by Cynthia Dane
“No.” Jake said that, while Ophelia looked as if she wanted to die. “Feel better now?”
“No. What the hell is going on?” Her manila folder of sonogram photos crinkled against her small baby bulge. She had half a mind to stick this man’s hand on her stomach and ask if he remembered how it got there. She didn’t care if it was in front of Ophelia. She could feel it too if she fucking wanted!
Jake put a hand on Claire’s and gave it a squeeze before crossing his arms on the table. “Ophelia is interested in filing a suit against my father.”
“A… suit?”
“I’m not the only one, Ms. Finn. What you saw at the house a couple of weeks ago… I feel so terrible. I only got into that mess because… oh, it’s all my fault. I should’ve said no.”
Claire almost choked on her words. “Are you saying that Arthur…?” How in the world? Because what Claire saw in that master bedroom had Ophelia in a position where she could have easily gotten away if it had not been consensual.
“It’s not like that.” Ophelia’s cheeks were as pink as her Corvette. “Please. You’re his fiancée… I don’t want to…”
“I’m not going to be his fiancée for long.” Claire believed it when she said it, too. “If you think I love the man, you’re sorely mistaken.”
Jake filled in the information on Ophelia’s behalf. “Ophelia and about a dozen other women are filing a suit together. Because my father has a terrible reputation for sexually intimidating young actresses and putting them into situations where they must either submit to his whim or risk being blacklisted.” He looked toward Claire. “Sound familiar?”
She ignored that last bit. “She’s telling you about this?”
“It was my idea. I’m helping to pay for a good attorney, because I know my father’s, and he’s one of the best in LA. These women have raised some of their own funds, but not enough.”
“If they win a suit against your dad, you might lose more than your relationship with him! What about your own career? You’ll always be associated with him!”
“It’s the right thing to do. My father’s only the tip of the iceberg in this town. After seeing what it did to my mother and how she got off easy… I’m sick of it. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. Actresses should only be expected to use their talents and training to get roles.”
“Like you’ve never taken advantage of it.”
“I used to, yes,” Jake admitted. “When I was younger. I didn’t understand why women threw themselves at me, other than deluding myself into thinking I was that good looking. Eventually I realized they were doing favors for my dad because he said sleeping with either me or him was the only way they could get even a bit part in a subpar movie. I felt so disgusted. When I told my mother, she didn’t even raise her eyebrows. She said she knew the day would come when my father wrapped me up in his web of good old boys and the influence they wielded in Hollywood.”
“It’s not as simple as sleeping for roles!” Ophelia interjected. “The underlying threat was always there. Please believe me, Ms. Finn. If I didn’t do what he said, I could have lost everything. I had already spent everything I had coming to LA to be an actress. I have no home to go back to. The jobs in this town are shit. What am I supposed to do? I had already given up everything for my dream. So I…” Tears formed at the corners of her eyes.
“Stop, please.” Claire couldn’t stand to look at this child. Because that’s all she was to Claire. What if she were my daughter? She couldn’t believe she was already thinking like that. Claire was only twenty-five, and Ophelia was twenty at the oldest. Probably legal, but she would have never given Arthur the time of day unless she felt incredibly pressured to give in to him.
Didn’t Claire know something about that?
“You’re right,” Ophelia continued. “I shouldn’t be telling either of you about this.”
“No, what I mean is…” Claire swallowed. “I’m only marrying Arthur for my career. I have enough nepotism because of my grandfather to get away with only having to marry him.” Unfortunately, it was a thought she had more than once as of late. Arthur was keen to marry her because she was young, hot… and the granddaughter of Hollywood royalty. If she were a mere nobody who only happened to be young and hot, then there would be no marriage offer on the table. She wouldn’t be “respectable” enough for that. Arthur couldn’t get away with taking advantage of Mr. Finn’s granddaughter like that. No. Of course not. He only did that to total nobodies who would be too afraid to say no. Like Ophelia.
She looked between Claire and Jake. “Are you two a couple or something?” Chuckling, Ophelia released the first smile Claire had ever seen on her. It was also probably the only smile she had to give lately. “Oh my God. Did it happen before or after you got engaged to Arthur?”
Neither of them denied it. Luckily, Ophelia didn’t seem interested in using it as leverage against them.
“Wow,” she said. “What a mess this is, huh?”
Ophelia left a few minutes later. She and Jake shared a few private words in the doorway before he saw her off with a short list of numbers for her and the other women in the suit to call.
“Suppose I should be glad that Arthur is legally getting what’s coming to him,” Claire said when Jake returned to the table. “I’m afraid of what it means for… well, me.” Her hand absentmindedly went to her abdomen. For us.
“It will give you the perfect opportunity to break off the engagement without fear of reprisal,” Jake said. “You won’t have to do anything you might regret.”
Like eloping with you? “Is that why you’re getting involved with this? You can tell me the truth, Jake. Are you helping those women only because it frees me from your father?”
“No,” he said, hand firmly on her shoulder and somber eyes locked on hers. “I said I was doing it because it was the right thing, and I maintain that. My father has hurt a lot of people. I intend to rectify some of the wrongs.”
“Sins of the father?”
He glanced at her stomach. “If we… if you have a son, I hope you’ll let me be involved with his life, so I can teach him how to be a decent man.” Jake shook his head. “I don’t even hope to make a good man out of anyone. Just a decent man. Sometimes I think that’s all I can be after the shit that’s been shoved into my head.”
Claire held her envelope to her chest. “What if it’s a girl?”
“I’d be terrified for her every day of her life, but I guess that’s why I need to help clean this world up of scum that would want to hurt her.”
The crinkled envelope landed on the table. “I brought these over to show you.” Claire’s fingers trembled as she undid the metal twist and pulled out the small stack of sonograms. “I thought you might want to see them.”
Jake slid the top picture off the pile. “Holy shit,” he muttered. “It actually looks like…”
“An alien with a big head,” Claire said with a smile. “Can’t wait to shove that out of my vagina. It’s only going to get bigger.”
Jake couldn’t contain the terrible joke coming out of his mouth. “What? The baby or your vagina?”
Claire smacked his arm with a hearty laugh. “Both, obviously!”
For some reason, that made them both laugh until tears were in their eyes. What was it? The severity of the situation? What had happened with Ophelia? The uncertainty of Claire’s future? The uncertainty of Jake’s future? He could lose everything. His status, his career, his inheritance… even if the lawsuit is thrown out, his connection to it could end everything with his father. Maybe they weren’t so different in this after all.
That must have been why Claire didn’t think twice about kissing him at the dining table.
He instantly kissed her back, his arms tight around her shoulders and his tongue making more love to her than the rest of his body. That was what she had come to expect with Jake, though. He was a passionate man prone to romantic whims. He is very much like his father in that regard. Yet Jake knew ho
w to go about it the proper way. Well, maybe having unprotected sex in a closet wasn’t proper, but Claire had been 100% into it and was as guilty as him. She wasn’t afraid to own up to that anymore.
“I love you,” Jake muttered on her lips. “I love you and this baby.” His hand landed on the sonogram. The slap wasn’t threatening. It was protective, as if it had the power to bash away any negative forces daring to encroach upon his family. “I will fight for what’s right, Claire. That means making what we’ve done right.”
“Yes?” She waited for him to say it. One day, when her child asked her how this moment went, she wanted to be able to say, He did it on one knee with love in his eyes.
The love was in his eyes, but he couldn’t get down on one knee. Instead, Jake took her hands into his and said, “Marry me, Claire. Right now. Before everything goes to hell… at least we’ll still have each other.” He kissed her, both hands grabbing her hips, thumbs digging into her pregnant stomach. “At least we’ll have our family.”
She only had to think about it for two seconds. Before, his suggestion that they elope had been madness. Now? It was the only thing that sounded right.
“Yes,” she said in between kisses. “Yes, Jake. Let’s get married. Right now.”
Chapter 12
The season was warm enough that time of year to drive to Vegas with the top down and nothing but a thin sweater to keep Claire’s shoulders from the chill. She knew that this was insanity. Eloping in a Vegas wedding chapel was the kind of stupid shit she made fun whenever she saw it in the news. One of her high school friends had eloped with her sweetheart the week before graduation and was now divorced twice over. Nobody eloped with the expectation of staying together forever. Maybe they do, but deep down they know the truth. Even so, Claire knew that there was no time to plan a thoughtful wedding. They needed to beat her wedding date to Arthur. They needed to beat the baby’s arrival.
Their witness at the first nice chapel they found was a sweet old lady who declared them the most beautiful couple to come by in the past month. Turned out she was a “professional witness” who happened to live in the Vegas area. For twenty bucks, she would watch Claire and Jake say their vows and sign their papers. According to the owner of the chapel, this woman went up and down the street finding couples to witness for, and the money was a nice complement to the meager social security payments she received. On a good day, she would witness up to five marriages. The average was two, and Jake and Claire were the first on that random Tuesday.
The only fuss anyone put up was the lack of a decent dress on Claire’s part. She had rushed home to find the nicest white dress she still fit into, but the best she could do was a silver shift dress that looked more like a glittery sack than a proper wedding dress.
Nevertheless, she married Jake and became Mrs. Carter on a warm June day. Butterflies rose from her stomach and claimed her heart as they shared their first kiss as husband and wife. The little old lady clapped in the front row of the chapel pews. The man who married them brought forth the marriage license for them to sign.
It didn’t feel real. Not even when they hopped back into Jake’s car and headed straight to their honeymoon suite on the strip.
Jake promised his bride that they would have a proper honeymoon soon, but for now, they would spend the night in Vegas. Maybe they would take in a show if anything looked good. But Claire was perfectly content to spend the whole night in the suite with her husband.
She knew she would be married by the summer’s end. She didn’t think it would be to this man, like this.
“Any regrets yet?” Claire asked when the suite door closed. Evening had yet to fully set in Vegas, so the view of the strip outside of their window was not as lustrous as she hoped it would be. “Now’s your chance to get this annulled.”
“Never any regrets.” Jake took her hand and brought her to the window. “How can I regret marrying the woman I love, and the mother of my child?”
“I know I’m technically a mother now,” Claire said with a droll voice, as Jake poured himself champagne and her some sparkling cider, “but let’s not go there right now. I’d prefer you to see me as your beautiful bride and the sexy woman you fell in love with, first.”
“Who said I didn’t?”
“Not me.” Claire toasted to their future happiness, but could barely swallow her cider. “What are we going to tell our families, Jake? My mother doesn’t even know I’m pregnant. My mother! I’ve been hiding it from her this whole time…”
He took her drink and placed both his and her glasses on the table. “Let’s not think about that right now, Claire. Tonight isn’t supposed to be about our families. It’s about us. It’s about me being with the woman I loved enough to marry. And it’s about you… however you feel about me. Hopefully, nice things.”
It’s about me marrying the man who stole my heart and soul. And put a baby in me. It was still romantic, even when she thought about it. “What families?” she said. “I don’t have a family. Certainly not one I have to tell anything when I get home.”
“Exactly.” Jake brought her in for a kiss. “We’ll discuss it tomorrow on the way home. For now, let us simply be husband and wife. There is nothing shameful in what we’ve done.”
How nice was it for him to absolve her of guilt and shame! Because that’s what lurked deep within Claire’s heart even after she signed the marriage license. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not with him. Not like this. She was supposed to have a proper, public relationship that turned into a nice, long engagement and ended with a lovely wedding attended by their friends and family. Instead, they eloped in secret. Can we still have a wedding one day? Claire would appreciate it. Even a humble ceremony with her family present. Some of her friends. His mother and industry buddies. Was it too much to ask?
Even after she was legally wedded, Claire still had her girlish fantasies. She supposed they never died. They would keep her forever young.
“I love you, Jake Carter,” she said, inhaling the starch of his shirt and the aftershave on his face.
“And I love you, Claire Carter.”
Damn, that has a wonderful ring to it. That sounded like an actress’s name. Funny. She had been adamant about not taking Arthur’s last name, but had no problem changing it after marrying Jake. It was the same name, yet held a completely different connotation depending on the man.
Claire hadn’t just married the better Carter, however. She had married the father of her child. A man who would live long enough to see his baby grow up and possibly be by Claire’s side as she forwarded through her own life. Those weren’t pipe dreams she could indulge if she married Arthur – even if she had loved him.
“You’re not afraid of what will happen tomorrow?” Claire didn’t only mean going back to LA and facing what they had done in front of their families – hell, the press! Their own names were mere footnotes in Hollywood, but Arthur Carter was a name that commanded the potential for scandal. As evident when a group of women knew they could bring him down a few pegs for what he had done to them. “Or the day after?”
Jake shook his head, hands pressing firmly into the small of her back. It brought her petite pregnancy bulge closer to him. “I’m not afraid of anything. I’m ready to face the consequences of our actions. Because I know it will be worth it.”
“You mean that?”
Their lips gently met between words. “Yes. I can’t imagine making a family with a worthier woman.”
“You put a lot of pressure on me to be worthy.”
“No pressure, since that’s how you already are.”
Claire shook her head, the top of her head brushing against his jaw. “I can’t believe this actually happened.”
“Believe it. Considering how the past few months have gone, I think it’s safe to say that it was meant to be.”
Claire sank into his embrace, their kisses lingering longer and longer until it was inevitable that they would end up in bed. Because even if everything came
crashing down around them the next day, Claire would at least be able to say that she spent her first night of marriage making love to the only man she could claim to love.
Yes, it was lovemaking. For weeks, Claire had questioned whether what she and Jake had was real love or the ongoing lust festering between them, and nothing more. Circumstances and chance had brought them together. A baby kept them coming back to one another. Was it enough to base a whole marriage on for the rest of their lives? Or were they doomed as soon as the baby was born and their reputations were tarnished?
Like most couples, their conjugal nights often veered between hot and fast like in the closet, or slow and sensual, like the night Claire dropped by his apartment because she was lonely – and it turned out Jake had been missing her as well. If my baby ever braves asking how she was made, I’ll tell her it was that night. Or maybe this night, when Jake laid her down on the hotel bed and spent the next few blinks of an eye worshipping her body.
This is how I want to spend the rest of my life. No matter what she looked like or what she went through, Claire wanted to imagine this man always ready to kiss her, love her, hold her through the coldest nights and the warmest days. I barely know you, Jake Carter. She didn’t care. What she felt – beyond his tongue massaging the cleft of her nether lips and his gaze resting upon her breasts – was real. When Jake kissed her lips again, bringing with him his naked body and the strength it offered, Claire grew even more famished for reassurances that they hadn’t made a grand mistake.
“I’ve never felt like this for a woman before,” Jake whispered in her ear, his thighs pushing hers apart and opening her body up to his. “Even when I thought I was falling in love with someone before, it wasn’t like this.”
He said such lovely things, but his voice was laced in that aching need to be inside of her. Claire couldn’t say that she felt much differently. When we’re finally together like that, I’ll be able to forget everything plaguing my feeble little head. It couldn’t come soon enough.