Never Too Late (20 page)

She moaned around his thickness, one hand on his shaft, the other slipping down to find her clit and rub as she closed her eyes and tortured him. With a grunt, he bucked against her, watching her play with herself, tension mounting in him. She was so beautiful like this. Suddenly, with a muffled moan she stiffened and clamped her lips around him as her orgasm shook her. It was more than he could take, and gasping, he emptied himself into her mouth, his shaft pulsing and his hips rocking against her almost of their own accord as she swallowed every last drop of him.

Gently bunching her hair, he held her head steady against him for a moment, trying to catch his breath. Then he pulled her to her feet, and crushed her to him, taking her mouth in a fierce possessive kiss, and tasting himself on her tongue. Finally he broke away, and they clung, panting, staring into each other’s eyes.

He shook his head in wonder. “What the hell do you do to me, Molly?” he asked, his eyes searching hers. “It’s like I lose all reason, all control, when I’m with you.” And swooping down, he captured her mouth again.

Jake’s silver BMW pulled into Barrowdene’s drive just past noon, and Molly, having seen it from one of the upstairs bedrooms she was clearing, reached the front porch just as he parked.

She’d tied her curls back into a tight ponytail to keep them out of the way while she worked, and changed into a butter-yellow t-shirt over her jeans, since Jake had ruined her blouse earlier. He’d taken some persuading to let her go, at least a good half hour of loving and pleading before he let her borrow his t-shirt so she could run to Rose Cottage and get a new top.

The car’s back door opened and Lilayni flew out, looking casual chic in skinny jeans and a white embroidered tunic top. “Molly! It is good to see you again.”

Laughing, Molly kissed her on both cheeks. It was wonderful to be able to greet Lilayni with real uncomplicated warmth.

A tall slim man stepped out of the car as Jake came around from the driver’s side. The man looked to be in his fifties, with cropped iron-grey hair and keen brown eyes that glanced around with interest at all he could see of Barrowdene.

“Molly, this is Tim,” Jake said. “He’ll be project managing the renovations.”

Tim held out a large calloused hand. “I’ve heard you’re quite the expert on Georgian houses. I’m looking forward to working with you.” His accent was heavy, northern.

She shook his hand, her cheeks warming at the praise. “Not
expert
, more like keen amateur.”

“Don’t let her fool you,” Jake said with a smile. “She knows more about this house than any of us, so you can run all decisions by her. Molly gets the last say on what’s changed and what’s kept.”

Tim grinned at her. “Right then, looks like you just became boss.”

“You can’t do that!” She stared wide-eyed at Jake. “What if you don’t like my decisions?”

He shrugged. “I’ll live with it.”

“C’est bien!” Lilayni clapped her hands and laughed. “And she will be a better boss, no?” she said to Tim. “Your head is safe if you make her angry.”

“There is that.” Tim gave a wry smile. “I like my head intact, so does the missus.”

Jake frowned at Tim and Lilayni, and Molly bit back a giggle. She was buzzing inside, like a bee handed a garden full of blooms. But it wasn’t the chance to makeover Barrowdene the way she wanted that warmed her, it was his faith in her. 

Tim looked over the front of the house again. “I’ve a few lads arriving today, the rest tomorrow. I reckon it’s a straightforward job based on those structural plans you sent me.”

“So what timeframe are we talking about?” Jake asked.

“I’d say a couple of weeks?”

Jake shook his head. “A week.”

“A week?” Molly blurted out. 

He glanced at her, and she clamped her mouth shut, her cheeks blazing. It was too soon. Much too soon. Was he in such a rush to leave Barrowdene?

Tim sucked in a breath. “Aye, that’s pushing it, that is. But if we get a few extra guys in, we might just do it. I’d say we could get the downstairs finished at any rate.”

“Do that,” Jake said with a crisp nod. “The major work is downstairs, anyway.” He bounded up the porch steps. “Come on. I’ll show you around, and Molly can tell you her plans.”

Still reeling, Molly went to follow them.

“Non.” Lilayni caught her arm. “I will take Molly now. I am leaving for France today, so I wish to chat with her. You two look at the house.”

Jake shrugged it off mid-step. “Fine. Catch up with us later.”

His attention was already elsewhere. Perhaps mentally to-do listing everything needed for a fast escape from Barrowdene. Subdued, Molly turned away from him, barely managing a tiny smile for Lilayni.

“Bien.” Lilayni beamed at her. “Come. I would like to see the orchard again.”

“Oh! The cherries and pears, they are gone!” 

Lilayni’s expression of heart-wrenching disappointment knocked Molly out of her fitful thoughts of Jake. She shook her head with a wry smile. Lilayni didn’t do emotion by halves. “Nate harvested them over the weekend. We’re just waiting for the apples to ripen now.”

Lilayni sighed. “Such a pity. It was so pretty.”

The trees were a block of green above them, missing the bright spots of colour the cherries had been. It was as if they now warned of the bleak barren winter ahead.

“Nothing lasts forever,” Molly murmured, gazing up at the branches.

“You love him.”

Molly stumbled to a halt and stared at her.

“I can see.” Lilayni gave a small smile. “I suffer too.”

Molly gaped at her, shock making her shun any attempt at evasion. “You? You’re in love with Jake?”

“Non! Not Jake. We are family.” Lilayni shrugged. “My story… it is silly.”

“What happened?”

“Ah, it was true love, so I believed. But I love still. He will not.” Her chuckle was mirthless. “And… fini.”

“Oh Lilayni, I’m sorry.” Molly placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Was this recent?”

“Oui, maybe a month. But I am a fool, non? My heart, it does not want to let go. It will always love Damon.”

Molly gasped. Jake’s friend. Poor Lilayni. From the sounds of it Jake and Damon were close, and Lilayni didn’t even have a hope of avoiding him and moving on. They would always be bumping into each other. How awful to have to love someone from the sidelines like that.

“Jake has been my crying shoulder,” Lilayni said with a sad smile. “He tried to help, but…” She shook her head. “Then he made me travel, to forget, but the travel heals him also.”

Molly looked down at the grass and nodded, an image of the beautiful Sienna D’Alessio floating in her mind. “His fiancée died a month ago, didn’t she?”

“What do you know of it?”

Molly glanced at her. “Not much. Only that she was a model and they were together for five months. She died in a boating accident.”

“Jake, he helped her become a supermodel. It was what she wanted, and he was always there for her. But the lifestyle was not good for her. When Jake begged her to stop, she would not. And then she met another.” Lilayni shook her head, her emerald eyes narrowing in disgust. “ This man… he too is rich and powerful, but he is not kind. There were parties, drugs. It was wild. I was on his yacht the night she died. I will never forget. I wanted her to come with me. I pleaded, but she stayed with him and I left. They must have argued, because she took the motorboat without permission. Maybe it was drugs, but she crashed on the rocks and the boat, it blew up.”

“Oh god, that’s terrible,” Molly whispered. “Poor Sienna… Poor Jake.”

“That man has connections, and the truth of that night, it is well hidden. Jake challenged him but found nothing, and now Jake will not speak of her.”

“And that’s why he’s here. He once said Barrowdene was a change he needed.”

“Oui, he suffered. He could not save her, and now he tries to escape the memory.”

Molly looked away, tears blurring her vision. She was no substitute for the one he’d loved and lost. She never would be.

Placing a gentle hand under Molly’s chin, Lilayni turned Molly’s face to her. “But I see him happy now. I think you make him happy.”

“But that’s not enough, is it? He doesn’t love me. He won’t stay.”

Lilayni sighed, her hand falling away. “Non, he will not stay. He never has. It was only once he did, but now…” She shook her head.

The tears that welled in Molly’s eyes tumbled and fell, running down her cheeks in silent agony, but buried somewhere deep in the pain, was gratitude for hearing the truth.

“Ah, cherie,” Lilayni said, drawing her into a tight hug. “We give our hearts too quick. Lock yours away safe.”

Molly’s laugh was tearful. “It’s too late. Mine is already in Jake’s hands.”

“Then while you have him, you must enjoy him.”

She nodded. Her days with Jake were emptying like sand in an hourglass, and when the end came, she had to face it. She had to be strong.

She returned to the house with Lilayni, and Jake was talking to Tim outside the conservatory. 

“You have finished already?” Lilayni asked with surprise.

Tim nodded. “The work’s pretty straightforward. I’ll be needing your input on the details, Molly, but we can do that as we go along.”

She managed a smile. “Not a problem.”

She’d meant to keep her voice light, but Jake shot her a questioning glance before turning to the others. “We’ve a couple of hours to kill before your men arrive, Tim. How about we all head down the pub? I think you’ll find it your style.”

“Aye, good ol’ pub grub,” Tim said, rubbing his hands together in glee. “Nothing can beat it.”

“You are quite the connoisseur, non?” Lilayni said with a chuckle.

Tim patted his slim belly. “The best!”

“Molly?” Jake asked.

“Go on without me. I should see if Nan needs anything done.” Spend the next two hours making small talk and pretending her world was perfect? No, thank you.

But Jake looked at her, unimpressed. “Your Nan has gone to the market. Are you going to wander around here on your own like a lost ghost?”

She scowled at him. He made her sound like a stupid child. “There’s always plenty of work around here. It’s what I’ve done my whole life, remember?”

“Then take a break, cinderella, and enjoy life for a while. The work will wait.”

His unfeeling words hit hard, and she opened her mouth to tell him to go to hell.

“Alors! It is fine.” Lilayni’s exasperated gaze darted between them. “We will go, and Molly will stay.”

Jake’s expression turned icy.

Oh, he didn’t like it when she wasn’t jumping to his orders? Well, tough. “I’ll see you all later.” And she spun on her heel and stormed away.

She hated to admit it, but she felt exactly like a lost and lonely ghost as she trudged towards Rose Cottage. She could find work to do if she cared to look for it, plenty enough to keep her body busy and thoughts of him at bay, but none of it would dispel the melancholy shrouding her like a smothering blanket. 

If only she’d never set eyes on Jake Hennessy. If only he’d never heard of Barrowdene. Every time she managed to accept her limited place in his life, he riled her, making her realize she had no place at all, no real meaning to him. He probably thought she only existed to follow his orders and service him at his convenience. And fool that she was, she always ended up back in his arms. 

Well, no more.

A wheelbarrow heaped with two large bags of fertilizer stood at the edge of the kitchen garden, and Nate’s scraggly head popped out from between the rows of runner beans. “It’s gonna be a bumper harvest, it is. We’ll be swimming in beans soon.”

She stopped by the wheelbarrow. “I better get creative with my recipes then.”

“As long as it don’t get to bean jam,” he said, beaming a gappy grin. “I’ll eat anything else.”

“No bean jam. Cross my heart.”

Nate peered at her for a moment, then getting to his feet, ambled out from the bean rows. He stopped before her and rocked back on the heels of his well-worn rubber boots, both hands tucked into the pockets of his muddy overalls. “You all right, gal? It ain’t like you to be so down-mouthed.”

“Overworked and underpaid,” she said, forcing a smile. “Nothing unusual.”

He smirked. “Story of our lives. Still, there be perks to the job. I’ve a new batch of cherry wine ready for the tasting. I’ll drop a bottle by the cottage in a couple o’ days. That’ll cheer you up. Clear yer head a bit.”

“Oh, it’ll wipe my head clear all right,” she said with a chuckle. “Thanks, Nate. You’ve made me feel better already.”

“You haven’t the knack for drink, that’s all. It’s a skill. You gotta get yer body used to it a tad at a time.”

“I see. I shall do my best to get the practice in.” And by some miracle, it might even wipe her mind clear of Jake.

“Another thing,” Nate said. “Next time you see Martin, gal, tell him I wanna speak to him.”

Worried, Molly looked at him. All of a sudden, everyone wanted Martin. “What’s it about?”

“The west field. He’s let the Ayer’s keep their sheep there.”

“Yes, but they’ve been doing that for a couple of years now.”

“Sheep ain’t the problem, gal. They’re dozy little bastards who don’t know a gap from a fence. It’s them bloody goats that’s the problem.”

“Goats?”

“Yeah, goats. It’s that Tom Ayers trying new things. He wants to sell goats milk to posh folks. I ain’t got nothing against people’s ideas, but them smelly critters won’t stay in the field. I caught a couple munching on my bushes this morning. They’re breaking the fence down to get to the gardens here.”

“But there’s plenty of grass in the field.”

“Goats ain’t like sheep. They don’t want grass. They want the nice juicy bush leaves and all the pretty flowers. They’ll hoover up the whole garden if you give em a day.”

She struggled to hide a grin. If there was anything guaranteed to boil Nate’s blood, it was anyone or anything messing with his beloved gardens. “I don’t think we can get rid of the goats right now, Nate. Martin’s not here. The best thing would be to strengthen the fence.”

Nate huffed an irritated breath. “Righty, that’s my evening sorted for today. But I’ll be putting proper steel mesh up, no useless chicken wire stuff.”