Love Hard

by Nalini Singh

  They stood around the kitchen counter talking and catching up, and it was just… normal. A kind of normal Juliet had never experienced. She was starting to fall as madly in love with Jake’s family as she was with Jake.

  She sucked in a breath even though the realization of how deep he lived in her heart wasn’t that much of a shock. How could she do anything but fall for a man who stood by her side with pride? Who was ready to be her shield against pain and hurt? Yet, aware how vulnerable it made her, she’d been fighting herself. It was too late.

  Juliet Nelisi was in love with Jacob Esera.

  She wasn’t yet strong enough to lower her shields first, be the one who spoke the words. But as she caught him looking at her with a grin that creased his cheeks, she thought maybe she could find the courage in the future to come.

  32

  Threats of Stiletto Thievery

  Jake pulled Juliet in for a kiss after his parents left. The three of them were still in the kitchen and Esme smiled wide at seeing them kiss again.

  Bouncing up and down beside Juliet, she said, “Jules! Are you gonna stay with us now and hug me and kiss Daddy?”

  “Yeah, Jules? Are you?” He knew he was being a demon, putting her on the spot in front of his daughter, but he wasn’t about to let her go. Especially not today when she might have more media camped out on her doorstep.

  An expanding of her pupils, a tug of her lips. “You two…” She put her hands on her hips. “I’ll stay tonight and then we’ll see.”

  “Yay!” Esme caught Juliet’s hands, and the two of them spun into a dance in the sunlight that fell through the open kitchen doors.

  Jake staggered, leaning back against the counter. A realization stirred at the corner of his mind, but he shoved it aside, not ready for that depth of vulnerability and the fear that came with it. Instead, he took out his phone and snapped a photo of his Jules and his daughter laughing together.

  Later that day, after they’d prepped a quick dinner and Esme was in bed—with plenty of hugs and kisses from both Jake and Juliet—he and Juliet sat out on his deck with its view of the ocean while soft music played from speakers in the kitchen.

  This house was the biggest purchase he’d ever made, but he was glad of it every time he sat out here or when Esme swung in the wooden swing he and his dad had made, then attached to a large tree in the yard. Her hair would stream behind her as she pumped herself up and down, the ocean her backdrop.

  “Your house is beautiful,” Juliet murmured. “But it feels like a home. Not perfect and styled.”

  “I wanted Esme to have what I did growing up.” Four rambunctious boys meant Alison and Joseph’s home had never been a showpiece. “If you want to change stuff, go for it. The only thing out-of-bounds is my favorite game-watching chair. Touch that and I’ll steal the left shoe from your favorite pair of stilettos.”

  A searching look from Juliet. “You’re serious? About me moving in?”

  Rising, he pulled her up into his arms and began to sway to the rhythm of the music. “I don’t want us to date, Jules,” he said. “We’re past that. I want us to be together.” Being with her in New York had felt so right. “I hate the idea of not waking with you in my arms.” It’d be bad enough when he was at training camp or at out-of-town games.

  Juliet swallowed hard, but she’d always been tough. “Okay,” she said, “let’s try.”

  Jake’s heart boomed. “You won’t regret it.”

  Dropping his head, he kissed her slow and deep. When she gasped in air during a break in the kiss, he smiled. She laughed and pulled away to go into the kitchen. A moment later, the music changed from slow and muted to fast—though still quiet enough to not wake Esme.

  She danced her way back outside, her moves sensual and playful at the same time. It was Juliet who pulled Jake into the dance this time, and they danced as if they were in a club. Jake hadn’t been in a club for years. Despite his actual age, he always felt too old in those places.

  But dancing with Juliet at home, it had him grinning and breaking out moves he hadn’t realized he remembered. At one point she ended up with her back to his chest, his hand splayed on her stomach as they moved with a sensual grace that could’ve been choreographed it was so seamless.

  Feeling the lush curves of her bottom move against him had a predictable effect, and he dipped his head to kiss her neck. Raising her hand, she wove it in his hair and they kept on dancing. By the time they made it to bed at last, they were so hot for each other that she kicked off her jeans and panties as they entered, and he opened the fly of his own jeans, released his erection, and then he was thrusting into her as he pinned her to the bedroom door he’d pushed shut.

  Afterward, she laughed softly against him. “I feel like a hormone-ridden teenager.”

  He went to grin back when his gut iced. “I forgot protection.” He’d never, not once, forgotten protection. Not after making Calypso pregnant because he’d been too eager.

  Juliet didn’t get angry at him for breaking the mood. “I’m on long-term birth control,” she said with a kiss. “I won’t get pregnant unless I get the IUD removed.” Her fingers weaving through his hair. “I promise.” A pause. “Unless you have super sperm. In which case, I might have to rethink this entire relationship.”

  Dropping his head to the curve of her neck, Jake found himself chuckling, then laughing so hard that he almost dropped her. She grabbed hold of his shoulders, and he pressed her against the door once more before lifting his head to kiss her again and again. “My pants are stuck halfway down my thighs.”

  “Sexy.” A big smile. “Let’s get in bed before we injure ourselves. I do not want to end up in the ER with a sex injury.”

  He released her and got naked, dove under the covers. They lay facing each other, and he realized he’d laughed more with Juliet than he had for years. It wasn’t over either, because she was still smiling and he felt his own lips curve in response.

  “I’m clean,” he told her, because after Reid, she had to worry. “We get physicals all the time, and I’m not exactly a man about town.”

  “Me too.” Juliet sank her teeth into her lower lip. “After I caught Reid cheating, I got myself tested for everything. It was so horrible, not knowing who he’d been with while he was supposed to only be with me.”

  Jake cuddled her closer. “So, we can be naked with each other?”

  Stroking her hands up the sides of his body even as a flush heated her skin, she nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that.” A ducking of her head, her slight shyness in bed another part of his Juliet that he was discovering. “Feeling you inside me, the heat, the wet… I like it.”

  Groaning, he shifted so that he was fully over her, his cock nudging her entrance. “Talk dirty to me some more.”

  She looked utterly mortified, so he started the dirty talk.

  Rocking against her, the head of his cock rubbing over her clit, he told her how beautiful he found her breasts, how he loved the sensitivity of her nipples and the way her pussy clamped around him in spasms when she came.

  Perspiration on her skin, she ran her nails down either side of his spine. “You are so hot, it’s not fair.” She arched her body against him. “You could get me to do anything you want in bed.”

  “What I want is to see you come apart for me.” Pushing into her again, her muscles tight and wet around him, he took it slow, his eyes looking into hers.

  They held the eye contact until the very end, until he’d spent himself inside her body. It never occurred to him to question her promise that she was on birth control. Because this was Juliet.

  Loyal and honest and his.

  * * *

  Jake didn’t know what had woken him, but he jerked awake to see a sleepy Esme climbing into the bed from the end, Mr. Mouse held close to her chest. He’d gotten up to open the door last night after he and Juliet began to fall asleep.

  Almost back asleep already, he lifted the blanket so Esme could get in—and realized he was buck-ass n
aked. He usually wore boxers to bed for this very reason. Since his daughter was mostly asleep, her eyes closed, he managed to use a foot to drag his boxer briefs over from where they lay on the floor and pulled them on under the sheet. Yawning, Esme curled herself to Juliet’s bare back.

  And fell back asleep.

  Jake looked at his two girls fast asleep and rose to kiss them both on the cheek. Then he located his T-shirt and left it on Juliet’s side of the bed. She’d never woken up with a little person snuggled up to her, would likely get a shock.

  Glancing at his bedside clock, he saw it was six. He’d managed to get in some training in New York, popping into a local gym for an early-morning hour each day while Juliet kept an eye on a sleeping Esme, so he wasn’t out of condition. But he’d take it easy on his jet-lagged body today, do only an hour or two later in the day.

  As Esme also had the day off school to recover from the trip, he decided to lie back and just relax. It felt good, his happiness a deep and warm thing. Oh yeah, except for the blinding terror. He’d spent most of his life fighting not to be an overprotective and suffocating parent. Now he’d have to fight the same urges regarding Juliet.

  The idea of her being hurt in any way…

  A stirring on her side of the bed. He saw her go motionless a moment later. “Jake? Are you awake?” It was a panicked whisper.

  “Yeah.” He leaned over Esme to kiss a sleepy-warm Juliet on the temple. “I put my T-shirt by you.”

  She reached down to grab it. “How do I…?”

  He moved Esme away from Juliet’s back with gentle hands. His daughter grumbled in her sleep but settled when he put her against his chest. Meanwhile, Juliet shimmied into the tee, then turned around to face him. “I’m going to have to remember not to sleep naked.”

  Esme yawned against his chest at the same moment. Her eyes fluttered open a second later. She just lay there for a while; his daughter wasn’t a morning person. But today she was excited enough about something that her eyes were suddenly bright.

  Flipping over to face Juliet, she said, “You slept in Daddy’s bed.”

  Juliet sent him a “help” look, but Jake winked and left her to it.

  “Yes,” she said. “Is that okay?”

  “Yup. Can we have waffles for breakfast?”

  Juliet still appeared shell-shocked half an hour later when they sat down to breakfast. He’d pulled on his sweatpants but nothing else while she’d found her pajama bottoms in her suitcase and pulled them on. But she was here and she seemed happy under her shock, and the day passed in a hazy, happy way that left him rejuvenated for the next one.

  * * *

  Juliet expected chaos the next morning, but Jake and Esme had a well-oiled routine.

  For a moment she felt awkward and out of place, then Jake said, “Jules, can you make Esme’s lunch while I make sure she has her flute and Phys. Ed. gear?” He told her what his daughter normally took to school. “Her lunchbox is sitting in the cupboard above the sink,” he said as he entered Esme’s room to grab her backpack.

  Juliet had never made a little girl’s lunch before—except for her own—so she took care with how she put everything together. Spotting a cookie cutter in one of the drawers she’d opened while looking for a knife, she cut Esme’s sandwich into the shapes of stars, then arranged grapes and blueberries together in another section.

  Lastly she added two cookies, and on a whim cut a piece of carrot into the shape of a flower and put it with the fruit. “Where are you two?” she called out when the kitchen remained otherwise empty.

  “Daddy’s braiding my hair!” Esme shouted back. “And he couldn’t find my fwoot.”

  “That’s because you put your ‘fwoot’ in the drawer with your socks,” Jake grumbled. “Be there soon, Jules.”

  “Issa safe place,” Esme argued in a stubborn voice. “I just forgots it was there.”

  Smiling, Juliet started the coffee, then located the stuff Jake put in his smoothies and whipped him up one. She’d seen him order smoothies more than once in New York, and it was an easy thing to replicate since he had his nutritionist-suggested food list pinned to his fridge. It also made her feel part of the morning routine.

  Esme ran into the room not long afterward, dressed in sparkly black leggings and a fluffy green jumper, her hair in two small braids. “Hi Juliet!” She threw her arms around Juliet.

  Juliet hugged her back. “Cereal, right?”

  “Yup. Plus milk to drink.”

  “Got it.”

  The coffee had just finished perking and Esme was already eating her cereal when Jake walked into the kitchen with Esme’s backpack. He paused at seeing his smoothie waiting for him, then—after placing the bag by the door—came around the counter to give Juliet a big kiss. “Thanks, Jules.” He poured a coffee and handed it to her. “Toast?”

  “I’ve got it going.” She ate a piece of crust left over from cutting Esme’s sandwich. “Can you check?” She passed over the lunchbox. “I don’t want to have missed anything.”

  Jake opened the lid and smiled. “She’ll get a kick out of that,” he said about the sandwiches. “You just missed her juice box. It goes here.” He pointed out the spot she’d thought must be for an extra snack.

  “B plus?” she suggested.

  Rubbing his shaved-clean jaw, he said, “Nah, I’m not a tough grader like you. A minus.”

  Dear Lord but he was gorgeous when he was being playful. Leaning in, she kissed that jaw that had been bristly last night, scraping over her in delicious ways. “Talking of grading, I haven’t showed you my oral skills yet.” She flicked her tongue against his skin.

  He groaned. “You’re a devil woman.”

  She went to say that was why he loved her… but Jake had never said those words.

  “Jules!” Esme was waving her milk cup. “I finished!”

  “Wow, that was fast!” Juliet swiveled. “Your dad and I better hurry up.”

  But it turned out they didn’t have to hurry—having Juliet taking charge of meal prep while Jake got Esme ready had bought them time, and they sat together at the table for a few minutes, talking and finishing up breakfast before Jake rose to walk Esme to school. “You can take my car,” he said, passing Juliet his keys. “Price is a kiss.”

  Juliet paid it gladly.

  Afterward, she bent down to hug and kiss Esme. “Have a great day at school. Make sure you show your teacher your special travel book with all your notes, and don’t forget to hand in your homework. I’ll see you tonight.”

  It was as Jake was walking out the door with Esme that he turned around and, dark eyes intent, said, “Hey, Jules—you make sure you call me if anything happens.”

  The world shimmered in front of her before settling into its new form where she had someone who belonged to her, someone for whom she was a priority. “I will,” she promised, her voice husky.

  Reid had said “I love you” weeks after meeting her.

  Jake had never said it.

  But words were easy. Having a man who stood by her, a steady, loyal presence who’d face the world with her, come what may? That was real, that was what mattered.

  Juliet’s eyes burned, her heart full.

  33

  Game On

  Juliet didn’t look up the news and gossip sites until she was at her desk at work. As expected, Reid was firing off a few cheap shots, but his attempts were no longer gaining much traction—not with everyone fascinated by Jake and Juliet’s emergence as a couple. One reporter had managed to dig up an old school photo that featured all three of them—Jake, Calypso, and Juliet.

  Her heart ached. “Miss you, Cals,” she murmured under her breath. “Hope you’re good with me and Jake.”

  An unseasonably warm wind blew through the open window, brushing the scent of freesias across her face. Throat thick, she said, “Thanks. I promise I’ll love him and your baby.” Could be the landscaper who looked after these premises had planted them downstairs, but freesias had been Call
ie’s favorite flower, and on the day of her death—before Juliet had ever learned that her friend was gone—she’d been standing on a rocky beach in Samoa when she was enfolded in the scent of freesias.

  Callie, saying goodbye.

  Believing her friend was in a better place, from which she occasionally dropped by to watch over them, Juliet took a deep breath in readiness to start work. That was when she recalled what Alison had said about Jake’s lost laughter and found herself clicking to another site, one she’d learned about during a previous promotional campaign. She was buying the tickets before she could second-guess herself.

  The tickets weren’t for till after his training camp and the big game to follow, so she’d keep them to give him after. No point distracting him in the lead-up. If he decided not to use them, she knew people in the office who’d love them.

  Then she got to work, ignoring any and all calls from the media. Of course they were waiting outside when she walked to Jake’s car after work, but she kept her comments short, not giving them anything new. As she drove to Jake’s, she thought about her house, all her things.

  The idea of letting it go at some point in the future was a tough one. It had taken her so much hard work to afford her own place. Part of her also remained scared that Jake would change his mind, decide she was too much trouble. It’d probably take her years to get over that. Maybe she could rent her place out so it wouldn’t be such a big deal if she and Jake didn’t make it.

  Who’re you kidding, Jules? It’ll be a big freaking deal regardless. You’ll be devastated.

  “Shut up,” she muttered to that bluntly honest voice.

  A big, black SUV she didn’t recognize was sitting in the drive when she arrived home. Parking behind it, she got out.

  “Juliet!” Charlie, dressed for work in a slimline gray dress that did spectacular things for her petite body, ran over.