Leopard 03 - Burning Wild

Jake said. “Thank you for not letting her touch my son.” Very gently, he put Emma aside, not trusting himself in his present unfamiliar state. He felt vulnerable and shaky. He didn’t trust his temper, the leopard, or his need of her. Already his body was responding to the softness of hers, to her scent and the silk of her hair. He couldn’t afford to blow everything he’d done by letting her see how she affected him.
    He lifted Kyle into his arms and held the boy close. “She kept you safe, just like she said she would,”
    he murmured, astonished that it was true. Emma. She wielded some kind of magic he didn’t understand. His heart felt soft and alien as he looked down at his son. “She kept you safe,” he repeated and kissed the little forehead. Jake’s entire body trembled. He actually felt weak.
    “Jake.” Emma’s voice was soft. “Sit down. I want to look at your hands.”
    He looked at her over the top of the baby’s head. She looked small and fragile, so pale and thin, without makeup, her wealth of hair curling in every direction, but she was made of steel. “You’re an amazing woman, Emma.”
    “You need to sit down, Jake,” Emma coaxed softly.
    She tugged at his arm, her gaze searching his face. For the first time she realized Jake Bannaconni—the man with everything, the man who could buy and sell the world—needed someone. Needed her. For all his gruff ways and arrogant orders, he had no idea how to feel emotion, and when his feelings overwhelmed him, like now, he was lost, or he turned to anger or ran from it. She didn’t think anyone needed help quite as much as Jake did. Right now he was looking at his son with a stunned, confused expression, as if he never expected to love the boy. She could have told him that first day, when he’d fumbled to change his diaper, that love grew in spite of a person, and that someday Kyle would take over his life.
    Jake’s gaze collided with hers and for a moment something hot sizzled and burned between them, but he blinked and that smooth, arrogant mask slid into place. “I know the doctor said complete bed rest, Emma. The next time I find you up, you’ll be in trouble.”
    Emma wanted to laugh. He sounded so serious. So in charge. He probably thought he was. “Then give me Kyle and you go get the things I need to clean those scratches on your hands. I’ll be so good.”
    He scowled at her. “No, you won’t.” He waited until she settled back into the bed and he handed her the baby. “You exasperate the hell out of me.”
    “I know I do.” Emma just smiled up at him. In that moment she realized that in spite of his bossy ways, and the sense of danger that sometimes sent a shiver down her spine, she liked him. “Go get the antiseptic. Kyle and I will wait right here for you.” She nearly laughed at the confused male look that crept across his face before he turned and stalked out.
    TWO MONTHS LATER
    “IT’S too soon, Jake,” Emma sobbed, squeezing his hand as they carried her from the helicopter.
    “Don’t let anything happen to the baby. No matter what. You promised me. If anything goes wrong, you know I want you to take her.”
    “Don’t talk like that,” Jake snapped back. “You’re going to be fine, Emma. And so will the baby. Just relax and let the doctors do their job.”
    He had assembled the best team of experts he could find and flown her to the best hospital, and he wasn’t leaving without Emma and the baby. He tasted fear in his mouth. His heart hammered too fast, too hard, but he refused to even consider that something could happen to her.
    “Thank God you hired this old bat,” the nurse said with a quick wink and a grin at Emma. “Otherwise we might not have known until it was too late.” She patted Emma’s shoulder.
    Jake couldn’t find it in him to smile at the joke. Over the last few months he’d come to know Brenda Hacker—the old bat, as he often referred to her. She’d gotten over her aversion to him, mostly he thought because she liked Emma. Who didn’t like Emma? Even the cowboys had come up to the main house when the helicopter had landed to take her to the hospital. All of them had looked as somber and upset as he felt. He’d tightened the security at the ranch and left the cook and a bodyguard in charge of Kyle and orders that no one come or leave while he was gone.
    Once he’d finished giving everyone he could think of every order possible, he was left with the feeling that he had no