Free April Fool Bride by Joan Reeves

gasped.
    "I must be," he muttered. "Only a saint would
set himself up for such torture."
    He heard another choked sob. "Why are you
crying, Maddie?"
    "I'm not."
    Jake knew that was a lie. "Just sleep. You're
safe in my arms until you tell me otherwise." He laughed softly.
"If you can ignore my erection, I guess I can too."
    To his surprise, after several minutes,
Maddie relaxed against him. Her breathing deepened. He drew her
even closer, liking the way she felt in his arms. That roused
her.
    In a sleepy murmur, she said, "You still owe
me a painful truth. The other doesn't count."
    He held her and willed himself to yield to
sleep. She wanted a painful truth?
    How about the fact that he found himself
wanting her more than he'd ever wanted any woman?

Chapter 8
     
    The next day, Maddie awoke to find herself
lying almost on top of Jake. Her right arm was flung across his
chest, and his left arm rested on her back. She tensed and waited
to see if he too were awake, but he slept on. Slowly she pulled
away. Sleeping in his arms had been as unexpected as it was
wonderful. He made an unintelligible sound and rolled onto his
stomach. She took one last look at him even as she told herself not
to get used to the tenderness he'd shown her last night. After that
intimacy, she needed to shore up her defenses.
    Maddie dressed quickly in jeans, a lime green
tee shirt and sneakers. She grabbed an old leather aviator jacket
that she'd bought at one of the charity resale shops and hurried
out of the room before Jake awoke and asked her where she was
going. She didn't want to lie to him about the shelter.
    Downstairs, she dashed into the kitchen and
greeted Inez with a smile. Usually, Maddie had coffee with her, but
not today.
    She had a hard time starting the old
Mercedes. Although beautiful on the outside, the old sports coupe
that had been her mother's was a clunker on the inside. The engine
needed a valve job or something like that. She'd listened patiently
to the mechanic who told her about everything wrong with the car,
but the details hadn't sunk into her non-mechanical brain. She just
knew it would cost more money than she wanted to spend so she had
to put it off until next year when she could tap into her
trust.
    Maddie backed the car out of the garage,
cringing when the engine backfired. She prayed the sound didn't
rouse Jake. Before she could shift into low, it backfired again.
Damn. She glanced up at her bedroom window. "Please be asleep."
    At first Jake thought the sound was gunfire.
He awoke disoriented, but he knew in an instant that he wasn't back
in Afghanistan and under fire. He was alone in the bed. He went to
the window and saw the old Mercedes that used to occupy the last
bay in the garage. Surely Maddie wasn't driving that old heap. As
he watched, it belched smoke from the exhaust and backfired. That
explained the noise that had awakened him. Why wasn't she driving
some sleek new car?
    Jake dressed in jeans, a red knit pullover
shirt, and his favorite running shoes. Within fifteen minutes he
was in the kitchen and chatting with Inez, the new housekeeper,
over a cup of coffee. The short, slightly built woman--also
Hispanic like his mom--was probably in her mid-forties. Inez didn't
beat around the bush. "Your mother helped me get this job. She's a
good woman."
    "Yep. That's my mom." He looked around. He'd
spent much of his youth in this very kitchen. Walking across the
black and white marble tiles was like coming home.
    "Would you like me to cook you some
breakfast? Mrs. Quinn told me to do whatever you wished."
    That surprised Jake. "Thanks, but I'm going
to visit my mom."
    "Please tell her I'll see her at the farmer's
market next weekend. Oh, and I'll prepare the coffee pot in the
morning so you can just press the power button when you come into
the kitchen. Unless you want me to bring a tray to your room. I
mean Miss Maddie's room."
    "Oh, heck no. I can fetch my own coffee."
    She giggled. "That's what Miss Maddie