The Bride Said, 'Finally!'

Looking as relaxed as she was upset, Jake paused to drop an envelope on the table, then swaggered after her as she turned to head for the door. She was nearly there when he clamped a hand on her bare shoulder. Ignoring her resistance, he gently guided her around to face him. Looking down into her face with an intensity that took her breath away, he taunted softly, “You’re telling me you don’t still feel it?”

Jenna swallowed hard and forced her knees to stop trembling. Darn it all, why had she worn such a sexy dress, anyway? She could have worn something casual that wasn’t the least bit provocative. She could have worn something not designed to make him eat his heart out for all he’d given up. “Feel what?” she asked instead, ignoring the way his gaze kept drifting to her lips and the exposed swell of her breasts.

Jake hauled her against him. “This.”

The next thing Jenna knew Jake had wrapped his arms around her back and lowered his lips to hers. His kiss was hot and so sensual it took her breath away. Furious, Jenna made a muffled sound of protest. But then she was surrendering to the emotions swirling through her at breakneck speed, threading her hands through his hair and kissing him back with every fiber of her being. Loving the taste and feel and scent of him, so dark and male and sexy. Loving the way he had always kissed her, as if he didn’t care how many roadblocks she threw in their way, as if he meant to possess her, heart and soul. Damn, but she had missed this, missed him and the special…and yes, powerful way he made her feel. Jake deepened the kiss even more and stroked his tongue intimately with hers, as if she were the only woman in the whole world for him.

JAKE HADN’T MEANT to kiss her while they were at the inn, maybe not at all that night. He’d wanted to take things nice and slow this time. Show her how much he still cared about her, and always would, before asking anything remotely intimate or physical in return. But when she looked at him like that, as if she were just daring him to love her, he never had been able to resist, even if his hot-blooded pursuit of her was likely to incense her. He wanted to feel the softness of her body cuddled against his. He wanted to taste the honeyed sweetness of her lips, feel the sensual twining of her tongue as it wrapped around his, inhale her sexy perfume, and thread his fingers through the thick red-gold waves of her hair. He wanted her to tell him—by the passionate nature of their embrace—how she felt about him. Even if she wouldn’t admit it out loud.

JENNA KNEW if they didn’t stop soon they would end up in one of the beds upstairs. That was exactly what she had wanted when they had been together before—the ultimate culmination of their love in the most physically intimate union a man and woman could enter into. But she also knew this was no way, and no place, to lose her virginity.

Furious that Jake had managed to evade all her carefully erected defenses—again—Jenna splayed both her hands across his chest, tore her lips from his, and pushed him away.

Stumbling backwards, Jenna glared at him. “You haven’t changed one bit,” she sputtered angrily. Darned if he hadn’t turned her whole world upside down, and with just one measly, heart-stopping kiss!

Jake grinned and rubbed his jaw. He looked like one thoroughly satisfied male, pleased as punch that it had taken her a good five minutes to summon up the will to make him stop. “The kiss was that good, huh?” he teased.

Even better, Jenna thought wistfully, not above admitting—to herself, anyway—that she had the same physical desires and needs, not to mention emotional yearnings, as every other woman in Texas. But she couldn’t let her desire for Jake sway her. So what if the two of them together had passion unlike anything she had ever felt before or since? So what if he alone had the power to make her tingle from head to toe and want him with every fiber of her being just by being in the same room with her? Physical desire still did not equate happiness. Jenna looked him up and down disparagingly. Seeing the depth of his desire, she returned her gaze to his face. “You still think everything and anything is there for the taking. You only have to want it badly enough for it to happen.”

The happiness in Jake’s eyes faded. It was replaced by irritation. “Everything and anything is there for our taking,” he shot right back. “And don’t give me that woe-is-me look, either, honey. ’Cause you have done your fair share of setting your sights on something—like being the premiere new clothing designer—and making it happen.” Jake regarded her steadily, then finished with velvet determination, “So there is no reason on earth you can’t do the same thing in regards to your personal life. You just have to want it.”

Guilt assailed her anew. “Well, I don’t want it!” Jenna jerked away from him, angry that he was making her want more than what she had, what she couldn’t—and never would—have: a satisfying love life with him.

He sized her up, skeptical of her self-serving fib. “Could have fooled me.”

JAKE DROVE her back to Laramie in silence. Jenna slammed out of his truck and stormed up to her apartment above the shop. To her dismay, he didn’t even attempt to follow, just made sure she was inside safely and then drove off. Not loudly, with a screech of tires, as he might have after one of their quarrels in his impetuous youth, but calmly and quietly.

Tears streaming down her face, Jenna locked the door behind her, muttering invective about his character all the while. Then, really letting her temper fly, she slammed her purse against the wall, and for good measure, kicked off her shoes, too.

Without warning, Kelsey’s head rose over the back of the sofa, nearly scaring her to death. Jenna gasped and slammed a hand against her chest. She had forgotten Kelsey was bunking here with her until she and her partner, Brady Anderson, could move out to the old Lockhart ranch. That wouldn’t be possible until the contractor they’d hired had finished sanding and varnishing all the floors and cabinets and installing new electrical wiring and plumbing. Meanwhile, the two had plenty to do, staking out pastures and putting up fences that would divide their property into separate cattle and horse operations, one half of the ranch being his, the other half hers. It was quite an undertaking for two people, who—up until a month or so ago—had been strangers, and all the Lockharts, save Kelsey of course, were feeling a little nervous about it. They just hoped their baby sister knew what she was doing. Which was more than Jenna could say for herself, given the thoroughly unrestrained way she had just kissed Jake Remington, behaving as if the two of them had never been apart!

Kelsey studied Jenna’s face. “The date was that good, huh?”

Jenna scowled at Kelsey. “The man is absolutely impossible! Not to mention arrogant, assuming and antagonizing.”

Kelsey nodded with exaggerated indignation. “And those are just the As.”

Jenna gave Kelsey a warning look. She was in no mood for jokes. “I mean it.” Feeling like she was burning up all over, Jenna lifted her skirt, peeled off her pantyhose, then padded barefoot to the refrigerator. “I’d hoped otherwise, but that Jake Remington hasn’t changed one bit.”

Kelsey followed Jenna to the kitchen and accepted a cold beer. “Neither have you, apparently.”

Jenna paused, her hand curled around the bottle cap in mid-twist. “What’s that supposed to mean?” She set the long-necked brown bottle on the counter and finished opening it with a sharp twist.

“Come on, Jenna.” Kelsey grinned as she opened her beer and took a long thirsty drink more suitable for a rough-and-tumble cowboy than the fine Texas lady she’d been reared to be. “This is your baby sister you’re talking to here.” She waggled her eyebrows at Jenna. “The one who used to sneak into your room at night and hear all about your clandestine dates with Jake. All those summers you two sneaked around to see each other, so his parents wouldn’t find out he was smitten with a poor local girl instead of one of the rich debs from Dallas they wanted him to marry.”

Jenna went to the pantry and brought out a bag of blue corn tortilla chips and an unopened jar of salsa. “He did marry one of them. He married Melinda Carrington.”

Kelsey shrugged and leaned against the counter, her Texas Rangers baseball-style pajamas molding her slender frame. She watched as Jenna poured chips and salsa into serving dishes and carried them back into the living room. “Yeah, and from what I heard Jake divorced her, too.”

“Your point, being…?” Jenna asked, as the two settled back onto the sofa.

“That,” Kelsey spelled out gently, “it’s pretty clear you never stopped loving him. And he probably hasn’t stopped loving you, either. Or else he wouldn’t be here.”

“The only reason he is here is because he thinks he can make money off my clothing designs. Lots of it. And, as a matter of fact, I do, too,” Jenna confided as she rubbed her tense shoulders with her hands. “I’ve known that for a long time. All I’ve needed was the money—and the backing—to expand.”

Kelsey loaded a chip with salsa. “I hate to burst your bubble, sis, but Jake could make money off dozens of other businesses in Texas, if that’s all he’s after.”

Unfortunately, Jenna knew that was true, too. She sighed and took another sip of beer. “He also wants me to help turn his little girl, Alexandra, into a lady and get her outfitted in some pretty dresses.”

“There are hundreds upon hundreds of children’s clothing shops in this state. Why come to you for that, when you don’t even design children’s clothing?”

“Because Alex is hard to please,” Jenna answered, remembering without wanting to how cute and lively Jake’s little girl had been, even if she had been out of control.

Kelsey shrugged and reached for another chip. “People who specialize in selling to the super-rich are well versed in ‘difficult,’ Jenna. Probably even more so when it comes to their spoiled-rotten kids.”

Irritated at having her theories shot down one by one, Jenna frowned at her baby sister, and continued trying to convince them both that Jake’s actions were not due to any long lost love for her, as he claimed. “There is no where else in Laramie to go for lah-de-dah clothing. He just built a ranch here. He and his daughter are living here now.”

Kelsey made a dissenting face. “He could still drive to Dallas.”

“His ex-wife will be here in two days.”

Kelsey rolled her eyes. “It’s a two-hour drive there, even less to San Antonio from here. So don’t give me that. He could easily go there to buy dresses for Alexandra if he wanted to.”

Jenna sighed.

“Face it, sis.” Kelsey leaned forward earnestly. “Jake Remington is here for one reason and one reason only. He wants you back in his life. Probably as his wife. Which is why he’s trying so hard to get you and his daughter together. Before he can make a real move on you, he’s got to make sure the two of you can get along.”

Kelsey had never stayed any guy’s girlfriend for long—she was way too fickle for that—but she was very good at analyzing what was going on between a man and a woman. Too good sometimes, Jenna thought, as her baby sister’s words hit close to home. “That door is closed,” she retorted stubbornly, refusing to let herself hope, even for one second, that her sister might be right about Jake’s intentions.

“I see.” Kelsey grinned and peered at her in a parody of Dr. Ruth. “And iss that vhat you told him vhen he kissed you?”

Jenna’s jaw dropped open. Her hand flew to her mouth. “How did you—?”

“Please.” Kelsey rolled her eyes, her exasperation with her older sister mounting. “With the two of you alone on some romantic excursion! With Jake in hot pursuit? Don’t forget, I used to hear about those kisses.” Kelsey clasped her hands to her chest and pretended to be overcome with an intense longing of her very own. “Just hearing about them was enough to make me swoon.”

Deciding it was high time she got in her nightclothes, too, Jenna vaulted to her feet and headed for her bedroom, Kelsey right behind her. Jenna was still flushing self-consciously as she took off her earrings and dropped them onto her vanity. “I was young then. Impressionable.” She lifted her hands to her neck and began struggling with the clasp of her necklace.

Kelsey gave her a knowing look as she stepped behind her to lend a hand. “And now you’re old enough to do all the things you used to only dream about,” she teased, releasing the clasp.

It was Jenna’s turn to roll her eyes. She dropped her necklace beside her earrings and turned. There was really no way to tell how experienced Kelsey was—she acted like she had done everything there was to be done and then some—but Jenna had a feeling that was all an act, meant to intimidate the guys and keep them at bay. Jenna shook her head. “You’re incorrigible.”

Kelsey acknowledged this with a mischievous grin. Then her smile faded as abruptly as it had appeared. She looked at Jenna steadily, her eyes brimming with concern, then said softly, “And you’re dreaming if you think a man like Jake is just going to go away.”

Jenna steeled herself against the hurt she was sure would come if she didn’t shield her heart. Jake had devastated her before. It had taken her years to recover. She didn’t care what he said, she was not going to let him do it again. She folded her arms in front of her stubbornly as she slipped out of her dress. “I don’t care what he wants! He’s not going to get it this time.” Jenna stomped over to her closet and hung up her dress. “I’ll do business with him. I’ll outfit his daughter, but that’s it.”

JENNA WAS HALF HOPING Jake would send his daughter over to her shop with someone else to order a few dresses, but of course that didn’t happen. The next morning, his charcoal-gray truck pulled up in front of her shop and parked at the curb, followed by the red sport utility vehicle with Clara at the wheel. Jake and Alexandra stepped out of the truck, Clara stepped out of the S.U.V. Clara waved and headed off down the sidewalk on some other errand. A few seconds later, Jake held the door for his daughter and Alexandra Remington stomped in with all the petulance an almost-six-year-old could muster. While Jake put his briefcase down next to the sales counter and took off his black Stetson, Alex planted her hands on her hips and glared at Jenna as if she were the enemy. “I figure I might as well tell ya straight out,” she said, in a cute imitation of her take-charge daddy. Her scowl deepened, as did the fire in her blue-gray eyes. “I don’t want ta be here.” Her lower lip shot out stubbornly. “I’d rather be home looking for a new frog—Daddy made me let Mr. Frog go last night, so if I want to play with one I’m gonna hafta find another one, and maybe a snake, too, this time.”

Jenna’s eyes widened with distaste at the mention of reptiles, as Jake frowned and looked down at his daughter. “Alex. No snakes,” he said firmly. “I mean it. Snakes can be poisonous. And so can some frogs, for that matter.”