“It was no one else’s business,” she pushed out between gritted teeth.
Compassion and understanding filled Rance’s expression then.
“I found the filing for the annulment,” Jacob snapped. “It stated irreconcilable differences.”
Rance sighed at the demand in his tone before a grimace of resignation crossed his expression. “Megan insisted I find a way to hide what she called Sallie’s stubborn refusal to make her marriage work.”
“Stop.” Sallie glared back at Rance. “This discussion is pointless.”
She didn’t want Jacob to hear anything further where her so-called marriage was concerned. She couldn’t afford it. Her heart couldn’t afford it.
“That marriage was pointless,” Rance snapped. “Had I known those two all but blackmailed you into accepting John’s proposal, I would have fired his ass long before I did. John somehow managed to convince your mother that he loved you and she was desperate to find a way to make you forget whoever you met in Switzerland.”
Jacob’s expression was thunderous now, his gaze locked on her, burning with fury and demanding explanations.
“Let it go, Rance,” she demanded, her voice low as she gripped the arms of the chair with desperate fingers. “Stop this now.”
“Like hell,” Jacob snarled. “He can finish it, or you can. And I can promise you now, Sallie, I’ll find out what happened. Now tell me what the hell happened.”
Rance stared back at her as though confused. “Why didn’t you tell me what they did, Sallie?”
He looked hurt, as though he had a reason to be.
“Why do you care?” she cried. “Don’t pretend there was a single instance in my life that you gave me a reason to think you gave a damn, Rance. So why make it your business now? Just let it go.”
He had to let it go. She couldn’t bear it if it went any further. If Jacob learned the truth, she couldn’t bear it.
“He can do that.” Jacob’s voice was a dangerous sound now, a warning of coming violence. “Doesn’t mean I won’t find out, Sallie.”
She closed her eyes, aching to the point that she didn’t know what to do with the pain.
Never in her life had Rance even hinted that he could be a friend, or that he was there if she needed him. She’d lived her life knowing she didn’t have family, didn’t have that support system that she had so needed.
“Sallie.” The admonishment in Rance’s voice was heavy now and no matter how gently it was delivered, she flinched.
“You need to leave.” She came to her feet, adrenaline racing through her body.
She’d rather face an assassin than face this. She needed to run, to hide from it, just as she had been running and hiding for nearly five years from the memories and from the pain.
And she knew it was too late. As Rance came to his feet as well, she knew what was coming.
“Megan and John threatened to find the father of the child she lost after returning from Switzerland and destroy him.” Regret and sorrow filled Rance’s voice as Sallie turned to him, staring at him furiously. “I’m sorry, Sallie, he deserved to know.”
“Did he?” she whispered painfully, fists clenching at her side. “Why, Rance? Why did he deserve to know something I hadn’t told him? It was my business, not yours. It was my place to tell him, in my own time. I would have expected something like this from Mother, she was just that unfeeling. But not from someone who claimed to give a damn about me.” She gave him a hard, cold smile. “You can leave now, Mr. Dougal. I don’t think we need anything else from you.”
And she wasn’t staying, because she highly doubted he would leave.
She glared at Jacob. “I don’t care much for threats and right now, I’ll be damned if I want to talk to you either.”
Pushing past Rance, she stormed from the living room to the guest room, closed the door quietly and locked it behind her. With her back to the door, she closed her eyes against the tears and let herself slide until she was sitting in the floor.
Laying her head against her knees, she knew she couldn’t just make this go away now. There was no way to make Rance take his words back, or to make Jacob forget he’d heard them. And there wasn’t a chance in hell he’d allow her to hold that agonizing event in her life inside, where she’d be safe from the pain and from the loss.
chapter twenty
Sallie pushed herself to her feet long minutes later, intent on washing her face, finding her composure. She’d no more than made it to the bed when the bedroom door pushed open then slammed closed.
Whirling around, she had a moment, a single moment to glimpse Jacob, the emotion, the hunger in his face before she was in his arms. Between one heartbeat and the next, Sallie found herself pinned against Jacob. One hand in her hair, pulling her head back, the other gripping her hip to hold her in place. And he was kissing her.
Wild, fueled by pure male lust, his lips covered hers, his tongue parting them and forging inside as a cry slipped from her throat.
She would have run from him, found a way to get her emotions under control first but once the greedy, ravenous kisses began, she couldn’t force herself away from him. She became greedy herself. They’d nearly died, he could have died trying to protect her and all her dreams would have died with him.
The dominant sexual force she’d always sensed inside him came to the fore.
As his lips razed hers, caressed, nipped, his hand clenched in her hair, released, tugging sensually at the shortened strands and sending flames racing through her senses. The hand at her hip pushed beneath the snug camisole top she’d changed into, long, wicked fingers finding a sensitive, hardened nipple.
He didn’t stroke it. He didn’t just caress it. His thumb and forefinger gripped the hard peak, tugged at it, and sent the most incredible pleasure coursing straight to the hardened bud of her clit.
His head jerked back, his lips releasing hers, but only to nip the lower curve before his lips slid to her neck, the hand clenched in her hair tugging her head back farther.
“Oh God…” Strangled, torn with pleasure, her voice didn’t even sound like her own. “Jacob…” His name was a sudden, shocked cry when he moved, his head lowering to her breasts, his lips surrounding the neglected nipple firmly.
“Yes … Oh yes … Jacob…” Arching to him, her fingers buried in his hair, the desperation to keep his lips in place the only thought she could manage.
Sizzling heat and rapid-fire pinpoints of ecstasy struck at her nipples, the tug and draw of his lips and fingers causing more of the slick heat to spill between her thighs. Her clit throbbed in need; each cell of her body begged for his touch.
Her senses were already in overload when she felt his hand move from her hair to her hip, then beneath the band of the leggings she wore. His fingers pushed past the thin pants, arrowing down until he was spearing through the slick folds between her thighs.
Sallie stilled, fighting to breathe, the tension amassing in her body tightened further, gathering. When his palm rasped her clit, she exploded.
Right there, her back to the wall, held in place by his harder body, his hand cupping her pussy, she came into his palm with a shattered cry of desperate, agonizing ecstasy. Shuddering, her hips pressing and rubbing the pulsing bud of her clit against his palm, she felt the rush of her juices spilling from her as her body shook in the grip of her release.