Lexi allowed herself a wry smile at Jake’s arrogant confession about his secretary falling in love with him, but listened intently as he went on.
‘Later, when you lost our baby, I should have got rid of her then. But with typical masculine arrogance I thought I understood the poor woman. An abusive father! It was only natural she was the way she was. I know now I should have left the psychiatry to the professionals, but at the time I thought, for someone with her family background to forget the message from the hospital was excusable. Family life was of no interest to her. But tonight I wondered how I could have been such a fool. Anyone, male or female, whatever their sexual preference or family background, receiving such a life-and-death message would never have forgotten. I have to conclude she did it deliberately. I can’t tell you how sorry I am, Lexi. I was an idiot.’
Lexi had thought at the time that Lorraine had forgotten the message simply to hurt her, but she had been too ill, too depressed to make an issue of it.
‘What you saw earlier in the foyer, Lexi, was our parting. I had just told Lorraine I was transferring her to the New York branch, and she knew it was more a demotion than a promotion. I suggested if she didn’t like it, she should consider looking for a job elsewhere, and she resigned. I realised that over the years her efficiency had blinded me to the fact she had become far too interfering in my private and personal life. Lorraine kissed me goodbye, but I swear it is the closest she has ever been to me in all the time I have known her, and it was just a kiss on the cheek.’
Lexi hadn’t actually seen the kiss, and she wanted to believe Jake’s version of events.
‘You do believe me, Lexi?’ Jake asked urgently.
‘Yes. Yes, I believe you.’ It was too incredible to be anything other than the truth, she thought dazedly, and reaching up she gently outlined Jake’s wide, sensuous mouth with one finger, her eyes shining with relief and love...aching for his kiss.
But doggedly Jake caught her hand and held it firmly against his broad chest. ‘Today in Naples I signed the contract to buy back Forest Manor. You can have your old home back, Lexi, anything you want. If you will stay with me, I can make you love me again, I know it, if you will give me the chance.’
Lexi, her eyes moist with tears, gazed into the wary blue depths of Jake’s. ‘That wasn’t necessary, Jake. You don’t have to make me. I do. Even when I thought I hated you...I loved you. You’re more than enough for me.’
‘Thank God.’ His lips captured hers in a kiss like no other, soft and tender and promising everything. When he finally ended the kiss he grinned wickedly down into her flushed face. ‘I might as well confess, I did have an ulterior motive. I thought, along with the Piccolo Paradiso, it has the makings of a successful hotel chain with you as the administrator. I figured if I couldn’t win your love at least I would be assured of keeping your interest, keeping you by my side.’
Lexi chuckled in delight. Jake, whom she had thought the world’s worse chauvinist, was offering her not only his love but a career as well. ‘I love you, Jake Taylor, devious as you are.’
‘Darling Lexi,’ Jake muttered, his voice husky with passion. ‘My wife. I love you and I’ll never let you down again, I swear.’ And for the next few moments he set about convincing her very thoroughly.
When Jake finally allowed her to draw breath again somehow she was lying on the sofa, with his large body covering hers, his elbows supporting his weight either side of her slender body and his dark gaze lingered, oddly serious, on the pale perfection of her face. ‘You do believe me, Lexi? Trust me? I need that.’
She looked at him all her love plain to see in the deepening purple depths of her huge eyes. ‘Yes, my love.’ She cupped his hard jaw in the palm of her hand and added with a tinge of sadness, ‘And I’m sorry. Jake, this has all been my fault; if I had trusted you more, if I had allowed you to explain, we would never have wasted five years.’
‘So why are we wasting time?’ Jake rasped, one long finger tracing the soft curve of her breasts. But this time Lexi called a halt.
Suddenly it seemed imperative he knew how she had felt at the time. ‘I think because I had lost our child I felt guilty, a failure and not really entitled to be happy; I was confused, and finding you and Lorraine together was the last straw. For a long time after we parted I told myself I hated you, I even thought losing the baby was a sign that our marriage was not meant to be,’ she confessed simply.
‘No, Lexi. You must never think that, never blame yourself,’ Jake said adamantly. ‘If anyone was at fault it was me. After a couple of months I decided you were a gold-digger, and I was well rid of you. When Carl Bradshaw showed me your photograph it only confirmed my suspicion. Carl omitted to tell me you were working, and I thought you were a guest at an expensive hotel on the look-out for a wealthy partner. Even so, I couldn’t resist ringing the hotel and asking for Mrs Taylor. When I was told there was no guest registered in that name I assumed you must have left the hotel shortly after Carl, probably still looking for a meal-ticket and so confirming, to my mind, your mercenary tendencies.’
Her hands fell from his face. ‘A guest! But you said you knew where I was all the time.’
A wry smile curved his hard mouth. ‘So I stretched the truth a bit—a weak attempt to show you I didn’t care. In fact, I didn’t dare question Carl about you, because I didn’t want to remind him of you, in case he decided to try and win you himself. It was only ten months ago, when he was safely married that I had the nerve to ask him about you once more, and that was when I discovered my mistake and realised you had been working in the hotel... I immediately checked, this time asking under both Taylor and Laughton, and discovered you were still at the Piccolo Paradiso. I flew straight out to Naples and bought the villa— ‘
‘You bought it?’ she cut in. ‘But you said your father left it to you.’
‘So I lied.’ Jake had the grace to look ashamed but not for long. ‘I didn’t want to admit that as soon as I knew you were still in Italy I went straight out and bought a house to be near you.’
‘Oh, Jake.’ She could not believe this vulnerable man was the ruthless Jake of the past few weeks.
‘I kept telling myself I didn’t love you, and you weren’t worth my regard. But all the time in the back of my mind was the desire to get you back. You have no idea how many times I drove past the hotel hoping to see you, but at the same time telling myself I hated you. And I was determined to make you pay for all the pain you had caused me.’
‘Hence the blackmail,’ Lexi murmured, lifting her arms to encircle his neck, and linking her hands together she urged his head down. ‘You would not really have pulled out of the deal with Signor Monicelli.’ She kissed him softly, swiftly.
‘No,’ he breathed against her mouth. ‘After all, he kept you safe for me. But I was desperate; I found out you had a boyfriend, Dante, and it looked like getting serious, time was running out. The final blow was when I was in America on business and got the fax from my solicitor saying you were asking for a divorce. I knew I had to act or lose you forever.’
‘That isn’t possible; I love you too much.’ Lexi rushed to reassure him.
‘Now I’m beginning to believe it, darling.’ He bent to kiss her again.
‘Wait a minute.’ Lexi pulled back. ‘You speak Italian, so was your father Italian?’ If he had lied about the house...
Jake started to grin. ‘I haven’t the slightest idea. I took a crash course in the language. I told myself if you love Italy so much then so must I, and if it pleases you to think of me as half-Italian, then that is what I am.’
Lexi couldn’t get angry with him; instead a beaming smile illuminated her small face at the thought of the lengths he had gone to for her. ‘As long as you’re mine I don’t care.’
‘I am.’ Jake gathered her close, a shuddering sigh shaking his powerful body, and she thought she heard him say ‘always’ before his mouth possessed hers with a poignant hunger that left no room for doubt.
&n
bsp; ‘I refuse to make love to you on the sofa,’ Jake murmured throatily. ‘This calls for a celebration—champagne and the master bedroom, at the very least.’
Lexi tilted her head to one side, and pretended to consider. ‘Will you sleep with me, though, I ask myself.’ A tiny smile traced her full lips, but she held her breath as she waited for his answer.
Jake growled huskily, ‘I didn’t dare before, in case I blurted out my love for you, but now I intend to sleep, eat, drink with you. The way I feel right now, I will never let you out of my bed again.’
Her last doubt resolved. ‘Promises, promises,’ she teased as he swung her up in his arms and carried her upstairs. Gently placing her in the centre of the huge bed, he lay down beside her and kissed her willing lips. ‘I love you, Jake,’ she whispered against his mouth.
He leant up on one elbow and, cupping her chin in his hand, a film of moisture glazing his deep blue eyes, he murmured huskily, ‘I don’t deserve you, Lexi, you’re beautiful inside and out,’ he groaned. ‘But I swear, nothing and nobody will ever come between us again; you can trust me with your life in this world and the next.’
‘You are my world,’ Lexi whispered and emotion flared in her violet eyes, turning them to deep purple as his mouth covered hers, kissing her with a deep, possessive passion that had her clinging to him.
Carefully he slipped her clothes from her body, scattering kisses over her melting flesh as he stripped off his own. Then they reached for each other, laughing, teasing, loving, at last free to celebrate openly with love in the sensual exploration of every single inch of each other, all the sweet, secret erogenous zones, until finally they joined as one in a rapturous acclamation of their love.
* * *
On Monday morning, Jake, with his arm firmly around Lexi’s shoulder, stood glowering at the customs official behind his desk at Naples Airport.
‘You realise, Lexi, that we’re hopelessly late? That guide at Pompeii wasn’t wrong with his “nothing changes”. I’m not surprised the people were petrified in stone. It probably took them all afternoon to even decide the volcano had erupted if this chap is anything to go by. He’s been reading the passports for at least ten minutes.’
‘Oh, Jake, that’s a terrible thing to say.’ But she could not stop the chuckle that escaped her. ‘Especially from a man who has just spent the last thirty-six hours in bed,’ she teased with an impish smile at his frowning countenance.
‘I did have some help.’ His frown lifted as he gazed adoringly down at her. ‘And it’s true that nothing could ever change my love for you.’
The customs official handed back Jake’s passport, and then, turning to Lexi, his black eyes gleaming appreciatively, gave her her own passport with a broad grin and, ‘Have a good journey, signorina.’
Lexi repayed him with a brilliant smile, just before Jake grabbed her passport from her hand and hustled her through the departure gate.
‘Some things have to change, and your damn passport is one of them. I’m not having total strangers assuming you’re single, and openly ogling my wife...’
‘Yes, Jake,’ she meekly agreed, a secretive gleam in her lovely eyes; and why not? She had it all: the man she loved, the hope of a baby, and a great career to look forward to, if she wanted it...
ISBN: 978-1-4592-8474-6
Nothing Changes Love
Copyright © 1994 by Jacqueline Baird
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