am I,” Tiffany said. She wandered over to Robert and smiled coyly. “So you’re with the band? I love musicians.”
The pair wandered off toward the stage and Officer Winslow started after them. Then he turned and pointed to Emma and Sam. “Don’t move,” he ordered.
Jake glanced over at Caley and shrugged. “Maybe you can talk to him. He seems to like you more than he likes me.” He watched as Caley tried to plead their case. Though he hated sending her back to Winslow, he was certain there’d be no chance she’d be leaving with him.
A few seconds later, Caley returned, a satisfied smile on her face. “We can take them home,” she murmured. “He’s letting them off, but only if they agree to stay out of trouble for the rest of their time here.”
“What did you have to promise him in return?” Jake asked.
“Nothing. He’s doing it as a favor to me.”
Jake cursed softly and looked down at Sam and Emma. “It would probably do them some good to spend a night in jail.”
Caley shook her head and held out her hand to her sister. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. I’ll take Emma back to the inn and you bring Sam.”
Sam also stumbled to his feet and brushed his jeans off. “This is all your fault,” he muttered to Jake. “We should have just stayed at the strip club. I was having fun there.”
They walked out to the parking lot together, Sam and Emma silent and sullen with Jake and Caley standing between them. As Caley started toward her car, Jake grabbed her hand. “I’ll see you later?” he asked.
Caley nodded then walked away, slipping her arm around Emma’s shoulders as they walked off. Sam stared after them, an enigmatic expression on his face.
“You’re not really going to call off the wedding, are you?” Jake asked.
“I think we are,” he murmured, before he turned in the opposite direction.
They didn’t speak during the ride home, Sam lost in his thoughts and Jake unwilling to meddle even further. Though he and Caley had achieved their goal, now that the wedding was off, Jake wondered whether they’d gone too far.
While his feelings for Caley ran deep, he knew that they were also very fragile; would they suffer at the first test or would they endure? He knew how he felt, but he still couldn’t be sure of Caley’s feelings. Now that he’d fallen, Jake was wondering if the risk was worth the reward. Losing Caley would be much more difficult the second time around.
WHEN CALEY FINALLY RETURNED to her room at the inn, Jake was asleep in her bed, his naked body twisted in the sheets, his hair falling in waves across his forehead. Caley stripped off her clothes and tossed them against the wall, crinkling her nose at the scent of stale beer and cigarette smoke.
She glanced over at the clock on the nightstand and sighed softly. It was nearly 3:00 a.m. She’d spent the past three hours with Emma, trying to convince her to reconsider canceling the wedding and listing all of Sam’s good qualities over and over again.
She couldn’t believe Emma was so quick to dismiss her engagement. Caley realized that emotions ran much higher with all the alcohol that had been consumed, but Emma seemed perfectly lucid and determined to leave Sam and her wedding plans behind. She’d even called the airline to buy a ticket back to Boston on the first flight out in the morning.
Did anyone ever find a lasting love? Or was it all just an illusion, as shiny and clear as glass until something came along to shatter it? Did people stay in relationships only because they were too stubborn to admit defeat?
Caley knew her parents loved each other. They’d been together almost thirty years. And Jake’s parents often acted like newlyweds. So why was it so hard for her to believe in love?
She walked to the bathroom and closed the door behind her, then turned on the shower, ignoring the urge to crawl into bed with Jake. It would be so easy to find comfort in his arms. She felt safe with him. But were her feelings real or were they just part of a fantasy that she was only now having the chance to live out?
There was no doubt in her mind that everything between them had changed. He’d become a part of her life and not a part she could easily excise. In truth, she couldn’t imagine living without him. Yet, she couldn’t quite figure out how she could live with him.
How would it work? Would they call it an affair? A relationship? An arrangement? Friends with benefits, she mused. That’s what they had now, wasn’t it? But for them to continue, they’d have to give it a name.
A soft knock sounded on the bathroom door before it slowly opened. Jake stepped inside, his naked body beautiful in even the harsh fluorescent light. He slipped his arms around her waist and kissed her forehead.
“Is everything all right?”
“I just needed to take a shower. I smell like smoke.”
“How’s Emma?”
“Still drunk, still furious with Sam and ready to go back to Boston in the morning.”
Jake took her hand and pulled her along to the shower stall, then opened the glass door. He stepped inside, the water hitting his naked body and sluicing over his skin. Caley followed him, stepping right into his embrace.
His fingers furrowed through her hair and he kissed her, his tongue slipping between her lips to taste her mouth. The moment their bodies touched, every doubt and insecurity seemed to vanish. Why was it so easy to believe in love when they were making love and so hard to understand it when they were apart?
Jake drew back and stared down into her eyes, then reached out to touch her breast. He cupped her warm flesh gently, running his thumb over her nipple until it became a stiff peak. Then he smoothed his hand along her hip, his fingers soft and teasing.
Caley reached out and brushed her fingers against his hard shaft. It had taken only a moment for him to become aroused and she found her power over him satisfying. Jake moaned softly as she wrapped her fingers around his heat.
Already, his body was so familiar to her. She knew how he’d react to her touch, the way his breath would catch in his throat, the sound of his voice whispering her name, the feel of his body tensing just before he reached his release.
Jake grabbed her waist and slowly backed her up against the tile wall of the shower. He kissed the curve of her neck and then moved lower, teasing at her nipple with his tongue. “Tell me what you want,” he murmured as he gently caressed her nipple.
“You,” she said. “Inside me.”
He dropped his hand to the soft curve of her backside and gently squeezed. “Tell me how.”
“First, you have to kiss me in just the right way.”
Jake gave it his best effort, kissing her gently at first and then with growing urgency, dragging his tongue along the crease of her mouth until she surrendered completely. Her knees went soft and she felt herself melt in his arms, the warm water rushing over them both.
“That’s a start,” she murmured.
Jake slowly trailed kisses over her shoulder and down her arm. When he
