Hard as Stone(113)
Shaking her head quickly, she whispered, “That’s family business. You are not my family. I need to go home to my family. Spout whatever lies you’re gonna tell so I can get back to people that really care about me,” she demanded hoarsely.
Closing his eyes, Jacob fought the urge to take a step forward and shake the truth out of her. More had gone down in that kitchen than he’d ever imagined, and all of it was bad. It was written all over Harmony’s agonized face. And to help her deal with it, he had to know what the fuck had happened. First, though, he had to convince her that he wasn’t the bad guy. “Baby, I’m a lot of things. Some are good. Some are bad. I’m human, and I make mistakes. Sometimes, I make big ones. The one thing that I’m not is a liar. I haven’t told you things. Important things. But, I haven’t lied. I am not working with your ex-husband, and I haven’t been stalking you. I’ve been trying to protect you. Damn it, I love you, Harmony. And this is true, too. You are the only woman that has ever had those words from me. The only one, darlin’.”
“I think every stalker I’ve ever read about said that exact same thing,” she noted dispassionately, unmoved by his declaration as she stared at him with wet eyes. “Is there some kind of stalker handbook that you all read before you make your plays?”
Jacob ran a frustrated hand through his long hair. “Baby.”
“Who are you? Is your name even Jacob Stone?” she whispered painfully. “Did you even bother to give me your real name before you fucked me?”
“Jesus Christ!” Jacob exploded, throwing his hand in the air as he took an angry step toward her. “Are you listening to a fucking word I’m saying to you? Yeah, I fucked you last night, but it was a fuck of a lot more than that, Harmony, and you damn well know it. We made love. You touched me in ways I never thought existed, and I’m not just talking about my body though, darlin’, I’ll tell you straight up that I never had better from anybody. Swear to Christ Almighty, at times I thought you caressed my soul with yours. I know I felt that inner light you carry inside you shining on me. It was the warmest fuckin’ thing I’ve ever felt, bar none. That’s how close I felt to you. You’re not blind, deaf or dumb, so I know you felt it, too. So, don’t you dare relegate it to something as cold and emotionless as fucking! Don’t you fucking do it! You fucking felt it.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” she remarked tonelessly, sinking back to the iron bench and looking out over the water.
“Say you felt it, Harmony,” he demanded in response.
“What. Is. Your. Name?” Harmony bit out each word.
“Say you felt it,” Jacob countered again, his eyes going dark and smoky as they locked with hers in a silent battle of wills.
Harmony looked away first, her shoulders sagging underneath her heavy coat. “You know I did,” she whispered, her voice barely audible. “Does that get you off? Hearing me admit it?”
“No, but it does give me a little bit of hope that I haven’t completely fucked this up,” he replied, some of the tension ebbed from his body at her low admission. It wasn’t a declaration of love, but he’d take it since it was more than she’d offered him so far. Now, he’d taken, so it was his turn to give. “I’ve been a lot of people in the last twenty years. Truthfully, I’ve been whoever I needed to be to get my assignments successfully completed. That said, my birth name really is Jacob Anderson Stone. My middle name is my mother’s maiden name. Until I came to this town, nobody on earth called me Jake other than my mom. Until I heard you call me by that nickname, I’d hated it. Now I live to hear it fall off your lips,” he shared quietly, watching as she absorbed what he said.
He felt her staring at him, but he didn’t look at her. Instead, he sat down beside her and clasped his hands between his knees and forged ahead. “Most of my colleagues call me Widowmaker. I possess a certain skill set that makes the name self-explanatory.”
“Holy shit! Patience was right, wasn’t she? You’re a hitman for the Mafia! That explains all the big, scary guns at your house,” Harmony groaned, burying her face in her hands and shaking her head. “My taste in men sucks!”
“What? No!” Jacob denied quickly, reaching for one of her hands and peeling it away from her face. “I’m not in the mob, Sweetness, and there’s nothing wrong with your taste in men,” he insisted while she tried to pull her hand out of his. “Harmony, my name is Jacob Stone and I’m an operative for the Drug Enforcement Agency. More often than not, I was an undercover operative while on assignments – but I wasn’t on assignment here in Paradise. Although, I guess if I’m gonna get technical about it, I should say I’m a former operative now, or I will be once the retirement paperwork I submitted this morning is processed. The reason I have all the big, scary guns is that when you’ve done what I’ve done for the last twenty years, a man collects enemies. I have those gun to protect myself and everyone else I care about if the situation arises where I have to do that.”