unsteady as she applied it and, to make matters even worse, she decided that the colour was a little too dramatic for her liking. But she was just going to have to grin and bear it. She was already feeling tense at the distinct possibility of being chastised yet again for lateness. That would make it the third time this week and it might just be the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as Jake was concerned.
Hurriedly snatching her leather jacket off the couch and pulling it on, she grabbed her purse, shoved it into a pocket and flew down the steep, narrow staircase as if the hounds of hell themselves were after her. Her breath hitched as she hurried towards the ominous-looking black Jeep, its engine running.
Jake leaned across and pushed open the passenger door. ‘Hi,’ he greeted her.
His expression didn’t give much away, and it couldn’t help but increase the overall sense of trepidation that Caitlin was feeling. They were going to see a band tonight and would be spending a large amount of time together…alone. She didn’t doubt the experience was going to be a real test for them both.
‘Hi.’ There were three seats in the front of the vehicle and she automatically sat next to the window and slammed the door shut.
‘I want you next to me.’
‘What?’
The slow burning heat from Jake’s gaze almost scorched Caitlin where she sat. He didn’t embellish the comment. He didn’t have to. They both knew only too well why he wanted her to sit closer to him. Could day resist following night? She’d have loved to have had a handy reason with which to refuse him, but her mind was worryingly bereft of anything helpful as his arresting blue eyes entrapped hers.
With thumping heart she murmured, ‘Feeling lonely, are we?’ Then, before he could reply, she somehow found herself sitting in the luxuriously upholstered leather seat next to his.
His lips lifted in a grin.
‘Not any more.’
‘Well, I’m glad that I’ve made you happy.’ Her dark hair brushed against her reddened cheekbone as she bent to buckle her seatbelt. ‘For once.’
Chuckling, Jake put the car into gear and steered it smoothly away from the kerb. It should have reassured her that he seemed to be in a particularly good mood tonight, but it didn’t make things any easier. Not when she was already gripped by the familiar disturbing waves of disorientation and desire that seemed to be inevitable whenever they were together. And all day that combustible kiss they’d shared when he’d walked her home from the pub had played over and over in her mind.
Their attraction for each other had been growing stronger and stronger. It only needed the tiniest spark to turn it into a conflagration. It was made even more acute now, by the intimate space they shared in the car.
Caitlin couldn’t help stealing a covetous glance at Jake as he drove. True to form, he was clothed in his habitual black, with no apparent concessions to dressing up for their night out—although he didn’t need to wear fancy clothes to draw a woman’s eye. Not when he exuded charisma simply by breathing. Add to that, he had the intriguing persona of a man who’d been around musicians for most of his life and had seen it all…group bust-ups, wrecked hotel rooms, drink, drugs, groupies and corrupt management…and had lived to tell the tale. Jake had been there, done that, and worn the T-shirt.
Sighing, Caitlin smoothed her hand down over her jeans and couldn’t help wondering what people would see in her when she finally took to the stage to sing. Would they quickly categorise her as just another starstruck wannabe? A wide-eyed innocent without much experience of anything at all? If they did, then they couldn’t be more wrong. How could they know the narrow escape she’d had from the kind of destructive relationship that most mothers of daughters had nightmares about? Consequently, she was far from ignorant about the pitfalls that awaited girls who were too trusting, who kidded themselves that they could ‘fix’ a partner’s problems simply by loving them enough. Caitlin had found to her cost that that was one of the biggest lies believed by women.
Jake must have sensed her shudder and he turned his head in surprise. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Yes, I’m fine.’
Obviously deciding not to pander to any sense of insecurity she might be feeling, he drawled, ‘I trust your clothes aren’t going to turn into rags if I don’t get you home by midnight?’
He was, of course, referring to her habit of turning in early if she could. Caitlin’s cheeks seared pink with embarrassment. Early nights free from anxiety had been denied her in the days when she’d waited up for Sean, praying he hadn’t got himself into more trouble. If she’d had a pound for every prayer she’d uttered in those two harsh, unhappy years she’d be a rich woman.
When he hadn’t come home when expected Caitlin had hoped the police hadn’t got him in a cell somewhere, or that some drug dealer he owed money to hadn’t beaten him up, or worse. When he’d lied to her yet again, let her down or stolen money from her, she’d prayed hard for the strength to cope—still foolishly believing that she could somehow rescue him from the dark road he’d been intent on travelling down. But when he’d started to bully her, threaten her and finally hit her, she’d dug deep for the strength to end the relationship before it ended her.
The bottom line was she wasn’t about to apologise to Jake for something that had been an important part of her emotional recovery, no matter how much he scorned her early nights.
‘There’s about as much likelihood of that as you turning into Prince Charming any time soon,’ she muttered.
To her astonishment, she actually detected a smile on Jake’s lips. It was only slight, and a less sensitive person might have missed it, but she was so intimately attuned to the man’s every unconscious gesture and nuance she couldn’t help but be aware of it. It did funny things to her insides that ‘almost’ smile of his, not to mention other sensitive areas of her body…
Pursing her lips, she stared determinedly ahead of her as a sudden fierce shower of rain sheeted the windscreen’s glass, temporarily obliterating the view until Jake switched on the wipers.
‘And there was I, hoping we’d get a clear night with a romantic moon and starlight,’ he quipped.
‘Is that really what you were hoping for?’
Lifting a shoulder, he smiled again, this time more freely. ‘Why? You don’t think I have it in me to be romantic?’
The remark immediately threw her.
‘How would I know? I don’t know you well enough.’
‘Then it’s clearly time for me to do something about that, don’t you think?’
He didn’t turn his head to look at her. The provocative words were simply left hanging in the air between them, like a small but lethal incendiary device.
Urgently feeling the need to change the conversation to something far less dangerous, Caitlin asked, ‘So, who’s the band we’re going to see tonight? You didn’t tell me.’
‘They’re called Ace of Hearts. The lead singer is Nikki Drake and I’d really like you to see her. She isn’t what you might call the best singer in the world, but what she lacks in vocal range she more than makes up for in her performance. It’s electrifying.
