In the Market for Love - By Nina Blake Page 0,39
should know that.” She flinched at this reference to her departed husband. “Do you want to spend the rest of your life wondering what might have been?”
“Don’t flatter yourself.”
“I’m not. I know you’ve been hurt. Badly.”
“Of course I’ve been hurt. My husband died, remember? And don’t try to tell me I should get over it. It’s my life.”
“That’s not the full story, is it?”
She looked away so he couldn’t see the hot tears stinging at the back of her eyes.
“I don’t know exactly what happened, that much is true.” His voice was gentle and compassionate. “Maybe I can’t understand how hard it was for you or what it’s like to go through what you have. But there’s something else standing in the way. Whatever it is, it’s between us.”
Damn him. He was right. How could he read her better than her friends and family?
“Whatever happened is in the past,” she said. “I’m talking about now. And right now, I’m not…I just…”
“You won’t let yourself get involved.”
His eyes locked into hers with a grip more sure than any physical assault. “I don’t believe that. I think you want this as much as I do. But you’re afraid to give it a chance.”
“I am afraid. You’re right.”
She edged past a waiter setting the tables and past the empty chairs in the private dining room as she headed away from Jake.
In the foyer, she pressed lift button and glanced around anxiously. Turning to see Jake approaching, she pushed her hair behind her ears. Her lips parted as she prepared to speak although she didn’t know what she was going to say. How could she, when she didn’t understand the emotions surging through her body?
He reached for her upper arm. “You’re always running out on me.”
His eyes simmered with emotion. Rage. Desire. Disappointment. She couldn’t read him.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“That’s not good enough.”
Who was he to tell her she couldn’t take the time she needed? His life wasn’t so perfect that he was in the position to set standards for her to live up to.
She wanted to scald him with her words and her actions. “You don’t know anything about me.” She jerked her arm out of his manly grasp.
“Then tell me. Let me in.”
She wanted him. Her body burned for him. She didn’t want tonight to be the last time he took her into his arms and kissed her, the last time she felt the force of his passion. She couldn’t bear the thought. She wanted more.
He was pulling at her heart. She’d seen a different Jake tonight. Not the highly successful advertising executive. This man was compassionate. Caring. She was drawn to him but she was confused, uncertain as to who was the real Jake Austin.
Her life was safe and he was anything but safe. She had to protect herself from getting hurt. She had to be strong.
His words reverberated in her head. Let me in, he had said. She wanted to so badly that her whole body ached with a desperate yen she had never felt before.
But not tonight. Not so soon.
She wanted to say goodbye but the words stuck in her throat. He released her arm but his powerful gaze still gripped her. She tilted her head upwards, her eyelids lowered. Cupping his rugged jaw in her hands, she drew him closer and pressed her mouth against his in a delicate, fragile kiss and hoped he could feel her emotions and understand her just a little.
He touched her arm gently as she moved towards the lift doors as they opened.
“You have to believe you deserve love,” he said. “My love. This can’t work unless you believe in it.”
Love.
It had been a long time since she’d heard that word.
Chapter twelve
“Men!” Bianca spotted Jake’s black leather wallet on the sideboard in his living room. “They think they’re so smart.”
The nanny had told her Jake and Connor had gone to the park but Bianca wasn’t sure when they left or how long they’d be gone. Still, now that she had his wallet in his hands, this shouldn’t take long.
She knew the truth about Jake’s new ‘interest’ and that gave her every reason to be worried. Her family, the Mosman home, the BMW, the designer clothes, overseas holidays, all their assets – the lifestyle she deserved – it was all on the line.
And to think she’d naively attributed Jake’s odd behaviour to stress from the business.
As she rummaged through Jake’s wallet, at first she didn’t find anything unusual. Cash. Credit cards. Driver’s licence. A