Love Rising: Spring (Mandrake Falls Series Romance Book 4) Read online

  “What do you win?”

  “Good question. What do you have that I need?” She screwed up her face.

  “Everything. Running water, floors that don’t sag, roofs that don’t leak....”

  “That’s perfect!” Her eyes lit up. “If I win, you have to do the repairs on my house free of charge even though you won’t love me anymore. If you win, I can only promise to be your dear friend and never turn you away in time of need. I won’t complain about your love or use you in any way, shape, or form. I will cherish your heart and take care not to abuse the gift. Are we agreed?”

  Jeremy thrust his hand across the table. “Sounds like a plan because either way, I win.”

  They shook hands and grinned at each other. Jocelyn was excited, though Jeremy had no clue of just how excited. She was more excited about this evening with him than she’d been in two years since embarking on Project Marry Rich. His hand was folded around hers and their palms pressed together. He had a warm, rough, sandpapery hand.

  The waiter removed the empty shrimp cocktail dishes and returned with the main course. Jocelyn found she was tracking the hours, one dish at a time, marching toward the moment she would be at his apartment and the night ahead.

  Chapter 9: The Man He’s Kept Hidden

  JEREMY FUMBLED the key in the lock and finally got the door open. He blamed the two martinis but Jocelyn knew it was nerves. She was nervous too. She didn’t have anything to drink because she was driving, but she wouldn’t have in any case. She made it a policy to drink very little when she was out with a man.

  And Jeremy was definitely a man. He hadn’t kissed her yet. She thought he would in the parking lot of the restaurant, but nope. Jocelyn was going a little crazy waiting for it to happen. He gestured for her to enter with a sweep of his arm. She stepped inside the apartment and stood awkwardly waiting for him to close the door, lock it and remove his jacket.

  “Can I take your coat?”

  “Sure.” She giggled like an idiot as she shrugged out of her jean jacket and handed it to him. It was too weird being treated like a lady by a guy her own age. But she sort of liked it too. Even his nervousness was weirdly exciting.

  “Should I make a fire?”

  The moon was rising brilliantly white and full. The light flooded the room. She did a quick calculation on the time it would take to make a fire, talk, get to kissing and then to the bedroom. It was already nine o’clock.

  “No, the moon is enough. Let’s get started.”

  They both swallowed hard.

  Dinner had been fantastic. The steak, frites and lobster tail, (which she had never eaten before in her life but she concealed this information from Jeremy) were out of this world. God knows how much it cost. First he wouldn’t let her see the bill and then he waited until she was in the Ladies Room to pay it. He said he wanted tonight to count as a real date. He’d even opened the car door for her even though she was doing the driving. Jocelyn thought about all of these things as they stood opposite each other in the moonlit living room. She forgot all about her father hitting her in the street and the embarrassing notice of engagement. She forgot about Ryan McIntyre needing a week before he’d see her again. And Hudson Grace marrying Michael Shannon when he was supposed to be in love with her. She forgot about her leaky sink and the stack of bills on top of her fridge and the depressing smells in her house.

  She was with Jeremy Marks and for the first time in months, she felt like everything was going to be okay. Nothing had changed and everything had changed.

  Jocelyn took a step toward him. She reached up, gently removed his glasses and set them on the table. Then she cupped his face and drew his lips down to hers and kissed him tenderly.

  “Don’t forget the rule,” he choked.

  “Shhhh. I’m not. It’s just you and me here. Exactly as we are.”

  He bent over her in the moonlight, put his arms around her and kissed her.

  The slow, sensuous melding of their lips knocked her breathless and then her mind shut down. She clung to him as they staggered to the bedroom locked in an embrace. It was an amazing kiss, passionate but not pushy, loving but not sweet. Jeremy Marks kissed her like he’d been dreaming of it every night of his life. Like she was the source of everything he needed.

  Then they were in the bedroom, beside the bed and he broke free, his chest heaving. “Are you sure you want to go through with this.” His voice was low and tense. “Because, fair warning, I’m not going to stop loving you. In fact, sleeping with you is only going to make it worse.”

  “A deal’s a deal. If you still love me one week from now, I’ll treasure your love and friendship without objection.”

  “But you won’t love me.”

  Jocelyn groaned inwardly and outwardly. Why did he have to complicate it? She was tempted to tell him what he wanted to hear but she’d promised to be her real self with him. He wasn’t going to like it. “There’s a really good chance I’m going to love you, Jere, but I’m not going to change the plans I have for my life because of it. I’m only twenty-two! I haven’t gone anywhere or done any of the things I want to do, except have a garden and start my own business before I was twenty-five. I did that.”

  “It’s for sure that you have to marry rich? You couldn’t settle for a solid guy with prospects?”

  “If I fell madly in love someone—like an ‘I can’t breathe without him’ kind of love, then I would settle for a solid guy with prospects.”

  “And that someone isn’t me.”

  “I can’t let it be you. Don’t you understand? I can’t let myself feel that way about you so don’t push it. It’s not up to me.” She turned away, her face closed and angry. “Our feelings aren’t the only things that matter. Sometimes we have to do what’s right for others.”

  Jeremy blinked hard several times. He glanced down at the unmade bed. “I don’t know about that. The trouble is ... you still have that guy out there waiting to meet you. I’ve already met the person I feel that way about. Who is going to help me get over you?”

  She wrapped her arms around him and rested her cheek against his chest. He was warm and his sweater tickled her face. “Someone will. You’ll see. I promise after tonight, I’ll be just a pretty girl you had a crush on once.”

  “You’re not old enough to be that cynical. I can’t be happy without you.”

  Jeremy wrapped his arms around her and kissed her again. She ran her fingers through his hair and the kiss deepened as they both caught fire at the same moment. She scrambled to pull her thin turtleneck sweater off over her head and he fumbled to remove his sweater vest.

  When Jocelyn was undressed to her bra, Jeremy stopped her before she could unfasten it. “Wait. I might die if I see you before I’m ready. Hold on.” He took a breath and exhaled. “Okay. Go.”

  The bra came free and Jocelyn was topless. He gazed at her nakedness and then into her eyes. “You are beautiful.”

  “I’m a woman. We all look the same under our clothes. It’s your turn.”

  He struggled with the buttons on his shirt so much that she realized he was shy.

  “Haven’t you ever undressed in front of a girl before?”

  “Sure, of course. Once. Three years ago. She was my sometime girlfriend.”

  “What was her name?”

  “Ashley.”

  “Humph. I wouldn’t have thought you were the ‘Ashley’ type. How did you meet her?”

  “At my father’s—at theater college, where I learned stage management. I knew her from before. Her father and my father belong to a couple of the same clubs.”

  “You mean like the Rotary Club?”

  “More or less.”

  He finally managed to open every button and Jocelyn slid the cotton shirt from his shoulders. Jeremy was the only twenty-three-year-old she knew who dressed like an old man. He slouched but even slouching he still had a great body. His shoulders were broader than she thought they would be. His skin was light tan, like toast, and he had ches
t hair that grew in a dark T from his sternum and across each nipple.

  She brushed her fingers over his chest. Jeremy sucked in a breath.

  “You can touch me if you want to,” she encouraged him softly.

  Her breasts were small enough to fill a teacup, perfectly round and firm and to Jeremy, the most beautiful he had ever seen. He didn’t care if all women looked the same under their clothes. He didn’t want all women. He wanted Jocelyn.

  He kissed her again and she responded with the same degree of passion that he felt for her. Jeremy didn’t question her passion or disbelieve it. They had made a pact to be honest with each other and he knew in his soul that Jocelyn was being completely herself with him. It made him love her all the more. The mystery was how could she think it wouldn’t?

  Tonight was about more than a bet. She could think whatever she wanted to about this night—Jeremy knew it was a test. The kind of test found in fairy tales where the hero wins the hand of his love by being braver, cleverer and more faithful to her than any of the others. That described him all right. For Jeremy, this night wasn’t about winning a bet. It was about winning Jocelyn Tate.

  He traced the gentle fluted curve of her ribcage up to the round of her breast and then kissed her deeply. Her tongue sought his and they fell to the bed. Whatever or whoever he was to her before this moment, he wasn’t that guy anymore. Her hands sought the button on his jeans, found the fly, and together they pulled the denim down and off. They worked in unison on her white jeans because they took more effort, but soon they were stripped away as well and flung to the floor.

  Jeremy and Jocelyn paused, breathing heavily, sitting on his bed in their underwear.

  She giggled nervously and moved to touch him but Jeremy shook his head. He pressed her back against the pillows. She stretched her long, slim legs, looked into his eyes and waited. Jeremy eased her panties down, very slowly over her buttocks, thighs, calves ... and finally dropped them to the floor.

  Jocelyn was one of those girls everyone assumed had plenty of sexual experience when in fact, she had very little. In her pursuit of a rich (or decently well-off) husband she did not waste time with boys of her own age. From the age of eighteen, Jocelyn pretended to be more sophisticated than she was in order to attract older men. She was successful twice. On those two occasions, she took charge even though she didn’t have a clue what she was doing because her partners seemed to expect it. She had a dim idea from reading women’s magazines that an assertive sexual partner was what a rich man wanted. It was a relief to be with Jeremy and not have to pretend. In terms of sexual experience, she figured they were probably about equal.

  He’d been gazing at her for so long that Jocelyn began to worry he was already losing interest now that he’d seen his goddess in the flesh. She was just a girl after all, exactly like every other girl, only she wasn’t nice like Paula Dunlop.

  “Do you like Paula Dunlop?” she asked, suddenly speared with jealousy. She remembered the two of them together at the wedding and Ryan McIntyre’s advice that Jeremy should ask Paula out again.

  “Sure, I like Paula. Why?”

  A swoop of disappointment clenched in her stomach.

  “Just wondering.” He sounded reserved, Jocelyn thought. And a bit guilty. “When this is all over—between us, I mean—and the engagement notice is retracted, I guess you’ll ask Paula out.”

  Jeremy bent over and kissed her belly. She stroked his hair, running her fingers through it. He really had the best hair. Thick and heavy.

  “If it’s all the same to you, Joce, I’m kind of preoccupied with the woman I want to grow old with at the moment. Remind me to talk about this tomorrow when I’m less happy.”

  Jeremy moved his mouth lower and he exhaled warm breath over her pubic region.

  “Jeremy.” Jocelyn writhed a little. The sensation was ... outstanding.

  He parted her legs and buried his face between them. She was already wet from the hours of anticipation. He was making her crazy, taking his time as though everything about her aroused him. She knew he was aroused—she could see his erection through his underwear. His white briefs revealed more about Jeremy Marks’ manhood than they concealed.

  He tongued her and Jocelyn stopped thinking in that moment.

  Jeremy’s mouth did the rest.

  JEREMY POSITIONED himself between Jocelyn’s thighs, waiting until she had stopped trembling.

  “Where did you learn to do that?” she gasped.

  “The public library,” he said as he slipped into her warm, wet warmth. “I read a lot.”

  This moment—the one he’d fantasized about since he first met her—was beyond description. A sensation of bliss beyond his wildest hope.

  She moaned softly. Jeremy clenched his teeth to hold on. He kissed her as he pressed deeper, moving inside her slowly, a rhythm he tried to hold steady but making love to her was exciting him too quickly.

  He lifted up to look into her face. She met his eyes, surprised as though their union was a revelation to her and a welcome one. The way Jocelyn looked at him ... it was as if she was seeing him for the first time. Oh God, the pleasure in her eyes was killing him.

  Jeremy clenched, tried to master the climax that hit his brain first and then his testicles but it was too late—he came with overwhelming force into Jocelyn’s womb and it was all over. He slumped over her trembling, his chest heaving, cursing his luck. He shouldn’t have looked at her. He could’ve hung on if he didn’t see who it was he was making love to. It was only then that he remembered he didn’t ask her about birth control. What an asshole!

  “Jocelyn! What if you get pregnant?”

  “That’s your first thought? We make love for the first time ever and your first thought is did I get her pregnant?” Jocelyn pushed out from under him. Her face was flushed but the pleasure he had seen there was rapidly fading. “Don’t worry, Marks. I’m not going to make you my baby’s daddy. I’m on the Pill.”

  “No, that’s not what I meant. That came out all wrong. I’d father ten of your kids if you let me but I should’ve been more responsible. It’s not only up to the girl to take care of birth control. I should have checked before we—before I—you know.”

  She gazed at him, half-doubtful, half in awe. “Remember our deal. You can’t say things to me that you’d say to Ashley.”

  “I’m not. I really believe that about birth control. It’s how I was raised. And it’s only logical if you think about it. It takes two to make a baby.” He stroked her cheek. “Are you okay?”

  Jocelyn nodded, her blues eyes dancing. “Yeah, I’m okay. You?”

  He grinned hugely in response and she punched him, laughing. “Don’t look so smug. The week isn’t over yet. ”

  “But I get the week. That’s the bet. You aren’t going to stop taking my calls tomorrow.”

  “Yes Jeremy. That’s the bet.”

  He drew her into his arms, holding her against his chest. “Good, now shut up and let me enjoy the fantasy awhile longer. If I’m going to get over you in a week, at least give me the chance to get sick of you first.”

  She laughed again and snuggled against him. “Fine, but I’m not going to get too comfortable. I have to say, it’s pretty easy being with you. I’m not trying to make a good impression, watching every little thing. I can be myself.” Jocelyn twisted to look at him. “Jeremy, I’m having a real nice time tonight. I want you to know that. I like you.”

  He swallowed. “Thanks. I’m having a spectacularly nice time too.”

  “I’m sorry I treated you badly before. My dad worries I’m going to get hooked up with a guy like you and lose my only chance to get out of poverty. He said I won’t have him to fall back on because he has nothing to leave me. It changed him when my mom died. He believes it was his fault my mom died because he couldn’t keep up with the cost of her medication. He was going to sell the house but she wouldn’t let him.”

  “And then she died?”

  “And then she died. Yes
. It’s what she wanted but my dad became very materialistic. He was out of line saying those things to you. That engagement notice completely sent him off the deep end.”

  Jeremy shook his head. “Your dad is right. With your looks you could attract a rich man, no problem. The guys I went to school with only dated gorgeous girls. Even the really ugly guys had great looking girlfriends because their families had money. If I were a nicer guy, I’d introduce you to some of them but I’m not nice. I don’t want you to go out with anyone but me.”

  “What school was this? I thought you grew up poor like me.” Jocelyn slowly straightened and met his eyes. “Jeremy, are you absolutely sure you are stone-broke? Remember our deal—we have to be exactly who we are with each other. Nothing fake.”

  “If I had money would I be taking you to the Two-for-One triple feature at the movie theater on Thursday night? It’s the only date I can afford. Three westerns for one low, low price and they let you bring your own popcorn.”

  “Oh Jeremy,” she groaned. “I knew we shouldn’t have spent Aunt Gloria’s birthday money. We should’ve bought groceries instead. You probably have a college loan to pay off too. How deep in debt are you?”

  “I’m not. Not at all. My mom left a little money for my education before she died. I was a baby so I don’t remember. Enrolling me in private school was my dad’s decision.”

  “You mean your mom’s insurance paid for private school? Cool. My dad did a similar thing.” She grinned. “He drove me to the ski hills to meet rich kids. I didn’t go to school with them. I could pass for rich if I had to but I can’t see you passing. God, how did you cope? It must have been hard on you being the only poor kid in school with Ivy Leaguers. Good for your mom for thinking of providing for your education though. She must have been special.”

  “Your mom too.”

  She grinned. “How do you figure that? My mom didn’t leave behind an insurance policy. She just ... died.”

  “Without your mom, you would never have been born and I’d be here alone. That makes her a saint according to my definition of a saint.”