She heard the muted ping of his phone, and she waited breathlessly as he pulled it out of his pocket.
Lifting her head, she drew in a sharp breath as he tilted her chin and kissed her with a possessive voraciousness that held her in his thrall for a moment before she wrapped her arms around him and returned his embrace. Jared kissed her like a man possessed, his hunger undisguised as he plundered her mouth. His body shuddered, and he was breathing heavily as he pulled his lips from hers. “I don’t want to miss you anymore. I think I’ve missed you my entire life. Be with me, Mara.”
“I am with you,” she whispered softly, soothingly near his ear. “I’m not going anywhere.” The ferocity of his need for her fed her own cravings for him, and she wrapped her arms around him tighter, harder.
“I don’t want anything to happen to you. I want you to live with me, be in my bed with me every night. I want your face to be the first one I see every morning when I wake up, and the last person I see or talk to before I sleep.” He molded her body against his, the covetous hold enveloping her.
He’s scared that something will happen to me.
Jared had only one other woman in his history that he’d cared about, and she’d died in a tragic accident. “I’ll be here, Jared,” she crooned, stroking the hair at the nape of his neck. She’d learned that life could end unexpectedly at any moment after her close call when her home burned to the ground. But she’d never leave Jared by choice. Not as long as he really cared about her.
Seeing him like this made her both elated and protective. This was the real Jared Sinclair, a big, gorgeous man with a tender heart. He’d opened his tortured, bottled-up emotions to her, and she was taking a leap of faith with him. She’d be just as open, just as willing to show him how she felt about him. She had the same fears, the same insecurities, but they weren’t at the same painfully high level as his were. She’d had a mother who had loved her, and no painful past to overcome. Even with her lack of baggage, it wasn’t easy to open her heart completely to a man that she cared about as much as she did about Jared. She wanted him so badly that it nearly terrified her. The emotion between them was so powerful, so intense that it was nearly painful.
“Stay,” he grumbled greedily as Mara tried to pull away slightly to see his face. He dropped into the recliner and pulled her down onto his lap, keeping his arm locked around her waist as he reached for the laptop. “Here’s your site.”
Mara set her new phone down carefully on the small table beside their coffee and took the computer on her lap.
Incredible.
The site was amazing, colorful without being gaudy, and the name of her own business was sporting the logo she and Jared had designed together. It was classy and professional—everything she could have hoped for and more.
He reached around her waist and showed her how the site functioned, how to see her orders, traffic, and the various pages about her featured items.
When he was finished, Mara stared at the screen, lifting her hand to trace the logo on the website. “It’s real. Mara’s Kitchen is really happening.” She and Jared had worked out most of the details except the actual business contract while she’d been laid up in his home, but this was so much more than she’d imagined. Jared had taken their ideas and made them come alive. Squinting at the screen, she clicked back hesitantly to her orders. “Oh, my God. Do I really have this many orders? How can that have happened so soon? The site just came up.”
“I might have called in a few favors to advertise the launch of the site,” Jared muttered sheepishly.
“You’re already marketing?” She gaped at him, amazed at how efficiently and effortlessly he seemed to arrange things.
“I’m a billionaire with a hell of a lot of contacts, sweetheart. It doesn’t exactly take a lot of effort on my part to get other businesses involved or to get the message out about an exciting new business.”
“I have to get busy. I’ll be dashing to fill these orders and get them out before Sarah’s wedding. You called in what kind of favors?” She turned and looked at his face. He was smiling, one of those happy smiles that reached his eyes and turned her to mush.
“Okay. I called in quite a few favors. This is just the beginning. The orders will keep coming in.”
“You’re forcing friends or associates to order?”
Jared put his hands in the air in a sign of surrender. “I’m not forcing anyone to order. It’s all about the products. I just asked for advertising and a few reviews from some food product reviewers. I sent them some of my personal stash for reviews. You owe me some more jam and taffy.” He grinned at her.
“They all liked it?” she asked excitedly.
“They all loved it. Sweetheart, your skills are out of this world. I didn’t expect anything less, and I asked them to be brutally honest. I didn’t twist anybody’s arm for a good review. I swear.”