J
ake had been back at the ranch less than five minutes and already he was in his room, preparing to take a hot shower. The five days spent on the range had been hard ones, and the torrential downpour that hit a few days ago hadn’t helped matters.
As usual, he was proud of his men and the fine work they’d done. They had gone above and beyond in displaying their skills as cowhands. Working together, they had successfully moved the entire herd of cattle to the high pastures. There had been no injuries and no flare-up of tempers.
His days had been busy from sunup to sunset. It was only at night after he settled into his sleeping bag that his mind became filled with thoughts of Diamond. There was nothing about her that he didn’t think about or remember. Whether it was the way she held her
head whenever she smiled, or the way she had stood so tall and so beautiful on the porch that afternoon, which had made him turn his horse around to give her that last parting kiss.
Thoughts of them making love had heated his body during the cool nights, and the fiery flame of the campfire had reminded him of the one afternoon their passions had blazed out of control. Every thought of her had been personal and intimate and had helped him through the exhausting days of the cattle drive.
He wanted to see her and didn’t want to wait until tomorrow to do so. The need to hold her in his arms had driven him in a mad race for home. As soon as he could take a shower and get back into some clothes again, he would go to her. He didn’t want to question this obsession with seeing her tonight. He would chalk it up to the fact that she was a lover unlike any he’d ever known.
He was about to unbutton his shirt when a knock sounded at his bedroom door. “Come in.”
Blaylock walked in and handed him a large tube of liniment. “I thought you could use this.”
The right side of Jake’s mouth curled into a smile. “Thanks, old man,” he said, taking the tube and placing it on his dresser. “I knew I was keeping you around for something.” He went back to unbuttoning his shirt.
“Her scent is still in here,” Blaylock said casually.
Without bothering to look up from what he was doing, Jake asked, “Whose?”
“Diamond’s.”
Jake’s head snapped up sharply. He frowned, then took a raspy breath. “Diamond? She was here? In this room?”
“Yep,” the older man replied, smiling. “Reed Duncan dropped by unexpectedly. Diamond was here that day and went upstairs to wait out his visit. Reed ended up staying a spell, and the next thing you know three hours had passed. After he left I came upstairs looking for Diamond and found her there sound asleep.”
“In my bed?” Jake asked. When he had first entered his bedroom, he’d thought he had picked up Diamond’s scent but assumed he’d imagined it.
Blaylock leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. “Yep, imagine that.” He stared long and hard at Jake. “And she was sleeping in it like it was a natural place for her to be. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear she’d been in that bed before, but I know that can’t be the case. But the way she was curled under those covers with so much familiarity, one would think that she had.”
Blaylock paused a second before asking, “Now isn’t that odd?”
Jake swallowed as he glanced from the older man to the bed. The picture of Diamond in his bed started a fire burning deep within him. He would’ve given anything to have been in that bed with her. He drew a long ragged breath. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“And you know what they say about a woman finding her way to a man’s bed.”
Jake raised his head slightly. He lifted his chin. “No, what do they say?”
“Some claim that once a woman finds her way to a man’s bed, it’s hard as heck to get her out of there. The problem is that they go straight from the bed and into his head. And once a woman finds her way into a
man’s head, he can’t seem to think of anything else but her.” Blaylock straightened his form. “You planning on going out tonight?”
Jake frowned as he looked at the older man. “Yeah, I thought about it. Why?”
“No reason. Just asking.” Blaylock crossed his arms over his ample belly. “I tried to get Diamond to wait here for you this evening, but she figured you’d be too tired for company. Would you have been too tired to see Diamond, Jake?”
Jake really didn’t like where this conversation was headed but he answered truthfully anyway. “No, not in this lifetime.”
“I didn’t think so,” Blaylock said simply before turning and walking back out of the room.
Jake was in such a hurry to finish undressing that he didn’t notice Blaylock’s smug smile.
The Jeep’s tires rumbled over a dip in the graveled road, making Jake tighten his grip on the steering wheel to retain control of the vehicle. “Whoa, slow down before you kill yourself,” he mumbled to himself. He was a half mile from the cabin when he eased his foot off the gas pedal and slowed down.
He took a deep breath, wondering why he was driving so recklessly in his mad rush to get to the cabin. He knew the answer without really thinking about it. Ever since Blaylock had told him that Diamond had taken a nap in his bed, he hadn’t been able to think of anything else. In his mind, he could see her under the covers but she wasn’t asleep and she wasn’t curled up either. He could see her awake with her body stretched out and ready to receive his.
Jake swore under his breath. If he didn’t get himself together, he would lose control of his mind as well as his vehicle. This thing with Diamond was going to be the death of him if he didn’t put it in perspective. He rubbed his chin with his fingers, feeling the stubble there. For Pete’s sake! He hadn’t even taken the time to shave. Blaylock was right. Once a woman got into a man’s head, he couldn’t think of anything else.
His heartbeat increased when he saw the cabin in the distance, and the first thing he noticed was that the lights were on, which meant Diamond hadn’t gone to bed yet. He could feel his pulse race, and a sweet-hot ache of desire coiled deep within the pit of his stomach. His fingers that clutched the steering wheel tightened and felt damp.
Jake couldn’t help but wonder why he was going through these changes with a woman. After all, the only thing the two of them had shared that afternoon six days ago was hot, delicious sex, nothing else. He knew not to even think of anything more. Years ago another woman had made it very clear that when it came to ranch life, highbred sophisticated ladies couldn’t hang for the long haul.
After he brought the Jeep to a stop in front of the cabin and got out, he stood around for a few minutes before walking up to the door. Despite the old bitter memories that were trying to resurface tonight, Jake had a feeling that once he crossed over that threshold and came back out later he would not be the same. For once he had to be honest with himself and admit that despite everything, he was hopelessly in danger of falling hard for a woman. But he was just as determined not to let that happen.
At first Diamond thought she was hearing things but then realized that wasn’t the case when another knock sounded at the door. Her heartbeat accelerated at the thought that her late-night visitor could only be Jacob. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she walked over to the door.
“Who is it?”
“Jake.”
It seemed that her entire body suddenly became ultrasensitive to the sound of his voice. Diamond’s hands trembled, and whispers of nervousness vibrated through every part of her body as she undid the latch and opened the door.
She could barely catch her breath when she saw him standing silhouetted under the dim light on the porch. For a long time, she stayed perfectly still and just looked at him, realizing how much she had missed him during the last five days.
Diamond wasn’t the only one mesmerized. Jake suddenly was hit with a strange disoriented feeling when he saw Diamond, thinking she was even more beautiful than he last remembered. He tried not to notice how perfect her body looked dressed in a short silk nightshirt, or the look of her glossy hair that was spread sensuously around her shoulders. He tried to ignore the scent of her that was like an aphrodisiac. The fragrance gave him one huge galloping high as blood rushed fiercely to his brain, destroying any sane thoughts he may have had when he’d first arrived.
He smiled, and her responsive smile was automatic. She still had that smile, he thought. It was the
one that made him want to kiss it right off her lips. His pulse began escalating from the way his thoughts were going.
“So, how have you been?” he asked in an attempt to break the awkward silence surrounding them. He didn’t know about hers, but his heart was beating in overdrive. The part of him that was trying hard to dominate was instinctively male.
“Fine. What about you?” Diamond asked, noting her voice was a little shaky. As far as she was concerned the man standing before her represented the essence of everything male, starting with the Stetson covering his head, down past the whiskered roughness of his chin to the boots he wore on his feet and the snug-fitting jeans in between. He was the epitome of man.
Jake crossed his arms over his chest and casually leaned against the door’s opening, nearly taking up the entire space. “If you must know, ma’am,” he drawled, still watching her closely, “I haven’t been doing so hot. But thanks for asking.”
Diamond’s smile widened as she remembered another time he had said those very words to her. “Would you like to come in, Jacob?”
He looked at her. “That would be nice.”
It would be more than nice, Diamond thought as she stepped aside to let him enter. It would be downright pleasurable.
As soon as he was inside the cabin he turned to her. “I missed you,” he said slowly, dispensing with small talk. He reached out and captured her face in the palm of his hand. “And I want you. There’s this chemistry
between us, this heat. It’s been there from the first. Feel it?”
Diamond nodded, acknowledging his words to be true.
“It makes me want to taste you every chance I get and want to be inside of you every chance I can.”
Diamond was unprepared for the shiver of pure pleasure that ran through her with his words. Looking up into his face, her fingers shook as she reached up and took the Stetson from his head and placed it on hers. Removing the hat exposed his eyes, dark, intense and filled with red-hot desire.
Jake glanced up at his Stetson on Diamond’s head. His hat had always been his private and personal possession. It was something he didn’t share. It was a part of who he was and what he represented. From the time he was a kid he’d been told that a cowboy’s boots and hat were an ingrained part of his being, his inner person. They were the very core of what a cowboy represented—ruggedness, able-bodiedness and strength. In earlier days, it was an honor for a cowboy to die with his boots and hat on. For the first time, he not only felt those same things about his hat, but also shared those same feelings with a woman. This woman. What he was sharing with Diamond was private and personal. And tonight for a little while, she would be his to possess and not to be shared.
He leaned down and covered her mouth with his, claiming her, possessing her. As expected, the desire that sparkled between them blazed into a flame with the intimacy of their kiss.
Diamond tasted all the things on Jake’s tongue that she felt—hunger, longing, heat. Her arms around his
waist tightened. She never wanted to let him go and wondered how she would when the time came.
The kiss deepened. Who initiated that move, neither Jake nor Diamond was sure, they just rolled with it, fueling a hungry greed within them. Jake picked her up in his arms and carried her down the hall into the bedroom. It was a room he had built but had given one of his sisters-in-law the chore of furnishing. He placed Diamond in the center of the bed, following her down and reclaiming her lips.
The same heat and fire that had blazed out of control and had driven them to a mad, fast and satisfying mating once before took over, as Jake quickly removed all of their clothing.
Jake moved fast, placing her body under his, then gripping her hips in his hands as he entered her, catching the moans escaping her throat with his mouth. As before they were one, meshed in heart, body and soul. Their blissful sighs were the only sounds in the room before exquisite ecstasy tore through them, exploding upon them, making them scream out their fulfillment. Then they drifted through all the wondrous sensations that followed.
Later, as Diamond lay wrapped in Jake’s arms, sighing in contentment, their bodies still connected, she silently asked herself: When the time came, how was she going to walk away from him without looking back?
T
he ringing of the telephone jolted Jake awake. He didn’t move for a moment, and then sighing heavily he reached for the phone on the table next to the bed. Diamond shifted in sleep and moved closer into his arms.
“Yeah?”
“Jake? Sorry, man. My mistake. Thought I was calling the cabin and not the ranch house. Catch you later.”
Jake was about to tell Sterling that he had not made a mistake when a click sounded in his ear. Knowing Sterling would be calling right back, he depressed the hook and continued to hold the phone in his hand. When it rang he answered immediately, not wanting the intrusive noise to wake Diamond.
“Yeah, Sterling.”
“Jake? How the devil did I get you again? I was trying to reach Diamond at the cabin. Are the lines crossed up or something?”
“No, the lines aren’t crossed,” Jake responded as he rubbed his whiskered chin, thinking he definitely needed a shave, and hoping that his unshaven skin had not left any marks on Diamond’s body when he’d kissed it all over.
“You’re at the cabin?”
Jake sank back into the pillows. “Yeah.” He stared up at the ceiling, knowing more questions were coming.
“Isn’t it kind of late, Jake?”
Jake yawned, fighting off sleep. “I would think so, Sterling.”
“Then what are you doing at the cabin?”
Jake frowned. “I
was
asleep until you woke me up.”
There was a pause. “You’re sleeping at the cabin?”
“I
was.
”
“Where the hell is Diamond?”
Jake glanced down at the woman in his arms, who was snuggled tight against him. He smiled, recalling their night spent together making love. Just like the last time, the experience had been explosive. Her responses to him had been passionate, wild, tempestuous. Holding the phone securely in his hand, he leaned slightly toward her and placed a kiss on her closed eyelids. She looked even more beautiful asleep. He straightened up his form and leaned back against the pillows again.
“She’s asleep.”
“Asleep? Damn it, Jake. What’s going on there?
Why are you at the cabin with Diamond this time of night? And why aren’t you sleeping in your own bed back at the ranch house?”
Jake rolled his eyes upward. “Hamilton, I suggest that you think through those questions real good, then call me back later when you come up with your own answers.” He felt Diamond stir in his arms. “But make it much later, will ya?”
Jake dropped the phone back in place, thought better of it then took it off the receiver. He relaxed and settled back into a comfortable position in the bed and pulled Diamond closer into his arms. The pleasant memories of making love to her lulled him back into a deep sleep.
Diamond opened her eyes and blinked several times upon realizing that it was morning. A ray of sunshine streaked across the room and hit her dead center in the eyes, almost blinding her. To escape the bothersome beam of light, she rolled over and fitted her face into the V of Jake’s neck. She felt his arm around her tighten and forced herself to raise her head. “Good morning, Jacob.”
Instead of responding, he leaned down and kissed her. His kiss brought back memories of the night before when he had made love to her with such an intensity, she’d been sure she would die from it. But she had lived. She had somehow survived every thrilling and fulfilling moment. The heat of Jacob’s passion had seared through her, sending her over the edge more than once, more than twice and driving her crazy with a need only he could satisfy.
And satisfy her he did.
Even kissing her the way he was doing now was making her body ache. His tongue was stroking hers, intimately, greedily and possessively. This was definitely one form of nonverbal communication she enjoyed sharing with him. She kissed him back hungrily, fervently.
Jake finally broke the kiss to draw in a deep, ragged breath. He held her tight, enjoying the way she felt in his arms.
“Jacob?” she whispered finally, with barely enough breath to get his name out.
“Hmm?” he responded, nuzzling her neck.
“What about the ranch?”
Lifting his head, he looked down at her, his gaze holding hers in place. Lines of confusion shadowed his forehead. “What about the ranch?”
“Don’t you have chores to do? It’s morning time.” Blaylock had told her this past week how Jacob got up each morning around four to began his full day of work on the ranch. “Blaylock said you get up before dawn every day to take care of the ranch.”
He nodded, understanding. “Normally I do, but after a cattle drive I give both my men and myself a few days off to relax.” He smiled. “You’re not trying to get rid of me, are you?”
“No, I just didn’t want to keep you from taking care of the ranch.”
She went silent on him after saying that. Her eyes were cast down so he couldn’t read her thoughts. But he definitely knew what his own were. For whatever reason, she was letting him know that she would not try to compete with his duties at the ranch, which was something his ex-wife had done constantly. Somehow
Diamond knew, understood and accepted that his ranch was important to him. He drew her to him and put his index finger beneath her chin.
“At the risk of sounding slightly arrogant, and maybe a little cocky, I think I can do a pretty decent job of taking care of both you and the ranch. Besides, when it comes to taking care of you, you make the job easy. You’re in a class by yourself. A very beautiful and desirable class.”
Diamond smiled. “You’re quite a charmer, Jacob Madaris.”
He grinned. “I’m also pretty good at making breakfast. Hungry?”
She nodded her head and laughed. “Very.”
“So,” Jake said as he poured more coffee into Diamond’s mug. “What do you think of my cooking abilities?” He leaned back in his chair and took a sip of his own coffee.
Diamond set her elbows on the kitchen table, cupped her face in her hands and smiled at him. “I think your cooking skills rank right up there with your lovemaking skills. Both are superb.”
The images of her words elicited sensuous memories in Jake’s mind. Before he had left the bed to fix breakfast, they had made love again. Afterward, it had been a determined effort to get out of bed and not make love to her yet again. He could feel his blood pressure rising from just thinking about it.
“I do have a few things to take care of at the ranch, but then afterward I’ll be free for the rest of the day. How would you like to spend the day with me?”
Diamond arched an eyebrow. “Is that a sneaky way of getting me to help you with your chores, Jacob?”
Jake chuckled as he pushed his chair out from the table. “You’re too smart. I didn’t think you’d figure that part out until much later.”
“Oh, Jacob, he’s such a beauty,” Diamond said as she gently stroked the four-day-old calf’s smooth hide. After breakfast she had returned to the ranch with Jake and upon entering the barn she had immediately seen the animal. It was standing in the same stall as its mother, trying to retain its equilibrium while glancing around the barn as if trying to sort out everything in its newborn mind.
Jake, who was busy spreading hay around the stall, stopped what he was doing and looked at the calf thoughtfully. “Yeah, he’s a beauty all right. In a couple of years, he’ll be a real nice piece of T-bone on someone’s dinner plate.”
Diamond gasped. “Jacob!”
Jake shook his head, grinning at the shocked look on Diamond’s face. “You look surprised. I run this ranch for the sole purpose of raising the highest-quality Texas Longhorn cattle for the buying public. I’m sure you’ve appreciated a good steak every now and then.”
Diamond stared down at the calf, then back up at Jacob. “But he’s so precious, Jacob. He’s just a baby. How can you even think of him being a part of anyone’s menu?” She looked back down at the calf.
The smile vanished from Jake’s face when he became fully aware that the knowledge of what would eventually become the calf’s fate bothered Diamond. He dared not tell her that sometime next week his men would take a hot iron to the critter and place Whisper
ing Pines’s brand on the animal’s rump. She would probably see it as unnecessary torture to the poor beast.
He placed the pitchfork aside and walked over to her. Catching her chin, he urged her to meet his gaze. “I’m a rancher, sweetheart. I run a business here at Whispering Pines,” he said, trying to get her to understand. “The day I begin feeling sentimental about my breeding stock is the day I stop being a rancher and become a pet shop owner.”
“I know you’re right, Jacob. I guess I’m making a big deal out of things.”
“Only because you’re a caring person.” A sense of admiration flowed through Jake for her. Although sentimentality was the last thing needed on a cattle ranch, he understood. He’d had to deal with those same feelings from one of his nieces. When Christy had turned ten, she had adopted one of the calves for a pet and named him Shadow. She had carried on something awful when she’d discovered the animal’s fate some years later. To keep his niece from going into early cardiac arrest, he’d let her keep the blasted animal. Now Christy was in her third year of college, and Shadow was still alive and enjoying life. Even today, as far as Christy was concerned, Shadow belonged to her.
He pulled Diamond closer. “It’s past lunchtime. How about going on a picnic? It shouldn’t take Blaylock long to throw something together in a basket for us. How does that sound?”
Diamond’s smile returned. “Wonderful.”
“Are you sure?” Diamond asked as she gave a searching glance around the creek. Although the creek
was surrounded by heavily wooded green lands, she wasn’t sure it would be safe for her and Jacob to go swimming. At least not the way he wanted them to.
Jake laughed. “I’m positive. This area is just as private as my secret hideaway.” He saw her flushed face at the mention of his hideaway. He knew the memories were just as vivid for her as they were for him.
“Okay, let’s plan to go swimming another day. How about if we just continue to relax here on the blanket and talk off lunch. I think Blaylock outdid himself, don’t you?”
Diamond bit her lower lip to hide her grin as she lay back down on the blanket next to Jake. Blaylock had packed fried chicken, rolls, a container of potato salad, coleslaw and a couple of large red apples in the basket. And they had consumed all of it.
“Yes. I’m going to have to go on some sort of weight-loss program when I get back to California,” Diamond said, rubbing her stomach.
Jake turned his head and looked at her. Thankfully she had closed her eyes. He was grateful she hadn’t seen the sudden jolt that passed through his body at the reminder that in a week, she would be leaving. For some reason, that was the last thing he wanted to think about.
“Tell me about your life as a movie actress,” he said calmly, forcing his feelings of regret aside. He watched her eyes open as she stared up at the sky. She lifted the corners of her mouth, but for some reason the movement did not come across to him as a smile.
“Acting is one of the things I can truly say I’m pretty good at. Having Jack Swain as a father made it so. I had no choice in the matter.”
Jake watched as she took a deep breath and began chewing on her lower lip. He stared at her for a moment before asking, “Why do you feel that way?”
Diamond angled her head to look over at him. “Because I was his daughter, his only child. That made the expectations high,” she said softly. “Early on, everything I did was done to please my father. Carrying the Swain name wasn’t an easy task. It still isn’t. I try not to worry about pleasing my father since it seems I never can. There’s never a performance where I’m good enough for him. As far as he’s concerned, my acting can always be improved.”
Diamond sighed. “It used to really bother me that he felt that way. Now I try not to think about it. Over the years, I’ve tried focusing on pleasing me and believing that I’m good at what I do. Hollywood is finally recognizing and respecting me not because I’m Jack Swain’s daughter but because I’m a really good actress. But it’s taken me a long time to reach that point.”
She turned and looked back up at the sky. “So I guess my life as a movie actress has been a lot of hard work, but it’s enjoyable work that I love doing. It’s going through script after script after script trying to find the one that you feel is right for you, the one that will earn you an Oscar.”
Jake remained silent for a few minutes before asking, “Is that what drives you? Your quest for an Oscar?”
Diamond shook her head. “I guess in a way it does, but that’s no different from an athlete working sunup to sundown to one day go to the Olympics and win the gold. In every line of business there’s this goal we’re working hard to achieve, and a prize we’ll get when we get there.”
Diamond pulled herself up and sat cross-legged on the blanket. “Don’t you agree, Jacob? Aren’t you working each day from sunup to sundown to make your ranch the best it can be while seeking some material form of satisfaction and recognition for doing so?”
Jake looked at her solemnly, knowing she was right. For years he had worked hard to make Whispering Pines a success, and he had done so. He would be the first to admit he had enjoyed all the kudos, accolades and recognition he had garnered each year from the Texas Cattlemen Association for his hard work. Last year he had been selected nationally as Rancher of the Year. It was the highest honor he could have ever received in his profession.
“So winning the Oscar means everything to you?” he asked. For some reason, a part of him just had to ask.
Diamond nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She feared she would admit to him that until she had met him, she could answer that question with complete certainty. Until she had met him, making it to the top was the only thing she cared about it. But now…
“Then one day you will,” Jake said, sitting up and lightly squeezing her shoulder. “I have all the faith in the world that you can and that you will do it.”
Diamond fought back the tears that threatened to cloud her eyes. She swallowed, feeling at odds and not knowing what she really wanted anymore. “Thanks, Jacob,” she whispered. He’d known her for only two weeks and he had more confidence in her abilities than her own father, who had known her all her life. Jack Swain was a perfectionist and he had expected no less of her.