Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (32 page)

She could do this,
too, her invisible inner angel - that sounded remarkably like her baby sister,
Honor - promised her in one ear.  She just had to trust her instincts.

Of course, those
instincts had nearly gotten her killed once before, the little devil - that
voice bore a scarily marked resemblance to her other sister, Patience -
reminded her in the other ear.

Scratching her
nails against her scalp, she had the urge to scream.  “Errrrggghhh, get out of
my head, you two!” she groaned softly, tightening her fingers in her hair.  This
was just perfect.  Now, she was hearing voices?  Love had driven her straight
over the edge into a great big pond called schizophrenia.

Wait! Harmony jerked
upright in the bed, her naked breasts bouncing against her chest.  “Love?” she
whispered as her hands slapped against the mattress.  Love had driven her over
the edge? 
Was
she in love with Jacob Stone?

No, couldn’t be. 
Not yet.  She wasn’t ready.  Sex was good.  Sex with Jake, even better – in a
big,
big
way.  And she cared for him.  She wanted to be with him. 
Besides her daughter, he was her first thought when she opened her eyes in the
morning and the last person running through her mind at night, but love?  He
made her feel safe… protected.  He made her little girl feel special and
adored.  He made them, her and Heaven, the center of his world.  Who wouldn’t
be sucked in by that?

Shit, damn,
and
fuck!  She
did
love him.

“Oh, shit,” she
breathed, her mouth going dry as she sat in the center of his ginormous bed. 
“Oh, shit, shit,
shit
!”  Christ, now she was whimpering.  Jerking her
gaze toward the bathroom as she heard a toilet flush, she struggled to control
her breathing.

This couldn’t be
happening.  She wasn’t prepared to deal with
this
.  She’d just wanted to
have sex – really,
really
good sex.

And he’d obliged. 
Boy
,
had he obliged.  By last count, he’d obliged her six freaking times!  With his
lips and tongue and fingers and –

Freaking, focus,
Harmony, she silently shrieked at herself! 

What she was
not
supposed to do was fall in fucking love!

“It’s too late”
she heard Honor’s voice chiding in her left ear.

“Way late,
pushover,” Patience’s voice drawled in her right ear.

Crappity crap,
crap, crap!

Was it too late to
backtrack?  To get a do-over?  Gnawing her lower lip as she stared at the
closed bathroom door, she doubted it.  Jake had made himself pretty clear.  She
was his.  And she had a sinking feeling that he was a man that rarely changed
his mind once he’d decided on something.  He’d made it clear in word and deed
that he’d decided on
her
.

“Harmony?”

Jerking her eyes to
where Jake now stood in all his naked glory framed in the doorway, she realized
that she’d been so wrapped in her thoughts that she hadn’t heard the door
open. 

“Darlin’, what is
it?” he asked, his dark eyebrows pulling together as he walked toward her, eyes
on her face.

“Nothing,” Harmony
lied, pasting on what she hoped was a convincing smile.  “Just waiting for you
to come back to bed.”

“Hate lies,
Harmony,” Jacob rumbled.

So much for him
letting her off the hook, she thought unhappily.  Shake it off, she told
herself sternly.  “Really, honey, it’s nothing.  Just got lost in my thoughts
for a minute.  That’s all.”

“You look like you
swallowed a bitter pill in the time I took to hit the head,” Jake noted,
crawling back in the bed and stretching out on his side. 

“Don’t be silly,”
she dismissed, rolling into him and leaning forward to plant her lips against
his.  It was dirty pool, trying to distract him, but she wasn’t ready to share.

Not yet.  Maybe not
ever, but definitely not yet.

Scratching her
fingers through the hair on his chest, she drew back enough to smile at him. 
“I think my problem is that you’ve burned through all my fuel reserves.  I need
a snack.”  There, that would work.  She’d escape the bedroom for a minute, grab
a little snack, and get her head back on straight.

“A snack?” he
echoed, lifting one eyebrow as he stared back at her.

“Uh huh,” she
agreed with a nod before rolling away from him and climbing to her feet.  “Can
I bring you something back up?” she offered, reaching for the overnight bag
she’d brought with her and that he’d conveniently placed by the bed earlier in
the day. 

“Just you,” she
heard him say quietly.  She found the nightgown she’d painstakingly chosen for
their evening together, but hadn’t had an opportunity to use.  Sliding the low-cut,
deep emerald satin confection over her head, she turned to face him. 

Jake’s eyes
darkened as they traveled up and down her body.  The material clung to her
curves in all the right places, and his body instantly responded to the visual,
his dick growing hard and impatient against his belly.  “You really expect me
to let you out of my bedroom wearing that?  Jesus, darlin’, I think you’re
trying to kill me.”

“Don’t complain. 
You didn’t give me time to model it for you earlier,” Harmony chided, adjusting
the straps on her shoulders.

“I ought to be shot
for that,” Jacob returned with a grim nod, his eyes glittering as he watched
her glide toward the door.  “Hurry back to me, baby.”

Harmony nodded over
her shoulder and shot him a grin.  “You might want me to take my time, Jake. 
In fact, I suggest you rest up.  I plan on finding those chocolate cookies you bought
for me yesterday.  Once I get a little energy burst, who knows what creative
ways I’ll think of to burn off the calories?”

She walked out on
his low groan.

Walking lightly
down the stairs, she headed for the kitchen, flipping the lights on and locating
the bag of cookies easily.  Smiling as she pulled one out of the bag, she had
to admit that after her crying jag a month ago, Jacob Stone had learned
phenomenally fast.  The man was
never
without at least two kinds of
cookies.  Grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, she carried both toward
her favorite room in the house.

Entering his den,
she hit the light switch with her elbow and looked around the room.  It was one
of the few areas in the house that was completely decorated.  The walls painted
a soothing taupe while the floors were hardwood.  Thick scatter rugs were
placed throughout the room, offering it a homey feel.  He’d invested in a
sumptuous brown leather couch and armchair that called to a person to sit down
and stay awhile; an oversized plasma television dominated one entire wall.  His
heavy oak desk sat at the back of the room, facing a set of French doors that
led to the back deck and offered a fantastic view of the mountains.

Wandering toward
the doors as she chewed on a cookie, she felt her shoulders relax.  Even in the
dead of night, the view of the snowcapped mountains was stunning, and she felt
the tension seeping from her body just looking at it.  Reaching behind her, she
pulled Jake’s desk chair toward her, plopping her ass in the seat and resting
her head against the pillowed headrest.

This wasn’t bad,
she assured herself.   Falling in love was supposed to be scary, right?  She
could love Jake and still remain with her feet planted firmly in reality.  She
didn’t have to be one of those women that lost herself in the act of doing it. 
No.  She was a McKinnon woman, dammit.  Strong, determined, and self-reliant. 
She didn’t
need
a man.  Having one was a choice she could make. 

She could also un-make
the decision at any time, she reminded herself firmly.  She was just going to
take things one step at a time, enjoy the walk she was on, and remember that
she could turn around and go home any time she wanted.

Yeah, that would
work, she told herself as she spun around in Jake’s desk chair and prepared to
rise.  Frowning, the manila folder on the corner of his desk caught her eye. 
Narrowing her gaze on it, she squinted her eyes and tried to see the name on
the tab.  It wasn’t really snooping if he left it in plain view, was it?

Extending her arm,
her fingertips had just grazed the corner of the folder when she heard
footsteps on the stairs.

“Babe?” Jacob
called, rounding the corner and filling the doorway before she could blink.  “I
got lonely,” he admitted with a grin when she met his eyes.  “You comin’ back
to bed willingly or am I gonna let my inner caveman out to play?” he
questioned, his lips tilting up in a wicked grin.

“Wellllll…” she
hedged, rising from his chair.

“Caveman, it is,”
he declared with a shrug, suddenly charging toward her like a bull and gently
pulling her over his shoulder.

Upside down,
Harmony braced her hands against his hips and giggled.  “This
really
isn’t necessary.  I was going to come back all on my own,” she argued as he
began to round the desk, carrying her like a sack of potatoes.

“I don’t know.  I
kind of like the view of you from here,” he said, palming one globe of her ass
and squeezing as he turned his head and nipped her satin clad hip.

Lifting her head,
Harmony caught a fleeting peek at the file she’d been trying to see before she
was interrupted as he walked around the side of his desk.  Unfortunately, she
could only make out one word on the tab: McKinnon.  Opening her mouth to
question it, she gasped as she felt Jake’s hand slide underneath her nightgown
and up her bare thigh.

Then, all thoughts,
questions, and musings fled for a
very
long time.

Pacing the length
of Jake’s wraparound front porch nine hours later, Harmony chewed on her
thumbnail and kept an eye out for her sisters’ cars.  She’d activated the
McKinnon phone tree an hour ago; she knew they’d show up.  If there was one
thing she could count on, it was that.  They’d always show up if they were
called.  It’s what they did for each other.

Turning to stare at
Jake’s locked front door, she bit her lip.  She was about to do something bad. 
Very bad.  Awful, if she was honest about it.

But she didn’t have
much choice – not if she was going to remain sane.  And since she had a kid,
sanity wasn’t optional; it was necessary.

She’d stayed up all
night after he’d fallen asleep, doubts plaguing her as she remembered the file
she’d seen on the corner of his desk.  After she’d let him distract her – two
more times- her thoughts had automatically gravitated back to his den and that
damn file.

She could have
asked him about it.  She probably should have asked him about it. 

Of course, she
hadn’t asked him about it.

Nope, instead,
she’d lain beside him all night, wide awake, and wondered what was in that damn
file.  Her mind had manufactured some pretty interesting scenarios - everything
from a background check to a contract for a hit had been deliberated by her
overactive imagination. 

She also knew that
Jake had been confused by her mood this morning.  Quiet and withdrawn, she’d
tried to put on a happy face and failed miserably.  She’d blamed it on the
change in weather – it
had
grown much colder overnight – but, she knew
he wasn’t buying it.  Luckily, he had let it go.  She figured he was trying to
offer her the time she needed to come to grips with the shift their
relationship had taken.  It’s what a good man would do.

And she really
hoped Jake was as good a man as she thought he was.

He’d reminded her
that he had business this morning when he’d taken her home and that he’d see
her later in the day so that they could have their talk.  She’d waited a whole
forty-five minutes before she’d driven back to his house and called Faith, thus
putting the sisters on alert.

Now, she was
waiting for back-up.

Because she was
about to be bad.  Very bad.

She was about to
break into her boyfriend’s house and find out what was in that fucking file. 
Worse yet, Harmony fully intended to take her sisters along for her first foray
into the murky world of illegal activity.  It was only a mild comfort to
remember her Daddy’s demand that his girls always stick together.  She could
still hear him saying, “Wrong or right, thick or thin, Harmony, girl, rely on
each other.  At the end of the day, all else might fall during a fight, but
family will hold.”  

Man, she hoped he
was right about that.

Hearing a car motor
approaching, Harmony turned her head and watched as Patience’s bright yellow convertible
zipped up the driveway.  Honest to God, she loved her sister’s flamboyant sense
of style, but it was damn hard to fly under the radar in that kind of car. 
Wincing as the vehicle screeched to a stop just a few inches shy of her sedan,
she sighed and reminded herself that lecturing her sister on her driving skills
would only end in tears.  Hers!  Her sister couldn’t help herself.  It was
Patience’s way.  The woman went full throttle in everything she did; it didn’t
matter if it was living her life or driving her car.  Full speed ahead was her
sworn motto.  She wished she’d gotten just a little of her wacky sister’s
fearlessness.