Full Bloom

well-intentioned, over-protective family. They're the ones who invited me down to Portland for the weekend for what I thought was supposed to be a business discussion about some plans I'm making. They're the ones who hoodwinked me. With your assistance, of course. But you've always been available when they needed help in saving me from myself, haven't you? Good night, Jacob. I won't say it was a pleasure seeing you again after all this time, but I'll admit it was something of a surprise."
    "Emily, that wasn't the way it happened." Jacob caught the edge of the door as she tried to close it in his face. "Listen to me. No one lied to you. If you'd stuck around, you could have had the business discussion you wanted. But everyone felt it was best to get the matter of your relationship with Morrell out of the way first. Be reasonable. We only did it for your own—"
    "Don't say it," she warned. "Don't you dare say it was for my own good. If I hear that one more time I won't be responsible for what happens, Jacob."
    "Stop threatening me or I might be tempted to do something rash myself." Jacob sounded totally exasperated.
    Emily could not resist taunting him. She had had enough for one evening, and Jacob was the logical target of her hostility. For five long years he had, in one way or another, been the object of too many of her strongest emotions. No reason that should change now. "Such as, Mr. Stone?"
    He thrust open the door and reached for her without any warning. His hands closed around her shoulders and he pulled her close. "Such as this," he muttered thickly and covered her mouth with his own.
    Emily was too startled to offer any resistance at first. Whatever she had been expecting, she told herself, it wasn't this. Or was it? The tension between herself and Jacob had been sizzling just under the surface since she had first walked into the study in her parents' home and seen him waiting in the shadows.
    She silently admitted that she had been far more shaken by seeing Jacob Stone again after two years than she had been by the news of Damon Morrell's duplicity.
    She made a small sound as he took her mouth, but whatever it was she was trying to say, and she wasn't too sure herself just what that was, it was lost in the intimate embrace. Jacob's mouth was warm and heavy and seductively demanding against her own. This was only the second time he had ever kissed her, and Emily knew now she had been quietly starving for him.
    He kissed her as if he had been anticipating the prospect for a long, long time. There was a barely leashed hunger in him that told its own tale.
    It was that hunger that made the biggest impact on Emily. It was the masculine version of her own long-suppressed desire, and it overwhelmed her. She had never experienced anything quite like it. She knew then that whatever else might be true about Jacob, one thing was certain. He had said he wanted her, and now, at last, as his kiss seared through her, she believed him.
    "Say my name." Jacob's mouth slid tantalizingly over Emily's lips. Gently he outlined her full lower lip with the tip of his tongue until she gasped and parted her lips for him. "Say it, Emily. It's been so long since I've heard you whisper it the way you did that last night two years ago."
    "Jacob." His name was a soft sigh of uncertainty and excitement and longing that had been pent up far too long. "Oh, Jacob."
    "You've got a voice like raw silk. I've never forgotten it." Jacob lifted his head slightly so that his mouth hovered barely an inch above hers. He looked down into her bemused face and drew a slow, sensual finger along the delicate line of her jaw. "If I had taken you two years ago instead of trying to be so damned gallant, maybe everything would be different now."
    "What would have been different?"
    "You would already belong to me. We wouldn't have to waste any more time going through the rituals."
    "What rituals?" Emily searched his cool gray eyes.
    "The ones designed to bring you and me together. Emily, I walked away last time because I thought I was all wrong for you."
    "Nothing's changed," she pointed out breathlessly. "You're still just as tough and ruthless and cynical as you always were."
    Jacob's mouth tilted slightly at the corner. "I might not have changed, but you have. And that, I think, is going to make all the difference."
    "What makes you think I've changed?"
    His mouth curved faintly. "I saw you in action tonight when your father delivered the news about