Page 22 of Handling Skylar (Hope Parish #5)

JAKE

Before I left, Chase said, “I’m really surprised that the only person you were angry at was me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Daddy. He was the one who pushed us. It was his expectations we had to live up to and he had been ruthless in the past, Jake. I guess I don’t understand why you’re not mad at him. I’ve made my peace with him, maybe you should, too.”

I couldn’t get those words out of my mind as I headed into town, checking all of Anna Kate’s haunts when she didn’t answer her phone or reply to my texts.

Finally, she called and asked me to meet her near the diner.

I was going to be eating dinner at Chase’s so had no intention of sitting down with her for a meal. I agreed.

When I walked up to her, she grabbed my arm and dragged me into the front of Jackson’s Jewelers.

“I forgive you for staring at that little shop girl trash.” Then she said in a harsh whisper. “When are you going to put a ring on my finger, Jake? I’m sick of waiting.”

Provoked beyond my control, I stared down at her suddenly wondering what I ever saw in her.

“Sky isn’t shop girl trash, Anna Kate. She’s hard-working, owns her own business.

Don’t speak ill of her again. As for us?

We don’t belong together. I think we both know that. Let’s just go our own separate ways.”

“I can’t believe this.” She stared at me incensed and furious. “You’re breaking up with me?”

“Yes,” I said, stepping back. “I’m not marrying you.”

Her mouth dropped open and she her angry eyes blazed. Thrusting her hands into her hair, her expression incredulous, as if this was some kind of a joke. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m dead serious.” My tone cold and cutting, I lowered my voice as some people passed us with uncomfortable looks. “You don’t demand to get married, Anna Kate. That’s something that happens spontaneously. This is much too cold and calculating. I want more than that.”

“You think I need you, Jake?” She stepped back, a cold smile lifting the corner of her mouth and making her eyes hard.

“You’re dead wrong. I’m Anna Kate Montgomery, and I’ll make sure everyone knows I broke up with you.

If you ask me, I dodged a bullet there, after all.

You and your scandalous family can go to the devil. ”

She huffed a breath, turned on her heel and left without another word.

“Long after she left, I mulled over Chase’s words, dismissing Anna Kate from my mind.

I went over to the Elliott Grove, needing manual labor.

Chase’s words wouldn’t let me go and as I worked the anger in me coalesced and I stopped in mid stride and just stood there.

I closed my eyes and ran my hands through my hair.

All these years. All this time I’d been blaming my brother, and I’d buried the resentment and anger so deep that until I forgave my brother, I never even knew it was there.

I was angry at my daddy and I’d transferred all that anger to Chase who’d borne the brunt of not only my disdain, but the isolation from the family because my daddy wouldn’t relent and allow him back on Chase’s terms.

Had all this been for nothing? He wouldn’t even show some sign that he wanted me to take over, that he may be selling the place out from under me?

My mind refused to function. I stared at the grove I was trying to rehabilitate and my daddy couldn’t even give me the time of day.

Driven by desperation, I attempted to work it through, but kept getting overwhelmed by a churning mix of guilt, alarm and helplessness.

I worked until my clothes were sodden, until my shoulders burned, until my muscles were quivering from sheer physical exhaustion, until it was too dark to see.

Then I drove home and raided my daddy’s liquor cabinet while they were sleeping upstairs. I saw that I had missed several messages from Chase, and I suddenly remembered we were supposed to have dinner at his place, and I felt guilt and sick over that, too.

The other messages were from Sky. Dammit, I hadn’t called her about tonight.

What a fucking idiot I was. I angrily shoved the phone in my back pocket and grabbing the bottle of his good Jack, headed for the door.

I went down by the river and started to drink.

The physical labor and the lack of food or water took its toll.

I was blindly drunk and still couldn’t seem to drown out all the anger and resentment I still felt.

I started walking, stumbling, then I fell down, but got back up. Staggering as headlights brightened the night, then cars whizzed by me. All of it a blur. When had I gotten on the highway?

I continued to walk, but the next time I fell, I didn’t get up. I rolled onto my back and looked up at the star-studded sky, wishing that I could just float away.

I think I passed out when the sound of tires on gravel and the voice that I had been hearing in my dreams said, “Jake?” Then running feet and someone touched my face.

I opened my eyes and there they were. The hazel eyes of the most beautiful woman in Suttontowne. Had I thought that all along? Yeah, Sutton, you have, you idiot. You’ve just been blocking it. Shit, that wasn’t good. That wasn’t a good thought. Thoughts. Not good ones to have.

I was trying to resist her. That was it. Resisting. It was a good word. I knew it well.

“I’ve been so worried about you.” Her voice was thick and strained.

“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice breaking a bit. “Sorry I stood you up. Things are so fucked up.”

“Are you all right?” she asked, her tone gentle when I expected anger. Here I thought I had to handle her and she was handling me…so damn well.

“No,” I said with a groan, fracturing even more at all the emotions raging through me, pain that couldn’t be drowned out even with all the liquor I’d consumed.

“I had a collision with a bottle of Jack.” The grass was cool, wet, the slight breeze warm—the pain crawling up the back of my skull just a precursor to what was coming.

She wasn’t wearing her hat, her hair hanging free and, as she bent over me, the silk of it against my arm was almost unbearable. I couldn’t say I was upset to have this sultry, unique woman leaning over me, her hand on my chest, that sweet face all scrunched up with concern. It was as if she cared.

She was so beautiful; it broke my heart. I closed my eyes because I was losing my bearings all over again, but it didn’t have anything to do with pain, just an aching want that filled me up.

“Okay, I’ve been there before. Stay with me,” she said. “Look at me, okay?”

I opened my eyes again and took another look. I was staying with her, especially with that look of care in her eyes.

“Let’s get you up. Come on.”

“I’m not going home,” I mumbled.

“It’s not far—”

“No,” I said emphatically, my speech slurred. I couldn’t face my parents—my daddy—like this. I closed my eyes again, drifting a bit.

“Oh, no you don’t. Come on. Look at me, Jake.

” She sounded more worried than before, like she wanted to wrap me up and keep me safe.

I opened my eyes, and she was even closer than she’d been before, almost on top of me, leaning over me.

She slipped her hand under my head and said, “Come on. We’re going to get in my, car and I’ll take you to my place. ”

I was sure I wasn’t moving, but I tried. “Jake?” She sounded more than worried, like she was edging toward panic. That was no good. “Jake, please try. Can you sit up. I cannot lift all this gorgeous muscle. So please help me.”

She sounded so troubled, and I hated that I was causing her worry. Wait, did she just call me gorgeous? My brain might have been too addled to hear that right. I used my elbows to push myself up and then just stared at her.

She was looking at me so intensely, her dark brows bunching together over her stunning, variegated eyes. I got a little lost. Her lashes were thick and as dark as her brows, her full lips so tantalizingly close, the whole of her so creamy and lovely, my heart broke again, right there on the spot.

Releasing a heavy sigh, I reached up and put my hand over hers, where her palm was so warm on my chest.

“I’m okay, just tired, hungry, sore and stupid,” I whispered.

“You’re not stupid, Jake,” she whispered back.

“You’re so beautiful,” I said, going all stupid again.

She looked truly startled for a minute then snapped out of it as she worked to get her arm under my back, tugging. “Come on. The car is very close.”

I got into a sitting position and then to my knees.

She was still standing close to me like she was worried I would fall over.

I looked at her, knowing that I wasn’t going to make it easily to my feet.

Without a word, she moved to my side and wrapped her arm around my waist, the scent of her bursting in the air around me like fireworks.

Finally I got to my feet and we staggered to her car, and I managed to get myself into the passenger seat. I leaned my head back as she started the car and it started to move.

“You know that alcohol never helps. It only makes you sick and more depressed.”

“Now, you tell me. Where were you hours ago when Jack came knocking?”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to take you home?”

“Yes, more than sure. I can get out if you want.”

“No, Jake. You have anyone you want me to call?”

I rubbed at my temple and shook my head, then thought better of it as it sent me into a dizzy spiral. “No. I only want you.”

The next thing I knew, she was shaking me and I was trying to stay conscious for the time it took for us to get out of the car and up some stairs.

I had the glimpse of a living room and then was reeling into a room with a bed.

When I tried to fold down onto it, she said, “Oh, no way. You’re a mess.

” She dragged me into the bathroom and propped me against the wall as she turned on the shower.

I couldn’t stand up. There was no way I was going to get into something that was wet and slippery unless it was her.

I groaned and she turned to me and suddenly I was looking up at her.

“Oh, shoot,” she said softly and turned off the water.

She knelt down and was all business. She pulled my T-shirt off over my head and then, with an economy of movement, got my pants off.

I was almost gone by this point. The feel of a wet soapy cloth traveled over my face and neck, wetting my hair, the air of the room feeling cool against my moist, heated skin.

I felt movement and then the cloth was back over my shoulders, arms, and torso.

“Geez Louise,” I heard her whisper under her breath as the cloth bumped over my abdomen, then after a slight pause over my legs. Then it was a quick rinse and towel dry.

“Jake,” she said, rousing me as she pressed two tablets into my hand. “Take these and drink this.”

I popped the pills into my mouth and downed the water like I’d been in the desert for days. “More, I said softly as she placed a toothbrush in my hand. I did my best with it, spitting into the toilet and then downing the second glass she gave me.

Then she was helping me up and I was sliding onto a soft mattress between cool sheets and it was lights out.

***

It was dark when I woke up, totally out of it and totally unsure as to where I was.

There was enough ambient light from the crack in the bathroom door to illuminate the woman sleeping beside me.

For a moment, I thought I was dreaming. Sky?

What was she doing in my bed…then I remembered the night, the ride here, the way she’d washed me, her touch so tender and slow.

My heart rolled over and even though I’d only interacted with this woman a few times in my life, I felt a sensation, a rush of emotion so strong it swamped me.

I moved because I needed to feel her arms around me.

I needed her comfort and solace. Something that I believed only she could give me in this moment.

It wasn’t planned, it wasn’t calculated, it was based on a deep-seated need in me to connect to her.

She stirred, her eyes sleepy, her body a solid presence, with her cloud of tangled hair and her mouth parting. I vowed I wasn’t going to kiss her. I should have reconsidered, should have backed off, but I didn’t. I reached for her instead.

It was crazy. It was all going so fast.

I was crazy, but there she was, curling her arms around me and nothing had ever felt so good.

Then my mouth was on hers, and she kissed me with such wild abandon and warmth that I was only seduced to take more. She was in so much trouble here. If she had any idea, she’d be kicking me out of here and let me fend for myself instead of trying to immolate me on the spot.

But, man, her hands were small, hot and sliding over my chest, and I was down for the count, going under.

I’d gotten hard the instant she’d opened her mouth on mine and every instant after had only made my arousal that much more intense.

I was a guy. I knew about getting hard fast, but this was crazy.

Crazy, hot and intimate. Something I desperately needed. “Sky,” I said.

“Um hmmm,” she murmured between kisses, and I couldn’t seem to form the words I wanted to say.

“I need…”

“I know,” she said, softly. “I know what you need, Jake.”

I couldn’t put two coherent thoughts together but what her words did to me was profound. There was something I wanted more than her mouth on me. More than her panting. More than her heat. It was the solace I craved.

Maybe I was feeding off the desperate edge I felt inside. Maybe I was reacting to all those thoughts I’d buried since I’d met her. Not that it mattered. Nothing mattered except what we were doing to each other.

I moved to my side and let her slide down next to me, plastered to my body.

This wasn’t sex.

This was survival. I wanted to make love to her, and all she had to do was let me…let me—

I dragged her shirt off because I needed her nakedness against me. I wanted no barriers, not in this. I moved my hands over her, cupping her breasts, trying to tell her with every touch how beautiful she was to me, sliding my hand over the curve of her hip.

She was so perfect, the exquisite curve of her waist down over her hip and around her ass, which was another particularly amazing curve. She was covered in soft, aching curves. The most tantalizing was the one I slid my hand over at the juncture of her thighs—and it was perfect.

She gasped, a soft catch of breath, her hips lifting toward me—so sweet, and it was everything I needed to know. We were doing this and everything in me hardened for her.

Deepening the kiss, I gently parted her with my fingers and felt her groan in my mouth.

I’d wanted to touch her so badly. I wanted to put my mouth between her legs and kiss her.

Use my tongue on her until she came. I wanted everything, and it was all within reach.

She was wonderfully, amazingly, erotically wet.