âThere are things you need to learn, Emily.â
âIs that the reason you kissed me?â she said quietly.
âYes. No. Dammit, Emââ Jake drew a ragged breath. âLook, I can help you. I can teach you about men. What they want from women. The male-female thing, the thing you donât seem to understand at all.â
Emily stared at Jake. He was right. He could teach her. He already had.
âIs that what you want to do?â she said huskily.
It seemed a long time before Jake answered. When he did, his voice sounded low and far away, even to his own ears.
âYes. Yes, I do. And I promise you, Em, Iâll teach you all you need to know.â
JAKE MCBRIDE was a man under siege.
A woman whoâd spent the past couple of months on his arm and in his bed, couldnât accept the fact that their relationship was over.
âYou donât love me,â sheâd wept, just last night.
Well, no. Jake didnât. Heâd told her that days ago, reminded her that heâd never said he loved her, never even hinted that he might love her someday. He knew there were guys who said it in an attempt to score, but he wasnât one of them. Jake was always honest about his intentions. He made it clear that love, marriage, the âsomething old, something new, something blueâ thing just wasnât on his agenda.
Besides, the immodest truth was that he didnât have to.
He was a healthy, heterosexual, thirty-year-old American male. He was six foot three with broad shoulders, a deep chest and a hard, flat belly, thanks to his passion for tough, sweaty workouts at his gym. His hair was dark, thick and wavy; his eyes were what one besotted female had called the color of the Atlantic in midsummer, which even now made him smile because he hardly ever noticed his eyesâwhat man would?âexcept when he happened to see them in the mirror while he shaved. He had a square jaw and a firm mouth set beneath a nose that bore a small bump, a souvenir of the year heâd spent working a jackhammer in a Pennsylvania coal mine.
He found it amusing that women seemed to like the faintly misshapen nose. The same babe whoâd said his eyes were like the sea had told him it made him look dangerous.
âWhatever turns you on,â Jake had said with a husky laugh, as he rolled her beneath him.
And he had money. Hell, why dance around the issue? He was rich, richer than heâd ever dreamed he could be, and heâd earned every dime himself, transforming a propensity for numbers, a talent for reading the market and a love for taking risks into a career in venture capitalism that was light-years away from the life heâd been born to.
Wasnât all that enough to make a woman happy? Yes. Yes, it was. He never had difficulty finding a woman.
The trouble was getting rid of them.
Jake winced.
It wasnât a nice way to think about it but it was the truth.
What he was going through with Brandi wasnât exactly new. It had happened to him before. A woman would agree, at the start of their affair, that she was no more interested in forever-after than he was. Then, for some unearthly reason, sheâd change her mind a few weeks later and get that oh-how-happy-we-could-be gleam in her eye even though any fool could tell that marriage was not manâs natural state.
The whole turnaround was beyond his comprehension but yeah, it happened. And it was happening again, despite his best efforts.
The only person who could save him from disaster was his personal assistant, Emily.
Emily, Jake thought gratefully. What would he do without her? She was smart, efficient, always on her toes. Emily not only kept his office running smoothly, but she protected him from the predations of women like Brandi. It didnât happen often, thankfully, but when necessary, Emily fielded unwanted calls, kept away unwanted visitors.
Jake wasnât unkind. That was the reason heâd told Emily to show Brandi into his private office yesterday, even though he knew it was a bad idea. He was right. It had been a miserable idea. All Brandi had wanted to do was tell him that she loved him but he didnât love her.
âYou donât,â sheâd cried, âyou donât, Jake!â
Why would he deny it? âNo,â heâd said, âI donâtâ Heâd handed her his handkerchief. âBut I like you,â heâd added earnestly. âA lot.â
Jake sighed, sat down at his desk, leaned his elbows on the gleaming oak surface and massaged his aching temples with his fingertips.
So much for being honest. Brandi had gone from weeping to sobbing while he stood there, feeling like an idiot for not having seen it coming but then, he really never did.