Pride and Passion Read online

  He’ll let her have control…until he’s ready to make his move.

  The only things Lily Harris inherits after her father’s untimely death are debt, scandal and loneliness. She doesn’t protest when her father’s business partner, Jake Tolliver, steps up to help with the mess she finds herself in—until Jake reveals the last promise he made to her father.

  Jake may be as compelling to look at as a marble statue—and stir a frighteningly powerful desire within her—but no way will Lily agree to be his socially acceptable bride while he continues to bed his string of beautiful women—not without getting him to agree to a deal of her own first.

  With a well-earned reputation as a feral hunter who goes after what he wants, Jake has his sights set on Lily, and her lack of options puts her right where he’s wanted her from the first moment he laid eyes on her.

  Jake’s not above making Lily think she’s having it her way if that’s what it’ll take to have his way in the end. But once he grows tired of playing beast to her beauty, he’s not above changing the rules of the game until they’re both playing for the same prize.

  Warning: This title contains a hero used to getting what he wants, a heroine determined not to give in to him, some indecent proposals, a fair amount of pride, and enough passion to burn up everyone’s control.

  eBooks are not transferable.

  They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

  577 Mulberry Street, Suite 1520

  Macon GA 31201

  Pride and Passion

  Copyright © 2010 by Jenna Bayley-Burke

  ISBN: 978-1-60504-952-6

  Edited by Heidi Moore

  Cover by Scott Carpenter

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: March 2010

  www.samhainpublishing.com

  Pride and Passion

  Jenna Bayley-Burke

  Dedication

  Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. Jane Austen.

  To the Busy Bee Moms—Helen, Jennifer, Kris, Naoko, Nora & Tonya.

  For helping me push through the baby brain and find myself again.

  I ask nicely, but she refuses. What does she want me to do—beg? Beauty & The Beast

  Chapter One

  Drizzle hung in the air, hovering without falling. The gray sky held back its tears just as she did. Her father’s lawyer held a black umbrella over them both, but it didn’t keep the moisture in the air from seeping into her clothes, chilling her to the bone.

  Lily Harris concentrated on breathing, not wanting to listen to the pretty words she doubted anyone meant. She was grateful for weather as bleak and melancholy as she felt. It fit. It might even keep the vultures in the press from getting a good shot.

  That’s what she’d been reduced to since her father’s death, since his tawdry secrets had spilled onto the tabloids. They wanted a picture of the poor little rich girl left alone with nothing but scandal. She didn’t want to give them the satisfaction, and yet she didn’t know how to keep it from happening. Even the people who cared enough to attend the private graveside service were probably waiting for the headline of tomorrow’s paper, waiting to gossip about how she looked and acted today.

  She took a deep breath and held her head higher. She might not be able to go without weeping at home, but here Lily was determined to exude such pride none of them would dare even hold her gaze. She glanced about the crowd, watching the tactic work on everyone. Everyone but Jake Tolliver.

  Instead of mixing with the throng, he stood to the side looking down on them all. His height gave him that advantage over people, as did his bank account. But neither could buy him the social grace necessary to know to look away. He held her stare, but not with tender sympathy. Jake’s gaze was filled with nothing but mocking coldness.

  His dark eyes stormed as he watched her, his chiseled face immobile. The man was beautiful to look at. Like a marble statue, he was gorgeous but chilling to the touch. If he thought she’d break now, he’d never get the satisfaction. Lily would not look away. She couldn’t show the fear that seeped into her whenever she felt his heavy stare on her.

  The minister appeared in front of her, breaking the connection. His words rang empty, everything did. Each word seemed veiled with morbid curiosity of how a world so tightly woven could unravel so quickly and completely. There was nothing left of the life she knew. Everything would have to be sold to clear the debts, and even that might not be enough.

  “If there is anything you need, Lily, even just to talk…” The kind expression on the minister’s face almost jostled her stoicism. It might have if she’d met him before today.

  “Lily will be well taken care of. I’m sure you can understand her need for privacy.” A deep masculine timbre vibrated through her, but Lily refused to turn her head and look at Jake Tolliver. She might make a spectacle by demanding to know what gave him the right to speak for her. Jake’s hand was firm on her elbow, turning her from beneath the relative safety of the umbrella. With him so close, vulnerability crested within her like a wave, not breaking until she couldn’t return to her father’s gravesite without making a scene. Shaking off his firm hand would have the same effect, and he knew it.

  “It’s time to go.” Jake kept walking, which propelled her forward. The drizzle in the air prickled at her face, leached into her lungs.

  “Not yet,” she managed to whisper, casting her glance back to where workers had stepped in, covering the still-open grave with a tarp. It still seemed so undone, so unreal.

  “He wouldn’t want you to stay, Lily. Not to watch this, to be watched.” His body and determination dominated her, kept her feet moving though everything in her wanted to remain.

  “As if you would know.” She laced her voice with venom but kept her face calm. “You have no idea how this feels. I doubt you’ve felt anything in your entire life.”

  “I have broad shoulders, Lily.” His voice was colder than ice and his fingers tightened on her arm. “Go ahead and take it all out on me. But for your own sake, wait until we are in the car. These people are watching you, and the press is waiting at the gate.”

  She pursed her lips into a firm line, hating that he was right. Lily Harris was newsworthy now, especially if they got a picture of her mid-fit. A few weeks ago being in the paper meant she’d attended a charity event, and now it symbolized how low her father had sunk before his death. What a legacy to have been left.

  Jake walked her over the marshy grass of the cemetery to where rows of black cars waited. With a wave of his hand he dismissed the car she’d arrived in and its driver. Before she could ask what he was about, he opened the door of the only car with color in the line, a shimmering emerald green, the signature color of Tolliver Enterprises. His hand was firm at the small of her back, urging her inside. Just as the chauffer had acquiesced, so did she. No one dared defy Jake Tolliver, the cold and forceful. At least not under the watchful eye of the media.

  Jake joined her in the car and turned the key, the feral sound of power echoing in her ears. The car leaped onto the road, racing out of the gate amid flashes of light.

  Jake watched the rearview mirror carefully, speeding through the side st
reets along the route he’d planned. Every parasite knew where they were going, but he didn’t care to be followed.

  Lily sat ramrod straight in the leather seat, her blonde hair damp around her shoulders. Even now, with her world crumbling, she looked perfect. She was every inch a woman, and yet she still radiated a child-like innocence that had him doing things for her he’d never even consider for someone else. And she hated him for it.

  He tightened his grip on the steering wheel. Lily would need to get over that. He had to protect her now. The alternative wasn’t even an option.

  She took off the sunglasses shielding her eyes and folded them carefully in her lap. His glasses. She hadn’t thought to bring any, and he hadn’t wanted to risk her crying in front of the vultures who’d come to the service to pick over the carnage of William Harris. To her credit, she hadn’t shown any sign of weakness, none anyone who didn’t know her as well as he did would notice.

  “I don’t know why we are bothering with trying to keep away from the reporters. They’ll be at the house anyway.”

  “Not if we lock the gate.”

  Lily let out a long sigh. “We can’t do that. People will be coming all day to pay their respects. It’ll make a bigger fuss if we screen everyone before they come.”

  “No one is coming to the house. They’ve had enough of a show for today. Besides, you’re not up for people who claim to be your friends prying for information.”

  “That’s not the way it works, Jake.”

  “It is today. After we arrive the gate will be locked and guarded until all this dies down.” He downshifted as he entered the exclusive neighborhood. Ten houses set far back on sprawling plots of land, all held for generations. Buying one of the estates here was unheard of, they were only inherited. He’d been the first in decades to buy his way in, but he supposed this house was an inheritance of sorts. “Anyone who is truly your friend will understand, and you don’t need the rest of them.” He swung into the drive, his scowl softening at the two burly men standing in front of the gate. What the iron bars couldn’t hold back, he knew these two would be able to handle. Being in the construction industry came in handy when you needed a job done quickly and quietly.

  “It’s just not done, Jake. People will be offended.”

  “Good thing for you I’m not a slave to social niceties.” With a nod to the men, he passed through the gates, relaxing a bit when he heard them close. She was safe here, for as long as he could get her to stay put. “Your politeness and civility can’t protect you right now. Life isn’t a party, Lily. You should have learned that by now.”

  “Of course, all I know how to do is waltz like a proper lady and design a seating chart.” She stared out the window, her delicate jaw clenched so tightly he thought she might crack a tooth.

  “You have led a spoiled and sheltered life,” he agreed sardonically. “If you listen to me, you will make it through this. Your father was my friend and I’ll do anything to make sure you’re protected.”

  Lily sniffed. “Does that include from you?”

  “Do you really fear me?” he mocked. She did, he’d known it from the first time she had to shake his hand. But he was through playing beast to her beauty.

  “I don’t need protecting, and I don’t need you trying to run my life.”

  “I’m not trying, Angel. I’m doing it. It’s for your own good.” He parked the car and killed the engine.

  “You have no idea what’s good for me.”

  “Of course I don’t. What would some scholarship case from the projects know about holding on to pride?” He pulled the key from the ignition. He hated how she could do this to him, make him feel like he both needed to slay any dragon that came her way and throttle her himself. He never lost his cool, never let emotions rule his actions, but Lily Harris knew exactly which strings to pull to make him crazy. “Don’t push me right now, Lily. Never show all your cards before you know what game you are playing.”

  He climbed out of the car, slamming his door to release some of his ire. She was the most frustrating woman he’d ever known. Anyone else would be grateful. But then if she were anyone else he wouldn’t have bothered.

  If Jake were so sure she needed her privacy now, why wouldn’t he leave her alone? Lily hated the fuzzy blur of emotions that swirled about her and had for the last three weeks. Pancreatic cancer had snuck into her life so quickly, turning everything upside down and backwards until she barely knew how to stand up straight.

  Every day of those last weeks with her father she’d had to see Jake Tolliver. Though he’d been a partner in her father’s architecture firm for the last two years, she’d avoided him with the skill of a tax evader. Jake attended every party given at the house, showed up to most events she went to with her father. Even with familiarity, she’d never grown accustomed to his dangerous demeanor.

  “You’re being silly,” her father had said when she told him she didn’t trust Jake. “He is absolutely brilliant, Lily. I’ve never known someone so intelligent and talented at the same time. He works harder than three men together. Honestly, there is no one I trust more.”

  Whenever she tried to explain her aversion she was treated to another ode to Jake. She’d heard everything about him, everything he wanted people to know at least. The generous charity donations, completing jobs others deemed impossible, making deals no one could believe.

  None of it could make up for the raw power than emanated from him. Such sharp predatory focus barely contained beneath a patina of sophistication. She saw the utter ruthlessness every time she looked into his dark eyes. One day he would pounce.

  She never understood what Jake wanted with her father’s architecture firm. He had his own, one with projects spanning the globe and partnerships in every facet of the business from manufacturing to construction. He may have started at the base of the ladder, but now he had to branch out to keep growing higher.

  He’d appeared from the shadows, making her father an offer that the older man had thought was in his favor. Her father had thought himself lucky to get to work with Jake Tolliver. What a joke. The firm that had been in her family for years had become Tolliver-Harris, yet another arm of the Tolliver Enterprises empire. Now that legacy was gone, swallowed up by the yawning maw of debt just as the house was. Her father’s attorney had warned her even that might not be enough to cover all the debts and she’d likely need to earn more.

  Though she was twenty-four, holding a job had never made it to Lily’s to-do list. Her father always had somewhere he needed her to be without notice, making it difficult to keep up with her classes at the university, let alone a job. She was still working on her master’s thesis, but now that seemed terribly impractical. What she needed was a business degree and tangible skills, not a plethora of knowledge of the works of Jane Austen.

  She needed to find a way to support herself now. She’d put off trying to figure out how while her father had been ill, but now she needed to face the difficult situation head-on. Tomorrow. She’d had enough today.

  Tomorrow she would think of a way to remember her father without all the indiscretions he’d admitted to. He’d apologized profusely for the risky investments and the women, all things Lily had never realized were part of his life. She’d forgiven him everything, because really, what good would it do to blame a dying man for mistakes that were hers as well? She should have finished her degree by now. Then she might be able to find a teaching position somewhere. Or she could have chosen a more practical course of study. She’d never expected her father to take care of her forever, but she also hadn’t expected her world to blow up like an atom bomb.

  Jake’s smug attitude proved he had known it would. Maybe that’s what she’d sensed all along. He’d known about her father’s issues, probably used them to his advantage to take control of the firm. If he were truly her father’s friend he would have told her, would have helped her get her father the help he needed before things were so far gone no one could rectify the situation.
Instead, he’d lain in wait, tearing it all to pieces like a marauder.

  Lily gazed out the window of the car, her eyes growing heavy as she took in the brick façade of the home she loved. Both her parents had died within its walls, and too soon she’d have to leave her memories of them there. She prayed selling it would be enough to cover the debts. Still, she’d never get enough money to make up for what the home was worth to her.

  The car door swung open, startling her from her trance. She’d been doing that too much lately, her mind never staying clear enough for her to move forward without getting stuck in the past.

  “It’s a beautiful home, Lily. I know you love it.”

  She climbed from the car and shrugged. “I’ve known nothing else. Soon enough it will be gone too. Gone to me at least.”

  “If that’s what you want,” he said, as if she had any choice in the matter.

  Lily followed him up the stone steps, steps she’d wait on every day as a little girl for her father to come home from work. “I would keep the house if I could. There are so many good memories here.”

  “Memories live in your heart, Lily, not in a house.” He slid a key she didn’t know he had into the lock and opened the door.

  “How would you know what lives in the heart? Do you even have one?” He must not, or he wouldn’t be taunting her about the house today of all days.

  “You think I’m heartless, Angel?” He held the door open for her, a wicked grin playing on his handsome face.

  “Honestly, I never think of you at all.” Lily stepped past him, wishing he would go away. In the foyer she shrugged out of her coat and laid it on the upholstered bench she’d sat on her whole life when putting on her shoes.

  “You really wish that were true, don’t you?”

  She turned to face him, the corner of his mouth quivering as if he were trying not to laugh at her. That did it. “What I wish is for—”