Secret Love - Brenda Jackson [42]
Jake reached out and traced a finger alongside her face. He felt her body tremble beneath his touch. He didn’t want to think about her leaving. He refused to do that. For now, he wanted to think about kissing her, loving her and being an intimate part of her. He didn’t want to think about why he was feeling that way, but the truth of the matter was that he was. He shook his head as if to clear it, but it didn’t work. Leaning toward her, he captured her lips with his, searching for some way to exorcise her from his mind before she wiggled her way into his heart.
Jake and Diamond spent the next couple of days together at the cabin or riding the range of Whispering Pines land. The more she saw of it, the more she fell in love with it. Whenever he had to leave to take care of things at the ranch, she would go with him. With all the men gone, the ranch looked deserted. Blaylock had taken advantage of the men’s short vacation to go and visit his sister, who lived in Waco.
The more time Jake and Diamond spent together and the more they got to know each other, the more their protective layers began peeling away. Both had had what seemed like a lifetime of protecting themselves against hurt and pain.
Spending time with Jake also had its drawbacks for Diamond. The more times they were together, the more she was challenged to care more deeply for him and not to concern herself with making it to the top of her career. For the first time in a long time, she thought about having children and watching them grow under her and their father’s watchful eyes. In her thoughts, that man, the father of her children, would always be Jacob.
Each and every time those thoughts surfaced, she would push them away. She knew she had to be realistic. Both of them had endured former marriages that had left a bad taste in their mouths. They had suffered pain that they were both still trying to get over and deal with.
And then there would be the prying eyes of the world that would be fed by the gossip-hungry tabloids. They would never have a normal marriage. Diamond knew the only thing they could do was enjoy the time they had together and treasure the memories. And they were both content to do just that.
One afternoon Jake and Diamond had returned to the ranch after riding the range. They sat in his kitchen, sharing cups of tea that he had made. Dusk began covering the earth and silence surrounded the ranch. Blaylock and the men were still away.
“Jacob, this tea is delicious. What’s in it?”
Jake smiled. “I can’t tell you. It’s a secret.”
“A secret?”
“Yes,” Jake said, pouring more tea into their cups. “It’s an old family secret that can be shared only with the men in the Madaris family, and only after they’ve reached the mature age of thirty-five.”
Diamond became intrigued as she always did whenever he spoke of his family. There was always warmth and love in his voice whenever he discussed them. “And just whose idea was it to exclude the women from this secret?”
“My great-great-grandfather. He made that decision after finding out his money-hungry wife had plans to sell the family secret to some major tea company and run off with the proceeds and with one of his cowhands.”
The aroma of the succulent brew of herbs and spices filled the room. Diamond lifted a brow as she took another sip of her tea. “And from then on it was felt that the women in the Madaris family couldn’t be trusted,” Diamond concluded.
Jake smiled. “I won’t go that far, but the men in the family figured why dangle a carrot in front of them when they knew they were better at keeping secrets than the women.”
Diamond met Jake’s gaze over the rim of her cup. “You know what they say about keeping secrets, don’t you?”
“No. What do they say?”
“Nothing is safe as a secret forever,” she said softly. She remembered how her ex-husband had found that out the hard way. His secret affair with the young daughter of one of his financial backers had come to light when the eighteen-year-old had gotten pregnant.
Jake stared at Diamond for a long time. “You sound like you know