JakesWildBride

by Lisa Alder

  “Peggy.” Jake stepped back into the light from the porch and remembered the last time he had seen her. They had been making out in the backseat of his parent’s car. That in itself wasn’t such a bad thing. But, she had been going out with Tom at the time. It was after that night that Jake knew he had to leave town. “Ah…how are you?”

  “What are you doing here?” She narrowed her gaze and pulled Lilah away from him.

  “What are you doing?” Lilah pried Peggy’s fingers from her arm and turned a pleading look on Jake. “Is Tom okay?”

  “He’s fine. But, I really need to speak with you in private.”

  “She’s not going anywhere with you.” Peggy wrapped an arm around Lilah as if protecting her from Jake’s evil clutches.

  “Christ. I’m not a villain here.” He shoved his fingers through his hair and forced himself not to grab and pull in frustration. He stared directly at Lilah. “You don’t want an audience for this. Trust me.”

  Peggy snorted. “Oh, we’ve heard that one before.”

  “Lilah?”

  Lilah stared at the misery in Jake Forrest’s eyes. He really didn’t want to be here. Except for that one moment of incredible heat, which she of course imagined because her imagination was runnin’ wild these days, everything about him from his somber face to his stiff posture indicated he’d rather be just about anywhere else in the world. He was Tom’s best friend. It must be important.

  She patted Peggy’s hand. “I’ll be right back.”

  “But….”

  “Peggy, it’s fine. Go on back inside and I’ll be right back.”

  Lilah turned back to Jake and smiled her best gentling smile at him, the one she used on her teens who looked like they were going to bolt at any moment. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to relieve him. If anything, he looked more unhappy.

  Jake shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans. She tried, she really did, to ignore the way the movement pulled taut the already worn material. Oh my. Lilah fluttered her hand in front of her face.

  “Let’s take a walk,” she said breathlessly. Lilah stepped over the cracked cement porch, and started down the stairs, careful not to touch him.

  Jake followed. “I don’t know any way to make this easier.”

  “Well, then spit it out and we’ll deal with it. I don’t care about the details, marrying Tom is all that matters.”

  When they reached the sidewalk, Lilah felt confident enough that she could turn to talk to him without getting all breathless again.

  Jake spit out the words quickly. “Tom doesn’t want to get married.”

  He was kidding. He had to be. Lilah forced out a merry laugh. He wouldn’t understand how much those words would scare her. Upset her. “Now, Jake. Quit that,” she searched for the right word, then settled on, “teasing and tell me what’s really wrong.”

  “Tom…changed his mind.”

  Lilah faltered, her arms trembled and she ruthlessly controlled it. “Even if he had, he wouldn’t send you to tell me that. This isn’t funny.”

  “I’m not joking,” Jake said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

  Tom didn’t want to get married? The trembling started again, but this time it was all over. Her arms, her legs, her shoulders, her feet, her head, her entire body felt like one big tree shaking in the Fall wind. She tried to speak but her teeth chattered so hard, she couldn’t seem to push the words out.

  Resolutely, she clenched her jaw and spoke. “T-tom w-wouldn’t do that.” Her teeth clicked together.

  He couldn’t. He was going to help her. She loved him. They were getting married. Despite the warm, humid night, Lilah couldn’t seem to dispel the icy coldness enveloping her. She rubbed her frozen hands up and down her still trembling arms. And her teeth chattered again.

  Lilah looked at the driveway of her aunt’s house. Her car was blocked in.

  “Look maybe you should sit down for a minute.” Jake looked helpless and miserable. “Do you want to go back inside?”

  Lilah shook her head violently. The shock was wearing off. She didn’t believe him. Tom wouldn’t do that to her. Rage bubbled in her veins making her white hot. She couldn’t go back inside with this wildness burning to get free. A lady never caused a scene. Hadn’t her aunt always told her so?

  “I don’t want my friends to see me this way.”

  Him, she stabbed Jake with a glance, she didn’t care about. He’d be gone soon and good riddance. But in the meantime, he was going to help her.

  “Take me to Tom’s,” she demanded.

  “Not a good idea. In the morn—”

  Lilah spun, grabbed him by the t-shirt, pulled great bunches of the material in her fists, and yanked. “My car is blocked in. You are taking me to Tom’s. Right. Now.” Her voice never rose above a fierce whisper.

  “Okay. Okay.” Jake held his arms up, palms out by his head. “Do you, ah, want Peggy to come with you?”

  “You saw the way she reacted to you. I don’t think so.” Lilah narrowed her eyes. “Exactly why was she being so protective?”

  “I have no idea,” Jake answered a little too quickly.

  There was more there than he wanted to tell. Humph. She’d find out later. After she straightened out this mess with Tom.

  Lilah realized with shock that she was still clutching Jake’s t-shirt in her cold hands. Upon the heels of that realization came the notion that she was kissing close. Heat radiated off his body and the muscles beneath her clenched fists were well-developed and firm. His lips were mere inches from hers.

  She popped open her fists and jumped back, teetering precariously before righting herself. “Sorry.”

  Jake made no move to help her regain her balance. He pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and aimed them at a sporty little car. Then, he tugged open his car door and gestured to the other side with his keys. “Get in.”

  Lilah slid down into the passenger seat, her rage still simmering. How dare this Jake presume to come here and upset her life this way?

  She grabbed his cell phone and punched in the numbers to her aunt’s house. When Peggy answered, Lilah said brusquely, “I have to run over to Tom’s. I’ll be back in a little bit. Bye.” She pressed the end button effectively silencing Peggy’s squawking on the other end.

  The engine rumbled to life, noisy in the tense silence.

  “What happened?” she burst out.

  “What?”

  “What happened between when I left the church and now? What did you do?”

  Jake snorted with disgust. “Why are you assuming I did something?”

  “Because everything was fine until you showed up.”

  He muttered something under his breath.

  “What?”

  “This is none of my business.” Jake pushed the pedal down jerkily and sped down the street. Tom lived behind the church, about five minutes away. At the rate he was driving, they would be there in two.

  “Slow down,” Lilah ordered.

  “Just trying to get you over to Tom’s quickly.”

  “Well, we don’t want a speeding ticket. Goodness, what would people think?”

  “That we were trying to get someplace. Fast,” he answered drily.

  “We have plenty of time. I’ll just go and we’ll get this misunderstanding all straightened out.”

  She would be married tomorrow. And that’s all there was to it.

  Jake shifted gears again and wished himself anyplace but in this car, in this town. He really didn’t want to be around for the next half hour or so, but he couldn’t leave Lilah at Tom’s. And there was no way Tom could bring Lilah home. Even when Jake had left him, Tom had still been half-skunked. Jake supposed he should warn her.

  Screw it. She wouldn’t believe him anyway. Jake had been there and he couldn’t believe how much scotch Tom had put away. He didn’t want to get sucked further into this melodrama.

  She gripped the dashboard with white knuckles and he realized he’d sped up again.

  “Slo
w down.”

  He deliberately jammed on the brakes, so the tires squealed as they jerked to a stop behind a small foreign import in front of Tom’s house.

  Jake stared at the quaint cottage with the cobblestone exterior and arched wood door. The place looked like something out of an old Grimm fairy tale. No fairy tale ending for Lilah. In that moment, he felt a flash of sympathy for her. She seemed like a nice enough person. A little too concerned about what other people thought, but who was he to judge?

  Maybe he was too unconcerned about what other people thought.

  Nah.

  Still, this was going to be tough on her.

  “You can leave now.”

  The feelings of tenderness evaporated. She issued the words in that butter-soft Southern accent, which could make the most vituperative command seem like a gentle request. The deceptively sweet tone reminded him of his mother and he stiffened.

  “We’ll see you at the weddin’ tomorrow.” She dismissed him with a flick of those ocean deep blues.

  It would serve her right if he did leave.

  “I’ll wait,” he said neutrally. He owed it to Tom to at least see Lilah home after they were done. Jake slouched down in the seat of the car and pretended to close his eyes.

  “Suit yourself.” Lilah practically flounced up the flagstone walkway, the frilly veil hitting her right in her prime ass.

  Get your eyes off her butt, Forrest.

  Jake watched through slitted eyes as she slowed when she neared the front door. She raised her hand resolutely toward the knocker, but before she could lift the heavy ring, the door swung open.

  Ah hell. Suddenly the compact car in front of him made sense. Jake wrenched open the car door and ran up the walk, but it was too late.

  Lilah stood frozen, her arm in mid-air.

  Tom and Marion were lip-locked and wrapped around each other, their embrace silhouetted in the glow of the porch light over the door. One of Tom’s hands held the doorknob. The other fisted in Marion’s dark hair, while her arms were clenched tightly around his naked chest.

  Lilah was gasping for breath as Jake leapt the last few feet to grab her by the arm. Lilah made a soft murmur of distress.

  Tom broke off the kiss. His face was etched in horror. “Jake!”

  “Marion?” Lilah wrenched her arm from Jake’s grasp.

  “Lilah,” blurted out Marion.

  Christ. It was like some bad sitcom. Only there was nothing funny about the devastation on Lilah’s face.

  “Tom,” Lilah whispered. “How could you?”

  She whirled and stumbled. She muttered a very un-ladylike curse. Maybe she wasn’t such a little Priss after all. Lilah righted, visibly pulled herself together and turned back to her ex-fiancé.

  “How could you?” Then, Lilah drilled Jake with a look. “Let’s go.”

  She straightened her shoulders and walked elegantly to his car.

  Tom looked miserable in the soft yellow light. “Why did you bring her here?”

  “Because she insisted she had to see you.”

  “But I never meant to hurt her.” Tom stared down at his bare feet forlornly.

  “Poor Lilah.” Marion sighed, and tugged her blouse up onto one shoulder.

  “Yeah, well maybe you two should have thought of that before you cheated on her.”

  “I didn’t—”

  ”Semantics, my friend.”

  Tom took a step forward, then stopped. What the coffee hadn’t accomplished, the last few moments had. Jake could see that Tom was miserably sober.

  “Can you do one more thing for me?”

  Jake thought about how hard the first favor had been, but he owed Tommy. He did. Only he was pretty sure he wouldn’t like what was coming. “Yeah, sure.”

  “Take care of Lilah tonight.”

  Jake sighed. It looked like he was stuck with her for a little longer. And he tried to feel only frustration and disgust.

  But that moment, when she’d been standing so close to him, gripping his shirt in her hands, kept coming back to intrude on his frustration and disgust. That moment when he’d had the insane urge to press his lips to hers.

  That feeling of intense connection was haunting him. Stop. No connection. Lust. Yes, it was lust. Nothing else.

  It couldn’t be anything but lust.

  At least that’s what Jake told himself as he strode down the walk to the car.

  THREE

  Tom and Marion?

  “You okay?” Jake bent solicitously, to help her into the car.

  Lilah shook her head slowly. Her arms, legs, and heart were brittle, like an old woman’s. This had to be a mistake. Her Tom wouldn’t do this. He knew how much she needed help. A queer sort of numbness stole over her body, and she felt as if she were floating.

  In the back of her mind, she thought she really ought to be crying, but she had no tears. She was empty. One giant void. With nothing left to fill her, not sorrow, not anger, nothing.

  She slid down into the luxurious leather of the fancy car and waited. The cocoon of the veil she still wore settled around her protectively, holding her in, holding back her scream of denial.

  “You, ah, want to go home?”

  “Could you….” Her throat, tight as a magnolia bud, made speaking difficult. She cleared it and started again. “Could we just drive around for a while?”

  “Sure. Anyplace specific?”

  “Anyplace fast.”

  She caught his little grin of surprise and ignored it. After all, what did it matter if he was laughing at her? In another few hours the whole town would be laughing at her. She slumped down further in her seat.

  Jake headed sedately for the highway.

  This wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted fast. Fast and far, so she could forget and crush the numbness into something else. “Go faster.”

  “Aren’t you worried about what people will think?” His voice was edged with laughter this time.

  “They have bigger things to think badly of me for, so I might as well go for it,” she retorted.

  The laughter was gone.

  “No one will think this is your fault.” Jake hit the freeway and punched up their speed. “You, ah, want to talk about it?”

  Oh, that was a heartfelt invitation. It was clear he didn’t even want to touch this. “No thank you.”

  “Really. I might be able to help.”

  “How could you help?” she scoffed. The edge of sarcasm prodded at her numbness.

  “I was supposed to get married.”

  That roused her out of her state of lethargy. “You dumped your fiancée and you think this will help me?”

  “She dumped me,” he answered matter-of-factly. More as if he were talking about the weather, than a broken heart.

  “You sound real choked up about it.” Then what he said hit her. “Who would dump you?”

  “Hey, a compliment. I’ve moved up in the world.” He grinned at her and her heart stopped. He was downright sinful when he grinned, inclusive and private, like that. Like he had a secret only they knew. Like she was privy to something intimate and forbidden.

  “Why? You must have some terrible deep dark secret.”

  “Nope.” But his hands tightened on the steering wheel.

  Her eyes widened at how rude she’d just been and she started babbling. “You leave your dirty laundry all over the house, you pick your nose at the dinner table—”

  “I’m emotionally detached,” he said starkly.

  “What?”

  “That was her reason. She felt I was emotionally detached.” Jake’s voice was soft, calm, but the white knuckles of his fingers clenched on the padded leather wheel gave him away. So maybe Jake did know how Lilah felt.

  “I’m so sorry.” Lilah laid a comforting hand on his arm. His warm, bare arm. The surge of attraction she’d felt earlier in the evening came back. She wanted to run her fingers along the corded muscles of his forearm. The heat from his body seared her and she pulled back quickly.<
br />
  “It was true. She knew when we got engaged.” Jake shrugged. “If you want the truth, it was more devastating to my company when she broke it off, than it was to me.”

  His words sounded cold, but there was a layer of something else she couldn’t figure out.

  “How was it bad for your company?”

  “She’s one of my vice presidents, and she wants to leave to a competing firm.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Mmm.” He gave a noncommittal hum. “I didn’t want her leaving to adversely affect my employees.”

  He was a good guy.

  The thought shocked her. It occurred to her that she knew nothing about the man. She was so used to thinking of him as a wild bad boy. Because all she really knew about Jake Forrest were stories from his youth. His and Tom’s.

  Suddenly the awful truth hit her. Fighting with Jake, learning about his problems had distracted her.

  “I’m really not getting married,” she whispered.

  Ah, hell. Jake watched her facade crumble. The reality of her situation had just hit her. Please God, just don’t cry. He snuck a quick glance, but she didn’t seem to be crying. She just stared out the windshield at the blur of trees along the highway as dusk settled into the Louisiana countryside.

  “What could have happened? How could Tom betray me like this?”

  “I don’t think he meant to—”

  ”Answer a question,” she demanded.

  “Ooookay.” He just hoped it was an easy one.

  “They had, had just,” she sputtered, “you know.”

  Jake could feel the color creep up his face and he couldn’t figure out why. ‘You know’ was the least explicit term he’d heard since he was fifteen. “Yeah.”

  “But he was so good.” She wailed. “How could Tom do that with her when we’d never….”

  Never?

  He didn’t realize he’d repeated never until she shot him a dirty look. The Priss queen was back.

  “We were waiting until we were married,” she said primly.

  Wow. Jake didn’t know what to say to that. The one question he wanted to ask wasn’t very appropriate.

  “I haven’t had ‘you know’ in six years,” she said glumly.