Authors: Ann Jacobs
“Mother. It’s neither the time nor the place for this discussion.” Jake’s fingers tightened against Kate’s hand. “Scott. We’ll need to talk later,” he added, looking his brother-in-law in the eye.
“Someone needs to let Mama Anna know how the surgery went,” Deb said.
“We will. Kate?” Jake held out a hand to Kate, then pulled her gently out of the family circle toward the door.
Leah shot him a puzzled look. “Aren’t you staying?”
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Firestorm
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Leah was the one Kate thought should leave. She looked drained, pale beneath her olive skin and her cap of short, dark curls. From the lines that radiated from her trembling lips and the way she clutched her swollen belly, Kate guessed she must be uncomfortable.
“No,” Jake said, giving his sister a pat on the shoulder. “There’s nothing I can do here. You should go home, too. You look tired. I’ll go give Mama Anna the news about Dad and introduce her to Kate all in one trip. Mom can call me on my cell phone if she needs me.”
If Kate hadn’t guessed Jake wanted more to avoid discussing his future role at GreenTex with his mother than to whisk her away to meet his grandmother, she’d have taken the gesture as a sign he was getting serious about her. As it was, she read nothing of significance in his action. She did, however, share Jake’s obvious need to escape from what she imagined could become a civilized clash of wills with no easily acceptable compromise.
Scott kissed Deb, then joined Jake and Kate at the door. “I’m going to the office. I’ll let everyone there know Jacob came through the surgery,” he told Jake as they walked together to the hospital parking lot.
“When do you want to get together?” Jake asked.
“I’ll come over to your place late this afternoon.” Scott climbed into a silver Jaguar and drove away.
Though Kate had looked for evidence of rivalry and competition between the two, she hadn't seen any. When she stripped away the glittering trappings of their wealth and looked at the people beneath the props, she realized that Jake and his family had been blessed with a huge amount of love and camaraderie.
“You’ll like Mama Anna,” Jake said as he steered Scott's sleek Lamborghini along a curving, tree-lined street in one of the older sections of Houston.
“She’s your father's mother?”
“Stepmother. But she’s the only grandmother I’ve ever known. Mom’s parents were killed in an accident before I was born. Mama Anna doesn’t go out much because she’s crippled with arthritis, but her mind’s as sharp as a teenager’s.”
“What about your grandfather?” From earlier conversations, Kate knew he’d been dead for some time.
“He was a great old guy—took me everywhere with him when I was a little kid. He died when I was ten. For a long time, I kept looking for him to come back and take me out to ride his horses.”
“What did he do?”
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“He was a geologist. He founded GreenTex before this country got involved in World War II. Before that, he had hired out to some of the South African mining companies to locate diamonds.”
“That sounds exciting.”
“When I was a kid, I lived to hear about his adventures. He made me want to go out and find treasures under the ground, just like he had.” Jake pulled up at the curb in front of a big, old-fashioned bungalow. “Ready to meet my grandmother?” he asked as he opened the gull-wing door for Kate.
Kate took his outstretched hand and walked with him up the winding pathway.
* * * * *
“I love her,” Kate exclaimed after Jake crawled back in the car.
“Mama Anna’s something, isn’t she?” Jake turned the key and brought the car’s powerful engine to life. “For a ninety-year-old lady, she’s got a hell of a sense of humor.”
For the last hour he’d watched Kate while his grandmother captivated her with stories of his childhood, his father’s teen years, and his grandfather’s uncanny ability to ferret out oil deposits hidden under west Texas scrub land.
Jake’s resolve had strengthened. No one—not the Old Man and not his mother—
would be able to persuade him to leave the oil fields and assume the presidency of his family’s company. Scott wanted the job. He had worked hard for it and by God, he would have it.
“When is Leah’s baby due?” Kate asked while they were driving back to Jake's condo.
“Any day now.”
“She and Ben must be anxious for the baby to be born.”
“I’m sure they are.” Leah had looked awfully tired, and Jake doubted her exhaustion had as much to do with their father’s illness as with her being nearly nine months pregnant.
Kate reached over and squeezed his thigh, something he doubted she’d have had the nerve to do before they’d spent the past two nights and days together. He liked having her touch him.
Her soft voice and gentle smile warmed and reassured him, made him feel content even now, when his future was in turmoil. Maybe, he thought, after the hassles about the saboteurs and the Old Man’s retirement were done with, he’d deal with the emotional attachment to her that seemed to be growing every day.
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Firestorm
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It had been a long time since a woman had made him want to share more with her than a few hours in bed. And that made him damn uneasy.
* * * * *
He’d worn her out.
Watching Kate sleep made Jake want to take care of her. Slowly he padded across the carpeted floor to the bathroom. While hot needles of water pounded his body, he tried to think of anything but her and how she made him feel.
What he needed to focus on was how to get his father to accept that he could never tolerate being cooped up in an office, assigning other engineers the exhilarating task of searching for oil.
The Old Man had known Jake’s feelings about running GreenTex for years.
Still, the stubborn man hung onto the hope that eventually his son would tire of fieldwork and accept what Jacob considered his birthright. Sighing, Jake toweled himself dry and put on a pair of jeans. He padded barefoot through the bedroom, tucking the covers around Kate as he passed the bed.
Scott arrived while Jake was paying for the sandwiches he’d sent out for from a nearby deli. Handing his brother-in-law a Reuben and a beer, Jake followed him into the living room and watched Scott stare out the window.
“I don’t want to run GreenTex,” Jake said flatly.
Turning to face him, Scott smiled. “I know. And I do. But my last name isn’t Green.
The Old Man wants his son to take over his company.”
He took a sip of beer and sank onto a chair. “What do we need to talk about?”
“How to persuade the Old Man he should put you in charge, and be satisfied knowing I’m out in the field finding oil and making us all richer.” Jake took a seat on the other leather lounge chair and stared at his own sandwich that still lay untouched on the cocktail table.
“You could be CEO, make me executive VP, and we could keep on doing what we've always done—except that you'd be making the final decisions the way Jacob has always done.” Scott’s tone was light, but Jake was certain that this wasn’t what his brother-in-law really wanted.
“Or, you could be president, I could placate the Old Man by taking a seat on the Board of Directors, and we could keep on doing as you said—as we’ve always done, except that you’d be the one making the business decisions.” Jake downed half a beer while he waited for Scott to respond.
“That might work. Jacob knows your value to us out in the field. Still, you’re his son. I’m not.”
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“You are by everything but birth. Hell, Scott, you've been a member of this family since I was back in grade school.”
“I know. And all of you have always made me feel like I belong. But Jacob has this special feeling for his only son. I’d feel that way about my son, too, if I had one. There’s something about one’s own flesh and blood.”
“And male flesh and blood’s more important than female? That’s goddamn unfair.”
Jake had always felt tremendous pressure to achieve, to fit a mold the Old Man had designed for him. As far as he knew, no such pressure had been put on any of his sisters. He’d always envied them for their parents’ unqualified approval of anything they wanted to do.
“To carry on a name…tradition…yes, it is. I love my daughters dearly, but it still hurts that Deb and I lost our son.”
Guilt washed over Jake. He’d almost forgotten that, early in their marriage, Scott and Deb had lost a baby boy who had been born with some rare, congenital heart disorder. “I’m sorry, man. I’d almost forgotten.”
“You were just a boy. I didn’t expect you to remember. Damn it, Jake, I know how hard Jacob has pushed you to follow directly in his footsteps. But as much as I’ve sympathized with you, watching you get pushed toward a career you don't want, I understand how Jacob feels, too.”
“After I told him I’d come back and take care of the problems in the Groveland field, Dad said I was more like his father than I was like him. You never met Gramps, did you?” Jake picked up his sandwich and took a bite.
“Just once, before Debra and I married. He died not too long after that. From all Deb has told me about her grandfather, I get the feeling that you probably are a throwback.”
“Gramps would never have tolerated working up in a steel and glass cage. The Old Man should understand I can’t live with that kind of restriction, either.”
“Maybe.”
“We have to try. I’d be the lousiest goddamn executive anyone could imagine. Six months with me running things, and the company would be down the tubes.”
Scott rested his chin on his hands. “Not so. You could delegate. I'd be there for you just like I’ve been there for your father all these years.”
“Damn it, I don't want to run GreenTex. Can’t you and the Old Man get that through your skulls? I’d crumble up and die if I couldn't be out in the middle of the action. And I don’t want to be a figurehead, either, getting the credit for your executive genius. What do I have to do to convince you?”
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“You don’t have to convince me. But we don’t want your father to have another heart attack. Look. I've got four hours’ worth of work piled up on my desk. I’ll give it some thought and see if I can come up with a solution.”
Scott unfolded his long, lean body from the chair and handed Jake his empty beer bottle.
* * * * *
“You had company.”
Kate’s eyes were still droopy from her nap, and she stretched like a sleepy kitten, loosening her green silk robe and offering Jake a tantalizing view of her soft, rounded breasts.
“Yeah. Scott left a little while ago. Come here,” he ordered gruffly, patting his thighs as he raised the recliner to an upright position. When she sat on his lap and rested her head against his shoulder, the tension inside him began to dissipate.
“How’s your father?”
“Still pretty out of it, but doing as well as the doctors expected. I spoke to Mom a few minutes ago.”
“Are your sisters still at the hospital?”
“Shana and Bear stayed. Mom said she’d persuaded Deb and Leah to go home a couple of hours ago. She wants us all to come to the house for lunch tomorrow, after we visit with Dad.”
“How can she be at the hospital and still fix lunch for everybody?” Kate asked, her fingertips making a circular pattern on his bare chest and sending blood surging to his groin.
“Mom doesn’t fix meals. She has a housekeeper to take care of details like that.”
Jake trailed his fingers through Kate’s silky hair, breathed in the clean, fresh smell of her shampoo. She felt so good. So sexy, especially when she purred and smiled when he touched and petted her.
Kate leaned her head into his hand, brushed her open lips across his palm. “I don’t know how I’d keep busy if I had servants to cook and clean,” Kate said, her voice pensive. “What do your mother and sisters do to keep themselves busy?”
Jake nibbled at her neck. “What all self-respecting idle rich women do. They belong to social and charitable organizations, play golf and tennis, hang out at the country club. Mom spends half her life planning fund-raisers for one good cause or another.
Leah volunteers as a psychologist at a half-dozen shelters for abused children. Deb and Shana just play with their kids, shop, and hang out at the country club unless Mother shanghais them to work on one of her committees. Here, anyhow. In Kuwait, Shana’s Ann Jacobs
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put together a volunteer organization to raise money for war orphans all over the Middle East. She shrugs off the importance of what she’s doing, though, says she may as well use the talent for wheedling that she developed as a kid and fine-tuned on Bear.”
“I can’t imagine myself playing golf or tennis every day. Or coaxing money out of reluctant donors, even if it was for a good cause. I’d rather mess around with you,”
Kate said, laughing.
“Me, too. But I’ve got to put in some time at work, or you won’t be getting the GreenTex royalties that will soon have you richer than God. So you’d better get some ideas about other ways to spend your idle time.” He nibbled her breast through the thin silk robe, breathing in the familiar flowery scent that always seemed to surround her.
“I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t like planning parties, not even if they’re for a good cause.” She wriggled in his lap like a playful kitten.
What her moving like that did to Jake made him feel anything but playful. His cock was about to burst already, and the additional stimulation damn near sent him over the edge. “Stop it, already.”
“You don’t really want me to.”
Hell no, he didn’t want her to stop. But he wanted to carry on a conversation with her, and to talk he needed a functioning brain.
“So will you spend your days lolling around in bed, waiting for your lover?” he asked, figuring that if he could ignore his hard-on, eventually it would subside. He knew damn well how he wanted Kate to spend her nights, at least for the foreseeable future.
“I don’t know. That’s what scares me. This oil well has changed my whole future, and I don’t have the vaguest idea what’s going to happen to me. Before Pop died, I thought I’d stay at home, teach, and preserve the heritage he left to me. That maybe some man would come along, we’d fall in love and marry, and raise children to carry on after us. But all that has changed.”