"Jack's my twin," Sam said. "He'll understand. I'll make sure he does."
"Do you think he'll say anything to your mother?" Jayne asked, mortified at what the woman would think, especially after their earlier exchange.
"Not a chance," Sam assured her. "Jack and I have an unspoken agreement that goes back to when we were boys. We always covered for each other when we were in trouble, unless we were having a quarrel, then we'd settle it with fists and Dad would come break it up and dish out the punishment. No, Jack won't say anything to Mom."
"What about Grace?" Jayne asked.
Sam drew in a long breath, let it out slowly, and said, "Yeah, he'll tell Grace, but I plan to talk to her too. She's a reasonable woman. She won't think less of you when she knows what happened, so stop worrying, honey, and let me take care of this. You go back to doing your job here, and I'll try to get through the night without having a wet dream after fantasizing about having you in my bed." He kissed her lightly and smiled.
Jayne couldn't smile back. There was so much he didn't know about her, and when he finally learned the truth, which he would in time because she intended to tell him the whole sordid story, he and everyone else will want her to leave.
But of all her regrets since that ill-fated day so many years ago, and there were so many she'd lost count, having to walk away from a life with Sam would be the most devastating. After less than two weeks she'd fallen in love with him, and already she'd let things go too far.
***
"What in hell do you think you're doing with that woman?" Jack said to Sam in a loud angry voice, his words echoing off the concrete walls of the wine cellar.
"It's none of your damn business," Sam fired back, refusing to let Jack put him on the defensive. This was not the way he'd intended on taking things up with Jack, but Jack was quick to reproach without listening to an explanation of what happened, and Sam was about ready to throw a punch.
"The hell it isn't my business," Jack retorted. "We hired the woman to run the guest ranch, not so you could have someone to screw around with at the spring."
"That's not what we were doing," Sam snapped.
"I have eyes," Jack said. "You had a swimsuit bunched over your cock, and she was standing naked behind you. It looked pretty damn suspicious."
"We weren't screwing around," Sam said, angry that Jack had put him on the defensive. "We made love."
Jack looked at him, incredulous. "Hell, Sam. Love had nothing to do with it. You were using the woman to fill in where Susan left off."
"Don't ever compare Jayne with Susan!" Sam shouted, hand curled in a fist, about a millisecond away from shoving it in Jack's jaw. He hadn't done that since they were boys, but Jack was pushing his hot buttons. "Susan is screwing a man. Jayne hasn't been with a man in eleven years."
Jack looked at him, dubiously. "How do you know that?"
"She told me!" Sam was fed up with Jack's interrogation. He'd walk out now, but Jayne wasn't the kind of woman Jack was making her out to be and he owed it to her to set things straight. Not only had she suffered the embarrassment of Jack finding out what they'd been up to, but Jack saw her standing naked, the ultimate humiliation for a woman. It also bothered him that Jack saw her that way. It was a possessive thing, him wanting only his eyes to see the woman he was in love with.
Jack gave a short, cynical laugh. "And you believe her?"
Sam glared at Jack. "Yes, I believe her." He didn't doubt her for a moment, though he had no intention of explaining to Jack how he knew, that her heartfelt crying that followed her climax wasn't a bunch of theatrics. She'd been overwhelmed. "She also doesn't believe in sex outside of marriage," he added, then realized how ludicrous that must sound.
"Except with Sam Hansen," Jack said, with irony.
"Look, it just happened! Neither of us planned it. We were sitting on opposite sides of the pool and she had on shorts and a tee shirt, and I had on my swimsuit, and I'd been talking about Susan and how she didn't want me to touch her, and the next thing I knew, Jayne and I were kissing, and we both got carried away."
Jack eyed him dubiously, and said, "Yeah, I suppose I can understand you sitting in a pool with a woman who looks like that and getting carried away, but what's so special about what you have that she couldn't resist, other than she didn't have to worry about getting pregnant?"
"I don't know," Sam said, in all honesty. In fact, he had no idea what a woman as beautiful as Jayne saw in him that made her want to break an eleven-year hiatus of no sex. He tried to keep in shape, and thought he was for a man in his late thirties, and Jayne clearly appreciated what she saw, but he also knew she hadn't gotten out of the pool to have sex with him. It had been an impulsive move on both their parts, and he had to believe it was because they had feelings for each other that were more than infatuation.
"That's my point," Jack said, all wryness gone. "You're talking love, and you've only known the woman a week and a half."
"You married Grace in six weeks," Sam reminded him.
"That was different," Jack replied. "Grace was pregnant with Adam."
"What about Lauren?" Sam said. "You had sex with her the day you met and you married her a few months later." He saw the muscles in Jack's jaws bunch and knew he'd pushed one of Jack's hottest buttons, but Jack had a way of getting on his high horse, and sometimes he needed to be dumped off.
Jack looked at him, guardedly. "Are you thinking about marrying the woman?"
"I'm leaving my options open. And stop calling her the woman. Her name is Jayne," Sam said, feeling his temper mount with Jack's continued cross examination.
"No, her name is Rebecca," Jack said. "You might want to find out why she dropped that name. It might not be because she didn't like it."
"What are you implying?" Sam asked.
"That you're rushing into something you don't know a damn thing about," Jack said. "She told you she hadn't had sex in eleven years, which may or may not be the truth, and she claims she changed her name because she didn't like the one she had, which may or may not be the truth, and you say the two of you made love, which also may or may not be the truth, depending on from whose point of view you look at it. What else don't you know about her? Have you even run a background check yet?"
"Look, I've heard enough from you," Sam snapped. "She's doing her job and she's the first woman I've been interested in since Susan left, and I'm not going to let you mess things up for me, so just stay out of it."
Jack looked at him steadily, and when he said nothing, Sam knew the confrontation was over, but when Jack turned to leave, he stopped and stared. Sam looked in the direction of his gaze and saw Jayne standing at the head of the steps leading down to the cellar.
"Maybe this isn't a good time," Jayne said, her eyes shifting between the two of them.
"No, honey, it's fine. Jack was just leaving." Sam glared at Jack, daring him to stay.
"Yeah, well, you'd better check things out," Jack said to Sam, as he brushed past him. Saying nothing more, he nodded to Jayne and ascended the stairs.
"How long have you been standing there?" Sam asked, after Jack had left.
"Long enough," Jayne replied, while walking toward him. "But Jack's right. What happened at the spring shouldn't have happened. We're rushing into things and we need to step back."
Sam pulled her into his arms. "What happened at the spring wasn't wrong."
"It wasn't love either, and we both know it," Jayne said. "It was something special between us but we need to make sure it doesn't happen again." She moved out of his arms.
"We're consenting adults and I'm sterile," Sam said. "If it's what we both want, what's wrong with it?"
"Everything," Jayne replied. "You'd never be able to look Ricky in the eye and tell him sex outside of marriage is wrong, that he needs to wait for that one special woman to come along. Already he sees his mother living with a man who's not her husband and it bothers him. How do you think he'd feel if he knew you were having sex with a woman who's no
t your wife?"
"We could be discrete," Sam said, wanting to hold onto what they'd had at the spring, certain it was the beginning of a special love.
"Yes, we could be discrete," Jayne said. "I could creep away from the lodge and dash into your house when Ricky's wasn't there and hope no one sees me, or we could close the door to my office and have a session like at the spring. Is that what you want for us? To always be looking over our shoulders to make sure no one sees us sneaking off for our love fest?"
Sam sighed. "You're right, but that doesn't stop us from doing this." He pulled her into his arms and kissed her, and she responded by curving her arms around him and kissing him back. But when the kiss ended, he tucked a finger beneath her chin and lifted it up so she had to look at him, and said, "Can we keep other options open?"
"What kind of options?" Jayne asked, eyeing him cautiously.
"Maybe a honeymoon at the cabin someday." Sam felt her stiffen and knew if he started pressing things he'd drive her away. "Sorry. I'm doing what you don't want me to do. We'll take things easy and get to know each other. There's not much to know about me, but I want to know all about you so I can be the kind of man you want."
Jayne had such a grave look on her face he was tempted to ask her to tell him what happened that was so traumatic it turned her against relationships. "Honey?" he said, when the silence became prolonged, "You're not talking?"
Jayne shrugged indifferently. "It's just that there is a lot you don't know about me, and I'm not ready to talk about it yet, which is why we need to slow things down."
"We can slow things down," Sam said, "but I know enough to want to keep our options open. As for Jack, he'll come around if things between us develop into something serious."
"From the look on his face when he passed me on the stairs, I doubt if he will, and I'm not going to come between the two of you," Jayne replied.
"Jack's my twin, not my keeper," Sam said. "What goes on between you and me is our business, not his." Although Sam loved his twin, there had been times during the course of their lives when they'd turned their backs on each other. When Jack rushed into marriage with Lauren, and Sam told him what he thought of a woman who had sex with him the day they met and had nothing more going for her than her looks, Jack was so furious they almost came to blows. And when Lauren got out of prison after smothering the baby and showed up at the ranch at a time when Susan was depressed about her second pregnancy and wanted Lauren there, and he agreed to let her stay, Jack would have nothing to do with them. Back then, if forced to choose between Susan and Jack, he would have chosen Susan, just as he'd choose Jayne now, if it came to that.
Pulling Jayne to him, Sam kissed her lightly, and said, "Meanwhile, I asked you to come here so I could show you my world, so are you ready?"
"I'm kind of disturbed," Jayne said. "Maybe another time."
"A little wine will take the edge off," Sam said. He nudged her toward the stairs, and she didn't protest. As they were heading up, he said, "In a few years we'll be putting out four-thousand cases a year, all bottled by hand."
"What about bottles?" Jayne asked.
Sam curved his arm around her, and said, "Never mind, honey. We'll get your mind off things in a few minutes." He nudged her into a room that was acting as a tasting room until the new room was complete. There, he placed several bottles of wine on the bar top.
"I'll start you out with our white wines," he said, tipping a bottle toward a wine goblet. "This is our Riesling." He slid the goblet with its contents toward her. "It's a sweet white wine."
Jayne looked at a goblet with the words Whispering Springs Winery etched into the glass, while deliberating whether to drink it or not. She had a low tolerance for wine, but the wine had tiny bubbles gathered around the edge, like a glass of soda pop, and maybe it would take her mind off the scene Jack happened upon at the spring, and the look on his face as he passed her on the stairs a few minutes before would fade into some dark recess of her mind. Lifting the goblet she tipped it to her lips, and when she tasted its sweet fruity flavor she drained the contents. "That was actually good," she said, putting the goblet down for Sam to refill.
"Honey, you need a lesson in wine tasting," Sam said, while pouring another sample into a glass. "First, you check the wine for clarity—" he lifted the goblet and held it up and looked at it "—then you swirl it around, which releases the wine's aromas, then you hold the glass to your nose, and with your mouth open, sniff. The aromas will go straight up your nostrils."
Jayne took the glass from him and swirled it around a little too fast, sending wine swishing over the edge. She laughed and licked the rim where the wine ran down the outside, then drained the glass. Smiling, she said, "That was better than the last one. Maybe you could give me a wee bit more."
"In a minute." Tipping another bottle, Sam said, "This one's our Pinot Gris. And this time, after you swirl it around and hold it to your nose, sip very slowly."
Which Jayne did. At least she thought she did, but she was feeling a little giddy, and maybe she drank it down a little too fast. She was also feeling much more relaxed, and the incident in the hot spring and Jack's words to Sam seemed of less importance. She set the glass on the bar for the next sample. "I never liked wine much," she admitted, "but your wines are very good."
"I was hoping you'd like them," Sam replied. He swirled water around in her glass and dumped it, then shook it out and poured from a bottle of red wine. After telling her about it, he nudged the glass in front of her and said, "Take it a little slower, honey. In fact you'd better have a few of these first." He pushed a bowl of pretzels in front of her, but Jayne was so busy trying to follow everything Sam told her to do that she ignored the pretzels, concentrating instead on holding the glass to the light, while wondering what she was looking for. Then she swirled it around, not sure why she was doing that either, and forgetting the rest, swallowed the contents in one gulp. Wine trickled down her chin, which she mopped away with a couple of fingers.
"You are a very… very… good... winemaker," she said, trying to enunciate her words.
"Last one for you, honey," Sam replied. "I think it's going to your head."
"Oh no," Jayne said. "My head's fine. It's right here." When she thought about what she said, she realized how silly it was, and laughed.
Sam picked up a pretzel and poked it between her lips and she laughed and crunched down on it while Sam poured. "This is our Gamay Noir, a light bodied wine, and this time, roll it over your tongue and exhale through your nose before swallowing so your taste buds and sense of smell work together."
Jayne frowned while trying to follow what Sam was saying, but after trying to roll the wine around in her mouth and exhale through her nose, she gave up trying and gulped the rest down, which warmed her all over. Collecting her thoughts, she tipped the glass up, draining the remainder, and said, "This is really... umm... very good wine, I think." She gazed at Sam's big, masculine fingers curved around the bottle.
A little ripple of pleasure coursed through her with the memory of where those fingers had touched her, making those places tingle as she thought more about it. She set her glass down, perhaps a little harder than she intended, then went around the bar to where Sam stood and wrapped her hands around his neck and said, with a tongue that felt a decidedly sluggish, "I think you are perhaps the handsomestist... handsomess... most handsome man... on the face of the whole... entire planet." She raised up on her tiptoes, wobbling as she did, and kissed Sam.
His arms came around to steady her, and he kissed her back.
"Umm..." a little moan vibrated in her throat. Sam's mouth tasted tangy and spicy as his tongue stroked and curled around hers, and when he nipped at her bottom lip she laughed, which had her kissing him again with even more enthusiasm... and tangling her fingers in his hair... and pressing her lips tighter to his... and moaning because everything he was doing made her want more... and she didn't want him to stop... ever...
"I hate you both!" Ricky
's strident voice was like a tidal wave washing over them, bringing them back to their senses. Sam broke the kiss immediately, but by the time he moved around the bar, Ricky had rushed out of the winery and was halfway to the lodge.
"Shit!" Sam exclaimed, and ran out after him.
Even in her lightheaded state Jayne knew there was nothing Sam could do to fix the damage their long, passionate kiss had caused, except for her to stay away from Sam. Completely.
CHAPTER 5
Jayne looked out the window of her office and saw Grace Hansen walking toward the lodge from the stable, where she'd been talking at length to Jack. Seeing her coming, Jayne crossed the room and shut the door. She did not want to talk to Jack's wife. She couldn't imagine what the woman must think, having heard from Jack what went on at the hot spring. She still couldn't believe where things led. But after pondering it for two days, she realized it was the culmination of something that started the first time she held Sam's gaze. A metaphysical thing. Like souls meeting after many lives apart. And when she felt the length of his body against hers at the spring, nothing mattered except for the fact that she wanted Sam in every way a woman could want a man. She still did. He made her feel things she'd never felt before. But their lives were too complicated to bring romance into the mix, no matter how deep their feelings might be.
Backing away from the window as Grace walked past, Jayne returned to her computer and busied herself with the flyer she was preparing for the self-guided hike to the Indian mound, in which she wrote about Indian mounds in general and told the legend of Whispering Springs. But when she heard Grace enter the kitchen, her attention was drawn to what Grace and Flo were saying. She couldn't make it out, but she did know when Grace left the kitchen because she could hear footsteps in the hallway. They stopped outside the door.
Jayne sat stiff, not making a sound, hoping Grace would think she was gone and leave. Instead, Grace knocked lightly, and said, "Jayne, could I come in for a few minutes?"
Jayne was tempted to say nothing, but realizing Flo would probably have told Grace she was there, Jayne went to the door and opened it. From the serious look on Grace's face, Jayne knew Jack told her everything, and Grace was there to explain, in a tactful and diplomatic way, why she had no choice but to let her go.
Living With Lies Trilogy (Books 1, 2, and 3 of The Dancing Moon Ranch Series) Page 47