Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (69 page)

She knew she needed
to focus on the positives or she’d lose her mind.  After all, the threat to her
daughter was finally gone; Tanner Suarez had been banished to hell where she
hoped he was agonizing over scorching flames for eternity.  For all the evil
he’d done during his short life on Earth, he deserved it and she wasn’t sorry. 
No, the only thing she regretted was that the bastard hadn’t suffered nearly
long enough for her to feel satisfied.  After the misery he’d brought to her
sister, her child and herself, she’d have enjoyed watching him writhing in pain
for a good long while, but that wasn’t to be.

She’d have to
settle for knowing that he could no longer hurt any of them.

Another bright spot
was knowing that Jake had chosen her over his need for vengeance.  He could
have exacted his own justice today against Diego Fuentes, but he hadn’t.  For
her, he’d walked away.  And now, she was safe, in his home, with her daughter
sleeping down the hall in a room he’d created just for her.  All of them were
together, under one roof, breathing easily.  Swallowing hard, she realized that
when all the chips were down, the man she’d fallen in love with had chosen her
over his need for revenge and her heart expanded.  He’d been telling her all
along that she was the most important thing in his world, but today, he’d shown
her what truly mattered to him.

And it hadn’t been
his need for retribution for his sister’s death.

By walking away
from Diego Fuentes, he’d shown her that his first priority was and would always
be her and Heaven.

And if anybody
asked her, a show was a hell of a lot more satisfying than a tell any day of
the week.

Turning her head as
she heard the bedroom door open, she smiled as Jake walked into the room,
scratching his bare chest.  Sexy as hell in a low-riding pair of grey sweats
that showcased his gorgeous abs and the stunning vee that led to his groin, she
felt her core instantly clenching in reaction to the view.  Shifting onto her
side and propping her chin on her hand, she watched him prowl toward her,
silently admiring the way the ink painting his muscular arm and torso shifted
as he moved.  “Is she out?” Harmony asked softly, her eyes never leaving his
mouthwatering body.

“Like a light,” he
murmured, his low voice gravelly as he bent at the waist and dropped one large
tanned hand over her towel covered abdomen.  Covering her mouth for a lingering
kiss, he nipped her lower lip as he withdrew, meeting her eyes as he stared
down at her.  “You feel better after your shower, darlin’?”

“I think I finally
feel clean again,” she declared with a small smile, lifting a hand to run her
fingers against the stubble on his jaw. 

“You were never
dirty, baby,” he reminded her sternly, perching on the edge of the bed at her
waist and tucking a still wet strand of her hair behind her ear, his fingers
trailing over the shell of her ear in a tender caress. 

“I felt filthy… his
hands all over me.”  Harmony shuddered, wrinkling her nose as she remembered
the feel of those evil hands on her flesh.  “I was beginning to wonder if there
was enough hot water in the world to cure that feeling.  When I think of how
Honor must feel…”  She trailed off, unable to continue as her throat
thickened.  Looking away from Jake’s kind eyes, she shook her head as she
chewed on her lower lip.  “I’m scared for her, Jake.  I wonder if we shouldn’t
have just stayed there tonight.” 

“Stop that,” he
growled in response, using his thumb to give her a gentle warning tap against
her chin.  “You’re gonna bite a hole in those pretty lips, and since I’m real
fond of that mouth and what it can do, that’ll piss me off.  Zeke’s with Honor,
Harmony.  He ain’t gonna leave her until he thinks it’s safe for her to be left
alone.  You saw the way she was clinging to his hand at the hospital.  Woman
refused to turn loose of him while they tended that bump on her skull.  I’m
honestly surprised that Cain got the docs talked into releasing her.  I thought
for sure they’d keep her in there overnight.”

Harmony shook her
head.  “Honor hates hospitals.  Ever since… well, you know.  Anyway, she begged
Zeke to take her home, and Zeke talked to Cain.  Between the two of them, they
convinced the on-call doctor to let her go home.  She’ll rest better in her own
bed anyway.  There are bad memories for her in that hospital.  In her bedroom,
not so much.”

“You called and
checked on her and Patience yet?” he asked, glancing at the phone of the
nightstand as he settled one hand on her hip.

“Just got off the
phone with Abel before you came in here.  He said that he just crammed a pill
down Patience’s throat and she was drifting off.  They ended up putting her in
my room.  He’s gonna stay upstairs with her tonight.”

Jake smiled
faintly.  “You know, if those two ever stop fighting long enough, they might
recognize that they’re head over heels for each other.”

Harmony laughed. 
“Because I love you and like all the pieces of your anatomy right where they
are, I’m not gonna tell my sister you said that.”

Jake smirked.  “You
think I’m wrong?”

“Didn’t say that. 
I just think it’s going to take something like a threat of an impending
Apocalypse to force my sister to admit she doesn’t begrudge Abel Turner every
breath of air he breathes,” Harmony returned with a giggle.  “I think he’s
praying that he can just keep her so stoned tonight that she doesn’t notice him
at her bedside all night.”

Nodding, Jake toyed
with another strand of his woman’s silky hair.  “Sounds like a good plan.”

“Zeke’s sitting in
with Honor.  She’s still sleeping off the effects of the sedative they gave her
at the hospital.  She came to for a little while, but Zeke was able to soothe
her back to sleep.  Abel said he hasn’t moved from the chair beside her bed
since he carried her in the house.  Cain made Faith go home about an hour ago,
and Uncle Jethro and Aunt Orla are bunking down in the double bed in Heaven’s
room.  So, it’s a pretty full house over there.  I’m not sure where we would
have slept if we stayed, but I can’t help feeling a little guilty that we left. 
Especially since it was my ex-…”

Jake cut her off
with a finger against her lips.  “Don’t finish that, Harmony,” he cautioned
grimly.  “If I have to hear you try and take the blame for Tanner Suarez and
his shit on your shoulders one more time, you’re gonna feel my hand against
that gorgeous ass of yours.  You are not responsible for anything he did. 
None
of this was ever your fault.  Nobody thinks it was except you. Darlin’, you’ve
gotta let that shit go before it eats away your soul.”

Harmony’s throat
burned as she stared up into Jacob’s loving eyes.  “It’s hard not to think of
it as my fault.”

“It’s hard for me
to understand how you can think it
is
,” Jake countered fiercely.  “You
were hurt by that man as much as anybody, baby.  I know you don’t see it that
way; but it’s true.”

“He got what he
deserved,” Harmony told him, sighing as she leaned back against the pillows.

“No, he deserved a
hell of a lot worse, but I’ll settle for the fucker being dead,” Jake disputed
with a growl.  “Every fucking time I see these bruises or I look at this fucking
bandage, my gut clenches because I can see how close Heaven and I came to
losing you,” he admitted in a raw voice.  Gently tracing the gauze covering the
cuts on her neck, he shook his head.  “Makes me wanna go back and put more
holes in that fuck’s gut.”

“He already had
plenty of those,” Harmony reminded him, lifting her hand to cover his at her
throat.  “He had four different men shooting at him.”

“Yeah,” Jake
murmured, lacing their hands together and guiding them to rest on her pillow. 
“Never thought Diego Fuentes and I would be on the same side about anything…
let alone getting the woman I love out of harm’s way.”

“You believe me,
don’t you?” Harmony asked.  She’d shared the entire story with Jake in the
kitchen after they’d gotten home and installed Heaven in front of a movie. 
He’d listened to the whole tale without comment, his body stiff and unyielding
as he had leaned against the granite kitchen counter.  When she’d finally given
it all to him, he’d stood there looking at her for a long time, quiet and
still.  Then he’d crossed the room and taken her in his arms, buried his face
in her neck and muttered, “Lucky  thing I didn’t kill the bastard years ago. 
That would have sucked.”  Harmony had been relieved, but she still sensed he
wasn’t entirely satisfied with the way things had turned out.

Jake pressed a soft
kiss to her cheek as he assured her softly. “Baby, you could tell me the moon
was on fire, little green men have taken up residence in the forest, and Elvis
was alive, and I’d believe you.  You don’t lie, baby.  I know that.”

“Then, are you okay
with what I shared?  I don’t wanna push, and if I’m overstepping my boundaries,
you can tell me…”

“There aren’t any
boundaries between us, Harmony.  And I wouldn’t say I’m
okay
with what Diego
told you, but I believe it.”  Blowing out a hard breath, Jake forced his tense
shoulders to relax as he looked down at her.  “I spent a lot of years hating
Diego Fuentes with a bone deep, soul crushing intensity.  I been biding my time
for twenty years to watch that bastard fall.  Learning that I hated the wrong
man all this time… finding out that I’d focused all that anger on the wrong
person – I’d be a liar if I said that it wasn’t fuckin’ with me.  But I’ve got
you now.  I have Heaven.  I’ve got better shit to do than plot revenge.  A lot
better things.  Don’t get me wrong, I pray Diego brings his father down for
what he did.  Bastard has it coming.  I just won’t be there to see it.  I don’t
need that anymore.  I’ve got what I need right here in this house.”

“You quit a career
you loved for me, Jake.  You’re turning your life upside down to be with us,”
Harmony remarked gently.  “Are you sure you won’t resent doing all that for
us?”

Jake chuckled
deeply as he shook his head at the woman in his bed.  “You still don’t get it,
do you?  Darlin’, I spent a fuckload of years doing bad shit for good reasons
in the name of my job.  I’m proud of what I accomplished, but that doesn’t mean
that I liked the man I had to be.  Here, in this little town with you and Heaven
and the rest of your crazy family, I found the man I wanna be.  I’m a Daddy
now.  I’m a respectable property and small business owner.  And I’m gonna be a
husband in no more than about six weeks so you best get on that shit,” he
finished with a stubborn set of his jaw

 Harmony’s jaw
dropped as her eyes widened.  “I-is that your way of proposing, Jacob Stone?”
she asked when she could finally move her stunned lips.

“Proposing would
indicate I made a request that you could refuse if you took a notion.  I ain’t
doing that shit.  I’m goin’ with makin’ an irrefutable statement instead.  You
listening?  Here it is.  You’re marryin’ me, Harmony McKinnon, and makin’ a
completely honest man out of me.   We’re not doing that half-assed livin’ in
sin bullshit for any longer than the six weeks it takes you to plan our wedding
which I
know
you can do because you’re a kickass wedding planner.  We’re
doing this shit up right and proper, and I’m not given you a chance to say no
to me.”  Jake was unrelenting as he continued, laying it all out for her. 
“Tanner’s dead, so that means I can formally adopt Heaven now without any
problems.  She’s callin’
me
Daddy, and I love it, but she’s gonna wear
my last name just like you do.  I’ll tell Abel tomorrow that he needs to get
started on that shit, too,” he mused aloud as his woman gaped at him.  “And you
and our girl are moving in here starting
now
.  I bought this house for
all of us and this is where we’re gonna be staying.  You’ll start every day in
my bed under my roof, and you’re gonna end it that night in the same position. 
I love you – so deep that I can feel you inside me every time I take a breath,
Harmony.  I’m not letting go of that feeling and I’m not gonna let you avoid it
either.”

Harmony opened and
closed her mouth, trying to find her words as Jacob leaned over her, bracing
one arm on either side of her head.

“Say you get all
this, Harmony.  Say you want it, too,” Jake demanded, his lips hovering just
above hers.

“Y-yes,” she
whispered a split second before his mouth covered hers, his tongue forcing its
way between her lips to tangle with hers.  Sinking her fingers into his hair,
she moaned into his kiss, meeting every stroke of his tongue with one of her own,
relishing the feel of her smooth lips dominating hers.  She wasn’t sure how
long they exchanged deep, wet kisses, but when he lifted his head, his lips
were lifted in a self-satisfied smile.  “I can’t believe you just bossed your
way into marrying me, adopting my daughter and moving us in here.”

“What you call
bossy, I call assertive.”  Reaching one long arm toward the nightstand, he
jerked the drawer open and rooted around inside.  “I did forget something,
though.”

Harmony raised one
eyebrow.  “Your vow to keep me barefoot and pregnant as much as you possibly
can, Tarzan?”

“That goes without
saying.  Although, for a while, I think it just needs to be the three of us.  I
want Heaven to understand that no matter how many kids we have, she’s always
gonna be my child, too.  My first child.  We add another baby in right away,
she might not get that,” Jake replied, never missing a beat as he found what he
was searching for, palmed it and pushed the drawer closed.