Raging Fires by Candace Camp
Chapter Thirty-Three
Life settled into something of a routine—if anything with Jake could be said to be routine—as May moved into June. The days were already turning scorching, and Kelli decided it was too hot for Toby even under the shade of the jacaranda tree beside the house. She began taking him with her into the office when she went to work, deciding that Toby was a patrol dog and therefore allowed in the bar as long as he came in the front and was never in the kitchen.
Still, there were her off days, which she was taking more regularly now, so Jake put in a doggie door so that Toby could come inside when he got hot.
“I thought you refused to have a dog in the house,” Kelli said with a little smirk.
“Yeah, but this is Toby.”
Amazingly, Toby turned out to not only be house trained but moderately well-behaved, chewing up only one of Jake’s Nikes. Kelli did learn pretty quickly she couldn’t leave any food on the kitchen counters, though, even if she was just running to the bathroom.
Toby’s bed of choice, unsurprisingly, was Jake’s, but since Jake now spent all his nights in Kelli’s bed, it worked out well.
They had only one argument: Jake wanted to replace Kelli’s double bed with his king size one. Despite Kelli protesting that it was too big for the space, Jake wouldn’t let it go until they measured the room. Then he had to admit that they wouldn’t be able to open the closet door with his bed blocking it. The disagreement ended, as so many things did with them these days, with mind-blowing sex.
Kelli would have said that Jake was sex-crazy except that she was just as bad as he was. When she wasn’t with him, she was thinking about him, and every night when she walked out of the back door to find him waiting for her, she couldn’t keep from wrapping her arms around him and kissing him like she’d just come home from a 2000-mile trip.
You’d think she would be sated after a while, but it never happened. All Jake had to do was smile at her, and heat would blossom deep in her belly. If he took off his shirt, Kelli couldn’t resist running her fingers along the lines of his muscles. And if he touched her… well, then she just melted, desire pulsing in her, and she wanted him inside her, buried deep within her, his breath rasping in his throat, sweat glistening on his shoulders, as he moved within her.
It made it difficult to get anything done. Fortunately, the Pumas’ Organized Team Activities, better known as OTAs, began the first of June, and Jake had to be at practice early and stay until three, so at least Kelli managed to get into her office on time and get some work done.
One afternoon Kelli was standing behind the bar, running down a list of inventory, when the front door opened. Wilson, the bartender, murmured, “Whoa.”
Kelli looked up and saw a woman standing just inside the door. She was tall, even before you added the stiletto heels. She was wearing a power red suit that just brushed the top of her knees. Her hair was black and wound into a prim bun at the nape of her neck. Her lips were the color of the suit, and her fingernails matched them both. She carried a laptop case in one hand, and a large Coach purse hung on the opposite shoulder. She was sleek and sophisticated and not at all the kind of woman who usually walked into the Blue Shack.
“Barracuda,” Kelli said under her breath. Aloud she said, “Can I help you? I’m afraid we don’t open for another hour.”
“That’s fine.” The woman cast a glance around the barroom, and Kelli felt a twinge of embarrassment at the bare look of the place, quickly followed by a burst of indignation at this woman looking down on the Blue. The stranger strode over to them, saying, “I’m just here to see Jake Riley. I was told that he, um, lived here?” Her voice rose a little at the end.
Who the hell was this? Kelli’s chest got tight. She suddenly felt awkward, underdressed, and decidedly unsophisticated. She crossed her arms and regarded the woman coolly.
Up close, the woman was as attractive and polished as she had appeared at a distance. Her eyes were brown, with a little flair of gold around the pupil that made them gleam. Her eyebrows were perfectly shaped, her nose straight, her chin firm, and her cheekbones could cut glass. Her expression was not so much disdainful as it was assessing, Kelli decided.
“He lives in a house on the property.” Kelli knew Jake had come in; she’d heard his car and Toby’s ecstatic barks a few minutes earlier, but she saw no reason to make it easy for this woman. “Why don’t you have a seat, and I’ll see if he’s there.” She nodded toward the table.
“Thank you.” The woman sat down on a barstool right in front of Kelli. Whoever she was, she clearly wanted to establish her dominance from the start.
Kelli pulled her phone from the back pocket of her jeans and called Jake. There was the sound of a phone ringing in the kitchen, and in the next moment, Jake stepped through the swinging kitchen door, looking at his phone and cancelling the call. “Hey, babe, what’s up?”
“That’d be me,” their visitor said in an amused tone, standing.
Jake’s head snapped up. “Emma?” A huge grin spread across his face, and he crossed the floor to hug the woman. “What are you doing here?”
Kelli slipped to the other end of the bar, gesturing for the bartender to follow her.
“I was just in town, seeing to some other business, and I thought I’d drop by and check on you.”
“That’s great.” Jake, still smiling, turned toward Kelli. “Kell, come here.” He strode down the length of the bar. “I want you to meet my agent.”
“That’s your agent?” Kelli said, keeping her voice low.
“Yeah. I told you my agent was a woman.”
“You didn’t say she was hot.”
Jake let out a laugh. “Jealous?”
“No.”
Jake just chuckled again and took Kelli’s arm, steering her back to the other end of the bar. “Kelli, I want you to meet the world’s best agent, Emma Stanley. Emma, this is my wife, Kelli.”
“How do you do?” Emma said politely, her eyes examining Kelli in the same way she had taken stock of the barroom.
“Hi.” Kelli had the feeling the woman’s assessment of her matched her thoughts about the bar. Kelli tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. The neat French braid she’d made this morning was beginning to come loose. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Jake, oblivious to his agent’s reserve and Kelli’s uneasiness, took both of them by the arm and headed across the room to a table. “So you have another client here?”
“I’d like to. I was talking to Howard Perry.”
“Hope Princess didn’t attack you,” Jake joked.
“Who? Princess?”
“The dog,” Jake explained. “Clearly you didn’t meet Princess Fleek.”
A smile twitched at the corner of Emma’s firm mouth. “I take it that’s a good thing?”
“You got that. She’s a hellhound.”
“Jake, she’s about ten inches tall,” Kelli said. “And all soft fluffy fur. She can’t be a hellhound.”
“Ha! You can say that because she likes you.” Jake stopped at a table and pulled out two chairs for them. “Here. You two get acquainted. I’ll go get us something to drink.”
“Jake—” Kelli swiveled toward him in alarm, but he was already striding across the room. Kelli turned back to Emma Stanley and smiled awkwardly. “I’m really glad to meet you.” The woman’s gaze was a little unnerving. “You turned Jake’s life around.”
“Jake turned his life around,” Emma responded, her voice clipped and her posture stiff. “And it wasn’t easy.”
Okaaay… Clearly Emma was not on Team Kelli. Strangely, it made Kelli warm to her. She was glad Jake had had somebody who was entirely on his side. Though Jake had been wrong in saying his family had sided with Kelli, she had had them to support her. Jake had faced his unhappiness all on his own… well, with the help of a few gorgeous models.
“Jake’s a good guy,” Emma went on. “And this opportunity in Phoenix means a lot to him. It can restart his career, get his confidence back.” She leaned forward a little, looking at Kelli meaningfully. “I’d really hate for anyone to mess that up.”
Kelli straightened her shoulders. No way she was letting this lady intimidate her. “So would I. It’s clear you don’t like me, and I get it. I’m glad Jake’s got someone watching his back. But I am not some heart-breaking bitch who plans to toy with his emotions. I have no intention of hurting Jake. And I don’t control his life. He and I are stuck in this dumbass situation that neither of us asked for, and we are just trying to get through it the best we can. And I’ll tell you something else.” Kelli stood up, leaning over to plant her hands on the table. “Jake is perfectly capable of living his life without you or me running interference for him. He will do what he chooses to.”
Kelli turned around and strode off.