RESCUED BY THE RANCHER (7 page)

He’d expected more shyness, reluctance even,
but it seemed Faith had forgotten all about being demure. She rocked her hips
up towards him, inviting him, and he didn’t need any more encouragement. Jake
closed his mouth over her, tasting her, teasing her, licking and sucking her
most intimate parts. He had to force himself to go slow, to taste her like she
was the most delicate flower, because he needed to stay in control.
And from the way her thighs had closed
around his head, he was guessing she liked the pace.

He reached up her body, wanting to touch her
breasts,
desperate to flip her over and
feel the heavy, soft fullness of them in his hands, but trying hard to be
patient.

Faith moaned again, her back arching off the
bed. Jake moved his tongue faster, kissed her, suckled – didn’t stop even when
she reached down to grab a fistful of his hair, body rigid and then soft, like
she’d turned to marshmallow.

“Jake,” she whispered, eyes shut even though
she was saying his name and smiling.

He didn’t answer, just took his chance to flip
her onto her stomach, to press himself against her, every inch of him.

Faith turned her face to the side, eyes
suddenly open, but Jake wasn’t going
slow
now.
Now he needed to have his wicked way with
her.

“You haven’t told me to stop yet,” he whispered
in her ear, leaning down to kiss her.

When her tongue slipped inside his mouth he
took hold of her hands, holding her in place.

Faith gave a half-hearted struggle before
surrendering. “Maybe I’ve liked what you’ve been doing.”

That was all Jake needed to be pushed to the
edge. He couldn’t wait any longer. He rolled away to fumble in his bedside
dresser for protection.

Faith gasped as Jake thrust inside her. He
wasn’t going
slow
, not anymore, and she didn’t want
him to. He slid inside her fast, still holding her down, making her spasm with
pleasure all over again. She could feel her orgasm building, a slow, burning
heat inside her.

Jake was moving faster now and she loved the
weight of him behind her, on top of her, his hot breath in her hair as he
thrust. But no matter how much she was enjoying it, the heat and sweat of Jake
making love to her, she wanted to see him. Wanted to watch what he was doing to
her and look into his eyes.

“Stop.”
The word came out as more of a pant than a
sharp command, but he still stopped.

Jake ran a hand down her spine as he pulled
back, and she saw confusion in his gaze when she looked over her shoulder.

“On your back,” she told him, staring straight
into his eyes as she turned over.

Jake’s eyes flashed with heat again, all hint
of confusion gone as he obeyed her.

“You’re the boss,” he said, moving to lie back
on the bed and putting his hands behind his head.

Faith climbed aboard, her thighs on either side
of his thickly muscled legs. She ran her hands down his chest, exploring every
inch of him, touching his muscles, before lowering herself, settling on top of
him and starting to rock back and forth.

Jake’s hands didn’t stay behind his head for
long. As soon as she started moving, he cupped her backside, fingers kneading
her skin before transferring to her breasts like he couldn’t get enough of her.
Soon he was holding her hips and making her move faster, his body moving up to
meet hers.

But he never looked away. Jake’s gaze was
trained on hers, and even when she knew she was close, knew she was about to
climax, she forced herself to keep her eyes open and locked on his. Even when
he let out what sounded like a growl, held her in place as they both
surrendered to their pleasure, the only thing she could see were his wicked
dark brown eyes.

Faith collapsed onto Jake’s chest, letting him
hold her, loving the feel of his hands on her skin and his mouth on her hair.
And even still, she could see his eyes… the
gaze that made her thankful she’d decided to come back to Fairview.
Because
being with Jake was exactly what she’d needed, and it was a night she’d never
forget for as long as she lived.

Jake stretched and opened his eyes. He was
greeted by a head on his chest, long hair draped across his body. He usually
woke to a dog taking up half the bed – not warm, bare breasts on him and a leg
wrapped around his own.

He heard a noise, raised his head,
then
gave Faith a nudge.

“Faith,” he said as she moaned, clearly not
ready to wake up yet. “Faith, wake up honey.”

She lifted her head and looked at him. “You’d
better have a good reason for waking me up,” she mumbled as he ran his hand
through her hair.

“Tom’s up. I heard him calling out.”

“Shit!” She pushed the sheets back and leaped
up, scrambling for her clothes and yanking them on. “I meant to sneak back
down, not go to sleep up here with you.”

Jake just smiled, never taking his eyes from
her. She was hopping around trying to pull her jeans up – he only wished that
she was getting undressed instead of putting her clothes
on
.

“I didn’t pick you as the love ‘
em
and leave ‘
em
type.”

Faith did up her top button, pushed her hair
off her face and jumped back on top of him, pressing a quick kiss to his lips
before leaping back off the bed and yanking
open
the
door.

Jake listened to her run down the stairs and
call out to her son, smiling as he heard Sam bark back, like she was calling
out to him. Last night had been…
unexpected.
But now that he’d had Faith in his bed? He was starting to wonder why he’d
insisted on being a loner for so long. Because having company felt good, and
going back to being alone wasn’t sounding so great after all.

FAITH stood in the kitchen, leaning on the
counter as she watched Jake and Tom. Her son was more the exuberant Labrador
than Jake’s dog – running alongside his new best friend, no doubt asking a
million questions. Any worries she’d had about being here, they were long gone.
Jake had been nothing but kind to them, even though she knew how hard he’d
found it having Tom around, and last night had made her more interested in
staying than leaving.

She turned away as they disappeared through the
field and poured herself a cup of coffee. She made it strong – she’d need all
the help she could get this morning. Faith crossed the room and sat back down
at Jake’s computer, logging into her email account and scrolling through. She
had messages from the insurance company, her father’s lawyer, and the local
bank, which meant dealing with a lot of crap and making some heavy hitting
phone calls to claim what was hers.

Faith took a long sip and sat back, resisting
the urge to shut the computer down and run off after Tom to see the horses. She
could do with hanging over a railing and watching her son learn to ride, or
whatever it was that Jake had planned for him this morning.

A knock at the door made her sit up straighter.
She’d been here a few days now and no one had ever stopped by.

Faith rose, pulled on her sweater and headed
for the door. But the person she saw on the other side made her want to slam it
shut again. Sheriff Brewster was standing on the porch with his arms folded,
shiny gold badge on display.

She swallowed and leaned against the door jamb,
trying to pretend like seeing him hadn’t rattled her.
The
truth?
She’d never been so shit-scared. Not since he’d as good as told
her she was a tramp and forced her out of town. Cold laced her spine. She’d
tried to block it out, to not think about it, but the fact he was here told her
that her suspicions were probably true and he was here to make sure she kept
her mouth shut.

“Ms. Walker.”

He tipped his hat but she just stared at him.
Words were failing her, so she kept her mouth shut rather than say the wrong
thing.

“Jake gave me a call, he was worried I hadn’t
been doing enough to find out who’d set your daddy’s house on fire.”

Faith took a deep breath and squared her
shoulders. She was a confident woman now, not a girl, and she needed to behave
like one if she wanted him to take her seriously. He’d sent her packing once,
but whether she left Fairview again or not was her choice now, not his.

“The house was mine, Sheriff, and I’m pretty
certain there’s only one person in this town who’d want to burn me alive.”

He laughed.
The
bastard had the nerve to laugh.

“That sounds like a pretty hefty accusation, Ms.
Walker. I wouldn’t be going around running my mouth like that, if I were you.”

“Was there a purpose to your visit? Or did you
just want Jake to think you were actually doing your job?” Her tone had a bite
to it and she was pleased.

“Everything okay here?”

Faith’s body went rigid as she heard Jake’s
voice. Less than a second later he was standing by her side.

“Where’s Tom?” she asked, not bothering to look
at the sheriff to see his reaction.

“He’s fine.
Just playing with
Sam on the grass.
I forgot something and came back.”

Faith relaxed, taking strength from Jake. He
might not know about her past, about why she hated Fairview – or parts of it – so
much, but she knew he’d protect her no matter what. He’d already proven what
kind of man he was, and he wasn’t the kind to let a woman find her way into
trouble if he could do anything to help it.

“I was just saying to Ms. Walker here,” the
sheriff said, sending a sickly sweet smile in her direction, “that we’re
unfortunately no further ahead in our investigations over the fire.”

Jake frowned. “The fire chief has finished his
report though, correct? I was told that the fire had been confirmed as being
started by a fire bomb through the window.”

The sheriff just nodded. “Correct. There will
be no insurance problems that I can foresee, which means Ms. Walker will be
able to settle her affairs and move on.”

“By move on, you mean away from Fairview?” Faith
asked.

Jake gave her a confused look, but he didn’t
say anything. The sheriff shifted his weight before taking a few steps
backward.

“I’d best be on my way. We’ll be in touch if
there are any further developments.”

Faith stared after him, thankful that Tom
hadn’t appeared until the sheriff was in his car. Her son raced around the side
and she forced a smile on her face, not wanting him to see how upset she was.
She’d brought Tom up with all the love one person could muster, telling him
constantly what a blessing he was, so the last thing she needed was for him to
feel unloved, to figure out that he had a connection to people who hadn’t even
wanted him to enter the world.

“Hey, baby,” she said, crouching down to give
him a big hug.

He let her, patiently standing there while she
held him, putting his arms around her neck.

“Jake’s going to show me how to catch a horse,
and maybe let me ride bareback.”

Faith laughed. She didn’t know why she’d let
the sheriff rattle her – it had been the shock of seeing him after so long, not
that she wasn’t capable of standing her ground – because when she was with Tom,
she knew that all the shit she’d dealt with had been worth it.

“That sounds great. Why don’t you run off with
Sammy, find his ball maybe? I just need a quick word with Jake.”

She ruffled Tom’s hair as he bolted off with a
smile on his face, before turning to Jake. His expression was unsure, but his
eyes… they were telling her that he didn’t really give a crap what was going
on, so long as she told him what it was all about. Only she wasn’t so sure she
was ready to answer the questions she saw burning in his gaze.

“WHY are you looking at me like that?”

Jake could have asked her
like what
, but he hadn’t exactly been pretending like he hadn’t
noticed.

“You’re acting like Sheriff Brewster’s the one
who torched your house.”

She took a deep breath, staring straight back
at him. “Yeah, well maybe he did.”

Now it was Jake’s turn to give her a hard
stare. “Faith, what’s going on?”

She sighed, looking up at the sky before
returning his gaze. “He’s Tom’s grandfather.”

Jake would have been less surprised if she’d
sucker punched him.
“Grandfather?”
How was that even possible?

Faith crossed her arms and shut her eyes,
opening them only after she took a visibly deep, shaky breath. “You asked why
I’d come back? What had happened?”

Jake was waiting. He took Faith by the arm and
steered her into the house and to the sofa in the family room. They both sat
down, but he never took his eyes from her face.

“I think you need to start talking. No more
pretending like we can just live in the now without giving a shit about the
past. Not after last night,” he said.