Page 27 of The Forbidden Texan
“Ahh, were you going to surprise me?”
At the sound of his deep voice, she spun around to see Jake standing in the doorway, leaning against the jamb.
Instantly, a blush heated her cheeks. “No. I just wanted to see if your new furnishings looked satisfactory.”
“I’d say you’ve done a bang-up job,” he said in a deep voice, walking to her. With each step closer, her pulse accelerated and she could barely get her breath as she watched him.
“Jake, we just talked about this—”
“About what?” he asked, his eyes twinkling with mischief.
“About touching and kissing and not being businesslike at all.”
He wrapped his arms around her waist and her pulse drummed. “Darlin’, we haven’t been businesslike since the first hour we were together. If we weren’t then, it’ll never happen now. Too late. Too many hot kisses. You make me think of a lot of things, but neither business nor employer-employee relations come to mind.”
“Jake, you’re teasing,” she said, trying to get some willpower and backbone and get out of his bedroom before he kissed her. “I’m getting out of here,” she said.
“Without a kiss? Do you want to kiss? I do. You’re a very sexy woman and I want to kiss you at least one more time today. It will make this whole day worth all the work.”
She had to smile at that. “You’re rotten. You know I can’t resist you. We’re piling up a bunch of trouble and I don’t want a lot of heartache after I leave here.”
He sobered and looked at her. “That does throw a cold blanket on hot kisses,” he said quietly. “I don’t want to hurt you. Okay, Emily, my darlin’. I’ll see you at dinner tonight.”
He stepped back, made a sweeping bow and held his hand in the direction of the open door. She got the message and left while she still could, fighting an intense urge to turn around, walk back into his arms and kiss him.
What was happening? He’d done what she wanted—he hadn’t kissed her—yet, now she ached to be in his arms? She couldn’t understand her own tangled feelings. No man had ever caused her this much trouble and longing the way Jake was. Her concentration was shot, which had never happened before, and that worried her. Jake was not the man to ensnare her thoughts and fill her with longing because he would never be serious and that’s all she would ever be. If she fell in love with him, she would want marriage. Something he never wanted.
Shaking her head to banish the confusing thoughts and images, she forced herself to go back to work and appraise the many items they’d set aside. But the afternoon dragged.
They brought dinner in and she ate with Jake, just the two of them. Everyone else had gone to Flat Hill for the night and she was alone with Jake. He was charming, talking about his Hill Country ranch, his plans to settle there and how pretty it was, how different from this ranch. He invited her to come see it, but it was a casual invitation and she didn’t think he would even remember it. He was entertaining, friendly and remote, and she got the sense he had decided to try to get their relationship back to business-only.
It was what she had wanted. Right?
* * *
During the week, Jake stuck to business and they both worked, trying to get things sorted—what he wanted to keep at the Long L Ranch, what he wanted to take with him to keep elsewhere and what he wanted disposed of.
After a week of working on the house and going through things, they flew back to Dallas on Friday night. She stopped by her parents’ house to see them. They were gone, but Lucas was home.
“Mom left a note and said to hang around. They’ll be home in an hour or thereabouts. They went to Dallas to shop. How’s the old ranch?”
“We’re changing the ranch house and it’s going to look good. You should come see.”
“Thanks. I’ll pass on that. Doug and I guessed that you’re going to the shindig tomorrow night to honor Jake.”
“As a matter of fact, I am,” she said, wondering whether Lucas would give her grief over her dinner date.
“Well, Jake did something good in rescuing the dogs and we figured you’d go. You know how we feel about rescue dogs, so Doug, Will and I reserved tables and we’re taking friends.”
Surprised, she smiled. “Thank you. That’s really good news. Jake will be so pleased because he’s trying to keep his promises to Thane and the biggest one was to try to end the Ralston-Kincaid feud.”
Lucas faced her with his hands on his hips. “It’s a cause we support, obviously, since we have rescue dogs. One more note to tell Jake on the subject of ending the feud—I invited a Ralston to go with me. Harper Ralston. She’s a jewelry designer.”
“Lucas, that is marvelous. Jake will really be pleased.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t invite her to go with me to make Jake happy. I did decide to speak to her after your request that we try talking to Ralstons.”
“I’ll look forward to meeting her. I’m so pleased and I know Jake will be. He misses Thane and he’s trying to do all he can.”
