Her So-Called Fiancé. Abby Gaines

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СКАЧАТЬ eyes narrowed. “You love being pampered and protected by your father.”

      Jake Warrington, The Man Who Knew Too Much. He knew she’d been born with an extra dependency gene that was the perfect match for her father’s extra protectiveness gene.

      Jake had neither defect. Sabrina looked at him, at the broad shoulders that could bear the problems of a dozen chunky-thighed beauty queens, then at the uncompromising jaw that warned against leaning on him.

      She wished she’d heeded that warning five years ago.

      “I don’t love it anymore,” she said.

      “You’ve never held down a job longer than six months. How is this different from any of your other one-minute-wonder careers?” Jake leaned back precariously on his stool. “From, say, cordon bleu catering, or your burning ambition to join the police?”

      “Neither of those was right for me, but I know this is.”

      “Then there was, let me see…” He rubbed his chin. “Dog-grooming school?”

      Did he plan to catalog all the career choices she’d embraced and abandoned with equal speed? “That was over summer vacation, and I was trying to make a point to my father.”

      The point being that, unlike her sisters, she didn’t want to pursue a law degree. Her father had finally conceded the point, but his latest idea was that she should work at the family firm while she trained to be a paralegal.

      “What about your job in Congressman Smith’s office, working for world peace?” A sneer in the words. “At least that used your political science degree.”

      “My degree is in international relations.” Didn’t he remember even that much about her?

      “You mean, that Swiss guy you dated in your final year?”

      She scowled. “Funny.” But since she’d chosen international relations specifically because the course wasn’t as tough as political science, then just scraped by while her social life took off exponentially, she wasn’t on firm ground. “Congressman Smith gave me the job as a favor to Dad, so I’d have something to talk about at the Miss U.S.A. Pageant. It was only ever a part-time, short-term project, not something I wanted to make a career out of. World peace is overrated.” It had been mentioned countless times at the Miss U.S.A. Pageant, the most warlike environment she’d ever encountered.

      “And you think you can metamorphose into someone who’s serious about her work?” Jake’s stool scraped on the floor as he stood. “I can see why you’re attracted to this injury-trust idea, but admit it, Sabrina, the chances you’ll stick with it are low to zero.”

      He wouldn’t be the last person to say that. Sabrina stood, too, robbing him of the height advantage.

      “Your opinion is irrelevant,” she said. “I’m twenty-six years old, and I’ve finally found an opportunity that will let me be more than Jonah Merritt’s pampered youngest daughter, the one who had the accident.” There was a time when she’d thought Jake saw past that label, but she’d been proven wrong. “This is a fresh start for me.”

      It might have been a moment’s sympathy that softened Jake’s blue eyes, but more likely it was a trick of the light, because when he spoke, his voice was harsh. “I want a fresh start, too. Warringtons have served this state as governor for generations, until my father screwed up. I can’t wipe the slate clean unless I win this primary. If I can just do that, I’ll be a shoo-in for governor—the party will swing its full support behind me, and it hasn’t lost an election in Georgia in fifty years.”

      His hands curled into fists, as if he had to squeeze out his next words. “Please, Sabrina, help me.”

      Like her, he wanted to put the past behind him. Despite their mutual dislike, Sabrina sympathized. Don’t let him get to you. She wrapped her arms around her middle. “The days when I fell over my feet in my rush to do whatever you wanted are long gone, Jake.”

      What the hell did that mean? Jake paced to the French doors, then turned to face her. “If you fell over your feet, that was your choice. I didn’t ask you to.” He couldn’t suppress his outrage, even though logic told him to stay calm. Back when they were dating, he’d indeed known she would do anything for him, and been careful to ask for nothing. Until the bribe. And look how well that had turned out.

      “You didn’t have to ask. I did whatever it took to please you. But I’m stronger now, stronger than you or anyone knows.”

      The disconnect between what she was saying and her appearance couldn’t have been greater, Jake thought. Sabrina might not be as skinny as some of her rivals at Miss U.S.A., but there was something about her that suggested fragility. Her wrists were slender, her fingers long and fine. She had a habit of shielding her clear blue eyes with her lashes, so that people—men—worried about her.

      Since their breakup, Jake always assumed she was hiding her laughter at the way they made idiots of themselves over her.

      The way he almost had. The only good to come out of her betrayal was that it had forced an end to a relationship that teetered on the verge of out of control but that he hadn’t quite been able to bring himself to abandon.

      He hauled his mind back to the present, to Sabrina standing hands on hips in front of him. “Okay, I believe you,” he said. “You’re strong. And I accept that you’re dedicated to your new job—in fact, I admire that.”

      She didn’t relax one iota.

      “But your responsibilities for the trust don’t sound like full-time work. Surely you can help me out with the occasional interview, a couple of public appearances?”

      She was shaking her head before he finished talking.

      “Dammit, Sabrina, you’re not the one who should be holding a grudge here,” he snapped. She was famous among their friends for her generous willingness to give people the benefit of the doubt, a second chance. Why should he be the exception to the rule? Unless…

      “This isn’t about you and me, our personal relationship, is it?” He grasped her shoulders, and the contact with bare flesh, covered only by the thin straps of her dress, shocked him with the power of a lightning strike. He jerked backward, at the same moment as she wrenched herself free. Jake willed his breathing to slow down. “Are you refusing to help me because you’re still mad that I dumped you?”

      Damn, damn, damn. What was it about Sabrina that destroyed his rationality? Now he’d made her mad.

      She pressed her full lips together as she snatched her purse. “I’m leaving.”

      Jake recognized that stubbornness. The last time he’d seen it, she’d been in the hospital, not much more than a kid, fighting to recover from the accident with everything she had.

      Years later when he’d been drawn against all good sense to Sabrina the Social Butterfly, he’d concluded that her recovery must have drained the reserves of her strength, her courage. Which explained why she was content to accept, almost welcomed people’s stifling protectiveness and concern. He’d understood, sympathized…though not to the extent that he’d let her pull her helpless act on him.

      Now, he realized that teenage obstinacy had just been shelved until she needed it. СКАЧАТЬ