Leopard 03 - Burning Wild

Jake didn’t know himself very well. He cared for the people working for him.
    He cared for Drake and Joshua and every other lame duck he’d brought home. And he loved Andraya and Kyle. In his eyes, when he held her, in his voice when he talked to her in the middle of the night, Emma saw and heard that he loved her. He might not recognize it, but she did.
    “Emma, stop stalling. How hard can it be just to say yes? Why wouldn’t we?”
    “You’re like a gazillionaire, Jake. You need a prenuptial to protect you. That takes time to put in place, especially when you have the money and property and companies you have.”
    His eyebrow shot up. “Did Stillman contact you?” he asked suspiciously.
    Emma shrugged, trying to look casual. “I contacted him.”
    He stood up, towering over her, looking incredibly intimidating. Emma refused to step back, looking up at him, refusing to be sorry for doing what she felt was right.
    “You did what?”
    “It was important to me to protect you,” Emma said quietly.
    “No.”
    Emma swept past him, heading for the bathroom, her nerve breaking at the muscle ticking in his jaw.
    Jake caught her arm, abruptly halting her.
    “I’m not discussing this with you, Jake,” she said, pressing her lips tightly together.
    “No, I’ll be discussing this with Stillman. I don’t want a prenuptial. It’s going to be difficult enough without you thinking we’re not on equal footing. Whatever I have is yours. I meant what I said when we first talked marriage. I don’t believe in divorce. This is it for us. We do it, and we find a way to live with it.”
    Her heart jumped. “Jake, try being just a little romantic about marriage instead of being ruthless. You sound like you’re threatening me instead of proposing.”
    He caught her chin and tipped up her face. “I’ve tried never to lie to you, about what I am inside or how difficult I can be. I have every confidence that I’ll do my best for you, but I’m also very aware I’ll want everything my way.
    You’re sweet and kind, Emma, and I’m likely to take advantage of that and walk all over you if you let me. I want the playing field leveled so you never feel as if I have the advantages all on my side.”
    She shook her head. “Your logic is so elusive, Jake.”
    “I plan on having a half dozen more kids with you. Why? To keep you right here, on this ranch, so there’s no place you can run to. That’s my kind of logic, Emma.”
    “You’re supposed to have children because you want them, Jake,” she pointed out, exasperated. “Not to keep me occupied so I won’t run away.”
    “I want them because you’re going to love them. I want to watch you love them. I want to watch that look come over your face whenever you look at them. I want to hear the sound of your voice, that special note you have reserved just for them. I could live forever listening to you talk to the children.”
    He couldn’t tell her what it did to him inside. Made him soft. Happy. Stupidly happy. She scared the hell out of him the way she made him happy.
    “Jake, someday you have to realize I’m staying with you because I want to stay with you. You only think you manipulated me. I knew what you were doing all along. I stay because I love you . . .”
    “ If there’s such a thing as love, Emma, and I’m not saying there is, I trapped you into loving me.”
    She burst out laughing, threw her arms around him and hugged him tight, lifting her mouth to his and kissing him in a long, leisurely kiss.
    As he held her to him, his heart did that curious melting thing that always alarmed him. He couldn’t have this. He couldn’t be like this with her. She was taking him over and making him so vulnerable he could barely breathe with the way he felt about her. He had to find a way to establish his dominance and take the control back.
    He set her firmly aside, trying not to show his breathing was ragged and forced. “No prenuptial, Emma.
    Let’s just get the thing done.”
    “The thing? Meaning our wedding? You’re such a romantic, Jake. Go away. You’re annoying me again and I was just feeling all loving toward you.”
    It was obvious to her that Jake, along with having the doctor check her, had scrubbed her skin in an effort to remove the scent of the other man. She couldn’t blame him; as a leopard he was highly sensitive to what he would regard as the stench of another male. But now her skin felt raw in a few places.
    Of course he didn’t leave