“Yeah, probably.” Susan was unrepentant. “But they’re so much fun.”
“Get on with it.”
“Jake was cool and very polite in that distant way he has, but you know, with that sort of bored, totally hot look he gets. He told Linda he was taking you and she blew up. Like, big time. Sky high. She was shrieking at him at the top of her lungs. She told him nobody in society would ever accept you, and that his own parents thought it laughable that he was with you and that he was only doing it to spite them. Then she called you a domestic servant. Jake looked down at her with that sort of contempt thing he does and then she really got nasty.”
Emma twisted her fingers together. Lately she’d been emotional and upset, and for some strange reason Susan’s gossip really upset her. She knew everyone gossiped about Jake; he just took it in stride. But she was always out of sight on the ranch where no one saw her and she saw no one. She rarely even left the ranch. Linda had come by to see her already and said very ugly things in spite of the fact that Emma had tried to reassure her she was just the housekeeper.
“Linda said everyone knew Jake was Andraya’s father and he got both you and Shaina pregnant at the same time and he only kept you around because of his illegitimate brats.” Susan was outraged all over again, her fists clenched at her sides. She was definitely loyal to Emma.
Emma paled beneath her golden tan. “What did Jake say?” It was one thing to say it to her, here at the house, but to publicly scream it to Jake at a party was something altogether different.
“He didn’t deny it. He just looked Linda up and down sort of like she was a loathsome bug and he stalked off in that cool way he walks. He was so gorgeous. And Linda looked pathetic and jealous.”
Emma passed a shaking hand over her face and sat down rather abruptly. She didn’t want people using her or Andraya to get at Jake.
“Oh, Emma,” Susan wailed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. Linda’s jealous. It’s just that Jake is so different with you. You never seem to notice, but he’s”—she hesitated, searching for the right word—“indifferent toward women. He brushes them off like flies; he has no time for them. You never go to parties but you should see him. Honestly, I’d die if he looked at me the way he does at those women, with such contempt, as if they’re so far beneath him.”
In spite of herself, Emma had to laugh. “He can’t be that bad or they wouldn’t be falling all over him.”
“Other people aren’t like you, Emma,” Susan felt compelled to point out. “They’d sell their souls for all that money and power. And he’s so hot. Women would put up with a lot for that. Plus, I think there’s something about taming the bad boy.”
“That’s insane. You’ve been reading too many novels, Susan. In real life, if the man is bossy and arrogant, he isn’t all that easy to live with. And I doubt if women throw themselves at Jake just because of his bank account.”
“Sure they do,” Susan insisted. “Dad’s a senator, and a widower. Believe me, I’ve seen the women go after him and know all the signs.” She wrinkled her nose. “You met Dana when she brought me. My governess. Ha. What a crock. She’s so after Dad, and you saw how stuck-up she was with you. She treats me like that, as if I’m so far beneath her, yet she thinks I’m going to let her be my stepmom.”
Emma hadn’t cared for Dana, although she wasn’t going to admit it aloud to Susan. The woman was too cold and made too many cutting remarks to Susan for Emma’s liking.
“Jake is different with you and it shows,” Susan continued, warmed to her theme. “He’s gentle and he laughs around you. He calls you three times a day and he kisses you. You just don’t believe me because you don’t see him away from here.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. I run his house. Of course he calls me. I have to give him his messages. And just for your information, he doesn’t kiss me, he just sort of pecks me. We’ve lived here two years together. We’re affectionate, that’s all.”
“Daddy said you nearly died when Andraya was born and Jake didn’t leave your side once,” Susan pointed out. “And he named Andraya while you were unconscious. And Andraya and Kyle look alike.”
Susan was fishing for information, but Emma didn’t take the bait. “Poor Jake. How awful of Linda to throw all of that in his face.”
“Look alive, Emma.” A short, stocky man with laughing blue eyes and a shock of sun-bleached hair stuck his head in the door. “Boss is on the way in, landed ten minutes ago.” He grinned at Susan, letting out a slow, appreciative wolf whistle making the young girl blush wildly.
“Thanks, Joshua,” Emma acknowledged dryly. “I’ll have fresh coffee on.”
Joshua saluted, winked at Susan and ducked back outside. Emma stood in the center of the room for a moment, staring out the huge picture window. Such an innocent conversation on Susan’s part, yet it brought back a flood of memories Emma dared not think about. She shivered, remembering the feel of hard hands gripping her with incredible strength, the smell of gasoline, the loud roar of flames, the emptiness that never quite went away. It had been a long while since she’d allowed herself to think about that day.
“Emma?” Susan’s concern was evident in her voice, drawing Emma back to the present. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, of course, honey. Run along and check those kids for me, will you? They were playing horses in Kyle’s room but they’re being very quiet. There’re some things I need to do.”
“You’re sure I didn’t upset you? Linda’s just jealous, nothing more, Emma.”
Emma forced herself to smile. “Linda doesn’t bother me; it isn’t the first time she’s called me a domestic servant. I should have known she couldn’t resist spreading gossip.” She measured coffee into the filter with the casual ease of long practice.
“She called you that? To your face? How inexcusably rude.”
“Check Kyle and Andraya,” Emma reminded. “And don’t be too upset, Susie. Linda is a close friend of Jake’s parents, and they remind me every chance they get that I am a domestic servant. It doesn’t bother me a bit to be called one. I’m certain Linda got that from them, and she thinks working for a living is something awful, but I certainly don’t. I’m very good at running this house.”
“You aren’t a servant.” Susan was horrified.
Emma spun around and hurried from the kitchen, down the hall, through the large family room and right out the front door. For once she wouldn’t be greeting Jake when he came in. She wanted to be alone for a while. After two years of peace, she felt like she was waking up. She loved her life, the ranch that had become her home, and the two children. Kyle was as much hers as Andraya was. The problem was she thought of Jake as hers as well. Lately she’d become restless and moody, and just thinking of Jake could make her body come alive in ways it hadn’t for the last two years.
Dear Jake, it was so like him to take the brunt of the gossip on his wide shoulders—to protect her and never say a word about the rumors. If she complained about anything at all, just a mere mention, whatever it was disappeared, was fixed or managed without a word.