The ensuite was massive: double showers, double vanity and a skylight that poured daylight into the room like water.
‘That is some bathroom,’ Ella said.
‘Thanks. I like it.’
She shivered because Jake’s voice came from right behind her, and when she looked up, she could see him in the enormous mirror. His eyes captured hers and those words rumbled from his chest in a way that made her swear she felt each one as a stroke along her spine.
Very gently, maddeningly slowly, Jake’s hand collected the hair at the side of her neck and swept it back. His mouth grazed where he’d exposed her skin.
She got warm breath, warm lips, shaven skin and the scent of Jake. Ella gripped the door, held on and tried not to let her bones melt.
Jake put his hand over hers and tugged her fingers loose, and as Ella lost her anchor, he tucked her close.
‘Take a chance on me, Ella,’ he murmured against her neck. ‘I won’t let you fall anywhere unless you’re falling for me.’
God.
What did women say to stuff like this? Who could think when your brain turned to mush, and your body wasn’t doing much better?
Jake’s fingers cupped her right breast over her clothes and his gaze held hers in the mirror while he did it, until Ella’s eyelids drifted shut. Her head came back, easing into Jake’s collarbone like it was the softest of pillows.
* * *
If he didn’t end this now, while he still could, Jake would be down on one knee declaring ever-lasting love and puppies and rainbows because those were the thoughts flaring like Disney fireworks in his head.
No woman, ever, made him feel like Ella did.
She got him hot, cold, jealous, powerful, protective, weakall-over, plain dumb stupid … and all she had to do was breathe and be there.
If she arched her back a little bit more, he’d be gone to heaven with her breast in his hand. His fingers ached to roll her nipple, pinch it out, make it stand to attention like he knew it would, and knew he could.
He nuzzled the line of her collarbone. His lips touched the hollow there, and Jake got that hotbed Ella scent of apples and apple blossom. Ever-lasting love, puppies and rainbows exploded in his brain again.
Her cheeks were flushed and soft pink. She looked dewy and delicious in the mirror, and her eyes, when they opened, were more than a little stunned.
He remembered watching Ella that afternoon of the Home Open and thinking of her like his favourite toy in the box. The one all wrapped up and put away that he wanted to take out again.
Now she was so much more to him than a toy.
He turned Ella in his arms, took her hand and held it against his heart between them, so she could feel the wild thump trying to scramble from his chest.
She acknowledged the drumming beat, then took his hand and moved it over the rapid thump of her own heart, pressing his hand to her chest.
They stood like that, not speaking, just breathing, and he tangled his fingers with hers, and bent over her until his forehead rested on her clear cool skin.
‘Come and I’ll show you the view, then we’ll find those boys,’ Jake murmured.
‘Okay.’
He led her from the bathroom, fingers still tangled, and opened the screen door to the deck. Ella stepped through, hugging her arms about her tummy as she walked to the guardrail and stood there.
He was watching Ella, not the view, so he saw the exact moment she stiffened.
Every line of Ella’s body set in panic, as if she’d seen orange flames and clouds of smoke roaring towards them across the hills, and Jake swung his body to the east, hunting the threat.
He found it at the same time as Ella turned from the railing and was off, through the double doors into his bedroom, and away.
The two boys were at the dam. Dark-haired Ollie already in the water paddling out into the middle on a kayak and blond Sam standing bent over the kayak, one foot on the bank, one foot in the small boat, ready to follow his new mate.
CHAPTER
25
‘Ella!’ Jake’s shout came from behind her, echoing through the corridors and corners.
Ella didn’t stop.
Jake would catch her, he was faster and he knew the house. He’d get her to the dam and he’d help her make sure Sam was okay.
She should never have let Sam go. She should have insisted the boys stay at the house or at least stay where she could see them.
A sob caught in her throat. Wrong way. Here she was in the bloody kitchen again.
‘Ella?’ Jake’s voice.
‘How do I get out?’ Don’t panic. Don’t panic. It will all be okay.
‘What’s happening, love?’ Nita Kinworth poked her head into the room.
‘The boys have the kayaks on the dam,’ Jake said, appearing like Superman to save the day. ‘Ella, they’ll be fine.’
‘They’ll have lifejackets on,’ Nita said. ‘It’s one of Jake’s rules. Ollie knows it, love.’
‘Sam doesn’t know the rules and Sam can’t swim and I didn’t see any lifejacket,’ Ella choked.
‘This way then,’ Jake said, taking charge. He led Ella back a little way up the corridor, opened a door that led through the laundry and then out into a heat that glared off the limestone and seared Ella’s lungs. ‘Quickest if we run.’
Ella ran after Jake, down limestone steps, across gravel and through a gate into a paddock. His thongs slapped. Ella’s sandals slipped and slid on the smooth brown summer grass and dust. It was hard to get any purchase, like those nightmares where you tried to run fast and you couldn’t, and everything slowed you down.
All downhill. Thank God. Because her lungs were going to burst and her jaw ached with the strain, and it was like the last hundred metres of Erik’s sprint training drill, only worse because at the end of a training session you knew you could get out of
