Call It Destiny

Only one explanation accounted for that power.
    She had fallen in love with Jake Cavender.
    A frisson of genuine fear tingled through her veins. She was vulnerable. Vulnerable to a man. Somehow she had never imagined that being in love left a woman in such an emotional tangle. Shaken by the realization of what had happened to her, she was unaware that Jake was awake until he moved slightly beside her.
    „Heather?“ His voice as thick as a sleepy lion’s, Jake moved his face into her tousled hair. „Go back to sleep, honey.“
    She shook her head and then realized he couldn’t see the negative gesture. He felt it, however.
    „What is it, Heather?“
    „My parents,“ she whispered, reluctant to tell him the truth about what she had really been thinking. „I have to call them. After what I did yesterday….“
    „Don’t worry about your parents. I told them I’d bring you home in a few days.“
    She turned her head on the pillow, seeking his eyes in the shadowy light. „Jake….“
    „I also told them why you ran. That you must have found out about the sale of the Hacienda. If it’s any consolation, your mother was on your side. She was absolutely furious.“
    „But she always supports my father!“ Heather exclaimed, shocked.
    „She didn’t this time. She read the riot act to Paul and me. And then I told her I’d find you and bring you home.“
    Bring you home. Heather felt a wave of panic at his cool words. She wasn’t ready to go home, she thought frantically. She needed time to assimilate the impact of the emotional assault she had experienced. She needed time to deal with the knowledge that she had fallen in love. A woman deserved the right to adjust to such a disorienting sequence of events in her own way, Heather told herself forcefully. Time to regain her composure and her thoughts. Time to understand the full potential of the radical twist her life had taken.
    „It’s not that simple,“ she whispered.
    „It is if you’ll let it be.“
    „Jake, I need some time to myself. Time to think. You’ve turned my whole world upside down.“
    „We’re even, then.“
    „No. Your world is all neatly organized, humming along exactly as you planned. I want some time to reorganize my own world. Some time by myself.“
    „How much time?“ he asked harshly.
    „I don’t know. A few days. Maybe longer. Maybe much longer.“
    „Heather, you belong to me now. You know that.“
    „Do I?“ she challenged huskily, unwilling to give him that final verbal victory.
    He hesitated as if deciding how to deal with her and then he ignored the challenge and asked softly, „Where will you go?“
    „Into the hills, I think. My father has an old hunting cabin up in one of the canyons. It’s isolated; totally away from everything. When I come back I’ll know what I’m going to do.“
    „I don’t want you to go, Heather.“ There was a thread of command in the words.
    „I have to go,“ she told him flatly. „I have to think it all through.“
    „Trust me, honey. Everything’s going to be fine.“
    „At the moment I can’t even trust myself,“ she murmured.
    Jake watched her shadowed face and knew that he would have to let her go for the moment. He’d taken her world apart and he told himself she had a right to figure out whether or not she wanted the new one he was offering.
    It was a gamble. The biggest risk he’d taken in a lifetime full of risks. Separated from him she might succeed in arguing away the bonds that he had tried to put in place tonight. Given enough time she might be able to tell herself that she didn’t need him or the Hacienda or her family’s approval. After all, she’d survived without any of those factors for years. But he’d taken so much. He owed some respect to the proud spirit he’d tried to chain.
    „In the morning, Heather. I’ll let you go in the morning,“ he grated roughly. „Grant me what’s left of my wedding night!“ He pulled her into his arms and she came to him in soft sensual obedience.
    „You can take the car,“ Jake said quietly the next morning after they had risen and dressed and shared a cup of coffee in the motel restaurant. He dug the keys out of his pocket.
    Heather accepted them uncertainly. „How will you get home… I mean, how will you get back to the Hacienda?“
    „I’ll drive poor Jim’s motorcycle.“ Jake’s mouth slanted wryly. „The kid must be out of his mind with worry by now.“
    „The bike?“ She eyed him in