Chapter 7

"What are you making?" Jay asked.

Allie jumped and dropped the spoon she had been using to stir homemade noodles. It landed in the boiling water sending droplets flying. A few landed on her sleeve, but none on her skin. Jay swore and reached for her before she could snatch the spoon out of the water. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her away from the hot stove.

"Careful," he snapped, fishing the slotted spoon out of the pot for her. "Every time I leave you alone, you do something dangerous."

"Cooking is not dangerous," she said defensively, her voice breathless.

His hand remained splayed across her belly over top of her Maleficent T-shirt. His long fingers reached from her naval to just below her breasts, warming her with the heat of his palm. She twisted her head to look up at him. His face was close to hers, his grey eyes like liquid steel as they searched hers. She tilted away, her body leaning into the curve of his arm. She could feel the stubble on his chin where it rubbed against her shoulder through the thin cotton of her shirt.

She shivered and stammered, "I didn't know you were back."

"Just got here," he said, handing her back the spoon and stepping away from her, giving her a little more space.

Allie released a long breath and turned back to the stove, delicately skimming the short noodles from the top and into a ceramic bowl. She tried her best to ignore the dark presence at her back and the way her heart thumped in reaction. When the noodles had been dealt with she turned the element off and lifted a lid on another pot to stir the basil marinara. It was also done. She moved the pot off the heat. Turning around she bumped into Jay again. With a sigh she maneuvered around him and went to the fridge where she took out the bocconcini and tomato salad she had prepared.

"What are you doing, Allie?"

She glanced at Jay as she set the salad on top of the oak table where she'd set two plates earlier for her and Greg. "I would think that's fairly obvious, or has no one ever made supper around you before?"

Allie reached into the cupboard for another plate, but Jay reached out and captured her wrist. "He's gone. It's just us."

Her heart sped up at his touch and she let go of the plate. It clattered on top of the others. She quickly backed out of Jay's hold and whirled toward the stove reaching for the pasta and sauce. She was so jumpy, she'd be lucky to get it to the table without dropping it. God, she was so nervous!

"You… you sent him away?" she asked.

"He asked for time off," Jay said calmly, taking the hot marinara sauce from her shaking hand and placing it on the table.

"He said he might go fishing," Allie said, putting the noodles on the table and sliding onto one of the high-backed chairs.

She allowed her eyelashes to sweep upward and her gaze to land fully on the man that took up far too many of her thoughts. She'd spent weeks raging at him while he was gone, yet the moment he was in her presence she could barely manage to speak. She'd imagined exactly what she was going to say to him when he finally came back to her. How she was going to demand he release her and send her back home. Instead, she was sitting at his table, feeding him.

Although, technically, he was eating Greg's supper.

He looked good. The gauntness he'd gained with age suited him. His silver hair was brushed back off his tanned forehead. He wore a black dress shirt with dark blue jeans and a leather belt. More casual than the last time she'd seen him, but still dressier than her. Everything he wore fit his slim build perfectly and emphasized the lean muscles of his shoulders and arms. His cheekbones were sharper than she remembered from the wedding, emphasized by his shadowy features.

Allie shivered and dropped her eyes. If she didn't care about him the way she did, he might look utterly sinister. More so with age than ever before. He looked more than capable of doing the things she'd heard rumoured on the streets of Vancouver. Definitely capable of kidnapping a woman, drugging her and holding her captive. Allie's breath caught in her throat and her hand clenched in her lap for a moment before she forced herself to breath and remember she was sitting and eating with a man she had known her entire life.

Jay reached over and began dishing up her plate, giving her generous helpings of pasta and salad. He took twice as much for himself, Allie noted with something that felt like satisfaction. He also ate with gusto, which surprised her. She suspected Jay didn't eat as much or as often as he should while running his vast empire.

"What have you been doing while I was away?" Jay asked after a few minutes of eating. He picked up his napkin, wiped his mouth and watched her expectantly.

Allie had opted for water instead of wine with her meal and took a sip before answering him. "I know that Greg's been giving you daily updates so there isn't much point in my boring you with details you already know."

"Don't act like a child, Allison," Jay said quietly. "Greg told me of your activities, of course, but you can tell me what you did."

Allie shrugged. "I don't really see the difference."

"Amuse me," Jay said, steel threading his voice.

Allie shivered and put her fork down, appetite gone. She was beginning to realize that she was rediscovering Jay the way a woman discovered a man, not as a child knew a friend, as she'd once known him. It frightened her. It felt like one moment she knew him and the next he became a terrifying stranger. Like sand slipping through her fingers, she couldn't seem to grasp this new Jay.

"I smashed up some of your stuff," she said defiantly, staring down at her plate, "and I climbed over a tree and tried to leave."

"Yes, I know," he said evenly. "Let's leave those for now. What did you do for fun? You like to cook?"

She nodded and sighed. "I do. I used to watch cooking shows all the time and I love trying new recipes. Greg enjoyed my efforts and had one of the guys pick up whatever I needed. I took leftovers down to the gate, which your guards seemed to like."

Jay nodded, his eyes on her face. "You watch Kitchen Nightmares, shows like that?"

"Sometimes. I liked watching the cooking, but it gives me bad anxiety. And that guy… he swears too much," she said, standing to clear the table. It looked like Jay was done eating, too. She was pleased to see he took seconds.

He stood to help. "What else did you do while I was gone?"

"Well… I walked a lot."

"I know," he said shortly. "Despite being told not to go out alone."

"I love to walk!" she protested, licking spilled sauce from her finger as she transferred the leftovers into a glass container.

"I don't care," he growled, "your safety is always going to be more important than what you want. You'll have to learn to live with more restrictions in your life."

"That… that's stupid Jay. I'm not a child, I can make decisions for myself."

"Not when it comes to your safety, you won't," Jay said with quiet menace, catching hold of her wrist and pulling her into the hardness of his body.

Allie's breath strangled in her throat. She automatically tried to pull back but he held her tightly against his body and then slowly walked her backward until her ass hit the counter behind her. She was trapped. He lifted the fingers that she had licked to his mouth and slowly, under her wide-eyed stare, sucked them into his mouth. Allie's lips parted in a strangled gasp. Her body froze under the shadow of his, like a bird that knew if she made the wrong move she would be eaten whole.

The heat of his lips and mouth scorched her, sizzling a path from her fingertips right down body toward her pussy and flooding her with need that she didn't think was possible. Intimacy, the type that happened between men and women, just wasn't for her. Yet somehow, Jay was coaxing a reaction from her. It frightened her. Allie whimpered, her knees buckling under the onslaught of sensation.

Jay was quick to reach out and catch her, holding her body up against his. He ran his long fingers over her hair and easily released the dark mass from the messy topknot she had gathered on top of her head while cooking. Wavy locks cascaded around her head and slithered past her shoulders, reaching halfway down her back. He lovingly smoothed them out, running his fingers through the long, dark strands.

"Jay…," she whispered, staring up at him, both frightened and aroused.

She didn't know what to do or say. She'd loved this man her entire life. Yet he'd abandoned her. More than that, he'd shoved her out of his life and walked away without a backward glance. He'd spent eighteen years watching over her and then he'd hurt her in the worst way. She'd been forced to forge a path on her own, to create a life that didn't include the man that had helped shape her. Now he wanted her back? No, he insisted on having her back. He wasn't giving her a choice.

"Jay, I can't…"

He touched his lips to hers, stopping her words. It was a gentle caress, but the depth of yearning, the years of withheld feeling was so savage that is made her gasp and try to jerk out of his hold. Jay's grip tightened and his eyes hardened in the dimming evening light as he looked down at her. It told her without words that nothing she could do or say would ever induce him to let her go.

"It's time for bed, Allison."