by Robyn Thomas
because she was so soft and feminine. Her response was coy,
gentle, almost shy, yet he could tell she was biding her time until it suited her to respond in kind. When she changed tactics he almost lost his mind.
The battle for control was an odd one, because he yielded
to her as often as she did to him. He understood her edge of
desperation, knew why she wanted to climb right into his skin.
He wanted to keep her suspended there for as long as possible,
to delay the heartache that awaited her when coherent thought
returned.
She dragged her mouth away from his. “Jake? I want—”
“Ask nicely.”
Her head shook, her voice breathless as she replied. “Read
my hips.”
Her hips? The story they told was mesmerizing. His hips rocked in time with hers, and her short nails dug into his back as her pleasure intensified. He built on it, slipping his hands beneath her bottom to hold her closer, and he claimed her mouth in a soulful kiss. Holding on much longer wasn’t going to be possible.
This incredible tension surging through them, arcing back and
forth like untamed lightning, was bound to release or consume
them within seconds. Beth’s body bowed beneath him and she
screamed into his mouth as she rocketed into a powerful climax
and dragged him along with her.
The rush was so great his head spun, every nerve in his body
celebrating at once as she took and gave more than he’d prepared for. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and let the heated scent of her skin soothe him as he rode out the wave.
Reluctant to move, he stayed where he was for long minutes
afterward, shifting only his arms so he could support his upper
body on his forearms. His heart rate returned to normal but Beth’s remained erratic. He grazed his teeth across her bare sholder and anticipated the smile she’d aim at him when he summoned the strength to lift his head. The slight tremors that vibrated through her body made him feel smug until she spoke.
“I put the chain on the front door last night and disconnected
the doorbell, but I think I can hear knocking.”
Her voice was thick with tears and his world flipped inside
out when he realized she’d been crying within the safety of his
arms. While he’d been congratulating himself for vanquishing
her demons, albeit temporarily, they’d attacked her from another direction. What kind of fiancé was he if he couldn’t protect her at zero range? He curled one hand around her cheek and searched for something appropriate to say. Words failed him, but touching his forehead to hers felt right, and so did the way her shaky breaths drifted over his lips.
Maybe if he stayed completely still, time would actually freeze.
It seemed to work at first, but then she pushed her flattened palms against his chest. “There it is again.”
“No one’s at the door, Beth. I hired a security firm to patrol
the external perimeter, and the media won’t break ranks without
being certain I’m here. Why don’t we discuss what’s happening in this room before we concern ourselves with what’s outside.”
The noise she made told him what she thought about that
idea. “If news of our engagement has reached Brad, even a highly trained army of ninjas won’t keep him away. Can you please move before he breaks the door down and invites the press inside?”
“Shh. Keep calm.” He pressed a kiss against her temple and
eased back, blinking as she rolled out from beneath him, sat up, and dragged his favorite shirt over her head without a second’s pause. A deep frown drew her brows down as she assessed their
clothing strewn all over the floor.
Her agitation didn’t make any sense. It was almost as if
nothing would be worse than Brad arriving to find them together.
Their recent intimacy, the ruins of her life, and the implications of their public engagement all paled in comparison to her ex-husband’s opinion.
“Stop for a second and talk to me. At least let me ease the
tension in your shoulders.”
“I need a shower and a minute to myself before I can deal
with Brad, so you’re going to have to play host again.” One small hand swiped a few tears from each side of her face, but she kept talking as if they were the least of her problems. “Don’t forget to put something on before you answer the door. Oh, and our story is that we ate soup, then I cooked while you slept. That last part’s important. Don’t deviate from the script, okay?”
Her face was flushed and the way she was stuffing the evidence
of their tryst into the oversize ottoman would’ve been funny if she wasn’t so worked up. He grinned as she tried to conceal his jeans under a quilt while he stood nearby in the nude. “Relax, Beth, you worry too much. Do you need a hand with those jeans?”
“The quilt is the problem.” She tossed one end of it to him.
“This quick tidy-up isn’t vanity or good housekeeping, it’s pure damage control. I’m not ready to field questions about you, especially not the kind of questions Brad will ask if the room
screams one-night-stand when he arrives. He has no boundaries
whatsoever and I predict a situation so awkward you’ll wish you’d folded the damn quilt faster to avoid it.”
Jake’s insides twisted at her level of familiarity with the other man, and jealousy made his tongue sharp. “Last night Brad was your beloved ex-husband, and now he’s just a friend?” He tilted
his head toward the couch. “How much couch-surfing will it take
to get him out of your life altogether?”
Chapter Five
Beth’s stomach plummeted as reality slammed through her. Jake was a tender and considerate lover, but driving a wedge between her and Brad had been his motivation for sleeping with her.
Falling in with Jake’s plans so easily made her an idiot, but he was a heartless jerk.
“No comment? What about money? Is there a sum that’d convince you to limit contact with Brad? Shall I guess?”
“Are you capable of such deep thought? My experience of rock gods is that they have overinflated egos, faulty moral compasses, and small IQs.”
Desperate to put some distance between them, she tugged the quilt out of his hands and tossed it aside before dropping to her knees and pressing a hasty kiss in the vicinity of his ankle.
She figured it would translate as thank-you-for-sharing-your— almighty-rock-god-body-with-me, and bring an end to their night together, but when she looked up he seemed stunned.
“Did you just kiss my foot?”
A new voice joined the conversation. “Did you just sleep with my wife?”
“Ugh! Cut it out, Brad! You can choose between being family or being my best friend but you no longer have the right to refer to me as your wife. People get the wrong idea.”
“He doesn’t appreciate the difference,” Jake said. “What was once his always will be his.”
She snatched up the quilt and smacked it against Jake’s middle, gratified by the oomph sound he made and the wince that accompanied it. “Make use of that, and try not to provoke my ex, because he has a mean left hook.”
She scrambled to her feet and tried to ignore Jake’s grumbling and Brad’s disappointment as his gaze swept over her.
“If you’re here, I guess there aren’t a million reporters out front?”
Brad’s rumble of disgust translated well. “You couldn’t have sent me a longer text last night? Given me a few more details to work with? Answered your phone this morning? This isn’t what I expected to find when I got here.”
Keen to redirect his thoughts, she waved her hand in the air between them. “If it’s crazy outside, how did you get in?”
“Van,” he said. “I figured
you’d have cooked so I called Tom at the Communal Larder and promised him the food for various charities, and then I borrowed one of his vans and charged straight over.”
“Try to imagine the room’s in order, we’re fully dressed, andyou’ve walked in on—”
“Don’t elaborate.” Brad paced a few steps, then returned to where he’d been. “This guy, Beth?”
She glared at him but he continued.
“I’ve introduced you to dozens of eligible men and you’ve never once hooked up. You don’t flirt or accept second dates, and they’re lucky if they get a chaste kiss at the end of the evening. I thought all of that was depressing until you chose Casanova-on-steroids to break the drought.”
A hot tide of anger surged up and her hand connected with the side of his face for the first time ever.
Jake’s arms encircled her from behind and he drew her back against him, his breath warming her ear. “I think I prefer Rock God or Famous Man.”
She couldn’t see Jake’s face, but the furious look on Brad’s warned that things were about to escalate.
To her surprise it was Jake who spoke first. “Give us a minute, Brad.”
In contrast to Jake’s calm, Brad sputtered and hissed, tension radiating off him as his hands curled into fists.
The urge to lean deeper into Jake’s embrace was strong, but she stepped forward instead and eyed the door before addressing Brad. “I’ve never wanted to star in a locker room conversation and I know you grill my dates for details. Your overprotectiveness is one of the many reasons I’ve stopped going on those dates. As for Famous Man”—she gestured at Jake—“I didn’t stand a chance against him because he’s a rock god who seduces every woman he meets. His sole reason for being here is to ensure the eyes of the entire world are on me in the lead-up to your wedding so that I won’t be tempted to hook back up with you. A fake engagement might seem a tad excessive, but he’s very dedicated to the cause. There’s almost nothing he won’t do. Including me.”
Her exit looked assured but Jake’s voice made her pause in the doorway. She didn’t bother turning around. “That shirt’s priceless, Beth. I don’t want it out of my sight.”
“Fine. You can have it.” The words were muffled as she dragged the shirt up over her head. Letting it fall to the floor, she stalked toward the bathroom in the nude.
…
Brad cleared his throat. “Hell, there’s an image I can’t press delete on. You couldn’t have let her have the shirt?”
Jake regarded Brad in silence while he debated tactics.
Honesty—so rare in his world—was the only real option. “I thought she’d keep it on principle. She rarely does what I expect.”
He proceeded with caution, dragging his jeans on as he spoke.
“What’s the situation outside?”
“It’s bad. I heard your engagement announced on the radio this morning and came over when I couldn’t reach Beth by phone.
It looked like half of Melbourne had that same idea, and I couldn’t get anywhere near the place.
“I had this vision of Beth pacing around in here by herself wondering what the heck she was supposed to do, so I came up with a solution.”
“A food van?”
“Yeah, I figured no one would question a charity worker making urgent deliveries to the city’s needy. I was wrong, but the photos of Beth in my wallet convinced the security guards that I had a legitimate reason for being here.”
Amateurs. His personal security team would never have allowed the breach.
Brad studied him in pensive silence and then scowled. “How did this happen? Why Beth? And what was that about her and Ihooking up? That’s never going to happen. She might as well be my sister.”
“That’s what Beth said.” Brad looked ready to deck him, so Jake summoned a chuckle.
“You ought to hear yourself sometimes, though. Every second sentence begins with Beth.”
“Interesting. You seem to have the same problem. I’ve spoken to you on the phone more than a dozen times and you always ask about Beth. I was beginning to think you were unstable. Skyla assures me you’re not, but this ‘engagement’ has me wondering all over again.”
Skyla had stuck up for him.
“You don’t know Beth at all, yet you’re staying in her house and you’re engaged to her. Who does that?”
Brad’s concerns about him were remarkably similar to the ones he’d entertained. That probably meant something.
“If you had advance warning about the engagement, you should’ve done more with it than take her to bed.” Fury burnedin his eyes as he kicked the quilt. “Beth’s not like the women you usually associate with.”
“I know that. I won’t hurt her.”
Brad’s eyebrows shot up. “I don’t even want to know what I walked in on.”
For the first time, he realized how it must’ve looked to Brad— Beth kneeling before him while he was naked. He laughed and the other man’s features turned to stone.
“She was pretending to be in awe of my fame, but I’m not sure what prompted it.”
Brad gave a snort of contempt. “I hate to tell you this, buddy, but you’ll die waiting for Beth to turn into a starstruck groupie.
Her opinion of long-haired musicians is right up there with dirty politicians and used-car salesmen. It’s a wonder she recognized you.”
“She didn’t.”
Brad had turned away and taken several steps, but he stopped short and took forever to do an about-face. “Say again?”
“She didn’t recognize me. I had to introduce myself.” Brad’s silence was an invitation to elaborate, but spilling his innermost thoughts was difficult. “Being famous is a curse as often as it’s a blessing because it never shuts off. Beth sees past it and I find that—”
“Irresistible?”
“Completely.”
The curse Brad uttered was potent, but it summed up the situation in a few words. “A freaking rock star,” he said after a long pause. “She has the worst taste in men.”
The eruption of acid in Jake’s stomach wouldn’t allow him to keep quiet. “She certainly didn’t marry well.”
“What?”
The air in the room became oppressive. He caught sight of a sign saying back off and went the other way. “If she was my wife, I would never have let her go.”
Brad approached him and stood too close for comfort. “She’ll never be your wife so it won’t be an issue. I’ve never met a woman with a longer wish list when it comes to finding a husband, and you don’t tick any of the important boxes.” A massive frown drew his brows down, all six-foot-four of him tensing as if he’d had a horrible epiphany. “The engagement story is fake, so why are you here? Where are your PR people?” He looked around. “How are you planning to handle it, because a denial isn’t going to cut it if you’re living in Beth’s house.”
“We’ll have to allow the press to speculate for a day or two, until my team arrive to take control of the story.” Jake palmed his face as frustration and lack of sleep met head-on. “Being embroiled in this isn’t the worst thing for Beth. She can use the distraction.”
“A puppy or a kitten would distract her. Without any risk.”
Heading for the kitchen was the only thing that made any sense. “I can’t have this discussion on an empty stomach. Beth vouched for you, and it sounds as if Skyla vouched for me.
Maybe we should accept their judgments for now and pool our resources?”
Brad followed him into the hall. “You sent Skyla on a business trip a week before her wedding, so she’s not your biggest fan at the moment.”
The news hit like a knockout punch. Skyla and Beth were both worse off because he’d interfered in their lives. The mess he’d created with this marriage lottery was going to be hell to fix, and he’d cut the two women off from each other before he’d understood how their support system worked.
Brad bumped into him, shoved his shoulder, and stepped past him. “I don’t trust y
ou, but Beth must see something I don’t.” He scowled. “Skyla too. So I’ll tell you what I have in mind. I can smuggle Beth out of here in the van. That’s what I came to do, but I didn’t count on you being here.”
Beth’s laughter lightened the moment. “You don’t think a
kazillion reporters would notice if you put a bag over my head,
bundled me into the back of a van, and sped off?”
She was laughing. For Brad. Resisting the urge to haul her
into his arms for a bone-crushing hug, Jake chuckled at the picture she’d painted. “The bag might not be the best solution, but you should take your chance to leave. Get as far away as you can.”
She glared at him, the deep red of her seventies-style dress making her freshly scrubbed skin glow with vitality. “Please don’t offer money or a vacation on a private island. It’s quite insulting that you expect me to jump at it.” She turned to Brad. “Don’t ask. We’ll discuss it some other time.”
“Tell me now.”
“I can’t. I’m busy clearing the air with my fiancé.” She was fierce, fragile, and honest as she stood her ground and turned to Jake. “You’ve turned my life upside down because my ex-husband mentioned me too often in conversation. Do you know how hard that is to reconcile? You were suspicious of Brad and yet I’m the one you chose to target. Who does that? Someone with a private plane and a rock-god mentality? My life must look pretty small in comparison to yours, but don’t make the mistake of thinking it doesn’t matter.”
Brad thumped him on the back. “She won’t leave without a fight, but someone should. I can smuggle you out in the van instead?”
Jake laughed. These were good people. Beth had a right to voice her grievances, and his low opinion of Brad had taken too many knocks to sustain. The man had Beth’s and Skyla’s best interests at heart, and that was all Jake had ever wanted.
“As tempting as it must be for you two to orchestrate what will happen next, there’s no need for it. I spoke to Tom, and he’s on his way over with all the vans in the fleet. They’re going to park out front, and as soon as I load the food, I’m going to join them and get lost in the crowd. It’ll be hard to follow the right van when there are ten identical ones, and I’m looking forward to seeing where my food ends up.”