Jake leaned against the door, thinking that there
was no way her body wasn’t sore this morning. It had to be after the intensity of that kind of lovemaking. He walked over to the bed. Reaching down he uncovered the rest of her body. Leaning closer he touched her.
His fingertips gently stroked her breasts before moving lower, skimming across her abdomen and moving lower still to caress the area around her inner thighs. From the look in her eyes, he could tell that this part of her body was sensitive to his touch. The part of him that had become so attuned to her felt the discomfort she was trying hard to hide.
“You’re sore, baby,” he said gently, tenderly.
Not giving Diamond a chance to respond to his comment, in one smooth sweep he picked her up in his arms. Walking through doors that led into rooms extending from his bedroom, he entered the room where he’d had workout equipment and a hot tub installed several years ago. He had discovered nothing soothed his tired, sore, aching body more after a long, tiring day spent on the range than relaxing in his hot tub.
Gently placing Diamond on her feet, he quickly began removing his own clothes. After that was done, he picked her up again and climbed the few stairs and carefully stepped into the water. He cradled her into his lap as he sank lower in his seat, allowing the hot water to completely cover their bodies. His hands gently massaged her body, kneading her flesh, as he tried to help release its soreness.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you this way,” he said tenderly, regretfully. “But last night I wanted you something awful, sweetheart.”
Diamond settled against him, loving the feel of the hot water swirling around them, over their bodies. She
loved the feel of him caressing her body. “I wanted you just as bad, Jacob, so you don’t have to apologize. That’s one bad thing about us being apart so much.”
“What’s that?”
“When we do spend time together, we try making up for lost time.”
Jake nodded, knowing that was true, at least somewhat. He had a feeling he would probably want her just as much and just as often even if he looked in her face every single day.
“I may have a remedy for that,” she said quietly.
Hearing the sedateness in her voice, Jake looked down at her curiously. “What’s your remedy?”
“After I wrap up things in California with the project I’m presently working on, I want to move home permanently.”
Instant spirals of happiness surged through Jake’s entire body. He fully understood what she was saying, what she was offering. In his heart he knew that she had long ago accepted Whispering Pines as her home, which was something his ex-wife had never been able to do. Diamond had once explained to him that her home was where her heart was, and her heart would always be with him.
Although he knew what she was saying, he wanted to be absolutely sure nonetheless. “Is that really what you want, sweetheart?” he asked, his voice husky with emotion.
She turned in his arms to look at him. “Yes. What I want is to stop being hounded by the media. I want to stop having my private life the main topic over breakfast in homes around the country. I want that same private life—the one I’m sharing with you—off limits.”
Diamond then tilted her chin up and met his searching gaze. “But most of all, Jacob, I want to build a future, a solid future with you here at Whispering Pines. I want to be your ranch mate as well as your soul mate. I want to always be here when you come home after spending a day on the range. I’m tired of feeling like a drop-in lover.”
She draped her arms around his neck. “And more than anything, I want your baby. Boy or girl, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s from your seed. One that you’ve released inside my body while loving me.”
Tears began misting her eyes. “You have been so wonderful, Jacob. You have been so very understanding. You’ve been my beacon of light during the storm and my calm after the storm. All the while I was jet-setting around the world, you were here waiting patiently every time I came home. I know how hard that must have been on you, to love me, sometimes from so far and not be able to acknowledge the fact that I was your woman, that I was your wife. You had to put up with reading garbage about me and other men, although you knew in your heart it wasn’t true. I had selfishly asked a lot of you, and convinced myself it was for the best for the both of us. But now it’s over. Whatever happens, we’ll deal with it. The next time I come home, I don’t plan on leaving again. I love you, Jacob, so very much.”
Jake pulled her to him and cradled her in his arms. For the moment, he couldn’t say anything. He just wanted to hold her and feel her tucked in his arms.
“And I love you,” he said moments later. His heart was about to burst with all the love he felt for her. He lifted her chin with his fingers to meet her gaze. “But what about your chance at winning an Oscar? I don’t
want to take that away from you. I don’t want to stand in the way of you fulfilling your dream.”
Diamond smiled at him. “You won’t. Winning an Oscar doesn’t matter anymore.” Drawing her legs up, she twisted around in his lap. “I think
Black Butterfly
has a good chance of winning Oscars for both me and Sterling next year. I believe our performances were just that good.”
Jake nodded, knowing that anything she and Sterling starred in together was of excellent quality.
Black Butterfly
was a movie about early Spain under Moorish power, and the black Spanish queen that had ruled the country during that time. It was based on Spanish history that very few people knew about, but one that would be brought to the big screen with Diamond and Sterling in its leading roles. The movie was due to be released in June, and already critics were predicting it would be the hit of the summer.
Sterling and Diamond had filmed the movie together in Spain several months ago, right after Sterling had gotten married. The media had caused quite a stir, trying to figure out how Sterling was going to balance his recent marriage and his alleged affair with Diamond. Unfortunately Sterling had not explained his and Diamond’s true relationship to his wife Colby, but she had trusted him enough not to believe the newspapers and tabloid headlines.
“Will you accompany me to the premiere showing?” Diamond asked, interrupting Jake’s thoughts.
“Of course I will. I wouldn’t miss any chance to be seen in public by your side.”
Sighing happily, Diamond settled more deeply in Jake’s arms.
“So you want a baby, huh?” Jake asked, reaching down and running the tips of his fingers over her flat tummy. The thought of his baby growing inside of her definitely felt right. The knowledge that he was in his forties, when most men ended rather than began fatherhood, didn’t bother him.
“In all honestly, Jacob,” Diamond said, looking directly at him, “I want babies, but I’ll be more than happy to start off with just one.”
Jake chuckled. “That’s fine with me just as long as you don’t get any ideas about having a tribe like Kyle and Kimara are intent on doing. With the twins she gave birth to on Christmas Day that makes six.”
Diamond smiled. “I heard Kimara tell your mother last night that she wants another baby.”
“What! They’re nuts!”
Diamond laughed. “They like babies.”
Jake snorted. “Kyle and Kimara like doing what you do to get babies. They need to stop spending so much time at Special K,” he said of Kyle and Kimara’s beautiful cabin in the North Carolina mountains. “Every time they spend time there is a pregnancy just waiting to happen.” He frowned. “As Kyle’s financial adviser, maybe I need to persuade him to invest heavily in a pharmaceutical company that specializes in developing birth control.”
Diamond shook her head. “Leave them alone, Jacob. Let Kyle and Kimara have all the babies they want.”
He reached out and cupped her face between his two hands so she would look into his dark eyes, bringing her mouth just inches from his. “If you insist.”
“I do insist, and I think we should concentrate on
making a baby of our own.” Diamond twisted her body around to straddle his thighs. When she did, the core of her femininity rubbed intimately against him, making his body harden.
“You’re playing with fire, Diamond,” he growled in her ear. The feel of her pressing against him was driving him insane.
“But I like your fire, Jacob,” she whispered, fitting her body even closer to him, enjoying the sound of his uneven breathing, his quick intake of breath.
Jake’s gaze moved lovingly over her features as hot, throbbing passion shook his body. “You’re sore, baby, and if we do what people do to make babies, I’ll have to carry you around the rest of the day because you’ll be unable to walk.”
“Big deal, carry me around. I like being in your arms.”
“How will we explain things to my family?”
“What’s there to explain? From the little girl-talk I had with one particular woman in your family, it seems most Madaris men are in heat most of the time anyway. So they’ll understand the reason for my inability to move around comfortably.”
“You don’t say,” Jake said, wondering which woman in his family she’d had that conversation with, and then having a pretty good hunch. He let out a slow breath as he moved his hands down Diamond’s back and over her hips to hold her firmly to stop her from rubbing rhythmically against him.
“I’m just repeating what I’ve been told,” she said, leaning forward to kiss the flat, dark nipples on his chest, and feeling his body respond as her tongue swept across it.
“Behave yourself, Diamond, or you’ll be sorry later,” he muttered thickly, trying to retain control of their situation. He couldn’t think straight when she outright disobeyed him and the tip of her tongue continued to trace a path across his chest, moving from one male nipple to the next.
“You’ll be sorry later,” he repeated warningly, his voice husky, his breath catching in his throat.
Diamond shook her head, smiling. “No, I won’t be sorry later. I’ll be very satisfied later. We’ll both be.”
She brought her face to his and gave him a kiss that immediately made him forget everything except for pleasing her and giving her everything she wanted.
J
ustin Madaris tried to hide his grin as he watched the play of emotions on his uncle Jake’s face. Usually Jake was an expert at hiding his emotions. But not this time and definitely not today: emotions or no emotions, Jake was no match for the group of women surrounding him.
It would be interesting, Justin thought, what the outcome of the confrontation would be. His wife Lorren, Dex’s wife Caitlin, Clayton’s wife Syneda, his two sisters—Traci and Kattie—and his cousin Felicia were not going to give up and back down. They were intent on being just as stubborn as Jake.
Justin glanced around the card table at the husbands of those women. Fully aware of what was happening across the room, none of them seemed inclined to go to Jake’s rescue or aid him in his cause. The only thing
they were intent on doing was finishing their poker game. They were willing to let Jake deal with their wives the best way he could. After all, the women were his nieces. Besides, they knew Jake’s fight was a losing one and that pretty soon, being the smart man that he was, he would realize it, too.
Justin smiled. Because he loved his uncle and because he knew this power play of woman versus man could last the rest of the day, Justin took a deep breath and decided to intervene, taking on his role of peacemaker in the family. “Give it up, Jake, and give in. You may as well because you’re fighting a losing battle. Give them what they want, and come join us. The game’s getting pretty interesting over here.”
Jake sent Justin, as well as the other men who were seated across the room at the card table, a hard glare. “It wouldn’t be a losing battle if all of you put more effort into controlling your wives.”
“Our wives are your nieces,” Daniel Green reminded Jake, not bothering to look up from his close study of the cards he held in his hands. “Surely you can get them to do something simple like going along with your way of thinking. That should be easy enough for you since you had a hand in raising Felicia, and everyone knows how controlled she was before Trask married her.”
Felicia Madaris Maxwell rolled her eyes upward. “Thanks a lot, Dan.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Felicia looked at her uncle, who was only a few years older than she was. “Really, Jake, all we’re asking for is one night, a girls’ night at the cabin, not an entire week’s leave of absence. You’ve had Diamond
for eighteen months, surely you can miss her presence for one night.”
Jake crossed his arms over his chest. “Why can’t you do this girls’ thing right here? This house is plenty big enough. Why do you want to spend a night at the cabin?”
“For privacy,” Caitlin Madaris said.
“For bonding,” Traci Madaris Green added.
“To cultivate sisterhood,” Lorren Madaris threw in.
“To get Diamond away from you for one night to give her body a rest.”
Jake frowned. Not surprisingly the last statement was made by Clayton’s wife Syneda. She was known to not bite her tongue about anything. She wouldn’t hesitate to lay her cards on the table and play what she thought was a winning hand, something her husband was probably doing across the room at that very moment. Jake had a feeling she had been the one to share that information with Diamond about the Madaris men constantly being in heat.
Jake cleared his throat. “I don’t have a problem with the privacy, the bonding, the cultivating of sisterhood or,” looking pointedly at Syneda he said, “giving my wife a night of rest, but I still don’t understand why you need to do it at the cabin and not here.”
“Come on, Uncle Jake, a girls’ night at the cabin won’t hurt anything. Then you guys can play poker all night,” his niece Kattie said.
Jake almost told her it was their plan to do that anyway. He let out a sigh and had to admit Syneda was right. His wife did need a break from him. She deserved at least one restful night. Right now she was upstairs sleeping off the exhaustion from their full
morning of lovemaking. But still, he wasn’t ready to give up his fight.
“Don’t you ladies have children to take care of?”
“No,” Caitlin answered quickly. “Mama Marilyn and Poppa Jonathan took the kids back to Houston with them, so all of us are children-free.”
“And I don’t have a child to worry about yet,” Syneda added, smiling.
Jake lifted a brow. “Maybe that’s your problem. Maybe you need a child to worry about so you can settle down and stop being everybody’s advocate.” He glanced across the room at his nephew. “Clayton, you need to work on getting your wife pregnant.”
To Jake’s surprise, and to the annoyance of the men at the card table who were intent on finishing the game, Clayton placed his cards down and stood up. He held out his arms and Syneda walked across the room into them. He wrapped her in his arms and lovingly kissed her on her lips. “My wife
is
pregnant. She found out this morning.”
At first shocked silence, then earth-shattering elation followed Clayton’s surprise announcement. The women raced over and pulled Syneda from Clayton’s arms.
“Oh, Syneda, that’s wonderful,” Caitlin Madaris said in a choked voice. “Have you told the folks yet?”
Syneda was crying now, getting all emotional. So were all the other women. “Yes, Clayton and I told them before they left to return to Houston. They were very happy for us.”
“I can’t believe you’re pregnant,” a teary Kattie was saying. She was next in line to give Syneda a hug. “You and Clayton just got married eight months ago.”
“This is a planned pregnancy, and at least we waited until
after
the wedding,” Clayton said to his sister, playfully pulling one of the many braids on her head, and reminding her of how her situation had been.
“Tell Clayton to shut up, Raymond,” Kattie said to her husband as she gave Syneda a hug.
“Shut up, Clayton,” Raymond Barnes said teasingly to his brother-in-law. “So we goofed. Everybody isn’t as fetishistic about birth control as you were,” he added. “You’re the only man I know who kept a case of condoms in his closet.”
“Oh, Syneda, we’re so happy for you,” Traci and Felicia were saying together, giving Syneda double hugs.
Next came Lorren Madaris. She stood in front of Syneda for the longest time without saying anything. She didn’t have just a few tears, she had an entire bucket of them. And everyone in the room understood why. Lorren and Syneda were childhood friends who had grown up together in the same foster home. There was a strong bond between them. Through the years, they had always been there for each other and now by marrying brothers, they were blessed to be in the same wonderful family.
Lorren finally gave her dearest and closest friend a long hug and burst into more tears.
“You ought to do something before Lorren has us floating out of here, Justin,” Dex leaned over and whispered to his brother.
Knowing Dex was right, Justin stood and walked over to Syneda and Lorren, who were hugging and crying at the same time. Gently pulling Lorren into his arms, he handed Syneda over into Clayton’s.
“Congratulations, baby brother. Welcome to fatherhood,” he said to Clayton before placing full attention to consoling his wife.
Jake walked over to his nephew by blood and his niece by marriage. He cared deeply for the both of them and like everyone else, he was caught up in the happiness and the excitement of their news.
He shook his head. Clayton and Syneda had been the least likely two to get involved with each other, and had shocked the hell out of the family when they had announced that they were getting married. Now they were surprising everyone again with Syneda’s pregnancy. He thought they were the two least likely people who’d want to become parents, at least this soon. He’d figured they would wait at least four to five years. He had always thought they were more into escalating their professional careers than their family status. Now it seemed that starting a family meant a whole lot to them. There was no doubt in his mind that they would make good parents.
“Have you told your father yet, Syneda?” Jake asked.
Syneda looked up at Jake, smiling at him through her tears. “Not yet. Clayton and I are going to Austin as soon as we leave here tomorrow. We’ll tell Dad then. I can’t wait.”
“I wish Diamond was awake so she could share in your good news. She and I are very happy for you and Clayton.”
“Thanks, Jake.”
The card game forgotten, the other men stood and walked over to console their wives, who seemed intent on staying emotional.
Dex Madaris let out a huge chuckle. “Heaven help us all. That kid will be the most argumentative child on earth.”
“And one of the best-dressed,” Kattie piped in, thinking about Clayton’s and Syneda’s flair for fashion.
“Heaven help the future women of Houston if it’s a boy,” Raymond Barnes said, laughing. “Especially if he turns out to be a chip off the old block. You may want to put that case of condoms somewhere in storage.”
“And heaven help the future gents if it’s a girl,” Jake added, grinning. “She’ll have no pity on the opposite sex.”
Trask Maxwell pulled his wife into his arms. “I wonder what’s going to happen next,” he said. “With my and Felicia’s wedding last month, news of Jake’s secret marriage yesterday and finding out Clayton and Syneda are going to be parents today—shows that there are never dull moments in this family.”
At least that was something everyone in the room agreed with.
Jake tipped into his bedroom and found Diamond still sleeping. The sun was shining brightly into the room through the blinds—however, the way they were angled kept any direct sunlight from hitting her.
He walked over to the bed. She was lying atop the covers in a short, very skimpy nightshirt that was unbuttoned. His breath caught in his throat when he looked down at her. He thought of his family downstairs, celebrating Clayton and Syneda’s news and wondered just how he would feel when the day came and Diamond told him she was carrying his child.
Jake knew that would be the happiest day of his life. He knelt beside the bed and reached out to touch her. Being careful not to wake her, he pushed her shirt aside and let his hands touch her flat belly. It was a belly that would one day grow with his child. He had never given much thought to fatherhood until he had met Diamond. Now he couldn’t help but think of anything else than them sharing a love and a product of their love.
He caressed her stomach, imagining a child growing inside of her. His child. He would love it, protect it and be the kind of father his father was to him, his brothers were to their children and his nephews were to theirs. He bowed his head in silent prayer, thanking God for sending this woman, this very special woman, into his life. And he made a vow that if they were ever blessed with a child, he would always be there for his son or daughter. Sealing his promise, he leaned over and placed a special kiss on her stomach.
Diamond mumbled in her sleep. “Jacob.” His name was whispered off her lips while she slept.
Jake placed a kiss on her lips. “I love you.”
Standing, he walked across the room and eased out of the door, knowing if he stayed he would be tempted to wake her and make love to her again and again and again.
The man was angry. He was more angry than he had been in a long time. He crushed the newspaper in his hand. If Jacob Madaris thought he was going to get away with this, he had another thought coming.
The man pushed himself back from the table, disgusted with the way things were going. If what he had read was true and Diamond had been secretly married
eighteen months, then she had been at risk all that time. He could not let any man hurt her. Men could be physically brutal to women like her, and he would protect her with his life if he had to. He was determined that he would protect her the way he had not protected his sister.
“A girls’ night at the cabin?” Diamond asked her husband excitedly. “Oh, Jacob, that’s sounds wonderful. Whose idea was it?”
Not mine, that’s for sure,
he thought as he sat across the bedroom in a chair and watched his wife get dressed. Damn, she looked good. She had slept most of the morning, and it was a little past noon. He watched as she struggled with the zipper on her jeans, thinking just how tempted he was to walk across the room to peel the things off her again.
Jake forced his mind back to what they were discussing. “I think it was Syneda’s idea, but then all the others jumped on the bandwagon about it.’
Diamond looked up from snapping her jeans at the irritation in Jake’s disgruntled tone. She studied his features. “I take it you’re not too crazy about the idea.”
One corner of Jake’s mouth lifted into a smile. “I’m not crazy about any idea that takes you away from me, even for a night.”
After slipping into her blouse, Diamond walked across the room and eased into her husband’s lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. “It’s just for one night, Jacob. Besides, you had mentioned that you and the guys would be playing poker all night anyway.”
He sighed heavily. “I know, but I still wanted you close by.”
“And I will be.” Diamond snuggled closer into his arms. “I’ve never been to an all-girls’ sleepover before. I think it will be fun.”
“You’re kidding—you’ve never done the pajama party thing? I thought all girls did something like that at least once in their lifetime. I know for a fact that all my nieces used to have sleepovers all the time.”
“Well, I didn’t. My father wouldn’t allow it. He never wanted me to have close girlfriends.”
Jake frowned. He couldn’t help but wonder what other things she had missed out on during her childhood by being the daughter of Jack Swain. “But I thought you spent a lot of time with your grandmother while your father traveled.”
“I did, but Dad had given her strict rules and she knew better than to break them and put her at risk of losing me. So the only friends I had were the ones he selected for me.”
Intrigued and more curious about her childhood, he said, “Like Kyle and Sterling?”
“Yes. Dad thought friendships with men were safer. He claimed women befriended each other one minute then couldn’t stand each other the next. It was natural for me and Kyle Garwood to become friends since our families were well-acquainted. In fact, Kyle’s grandfather is the one who financed my father’s first movie. As a child growing up, I occasionally spent my summers at Kyle’s grandfather’s cabin in the mountains.”