Secret Love - Brenda Jackson [100]
Jack Swain looked up from the papers he was reading when Casey walked into his office. “What is it, Casey?”
“Security just phoned. Jacob Madaris is at the entrance gate.”
Jack Swain leaned back in his chair. He had spent most of the morning going over the report he had ordered on Jake Madaris, which was something he should have done the moment Diamond had told him she was married to him. Ebony magazine had declared Jacob Madaris as an excellent businessman. Black Enterprise magazine had called him an investment genius, with his ability to play the stock market as easily as a gambler was able to shuffle a deck of cards. Time magazine had applauded his efforts in aiding the British government with England’s cattle industry’s “Mad Cow” epidemic. But what impressed Jack even more about the man was that he was a man dedicated to his family, and more importantly he was a man Jack knew without a doubt loved his daughter. His actions over the past three weeks were clear evidence of that.
“By all means, Casey, let him in. I think it’s time that Mr. Madaris and I have a nice, long talk. We need to clear up a few things.”
A few minutes later, Jack Swain stood when a towering Jacob Madaris walked into his office. Before giving Jake a chance to say anything he said, “I was wondering just how long it was going to take you to get here to claim your wife. You’re earlier than I expected, which really doesn’t surprise me at all.”
Diamond spent the first day she arrived at her father’s house in abject misery. As much as she didn’t want to, she missed Jacob. It didn’t help matters that she felt she was doing the right thing—that without her in his life his world would get back to normal and that he would be safe.
She knew that because of the baby, there would always be some sort of bond between them, but she’d learn to deal with that. She had eight months to learn how to live without him.
She sat down on the bed and patted her stomach. Lowering her head, she bit down on her lips to keep from crying again. “Oh, baby Madaris, how on earth are we going to make it without your daddy? I love your daddy so much. So very, very much.”
“That’s good to hear.”
Diamond jerked her head up to see Jake standing in the doorway. She quickly came to her feet, fighting the urge to tell him how glad she was to see him, and fighting a bigger urge to race across the room and throw herself in his arms. “Jacob! What are you doing here?”
The look he gave her was concentrated, absolute, determined. He crossed the room to stand in front of her. “I came for my Diamond,” he said in a deep, husky voice.
Taking a deep breath, she shook her head and bit down on her bottom lip. “You shouldn’t have come, Jacob. I’m not going with you. There’s no way I’ll be able to go through something like this again. And there’s no way I’ll let you go through it either.”
Jake folded his arms across his chest so he wouldn’t reach out for her. They had to talk. There would be plenty of time to hold her in his arms later. “Oh? And just who made you God, Diamond? Who gave you the authority to dictate what happens in either of our lives?”
Tears sprang into Diamond’s eyes at his harsh words. “You don’t understand,” she said, trying to hide the tremble in her voice. “I love you more than life itself. If anything were to happen to you because of me, I’d never forgive myself, and your child would grow up hating me.”
Jake frowned. Sterling was right. She had really freaked out big time over this. “So what do you want, Diamond? Some guarantee that I’ll live forever? Well, sorry, babe, that’s tough because I can’t give you one. In life there are no guarantees. The only guarantee I’ll give you is that I’ll love you until the day I die, and that as long as I live I’ll continue to do whatever I have to do to protect you.”
“But you shouldn’t have to do that.”
“Yes, I do. You belong to me. It wouldn’t matter if you were a secretary, nurse, teacher or a housewife, I’d still make it my business to put you and my child first. To ask me not to do that would be asking me not to be a man who