The Forbidden Billionaire (The Sinclairs Book 2) (16 page)

“That’s just superficial differences. They don’t matter. I think beneath all of Jared’s bluster, he’s a good man,” Sarah mused. “I think Dante knew he was interested in somebody in town. I even think he knew it was you.”

Mara’s head snapped up. “He did? How? Even I didn’t know.”

Sarah smiled at her. “Cop instinct, I guess. He was on to the fact that Jared wasn’t seeing anybody.”

“He hasn’t for a while now. Been with anybody, I mean,” she added hastily. “He said he’s seen with a lot of women, but some of them are just friends. I believe him.”

“I believe that,” Emily chirped. “The tabloids and media can be brutal. So much speculation without the facts. I think it would be great if you and Jared ended up together. I think he needs you.”

I don’t deserve you, Mara, but I need you.

She sighed as she remembered Jared’s words. The big question was . . . did he love her? Was he starting to fall as hard as she was falling? “I guess we’ll just have to see what happens.” Her heart was now open to Jared, his to cherish or break. She was rolling the dice on him, and she hoped her instincts were right. If not, she’d be shattered.

“God, he’s hot,” Kristin commented enthusiastically.

“He is. That’s why I don’t understand why he’s interested in me. I’m probably the plainest, most boring woman in town.”

“That’s not true,” Sarah replied hotly. “You’re pretty and sweet. Dante once said that sweet women are a Sinclair’s downfall.”

Randi snorted. “I guess I never have to worry about being any Sinclair man’s downfall then.”

Mara glanced at the petite brunette. She didn’t believe Randi for a second. She might act like she was tough, but she was willing to bet the woman had a warm heart. She’d never been anything but kind to her, and Randi volunteered a lot of her time at the Youth Center when she wasn’t teaching at the local school.

“Grady loves me, and I’m plain, tall,
and
curvy,” Emily added firmly. “It’s like he’s blind to every fault I have.”

“Jared is, too,” Mara admitted in a perplexed voice. “He looks at me like I’m a supermodel. It’s like he thinks I’m perfect.” She rolled her eyes just at the thought of her ever being without fault, physically or emotionally.

“He
is
the one,” Kristin affirmed with a smile.

“Definitely,” Sarah seconded.

“He’s in love with you,” Emily confirmed with a nod.

Mara’s heart beat faster and her palms grew sweaty at the thought. There was nothing she wanted more than for the women’s predictions to be true.

The conversation turned directions after a few moments of silence, the ladies talking about the wedding as they stuffed favor bags. It was a simple task, but Mara had never felt more comfortable, so a part of something that bonded her together with other females, a group of women she could easily call friends. There wasn’t a bit of cattiness in any of them, and they were genuinely warm and caring.

Cutting off any negative thoughts about Jared, she just enjoyed the memory of how blissful it had been when they’d woken up together that morning. Jared had held her close the entire night, his powerful arms still wrapped around her when they woke.

For now, those feelings, that sense of closeness would have to be enough.

CHAPTER 15

“Hey, beautiful . . . your website is up.”

Mara gaped at Jared, who was standing right outside the door she’d opened to his knock, her first cup of coffee still in her hand. Jared was
never
this cheerful in the morning, and this was very unusual behavior for him before nine a.m. He generally woke up, drank his coffee, and grumbled as he went downstairs to his gym. By the looks of his damp hair and mischievous grin, he’d already gone through his morning routine, which included a shower after he hit the gym, and it was only eight o’clock.

He’s up early.

Holding the door open for him, she watched him saunter into the living room, and he smelled deliciously of coffee, fresh air, and sandalwood as he brushed past her.

God, he smells good.

Dressed in jeans and his normal button-down shirt, he looked good enough to eat for breakfast, and Mara had to clench her fist around her mug to keep from reaching for him and making him her first meal of the day. “It’s up?” The sight and scent of Jared distracted her so much that it had taken her a while to process what he’d said.

Moving to the kitchen and helping himself to a cup of coffee, he turned to her with a naughty grin and propped his hip casually against the cupboard. “It’s been up since the second I saw you.”

Her eyes went immediately to his groin, and then back up to his face. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see anything because his shirttail was covering his crotch. She nodded. “Our website, you mean? It’s live?”

He smirked. “That’s up, too.”

Too? Wicked man!

She tried not to smile, but her lips turned up as she watched him take a sip of his coffee. Jared Sinclair was way too hot not to appreciate when he was being perverted, and his flirty words made her heart flutter inside her chest.

He looks so damn perfect, and I’m a mess.

Mara had barely gotten out of bed. She ran a hand through her wild hair, fairly doubtful that her cotton, pink pajamas were really turning him on right now.

“You look beautiful,” Jared drawled slowly, as though he could read her mind. “You look warm, luscious, and cuddly, like you just crawled out of bed.”

“I did,” she told him unhappily, still trying to finger comb her hair. “I never thought you’d be here this early, and I’m behind schedule.” She walked to the cupboard and took out some ibuprofen for her headache. “I think I had one too many strawberry daiquiris with the bridal party.”

“So the girls were playing last night?” Jared asked with amusement in his voice.

Mara shrugged. “Talking mostly and putting together the bags for wedding favors. And drinking.” She swallowed the pills with a sip of her coffee, trying to forget just how much she’d said that she wished she could unsay now. Groaning inwardly, she wished she hadn’t spilled her guts about Jared. Not that she thought the women would gossip, but just because the relationship was way too new to be so intense.

“How many did you drink?”

“Three? I think.”

“Tell me you didn’t drive home,” Jared growled, crowding her against the cupboard.

“I didn’t drive,” she assured him quietly, knowing how sensitive he probably was after what had happened to his friend and girlfriend. “Dante just lives down the road. I walked. And please don’t try to tell me you guys were angels at Grady’s house.” She looked up at him expectantly.

He lifted a brow. “We had a few. It was all very tame. Evan dropped us off. He wasn’t drinking.” Jared moved away from her and into the living room. “Do you want to see your website or not?”

She drained the rest of her coffee by taking several gulps, then set her empty mug down on the kitchen cupboard. “Yes,” Mara squealed, then regretted it because it made her head hurt worse. Still, she was excited to see her completed site. Moving behind Jared, who now had his laptop open, she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his back. “Thank you.”

Placing his coffee carefully on one of the low tables near the couch, Jared held the laptop with one hand and pecked the keys with another. Without stopping what he was doing, he muttered, “If you move those hands down another six inches, you won’t be seeing this site until this afternoon.” Setting the computer on the coffee table, he turned and wrapped his arms around her. Stroking a hand down her back, a lopsided smile on his lips, he said lightly, “Hmm . . . I was right . . . very cuddly.”

Mara shivered as she felt the warmth of his palm through the light cotton of her pajama top. “I know, right? Very sexy lingerie.” The top was flimsy, with spaghetti straps and lace, but it was far from seductive. The matching drawstring shorts hung almost to her knees. It was light, comfortable sleepwear for summer, but nothing to inspire a man to ravage her.

Jared tipped her chin and kissed her, a lingering, sensual kiss that nearly made Mara’s toes curl.

“You look hot in anything you wear,” he told her hoarsely, his mouth trailing over her temple. “Even hotter in just your soft, perfect bare skin.”

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pulled back and smiled at him playfully. “Uh-huh. Smooth talker.”

Reaching up, he pulled her hand from his nape and moved it down to his cock. Mara’s fingers flexed as they met his rock-hard erection.

“I’ll never say anything I don’t mean to you,” Jared told her harshly.

Mara shook her head. “I’m sorry. Sometimes I just find it so hard to believe that you feel this way about me.”

“Ditto,” he answered in a gentler voice, pulling her hand away from his erection and wrapping it around his neck again. “I missed you last night. That’s why I woke up early. I couldn’t wait to see you, find out how your night went. I wanted to call you, but your lights were off and I didn’t want to wake you up.” He bussed her on the forehead tenderly and stepped back, fishing something from his back pocket. “I got this for you. I know yours was destroyed, and you’re going to need it.”

Mara gawked at the sleek, beautiful new iPhone. “For me?” she asked incredulously. She took it, cradling it in her hand. Her old cell phone had been a relic, and she hadn’t planned on replacing it anytime soon. Every penny she had that wasn’t needed for basic necessities was going back into the business.

“When I couldn’t see you, I texted you,” he said huskily.

Pushing the button to activate the phone, Mara clicked on the one text message showing as unanswered.

I miss you.

The message had been sent at two o’clock in the morning. Just three simple words that tugged at her heart.

Fumbling with the newer model phone that she wasn’t used to, she didn’t look up at Jared as she replied.

I missed you, too.

She heard the muted
ping
of his phone, and she waited breathlessly as he pulled it out of his pocket.

Lifting her head, she drew in a sharp breath as he tilted her chin and kissed her with a possessive voraciousness that held her in his thrall for a moment before she wrapped her arms around him and returned his embrace. Jared kissed her like a man possessed, his hunger undisguised as he plundered her mouth. His body shuddered, and he was breathing heavily as he pulled his lips from hers. “I don’t want to miss you anymore. I think I’ve missed you my entire life. Be with me, Mara.”

“I am with you,” she whispered softly, soothingly near his ear. “I’m not going anywhere.” The ferocity of his need for her fed her own cravings for him, and she wrapped her arms around him tighter, harder.

“I don’t want anything to happen to you. I want you to live with me, be in my bed with me every night. I want your face to be the first one I see every morning when I wake up, and the last person I see or talk to before I sleep.” He molded her body against his, the covetous hold enveloping her.

He’s scared that something will happen to me.

Jared had only one other woman in his history that he’d cared about, and she’d died in a tragic accident. “I’ll be here, Jared,” she crooned, stroking the hair at the nape of his neck. She’d learned that life could end unexpectedly at any moment after her close call when her home burned to the ground. But she’d never leave Jared by choice. Not as long as he really cared about her.

Seeing him like this made her both elated and protective. This was the real Jared Sinclair, a big, gorgeous man with a tender heart. He’d opened his tortured, bottled-up emotions to her, and she was taking a leap of faith with him. She’d be just as open, just as willing to show him how she felt about him. She had the same fears, the same insecurities, but they weren’t at the same painfully high level as his were. She’d had a mother who had loved her, and no painful past to overcome. Even with her lack of baggage, it wasn’t easy to open her heart completely to a man that she cared about as much as she did about Jared. She wanted him so badly that it nearly terrified her. The emotion between them was so powerful, so intense that it was nearly painful.

“Stay,” he grumbled greedily as Mara tried to pull away slightly to see his face. He dropped into the recliner and pulled her down onto his lap, keeping his arm locked around her waist as he reached for the laptop. “Here’s your site.”

Mara set her new phone down carefully on the small table beside their coffee and took the computer on her lap.

Incredible.

The site was amazing, colorful without being gaudy, and the name of her own business was sporting the logo she and Jared had designed together. It was classy and professional—everything she could have hoped for and more.

He reached around her waist and showed her how the site functioned, how to see her orders, traffic, and the various pages about her featured items.

When he was finished, Mara stared at the screen, lifting her hand to trace the logo on the website. “It’s real. Mara’s Kitchen is really happening.” She and Jared had worked out most of the details except the actual business contract while she’d been laid up in his home, but this was so much more than she’d imagined. Jared had taken their ideas and made them come alive. Squinting at the screen, she clicked back hesitantly to her orders. “Oh, my God. Do I really have this many orders? How can that have happened so soon? The site just came up.”

“I might have called in a few favors to advertise the launch of the site,” Jared muttered sheepishly.

“You’re already marketing?” She gaped at him, amazed at how efficiently and effortlessly he seemed to arrange things.

“I’m a billionaire with a hell of a lot of contacts, sweetheart. It doesn’t exactly take a lot of effort on my part to get other businesses involved or to get the message out about an exciting new business.”

“I have to get busy. I’ll be dashing to fill these orders and get them out before Sarah’s wedding. You called in what kind of favors?” She turned and looked at his face. He was smiling, one of those happy smiles that reached his eyes and turned her to mush.

“Okay. I called in quite a few favors. This is just the beginning. The orders will keep coming in.”

“You’re forcing friends or associates to order?”

Jared put his hands in the air in a sign of surrender. “I’m not forcing anyone to order. It’s all about the products. I just asked for advertising and a few reviews from some food product reviewers. I sent them some of my personal stash for reviews. You owe me some more jam and taffy.” He grinned at her.

“They all liked it?” she asked excitedly.

“They all loved it. Sweetheart, your skills are out of this world. I didn’t expect anything less, and I asked them to be brutally honest. I didn’t twist anybody’s arm for a good review. I swear.”

“Can I read some of them?”

Setting his head on her shoulder to see the screen, his fingers flew over the keyboard. “Here’s one of them.”

She read the words quickly but thoroughly, astonished that such a big food reviewer had actually tried her products. There wasn’t one negative word, every bit of the review positive. At the bottom of it, her website link was displayed boldly. “No wonder I have orders already. Most of the country follows her advice and recommendations. Anybody who likes to cook or bake uses her recipes. I know I do.”

“I know,” Jared replied with a touch of arrogance. “You’re going to outgrow this house and the equipment very quickly. And you’re going to need some help.”

“I have you.” Not that she really expected Jared to don an apron and get to work, but she could do the cooking. He’d incredibly managed everything else with ease.

“Sweetheart, you want your products to succeed. I don’t cook. You need help in the kitchen.”

Mara lowered the computer to the floor. Her hands free, she swung her leg over and straddled his lap. “You’re amazing.” Eyes watering, she stroked a palm down his strong, freshly shaved jawline. “I think you’d look hot in an apron,” she teased.

“Not happening,” he rumbled. “But I’ll do whatever else I can to make the launch fantastic.”

“It’s already incredible. I have to get moving and start getting the products ready.” She started to scramble out of his lap, but a steely arm around her waist kept her planted exactly where she was.

“Not so fast. I expect a proper thank-you.” His jade gaze drilled into her dark eyes.