Mammoth Secrets
Page 27
He reached for her with confident, warm hands, setting them firmly on her hips. “You call this home, but do you even know what that means?”
“I’m doing my best to find out.” Lilah faced Jake, square-on.
“You’re not gonna find it here. All this place has for you is memories. Even with a fresh coat of paint and a furry houseguest.” His gaze warmed her, head to heels. Even while he searched her eyes, she knew he saw straight into her soul. “I came back and you weren’t there. Mammoth isn’t the same without you. Please come home with me.”
“Do we know each other well enough for you to ask me that?” She held her ground, verbally, even as her heart melted for him.
“I know you, Lilah.” He cupped the back of her neck, stroking her curls with his work-roughened palm.
“What about my past? What about yours? Your father…surely, he wouldn’t approve.” She backed a step away, shaking her head.
Jake’s lips pressed into a thin, unreadable line. In one swift motion, he held the towel around her waist before she could escape and roped her against him. Trapped.
“But...”
“It doesn’t matter.” Jake’s mouth lowered to hers, intoxicating, drowning her in a rush of sudden longing, an undertow he created, only now allowed to surface by his shaking restraint.
Her lips warmed by his touch. They held on to one another, drawing warmth, life, and light. Breath to breath, she allowed the silent moment to linger.
When she opened her eyes at last, she drank in the questions in his brow, the solid feel of his arms around her. It proved he would accept nothing but complete surrender, her complete and total trust in him.
His rich, resonant voice wasn’t preaching now, but pleading. “I’m not perfect, Lilah. And, neither are you. But we’re perfect for each other.”
Before she could think, he dipped his mouth to hers, her hands looped around his neck, her senses filling again as they swayed to music only their souls could hear.
“OK...” She gave in as he let her up for air. Hands to his chest, she held him back, feeing the measured beats of the heart that had captured hers. “You win.”
“I win?” He blinked in foggy confusion.
“I fell in love with you. Jake. Jacob. Whoever you are, whatever you want to call yourself.” Laughter, relief, surrender mixed in her words as she confessed with total certainty, vulnerability, exposed. “You made me fall in love with you. Are you happy now?”
“This isn’t a game, Lilah.” His eyes pleaded, mouth tugging into a wide smile. “Please. Don’t say it unless you mean it.”
“Fair enough.” Lilah’s thoughts drifted to their beautiful, inevitable future. Jake offered healing waters and she accepted them, indeed, offered her own in return. “So what do we do now?”
A cellphone full of her twin sister’s wedding questions and demands showed there was more to think about than her own happiness. “This is Eden’s time. She deserves all the attention and a fairytale wedding.”
Confusion looped his brow as he heard her out.
“I do love you, Jake.” She smiled. “But we need to keep it under wraps for now. At least until after.”
“Always looking out for your little sister. So, November?”
She nodded. Holding her ground while he blew a whistle. “You got something else to do, but wait for me, Pastor Gibson?”
“I’m just thinking it might be a nice little surprise to have Dad come out, maybe conduct the ceremony himself. Think Eden’d get a kick out of that?”
“Have Pastor Bill officiate her wedding?” Lilah laughed and draped her arms around his shoulders. “She’ll be over the moon!”
“Let’s save that for a wedding present, hmm?” he squeezed her close, words whispered to her neck. Safe, warm, and together at last. “Our little secret?”
“I love you, Jacob Gibson.”
“Delilah Dale…” Her name on his lips, his hands wove through her hair, she allowed herself to be drawn in as his mouth claimed hers, her heart, and sealed it. “I love you with all that I am, and all that I have…and it’s not even close to enough.”
Hand in hand, they returned to the riverbank to cast their lines, without caring if they got a bite.
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May God’s glory shine through
this inspirational work of fiction.
AMDG