Wild Fire (The Fairy Tale Match Series) (31 page)

“Did you sleep with her?” she asked
quietly, terrified to ask the question, but needing to know the answer. If he’d
slept with her, there was no going back. She held her breath, scared to hear
his answer.

“No, it didn’t take me long to figure
out that she wasn’t you.” He stepped closer to her, wanting to touch her and
ease away her pain, but knowing she wouldn’t let him yet. “We kissed and
touched a bit before I realised it wasn’t you. It makes me ill to think of it,
but that is as far as it went. The moment I realised who she was, I stopped the
whole thing. I let her know in no uncertain terms that she held no interest for
me whatsoever. She was pretty mad when she left.”

Laura sucked in a shuddering breath,
pain and confusion tearing her apart. “I don’t know what to think about what
you’re telling me,” she whispered. “I want to believe you, but I’m tired of
doing that and then being hit with more pain when something else happens.”

“I am sorry for the things I have
done that have hurt you so much, but I promise you this last thing was not of
my doing. I didn’t invite her to my bedroom and I didn’t sleep with her. That
whole incident was all Victoria’s doing.” He gripped her hands gently in his,
encouraged when she didn’t pull free. “I told you when we slept together last
night that you are the one I want and I meant every word. I also said that if
you could believe in that, Victoria could do nothing. I admit, I never imagined
she would pull a stunt like this, but I am hoping you can see that I am telling
the truth about what happened.”

Laura looked into his eyes. She could
see his pain and desperation staring back at her. Would he look this way if he
didn’t mean it; if he was lying? More than anything else, she didn’t want to go
through what she’d been through last night ever again. Could she trust that he
hadn’t actually slept with Victoria? He could be lying. She would never know.
If she stayed and he betrayed her again, how would she survive it if they’d
been together longer? She already felt like what had happened had nearly
destroyed her and they’d only known each other such a small amount of time. She
was sure the longer she was with him, the worse it would be if things fell
apart.

Jake could see the war of emotions
crossing her face. His heart went cold at the look in her eyes. He could feel
her slipping away from him and it terrified him. “Please Laura. Don’t give up
on us. Don’t throw away what we could share because you’re scared of being
hurt. I tried to do that after Dan and Victoria, but I know now that love is
worth taking the risk. Don’t shut it out. I need you and I love you. I won’t
ever let you down again. Please trust me and believe me that I have told you
the truth.”

Laura gazed into his beautiful blue
eyes. She thought about going back to England and never seeing him again. Never
holding him or kissing him; of letting go of the future she’d begun to see for
them. Did she really want that, if he’d really been set up by a vicious woman
that worked so hard to ruin people? Her heart twisted. Hadn’t she always
thought her mother would have been okay if she’d only been willing to take a
chance on love again? Laura didn’t want to shut her own heart just because she
was afraid to be hurt.

She took a deep cleansing breath,
closing her eyes as she felt the pain and indecision melt away. He was worth
taking a chance for and so was she. She wanted a life with him more than
anything. She couldn’t just throw this away. She had to believe he was telling
her the truth. “Okay, Jake,” she smiled slowly. “I am willing to give this
another chance. But don’t you ever put me through anything like this ever
again!”

He pulled her in close, relief
flowing through him so strongly, his body was shaking. “I won’t,” he assured
her. “Just never greet me with a darkened room or at least don’t be surprised
if I put the light on first to make sure it’s you!”

Laura hugged him tightly as she
breathed in his unique scent, letting the warmth of his body soothe her. She
thought about his statement, anger flowing through her veins. “She really put
my clothes on the floor so you’d think it was me?”

“She really did,” he replied, kissing
her gently on top of her head.

“I’m going to kill her!” Laura
hissed, clutching at his shirt. It took an awful lot to make her mad, but when
she did blow, she blew spectacularly. Right now, she wanted to pound Victoria
into the dirt for what she’d tried to do.

He pulled back, looking into her
angry face. “I’d rather you stay well away from her. After last night, I don’t
want to even know what else she’d stoop to.”

“You expect me to do nothing after
what she tried to do? She nearly succeeded in splitting us up Jake!” she fumed.

“But she didn’t.” He kissed her
softly, smiling as her pursed lips softened under his. “After this, nothing she
can do will ever work. This is the worst she could manage. What else could she
possibly throw at us?”

“I hope you’re right,” Laura
murmured. She kissed him back, relief that she hadn’t lost him making her feel
light headed and dizzy. They stood, barely aware of the cars and trucks
pounding by on the road every now and then. Nothing existed but each other and
the love they had between them.

Pulling back, Jake glanced around
them. “We can’t stay here. Do you want to drive behind me and we’ll head home?”

She pulled a face. “I can’t. The car
broke down. I’m waiting for the recovery truck to arrive. I’m surprised you
didn’t realise. Surely you know I would have driven off at the first sighting
of you, if I could have.”

“I guess I was too worried about what
you would say for that to occur to me. I have to say you breaking down was very
fortunate!” Jake laughed. “Otherwise I might not have got you to stop long
enough to listen to me. Or you might have been on a plane home and how would I
have ever found you then?”

“Would you have tried?” she asked
shyly, smiling up into his face.

“I would have torn the whole damn
country apart,” he assured her, earning soft laughter and another kiss. “Now,
how long until this recovery truck arrives?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been waiting a
while now,” she told him, consulting her watch. “It can’t be much longer. The
only thing is, I didn’t ask them for a replacement car, as I thought I’d be
going home.”

“Good,” Jake smiled. “We need to get
you a car that’s permanently yours. You can’t use a hire car for the rest of
your life!”

Laura felt a warm glow in her heart
at his words. She felt a sense of belonging fill her being. He wanted her in
his life. He’d made that clear. She promised herself that from this moment on,
she would believe in that no matter what. She watched as Jake took her things
from the car and loaded them into his truck. They waited for another half hour
for the pick-up truck to arrive. Jake texted Kerry to let her know he had found
Laura and all was well. He doubted his sister would have gone to bed, but he
didn’t want to risk waking her if she’d fallen asleep.

A battered truck finally turned up. A
large chubby man with a round portly stomach hauled himself out of the vehicle,
groaning loudly. He rubbed at the rough whiskers on his face as he confirmed
their identity. Then with much grunting and moaning, he hitched up the car. He
presented her with some paperwork before he got back in his truck and took off.

Jake and Laura gratefully made their
way to his truck, driving back along the road towards home. Laura let her head
fall back onto the seat, closing her eyes to savour the moment. She would never
have imagined that things would turn out this way when she’d been driving along
this road earlier. She was so grateful her car had broken down and Jake had
found her. Maybe packing up and running away had been the wrong thing to do.
She realised now she should have taken the time to face things, instead of
trying to avoid them.

She thought of Martha and the letter
she’d left her. That was something she would have to sort out in the morning.
She wished she could turn back the clock and do things differently. Martha
would be so disappointed in her when she got that letter. Laura hoped she could
get to the diner before Martha got the chance to read it, just so she wouldn’t
cause too much undue stress. More than ever, she wanted to strangle Victoria
for all the trouble she’d caused.

Jake’s explanation drifted through
her mind, something nagging at her that she simply couldn’t catch hold off.
Suddenly Laura’s heart tripped over as a thought occurred to her. Victoria had
certainly set a trap, but for who? She couldn’t help but wonder if Victoria had
meant for her to find Jake in that compromising position. After all, he’d soon
realised it wasn’t Laura in his bed and had stopped all physical intimacy when
he did. Victoria had to have known he would realise it was her sooner or later.
Was it possible she had been attempting to clear the field?

Her mind ticking over, Laura bit her
lip in concentration. She was sure she was on to something, but she wasn’t sure
what. Something was fishy about the whole situation. She only needed to think
it through. She frowned deeply as she tried to sort out all the bits of what
she was sure was a complicated puzzle. Slowly something else began to occur to
her, making her heart thump even stronger.

Jake glanced over at Laura, seeing
the frown marring her sweet face. “What are you thinking about,” he asked
curiously.

She bit her lip, looking at him with
a serious expression. “I was thinking about what you told me earlier.”

“What about it?” he asked worriedly.

“Can I just ask you something?” Her
frown deepened, her eyes glazed as she seemed to be working something over in
her mind.

“Sure,” he hoped she hadn’t begun to
doubt him again. His heart picked up speed.

“Did Walter know Victoria when she
was here two years ago?” Of all the things Jake had expected her to ask, that
wasn’t it.

“No, he didn’t start working for us
until she’d left. Why?” He couldn’t understand why she was suddenly thinking
about Walter. He squashed a flash of jealousy.

“That’s odd. Are you sure she had
already left?” Laura persisted.

“Positive. She packed up and moved on
the day we were meant to be married. Walter started about three days later.
Why?” He was puzzled as to where she was going with this.

“Well, he told me he’d seen her on
distance. He made sure I knew how beautiful she was. He said he’d seen her
before she’d gone away. If what you say is right, how is that possible?”

“I guess he might have been in town and
seen her before he got the job with us.” Jake shrugged, not really caring.

“I guess so.” She continued to chew
at her lip, her face still screwed up in concentration.

“Why are you so interested in when
Walter may have seen her?” Jake tried to keep the bite of jealously down, but
he couldn’t help but wonder at her interest.

“I was just thinking, you got dumped
in horse manure by Walter before finding Victoria in your bed. She would have
needed you to be unclothed to make her plan work to her best advantage. After
all if you’d had to stop and undress you might have had more time to realise it
was her. Don’t you think that’s odd?”  She glanced at him.

Jake frowned. “You don’t think it’s
just a coincidence? After all, I’ve never seen Walter anywhere near Victoria.”

“But that may just prove my point.
Walter loves women. Why hasn’t he made a play for Victoria?” she insisted.

“Because he’s been obsessed with you,
why else?” Jake growled, grinding his teeth in annoyance.

“And another thing,” Laura went on,
completely ignoring his agitation. “He was waiting for me when I got back to
the house last night and he was the one who told me Victoria was in there. In
fact, he said you’d sent Bill and Kerry away from the house.”

“I don’t like the guy, but it is
possible he did see Victoria going into the house and just made up the other
stuff to get you to dump me and take up with him.” Jake was doubtful there was
anything more to it than that. “He’s been after you ever since you got here.”

Laura felt frustrated. She was sure
she was on to something and she wished Jake would take it seriously. Bits and
pieces of events kept flitting through her mind. She wasn’t absolutely sure she
was right, but something was telling her that what had happened that night had
been too perfect to just be coincidence. She was almost positive that Walter
had something to do with Victoria’s stunt.

Jake seemed to want to bury his head
in the sand with it, but Laura refused to. After getting past the pain of
betrayal and finding out it had been set up, she was beginning to wonder what
else had been going on that they were not aware of. She chewed her lip as her
thoughts took off in all directions. She decided to say nothing further to
Jake, but she made a mental note to watch Walter when they got back. If he went
nowhere near Victoria, she would drop it, but something was telling her there
was more to this situation than met the eye. And she was determined to find out
what it was.

*****

They finally arrived back at the
ranch late into the night. Laura had fallen asleep for the last part of the
journey. She awakened as Jake parked in the drive in front of the house. They
both dragged themselves from the truck, staggering up the stairs and into the
house.