by Rebecca Rose
Jake moved like a panther, his well-toned body quick and agile. Louie, his prey, sprinted around the bar as Jake moved in pursuit. One of Jake’s massive hands clutched the other guy’s arm and brought him down to the ground in good-humored fun. They knocked over a chair and table as they wrestled, and Jake could hear his brother yelling but didn’t pay any bother. Not until a shooting pain came from his ear. Jake instantly realized those eleven years as a Marine, most of which were on the front line, was no match for a woman with two fingers twisting his ear, and him, into submission. Disbelief carried embarrassment to the front of his thoughts and Jake had to push down the apology it left on the tip of his tongue. The woman standing over him looked spitting mad and devilishly sensual.
“I win,” Sophie announced. When Louie laughed she stared him down with one fierce look. Both men went quiet along with all the customers. Jake looked her up and down with an admiring smirk. There was something perversely attractive about Sophie not being a pushover.
“Get your ass off the floor. And you…” She turned to Jake and pointed. Before he could stop himself, his feet took two steps back. “Clean up this mess. Then I need you in the office.” Jake watched her hips swing as she marched to the back. She was one hot chick.
“Damn, Jake. You really know how to impress the ladies.” Dave wiped a mug dry with a dish towel. “Her first day she comes into her office with you passed out naked on the couch. You spend hours in there smelling like booze and vomit, then when she gets to meet you all cleaned up and lookin’ decent as you can, she has to break up a fight.”
“We weren’t fighting.” Jake picked up the table they knocked over. When it teetered on a broken leg he let out an agitated breath. His good mood quickly turned sour.
“Sure seems like you were fightin’ by the looks of my table. How’s the chair?”
Jake snarled at his brother, “I’ll fix it.”
“If I were you, I’d take those out back before she sees them, then get your butt in her office. That there woman is tough to be takin’ you on.” Every man in the bar voiced agreement with Dave. But instead of commenting like he wanted to, Jake picked up the small round table and motioned to his partner in crime to take the chair.
“Damn it. Having this place being run by a woman is the last thing we need. She’ll probably have the joint wallpapered with flowers by Christmas.” Jake placed the table upside down then turned to leave. His body came to an abrupt halt at the sight of Sophie. Even his heart skidded to a stop as his eyes took in the woman before him—dynamite in a pretty little inconspicuous package. A combination Jake loved in life and one he now avoided due to the damage they could cause.
“I was thinking of doing the bathroom only in flowers,” Sophie told him. “Just the men’s room, of course.” Her arms were crossed at her chest, and for the first time Jake noticed Sophie’s breasts. With her arms folded, they settled nicely on top and he had to tear his eyes from them.
“Look, Sophie. I’m sorry.”
“I have to leave. I just thought I’d let you know. I already talked to Dave.”
The unwavering irritation in her eyes pulled Jake to step to her instead of away. “Everything okay?”
“Yup. Just some unfinished moving.”
At Sophie’s clipped response, Jake followed her back into the office. “Wow. The place looks nice with some plants and stuff.”
“Thanks.”
He watched in fascination as she grabbed her purse and violently swung it over her shoulder. She was so naturally sexy in a wicked way. His hands itched to touch, his mouth to taste. He wasn’t quite sure what to do with the unexpected attraction, so he got pushy. “What’s going on?”
With a mildly irritated tone she told him, “None of your concern.”
“Well, I think it is.”
“You’re not my boss,” she said.
“I’m one of them. I own half of this.” A smile tugged at his lip as he gestured to the building they were standing in.
“Look, Jake, I’m sure you’re a great guy and all, but there are some things that are best not discussed.”
“When you leave early on your second day—”
“Dave doesn’t have a problem with this.” Her voice rose slightly, and he respected the way she reined in her temper. The women of his past always seemed to prefer yelling and screaming. Sophie’s careful breaths restrained her and gave him a wild thrill of what would happen if she let her temper go. Emotions ran through his body, unfamiliar and none too comfortable. The last few years he’d been trying to feel something. Anything. Anger, grief, joy. They all seemed to elude him, stolen the night of the ambush, until this very moment when Sophie challenged him to fight back. He checked the frustration he felt. She wasn’t to blame for what he had lived through. But, she sure was testing his restraint, and he wanted information.
“Dave wouldn’t. I do.”
“Fine.” Sophie’s heels clicked as she walked to him with vengeance in her eyes. He wasn’t certain, but he really thought for a minute she was going to clock him in the eye. Instead, she said, “My ex-fiancé needs me to come and pick up what’s left in my ex-home because his pregnant girlfriend is moving in, in two days. See! Some things are better left unsaid.”
“How long have the two of you been broken up?”
She tapped her foot impatiently on the floor.
“Just asking questions. Reasonable questions,” he said, with his hands up in the air.
“Six months if you count the day I kicked his ass out.”
“Wait. You kicked him out? Then how did he get the house?”
“It’s our summer place. It never felt like a home anyway, so he’s more than welcome to have it.”
Jake cocked his head and looked at Sophie with a new respect for the strong, capable, and not-to-be-pushed-around woman. She amazed him.
“I was supposed to be able to go up this weekend and get the rest of my things, but he decided to go ahead of me and prepare the baby’s room,” she explained while shifting on her feet. It was the first bruised emotion she showed, and it told Jake Sophie was still carrying wounds from the breakup.
“I’m sorry.” Jake put an understanding hand on her arm, hoping to comfort her as she had done for him the day before.
She batted his hand away. “Don’t worry, Jake. I’m past the hurt. I don’t even care if he didn’t get all my stuff in boxes. That’s not what this is about.”
Puzzled, Jake looked deeper into her eyes. He saw there what he’d seen in many of his comrades—the look you get while preparing to go to war. A mind-set that the inevitable will happen. “You’d really like to punch his lights out.”
“Yup. And I’m hoping he’ll give me a reason to.”
Jake leaned against the office door with a smirk and crossed his legs at the ankles. Fire built in her eyes at his obstructing her exit. He wondered what would send her into a blaze. “Yesterday when you were nursing me, I thought you were an angel.”
“I was. If it was up to those guys out there, you would’ve had makeup on your face and your fingernails painted.” She shifted. “I’d love to continue this conversation, but I really need to leave, Jake.”
He laughed because she was so right on the truth. They would have done that and probably much more. “What about Trixie?” he asked her.
A shy smile formed on her lips while an impatient hand pulled her purse strap tighter on her shoulder.
Jake shook his head. “You knew there was no Trixie.”
“You deserved it.” She began to pace the room with jerky movements. “Your brother told you I was starting, and now you’re trying to get me off the subject of my ex. Thanks, but I need to go. Move.”
He didn’t budge when she tried to get by him. Jake knew the need to get pent-up aggression out, so he let her shove him, smack his arms, and hiss vulgar threats. “Do you know how to ask?”
“Move, damn it!”
She became increasingly more volatile with slaps and swears while Ja
ke used his hands to protect himself. “Sophie, I’m going to ask you nicely to stop.” When she kicked him in the shin, Jake controlled himself from pushing her to the floor. “I understand you’re upset and I don’t mind you taking some of that out on me, but that hurt.”
Sophie growled at him, “I wouldn’t have to hurt you if you’d just move.”
“You need to calm down—”
“I do not need to calm down. I need to leave.” She tried kicking him again, but Jake dodged it.
“Wow, you’re feisty. I’m going to ask you again to stop or I’ll stop you.”
“Yeah, right. Move, damn it!” She pushed at him with both hands, but before she could get any more physical, Jake stopped her. He cuffed her wrists above her head with one hand and pinned her back against the door. The move left only mere inches between their vibrating bodies.
“Sophie, do you need help getting the stuff? Or maybe someone to come along and make sure you don’t do anything stupid?” When her eyes narrowed at him, Jake repeated the questions.
“I can control my temper very well, and there is nothing heavy I need to get. Now let go of me.”
Jake tilted his head to the side and examined her still body. Lust shot through his loins for the woman before him. In reflex, he moved a little closer. “You know most women would be frightened by me doing this to them.”
“Don’t even think about it, Jake.”
The warning he saw in her eyes had him thinking twice about placing that hand on her rib cage and slowly moving it up to mold her breast. It had been so long since he’d felt the pull of a woman that the urge became almost uncontrollable. Almost. With little control left, Jake reminded himself that he really didn’t need further complications in his life. Especially the female kind.
“Would you like me to go along and scare the crap out of him? I don’t even have to do anything physical.” He saw her processing the information so he added, “It would make up for yesterday. Plus, I won’t have to worry about getting a call that you need bail money. That would ruin my day.” Without thought, his eyes roamed her curvy body. By the way she held herself, he was certain she’d been a ballerina. Where she rested on her toes, they were pointed. Her body was stretched up farther then would be comfortable for someone without training, and she held her head with an unmistakable eloquence.
“Okay,” she said with a husky tone. “Now will you please let me go?” When he did, she socked him in the gut with her right fist. Despite his toned abs, the air rushed out of Jake’s mouth.
“What the hell was that for?”
“Today and that flower comment. Also, don’t ever touch me like that again.”
The seriousness in her face was real, and Jake found himself too shocked to say a word. Years of training in combat situations, and this woman planted a right hook to his gut that he never saw coming.
“Okay, Jake. Let’s go.” She picked up her purse and sashayed out of the office. Jake stood where he was for a moment processing the fact that a woman just got the best of him. In his disbelief he was struck dumb. Empty to all thought except, Next time be more alert, and be thankful she’s not the enemy.
* * *
Her fist hurt but she would never admit to it. His harder-than-rock stomach nearly broke her hand. She flexed it while sitting in the passenger seat, hoping Jake wouldn’t notice.
“Listen, Sophie. I’m sorry if I scared you earlier. I was just trying to protect myself.”
“You didn’t scare me… well, not that much.” She gave him a weak smile. “Besides, I’d kick your ass.”
“Seriously, I’ve never gotten violent with a woman unless she was trying to kill me.”
When he grabbed her hand and gave it a little squeeze, Sophie realized Jake was truly serious. He actually looked revolted by the prospect that he might have frightened her.
“Thank you. But I never felt in danger. You know, we really could have taken my car,” she said.
“Yup, and I can put my feet behind my head.”
“It’s not that small.” She laughed when he gave her a quick bland stare. “The Prius is very comfortable and roomy. That’s what the salesman told me.”
“How tall are you? Five-seven? Five-eight? I’m just shy of six-three and almost as wide.”
Sophie flicked the dice hanging from his rearview mirror. “Wow. We’re not into ourselves, are we?”
“No. I’m just saying you put a man of my size in a car like that and it’s not going to work.”
Sophie enjoyed watching him scowl out the front windshield. He was so nice to look at when he wasn’t hung over and stinky. His nose was slightly crooked. His skin was so white she thought there quite possibly might be some Swedish descent.
“Do you always drink like that? Dave said you crash on the couch fairly often.” She pressed her lips together to stop grinning when he gave her a quick glance.
“No. I don’t normally drink like that. And I was crashing there quite often because I didn’t have a place of my own. There was an electrical fire in my building and I was out of power for a while. I have my own place now.”
Sophie shifted in her seat to have a better view of him. “So, you’re not the normal ‘party animal boozing it up and taking swanky girls named Trixie into the office’ kinda man?”
“Ha! I’m actually a pretty boring guy, and I prefer it that way.”
“Fair enough.” They fell into surprisingly comfortable silence as the highway stretched on. After all, she did have what looked to be the bodybuilder of the year sitting next to her; minus the bulging veins. Her libido began to work overtime, while her brain tried to calm it down.
“You’re going to take the next exit and then make a left.”
“This is a nice area off the Sound. I’m surprised you’re willing to give it up.”
“He’s paying dearly for it.” Sophie played with the dog tags hanging from the cigarette lighter. “Besides, it’s where he took his other girlfriend when he was supposed to be on business trips.”
“Ouch.”
Sophie laughed at how blasé her own voice sounded. “I just don’t care that much. I think of him as one of those slime bags you read and talk about with distaste because you can’t help it. You’ll understand when you meet him.”
“And you didn’t see this when you first met him? Oh wait, let me guess. He wasn’t like that.”
She took in Jake’s profile. His strong jaw set in a grim scowl, his hands rigid on the steering wheel, and the actuality that he truly seemed to want to know what happened. “If you hold that wheel any tighter you’re going to break it. From your reaction I’d say you don’t like the helpless-female routine.”
“What would make you say that? I’m all for equal rights, saving the heroine and yada yada yada.”
“Well, the yada is code for, ‘I had a girl that I loved and she was stuck on some jerk that didn’t treat her right.’ ”
“How did this turn into a conversation about me? And she’s now married to that jerk, thank you very much.”
“But you could see yourself loving her?”
Jake took the left fast enough to have the tires on his truck squeal. Sophie’s hands fisted the camouflage covers on his seats. “Whoo, hit a nerve. I’m sorry. I was only teasing.”
“It’s okay. So if you knew he was an asshole, why did you stay and agree to marry him?”
How could she explain this to someone who couldn’t possibly understand? It was almost like puppy-dog love. She’d been so blind and had seen nothing until one day she realized the man of her dreams, the one whom her parents trusted and accepted despite their twelve-year age difference, was a womanizer only looking for the big prize—her parents’ wallet. The fact that her mother and father were accepting with this truth was another sting. It was good business for her to marry him.
“He was my ballet instructor.”
“I knew you were a dancer by the way you hold yourself!”
“Really? Dated a few?”
> “One, actually,” he said, while winking at her. “But her pirouetting was on a pole.”
Sophie snorted. “Nice. Anyway, I was young when I met him and thought of him as a god. I put off marrying him until he finally threatened to leave me. Then we set a date for two years later.”
“Not much for the marriage thing, eh?”
“Not much for ignoring my instincts, which got me into a lot of trouble in the dance world.”
“Break a few noses?”
He was fun, and Sophie decided she liked him. “Someone broke yours.” She gave him a playful punch to the arm.
“No person broke mine, sweetheart. It was flying debris from a car bomb that hit me smack in the face. Trust me when I say I was much prettier at one time.”
“Oh, I have no complaints with how you look. You’ll need to slow down, by the way. The driveway is up on the right.”
The smell of the ocean broke her thoughts. She could hear it outside the car window. The salt hung heavy in the air, and so did her sigh. Some things never changed, and this was no different. Bruce was standing outside the lavish house waiting for her.
Chapter Three
Jake looked at the slender man standing on the front crescent-shaped stone steps. He wore fitted black pants with a crisp white shirt unbuttoned to his navel to expose his hairless chest. The red scarf resting around his neck fluttered in the ocean breeze while his hair stayed perfectly still from being heavily shellacked. His skin gleamed with a yellowish glow, which made Jake grimace at the thought of the man being so self-absorbed he used the tanning spray Jake once heard about.
“God, I hate this house. All three stories of it. Is it not the most pretentious thing you’ve ever seen?”
Jake parked the truck, and before Sophie could get out he took her hand and kissed her knuckles. “No, it isn’t. He is.”
“Really? Are you trying to be romantic with me?”
Jake winked. “No, I just wanted to tease your ex.” Seeing the laughter in her eyes promised to make this much more enjoyable. He had a sneaky suspicion Sophie was the type of person who liked to harass the people she didn’t like.