by Ann Major
“You don’t look too good, boss man,” Vanessa said as she dumped a stack of file folders onto his desk.
“What’s this?” he growled as he picked up a folder.
“Maybe you should call your wife. She doesn’t look so hot either.”
Jake had given Vanessa a bonus to check on Alicia every day and report back to him. Because of this she seemed to think he’d given her a license to interfere. “You said she was fine.”
“She misses you.”
“And you know this how?”
“I know. She’s heartbroken, and I’m tired of going over there and seeing her pale face and shadowed eyes. The girl looks haggard, and she resents me…for not being you.”
“She crossed a line. She’d not the woman I’d begun to think she was.”
“Okay, so what if her father hid a few diamonds in a gift he snuck into her shopping bag. So she didn’t tell you, since, big surprise, you’ve been such a jerk on the subject of her father. I wouldn’t have told you either.”
“If she’s telling the truth, she should have called the feds about that pin as soon as she discovered it. Lots of people probably think I knew she had the diamonds all along. I have no reputation now.”
“What about her? She didn’t know what that slimeball was up to either, because she’s not a criminal. Then after the bastard betrayed her, you walked out on her, too.”
“Damn it! That’s not how it was! And I’m paying for her legal defense! Why can’t you ever, just once, be on my side?”
“I am on your side. That’s why I’m telling you to work things out.”
“I’ve got a better idea. Get your nose out of my personal life, so we can get back to work.”
She shrugged.
It irritated the hell out of him that Vanessa had been giving him a hard time the past four days. He’d had four miserable nights on Bos’s houseboat because he couldn’t trust himself to stay in the same city with Alicia and not call her. Alicia had betrayed him. Besides that, she’d reduced him to a needy, clingy, besotted idiot.
Some part of him didn’t care if she’d lied to him and betrayed him. The nights on the houseboat had been even worse than being in Alaska on his own.
The woman had gotten under his skin. She’d hooked him, and no matter how hard he tried to wriggle free, the hook just kept sinking deeper. He’d said he was leaving her. What a joke. He couldn’t get through an hour without pining for her.
This was what he’d always feared—that love would take him over again and destroy him as it had before. Only this felt a thousand times worse. He’d fought to become strong and self-reliant. She was a liar and a cheat. Why couldn’t he stop wanting her?
Well, he’d said he was finished, hadn’t he? He wouldn’t go back to her. He wouldn’t.
One minute Jake was alone in a jungle of dwarf palmettos and water tupelo as the bull alligators roared and the next he saw a willowy figure paddling a kayak gracefully through the dark waters toward the houseboat.
“Alicia?”
“No, it’s just me,” Cici said, tossing her blond curls. “Who’s the only person crazy enough to follow you into the swamp?”
“Does Logan know where you are?”
“I like to keep him guessing. What are wives for?”
“As long as you don’t get me shot.”
“He’s your brother.”
“Right. Family loyalties run deep in the South, and all that rot.”
“Deeper than we sometimes realize. You came back, didn’t you? And so did I.”
She threw him the bowline and he pulled her kayak snug against the houseboat. Then he helped her disembark. “Want a drink?”
She shook her head. “I just want to talk.” She paused. “You’ve been doing a lot of hiding out…ever since you got married,” she said.
“I’d rather not talk about her.”
“I’m sure.” She hesitated. “Vanessa called me, so I went to see Alicia.”
“Vanessa is a real rabble-rouser.”
“Alicia’s every bit as unhappy as you are.”
“The hell I’m unhappy!”
“Right. Just look at you. When was the last time your jaw saw a razor? The only way to end your mutual misery is for you to go back to her.”
“She lied.”
“You lied, too…about how you feel. Did you ever make her feel like you wanted to marry her? Didn’t she have to practically beg you? She had a rotten childhood. Maybe she’s tired of begging people to love her.”
“That’s her problem.”
“Then why do you look so awful?”
“Thanks. You look great, by the way.”
“Alicia loves you and you love her. You’re hurting her terribly because you’re so determined to be strong and hard and never care about anybody because you don’t want them close enough to hurt you…the way I hurt you. I’m sorry, by the way….”
He didn’t say anything.
“But you and me—we’re ancient history. What about Alicia, not to mention the baby?” Cici said. “Don’t you care that you’re hurting them? She told me it moved.”
And he hadn’t been there.
“What if you’re throwing away your one chance at true happiness? Jake, I know what you went through in the past. Believe it or not, I got hurt, too. I ran away and stayed away because I couldn’t deal with it. But at some point I learned that maybe there comes a time when you’ve got to stop running or you’ll always have an empty, meaningless life. Sometimes you’ve got to face who you are and what you need. You’re going to be a father. It’s obvious to everyone who knows you that you need her. Why don’t you forget your pride and put aside your fear of being hurt again? For once in your life—just go for it!”
Seventeen
“Alicia!”
Jake’s footsteps rang on the hard floors as he strode through the downstairs shouting her name. His house had never sounded so scarily empty. Usually Gus came trotting up to him when he came home. Not this time.
Where was his wife? And her damned nuisance of a cat? What if she’d already gone to London and taken Gus with her?
Jake tore out the back door and then stopped, expelling a long sigh of relief when he saw a tall, slim woman in a red shirt and jeans tucking a tiny plant into the soft earth as gently as a mother would put a baby to sleep. Alicia’s dark, tousled hair fell about her shoulders like a silken veil. She was so damned beautiful. Beside her sat a black-and-white cat, his tail twitching in a lively manner as he eyed a yellow butterfly.
Jake let the screen slam behind him so she’d look up. She turned as he walked toward her slowly, her eyes widening when she saw him. Their glances touched, held. Neither seemed able to look away.
Finally he stopped at the edge of the lush grass. She stood, warm heat suffusing her cheeks, coloring them prettily. Her eyes were so brilliant and her smile so sweet, he felt a thrilling rush of emotion.
Did she still love him? If so, he would welcome her love and cherish her because he needed her, craved her. She made him feel alive, happy—happy in a way he’d never been happy before.
Clasping her hands together, she waited as he walked across the thick lawn toward her. In the next moment he enfolded her in a crushing embrace.
“Alicia, I’ve missed you so much!”
She sighed. “I was hoping against hope you’d come back,” she whispered breathlessly.
“I’m sorry I walked out on you.”
“Your behavior was perfectly understandable under the circumstances.”
“That’s garbage, and you know it. Forgive me?”
“The minute I saw you standing there.” She hesitated. “I love you.”
“I can’t live without you,” he said. “I love you more than anything in the world.”
“I think I’ve been waiting my whole life to feel like this.”
He clasped her tightly, burying his face against the smooth skin of her warm, silky throat, inhaling her sweet scent.
She to
ok his hand and placed it on her tummy so that he could feel their baby kick.
“Wow,” he whispered.
She was his wife, his love, his everything. He couldn’t wait to take her to bed.
He handed her a black velvet box. “I have something for you.”
She opened it and expelled an amazed breath. “My mother’s pin! How did you get this?” With reverent fingers she caressed each point of the sparkling star just as she used to when she’d been a little girl.
“Let’s just say that it cost me a fortune to buy it before the feds’ auction, but you’re worth it. The feds are going to let you off the hook, too. It took a few legal maneuvers, but we cut a deal.”
“Oh, Jake,” she whispered clutching the diamond pin to her heart.
He handed her a second velvet jewelry box.
“What’s this?”
“My grandmother’s earrings. You wouldn’t take them when my family gave them to you for your birthday.”
She laughed. “I couldn’t accept them when I thought our marriage wasn’t real.”
Holding the box, she hurled herself into his arms and held on tight.
He folded her against his chest, crushing her against him. “I want to design you a house with lots of bedrooms…so we’ll have room for more children.”
Unable to speak, she stared up at him, her eyes shining with such excitement that he knew she had to feel the same way he did.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6982-2
ULTIMATUM: MARRIAGE
Copyright © 2010 by Ann Major
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