Page 6 of Her Heart's Desire
“No. I left a note.”
She quickly realized he wasn’t buying her everything-is-okay story, and looked away from his perceptive gaze. He was the last man she’d want to share her secret with. The sting of Jake’s rejection seven years ago hadn’t completely faded. Grayson’s infidelity only confirmed her shortcomings as a woman.
He frowned. “A note! You blew town again.”
She wrinkled her nose at his gruff statement. “I didn’t blow town. I made a strategic retreat. I’m not some green eighteen-year-old kid you have to worry about, Jake. They aren’t going to send out any search parties. You’re quite safe.”
He got a faraway look in his eyes. “I remember when you left home a week before your eighteenth birthday. It gave your father quite a few gray hairs.”
Her thoughts drifted back to her troubled teens. Jake had been the catalyst for her final act of rebellion. His rejection had sent her running, not away, but toward her future.
“I had to break away. It was the best thing for us, and you know it. Besides, if I remember it right, you were the one who told me I was a spoiled brat, and I ought to grow up.”
He looked away. “Yeah, we both said things we didn’t mean that night.”
She was surprised by his regretful tone. His jaw tightened, the only sign of his tension. He’d obviously had a few mixed feelings about that evening, as well. It was a balm to her freshly wounded femininity to realize she’d affected him at least a little bit.
“Don’t worry, Jake, there aren’t going to be any recriminations about that night. I’m a strong, successful businesswoman now, and that might not have happened if you hadn’t set me running.”
He frowned. “Let’s get back to the point at hand. If everything’s so hunky-dory, there’s no reason I shouldn’t call your family and let them know you got here okay.” He reached for the telephone on the counter.
She grabbed his arm, feeling his muscles ripple under her palm when he went still. “Please don’t.”
“Why shouldn’t I call? More importantly, why did you run out on your daddy’s hand-picked son-in-law?”
She glared at him, but felt the wind leave her sails when he refused to back down. “I won’t marry a man I can’t trust. It sounds cliché, but I caught Grayson with another woman.”
“You caught old Grayson in the sack?”
She gulped. “They weren’t in bed. He had her bent over one of the dining room chairs. I stopped by his apartment after our rehearsal dinner.” Feeling Jake’s watchful gaze on her, she turned away. “He’d given me a key, and I intended to surprise him.”
“But he surprised you instead.”
“That’s one way of putting it.”
“Who is she?”
Samantha closed her eyes. The stunning events replayed in her mind. She’d heard them before seeing it—curious thwacks, groans, and cries that drew her toward the living room. She rounded the corner and found her fiancé clad only in a black cape. His angry red erection bobbed in the air as he alternately teased and punished the blonde bent over the arm of the sofa. The woman’s breathy cries begged him to take her. Grayson’s laughing retort was how he’d compared his lover’s hot response to Samantha’s frigidity. Samantha had stood there in stunned disbelief as her tender feelings for him died. It was all based on a lie. During their whirlwind courtship, he’d restrained his desires, not wanting to tarnish their union by taking her before their wedding. His old-fashioned gallantry had touched her.
“I don’t know. I saw her from behind. Long blonde hair and a butterfly tattoo on her bright red bottom were all that sunk in.”
Jake reached out to touch her hand. “I’m sorry, honey.” The warmth from his fingers was comforting.
“He didn’t even notice me standing there. He was making so much noise whipping her. If what I saw is any indication, he’s rather kinky and dangerous. He seemed completely out of control. I threw my engagement ring at him and told him what he could do with it before I ran away. He was shocked. It was almost comical. If you’d been chased by a naked man wearing a cape and carrying a strap, you’d understand why I hightailed it out of there.” She squared her shoulders as she shook off the upsetting memory.
The rage she saw in Jake’s eyes shocked her.
“Did that dirtbag touch you?”
“No. He tripped on his cape. I made it out of there in the nick of time.”
“I’ll call the cops and have him arrested.”
“For what? Playing ‘Captain Kinky?’ There’s no law against being tied up and spanked. It might spice some couple’s lovemaking, but not my fiancé. Not with another woman. I don’t care what wild oats he might have been trying to sow.”
“I’m sorry, Samantha.”
She pulled away. The last thing she wanted from him was sympathy. “Save your pity for someone who needs it. Last night’s fiasco made me see that marriage isn’t for me.”