A/N: Hey guys, Sorry it took me so long. I don't know why it did i've had 3 chapters written in advance on this for ages but i forgot i had them cos i've been working on the other fanfics i write as well as my manuscripts. Anyway i can't wait to see all your shocked reviews when you read this chapter. =) pretty please review. My apologies for any and all mistakes concerning spelling and grammar as well as factualness of the original stories. One of my other stories recently got a long review about all the supposed errors as far as plot lines go in keeping with the facts about the original stories. But not to worry. Much love my cherubs. xx-Kitten.

Wild Things.

Chapter 21:Strange Bedfellows.

For hours Sam laid in bed, wide awake as she listened to the hammering of rain and hail on the roof. The motel room was dark, the TV turned off. But neither Samantha Forster nor Jake Ely slept. The small double bed forced them to lie close together, and the dare of Jake's earlier statement hung between them. Jake's words from hours earlier hung in her mind. Lying there beside him, so close that if either of them breathed deeply they would be touching, Sam's body was on fire. She burned to have him touch her. And the fact that he was still awake told her that he was burning too. It seemed they truly would go insane because both were too stubborn to change their minds right now.

Sam didn't even mean that she wanted to make love to Jake right now. She did, but she knew she'd hang onto her virginity until marriage like a lady. But that didn't mean she wanted to spend the time until then not even kissing Jake or touching him at all. And Jake's proclamation that if she wanted that all she had to do was let him know and he'd get the ring he'd bought for her and propose to her, which Sam assumed meant every and any sort of physical contact.

Sam blamed the Forster stubbornness that had resulted in her ducking under Jake's arm, crossing the room, undressing to her underwear as she moved and climbing into bed to watch the rest of the Disney movie without a word. She knew she was still teasing him with the idea that she laid just centimetres from him wearing nothing more than underwear. She also blamed the Forster stubbornness for the smugness she felt when she'd heard Jake's teeth begin to grind minutes after he had joined her in bed and they had stared at the pumpkin carriage being crushed under the hooves of the horses in the royal guard.

Jake's teeth were still grinding hours later.

Sam smirked as an idea struck her. He'd thrown down the dare that she would have to marry him if she wanted anything from him, but they were practically engaged anyway. The only thing missing was the actual proposal and the ring on her finger. So what if they could come to some sort of verbal agreement- properly, not just implied- that they were for all intents and purposes engaged, but that they wouldn't tell anyone just yet? After all, Sam wasn't even sure if her family knew they were dating again. She supposed that since Jake asked their permission they probably suspected. And Sam didn't want to go around spouting about her engagement to Jake after being back together a week when just last week Jen had turned down Ryan Slocum's proposal after they'd dated for five years.

Taking a deep breath Sam smiled as she rolled towards Jake in the bed and reached out her hand, letting it glide over his exposed stomach and chest to rest over his heart. Even that simple touch sped up his heart rate.

Shuffling closer, Sam wriggled until she could lay her head in the hollow of his shoulder. The grinding of teeth stopped and Sam knew Jake was holding his breath either in dread or anticipation of what Sam intended to do next. Especially when her hand on him began drawing those little love hearts again.

Sam fought not to giggle as she shifted so that her leg laid across him as well, draped across his hips and Jake went rigid all over. She could feel the physical evidence of his desire beneath her thigh, and Sam couldn't hold in the giggle this time. Jake sighed explosively, irritated that Sam was having such fun tormenting him. He was having enough trouble keeping his hands to himself when she'd been laying on the other side of the bed, not even touching him.

"Samantha what are you doing?" he asked, his voice controlled and tight.

In response Sam levered herself up until she was sitting straddle on his hips. Beneath her Jake moved and Sam realised his hand had shot out to find the light switch by his head when the room lit up again, making her blink at the brightness after such prolonged staring in the dark.

Jake was pinned beneath her and he stared at her with those wild brown eyes, so hot that it almost burned her. For just a moment Sam admired the handsome view Jake made. His long black hair was in a mess against the pillows, a stark contrast to the white of the pillow cases. His sharp high cheekbones and strong jaw made him handsome and those wild eyes stole her heart.

Jake clenched his jaw when he realised that Sam was straddling him, her spread legs allowing the centre of her body full contact with the centre of his, but for a few layers of clothing. Even as he fought to keep from reacting to having her sit there like that, Jake realised that he loved this view. The view of her in her underwear, her long wavy auburn hair hanging forward around her face and tickling his stomach and chest as she grinned that wicked grin that had always spelled mischief while she straddled him. She was beautiful.

"What happens now Cowboy?" Sam asked him, she could hear the teasing sultry quality in her voice and she smirked at the way he had tensed beneath her at the sound of it.

He just raised his eyebrows at her. Sam rolled her eyes at his clear confusion and obvious, if nonverbal, question.

"I mean what happens with us now? I agree that I'm not sleeping with you unless we get married. Besides I have a baby brother. I'm definitely not having my own kids right now, or even risking them. But it sounded to me like you weren't gonna touch me at all unless I let you propose to me. So what happens now?" Sam asked him, wiggling on top of him as she spoke.

She could see Jake was fighting for control as his eyes tried to roll back from the feel of her wiggling on top of his groin. And when his hands moved to her bare thighs and rested there warmly, Sam sighed happily.

"After all, since you went and showed me that you actually bought a ring, and you've told me a few times that you want to marry me... Well I haven't actually objected. We both know it'll happen eventually. The only thing missing is you getting down on one knee and putting the ring on my finger. So except for that we're practically engaged as it is, right? Unless you intend to change your mind?" Sam said, still sitting on top of him and wiggling. She could feel the hardness of him beneath her and she loved the way Jake seemed to be fighting the urge to groan in pleasure. Especially when his hands began to slide up and down her thighs in time with her wiggling.

Instead though, Jake's husky voice asked her a serious question.

"If that's how you feel then why are you resisting the idea of letting me put the ring on your finger Samantha?"

Sam smiled down at him.

"Girl don't want to seem over-eager." She teased him "I read somewhere that nothing makes a man run faster than the idea of gettin' married even floating around in a girl's head when they've only been dating a week."

Jake stared at her, clearly stunned by her words.

"Samantha whether it was official or not, you and me have been dating our whole lives." Jake said softly. "You know me better than anyone else in the world does."

"You want to give that reason to Gram if we were to show up at River Bend on my nineteenth birthday and announce that we were engaged? That we've been unofficially dating since the day you hung your three year old face over the bars of my crib and looked at me in wondering revulsion." Sam asked him. "Especially since Gram started worrying the day I got home from San Francisco at thirteen that when I left the house at night and went to the river, she thought I was meeting up with you and engaging in lewd acts. Bet that'd go down like medicine with a spoonful of sugar. Or maybe you want to tell your folks how you nearly ditched college to propose to a fifteen year old me and loved me ever since." Sam took a deep breath to continue but Jake interrupted

"Before." He said.

"What?"

"I loved you before I realised I wanted to propose to the fifteen year old version of you." Jake told her.

Sam stared at him in shock. He couldn't be serious could he? Sam had worked out a few months before they got together that she liked him a whole awful lot more than just a crush. And that had been after spending weeks convincing herself that maybe it was ok to like him as more than just her best friend, even before he took her hand at the gathering they'd had a River Bend. And she had loved him a lot as her friend. But they had been dating three weeks when she'd realised she was in love with him.

"Well since when?" She asked him softly, searching his handsome face for clues.

Jake watched her for a moment, contemplating telling her the whole truth about how long he had loved her. Taking a deep breath and wishing he had his hat to hide under Jake answered her honestly. "Since the day I stood freezing in the snow with wet clothes on, hauling that blind little mustang your big heart had to save, while you took darn pictures instead of helpin'." He murmured. Sam raised her eyebrows at him wondering why. Since he was lying down Jake couldn't rub the back of his neck, but he ran his hand through his hair instead before explaining "Takes a special sort of someone to have Witch double 'em. If my monster horse could make room for you on her back, figured there was probably already a piece of your turf in my heart, my horse just had to point it out for me to realise it."

Sam felt the prickle of tears in her eyes at Jake's whispered words. Along with the surge of love in her heart so strong that it rocked Sam's world right off its axis.

He'd loved her that long. She'd still been thirteen then hadn't she? Still had that awful haircut she'd given herself. She'd only been back a few months by the time she convinced scary old Mrs. Allen to adopt fourteen unadoptable mustangs to save their lives from mean old Norman White and his numbers. Jake had been the annoying, handsome best friend who looked out for her and stuck to her better than a burr to a calf's tail, keeping his promise to God that the Phantom would never get a second chance to kill her. And he'd realised then that he loved her?

"Marry me?" She blurted to Jake without thinking.

Jake's brown eyes went wide at her words.

For just a moment he looked like he didn't believe his ears. Surely he was dreaming, Jake thought. Because in the real world Samantha Forster wouldn't be straddling him, half naked in a motel room and proposing to him. In the real world, she would shout at him for even thinking that being engaged at nineteen was something she would do. Sam looked slightly shocked at her request, but after a moment she smiled widely.

Sam squeaked when Jake flipped them. Before she could register what was going on, she was on her back with Jake's face hovering above hers, his body resting between her legs and pressing down on her deliciously. And for the first time in her life Sam didn't mind at all that Jake Ely had her pinned beneath him.

"You would, wouldn't you?" Jake growled at her angrily "When it's me trying to convince you and do the askin' you're ready to bolt. But then you'll turn right around- half naked, mind you- and ask me to marry you?"

Sam chuckled at his grumbling.

"You wouldn't love me any other way Jacob." She told him before reaching up and sliding her hands into his black hair on both sides of his face so she could pull him down and kiss his soft lips.

She really meant it. She wanted to marry him with all her heart and soul. She thought she wasn't ready when he'd suggested it last week and told her about the ring. She'd panicked at the idea of being married before her twenty-first birthday. And then there were all those reasons she'd given Jen and that Jen had listed for not getting married now. But as Sam felt Jake lean into their kiss, even while he smiled Sam realised she'd been wrong. About everything.

Yes she was young, far too young for kids, but they didn't have to rush into having kids. And she wasn't like Jen. Sam had no aspirations to set up her own veterinary practice, she didn't have a college degree to finish in another state. Sam had the life she wanted. A life where she spent her days working with horses and working on the ranch and sometimes working for the BLM, other times freelancing- when the mood to write an article struck her- and when she wasn't doing all of those things she went to classes at the community college here in Reno. She was home to watch her brothers grow up and to see Dad and Brynna and Gram every day. She had no dreams of moving away from River Bend to some place where she might someday get a phone call to say that the worst had happened.

The life Sam had was more than enough for her and she had no intention of changing it. She was in love with the man who been her best friend her whole life and by some miracle he loved her back. All those reason she'd given Jen for not getting married now weren't reasons that applied to her own life. They were only reasons that applied to Jen, and even then some of them didn't strictly apply, they were just mentioned to ease Jen's guilt over turning down Ryan's proposal.

With Sam beneath him, Jake leant into the kiss she gave him. Sweeping his tongue against hers and moving his lips as though he could never get enough of her. Because he couldn't. Replacing the shock and disbelief at hearing her ask him to marry her, was love for her so strong that Jake wanted to keep her right there beneath him forever. She drove him crazy in every possible way. She was stubborn and strong willed and pig headed and had no regard for her own safety at all when she rushed in to defend the poor innocent creatures that needed her. Even the dangerous ones like that damned cougar that could have killed her. And when she wasn't trying to give him a heart attack or frustrating him beyond belief she had that massive heart that made her run herself ragged for the stallion that had once been her little colt. The colt that had kicked her in the head and almost killed her.

Jake groaned when he felt Sam wrap her legs around his waist and lock her ankles against the small of his back. She was trying to kill him. That was the only explanation Jake could find for her behaviour. She was trying to drive him insane with desire for her. Shoot he loved her and Jake had never felt anything so good than her pulling him down on top of her and kissing him with such passion and love that it stole his breath and had a lump of emotion forming in his throat.

Sam's eyes opened slowly when Jake pulled back from their kiss. She could feel the goofy smile on her face, and see it mirrored on Jake's.

"You mean it Sam?" Jake asked her in that deep low when he'd caught his breath. "You're not just messin' with my head?

"I mean it Jake. Marry me." Sam wore that wicked little smile "Got ya roped and hauled to the fire, now I just gotta brand and eartag ya."

Sam giggled at herself for the analogy. It was an apt description for being married to someone.

"Get my knife and take out a piece of your ear then, will I?" Jake said smirking in amusement when Sam began to hoot as she laughed at herself.

"You touch my ears with a knife Jake Ely, and I'll put a brand on your forehead." Sam told him, sticking her tongue out and trying to wiggle away from him when he gently took hold of her ear.

"Why is it" Jake began teasingly "that the one day I don't have that ring within reach, is the day you decide you finally want to accept my proposal?"

Sam snorted "Accept? Cowboy I asked you."

Jake laughed. Outright laughed at her.

"In my head, I always managed to convince you in the middle of a fight, surrounded by people. I dreamt about it the night I bought that ring. Dreamt that I got down on one knee in front of everyone we know and kept trying to swallow my tongue as I fought to get the words out to ask you proper." Jake admitted to her.

"Oh don't worry Jake, you'll get that chance." Sam told him mysteriously. "Now are you accepting my proposal or not?"

"'Course I am." He said hoarsely.

Sam beamed at him and kissed him again, wrapping her arms around his neck and tightening her legs around his waist Sam threw herself into that kiss. Her tongue danced with Jake's and she felt herself groan when Jake's body subconsciously thrust against hers. She was seeing stars as fireworks exploded behind her eyes from the raw passion sizzling through her from every point that she and Jake touched each other.

She loved him so much. And now she'd get to keep him forever. There would never be another day where she sat out on the range, staring glumly off into space and wondering if he'd ever loved her, why he left without her, how he could break her heart so badly.

Because he'd put it right back together. And in the nature of scars it was so much stronger now, so much stronger because she knew that no matter what life might throw at her in the future, she'd have Jake right there next to her, loving her through any and every hardship.

When Jake pulled back this time Sam opened her eyes slowly. Those wild mustang eyes danced inches above her and Sam could see the pure happiness in Jake's face as she whispered

"We're engaged."

Jake chuckled at the wonder and excitement and pure joy on her face and in her eyes as she whispered those words.

"Happy birthday, Brat."