“Jacob.”
As far as Diamond was concerned, there was no reality for the moment. She didn’t want to think about the fact she had met Jacob Madaris only a week ago. She didn’t want to remember that in two weeks she would be leaving this place and a continued relationship with him was not possible. She didn’t want to dwell on the fact that she was not a person who made
a practice of engaging in casual affairs. Regardless of how the media painted her, she had never been a woman with loose morals. But right now the only thing she wanted to think about was the fact that Jacob Madaris was seducing her in a way she had never been seduced before.
Right now was all that mattered because deep down in her heart, as strange as it seemed, and as much as she didn’t want it to be true, she had fallen head over heels in love with Jacob Madaris.
Diamond’s responses to his caresses were everything Jake hoped for. He had tried ignoring her, avoiding her and not wanting her. But each and every time he had looked at her, he had felt that hard quickening in his loins. Although he knew there could be no future for them, he had failed to get his mind to communicate that conclusion to his body. He had felt a pull at him that wanted to join his body to hers, to mate with her. With a groan he broke off the kiss and buried his face in her hair, twirling the soft strands around his fingers.
“I want you. I don’t understand why it’s like this between us. I can’t figure it out. I won’t figure it out. Tell me to stop, and I’ll walk away.”
Diamond looked at him, seeing the same flame of fire in his eyes that was in hers. “I can’t tell you to stop, Jacob, because I want this to happen as much as you do. I want you, too.” She wouldn’t say she didn’t understand it because she did. For her this was love.
Jake leaned down and his mouth devoured hers, hungrily, heatedly. Without breaking the kiss, with trembling hands he began removing her shirt. She let out a sensuous moan when his hands cupped her breasts and he leaned down and kissed them.
A delicious daze transcended her body when he began removing her jeans, his strong arms pulling them down past her hips. And when he had her fully unclothed before him, he proceeded to remove his own clothing.
She heard the sound of him ripping open a condom packet. Then a few moments later, with a deep, guttural moan of anticipation he kissed her again as his body covered hers.
With a soft growl of need and one smooth motion, he entered her at the same time that he intensified their kiss. The sweetest of passion, the hottest of desire tore between them as they became wrapped up in the torrid, fiery mating of their bodies. He established a rhythm for them, slow, fast, then slow again. He wanted to savor each and every moment inside her.
Diamond released a small cry of pleasure as every stroke of Jake’s body into hers fed a fierce hunger she’d developed only since meeting him. It flamed a resplendent fire that blazed to life only whenever he touched her. Her body was intoxicated with the pleasure he was giving her as he took his time and made love to her in a way she had never been made love to before, outdoors under the shafts of fading sunlight.
Jake broke off the kiss and looked down at her. Her eyes were half-closed, drowsy with desire as he made love to her, moving in and out of her body, making her his in this elemental and primitive way, and on a parcel of land he considered as his private domain. He wanted to please her in a way that he had never before pleased another woman. He was making love to her under the big blue Texas sky on the land he loved. Wanting more
of her, he slipped his hands under her hips to lift her to him, locking their bodies even closer together. “Look at me,” he whispered hotly. And she did, meeting his gaze while he made love to her.
When he felt her body spiraling to gratification beneath his, he felt that same sense of pending ecstatic culmination as raw, pulsating pleasure overtook him. He kissed her more deeply as they both became victims of the greatest pleasure of all, one of mind-shattering, uncontrolled passion. Their cries of pleasure became the only sounds that could be heard as their needs exploded into complete and total fulfillment.
Moments later Diamond drifted hazily back down to earth, fully aware of Jake’s hands still touching her as he held her in his arms. “Please don’t say you’re sorry,” she whispered silkily, burrowing her head against his shoulder.
Jake lifted her chin and met her gaze. Still half-dazed by what they had done, how they had done it and where they had done it, he looked at her. He had wanted her from the moment he had first laid eyes on her, when she had walked off Sterling’s plane onto his land. Every curve of her body had made him want to get inside her, and her smile had made him want to kiss her hard, long and deep. She was able to bring out a side of him that was uncontrolled, intense, consuming. No woman had ever done that before.
For some reason that he couldn’t explain to himself, never before had anything felt so right when it should have been all wrong. He should not be feeling such a sense of being overwhelmed, such a sense of captiva
tion for this woman. But he did. She was the first woman he had ever made love to in his special private place.
He leaned up and looked down at her. “The only thing I’m sorry about is the fact that we have only two weeks left to be together,” he said before devouring her mouth again.
J
ake and Diamond returned to the cabin just before dark. Their bodies were tired but totally satiated. They had remained in Jake’s private place, making love over and over again, and each time they had wanted each other that much more. But making love had not been all they had done. They had talked.
She had told him of her strained relationship with her father, her less than amiable parting of the ways with her ex-husband and her special friendship with Sterling. She had explained how she and Sterling had decided to take advantage of the rumor Samuel had started and feed the media’s frenzy that they were having an affair. That way men wouldn’t try coming on to her, and women—the less than brazen ones—would assume Sterling was spoken for. That worked out fine since neither of them wanted a serious relationship with anyone.
Jake in turn told her about his childhood growing up on Whispering Pines, and about the five older brothers he loved and respected. He talked to her about the brother who had gotten killed in Vietnam over thirty years ago, leaving a wife and two-year-old daughter behind. He had spoken of his love and affection for his nieces and nephews and that three of his nephews, Justin, Dex and Clayton, were so close to him in age that oftentimes people assumed the four of them were brothers.
As they stepped into the cabin and closed the door behind them, Jake pulled Diamond into his arms. He had to leave and return to camp. The men would be spending the next three to four nights on the range to continue moving the herd and as was customary, he would be with them. But now, the only thing he wanted was to take a hot shower and go to bed—with Diamond.
He didn’t want to think of the mistake he was making, knowing there could never be anything between them but these stolen moments. Their worlds were as different as day and night, but while she was here in his world he wanted to be with her.
He refused to compare her with his ex-wife any longer. Jessie had been spoiled, selfish and self-centered. Diamond was different. She was thoughtful, kind and considerate. She was everything that was good and decent. And she didn’t hate ranching and cowboys like Jessie had. She respected both, and he appreciated her for it. But he knew he could not even think about them sharing anything beyond two more weeks.
“I have to leave, Diamond, to go back.”
“Yes, I know and I understand,” she said, unwrapping her arms from around his waist.
Jake thought for a moment. Yes, she would understand. She was that type of woman. “What are your plans while I’m gone?” he asked her, wondering if she would be doing any more baking to pass the time away.
Diamond didn’t say anything for a long while as she looked up at him. Finally she said, “I’ll keep busy until you come back and make love to me again.”
Her words combined with the warmth of her smile nearly made him lose control all over again. He gently pulled her back into his arms. “Are you trying to make it hard for me to leave you?” he asked, placing a kiss on her temple.
Her smile widened against his shoulder. “You asked me what I’d be doing, didn’t you?”
Yes, he thought, he had asked her, and one thing he had discovered about Diamond was that she was straightforward and open with her answers.
He leaned down and kissed her lips. “Come walk me out.”
She walked him out onto the porch and watched as he mounted his horse. After he’d gotten settled, he sat with his hands folded on his saddle horn and looked down at her.
“Good night, Diamond. Pleasant dreams.”
She smiled saucily. “And they will be, Jacob, since they’ll be all about you.”
He grinned before urging his horse on. He told himself to keep riding and not look back, and he’d almost done just that until he had gotten to the top of the valley. Then he couldn’t help himself and glanced
back anyway. Diamond was still standing there, looking at him. Jake stopped his horse. He turned around and began galloping back down the path at a swift speed.
Diamond saw him coming back and wondered why he was returning. She stepped off the porch into the yard, not afraid that his horse would trample her. One thing she knew for certain was the fact that he was an expert horseman. Coming alongside of her, he reached down and captured her in his arms and swung her up in the saddle in front of him.
Jake captured the startled surprise off her lips, kissing her long, deep and hard. Then he quickly released her and placed her back down on her feet before turning and galloping off again. This time he didn’t look back.
“Wow!” was the only word Diamond could say at the moment. She just stood there until horse and rider were no longer in sight. It was another minute longer before she turned and went into the cabin.
Once inside she released a deep sigh as she replayed in her mind the scene that had just taken place. She touched her lips and felt heat surge through her body. She also felt something else…aches.
She couldn’t remember the last time her body had ached so much. Her thighs and backside were killing her. But these aches were special aches. She had never been happier to have aches that resulted from making love to the man she loved.
Sighing again, her thoughts slid back to all the activities she had been a part of that day. The time spent on the range and with Jacob. She shivered at the memory of how he had made love to her with such ten
derness. The physical pleasure they had shared took her breath away just thinking about it. She would have those memories until he returned.
She refused to face reality just yet. She didn’t want to think about the fact that her days at Whispering Pines were numbered. Even if he did want to continue seeing her after she left, she would go against it. He was a private person, and Whispering Pines was his private haven. Right now he had the freedom of coming and going whenever he felt like it without the worry of being photographed constantly or having a microphone shoved in his face. If the media got wind that he was her new love interest they would never leave him or Whispering Pines alone. His every move would be watched, chronicled and reported. Pesky reporters would camp outside the borders of his land, the snooping paparazzi would fly helicopters overhead and the tabloids would offer money to anyone willing to divulge any kind of scoop on Jacob and his family, as well. They wouldn’t stop with the present, they would also dig into his past. And even worse, if they couldn’t find anything they thought would be interesting to print, they would go to the extreme and make up something. Their goal was to sell magazines and newspapers. In doing so, Jacob’s life would become an open book, and she refused to let that happen to him. She loved him too much for that.
Knowing what would happen, she knew what she had to do. She would cherish the time she would spend with him on the land he loved and when she left to return to her other life, she would have her memories and there would be no regrets.
With a determined and made-up mind, she headed for the bathroom to take the long, hot bath she so desperately needed.
“Blaylock to Diamond. Blaylock to Diamond. Are you with me?”
Diamond’s attention was pulled back to the older man sitting across from her as they peeled a huge basket of apples for the jars of fruit preserves he planned to make. “I am now,” she said, smiling over at him. She wouldn’t tell him that her thoughts had been on Jacob, but she had a feeling he probably knew it already.
It had been five days since he and his men had left. What had started out as a three-to four-night trip had turned into six due to a heavy downpour of rain the day before. Blaylock had explained that when the rains came, an alternative route to the high pastures had to be taken, which would cost them another day or so. That had been the last thing she had wanted to hear. She was missing him something fierce.
Blaylock had been kind enough to pick her up from the cabin each morning to bring her to the ranch. He claimed with everyone gone, he was dying of loneliness. The time she had spent with him had been special. She had enjoyed listening to him as he recounted his former days on the rodeo circuit.
She smiled when she remembered the day that one of Jacob’s neighbors had unexpectedly dropped by. She’d had to hide out inside the ranch house a full three hours until he had left. But hiding out in the ranch house had been fun. Jacob had a beautiful home, and she had
given herself a complete tour of the place. All the rooms she had found to be enormous as well as immaculate.
When she had reached the second floor, she had known the moment she entered Jacob’s room. It was everything she had expected it to be. A fireplace covered one wall, and his bed was bigger than king-size. The huge room was tastefully decorated and looked quite comfortable. Maybe that was the reason she had decided to get in his bed and take a nap that day. She had been totally embarrassed when Blaylock found her there sometime later. The older man had been dropping hints of something going on between her and Jacob ever since. She had neither admitted nor denied anything.
“What were you asking me, Blaylock, before I became distracted?”
He smiled at her like he had known just where her thoughts had been. “I asked how do you like the cabin?”
“I like it. I can’t believe Jacob built it, but he’s never spent a night there.”
Blaylock frowned as he stood and walked over to the stove. “He has his reasons. That cabin holds some painful memories for the boy.”
Diamond looked a little puzzled. “In what way?”
Blaylock turned from the pot on the stove. “That house was a present for his wife. When they married they had moved into the old house with Jake’s mama. It was supposed to be a temporary arrangement. It’s my understanding Jake’s wife thought living on the ranch was going to be a temporary thing altogether. She thought once they were married she could con
vince Jake to give up ranching and move back to Boston and work at her father’s bank.”
A picture of Jacob in a business suit and carrying a briefcase formed in Diamond’s mind. She slowly shook her head. “I can’t imagine Jacob being anything but a rancher.”
“Anyone who really knows the boy wouldn’t be able to see it either. Don’t get me wrong now, Jake’s got brains. He’s smart when it comes to that financial stuff and has made a bunch of money over the years with investments. He knows how to play the stock market like nobody’s business. If anything, that’s his second passion. He even got the men around here investing their money, and it pays off real nicelike for them. Why, I even got me some hefty stock in several profitable corportations thanks to Jake. And he acts as a financial advisor for others including his family and your friends Sterling Hamilton and Kyle Garwood.”
Blaylock poured a cup of coffee as he continued. “But ranching is Jake’s first love. Yep. That’s the way it is for him, and that’s the way it’ll stay. He can wine and dine with the best of them city folks if he has to, but he prefers a bunkhouse to an opera house any day.”
Diamond nodded. Of all the things she and Jacob had talked about that afternoon they had spent alone at his private place, his ex-wife had not been one of them. “Did you know her? His ex-wife?”
Blaylock shook his head as he came back over to the table and sat down. “No, she was before my time. But I heard from his ma that she gave the boy a hard time of it, though. That was a pure shame since he truly did love her and all. She hated it here and didn’t care
who knew it. Jake went out of his way to make things nice for her here, but she didn’t care. She was a real city gal who enjoyed going to parties, the opera, sleek restaurants, those sorts of things. Jake’s just the opposite. He feels if it’s not here on Whispering Pines, he doesn’t need it.”
Diamond thought about all the things that Blaylock was saying. A woman who truly loved a man would not ask him to give up any of the things he loved for her. Knowing what he had gone through made her even more determined that there could never be anything more between them than what they would share before she left. Her life was filled with movie premiers, jetting all over the country and the latest fashions—none of the things he would ever be interested in. In a little over a week, she would be gone and that would be the end of it. She would never pressure him to disrupt his calm lifestyle for her chaotic one.
Diamond got up and walked over to the sink. She glanced out of the window. “Do you think the men will be returning tonight?”
Blaylock nodded. “If not tonight, it’ll be early morning.” He turned around in his chair and gazed thoughtfully at her before asking, “Do you want to hang around here tonight and wait for Jake?”
She couldn’t help but smile. She hadn’t fooled the old-timer one bit. “No, that’s okay. I’m sure he’ll be too tired when he gets in for company. I’ll go back to the cabin.”
Blaylock chuckled. “I bet no matter how tired the boy is when he gets here, he’ll be glad to see you. Jake Madaris ain’t no fool.”
It was near sunset when Blaylock returned Diamond to the cabin. Her earlier conversations with the man were still clearly in her mind. During the ride back, so many things were being debated inside of her all at once. First of all, she reminded herself, she was probably jumping the gun to think Jake had feelings for her. Just because they had made love didn’t necessarily mean anything. She was old enough to know that people slept together all the time with no special meaning other than the pleasure they would get out of it. Jake had not told her that he had any special feelings for her, so all her worry about leaving could be for nothing. The time they were spending together could very well be a casual affair to him and nothing more. If that was the case, she didn’t have to stress herself out about him not wanting whatever they were sharing now to end. There was a possibility he would expect it to.
By the time Diamond had finished her shower and curled up in a chair to try and read at least a chapter from a book she’d borrowed from Jake’s study, she knew she loved Jake no matter how he felt about her. And no matter what, she would never ask him to choose between a life with her or the ranch. The ranch would always come first. She would see to it.