Bound By Marriage(10)

"You'd better keep an eye on that one," her friend said twenty minutes  later, as they were about to dig into a shared slice of chocolate cake.

Jess followed Merri's gaze in time to see Sylvie put a hand on Gabe's  shoulder and press close to whisper in his ear. When he smiled,  something new and unexpected inside of Jess, twisted. She stabbed at the  cake with unnecessary force. "She hasn't changed a bit."                       
       
           



       

"Uh-uh." Merri swallowed a bite. "She went after Gabe like a freight  train as soon as she got back. I heard she was up at Angel most every  day before you arrived."

The chocolate cake was a dry husk in her throat. "Oh."

"But he married you, so I don't think you have anything to worry about."  Merri's grin was gleeful. "Must make Queen Sylvie want to spit."

Jess wasn't so sure she had won. Gabe and Sylvie looked very comfortable  with each other as they stood talking. Height, looks, social standing,  they were equals in all that and more. Maybe the real reason Gabe hadn't  married Sylvie was that the other woman made him feel emotions he'd  rather not have in his life. Made him feel love.

"What's Sylvie do now?" Jess asked, wondering why she cared about Gabe's  feelings for the blonde. It was hardly as if she herself loved him. But  she was beginning to understand why he'd reacted so furiously to her  jumping into Damon's arms this morning. If he'd done something similar  with Sylvie …

"I hear she's taken a year's leave from some high-powered job with an  international banking firm," Merri said, interrupting Jess's  uncomfortable thoughts. "Maybe she thought she'd return and make up with  Gabe." The other woman gasped. "Oh, Lord, she came. Did anyone tell you  what's happened?"

Jess glanced over her shoulder at the absolute worst moment. Kayla's eye  caught hers and the brunette began to walk over. Pregnancy had made  Damon's wife more beautiful, her cheeks flushed with health, her hair a  shiny mahogany that flowed down her back. But when she levered herself  into a chair facing Jess and Merri, Jess saw the new lines of strain  around her mouth.

"Hi, Jess. Mrs. C. mentioned you were back."

"Hi. Kayla." She didn't know what else to say and was waiting for Merri  to save the moment when the other woman jumped to her feet.

"Mom's calling me. Back in a tick."

Grimacing inwardly at the ill-timed summons, Jess searched for a safe  topic of conversation. But the single thing she and Kayla had in common  was the one thing they couldn't talk about. "I'm sorry," Jess finally  said, her confusion even greater than it had been this morning. Because  not only was she truly sorry for Kayla, she was angry at Damon for  creating this mess in the first place. "Gabe told me … ."

Kayla tried to smile but couldn't quite pull it off. "It's hardly a secret."

"So, how far along are you?"

"Eight months." Biting her lower lip, the brunette put a hand on her rounded abdomen. "I wanted to ask you something."

Nervous tension was a rock in Jess's stomach. "What?"

"Damon … he listens to you. Could you-?" Kayla swallowed, obviously  battling tears. "I don't even know what I want you to do. It's not as if  you can get my husband to love me again."

Unable to sit silent in the face of such anguish, Jess put a hand over Kayla's.

"I'll talk to him." An offer made from the soft heart that had already caused her so much pain.

"Th-thank you." Kayla took several deep breaths and seemed to be on the  verge of recovery when her expression suddenly clouded over.

Jess only had to look across the lawn to find the reason why. Damon had  arrived and joined in a laughing conversation with several others … until  he spied her and Kayla. His face undergoing a sea change, he left the  group to head in their direction.

"Go," Kayla whispered. "Jess, please stop him. I can't talk to him right  now. I don't want everyone to see me cry." Her voice broke.

It would have taken a harder heart than Jess's to have refused. "Okay."

She could almost feel her husband's eyes on her as she covered the  distance to Damon. That merely made her more determined. She had no  intention of reenacting this morning's mistake, but if Gabe thought she  was going to come to heel like one of the station dogs, he had another  think coming.

Then Damon threw his arms around her.

She'd had more than enough of male stupidity. "Let me go right this instant."

This little display would likely both worsen things in her own marriage  and cause Kayla considerable pain. Jess couldn't understand Damon's  behavior-the boy she'd grown up with had never been vindictive or  malicious.

He released her but she knew the damage had been done. "Can't I hug my best friend now?"

Well aware that his act had brought all eyes on them, she lowered her voice.                       
       
           



       

"Don't play games. Kayla-"

"No, Jess. I don't want to talk about her." The stubborn set of his jaw was intimately familiar.

"Why not?" she pushed. "You always told me everything." Even his joy at  first realizing he loved Kayla. "How could you do this, Damon? She's  pregnant." Seeing Kayla had made at least one thing certain in Jess's  mind-no matter what else, Damon had taken vows. He'd made promises. And  Jess believed in keeping promises.

Even if they hurt. Even if you changed your mind.

"Would it have been better if I'd stayed with her when I don't love her  anymore?" he snapped, unknowingly rejecting the principles by which she  lived her life. "I'm giving her our place and I'm going to support her  and the baby, too, so don't make me into some kind of bad guy!" His  voice dropped to a harsh whisper. "Don't be like the rest of them and  judge me without knowing the facts.

Not you too, Jess."

She thrust a hand through her hair, her mind going in a hundred  different directions. Part of her despised Damon for what he'd done, and  that was the one thing she couldn't have predicted. However, another  part of her admired him for being true to his heart. Was she really  making the better choice by remaining locked in a loveless marriage?  "But-"

"I told you I love you," he interrupted, raising a hand as if to put it  on her cheek. "I was just too stupid to realize it before."

Jess didn't know how she knew that Gabe had walked up behind her. She  was praying her instincts were wrong when a muscled arm slid around her  waist. All the blood left her face. "Gabe," she said, wanting to head  off a confrontation.

"Be quiet, Jess." The order was so low she barely caught it, but the  anger behind it made her want to shiver. "I told you to stay away from  my wife."

"It's a free country."

"Damon." Jess shook her head at the younger man. After a taut second  that threatened to end in violence, he gave a shrug and walked off to  join the Johnson girls.

"Look at me and smile." It was a command she normally would have  resisted but she had a feeling she'd already pushed Gabe to the limit.

Turning, she put a hand on his upper arm and looked up. "Whatever you think you heard, it wasn't what you thought."

He bent down to whisper in her ear and she knew it was a move calculated  to give the impression of their being a loving couple. "Yeah? I thought  I heard another man professing his love for you."

She felt her spine lock as he confirmed the worst-case scenario.

"Nothing to say?" He dropped a kiss on her cheek as he lifted his head.

"Don't-"

"We'll discuss it at home."

The night drive back to Angel was the worst of her life. Gabe didn't say  a word and she knew it would be futile to try to make him talk when  he'd decided otherwise. Even once they reached the station there was no  respite-he left her to check on something Jim had called him about  earlier.

By the time she heard him return to the master bedroom, she was a bundle  of nerves. She wanted this confrontation over with, even if that meant  she had to jump deliberately into the flames. Belting her dressing gown  tightly closed over the camisole and pajama bottoms she wore, she  knocked on the connecting door.

There was no answer but she stepped through anyway.

Gabe sat on the edge of the bed, having already removed his sweater and T-shirt.

Now, he dropped his balled-up socks to the floor and stood. "So eager to  get to bed?" Holding her gaze, he undid his belt and pulled it out of  the loops.

Her eye followed its descent to the floor. "Stop it, Gabe," she said,  nerves tingling with the awareness that her husband was in a very  dangerous mood. "You know why I'm here."