Full Bloom

now. "I thought he'd get the point without my having to humiliate both him and myself with a major confrontation scene."
    "Emily, you are a little idiot!" Jacob grated. "Your family is right—you can't take care of yourself. Whatever made you think you could deal with someone like Morrell by inventing a series of weak excuses not to continue seeing him? You have to hit a man like that straight between the eyes and show him that you mean what you say."
    "You and my family do things one way and I do them another."
    "Is that right? Well, just look where your way got you. If you'd been blunt and forceful with Morrell the minute you came back from Portland, he would have realized the game was over then and there. Instead, you played coy and dragged things out. No wonder he came prowling around wondering what had gone wrong with his big plan."
    "I did not play coy!" Emily blazed. "I resent that. I told you, I was trying to handle things without a major knock-down drag-out scene. What's more, I could have handled Damon just fine if you hadn't come charging through the door like a maddened rhino. I can take care of myself these days."
    "Sure you can. That's why you were getting yourself pawed when I arrived," Jacob shot back. "You don't know the first thing about handling someone like Morrell." He slapped the wall with his open palm in a gesture of frustrated fury. "I knew I should have dealt with him and not left it up to you. I was a fool to let you do it on your own. You need a keeper, Emily."
    "Just because I have my own way of dealing with people and just because that way doesn't happen to be your way or the traditional Ravenscroft way doesn't mean I need a keeper, dammit!" She was infuriated. "Furthermore, after what I have just been through, I resent having you yell at me."
    "Why in hell did you open the door to him?" Jacob demanded between set teeth.
    "When the doorbell rang, I thought it was you."
    "You should have checked."
    "Even if I had checked, I would still have opened the door," Emily said recklessly. "I had no reason to think Damon would act the way he did. He's always been very much a gentleman."
    "Well, now you know better, don't you?" Jacob came away from the wall and thrust one hand under the curve of Emily's thick black hair. He wrapped warm, strong fingers around the nape of her neck. "Men don't always behave like gentlemen when it comes to business and women. And here's another lesson for you to learn. A man who finds himself having to pull another man off his woman doesn't feel at all like a gentleman."
    Emily's whole body was vibrating to the sensual tension that was suddenly gripping her. The source of that tension was Jacob. It was as if the frustrated male anger that had been pulsing through him was rapidly converting itself into another kind of emotion. And she was responding to it on a primitive, utterly feminine level.
    "Jacob?" Her voice was suddenly soft and breathless as the resentment and anger went out of her. A dizzying sensation of longing swept through her as she studied the gray flames in his eyes. Without thinking, Emily raised her fingers to touch the hard planes of his face.
    Jacob looked down into her face and saw the first flickering promise of her response. He could also see the uncertainty and confusion underlying the hint of passionate excitement, but he knew suddenly and beyond any doubt that he could overcome her doubts and misgivings.
    Because deep down, she wanted him.
    The knowledge that Emily truly desired him was the last straw for Jacob. He had intended to wait awhile before he coaxed her into bed. He had wanted to give her all the time she needed. But having to rescue her from Morrell had set up an emotional chain reaction that was sweeping aside his earlier, more cautious approach. She wanted him and he wanted her with an urgency that knew no bounds. He had waited long enough. Tonight he would claim her.
    Jacob groaned and his hand tightened behind Emily's head. The skin of her nape was like silk beneath his fingers—warm, soft, exquisite silk. He could feel the small shiver of pleasure and need that went through her, heard the tiny cry that parted her lips and his own desire surged through his veins like fiery lava. As he was unable to resist any longer, his mouth came down on Emily's with abrupt, hungry insistence.
    Passion flared into a roaring blaze, ignited by the smoldering flames of the other, equally elemental, emotions that had been driving him since he