Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (17 page)

“I heard every
word,” Jacob assured her calmly.  “I’m also neither crazy nor dumb.  What I am
is a man that knows what the hell I want in a woman.  I’m also not big on
wasting time once I’ve made up my mind and found her.”

“So to be clear,
you
want
a damaged, neurotic single mother with a history of
monumentally poor taste in men,” Harmony scoffed, pressing her lips together as
she stiffened in the circle of his arm.  “Yeah, that sounds perfectly sane and supremely
intelligent to me,” she mocked under her breath.

His fingers tilted
her chin so he could stare into her eyes.  “See, I just heard you spout a bunch
of garbage so I’m gonna do you a favor and set you straight, Harmony.  I want
the beautiful, brave survivor that agreed to have dinner with me tonight even
though it was against every instinct she had.  I want a woman courageous enough
to go face down a fuckin’ monster because he dared put her sister in the
crosshairs of danger.  I want the mother that even though she’d been abused and
terrorized by her shit of an ex-husband had the balls to bring a child into the
world on her own and raise that little girl to be the sweetest, most loving little
angel I’ve ever met.  Jesus, darlin’, why can’t you see it?  You’re damn near
perfect.”

“You need to have
your eyes checked, Jake.  I’m not the paragon that you’re buildin’ me up to
be,” Harmony denied warily.

“No, you’re
better,” Jake stated on a growl.  “Your only fault as far as I can tell is that
you can’t accept an honest compliment.  Well, that and your cookie consumption
rate kinda scares me, but I don’t judge.  Everybody needs a vice.”

Frowning, Harmony
glared at him, her nose wrinkling.  “It’s not a vice.  It’s a coping
mechanism.”

“Six of one, half
dozen of the other, babe,” Jacob chuckled.  “Either way, neither of those
so-called faults is gonna keep me from claimin’ you.”

“I’m not
undiscovered territory, Jacob,” Harmony retorted sharply.  “I’m a woman.  And
I’m not looking to be claimed.  Not by you or anybody else.  Go take your flag
and plant it someplace else.”

Leaning forward
until his nose grazed hers, Jacob stared into Harmony’s eyes.  “Too fuckin’
late.  I’m not going anywhere, Harmony, and you aren’t running from this.  If
it goes bad, then we’ll deal with it, but we’re gonna give this thing between
us a chance and see where it goes.”

Jerking her head
back, Harmony’s eyes flashed mutinously as she shook her head.  “No, I’m not!”
she argued, her strength returning as the sugar worked through her system.  “I
already told you, Jake, I need…”

Cupping the back of
her neck, Jake cut her off as he pulled her gently, but firmly toward him. 
“No, Harmony,” he countered. “
You
need to shut up and listen,” he
demanded, enjoying the way her lips parted as her eyes widened.  Damn, but she
was begging to be kissed.  “Baby, I love that you’re stubborn.  It turns me
right the hell on, but right now, I need you to be quiet and hear me.  I
already know what you need.”

“You do, huh?”
Harmony growled, ignoring the thrill she got from hearing that seductive rumble
tell her that she turned him on.  “Well, what’s that, Mr. All-knowing Hot
Stuff?  Tell me all about what you think I need, Jake,” she goaded, her blue
eyes glinting with annoyance.

She met his gaze,
unafraid and completely head-on...and it was hot as hell.  Gripping her hips,
he shifted her until she straddled his lap, holding her steady when she would
have jumped away.  “Nuh uh, you wanna hear this, we do it face to face, Pretty
Girl, just like this.”  

 “Fine!” She all
but spat at him, her cheeks flushing as she squirmed in his lap.  She could
feel her neglected body reacting to the hard bulge nestled between her legs,
and she moved restlessly against him.  “Say what you need to say so that I can
go home!” she ordered through clenched teeth, praying her expression didn’t
convey her embarrassment.

Caressing her lower
back through the silk dress she wore, he smiled.  “You’re even more gorgeous when
you’re mad, darlin’,” he remarked softly, lifting one hand to stroke the back
of his fingers against her cheek.

“I’m not mad,
Jake.  I bypassed
mad
and moved right on to gettin’ good and pissed,”
Harmony warned grimly, jerking her face away from his gentle hand and narrowing
her eyes as she felt his other palm slide against her spine.  Sweet Lord, the
man was part-octopus.  His touch felt wonderful, but she’d be damned if she’d allow
him know it.  He seemed to know her entirely too well already. He’d certainly
done a more than fair job at snaking his way past all her defenses.  He’d said
all the right word and done all the right things.  Hell, he’d even managed to
find her cookies.   And all of these things only made him more dangerous to
her.  She had to get out of here.  Preferably before she did something
incredibly stupid like bury her face in his neck and beg him to help her forget
her whole ugly past.  “Jake, I need to go,” she begged, looking longingly over
his shoulder toward the door.

“No, you need to
stay, babe.  Going now would be the coward’s way out.  The one thing I know
about you, Harmony, is that you are
no
coward.”

Licking her dry lips,
Harmony drew in a shaky breath before she made herself focus on his darkly
handsome face.  “You were gonna tell me what I need, Jake,” she reminded him
softly.  “Tell me so that we can get this thing done between us.”

“Darlin’, this
thing
between us isn’t going anywhere.  It’s chemistry, baby.  I felt it the first
time I saw you and it’s only gotten stronger every day since then.  I hate to
tell you this, but once you have it, there’s no denying it.”

“Then don’t deny
it.  Ignore it,” she suggested quickly, her belly quivering as his eyes went
molten and hot.

“Not fuckin’
likely,” he rumbled, tightening his hands on her waist and rocking his hips
slightly against her softness.  “You feel how hard I am right now?  That’s how
I get every time I get near you.  The last thing I wanna do is ignore it. 
Hell, even if I wanted to, my dick would never let me.  It’d probably never
forgive me either.”

“It’s a physical
response, Jake.  I’m sure if you concentrated on some other woman…”

“My dick gets hard
for you, Harmony.  Only you,” he replied darkly.  Fuck, he couldn’t remember
the last time he’d looked at another woman the way he looked at her.  He didn’t
want to eye anybody else.  Not when everything she had to offer suited him to a
fucking tee.

“Well, that’s
unfortunate.  You need to…”

“Enough,” he
growled.  Hearing the little sound of exasperation she made, he shook his
head.  “We were gonna talk about what
you
need, woman.  I already told
you want I need.”

“Jake…”

“You need a man,
Harmony.  You and Heaven both do,” he began, pressing one finger to her lips
when she would have opened her mouth to give him another earful of nonsense. 
“And not just
any
man, either.  You need a real man.  One that will put
you and your girl first in his life.  A man that will plant himself between you
and anything that threatens your safety every single fuckin’ time.  A man that
will do whatever it takes to protect your little girl like she’s
his
little girl because to him there’s really not any fuckin’ difference.  A man
that will take care of
your
needs and consider himself the luckiest son
of a bitch in the world while he does it.  And I’m gonna tell you a secret,
darlin’,” he whispered with his face so close to hers that he could feel the
quick warm breaths escaping her lips.

“What?” Harmony
breathed against his finger as a tingle built at the base of her spine.

“You just found
that man.”

“I wasn’t lookin’
for him,” she returned, the admission involuntary.  God’s truth, the man was
terrifying her with his intensity.

“Well, baby, Lady
Luck shined bright on you then because he was lookin’ for you.”

“And if I told you
to walk away?”

“Waste your breath
if you want to, but I’d rather you used it to kiss me.  I’m not goin’ anywhere,
Sweetness.  Wrap your mind around that and make both our lives a whole lot
easier,” he encouraged her seriously.

“You know, these
are big commitments that your throwin’ around on what equates to be our first
date,” Harmony pointed out as her heart thumped double time in her chest.

“I’m a pretty straight
forward man when I see something I want, Harmony.  I been lookin’ at all the
beauty that you are for nearly a month now, baby. I can tell you with complete
honesty that I knew thirty seconds after I laid eyes on all that’s you that you
were meant to be mine.”

“That’s…that’s
insane,” Harmony automatically denied, blinking rapidly as tears came to her
eyes.  What he said was beautiful, but she’d learned long ago that pretty words
were worth about as much as a wooden nickel.  They held no real value at all. 
“You don’t even
know
me.”

“I know everything
I need to know,” he returned in a deep voice.  “I know that I look at your face
and feel the hand of God workin’.  I hear your voice and know that angels are
really here among us.  I feel your sweet body against mine and know I can die a
happy man if you’re who I get to hold when I leave this world. 
Don’t
tell me that I don’t know you, Harmony.  I do.”

Harmony swallowed,
meeting his solemn gaze.  Sweet Christ, he believed the words pouring from his
lips, she thought desperately.  But did she?   “I don’t know what you expect me
to say here,” she admitted nervously as her fingers found the soft material of
his dress shirt and her nails dug into the fabric, clinging for dear life.  “I
can’t change, Jake.  I don’t know how.”

“The one thing that
I don’t ever want you to do is change.  Never have, never will.  There’s not a
single thing about you I’d ever want to alter,” he told her truthfully, rubbing
his thumb back and forth against her parted, damp lips.  “You go on and guard
your heart if you feel like you need to do that, sweetheart.  God knows, you’ve
been through enough to feel like you must.  Just know that when you aren’t
looking, I intend to climb over that wall you’ve built around yourself.  I’ll
scale that fence, Harmony, and I’ll find the woman you’ve been keepin’ locked away
inside you for way too long.  I’ll find her, and I’ll free her.  That’s my
promise to you.”

He pulled her
closer to him with every word he spoke until her chest rested against his and
his breath gusted over her face, the heat radiating from his body engulfing
her.  “Jake,” she breathed against his cheek as her hands moved from his chest
to grip his broad shoulders.

Moving his arms
slowly to encircle her narrow waist, he held her body against his.  “Relax,
baby,” he crooned against her ear as he smoothed his hands up and down the
elegant curve of her spine.  Keeping his touch slow and light, his fingertips
mapped the expanse of her back from neck to ass and back again.  “I think it’s
time for us to have a different kind of conversation – the kind that doesn’t
involve either one of us sayin’ a word at all,” he murmured as his lips drew a
leisurely path along the line of her jaw.

The first touch of
his mouth against hers was a gentle glide against her sensitive lips.  Seeking,
cautious, and incredibly tender, he waited for her to fall into him.  Sampling
her mouth in delicate sips, he gently tugged her lower lip between his, suckling
gently as Harmony trembled in his arms.  “Easy, Sweetness,” he whispered
between feather light brushes of his mouth against hers.  “Just give yourself
permission to feel good for a minute,” he urged as he lifted one hand to cradle
the side of her neck.  Her pulse thrummed a quick staccato beat against his
thumb, and he knew she was scared of the emotions running between them.

“I’d never hurt
you, Harmony.  I’d cut off my own hand before I’d ever use it to harm you. 
You’ve got nothin’ to be afraid of here,” he promised, moving his mouth against
hers in a barely-there caress.

“Easy for you to
say,” Harmony mumbled against his lips, squeezing her eyes closed as he moved
his mouth to her neck and pressed a soft, wet kiss to the skin just below her
left ear.  “I feel like I just jumped off the side of the boat into shark
infested waters,” she admitted, gasping when his hot tongue swirled around her
earlobe.  Goosebumps rose against her skin as his teeth scraped the column of
her neck.

“Can’t deny that I
plan on eating you, baby, but I promise you’ll love every minute of it,” he
swore darkly against her fragrant skin.  “In fact, I can promise that you’ll be
beggin’ me to take another bite of you before I’m done.”  He smiled when she
shivered against him and moaned low in her throat.  Using the tip of his
tongue, he painted a damp trail from her ear to her collar bone.  Nuzzling the
hollow of her throat, he grinned against her flesh when her hips gyrated
against his hard length.  “I think you like hearing what I wanna do to you,
don’tcha, baby?  My kind of dirty turns you on, doesn’t it?” he asked hoarsely
as he moved his hand up the curve of her hip and over the swell of her heaving
breasts.

Harmony panted
against his cheek, his five o’clock shadow scraping her swollen lips.  Her body
was awakening underneath his experienced hands, and the numbness she’d felt for
so long was finally dissolving into wisps of nothingness.  God, it felt good to
know she could still feel pleasure after so long.  Throwing caution to the
wind, she nodded.  “Y-yes, Jake,” she confessed, her low voice throaty and
raw.