Chapter Four

Days passed by filled with sweet loving as both Jake and Lorena strove to make the most of every moment together and cherish each other with all the passion they possessed and all the love that had been waiting to be celebrated over the years they'd been apart. They spent every moment during that time together, Jake even allowing Lorena to drag him shopping and she going with him into his garage when he had to work on his bike and not even complaining over a splash of oil ruining her new outfit. They were all smiles until the day of Tiffani's wedding arrived.

Lorena tried to pretend that she wasn't aware of how Jake was fidgeting as she fixed his tie, but she knew he was nervous and couldn't help wondering why. If Tiffani truly meant nothing more to him than a friend, why should he be concerned about seeing her get married to another guy? "Jake," she said, finishing his knot with her fingers still at his throat and gazing questioningly into his beautiful eyes, "what's wrong?"

"I just . . . " He took the tie from her and slipped the knot down a few notches. "I just don't know how this is going to work out. Are you sure you want to go?"

"Jake, Tiffani sent us both invitations. I'm not ditching her. She's still a friend, and she wants us to be there for her." Her lovely, brown eyes narrowed in suspicion. "If you don't care that she's getting married, why are you so worried about this?"

He gave a hefty sigh; his tuxedo-clad shoulders slumped. Jake always had lookd undeniably hot, but Lorena found that, these days, he filled out a tuxedo even better than he did his leather jacket. Her entire body tingled as she spread her her hands out over his arms in an effort to soothe his tense body. He didn't still love Tiffani. She knew that for a fact, but he was still worried about this whole wedding thing. She couldn't figure out why it was bothering him so much but knew that he was stressing majorly over it. "You can tell me," she urged quietly.

"The press is going to be there," he finally blurted out.

"So?"

"Lorena, you've never seen reporters like these. They're like a pack of hungry dogs with one bone, and you're it."

She blinked up at him. "I know I'm beautiful," she said, a smile chasing over her pretty features, "but it's Tiffani's big day. Why would they want me?"

"I'm the lead guitarist of the band, or I was, any way, before we broke up. The press have still been hounding me ever since, and they got even worse when I started dating other girls, hoping that they would get them to leave me alone and bother Tiffani more." He made a face. "I know that doesn't sound fair, but I was desperate for a break. You don't know what it's like," he told her, "to not even be able to go out for a burger without having your every move tracked by the press!"

She'd always thought that being watched by fans would be a good thing, but seeing the worry and despair etching in his sensual eyes now and the fret marring his handsome face, for the first time, Lorena considered what it must really be like to not be able to go anywhere without being followed. Both your good and bad moments were flashed across the entire world. She knew that, over the years since they'd last been together, there had been several sad moments in her life that she would not have wanted any one to see, and she realized that her beloved Jake must also have had some of those very same moments.

She cupped his face and caressed his flesh. His skin had once been hardened by the hours spent riding his bike down the pavement, but his skin was much softer now, almost pampered. Lorena stopped the grin that threatened to burst out on her face as she imagined her love being forced to don makeup for his music videos and concerts. "That was then," she started to tell him, but he broke her off.

Shaking his head, Jake remarked, "But they'll still be there, as bad as they ever were or worse! Tiffani's getting married! The world thinks I loved her! They're going to want to hear that my heart's breaking!"

"So?" Lorena asked. Then she did grin as she leaned closer and took his handsome face in both of her hands. "We'll show them that your heart's not only not broken but that it's whole, happy, and better than ever!" She pressed her lips to his in a kiss so hot and steamy that its passion dazzled them both. She leaned closer in to him, her foot unconsciously rising.

Jake wrapped his arms around her and deepened their kiss. His tongue slid pass her hot lips and danced with hers. Their hands caressed each other lovingly, and Jake wanted nothing more than to stay there with her in his garage forever more. He never wanted to leave their home or Lorena ever again. He would be perfectly content to stay right here forever and never see another fan or reporter again for as long as he lived.

But she was right. Tiffani had sent them both invitations, asking them to come and signing the cards with her name in a heart as she hadn't done, in her own personal writing, since high school. Jake knew all of her letters back to her fans were signed with hearts, but they were printed off of computers. Tiffani had grown as sick of the press as he had and had stopped signing her name that way unless she was signing autographs, and only then she had done so because she knew that that was what her fans expected.

Jake's phone rang, startling both Lorena and himself. He stroked her long, silky hair as he pulled slowly away from her, then looked at his phone. He grimaced as he saw the name flashing across its panel. "Sly, you'd better have a damn good reason for this," he growled into the phone.

"Oh, I do," Sly answered quickly. Jake could hear his slimy grin exuding throughout the sound of his jovial voice. "You bet your leather jacket I do!"

Jake smiled at Lorena, his dark eyes twinkling. "My leather jacket already belongs to somebody else," he told him. "It's not up for betting."

"I know that too!" Sly replied. "It took you two lovebirds long enough to get it back together! You just needed ol' uncle Sly to give you a push in the right direction!"

Surprise flashed over Jake. Sly had known that he and Lorena would get back together? For just a moment, he felt as though he'd been tricked, but then he reminded himself that Sly couldn't have known that Lorena was going to buy his jacket. She had bought it, but she had bought it only because she had missed him so much that she'd wanted a piece of him to which to cling. Sly had only given him the information that she had bought it, but then again, all of his friends had to have known what he would do upon hearing that Lorena had spent a million dollars for his old, leather jacket.

Jake beamed at Lorena. If Sly had had a hand in reuniting them, he supposed he owed him a debt of thanks, but Winkle had never done anything without expecting some kind of monetary award to be involved. "Spit it out, Winkle," Jake demanded, pulling Lorena back into his arms and hugging her. He almost didn't hear Sly's next words as his heart shot out of his throat at Lorena's gentle kiss upon his neck. Instant fire poured throughout every inch of his heart, soul, and body.

"Meet us at the beach," Sly was telling Jake. Jake had no idea what he had said at first. He only heard his last sentence.

"The beach? Why?" he asked puzzedly.

Lorena paused in nibbling his neck and looked thoughtfully up at him.

"Just come. You'll see why when you get here." Sly hung up the phone, leaving Jake and Lorena to gaze once more into each other's eyes. Jake slowly put his own phone up, then gathered Lorena closer to him. He shrugged. "The beach it is, but first, you little minx, I owe you something." He picked her up, sat her on top of his bike, and started to make sweet love to her right then and there.

To Be Continued . . .