Page 20 of Unexpected Temptation

T hey started leisurely walking back to the cabin. Jaylen had been waiting for Amelia to ask how he could afford this, but she hadn’t, and he didn’t think she was going to.

“You’re not going to ask how I was able to build this place?”

Amelia tore her eyes away from Wolf as he walked along in front of them and glanced at him.

“What? No.” She shrugged. “I haven’t even thought about it.” An emotion close to guilt raced over her features. She didn’t know how to navigate their relationship yet, but didn’t want to do anything to upset him in any way.

“Don’t look so concerned,” he said and smiled. “I just wondered if you wanted to know.”

“I ... I guess, if you want to talk about it.”

He stopped them in the middle of the path and turned to face her.

“I had some money saved from my time in the military. I didn’t have any expenses, so I saved the majority of it.

I bought this from my uncle cheap, which I’ve put some time into.

I’ve taken down the old barn and put up the new one.

” He stopped and grinned. “I remember my uncle talking about the pretty rocks on his land, but I thought nothing of it. You’re going to love this part.

I accidentally came upon a small cave on my land with this large blue stone stuck in one of the walls.

I cut it out and took it to a gemologist guy I know because I’d never seen anything like it before.

He almost peed his pants.” Jaylen stopped and laughed.

She giggled.

“He told me the stone was a rare blue diamond.”

“I’ve never seen one. I’ve heard of them, though. I bet it was beautiful.”

“It just looked like a blue rock to me. Anyway, he went on to tell me that blue diamonds were sold for about three to four million dollars a carat, and I was holding approximately fifteen carats.”

Amelia’s mouth dropped open, and her eyes widened. “Oh, my God. How much is that?”

“About sixty million.”

Amelia started choking. She flinched when he forcefully patted her on the back to help. It took a moment before she was finally able to gain her breath and stood staring at him, patting her chest.

“Good heavens. I’m only bringing a few million I received from my grandmother.” She stared at a button on his shirt for a moment. “I think you have more money than my parents.”

Jaylen cupped her chin and tilted her head up.

“Why does that bother you?” he asked when he saw her troubled frown.

“I’m not sure.”

“Listen, this doesn’t change anything between us.

I just thought you should know. No one knows but you, my family, and me.

Kane doesn’t even know it all. I want it to be kept secret.

I don’t want a bunch of people up here trying to find more.

” He bent and pressed a kiss to her lips. “This is how much I trust you.”

Amelia clasped his wrists, stood on tippy-toe, and kissed him.

“Your trust means more to me than any money you have,” she said. “You know, we could have lived nicely off my inheritance.”

“See, I know you’re not here for the money. One, you didn’t know about it, and you wanted to stay. Two, you have plenty of your own money, and three, you don’t seem to care about money too much.”

Amelia thought about it for a moment and then nodded. “You’re right on all three counts.”

Jaylen seized her hand, turned, and continued up to the house.

Amelia waited until Jaylen fed Wolf before he drew her into the house.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

Amelia patted her stomach. “I’m still full from lunch.”

“Yeah, me too. Let’s wait until later. It’s only a little after five. If we’re still not hungry enough for a meal, we’ll make popcorn and watch a movie.”

A smile brightened her face at the idea.

“I love the sound of that.”

He tipped her head back and bent to kiss her. Within a moment, they were both moaning, and their breathing was labored. He broke them apart, held her away from him with his hands on her shoulders, and stared down at her passion-filled face.

“God, woman. You make me want to drag you to bed after just one kiss.”

Amelia cleared her throat and backed up a step, breaking the hold he had on her. She looked down and straightened her shirt as she tried to regain her composure and get her breathing under control.

“Hey, nothing’s going to happen until you’re ready,” he told her gently.

Amelia glanced up at him. “I know you wouldn’t do anything I didn’t want. The problem is I want it very much, but something’s holding me back.”

Jaylen drew in a shaky breath. “Until you know what that is, we’ll just keep doing what we’re doing. Being affectionate but no sex. Does that work?”

“Yes. At least until I know what’s holding me back.”

“I have some paperwork to do. Do you want to start unpacking?”

Amelia looked around the large room.

“Where do you want me to put my stuff?”

“The closet before the bathroom is pretty much empty, and it’s deep, so you can get a lot in there. We’ll have to get hangers for your things, but for now, we can hang what we can and then fold the rest and put them on the shelves at the back. Let me grab the stuff out of there right now.”

“I hate for you to have to give up your closet.”

“I only have camping gear and a few boxes of clothing I don’t wear anymore. Both can go out to the barn. There is plenty of space in the tack room.”

“Are you sure?” Amelia asked. She clutched her hands together and bit down on her bottom lip.

Jaylen set the box down by the back door and walked to her.

He cupped her face between his hands. A jolt hit him square in the heart, seeing her soft, pale face cradled in his much darker, work-roughened hands, and it made his stomach twist in male arousal so acute it took his breath.

Everything about her was feminine, and he couldn’t find anything he didn’t love about her.

“I am absolutely sure. Now, I want you to stop worrying, Sweetheart.” He watched her eyes dart away from his.

“Can you let me deal with stuff like this? I promise you I’m excited about everything that’s happening.

I want to see your clothes hanging up next to mine.

I’d like to see your toothbrush and feminine items in the bathroom.

I want to see your panties and bras hanging over the shower curtain. ”

Amelia sputtered out a laugh and felt the heat that enveloped her face.

Since she hadn’t had her luggage, she’d had to wash out her underwear every night and leave it to dry.

She’d been incredibly embarrassed at first, but the thought of wearing dirty underwear or none at all disgusted her and overrode any other emotion.

She nodded and flattened her hands against his chest. “All right. I’ll do the best I can.”

Jaylen placed a quick kiss on the tip of her nose. “That’s all I ask.”

It didn’t take very long. She just unpacked the clothing she’d be able to wear at the moment.

The rest, including the dressier clothes and items not durable enough, she kept in the biggest suitcase and pushed to the back of the closet.

She placed her boxes and empty luggage by the back door to be stored in the tack room with his stuff.

Amelia found Jaylen at the kitchen table with papers and files stacked off to one side. He was shuffling through another stack, and it looked like he’d been writing checks.

He stopped with a look of frustration and pushed his fingers through his hair before he looked up at her.

“You wouldn’t happen to be an accountant, would you?”

Amelia smiled and sat in the chair next to him.

“No, but I do have a degree in business, so maybe I can help.”

Jaylen dropped the pile on the table, sat back in his chair, and stared at her.

“I’ll worship you until the day I die if you can figure this out.”

Amelia laughed and reached for the pile in front of him.

“Okay, tell me what this pile is?” she said and started putting them into smaller piles according to months.

“Those are invoices that need to be paid. But the due dates are different, so I’m trying to find the ones I need to pay this week.”

“You don’t have a computer for business?”

“Hell, no. I hate technology. I can barely handle my smartphone.”

Amelia laughed.

“Tell you what. Let’s get a computer set up, and I’ll download a software program to keep track of all this.”

Jaylen stared at her in shock.

She glanced at him and frowned. “What?”

“You couldn’t be any more perfect than you are now.”

Amelia snorted and rolled her eyes before she looked back down at the receipts. “You’re so full of it.”

Jaylen leaned forward and set a hand on hers to get her attention. “I’m not kidding. I know we’ve only known each other for less than a week, but everything about you appeals to me and things I’ve always wanted in a wife.”

Amelia licked her lips. “I like everything about you, too. I’ve thought more than once you were a dream come true.”

He grinned. “I like that we’re both on the same page.”

“We can’t forget that we’ve only known each other a few days,” she reminded him.

“But if you think about it, we’ve been together twenty-four hours for the last five days. An average date is around six hours. So technically we’ve been on like ... twenty dates already.”

Amelia thought about it. They had been thrown together because of circumstances out of their control, but had felt an instant attraction with each other, and it had only grown stronger the longer they’d been together.

Everything she learned about him drew her closer.

There hadn’t been anything that made her nervous around him except for the mindless lust that grew every day until all she could concentrate on was her overwhelming need for him.

Amelia’s heart lurched wildly in her chest, and it had been impossible to tear her gaze from his. The primal look in his eyes sent a wave of heat so intense it enfolded her in a warm, needy embrace. A steady flood of lust hit her midsection and traveled throughout her body.

Jaylen narrowed his eyes and fisted his hands in his lap. “Baby, you’ve got to stop looking at me like that,” he said in a softly threatening tone.

Her breath hitched in her chest as her body tightened.

“Amelia?” he growled.

She drew in a startled breath and slowly shook her head. “Um ... I’m not...”

Jaylen reached across the table to grip one of her hands in his. He hadn’t liked the distress that started to bleed through her desire. “It’s all right, Sweetheart. Let’s leave this for now and play cards or something. Anything to get our minds off of it. All right?”

Amelia swallowed and nodded. “Yes, I’ll go through these later,” she said as she stood.

They spent that night playing poker and watching a movie with popcorn before bed.

After the movie, Jaylen spent time in the barn. Giving her time to get ready and be in bed, hopefully asleep by the time he got back.

Inside the back door, the first thing he did was look toward the bed.

He let out a relieved breath that she did seem to be asleep.

He locked up the cabin for the night and went into the bathroom to take a shower.

He pulled on his sweatpants. His gaze quickly landed on her as he passed the bed on his way to the kitchen for a beer.

He slid to a stop in the doorway when he got a look at the neat piles of papers she’d organized. He scanned the table and noticed a small stack pinned down by his checkbook, and he picked it up. It was the receipts he needed to pay right away.

Damn, he thought as he rubbed the ache in his chest. He felt like the luckiest guy in the world at that moment. He grabbed the beer he had promised himself and sat at the table to write out the checks, intending to mail them the next day.

It was late when he finished. He washed out the bottle and put it in the bin by the fridge.

He brushed his teeth, then walked to her and stood over her for a moment, both dreading and excited to lie with this woman who’d captured his heart.

He loved holding her, but the hunger he felt for her grew until he ached with it all day.

He’d never been this joyful and frustrated at the same time.

He sighed and crawled in next to her. He bit back a moan when she automatically moved toward his heat.

Jesus, he thought, talk about sweet torture. His last thought before sleep claimed him was it didn’t matter how long she needed. He would have done anything she asked at the time.