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Ch5:Women Rule & Men Serve

Leah stood with her back pressed against the door as the sound of the truck's engine faded in the distance. Her knees were shaking so hard she found it difficult to keep her balance.

She had pretended not to be affected by Jacob's lovemaking when what she had wanted was to mate with him—on the hood of a vehicle and out in the open where anyone could see them.

Sliding down to the floor, Leah pulled her knees to her chest and lowered her head. If she had followed her therapist's advice, she knew she wouldn't be going through the emotional turmoil that made her do and say things that made her question her sanity.

But, she hadn't been completely honest with the therapist or herself—until now. she had told the psychiatrist about she had believed she had died, but her colleagues had brought her back to life, how the nightmares kept her awake at night and that she sat up until sunrise before attempting to go back to sleep.

A wry smile twisted her mouth at the same time a single tear trickled down her cheek. What Leah hadn't disclosed to her therapist or anyone else was that she had blamed herself for Sam's death. He hadn't been scheduled to work that day, but he had switched shifts with another doctor because he had wanted to talk to her about her pronouncement that although she wasn't ending their engagement, she'd moved out because she needed to put some space between them.

She and Sam hadn't set a date, and his constant haranguing that he didn't want to wait until he was fifty to father a child had begun to annoy Leah. Whenever she reminded him of their commitment to opening the free clinic, he would drop the topic for several weeks and then bring it up again.

Yet that last time, Sam had done something that was totally out of character for him. He had begun crying. It was the tears and the pleading that made her agree to meet him when her shift ended. What she hadn't expected was for him to work the E.R. on his day off.

Leah had mentally beaten herself up over and over. The 'what ifs' had attacked her relentlessly. What if she hadn't dated a man ten years older than she and too controlling? What if she hadn't agreed to move in with him when she had her own apartment? What if she hadn't agreed to marry him when all of her instincts told her he was so wrong for her free-spirit personality?

She knew her parents weren't happy when she had moved in with Sam, but she was an adult and there wasn't much they could say. It hadn't been the same with her brothers. Both Brady and Seth complained about her shacking up with a man when she could afford to live on her own. Leah eventually resolved the problem when she purchased her cousin's oceanfront mansion.

Buying the property signaled a turning point in her relationship with Sam. He had become more controlling and at time had been down-right mean spirited. Living apart from her fiancé gave her the opportunity to see another side of the man with who she'd pledged her future. She had loved Sam, but she hadn't been in love with him.

Now, there was her dilemma with Jacob Black. The powerfully built personal bodyguard was a constant reminder of what she'd never had and what she had been missing in her life—passion.

Swiping at her tears with her fingertips while pushing to her feet, Leah knew wallowing in self-pity wasn't going to solve any of her problems. She knew it would take time for her to come to terms with her feelings of guilt, but she didn't have a lot of time when it came to Jacob Black. He was going to spend the summer in the mountains, and that meant they would be seeing each other because of their promise to share Terry.

Will it make you feel better if I take a lover for the summer to keep me company?

The question Leah had asked her brother came back in vivid clarity. She knew it wouldn't make Brady feel better, but she knew unequivocally it would make her feel much, much better than she did now.

Thinking about Jacob reminded her that she had to call the local butcher to order a boneless pork loin for her cook off challenge. Her sorority sister had turned her on to Southern cooking and her grandmother had helped her to perfect the dishes that had been passed down through countless generations.

Retreating to the bathroom off the kitchen, Leah washed her face, touched up her makeup and took the pins out of her hair. using a brush, she fluffed up her curls, then left to drive into town to buy what she needed to put together an authentic dish that was certain to tantalize the most discerning palate.

Leah woke to the sound of rain tapping rhythmically against the windows. Moaning softly, she turned her face into the pillow in an attempt to go back to sleep, but popped up when she remembered that Jacob was coming over.

He had said he was going to cook his pork on a grill. That wasn't going to be possible because there was no way he could grill in the rain.

"Yes!" she whispered.

He would be forced to forfeit the challenge because of a rainout. Meanwhile, she only needed the oven in which to roast her pork dish.

Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, Leah walked into the en suite bath and filled the garden tub with warm water before adding a generous amount of perfumed bath salts. The night before she had made a marinade for the boneless pork loin the butcher had trimmed and tied together as per her instructions. The aroma from the garlic and dried oregano she had ground into paste had permeated the kitchen. She had rubbed the paste into the meat she'd scored with the tip of the knife, then added salt and pepper. A marinade of fresh lime, orange juice and a dry red wine was poured over it, and then she covered the pan with plastic wrap. Leah had refrigerated the meat, turning it every couple of hours so it could meld with the spices.

A clock on the bathroom fireplace mantel chimed eight times. Reaching for a bath sponge, Leah squeezed a generous dollop of scented body wash on to the sponge and began washing her body. Jacob said he would come at ten, and she wanted to complete all her tasks beforehand.

Dressed in jeans, a long sleeved pullover and running shoes, Leah cleaned up the bathroom, made her bed and had positioned a number of lemon scented votive candles throughout the first floor to offset the lingering smell of the marinade, chiding herself for not using the exhaust fan the night before. When she had taken the pork out of the refrigerator and uncovered it, the mouth-watering aromas wafted throughout the kitchen like a release of compressed air.

She had slipped a single cup disk into the coffeemaker when her cell phone and doorbell rang simultaneously. Reaching for her cell phone, she punched the talk button as she walked to the door. "Hello."

"Hello, Leah. This is your mother."

She smiled. It wasn't often that Sue Clearwater called. Her mother expected her children to call her on a regular basis, not the other way around.

"How are you mom?" she asked.

"That's what I should be asking you. Didn't you promise to call me once you got to that godforsaken place where if someone attacked you no one could hear you scream, let alone find you for months?"

Peering through the security eye, Leah saw the distorted image of Jacob staring at her. She unlocked the door, covering the phone with her free hand and mouthed, "Come in." to Jacob. Then she moved her hand to speak to her mother again. "Sorry."

"How are you doing?" Sue's voice was gentle.

"I'm doing well mom."

"Are you eating?"

Leah closed and locked the door behind Jacob, her gaze lingering on his back when he walked past her. He had paused to wipe his shoes on the mat she had put down to absorb dirt and moisture.

"Yes, mom I'm making roast pork." Leah rolled her eyes with a small smile on her face.

"Don't forget the secret ingredient."

Leah's smile was dazzling. "Thank you for reminding me."

Sue's chuckled came through the earpiece. "What's roast pork without a potent Clearwater secret ingredient?"

"You're right mom." Her mother had just given her the piece de resistance to win the pork challenge.

"I didn't want to keep you on the phone all day. But, I do want you to call me to let me know you're okay. After all, you are my only daughter and I love you Leah."

"I know." Leah said softly. "And I love you too. I'll call you next week."

She ended the call and then turned to find Jacob. He was standing a few feet away. Why, she thought, hadn't she heard his approach? He hadn't shaved and the stubble shadowing his jaw made him appear dangerous. He was dressed entirely in black—baseball cap, jeans and cotton pullover and a pair of black vans.

"Please don't sneak up on me like that."

"I'm sorry, but I didn't want to disturb your telephone conversation. I have to go back to the truck to get the wood chips and a few other things."

Leah rested her hands at her waist. "How are you going to grill in the rain, Jacob?"

He flashed a white tooth grin. "I'm not. You have a double oven, so you can use one and I'll use the other." Taking a step, he lowered his head and brushed his mouth over hers. "I know what you were thinking, beautiful. You thought I was going to have to forfeit because of the weather. Think again, because yours truly is a pork meister and neither rain, sleet nor snow will keep me from making the best style barbeque pulled pork sandwiches this side of the continent."

Inhaling his mint-scented, moist breath, Leah pressed her mouth to his, "Is there a difference between your pulled pork and everyone else's?"

Jacob went completely still. He knew if he touched Leah, that he would forget his promise not to do anything she hadn't wanted to do. Kissing her the day before had conjured up salacious thoughts that had kept him from a restful night's sleep. Each time he drifted off to sleep he woke up with an erection that made him feel as if he were coming out of his skin. Rolling over and sleeping on his belly only served as a temporary respite. He knew his craving for Leah wouldn't be assuaged until they made love.

"There's a big difference. Along the coast the sauce is a basic vinegar and red pepper, while mine you'll just have to taste to find out."

Peering up at Jacob through her lashes, Leah tried to quell the shivers making it virtually impossible for her to draw a normal breath. The heat from his body, the potent scent of his cologne had ensnared her in a sensual web of longing that made her want to beg him to make love to her.

"So which sauce are you going to make?"

Jacob stared at the rapidly beating pulse in Leah's throat. He knew what she was feeling because he was experiencing the same— a sexual tension that bordered on hysteria. He exhaled an audible breath. His first mistake had been to approach her at the supermarket, the second was bringing the injured dog to her home and the third and final mistake was issuing a challenge in which he was certain he would get to see her again.

"Both. That way you can tell me my version is the best of course." Jacob grinned.

Leah lowered her hands. "Someone is ultra cocky. But I just thought of something. Don't we need a third party to judge whose pork is better?"

"No, I'll let you know if your pork is better than mine."

She flashed a sensual pout. "How can you be certain I'll be impartial?"

A hint of a smile played at the corners of his mouth. "You're a doctor Leah."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Every doctor I've ever met I found to be very ethical. You're probably no different." Jacob winked at her. "I'll be right back."

"Have you had breakfast?" she asked as he headed for the door.

"No."

"It's going to be a while before we can sit down to our pork fest so I'll see what I can come up with to tide us over."

"I like pancakes and waffles." Jacob said before opening the door and walking out into the rain.

Leah wondered if he had remembered seeing a box of pancake mix in her shopping cart the day they had met in the supermarket, or he's assumed she would have some on hand. She also liked pancakes and waffles, but instead of slathering them with butter and syrup she preferred topping them with fresh fruit in their own juices.

She had returned to the kitchen and gathered what she needed to prepare breakfast by the time Jacob walked in, setting a large box filled with a variety of foodstuffs on the floor. He had removed his shoes.

Staring mutely, she saw a package of hamburger burns, a jar of dill pickles, bottles of spices, ketchup, honey, vinegar and a large bag of wood chips.

Jacob saw the direction of her stunned gaze. "This is for real, Clearwater."

"I suppose I'm really going to have to bring my A game Black."

"Bring it or go home baby," he taunted.

Crossing her arms under her breasts, she angled her head. "Oh, it's like that?"

Jacob assumed a similar pose. "It's like that. And I'm not going to soften the blow because you're a girl."

"What if I resort to tears?"

"Forget it baby girl."

"What if I…" her words trailed off when Leah realized what she was about to propose.

"What if you what?" Jacob asked.

"Forget it."

He dropped his arms. "Oh, no sweetheart. You have to finish what you started to say." Leah compressed her lips tightly, dimples deepening in her flawless cheeks. Smiling, Jacob raised his eyebrows as realization dawned. "I will concede right now if you'll allow me to seduce you."

Leah's jaw dropped. He had read her mind. "That's not fair!"

"Why isn't it fair, Leah?"

"I win and you get the spoils." She frowned.

"No, baby. We would both win, because I'd make certain you would enjoy making love to me as I would enjoy making love with you."

Her eyebrows lifted. "So, it would be a win-win competition."

"I'd like to believe it would be."

Pulling back her shoulders, Leah felt emotionally stronger than she had in a very long time. She was no longer the little girl who had to fight to prove her worth in a family where males dominated. She had come to terms with being labeled a nerd because she preferred studying to hanging out with the boys who had shown in her.

She was beyond the taunting of the girls at her college when they had discovered she sent her laundry out instead of doing it herself. And she had realized her life-long dream to become a doctor the day she walked across the stage to receive her medical degree.

It had taken a kiss from a man—the one standing in her kitchen—to shock her into an awareness that she had accepted less than she'd expected or deserved from a man she'd planned to spend her life with.

"I know it's going to happen," Leah said in a quiet voice. "When or where is something I don't think either of us can answer right now."

Jacob ran his fingers through the soft waves framing her face. "We've got time."

Leah rested her forehead on his shoulder. They had the summer, and when it ended she knew she wouldn't be the same woman she had been last week, this week or even tomorrow.

Leah and Jacob worked side by side in the kitchen as if they had choreographed their movements. She felt like an actor in a film production where food had become a character. She thought of movies like Woman on Top, Like Water for Chocolate, tortilla Soup, Soul Food and her personal favorite—What's Cooking?

She sliced up peaches, honeydew and cantaloupe for a fruit cup and pureed berries in a food processor as toppings for the waffles, while Jacob had begun the task of filling a pan with apple infused wood chips, which he had soaked in water. Within half an hour the kitchen was filled with the aroma of seasoned pork and fruity wood. Leah estimated her roast pork loin would cook in three hours, whereas it would take almost twice that long for Jacob's

Leah was surprised that she and Jacob were bonding over food, when it had been medicine with her and Sam. Perhaps, she mused, there was some truth in the adage about not bringing one's work home. medicine was the only thing she and Sam had in common.

Light from the hanging fixture over the kitchen glinted off Jacob's black cropped hair as he sat opposite of Leah, staring intently at her mouth whenever she opened it to take a forkful of food. He was enthralled with her delicate grace. Everything about her exuded elegance, from the way she held her silverware to her ramrod-straight posture.

He drained a goblet of chilled freshly squeezed orange juice. "Where did you learn to cook like this?" The buttermilk waffles topped with fruit were delicious.

"My college roommate taught me," Leah admitted. "Before I met her I didn't know much at all."

Jacob gave her an incredulous look. "Who cooked for you?"

"My mother employed a full time chef after she became deeply invested into the Clearwater business. It's been a bone of contention between her and my grandmother for years."

Leah entertained Jacob with stories of the pranks she had played on her parents, with the assistance of several of her cousins, how she had come of age while in college and the physical and mental sacrifice she had endured to become a physician.

She gave Jacob a dimpled smile. "There you have it. The life and times of Leah Clearwater."

"Were you named after someone famous?"

"No," Leah shook her head. "Why?"

Jacob winked her, "Just curious."

Some sixth sense told Leah it wasn't him just being curious, that Jacob Black wasn't what he had presented to her. He claimed to be a personal bodyguard, admitted to carrying a firearm, although he had managed to conceal it from her; he had traveled widely and was on a first name basis with wealthy people who had sworn him to secrecy.

"I don't believe you, Black." She had spoken her thought out loud.

His expression stilled, becoming impassive. "Why wouldn't you believe me, Leah? It was just a question. Now if I told you that I liked you the way a man likes a woman would you believe me?"

There was an open invitation in the depths of his dark eyes that wrung a smile from Leah. "Yes."

"Why is that?"

"I felt how hard you got when you kissed me."

"Are you always so candid?"

"You had an erection Jacob. There aren't too many more ways to say it unless you want a clinical description."

Jacob held up a hand. "No please don't."

"Erection. Erection. Erection. Eeee-recccccccc-tion." She drawled out until Jacob covered her mouth with his held up hand. "Did I embarrass you?" she asked, teasing him after he moved his hand from her face.

"I don't embarrass easily." He countered.

Leah started laughing. "Could have fooled me." She muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"My, my, my," she crooned. "Don't tell me you're getting defensive?"

"There's nothing to defend, Leah."

"Are you going to deny my brother hired you to protect me?"

"What are you talking about?" his eyebrows raised.

"Did Brady pay you to look after me?"

A beat passed as Jacob's internal radar went into overdrive. Leah believed her brother had hired him to protect her. "You believe your brother hired me to protect you from what, Leah?"

She rolled her eyes and exhaled a breath. "Brady has been hovering over me like a mother hen since I'd agreed to testify at the trial of a gang member who had shot up the hospital where I worked."

He folded his arms over his chest. "What happened?" he asked, not confirming or denying he had come to the mountains to protect her.

Leah told Jacob everything about the shooting in shockingly vivid detail. She also revealed that she was to be the state's only witness for the young man charged with multiple counts of capital murder, manslaughter, attempted murder and depraved indifference. Although he had sustained a gunshot wound to the head, the fifteen year old, who was to be tried as an adult, had spent more than eight months in a coma. His parents wanted doctors to take him off life support but a court order overruled their request. He eventually came out of the coma and was declared fit to stand trial.

"Although I didn't see his face, I could identify him by his tattoo."

"What about his tattoo, Leah?"

"He belongs to a street gang that has the same tattoo of a dagger dripping blood on the backs of their left hands. But to differentiate one from the other, each member adds their own unique signature under the three red drops of blood."

Lowering his arms, Jacob stood up and sat down next to Leah. Lauren had given him sketchy details about the E.R. shooting. What she hadn't told him was that Leah was to become the prosecutor's lead witness.

"What was his signature tat, babe?"

A wry smile twisted her mouth. The image of the tattoo was imprinted on her brain for an eternity. "It was a snarling pit bull standing in a pool of blood."

Jacob swallowed a savage expletive. "Is there a date set for the trial to begin?"

Leah shook her head. "I was told it wouldn't happen until the end of the summer. The prosecutors want an airtight case before going to trial."

"Is the little shit out on bail?"

Despite the gravity of the conversation, Leah smiled at Jacob's reference to the young psychopath. "No. The judge set the bail so high his family would have to rob the state of Texas to come up with enough cash to bail him out."

"What makes you think I'm here at the behest of your brother to protect you, Leah?"

Turning her head, Leah met Jacob's resolute stare. "After I was released from the hospital, Brady hired a security company to guard my house 24/7. He is fearful that I'll become a victim of gang retaliation because I was able to identify one of the shooters. He sent his personal driver to drive me whenever I had to go, and he convinced my brother Seth to have me spend time at the horse farm when he knows I don't like horses."

Jacob pressed his mouth to the column of her scented neck. "I don't know either of your brothers Leah but if they feel you need protection, then I'm volunteering for the role."

"You're kidding aren't you?"

"Do I look like I'm kidding?"

Her eyes moved slowly over his face, looking for a hint of guile. "I don't know Jacob," she said after a pregnant pause. "I don't know because I don't know you."

A grin of supreme male satisfaction parted his lips. "But you will get to know me." He crooned. "You'll get to know everything you need to know."

"What if I pay you for your service?"

"No you won't," he protested. "I don't want or need your money."

"What do you want Jacob?"

Tracing the outline of her ear with his finger, Jacob replaced it with his mouth. "I want you Leah." His gaze dropped to her mouth.

She shivered from the warm breath wafting in her ear. "Are you certain you don't want me to pay you instead?"

"I'm very, very certain."

"Why won't you take money from me, Jacob?"

"Because then I'd become your employee, and I've made it a practice never to mix business with pleasure."

"Are you saying you want me to pleasure you, Mr. Black?"

Jacob was frustrated. Why, he thought, was she making it so difficult for him to get close to her? She had told him about the shooting at the E.R., but hadn't mentioned that one of the fatally injured doctors had been her fiancé, which led him to believe that she was still mourning a dead man.

"No, I'm not offering to protect you in exchange for sex."

"Are you always so ethical?" Leah threw his question from earlier back at him.

"What's it going to be Leah? Will you permit me to take care of you?"

Leah pondered his query. No man, other than her father, brothers and male cousins had ever offered to take care of her. The men in her family did it out of familial obligation because of the Clearwater dogma that the women rule and the men serve. The women were responsible for setting up and running whatever they were doing, while their men protected their families and perpetuated the family fortune.

"Yes." She said.

Cradling her face between his hands, Jacob angled his head and sealed their agreement with a tender kiss. The intense craving to sleep with Leah had eased with her acquiescence.

He was going to enjoy romancing the sexy doctor while waiting for his brother to surface.

The final part of Harry Potter was epic!

Bittersweet but I'm glad I went to see it

Even shed a tear or twenty lol :)

Chapter 6 of this story should be up later :)

Review :)