Sweet Seduction (The BAD BOY BILLIONAIRES Series) (12 page)

Sam almost choked but she ended up coughing instead. 
Had she heard right?  Was Jake McKoy proposing to her?  “What did you say?”  she
demanded, pulling away to look up into his face.

“Samantha Fox, will you do me the honor of being my
wife?”

Still not believing all of this was happening, she
frowned.  “Are you serious?”  she asked, not daring to accept it.  Maybe she
should pinch herself.  She must be dreaming.

“Very serious, darling.  I think I fell in love with
you from the first day we met but I’ve been fighting it ever since.”  He gave
her a rueful smile.  “I guess what is meant to be must be.  My fighting was
futile.”

Heart brimming with joy she reached up and wrapped her
arms around his neck.  “It certainly was.”  She was smiling broadly as she
stared up into his face.  “You will never escape me, Jake.  You’re mine for now
and always.”

 CHAPTER NINE

Sam could safely say she was the happiest girl in the
world.  She had to be.  She felt like if even one more drop of happiness got
added to her life she would simply burst into a million fragments of joy.  Jake
loved her and right now that was all that mattered in the world.

It had been over a week since he’d proposed and so far
life had been perfect.  There’d only been one little point of disagreement
between them and it hadn’t been major, anyway.

They’d been standing on the bridge when he’d turned to
her and asked, “When we’re married, what about giving up your plumbing work?”

She looked at him, surprised.  “Why?  I love what I
do.”

“Yes, but I don’t,” came his quick response.

Sam frowned.  Was Jake prejudiced against a
blue-collar career?

Before she could speak he continued.  “I don’t like
the idea of you climbing ladders or going down into people’s basements.  For
one, that kind of work can be dangerous and two, what if you end up going out
to the boondocks where some weirdo lives all by himself?  You could get
kidnapped.”

She chuckled at that one.  “Like I came out to the
boondocks and found you?”

His frown softened.  “Yeah.  Just like that.”  He
leaned back on the rail and pulled her against him.  “But seriously, Sam, I’m
concerned about your safety.  Would you give up your career…for me?”

“But…it’s part of who I am, Jake.”  She laid her head
on his shoulder.  “No matter what, I need my independence.  I can’t just sit in
the house all day, twiddling my thumbs.”

He stroked her arm.  “You’d be twiddling them with
me.”  When she sighed but didn’t respond he said, “Okay, let's compromise.  You
keep the decorating side of your career and I’ll make sure the rest of the time
you’ll be so swamped with charity work you won’t have time to scratch your
head.  How does that sound?” 

She peeped up at him.  “And can I help you write your
book?”

“That’s a brilliant idea,” he said quickly, and he
looked like he meant it.  “We’ll brainstorm together and churn out book after
book.  You’ll probably start writing books of your own.  We’ll be a power team,
pumping out thriller after thriller.”

Sam walked her fingers up his chest then reached up to
stroke his neck.  “Romance is what I want to write.”

“Whatever pleases the lady,” he said with a wink.

“And I’ll start,” she said, as she turned her face up
for a kiss, “with our story.”

That settled, Sam decided to introduce Jake to her parents. 
She started with her dad.

“I knew it,” Alvin said and slapped his knee.  He
looked over at Meg.  “Didn’t I tell you something was going to happen between
those two?”

Sam put her hands on her hips.  “Have you two been talking
about me behind my back?”

“Yes, dear, as we always do.”  Meg gave her an
unapologetic grin.

“From that first day she came back to office with her
face shining like the sun I knew she’d been bit by the bug.  The love bug.” 
Her father’s laugh echoed in the tiny office. 

“Anyway,” Sam said, with a sigh of exasperation, “I
want you to meet him.  When’s good for you two?”

“Bring him over Sunday afternoon,” Meg said, her face
eager.  “We’ll do a barbecue.  I’m sure he’ll love that.  He must have been so lonely
stuck in that big old house all by himself.”

“He’s not going to be lonely anymore.”  Alvin nudged
Meg with his elbow and they both laughed.

Sam rolled her eyes then smiled and shook her head. 
She could only hope these two would be on their best behavior on Sunday.  The
last thing she needed was for Jake to think he was marrying into a family of
loonies.

To Sam’s surprise and relief, Alvin and Meg took off
their troublemaker hats and were the perfect hosts that Sunday evening.  She
could see Jake relax in their presence and at the end of the day when he kissed
her goodnight he gave her his verdict.  He loved them.

“Relax, Sam,” he said with a chuckle.  “Your parents
aren’t on trial here.  I could see you watching their every move.  But you
forget,” he said as he pulled her close, “they’re not the ones who have to pass
the test.  I am.”

She chuckled then.  “The results are in,” she said as
she leaned against him.  “You passed with flying colors.”

“Thank God.”  He gave an exaggerated sigh of relief
and they both laughed.

The following weekend they paid a visit to Mary who treated
them to an elegant five course meal.

“Mom, you outdid yourself.”  Sam couldn’t believe her
mother had gone to so much trouble but she was grateful.  She could see that
Jake was impressed, not just with Mary’s culinary skills but also with her
artistic talent.  After dinner he visited the room she used as her art studio
and admired painting after painting.  Within half an hour he’d bought four of
them and commissioned her to do a painting for placement over the mantelpiece
in his living room.

At one point Sam pulled him aside.  “You don’t have to
do this, Jake, just because it’s my mom.”

“But I want to,” he said, pulling away from her to look
at yet another painting, “not because she’s your mom but because she’s a really
good artist.  I want our home to be ready for when you move in,”  he looked
back at her then, “as my wife.”

That made Sam blush.  That word – wife – always had
the same effect on her.   Whenever he said it her heart swelled with joy and
pride till she felt she’d burst with happiness.  Okay, so it was corny, but she
couldn’t help how she felt.  She could hardly wait until the day she walked
down the aisle and finally became his. 

The week that followed was so busy for Sam that she
only got a chance to see Jake once.  It was as if the universe had conspired to
keep her away from him so she would miss him all the more.  As if she wasn’t
suffering enough already, anxiously awaiting her wedding.  They’d decided on a
spring wedding and it was only October.  And although she would need the time
to get everything organized the wait was sheer torture.

Still, even when they didn’t get to see each other
they always spoke on the phone, sometimes as many as three or four times a day. 
Sam had never thought herself the sentimental type but something had happened
to her.  She was a new, softer Sam who couldn’t wait to hear from her man.

Next morning, very early in the morning, she did.  But
it was not the kind of phone call she was expecting.  Jake was on the phone,
but it was not the man who had called the night before to wish her a loving
goodnight.  No, this man was angry.

“How could you do this to me?”  The voice on the other
end of the line vibrated with a rage Sam didn’t know Jake possessed.  “I
trusted you and this is what you do to me?”

“What?”  Sam’s heart leaped into her throat.  What the
hell was going on?  "What did I do to you?”

“You’re asking me that?”  he raged.  “You know me by
now, Sam.  You know how important my privacy is.  And you go and sell me out
like that?”

“What in the name of heaven are you talking about?”  she
practically shrieked into the phone.  “What did I do to your privacy?”

“Don’t play stupid.  It’s all over the newsstands.” 
He gave a grunt of annoyance.  “I was in the drugstore this morning, standing
in line, and there I was, on the front cover of the National Observer, with
you.”

“What?”  She gasped, her body going cold at the news. 
“How could that happen?”

Jake laughed but it was a laugh so cold, so bitter,
that she shivered even as she clutched the phone to her ear.

“Sam, all I can say is, I’m very disappointed in you. 
You were the one woman in the world I thought I could trust.  But not anymore.”

Before she could respond he hung up.  Just like that,
he was gone.  And just like that, all her dreams of exchanging wedding vows
with Jake went flying out the window.

Now she realized that what she’d had, had only been
that – a dream.  It had all been too good to be true.

CHAPTER TEN

When Sam was finally able to move from her frozen
state she rested the phone receiver back into the cradle then clutched the bed
sheet in her fists.  Things had gone terribly wrong and she had no idea why. 
She had to find out what happened.  

She tumbled out of the bed and ran to the bathroom
where she did a quick wash then threw on jeans and a sweater then she was
racing down the stairs and out the door.  She drove to the nearest newsstand
and bought a copy of the National Observer.  And there she saw it – a headline
that slapped her full in the face,  ‘Mystery Billionaire Writer Revealed’.  She
almost dropped the paper in her shock.

There on the front cover was Jake and, to her horror,
she was in the picture, too.  She was standing slightly behind him but her face
was quite visible.  As she stared at the photograph she realized it had been
taken the day after they’d had dinner at her mother’s house.  They’d gone
hunting for picture frames and were standing close together, admiring one with
gilt edges.  She’d reached out a hand to touch it and that was when somebody
had snapped the picture.

Sam turned the page and her heart sank when she
realized an entire page was dedicated to revealing Jake’s identity.  She began
to read and gasped. It was worse than she'd thought.  The words jumped off the
page at her.  ‘Billionaire writer, Jake McKoy, was caught shopping with his
bride-to-be, small-town girl Samantha Fox’.  What in the name of heaven?  How
could anyone have known about that?  The only people she’d told were the
members of her immediate family.  She frowned.  Could the paparazzi have
invaded Tonawanda?

She dropped her eyes back to the paper and skimmed
through the article.  It talked about his move to Tonawanda, his involvement in
charities, and even the death of his wife.  Then it talked about her – ‘The
star-struck fiancée’, it called her.  They said it was a Cinderella story, with
the working class girl finding her prince in the most unlikely of places.

Sickened, she folded the paper and began walking back
to her truck.  He’d worked so hard to remain anonymous, going so far as to move
all the way out to this small town, only for this to happen.  And worse, the
kind of information included in the article could not have been picked up by an
outsider.  It included things he’d discussed with her in confidence.  No wonder
he was so angry with her.  He’d come to the only logical conclusion – that
she’d betrayed him.

But she hadn’t.  And if it was the last thing she did
she was going to find out what happened.  It probably wouldn’t do her much
good, not where Jake was concerned.  He’d made up his mind about her and was
gone out of her life, probably for good.  But if even for her own sanity she
had to find out.  And she would start by calling the newspaper.

******

Holy crap.  What had he just done?  Jake was muttering
to himself as he walked over the bridge toward his writing studio.

When he’d seen the photo and the article he’d been so
incensed he’d jumped to the quickest and easiest conclusion – Sam must have
been the source.  How else could they have gathered all that information?

But after his volcanic emotions had erupted all over
her he’d regretted his outburst.  Damn.  As old as he was he should have known
better than to fly off the handle like that.

Because in his heart he knew there had to be another
explanation.  Now that the red veil of rage had lifted from his eyes he could
see clearly.  And he saw that he’d made a big mistake.

He pushed open the door and dropped the offending
paper onto the desk.  He would deal with that later.  Right now he had to reach
Sam and beg her forgiveness.

He picked up the phone and dialed the house.  Five
rings and then it went to voicemail.  He hung up.  He didn’t want to leave a
message.  He wanted to talk to her, take back his hurtful words before it was
too late. He tried the cell phone.  Six rings on this one then voicemail
again.  Was she deliberately avoiding his calls?  He heaved a sigh.  He couldn’t
blame her, not after he’d blasted her like that and hung up.  He hadn’t even
given her a chance to respond.