The Bridesmaid's Baby Bump (5 page)

‘They don’t test you until after a year of unsuccessfully trying to get pregnant,’ she said. ‘Then the tests take a while. My ex couldn’t deal with it. By that stage he thought he’d invested enough time in me.’

Jake spat out a number of choice names for her ex. Eliza didn’t contradict him.

‘By that stage he’d proved what a dreadful, controlling man he was and I was glad to be rid of him. Still, my sense of failure was multiplied by his reaction. He actually used the word “barren” at one stage. How old-fashioned was that?’

‘I’d call it worse than that. I’d call it cruel.’

‘I guess it was.’ One of a long list of casual cruelties he’d inflicted on her.

Eliza hadn’t wanted to introduce such a heavy subject into her time with Jake, those memories were best left buried.

‘Where did you meet this jerk—your ex, I mean—and not know what he was really like? Online?’

‘At work. I told you when I first met you how I started my working life as an accountant at a magazine publishing company. I loved the industry, and jumped at the chance to move into the sales side when it came up. My success there and my finance background gave me a good shot at a publisher’s role with another company. He was my boss at the new company.’

‘You married the boss?’

‘The classic cliché,’ she said. ‘But what made him a good publisher made him a terrible husband. Now, I don’t want to waste another second talking about him. He’s in my past and staying there. I moved to a different publishing company—and a promotion—and never looked back. Then when the next magazine I worked on folded—as happens in publishing—Andie, Gemma and I started Party Queens.’

‘And became the most in-demand party-planners in Sydney,’ he said.

Sometimes it seemed to Eliza as if her brief marriage had never happened. But the wounds Craig had left behind him were still there. She’d been devastated at the doctor’s prognosis of infertility caused by damaged fallopian tubes. Craig had only thought about what it meant to
him
. Eliza had realised she couldn’t live with his mental abuse. But she still struggled with doubt and distrust when it came to men.

Thank heaven she’d had the sense to insist they signed a pre-nup. He’d had no claim on her pre-marriage apartment, and she’d emerged from the marriage financially unscathed.

‘I suppose your “dating after divorce” advice included getting a watertight pre-nup before any future nuptials?’ she said. ‘I’m here to suggest it’s a good idea. To add to all his faults, my ex proved to be an appalling money-manager.’

‘Absolutely,’ he said. ‘That was all tied up with the gold-digger advice.’

Eliza laughed, but she was aware of a bitter edge to her laughter. ‘I interrogated all my potential dates to try and gauge if they were controlling bullies like my ex. You’re on the lookout for gold-diggers. Are we too wounded by our past experiences just to accept people for what they appear to be?’

Jake’s laugh added some welcome levity to the conversation. ‘You mean the way you and I have done?’ he said.

Eliza thought about that for a long moment. Of course. That was exactly what they’d done. They’d met with no expectation or anticipation.

‘Good point,’ she conceded with an answering smile. ‘We just discovered we liked each other, didn’t we? In the old-fashioned boy-meets-girl way. The best man and the bridesmaid.’

‘But then had to wait it out until we could pursue the attraction,’ he said.

She reached out and placed her hand on his cheek, reassuring herself that he really was there and not one of the dreams she’d had of him after she’d got home from Montovia. ‘And here we are.’

When it came to a man, Eliza had never shut down her good sense to this extent. She wasn’t looking any further ahead than right here, right now. She’d put caution on the back burner and let her libido rule and she intended to enjoy the unexpected gift of time with this man she’d wanted since she’d first met him.

Jake went to pull her closer. Mmm, they could start all over again... Just then her stomach gave a loud, embarrassing rumble. Eliza wished she could crawl under the sheets and disappear.

But Jake smiled. ‘I hear you. My stomach’s crying out the same way. It’s long past lunchtime.’

As he got up from the bed the sheet fell from him. Naked, he walked around the room with a complete lack of inhibition. He was magnificent. Broad shoulders tapered down to a muscled back and the most perfect male butt, his skin there a few shades lighter than his tan elsewhere. He was just gorgeous. The prototype specimen of the human male. She felt a moment’s regret for humanity that his genes weren’t going to be passed on to a new generation. That combination of awesome body and amazing brain wouldn’t happen too often.

She had nothing to be ashamed of about her own body—she worked out and kept fit. But she suddenly felt self-conscious about being naked and tugged the sheets up over her chest. It was only this morning that she’d encountered him at the airport lounge. She wasn’t a one-night stand kind of person. Or hadn’t been up until now.
Until Jake.

He slung on a pale linen robe. ‘I’ll go check what food there is in the kitchen while you get dressed.’

Eliza remembered their frantic dash into the bedroom a few hours before. ‘My bag with my stuff in it—it’s still in the car.’

‘It’s in the dressing room,’ said Jake, pointing in the direction of the enormous walk-in closet. ‘I went out to the car after you fell asleep. Out like a light and snoring within seconds.’

Eliza gasped. ‘I do
not
snore!’
Did
she? It was so long since she’d shared a bed with someone she wouldn’t know.

‘Heavy breathing, then,’ Jake teased. ‘Anyway, I brought your bag in and put it in there.’

‘Thank you,’ said Eliza.

The bathroom was as luxurious as the rest of the house. All natural marble and bold, simple fittings like in an upscale hotel. She quickly showered. Then changed into a vintage-inspired white sundress with a full skirt and wedge-heeled white sandals she’d bought just for the vacation.

Standing in front of the mirror, she ran a brush through the tangles of her hair. Then scrutinised her face to wipe the smeared mascara from under her eyes. Thank heavens for waterproof—it hadn’t developed into panda eyes. She slicked on a glossy pink lipstick.

Until now she hadn’t planned on wearing make-up at all this vacation. But hooking up with Jake had changed all that. Suddenly she felt the need to look her most feminine best. She wanted more than a one-night stand. Four days stretched out ahead of her in Port Douglas and she hoped she’d spend all of them with Jake. After that—who knew?

CHAPTER SIX

J
AKE
WAITED
IMPATIENTLY
for Eliza to get dressed and join him in the living area. He couldn’t believe she was here in his house with him. It was more than he could have hoped for when he’d intercepted her at the airport.

He welcomed the everyday sounds of running taps, closing doors, footsteps tapping on the polished concrete floors. Already Eliza’s laughter and her sweet scent had transformed the atmosphere. He’d like to leave that sexy trail of clothing down the hallway in place as a permanent installation.

This house was a prize in a property portfolio that was filled with magnificent houses. But it seemed he had always been alone and unhappy here. There had been many opportunities for infidelity during the waning months of his marriage but he’d never taken them up. He’d always thought of himself as a one-woman man.

That mindset had made him miserable while he’d refused to accept the demise of his marriage. But meeting Eliza, a woman as utterly different from his ex as it was possible to be, had shown him a different possible path. However he hadn’t been ready to set foot on that path. Not so soon after the tumult and turmoil that had driven him off the rails to such detriment to his business.

Extricating himself from a marriage gone bad had made him very wary about risking serious involvement again. He’d stayed away from Eliza for that very reason—she did not appear to be a pick-her-up-and-put-her-down kind of woman, and he didn’t want to hurt her. Or have his own heart broken. Ultimately, however, he’d been
compelled
to see her again—despite the advice from his divorce support group and his own hard-headed sense of self-preservation.

She’d told him he’d been over-thinking the situation. Too concerned about what
might
happen before they’d even started anything. Then she’d gifted him with this no-strings interlude.
No expectations or promises, no apologies if it didn’t work out.
What more could a man ask for?

Eliza had surprised and enthralled him with her warm sensuality and lack of inhibition. He intended to make the most of her four days in Port Douglas. Starting by ensuring that she spent the entire time of her vacation with him.

He sensed Eliza’s tentative entry into the room from the kitchen before he even heard her footsteps. He looked up and his breath caught at the sight of her in a white dress that was tight at her waist and then flared to show off her slim figure and shapely legs.

He gave a wolf whistle of appreciation. ‘You’re looking very babelicious.’

Her eyes narrowed in sensual appraisal as she slowly looked him up and down. ‘You don’t look too smokin’ bad yourself,’ she said.

He’d quickly gone into one of the other bathrooms, showered and changed into shorts and a T-shirt.

‘Comfortable is my motto,’ he said. He dragged at his neck as if at an imaginary necktie. ‘I hate getting trussed up in a suit and tie.’

‘I don’t blame you. I feel sorry for guys in suits, sweltering in the heat of an Australian summer.’

‘It’s a suit-free zone at
my
company headquarters.’ A tech company didn’t need to keep corporate dress rules.

‘I enjoy fashion,’ she said. ‘After a childhood spent in jeans and riding boots—mostly hand-me-downs from my brothers—I can’t get enough girly clothes.’

‘Your dress looks like something from my grandma’s wardrobe,’ he said. Then slammed his hand against his forehead ‘That didn’t come out quite as I meant it to. I meant from when my grandma was young.’

‘You mean it has a nice vintage vibe?’ she said. ‘I take that as a compliment. I love retro-inspired fashion.’

‘It suits you,’ he said. He thought about saying that he preferred her in nothing at all. Decided it was too soon.

She looked around her. ‘So this is your vacation house? It’s amazing.’

‘Not bad, is it?’

The large open-plan rooms, with soaring ceilings, contemporary designer furniture, bold artworks by local artists, were all designed to showcase the view and keep the house cool in the tropical heat of far north Queensland. As well as to withstand the cyclones that lashed at this area of the coast with frequent violence.

‘He says, with the modest understatement of a billionaire...’ she said.

Jake liked her attitude towards his wealth. He got irritated by people who treated him with awe because of it. Very few people knew the truth about his past. How closely he’d courted disaster. But a mythology had built up around him and Dominic—two boys from nowhere who had burst unheralded into the business world.

He had worked hard, but he acknowledged there had been a certain element of luck to his meteoric success. People referred to him as a genius, but there were other people as smart as he—smarter, even—who could have identified the same need for ground-breaking software. He’d been in the right place at the right time and had been savvy enough to recognise it and act on it—to his and Dominic’s advantage. Then he’d had the smarts to employ skilled programmers to get it right. Come to think of it, maybe there
was
a certain genius to that. Especially as he had replicated his early success over and over again.

‘I found some gourmet pizzas in the freezer,’ he said. ‘I shoved a couple of them in the oven. There’s salad too.’

‘I wondered what smelled so good,’ she said. ‘Breakfast seems a long time ago.’

‘We can eat out for dinner. There are some excellent restaurants in Port Douglas—as you no doubt know.’

‘Yes...’ she said. Her brow pleated into a frown. ‘But I need to check in at my resort. I haven’t even called them. They might give my room to someone else.’

‘Wouldn’t you rather stay here?’ he asked.

Her eyes narrowed. ‘Is that a trick question?’

‘No tricks,’ he said. ‘It’s taken us a long time—years—to get the chance to spend time together. Why waste more time to-ing and fro-ing from a resort to here? This is more private. This is—’

‘This is fabulous. Better than any resort. Of course I’d like to stay here. But is it too soon to be—?’

‘Over-thinking this?’

‘You’re throwing my own words right back at me,’ she said, with her delightful curving smile.

Her eyes seemed to reflect the colour of the sea in the vista visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the beach to the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean. He didn’t think he’d ever met anyone with eyes of such an extraordinary blue. Eyes that showed what she was feeling. Right now he saw wariness and uncertainty.

‘I would very much like to have you here with me,’ he said. ‘But of course it’s entirely your choice. If you’d rather be at your resort I can drive you there whenever you want.’

‘No! I...I want to be with you.’

‘Good,’ he said, trying to keep his cool and not show how gratified he was that he would have her all to himself. ‘Then stay.’

‘There’s just one thing,’ she said hesitantly. ‘I feel a little...uncomfortable about staying here in a house you shared with your ex-wife. I notice there aren’t any feminine touches in the bathroom and dressing room. But I—’

‘She’s never visited here,’ he said. ‘I bought this house as my escape when things started to get untenable in my marriage. That was not long before I met you at Dominic’s wedding.’

‘Oh,’ she said.

‘Does that make you feel better?’ he asked.

She nodded. ‘Lots better.’

He stepped closer, placed his hands on her shoulders, looked into her eyes. ‘You’re the only woman who has stayed here. Apart from my mother, who doesn’t count as a woman.’

‘I’m sure she’d be delighted to know that,’ Eliza said, strangling a laugh.

‘You know what I mean.’ Jake felt more at home with numbers and concepts than words. Especially words evoking emotion and tension.

‘Yes. I do. And I’m honoured to be the first.’

He took her in his arms for a long, sweet kiss.

The oven alarm went off with a raucous screech. They jumped apart. Laughed at how nervous they’d seemed.

‘Lunch is ready,’ he said. He was hungry, but he was tempted to ignore the food and keep on kissing Eliza. Different hungers required prioritising.

But Eliza had taken a step back from him. ‘After we eat I need to cancel my resort booking,’ she said. ‘I’ll have to pay for today, of course, but hopefully it will be okay for the other days. Not that I care, really. After all I—’

‘I’ll pay for any expense the cancellation incurs.’

He knew straight away from her change of expression that he’d made a mistake.

‘You will
not
pay anything,’ she said. ‘That’s my responsibility.’

Jake backed down straight away, put up his hands as if fending off attack. That was one argument he had no intention of pursuing. He would make it up to her in other ways—make sure she didn’t need to spend another cent during her stay. He would organise everything.

‘Right. I understand. My credit cards will remain firmly in my wallet unless you give me permission to wield them.’

She pulled a rueful face. ‘Sorry if I overreacted. My independence is very important to me. I get a bit prickly when it’s threatened. I run my own business and my own life. That’s how I like it. And I don’t want to ever have to answer to anyone again—for money or anything else.’

‘Because of your ex-husband? You described him as controlling.’

‘To be honest, he’s turned me off the entire concept of marriage. And before him I had a domineering father who thought he had the right to rule my life even after I grew up.’

Jake placed his hand on her arm. ‘Hold it right there. Don’t take offence—I want to hear more. But right now I need food.’ His snack on the plane seemed a long time ago.

She laughed. ‘I grew up with three brothers. I know the rules. Number one being never to stand between a hungry man and his lunch.’

Jake grinned his relief at her reply. ‘You’re right. The pizza will burn, and I’m too hungry to wait to heat up more.’

‘There are
more
?’

‘The housekeeper has stocked the freezer with my favourite foods. She doesn’t live in. I like my privacy too much for that. But she shops for me as well as keeps the house in order.’

‘Unlimited pizza? Sounds good to me.’

From the look of her slim body, her toned muscles, he doubted Eliza indulged in pizza too often. But at his height and activity level he needed to eat a lot. There had been times when he was a kid he’d been hungry. Usually the day before his mother’s payday, when she’d stretched their food as far as it would go. That would never happen again.

He headed for the oven. ‘Over lunch I want to hear about that country upbringing of yours,’ he said. ‘I grew up here in Queensland, down on the Gold Coast. Inland Australia has always interested me.’

‘Trust me, it was
not
idyllic. Farming is tough, hard work. A business like any other. Only with more variables out of the farmer’s control.’

She followed him through the kitchen to the dining area, again with a view of the sea. ‘I was about to offer to set the table,’ she said. ‘But I see you’ve beaten me to it.’

‘I’m domesticated. My mother made sure of that. A single mum working long hours to keep a roof over our heads couldn’t afford to have me pulling less than my weight,’ he said.

That was when he’d chosen to
be
at home, of course. For a moment Jake wondered what Eliza would think of him if he revealed the whole story of his youth. She seemed so moralistic, he wondered if she could handle the truth about him. Not that he had any intention of telling her. There was nothing he’d told her already that couldn’t be dug up on an online search—and she’d already admitted to such a search. The single mum. The hard times. His rise to riches in spite of a tough start. The untold story was in a sealed file never to be opened.

‘It must have been tough for her. Your mother, I mean.’

‘It was,’ he said shortly. ‘One of the good things about having money is that I can make sure she never has to worry again.’ As a teenager he’d been the cause of most of her worries. As an adult he tried to make it up to her.

‘So your mother lets you take care of her?’

‘I don’t give her much of a choice. I owe her so much and I will do everything I can to repay her. I convinced her to let me buy her a house and a business.’

‘What kind of business did you buy for her?’

Of course Eliza would be interested in that. She was a hard-headed businesswoman herself.

‘She worked as a waitress for years. Always wanted her own restaurant—thought she could do it better. Her café in one of the most fashionable parts of Brisbane is doing very well.’ Again, this was nothing an online search wouldn’t be able to find.

‘There’s obviously a family instinct for business,’ she said.

He noted she didn’t ask about his father, and he didn’t volunteer the information.

‘There could be something in that,’ he said. ‘She’s on vacation in Tuscany at the moment—doing a residential Italian cooking course and having a ball.’

Eliza smiled. ‘Not just a vacation. Sounds like it’s work as well.’

‘Isn’t that the best type of work? Where the line between work and interest isn’t drawn too rigidly?’

‘Absolutely,’ she said. ‘I always enjoyed my jobs in publishing. But Party Queens is my passion. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else now.’

‘From what I hear Party Queens is so successful you never will.’

‘Fingers crossed,’ she said. ‘I never take anything for granted, and I have to be constantly vigilant that we don’t slip down from our success.’

She seated herself at the table, facing the view. He swooped the pizza onto the table with an exaggerated flourish, like he’d seen one of his mother’s waiters do. ‘Lunch is served,
signorina,
’ he said.

Eliza laughed. ‘You’re quite the professional.’

‘A professional heater-upper of pizza?’

‘It isn’t burned, and the cheese is all bubbly and perfect. You can take credit for
that
.’

Jake sat down opposite her. He wolfed down three large slices of pizza in the time it took Eliza to eat one. ‘Now, tell me about life on the sheep ranch,’ he said. And was surprised when her face stilled and all laughter fled from her expression.