Secret Love - Brenda Jackson [44]
Diamond knew in reality that she was offering a lot more and added, “I may be a little late in telling you this, but I feel I need to say it now, to set things straight between us. No matter what you may have ever read about me, Jacob, and no matter what we’ve done together since I’ve been here, I want you to know that I don’t sleep around. I’ve slept with only two men in my lifetime, my ex-husband and you.”
Jake was stunned speechless. Somehow this beautiful woman had retained her traditional values while in an arena of people who were reputed as not having any. He knew that more times than not, the lives of the rich and famous were exploited and degraded unfairly. The majority of the stuff people read in the tabloids wasn’t true. He had been friends with Sterling long enough to figure that out. Half the time when Sterling was reported as being somewhere in seclusion with some beautiful woman, he’d been here at Whispering Pines. And the only thing he’d been romancing was a rod, a reel and his favorite fishing hole.
Jake reached out and traced the tender skin of Diamond’s upper arm, skimming his fingertips and palms over its softness. “So you’re a nice girl,” he whispered teasingly against her cheek. His lips brushed her temple then moved down to capture her earlobe.
“I believe that I am,” Diamond said, trying to disguise the tremble in her voice and the flood of emotions going through her. He knew all the right buttons to push to make her body shift smoothly into overdrive. Sensuous sensations were oozing through her veins. The warmth of his lips against her neck made her breathing thicken. This was first-class seduction, Jacob Madaris’s style.
“I believe that you are, too,” Jake whispered against her ear. “I believe you are a woman of the highest quality and standards. I believe that you are a woman with a heart of gold. Everything about you is goodness, richness and right.”
He wanted to also say that despite her ex-husband’s stupidity, there was a man out there who would appreciate her and who would be worthy of her, but he couldn’t. The thought of any other man being intimate with her bothered him. For some reason that he was too emotional at the moment to think about, he wanted to brand her his. Tonight he wanted to make her Jake Madaris’s woman.
Jake refused to think about what doing that would mean. Not only would he be breaking his “house rule,” he would also be breaking his “heart rule,” which was to never let another woman get under his skin and into his heart.
Too late, he thought as he stared into Diamond’s eyes. Diamonds are forever, and the one standing before him, shining brilliantly with a smile that sparkled so radiantly was undoubtedly so. She would be forever. At that exact moment, he knew he had to face the final truth. He loved her. And when Jake Madaris loved, he loved hard.
He reached out and slid a hand around her waist and brought her body close to his. He needed to hold her in his arms now that he had come to terms with what he had been fighting for the past few weeks. As crazy as it seemed, he had fallen in love with a woman he had met less than three weeks ago. A woman who in less than a week would be walking out of his life.
Jake shook his head. Maybe falling in love with her wasn’t so crazy after all. His nephew Dex had fallen in love with Caitlin less than three weeks after meeting her. And like him, a woman had been the last thing on Dex’s mind at the time. Of all his nephews, the family claimed he and Dex were more alike. He would even admit they usually thought alike. And now it seemed they fell in love alike as well.
“Diamond…” He said her name huskily, tenderly, before slanting his mouth over hers, hungry for whatever she offered, and for the love he had for her. Memories of past hurt, pain and mistrust had no place here. He kissed her like a man dying for the next breath of love, a man hungry for the mere taste of it. When he finally released her mouth to take a soul-cleansing breath, he heard her whisper his name, breathlessly, sensuously.
He took his lips and smoothed