Being with him for the last hour-and-a-half had been astonishingly relaxing. They’d exchanged small talk during the short ride here, discussing everything from the warmer-than-average weather to Heaven’s role in the following week’s Christmas program at the church. They’d chatted about insignificant topics, but neither of them had run out of things to say to each other. Then, there had also been companionable silences that yawned between them where it felt like they’d had a whole conversation just by simply sharing a look. So, when Jake tugged her down beside him on the sofa, curling into the curve of his arm and taking the seat beside him felt as natural as breathing.
Looking around the small, neat structure, Harmony sighed. Decorated mostly in dark earthy tones that fit a man like Jake well, the room held all the basics amenities a man could ask to have. A comfortable long suede couch and matching chair in a toffee brown, a nice pine dining room table that would seat four, and a huge plasma television set inside a primitively designed wooden entertainment center made the interior feel rustic, but with a slightly modern feel to it. Thick braided rugs in a burnt orange hue littered the floor, adding to the ambience. Even the tiny kitchen held newer-looking stainless steel appliances. The bathroom that she’d visited earlier was adorably old-fashioned. Containing a toilet and pedestal sink, the real draw, however, was the deep claw-foot tub taking up one wall. She assumed the closed door on the opposite side of the room led into a bedroom, though she knew she wouldn’t be asking for a tour of it.
“I always wondered what these cabins looked like on the inside. Old Man Hobbs had them built back when I was in grade school, but I never had a reason to visit one until now. Back then, he was doing his part to try and boost the tourism trade in Paradise and thought offering luxury hunting cabins was the way to do it. Most of the time, they sat up here on this mountain empty until they put the interstate exit in a few years back. Now, somebody is always renting from him. This really turned out beautifully. Thank you for inviting me over,” she remarked softly, more to make conversation with him than anything else.
Glancing around, Jacob shrugged. “It’s got a few old-fashioned touches that I could live without having.”
“Really? Like what?” Harmony questioned, turning her head to glance up at him.
“Well, the skeleton key that came with this place is just an open invitation to a robber. And I haven’t quite figured out yet how I’m supposed to cram my 6’4” ass into that tub in the bathroom,” he informed her with a low chuckle.
“Are you kidding? I think that tub is one of the best parts to this place,” Harmony returned with a disapproving look.
“Well, since you aren’t bigger than a minute, that tub would swallow you whole. Me, on the other hand,… ” he trailed off, gesturing at his long frame. “Let’s just say it leaves something to be desired. Thankfully, Mr. Hobbs didn’t mind the idea of me attaching a shower to the tub.” Letting out a sigh, he settled them both deeper into the sofa. “But on the whole, I agree with you. I’ve enjoyed staying here. Besides, after staying a week at the Paradise Lodge in town, this place feels like the Ritz. I don’t think the owners of that motel have upgraded the rooms since Carter was in office. It still had shag carpets and a lime green comforter on the bed. Hell, there was a slot for quarters in the headboard if you wanted the mattress to vibrate for Christ’s sake,” he revealed with a shudder.
“Well, every town has the requisite no-tell motel. You got a firsthand view of ours up close and personal. Most traveling folks stay at the Holiday Inn they built right off the interstate,” she explained with a grin.
“Then thank God I decided against shining a black light on the mattress,” he muttered with a look of disgust.
“That probably would have sent you screaming toward the door,” Harmony agreed with a nod, before waving her hand around the room. “You did much better finding this place.”
Jake watched her face closely. “Well, this place is only temporary.”
Harmony’s eyes widened as her lips parted in surprise. “Oh? Is your vacation over already? Are you heading back for Atlanta soon?” she asked, feeling a sense of disappointment at the thought of him leaving. It wasn’t as if she’d imagined this date really going anywhere, but she couldn’t deny that she’d enjoyed spending time with Jake over the last month. She liked having him as a friend and had hoped that once he viewed the real estate properties the area had to offer that he might settle here and open the security business he’d spoken of in passing. She would have liked seeing him around Paradise on a regular basis a lot more than she was prepared to admit out loud. Already, in the short weeks she’d known him, she’d grown used to seeing his friendly face sitting in her station day after day at the café. Not seeing him at all would...would...well, it would suck. The thought of him leaving Paradise for good cued an empty ache in her belly that she hadn’t been prepared to feel.
Her nervous energy was obvious, especially to a trained eye like his. After spending the last few weeks watching her, he knew anxiety, Harmony style, when he saw it. Her biggest tell was in full swing right now. She was twisting that mother’s ring she wore on her left hand with enough force that he was worried she’d tear her delicate skin. Rubbing his fingers against the edge of the silky blue dress, he asked, “Would it bother you if I left, Harmony?”
The shiver that slid down her spine as his fingers traced a nerve-racking pattern against the skin just above her knee was almost her undoing. Shifting slightly, Harmony whispered, “I don’t know. There’s a lot of things on my mind right now.”
“As long as I’m one of those things, I can wait for the answer,” he responded, his fingers cupping her smooth neck and turning her head to face him. “Would it help you to know that I’m thinking about sticking around for a while?”
“You’re going to make Paradise your home?” she asked, her eyes widening in full surprise as she turned fully, her body perpendicular to his on the sofa. Why did that simple thought make her happy, she asked herself as she watched his forehead crinkle. Don’t get attached to this man, her inner voice warned darkly, visions from her past flying in her mind. How many times had she trusted Tanner only to have him make a fool of her? But then another voice – that sounded suspiciously like her sister Patience – yelled out for her to seize the moment…and seize that man.
Watching as an unnamed emotion flashed in her eyes, Jake chuckled as he stroked her supple neck. “Yeah. Old Man Simmons gave up the deed on his old homeplace and accepted the offer I made on the house and the land. When I showed up with the check today, he was happy to take my money. It needs some work, but you were right when you said it would make a gorgeous home a few weeks back. When I took a look at it, I could see myself being real happy there. So, I guess the fine, upstanding citizens of Paradise are gonna be stuck with me for a good long while.”
“Why here? Why Paradise, Jake?” she blurted out suddenly, the bold question more than she could contain. Part of her wanted to just revel in the moment and enjoy the fact that he’d decided to stay here….but the much more cautious part of her… the part of her that had been burned in the past… won out and asked the question that had been bothering her for weeks. What the hell about the place she called home attracted a man like him? Answers surrounding questions about the mystery that was Jacob Stone had been in short supply, and before she even entertained the notion of something developing between them, she needed to know more about him.
A whole lot more.
Chapter Eight
“Why here? Why Paradise, Jake?”
Oh, now that was a loaded question that she asked him. There were so many things he wanted to share with this woman. He wanted to be entirely honest and tell her about what had brought him to Paradise - and to her doorstep, - but more than he wanted that, first, he needed her to trust him. He needed her to know that she could rely on him and understand that this desire he felt for her wasn’t going anywhere.
From the moment he’d laid eyes on her nearly a mont
h ago, he had wanted her with an intensity he’d never felt before. Nothing had changed since then. But how did he tell her that without sending her screaming into the night?
“Let’s just say that I think I’ve found what I’m looking for,” he replied instead, burying his fingers in her gorgeous thick hair.
Her brilliant blue eyes met his again, and he felt a twitch in his groin as his body responded to the sheer beauty in front of him. A mere second later before he could talk himself out of it, he had captured her lips, plundering her surprised mouth with his tongue.
Harmony gasped as she found herself suddenly swept fully against him, his arm tightly pulling her closer and his lips taking command of hers. Rather than being scared at the shift in control, she felt something akin to desire snaking through her as her tongue slid tentatively against his. In all of her time with her ex-husband, she wasn’t sure that she had ever experienced something like this…a fire that was building in the pit of her stomach and moving at lightning speed to overtake her entire body just at the touch of his lips against hers.
“You know, you’re really good at saying a lot, but never really telling me anything at all,” Harmony muttered when he finally released her lips a moment later and lifted his head to stare into her turbulent eyes. “And while that kiss was a nice distraction, I still want an answer to my question. What made you decide to pick Paradise to settle down?” she asked, scooting away from him on the couch and putting some much needed distance between her and his lethal lips.
“I already answered that question, Harmony,” Jake returned calmly, meeting her gaze with a steady look. “I found something I’ve been looking for here. You.”
Shaking her head, Harmony went into automatic denial, holding a hand up between them when he would have moved in to steal another kiss. She needed much more than his sudden declaration of need before she could trust. “Then you’ve really chosen the wrong place, Jake, if I’m what’s keepin’ you here. I’m not looking for a relationship. Not with you. Not with anybody. This dinner tonight is a fluke. I don’t date. I don’t plan on dating in the future.”
“Yeah, you mentioned that,” Jake snorted, keeping his eyes trained on her paling face. “Care to cut through all the bullshit excuses you hand out for that and tell me why that really is?” he invited her silkily even though his query was more of a demand than a request. “A pretty girl like you that acts the way you do…that looks the way you do… let’s just say that I know that you’re alone by choice, darlin’, not design. Why is that?”
“I…” Harmony floundered, her eyes flying from his face to the door as if she was looking for her quickest escape route.
“And while we’re on the subject, maybe you’d explain why it is that every time I do something nice for you, you get this look in your eyes like you’ve been sucker punched. Gotta admit, I love starin’ into those blue eyes of yours, but those storm clouds you got behind your gaze are beginnin’ to worry the hell out of me.”
“Th-then stop starin’ at me. And stop kissing me, while you’re at it,” Harmony ordered, glaring at him when he laughed.
“Yeah, that won’t be happenin’ any time soon, sweetheart. I like who I’m lookin’ at way too much to give up my new favorite pastime of starin’ at her. And as for kissin’ you, I’ll stop doin’ that when you don’t kiss me back. Not a second before. I like your sweet taste, Harmony. Won’t apologize for that, either. You taste good, baby. Pure, innocent, but so damn fine that it makes my dick ache. And just so you and I are real clear with each other, you should know that I’ll be waitin’ for my next chance to take a drink from those pink lips of yours, and I’ll be stealin’ those kisses from you every chance I get.”
Harmony was slack jawed by the time he finished speaking. “I think it’s time for you to take me home,” she finally managed to spit out as she bolted to her unsteady feet.
“I disagree, and since I’ve got the truck keys, I get the deciding vote here,” Jacob denied, catching her slim wrist in a gentle, but unbreakable grip and pulling her back down beside him. “First, we talk, Harmony. Then, if you’re a good girl and tell me what I wanna know, I’ll take you home. Later. Much later.”
“You mean that you want me to talk, don’t you, Jake? This is the part where you want me to share my deep, dark secrets, right?” she snapped irritably as she tried to jerk her arm away from him. “Even though you don’t share anything of consequence with me,” she added under her breath. “How the hell is that fair?”
“I didn’t say it was fair, but the things that I haven’t shared with you yet aren’t keepin’ us from getting to know each other better, Harmony. You can’t say the same, can you?” he asked evenly. When she remained coldly silent, he smiled. “I didn’t think so. See, the things you don’t talk about are the same things that keep you from letting me or anybody else get close to you.”
She turned her face away from him to stare out the window. “I don’t like talking about my past. It’s nobody’s business but my own.”
“Well, like it or not, now I’m making it my business, too, babe. I’ve already figured out that somebody burned you pretty badly and that those scars run deep. It’s why you refuse to let any man become more than a passing acquaintance. Start by telling me about the guy that did that to you,” he suggested quietly, stroking his thumb against the back of her wrist. He could feel her pulse throbbing in a quick staccato beat that let him know just how much she didn’t want to have this discussion. “C’mon, darlin’,” he cajoled gently. “You’ll feel better if you share the burden with somebody. I’ve got strong shoulders. Lay it on me.”
Harmony remained stubbornly silent for several long minutes until she realized that the man that still had his hand wrapped around her wrist was just as strong willed as she was. He was going to wait her out until he got the answers he wanted, damn him. And in that moment, she felt something break inside...something deep that told her that perhaps letting him inside wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be. And in spite of his caveman tendencies, she realized that she didn’t fear him. Rather, she trusted him. When it became clear that he wasn’t going to release her arm, she muttered, “It’s an unoriginal story that I’m sure you’ve already heard a thousand times before me, Jake. Honestly, since you’ve been in town more than five minutes, I’m pretty sure you already know most of it anyway.”
“Tell me about it anyway, Harmony. I want to hear your account of what happened. Who put those shadows in your eyes, sweetheart?” he asked as he slowly drew her against his body.
Chapter Nine
“You already know my ex-husband did that, Jake. Everybody knows it. It’s old news,” Harmony replied through lips that barely moved as her stomach rolled and she shifted away from him. Any time she remembered the years she’d spent with Tanner Suarez, this was the reaction it produced. And she had no doubt that half the town had already filled Jake’s mind with her sordid past.
“He was Heaven’s father, wasn’t he?” Jake prompted aloud, offering her wrist a supportive squeeze.
“He was Heaven’s sperm donor,” Harmony correctly sharply. “That man was never her father, and he never will be,” she declared vehemently. “I’ll never willingly allow that man anywhere near my child or give him the honor of calling her his daughter. He contributed some genetic material to her existence. That’s all he did. Heaven is mine.”
His thumb swept gently against her skin. “Sounds like you hate him.”
“Hate isn’t a strong enough word,” Harmony replied in a shaky voice. “Loathe, despise, abhor…none of those words do justice for the feelings I have for Tanner. The word hasn’t been created yet that describes just how much I’d like to dance across his grave. He’s a life-ruining bastard and if there’s a God in heaven, then He’ll make sure that Tanner Suarez burns in a hot, fiery hell.”
“Sounds like this man left quite a mark on you,” Jacob murmured, moving the hand of the arm he had draped around her to rub the tense muscles in her shoulder
.
“Oh, Tanner left several marks on me,” Harmony muttered as she thought of all the bruises she’d endured from that monster’s fists beating her body. “He was good at that.”
Jacob stiffened at that remark, his jaw clenching. “He beat you.” He already knew that Tanner had, but saying the words aloud made it feel so much more real. Even worse, knowing Harmony had endured it hurt him more than he’d ever expected.
It wasn’t a question he was asking her, Harmony thought to herself, more like a statement that he waiting for her to verify. “Yeah,” she acknowledged softly. “He beat me.”
Jacob inhaled deeply at her grim confirmation, pulling her unique scent into his nostrils and letting it comfort the beast pacing inside him. Right now, she needed to unload this baggage that she’d been carrying around for years, and he knew that she’d never do that if he reacted now. “Tell me about him, Harmony. Make me understand. How’d it start?” he prodded gently.
“What does it matter how it started? It happened. I lived through it. I survived. I divorced him, and then I went on with my life,” she replied as her heartbeat thundered in her chest. She didn’t want to talk about this. Examining her past always led to weeks of nightmares and waking up drenched in cold sweat.
“Is that what you think? That you went on with your life? Sweetheart, you’re so wrapped up in your past that you can’t see that you’re missing out on your present. If you aren’t careful, the future is just gonna pass you by. You’re allowing one man’s actions in your past to dictate every move and choice you make. That much is obvious by the way you avoid life, Harmony. You surround yourself with your little girl and your sisters and your jobs and try to convince yourself that it’s enough, but it’s not. There’s more to life than that. You just won’t let yourself reach for it.”
“I don’t need it,” she argued, ignoring the concern she heard in his words. “I’m satisfied with the way things are for me! I don’t need any more than what I’ve got right now. I don’t want those kinds of complications in my life. As long as I have Heaven and my family, I’ve got everything that matters.”
Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) Page 8