some debutantes. Sadie hadn’t been able to get her car started and when he’d come in from a workout at the gym, she had asked if he would drop her off. He had pulled up in front of the Civic Center in time to see a very sophisticated-looking Jocelyn meet and greet all the other guests. She hadn’t seen him, but he had seen her and what he’d called her proper side.
He smiled, knowing that beneath that proper side was a passionate side, one yet to be explored to the fullest. She was definitely a woman who could make his blood run hot. She was a distraction but a distraction that he liked.
It suddenly hit him why he felt that way, and emotions he’d tried analyzing for the past couple of weeks instantly became crystal-clear. He was falling in love with Jocelyn. And if he wasn’t careful, she could become the person he loved more than anyone in his entire life.
But that thought didn’t bother him and he hoped to hell it didn’t bother her when she discovered how he felt. He wouldn’t shock her by declaring his affections, at least not now. He wanted them to spend more time together, to have what she considered fun, before he broached such a serious subject with her. He had discovered that Jocelyn didn’t handle surprises very well.
“If you’ve done a thorough review of the company books, then I guess you know that my dad and Noreen were having an affair.”
Her words, spoken out of the blue, surprised the hell out of Bas. He jerked his head and stared at her. He thought she was sleeping. “You knew?”
She smiled. “Yes, even though they thought I didn’t. Believe me, they were very discreet, but there were some things you couldn’t help but notice—like the looks they gave each other when they thought no one else was around.”
“Did you have a problem with it?”
Jocelyn shrugged. “I did at first. No girl wants to imagine her parent being sexually active, but then I saw how happy he was, and what a great mood he was in whenever he returned from one of his mystery trips out of town.”
She chuckled. “After spending a weekend out of town with y
ou I have an idea of just how he felt.”
An hour later, after arriving back in Newton Grove, Bas was driving them through the city. “Do you want me to take you home or to your father’s house?” he asked, glancing over at Jocelyn when he came to a stop at a traffic light. She looked refreshed from her nap, and the desire he’d been holding at bay suddenly kicked into high gear. Combined with the love he felt for her, the emotion completely overwhelmed him.
“You can take me on home and I—”
Before she finished whatever she was about to say, Bas leaned over and brought his mouth down on hers, effectively snatching both breath and words from her throat. She responded and when his tongue darted into her mouth, she captured it with her own, sucked on it before he could pull back.
When he straightened up in his seat, he smiled at her. “You’re coming up with some pretty masterful skills yourself.”
She chuckled as she raked her fingers through her hair. “Only because I have a good teacher. I was just following his lead.”
Bas’s pulse rate increased and he couldn’t wait until he got to her place. His goodbye kiss would be one she remembered for a long time. Well, maybe not, he thought moments later when he pulled into her driveway and saw the two vehicles parked there. She had left her car for her sister to use and he recognized the truck as Reese’s.
“Looks like you have company.”
Jocelyn glanced up. When she saw the two vehicles, a deep frown settled on her face. “Oh, no,” she said, unsnapping her seat belt before Bas brought the car to a stop. “What are the two of them doing here together?”
Her question, as well as the worried expression on her face, confused Bas. “Maybe they’re trying to patch things up.”
Jocelyn shook her head. “It won’t be that easy.”
Forged of Steele Bundle Page 37