Jake really felt like the bastard she accused him of being. He was definitely the lowest of the low. Who blackmailed their wife in to staying with them? Apparently he did!

He didn’t know what it was about Kaycee that bought out his worst side, but for some reason he couldn’t help himself. He wanted her to be happy but he just couldn’t see how she could be happy without him. She would realise that they belonged together. He hoped she would realise that they belonged together!

Kaycee sat in one of the rooms staring out at the sea beyond the window, she had always loved the sea, had always found it soothing. How strange that the one time she needed that calmness Jake had bought to somewhere near the sea. It was just a coincidence, she told herself but it was still a really sweet coincidence. Even from this distance she could feel the calm washing over her, telling her that everything would be fine and that she would survive this.

It was there that Jake found her, he hadn’t even had to go searching for her but had instinctively known exactly where she was. She looked so sad that it was almost his undoing and he regretted putting her in this position and yet at the same time he loved what a beautiful picture she made laying there. She was so irresistible and if they had time he would have shown her just how irresistible he found her but instead he approached cautiously not sure whether she would be upset by what he was about to tell her.

“You wanted something?” she asked and he noted the weariness in her voice, like she had given up and that tone broke something inside him.

“I just thought it might be a good idea for us to go and visit my parents,” he suggested and she nodded slowly.

“Right, of course. Because your father can’t give you his business until you show him your wife.” She acknowledged and he frowned for that had not been his intention at all.

“That’s not…” he began trying to tell her that he wasn’t bothered about the business or about the money. He just wanted his parents to meet the woman he was going to spend his life with but she beat him to it.

“It’s fine, we should go. Do I need to change?” she asked as she got slowly to her feet still with that defeated tone that made him want to shake her back to herself.

“No, you look fine. Amazing actually!” he offered and she gave a curt nod as she exited ahead of him.

“We should go then, we don’t need to keep them waiting. I’m sure they have more important things to do!” Kaycee said and he frowned at her. He highly doubted they had anything more important to do than meet the one woman who had turned his whole world upside down.

The journey was conducted in silence as Kaycee feigned sleep rather than talk to him and he worried the whole journey about how he was treating her. Was he wrong to want her to be with him? Maybe he should just let her go and hope that she came to her senses, but then what if she didn’t? It was all so confusing!

And so both of them stayed silent both in deep thought, both worrying about the future and what it held for them.

As they pulled up outside a small cottage Kaycee frowned out the window. It was a picturesque little place but not somewhere that she ever imagined the Wentworth’s would live.

“This is where your parents live?” she asked stunned and he nodded.

“Yep, all their lives. My mom loves this cottage. Don’t get her started on it, she has a million stories about the place and she can’t stop once she starts,” he warned and Kaycee gave a small smile. She didn’t know what she had been expecting but this was certainly not it.

She was even more stunned when the people who answered the door were dressed in casual clothes. Her father and stepmother would rather die than greet anyone wearing anything less than a designer label. But Jake’s parents looked so at ease in their casual clothes that it was hard to believe they were rich at all.

“Mom, dad. I want you to meet Kaycee!” Jake introduced and she smiled at each of them as she held out a hand only to be pulled in to a hug by his mother followed by his father. It was not the sort of welcome she was used to and it made Kaycee blush but with pleasure.

“It is absolutely wonderful to meet you!” his father said and Kaycee smiled shyly up at him as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear nervously.

“Do you know that Jake has never bought a girl home before! You must be special to him,” his mom said as she led Kaycee in to the house and she glanced back at Jake who was talking quietly to his dad, no doubt telling him about their wedding.

“ Never?” Kaycee asked and his mom laughed in a high tinkly voice.

“Never! We usually hear about his latest conquest through the media, very rare we actually get to meet any of his friends!” she said with a smile and Kaycee smiled back for there was something very likable about the older woman and it wasn’t just that she didn’t try to be something she wasn’t.

Kaycee had lived in the world of money since she was born and she though that she had seen them all. The goldiggers who lived to spend and who often spent the lot trying to keep their aging youth, the upper class bitches like her stepmother who lived simply to look down their noses at those less fortunate, the easily led like her sister who went where the money was and those like Jake who lived for the thrill of it all. Never before though had she ever met two people who were less like the people who belonged in her world.

Mr and Mrs Wentworth could have been anyone you would meet on the streets. Mrs Wentworth grew her own vegetables out back, Mr Wentworth loved to read and they spent most of their day wearing casual clothes and going for hikes in the countryside. Apart from the fact that Mr Wentworth owned and managed the biggest hotel chain in the world you wouldn’t even realise that they were any different from anyone else.

It simply amazed her that two billionaires could be so happy and so settled right here in this beautiful patch of countryside.

“What are you thinking?” Jake asked as he slid one arm around her waist and pulled her against him.

“I was thinking that I wish I could be this happy!” she revealed and he frowned down at her.

“Why can’t you be?” he asked confused and she shrugged lightly.

“Because I have a plan. And It doesn’t include living in a cottage somewhere!” she tried to explain but his frown said he didn’t understand at all.

“Not even with the man you love?” he asked teasingly and she shook her head.

“My plan doesn’t include a man at all. I mean it did but not really!” she told him and Jake frowned again.

“Plans can change,” he murmered against her and ear and she shivered but shook her head firmly.

“Not mine! I’ve know how I wanted my life to go since I was five years old and it is not going to change just because of one drunken mistake!” Kaycee told him firmly as much for herself as for him because it seemed she needed the reminder, she missed the hurt look on his face though as he buried his face in her shoulder and breathed deeply inhaling her natural scent of vanilla and almonds.

“You should ask my mother to show you her garden. She’s more proud of that than anything else, including me I think!” Jake told her and Kaycee laughed even as she took him up on that request and followed his mother out to the gorgeous gardens that were filled with every kind of flower imaginable while Jake and his father talked business inside.

“Wow, this smells amazing! What is it?” Kaycee asked and Jake’s mom smiled at her.

“Lilly of the Valley! It’s quite beautiful, and it’s Jake’s favourite flower too. You know I’d always hoped I’d have grandchildren by now!” she confided and Kaycee glanced at her startled.

“Jake’s not even thirty yet, I mean there’s plenty of time for grandchildren!” Kaycee offered and his mom nodded.

“I know that, I mean he’s thirty next year and there is plenty of time. But I won’t be here forever and sometimes I just despair that I will ever have a daughter-in-law or grandchildren. It may seem wrong of me but sometimes I actually wished that one of his women would accidentally become pregnant with his child,” she said sadly and Kaycee froze in dismay.

“Accidentally get pregnant?” she repeated and his mom laughed.

“I know it’s a foolish idea and would have been cruel for the poor girl, but you know these things happen and I have no doubt that Jake would be a great father, I just hope he settles down before it’s too late!” his mom said as she bent to examine some flowers while Kaycee stood frozen, stuck on the last things she had said.

“Accidentally pregnant?”

It couldn’t be possible. They had only been together three days, there was no way that she could be… could she?

She placed her hand over flat stomach and prayed though for what she wasn’t sure. She didn’t want to be pregnant, god knows this would be the worst timing ever! And yet… What if she was? The image of a tiny Jake appealed and she didn’t know if she was really hoping that she wasn’t pregnant or wishing that she was!