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Plain and simple, he wanted to know if she was carrying the torch for a dead guy.
“I meant,” he said slowly, “did you love him?”
“Didn’t you hear what I said? He was my friend. My God, you’re like all the rest, believing what you want to bel—”
Jake cursed, dragged Addison to her toes and kissed her.
Not gently.
Not tenderly.
His kiss was demanding and possessive, and yet so sweet it took her all of a heartbeat to respond to it. Her lips parted; her tongue slid against his. And when he took the kiss deeper, she put her arms around his neck and gave herself up to the feel of him against her.
“I’m sorry, Adoré,” he said. “I believe you. And even if you had loved him—”
“I did love him. Like a father. And he loved me like a daughter.”
Jake nodded. “Good,” he said thickly. “Because I don’t think I could handle his ghost haunting you and this godforsaken ranch.”
There was a silence. Then she gave a soft laugh.
“Jacob. That doesn’t even make sense.”
It made perfect sense to him. Or maybe not. Hadn’t he just told himself that he’d only met this woman a day ago? That he had no claim on her?
More to the point, he didn’t want a claim on her. On anybody.
Why would he, when he was moving on?
“Jake?”
“Yeah.” He expelled a long breath. Stick to the facts, he told himself. Facts were always safe. “So, what kind of guy was he?”
She smiled. “You’d have liked him. He was very down-to-earth.”
“Was he your boss?”
“A colleague, but a thousand times the lawyer I’ll ever be.”
“I’ll bet you’re Clarence Darrow in a skirt.”
She laughed.
“If I’m any good at all, it’s Charlie’s doing. He was my mentor.” She smiled. “I used to call him my hero.”
A muscled flickered in Jake’s temple.
“There are no such things as heroes,” he said, “except in fairy tales.”
Addison touched her hand to his face.
“You’re a hero,” she said softly.
“The hell I am. I did what I was trained to do.”
“Sometimes,” she said, even more softly, “doing what you’re trained to do is what heroism is all about.”
Jake snorted. “That’s media B.S.”
“No, it’s the truth.” She hesitated. “My father was a fireman.”
“Yeah, well, no question. Those guys are heroes.”
“He was trained to go into burning buildings. The last time he went into one, he died.”
“Hell, Adoré. How old were—”
“Six. And I still remember how I loved him, and how brave he was.”
“This isn’t the same.”
“It is. You saved lives.”
His jaw tightened. “You, of all people, should know better than to believe every story you hear.”
“Jacob—”
He moved past her, opened the refrigerator door.
“I thought we were going to get something to eat.”
Addison couldn’t see his face but she had a clear view of his scar, and of the rigidity of his shoulders, as if he’d been cast in stone.
She’d touched a nerve, and she—she cared for him too much to touch it again.
“Right,” she said briskly. She stepped in front of him and made a show of checking the shelves she’d checked five minutes before. “Let’s see. I have yogurt. Cottage cheese. Wheat bread. Tomatoes and lettuce and, oh, some tofu …”
Nothing. She could feel him standing behind her, something—anger, pain, despair—coming off him like waves of heat.
“Tofu, then,” she said brightly. “Mixed with granola. And toasted wheat bread topped with cottage—”
Jake reached past her and shut the door.
“The basic food groups,” he said, turning her toward him.
The darkness was gone. His posture had eased. There was even what might have been the beginning of a smile on his lips.
She smiled, too, and offered a silent thank-you to the gods for giving women the instinctive knowledge that the mention of fermented milk and soybeans could drag a man like Jacob back to reality.
“I’m going to buy you dinner.” There it was, a real smile, and it made her heart lift. “Or breakfast. Or lunch. Or whatever meal this is supposed to be.”
“At midnight? In the middle of nowhere?”
“Get that look off your face, Adoré. Anybody would think you’re suggesting Wilde’s Crossing can’t hold its own with the gourmet dee-lites of the Big Apple.”
She snorted. Jake’s smile became a grin.
“How about a small wager?”
“Fifty cents. And, just so we have the ground rules straight, McDonald’s won’t do it.”
“Fifty cents,’ he scoffed. “You call that a bet?”
Addison cocked her head. “Suggest something.”
He put his arms around her, laced his hands together in the small of her back.
“How about if I win, we’ll replace that yogurt with whipped cream?”
A rosy pink glazed her cheeks. “Whipped cream and granola?” she said, batting her lashes in feigned innocence. “I don’t know.”
“Whipped cream and you,” Jake answered, his words low and gruff. “Your mouth. Your breasts. Your thighs.”
Addison rose on her toes and planted a quick kiss on his lips.
“Deal,” she whispered, “just as long as we save some of that whipped cream for me to use on you.”
He groaned. She laughed. And before he could push her back against the refrigerator door and show her that they didn’t need whipped cream at all, she slipped out of his encircling arms and headed out of the kitchen, her hips swaying with what he knew was deliberate, teasing provocation.
He laughed….
But then his laughter died.
In its place was a sensation he’d never felt before. He wanted to go after her, scoop her into his arms and make love to her, sure.
But he wanted more.
More than taking her to bed.
He wanted her in his heart, in his life….
You? a cold voice inside him said. Don’t be stupid, man.
“Come on, slowpoke. Get your shirt … Jake?”
He blinked. She was waiting for him just outside the kitchen. She had a sweater over her arm.
“Hey,” she said softly. “What’s the matter?”
He shook his head. “Nothing.”
“You sure? Seriously, I can scramble some eggs if you don’t want to—”
He was beside her in a heartbeat; she was in his arms in less than that and when he kissed her, the kiss was so deep, so intense, that she let the sweater fall to the floor so she could cling to him for support.
Something was wrong. She knew it. And she could only hope that he would tell her what it was because whatever it took, she’d help him.
How would a woman not help a man once she realized she was falling in love with him?
It turned out, he couldn’t wear his shirt.
“No buttons,” he said, and gave her a solemn look. “People see me wearing a shirt without buttons, they’ll know you tore them off.”
That rated another blush.
Thankfully, old man Chambers had not been one to toss things out. The ancient equipment in some of the outbuildings, the sagging furniture and antique appliances in the house, were testament to his frugality.
The jeans and workshirts Jake had years ago left, in the closet in what the old man had called the hired hand’s room, were still there.
The jeans were threadbare but a couple of the shirts were usable. He retrieved a blue one. It was too tight but that was the least of his worries.
The real problem was trying to figure out what was going on with him.
They were on the way to breakfast, and he was driving like a man possessed. The speedometer needle hit ninety and kept on going. He always drove fast but tonight—
Tonight, he wished the car was a small, sleek jet that could carry them high above the clouds.
He needed to feel the world fall away below him.
What the hell had happened back in that kitchen? One minute they’d been laughing, teasing each other with memories of the long day they’d spent in bed, anticipating the hours still ahead, and then, all of a sudden, sex hadn’t been enough.
Enough for what?
Jake shot a glance at Addison.
That, as the Danish prince had said a long time ago, was the question.
There’d been that other moment, too, when the truth of his own life had forced its way into his thoughts. Memories of the night he’d lost those men.
Men?
Jake shifted his weight, flexed his hands on the steering wheel.
Boys. Eighteen. Nineteen. The oldest had been twenty-one. And they’d died because he’d been too late, too late, too late—
“Jacob?”
Addison touched his arm. He damn near jumped out of his skin. It took a minute to remember where he was.
