Read Online Jake's Bride by Karen Rose Smith - Free Book Online Page A

husbands, con artists scammed women, white collar thieves tried to take advantage of the system.  Truth usually found the lie.  But right didn't always win over wrong.  He thought about Davie and felt the familiar pain.
    He glanced around the room, looking for a distraction.  Gillian smiled at him.  What Jake liked about his investigative work with Gillian was the sincerity of it, the truth of it, and the rightness of it.  They helped people find other people.  Many clients they'd helped had given generously for the work they did, and Jake had set up a foundation to fund their work.  Those who could pay did.  Those who couldn't were helped anyway.
    As the music swelled, Jake turned his attention again to the stairs.  Eloise came down the steps first.  Christopher grinned and waved at her.  His pillow tilted and Jake was glad Eloise had pinned the rings.
    Then Sara appeared on the steps, and Jake felt as if someone had smacked him in the solar plexus with a fist.  She was a vision--lace, softness, innocence.  What kind of marriage could they have when he felt such mixed feelings about her?
    For the past four years, he'd thought about her--when his defenses were down, in the dead of night, when he came home to an empty house after a business trip.  He'd thought about their months together, that one night....
    Sara had been a virgin when they'd made love so he'd never had a doubt Christopher was his son.  Christopher's birth date coincided with that night exactly.  What Jake didn't understand was how Sara could have thrown away what they'd shared...how she could have run out on him...how she could have kept his son from him for so long.
    Even though their courtship had been a whirlwind of emotions and passion, he'd thought he'd known Sara, despite their views of the world--hers slightly naive because of her age, his more cynical because of his age.  At the time, the ten year age difference hadn't mattered.  He'd fallen in love with Sara because of her fresh enthusiasm, her optimism.  But now he realized he hadn't known her at all.
    He was marrying a stranger.
    His bride paused at the bottom step and took her son's hand, her smile saying she was not at all perturbed Christopher hadn't stayed in his spot beside Jake.  Sara's smile did as much to arouse Jake as her curves subtly outlined by the lace.  When she faced him, her smile faded.
    Jake turned toward the minister, ready to listen to the words that would change his life.
    The ceremony took mere minutes.  A greeting.  Vows.  The exchange of rings.  Sara's eyes glistened, and again Jake wondered who she was, what the future would bring.  He wasn't thinking beyond a life with his son, beyond the chance to nurture and safeguard this little boy in a way he hadn't been able to nurture and protect Davie.
    At the end of the ceremony, the silver-haired minister said, "You may now kiss the bride."
    Jake looked down into Sara's sky blue eyes.  Eloise, Nathan, Christopher and Gillian--who was cuddling her baby--waited expectantly.  Sara's perfume wafted around him.  Her soft skin beckoned him.  Her dress asked for his touch.  He pressed his hand against the small of her back as he bent his head.  The brush of his lips on Sara's was fleeting, a heartbeat, but enough to shake the foundation of his control.
    Straightening quickly, he stepped away.  He would not give in to desire that could lead to heartache.  He would not show Sara he was vulnerable where she was concerned.  He would not give up his heart another time.
    Eloise hugged Sara and kissed her as the minister shook Jake's hand.  After Nathan and Gillian congratulated the couple, Eloise announced, "Refreshments are in the dining room.  Help yourselves to punch while the bride and groom cut the cake."
    Standing close by his side, Sara murmured to Jake, "If you don't want to do this, we don't have to."
    "Your aunt went to a lot of trouble.  Let's not disappoint her."  He crossed to the dining