But this would be the first trip he took since he’d run away to Evan’s wedding and going in secret would surely instill some of the same feelings in Sara as that one had if she ever found out.
The easiest thing would be to tell her, yet doing that meant admitting to her a truth he hadn’t realized he’d been trying to keep from her until faced with the imminence of this meeting.
Jacob didn’t want Sara to know that he’d tried to unseat his father as CEO. In all the time they’d talked, he’d told her he didn’t have a relationship with the man, but he hadn’t shared his intense hatred that had developed since his father had conspired with Elise. Hell, he hadn’t told Sara about Elise’s conspiracy at all.
His ego had played a big part in that at first, but after he’d met Sara’s family and seen their bond, he’d started to worry she wouldn’t want to date a guy who sought the downfall of his own father.
Sara stopped staring out the passenger side open window and geared up for another long-winded ramble. “I think maybe we’re rushing into things. Shouldn’t there be, like, a rule that I meet your mother first? Didn’t you tell me she was a baker? I could really go for some apple pie right about now. Actually, I’m suddenly feeling like I need a nap. God, your mom’s a baker, and you ate my omelet yesterday! Did your palate kill you? I cannot believe I cooked for you. Were you laughing too hard? Did you throw it away? Whatever. It doesn’t matter. None of this matters because you’re taking me home. You are taking me home, right?”
Just like usual, she calmed his worries, and he howled his laughter into the wind. Her cuteness tripled when she rambled. “Relax, cariño. Mama will love you.”
How could anyone not?
Maybe Jacob should let go of his own fear, like he’d instructed Sara to do, and be honest with her. If anyone deserved his honesty, it was Sara.
Yet that was easier said than done, especially when a side effect of that honesty could be her leaving him.
They drove the rest of the way in silence until Jacob parked at the curb. He leaned in to give Sara a kiss intended to make them both forget about their nerves.
It did more than that for him. She sighed his name, but he became gripped with the temptation to do as she’d asked and drive them home so he could once again sink deep inside her.
As if Mama had been waiting by the door for their arrival, she came out to the stoop, her arms open for a hug she knew Jacob wouldn’t deny. He put his lust in check and led Sara up the sidewalk to Beatrice Johnson’s home then lifted the tiny woman, swinging her around until her small feet flew outwards.
“Jacob Ramírez, you put me down right this instant.”
He chuckled, but did as she asked.
That didn’t stop her from continuing to huff out, “It’s undignified for a woman my age to have her shoes off the ground.”
“Yes, ma’am. It will never happen again.” Jacob winked at Sara, tucking her hand in his to stop her worried tugging on her tank top.
“You must be Sara. It’s about time he brought you by.” Mama scowled one last time at him, then opened the screen door and directed, “I’m in the mood for some tea. Sit her at the good table, Jacob.”
Her pronouncement caused him to raise an eyebrow. The good table showcased generations old heirloom china and stayed on reserve for holidays and very important company.
Was she making more of this visit than what Sara and Jacob were? He’d told her over and over again that he wasn’t in love, yet she clearly didn’t believe him.
His anxiety kicked back up to alarming levels.
Moorhouse’s face hovered faintly at the edge of his vision. As a newlywed, that man had extoled the virtues of marriage and true love so often just the hint of either topic brought him to mind.
Jacob only half listened to the conversation Mama struck up with Sara. His focus instead fell on keeping his memories at bay.
By the second cup of tea, Sara lost her nerves.
Jacob, however, hadn’t.
As if she sensed it, Mama waved him off and sent him on an errand to pick up sandwiches for an early lunch.
For once, he thanked her meddling ways.
By the time he returned, he’d eliminated Moorhouse’s image from his vision.
Yet he still couldn’t shake thoughts of Sara being coupled with thoughts of love.
What he found when he reentered the house didn’t help, either.
Voices sounded from out in the little garden behind the small dwelling, so he left the food on the kitchen counter before stepping quietly to the opened doorway to watch the two women kneeling in the grass where Mama Bea wielded her pruning scissors.
She clipped one of her prized roses, unaware of his return, then carefully removed each thorn. “Let me tell you a little about my boy. Jacob looks hard like these thorns on the outside, but inside he’s as delicate as this flower.” A flower she tucked behind Sara’s ear. “Take care of him, you hear me?”
“I will. I’m here for the long haul. For as long as he lets me.”
Sara’s whisper reached him, even with her being ten feet away, and it hit him straight in the heart. “Food’s here,” he called, interrupting the scene with a voice that burned his throat.
Strangely enough though, it wasn’t fear that gripped him.
34
Jacob risked the late hour and showed up on Sara’s doorstep fifteen minutes after eleven on Wednesday. He’d spent the better part of the last two hours debating the wisdom of what he was about to do, but in the end, he’d been unable to do anything else.
Sleepy blue-green eyes and tousled hair met him when she opened her door.
Without speaking or asking him why he’d shown up unannounced, she stepped back to let him in, then tackled him with a hug. “How do you always know when I’m thinking about you?”
“I thought you were sleeping?”
“Are those two things mutually exclusive?”
Not for him, they weren’t.
More sure than ever he’d made the right decision, he asked her the question that had hounded him ever since they’d left Mama Bea’s house three days ago. “Why don’t you ever talk about your father?”
“I, um, I don’t know.” Sara rubbed the sleep from her eyes and stared at Jacob a bit more discerningly than he would have like. “Did you really drive all the way over here to ask that?”
Yes and no.
Jacob avoided answering her out loud in favor of posing another question of his own. “Your family is more involved than any I’ve ever known.” Much more than Mama, him, Nic, and Marc, and they were a tight circle. But they were reserved. They let each other deal with their issues in their own ways, while providing support in the background. Not so with the Morrows. Whenever troubled times arose with any of them, the whole clan showed up on the doorstep of whoever was suffering. The respected each other’s autonomy, but they didn’t go away until the problem resolved.
If one of Sara’s family members had gone through what Jacob had in Afghanistan, the Morrow women would have dragged that person kicking and screaming to the nearest therapist, and they would have kept dragging that person back until they were healed.
Yet they’d let the patriarch of the family fall into obscurity. “Is it because he’s a guy?”
“No, it’s because he cheated on my mom.” Sara looked at Jacob like he should have known that.
Perhaps he should have, given her concern when they’d first started dating, but just like her reason for pushing him on the child issue, he needed more clarity. “Can I assume that your father’s infidelity is why you said you have a difficult time trusting men?”
“Of course, it is.”
Jacob felt like an ass for finding happiness in her misery. Yet he did, all the same. If her family still held onto the pain of her father’s betrayal enough where they rarely mentioned the man, maybe Sara would understand what Jacob had gone through and the choices he’d made regarding his own father.
Sara led him over to her couc
h and patted the cushion next to her. “Surely I’ve told you that before, Jacob. Why is this so important to you now?”
Instead of sitting, he pressed on, trying to curb his hope until she spelled everything out for him. “Are you saying you haven’t forgiven him?”
“Are you judging me?” Green edged out the blue in her eyes, as her pupils narrowed to pinpricks.
“Never.” Even if his history with his own father had been different, he still wouldn’t have judged her. Sara had the biggest heart of anyone he knew.
“Well, okay then.” She relaxed back onto the couch, apparently satisfied with his answer.
He, however, wasn’t. Not yet.
Thankfully, she gave him more. “No, I haven’t forgiven him. How can I? He ruined my mom’s life and tore our family apart with his deceit. How can you forgive someone who does that?”
“I don’t know.” Jacob had been asking himself the same question the last four months.
He took a deep breath and tested the waters. “Being the victim of deceit definitely changes you. Things have always been rough between my father and I, but he recently went behind my back to arrange a marriage between me and the last girl I was seeing. I suppose to some people that wouldn’t be a big deal, but he completely disregarded my wishes.” And my fears. Jacob left off that their deceit had included an attempt at pregnancy. He’d come a long way with being truthful, but he was still the same man. Some secrets would never see the light of day.
He did, however, tell her the rest of it.
While he explained about Mrs. Everett and his underhanded plan to remove his father as CEO, Sara listened intently.
For the longest time after he finished, she stared off into the distance.
Her silence scared him.
Would she ask him to leave?
Not knowing what to do, Jacob moved over to the wall that held pictures of her family, feigning an interest in them for fear of revealing the weight that threatened to crush him.
She’d seemed so understanding just a few minutes earlier. Had he—?
“Did you know I used to want to be an accountant?”
Sara’s question caught him off-guard. He masked his emotions and turned back to her. He may not have understood her change in topic, but at least she was still willing to talk to him. “What changed your mind?”
“Because my father wanted me to be one. Back when I was a kid, my dad was a mid-level CPA. He was good at his job, but his clientele consisted mainly of small businesses. Not that it mattered to him. He loved it. He’d come home from work and talk about his day, and everyone’s eyes would glaze over.” Sara laughed at the memory. Her laughter quickly died. “The thing is, though, once Sage and I made it into high school and higher level math courses, we developed his excitement, too. The three of us used to sit down at night when the others would camp out in front of the TV and we’d go over his clients’ tax returns. Both Sage and I swore we’d grow up to be just like him.”
“Then he cheated on your mom.”
“Yeah.” Sara met Jacob’s gaze. No judgment existed in her eyes; only understanding. “His company started thriving, and with that came promotions and bigger accounts. At first, he’d claimed his longer hours were because his more affluent clients required an increase in workload. I think our mom always knew, though. Shortly after I turned fifteen, she confronted him. He didn’t even bat an eye. He told her he didn’t love her anymore and he wanted a divorce. Eight months after that, he married a woman who owned the company of one of those newer accounts.”
“And you’ve wanted nothing to do with numbers ever since.”
“Exactly. Yet here I am, working for a bank.”
Jacob gave a sardonic half-smile. Sara and he were more alike than he’d known.
He moved over to where she sat and held out his hand to her, pulling her to standing when she reached for him.
If they wanted to make it in time for the flight he’d booked, they needed to leave now. Yet he couldn’t stop himself from taking her into his arms and kissing her, showing her everything that he felt by his actions since he couldn’t find the words.
All his longing, fear, and hope for the future went into his kiss. By the end of it, they were both panting.
Jacob ran his hands up her sides, dragging the long t-shirt she wore under his palms. Her purr and the handful of breasts he got when he made it level with her upper arms almost had him forgetting why he’d come. Thankfully a quick glance at her wall clock reminded him.
Jacob pulled the shirt up and over her head. “How long will it take you to get ready?”
“I already am.”
For his sanity’s sake, he stopped her from yanking her panties off when she made a grab for them. His breath hissed out. “Come with me.”
“With you, before you, after you… whatever you want, I’m game.”
Jacob released his hold on her and walked toward her kitchen to give himself space from the temptation that was her. As he should’ve known she would, Sara followed fast on his heels. He turned back, placing a restraining hand out to ward her off. “I have to go to Santa Barbara for a few days for a meeting. Come with me?”
“Um, sure, but why drive all the way over here tonight to tell me all this and ask? You could have just texted me tomorrow. When do you leave? This weekend?”
“Now. As soon as you get ready.”
“What? No. Jacob… I… I wish I could, but I… Jacob, I can’t.”
“Because of Tessa?”
“Yeah. Her and work.”
“So, if I said I already spoke to Sage and she’s agreed to take your Thursday night shift with your niece, in addition to setting it up so that one of our floating staff covered your branch the next two days, you’d say…?” Hopefully not that he’d overstepped his bounds.
“You arranged someone to fill in for me… and called my sister? How’d you get her number?”
“I’m… resourceful?” And beginning to look a tad too controlling. “You know what? Forget I asked. I shouldn’t have—”
“How much time do we have?” Sara walked backwards to her bedroom, her gaze still on his as a smile started to light up her entire body.
He followed after her, not because she’d said she’d go with him, but because her body looked way too enticing covered in only the thin scrap of material she called panties.
What did it matter if they were late? He’d book them another flight in a few hours.
“If you want me to go, you’ll have to stop looking at me like that.” Sara slammed her bedroom door in his face, giggling behind the partition as sounds of opening and closing drawers preceded her standing in front of him, not three minutes later, fully dressed and with a bag by her side.
She danced away from him again when he leaned in for another kiss, and shot him a flirty look over her shoulder on the way to her front door. “Well, come on, big guy. I’m ready. This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”
Oh, yes. It was absolutely what he wanted. That and so much more.
The next evening, Sara stepped out of the suite’s bathroom, and Jacob’s breath caught in his throat. A simple black tank top with lace trim was anything but simple on her. She'd opted for no bra with the low-cut front, and Jacob’s dick approved, jumping to attention as she stood in a halo of steam, her nipples puckering under the thin cotton.
She grinned at his appraisal. “Lucky for you your meeting got rescheduled to tomorrow.”
“Lucky for me is right.” Though luck had had nothing to do with it. As soon as they’d made it to the airport, Jacob had sent the old man a text demanding a change in meeting times. Some things were more important and Sara definitely fit that bill.
After adjusting the crotch of his khakis, he slid the blue scarf he held across his palm. She eyed him with curiosity, but giggled as she twirled in a slow circle for his continued perusal. The skirt she'd chosen fit her perfectly. Floor length and a deep forest green, it flirted with her ankles.
She cros
sed to him until they stood toe-to-toe. “Like what you see?”
“If you trust me, I’ll show you how much.” Her eyes, drawing from the color in the skirt, turned into hypnotic emerald pools of raw emotion. His breath didn't just catch; it stopped entirely. In less than two seconds, he lost a part of himself in their depths. “Will you let me blindfold you?”
She didn’t speak, but she nodded, and that was good enough for him. He slid the scarf into place, blocking her vision and tying it at the back of her head. Only after he covered the intensity of her gaze was he able to breathe again freely.
“Jacob, wha–?”
“Trust me, cariño, remember? I promise I'll make it worth it.” He trailed the tip of his finger from her shoulder to her wrist, then linked his hand with hers. Lust, primitive and consuming, slammed into him. The feeling came on so swift and strong, he almost sank to his knees to pleasure her right then and there. Hell, contrary to what he’d thought in the beginning, each time he was with her, his attraction amped up a notch instead of decreasing, leaving him more defenseless than he’d been when hellfire had rained down on him and his men. At least then he’d had a gun to shoot his way out. No weapon could protect his heart from her.
Shaken by the thought, he led Sara from the room toward the private beach cabana waiting for them. Mama Bea had said he loved her, but—
No. He wouldn’t go there. Not right now. He didn’t want any nightmares to mar their time tonight.
Jacob tucked her under his arm when they reached the outside steps to one of the palm-tree-lined walkways, as much from needing more contact as to guide her. Nighttime had descended about an hour ago, and from the patio portion of the restaurant, late night dining couples smiled at her delighted laughter on their slow walk down the stairs.
She nestled further into his side. “So, tell me, Jacob. Did you bring handcuffs to go with this mask?”
All rational thought left him. “You’d let me tie you up?”
“I’d let you truss me up like a turkey and parade me through downtown San Diego.”
Morrow's Horizon (The Morrow Women Series Book 1) Page 26