His Unexpected Marriage

Chapter Twenty-Two

She should be grateful to have him there to worry about her and their unborn children but she had been hurt too many times before to trust that his feelings didn't come with strings attached. All her life she had found herself getting hurt when people ignored her feelings and turned her heart in to mincemeat. First with her father and then with every friend or boyfriend that preferred Sarah to her. That was probably why she had always played it safe and gone for men who she knew wouldn't push for more than she could handle. It was why she had never really allowed herself to fall in love with Rob even though they had been together for so long. It was also why she didn't feel she could completely trust Jake because no matter how much he claimed to care for her putting too much faith in him left her vulnerable.

"It's wrong to want to control me," she said instead as she finished her starter with a sigh of pleasure. She was almost certain that she had never tasted something so delicious in her life.

"I do not wish to control you, Kaycee. I want us to have a real marriage but we can not have that if you keep running away from me every time things get too personal. I won't let you take my children away from me but that is no reason for us not to have a real marriage," Jake explained and Kaycee fought back tears at his words. He was right that she always ran away when things got too hard but it was something she had always done and she couldn't trust him when he couldn't even be honest with her.

"How can we have a real marriage when you won't even tell me where you were for a month?" Kaycee demanded and he gave a dejected sigh.

"I can't tell you Kaycee. I promised I would not," Jake told her and she frowned at that.

"Just tell me one thing. Did your disappearance have anything to do with Sarah?" she asked watching him carefully not wanting to miss his reaction. He looked surprised by her question, shocked even.

"It had something to do with her," he admitted and Kaycee stared at him in horror. So, it was all true? She was tempted to walk out but something stopped her, maybe it was the fact that she was carrying his twins or maybe it was because she saw something in him that she wanted to believe. Either way she found that she didn't want to believe the worst in him all of a sudden and made up her mind to confront her stepsister instead.

The rest of the meal passed without incident and Kaycee even allowed herself to be talked in to having a dessert. The meal was delicious and after the awkwardness of their earlier conversation they had both settled for light hearted discussions that touched on neither his disappearance nor hers. After the meal Kaycee insisted that he drop her off so she could visit her sister and was stunned when he agreed, only to drop her off at her apartment instead.

"Why are we at my apartment?" she asked confused and Jake frowned at her.

"You wanted to visit Sarah," he replied and Kaycee's mouth dropped open. She had said Sarah could stay a few days to get over Rob but she hadn't expected her to still be there now.

"I'll get a taxi back," Kaycee assured Jake who looked disgusted at the thought.

"Call me and I'll pick you up," he said and Kaycee laughed softly.

"I'm sure I can manage to get a taxi without getting hurt," she informed him as she went to get out the car but Jake stopped her with a small touch to his arm.

"I mean it Kaycee, call me and I'll come pick you up," he said with a warning look and Kaycee sighed as she agreed. She thought he was being a little overprotective and he even waited until she had gone in to the apartment before he left.

Kaycee was in complete shock when she opened the door and found her apartment in complete disarray. Her normally ordered apartment was a mess with women's clothes thrown all over the place, most of them hers and take-out boxes abandoned on the floor.

"What the hell?"

"Kaycee!" Sarah squealed as she appeared in the lounge wearing one of Kaycee's short dresses and killer heels.

"What the hell happened here?" Kaycee demanded staring round at the mess in horror.

"What? Oh, just a party," Sarah said indicating the empty bottles littered around and Kaycee found anger stirring. It was bad enough that her sister had stolen her ex but now not only might she be sleeping with her husband but she had also moved in to her apartment and was using all her clothes.

"Are you kidding me? What the hell are you still doing here?" Kaycee asked and Sarah hesitated as she turned her puppy dog look on her.

"You said I could stay here," Sarah said and Kaycee stared at her incredulously.

"I said you could stay here until things had died down. I didn't mean you could move in here and leave the place in a mess. And why are you wearing my clothes?" Kaycee asked.

"Well, I didn't realise there was a time limit and I didn't think you would mind me borrowing some clothes being that I'm your sister and all," Sarah said tearfully making Kaycee feel like a cow.

"I didn't come here to argue," she said trying to get the conversation back on track and Sarah lifted her head with two perfect tears trailing down her cheeks as she observed her.

"I was worried about you when you just vanished. Jake and I had no idea where you had gone or why," Sarah said and Kaycee almost laughed out loud at that.

"You and Jake? Did you see a lot of him?" she asked and Sarah gave a short laugh.

"Well of course. He's family now, why wouldn't I have seen a lot of him?" Sarah asked making Kaycee frown.

"You remember that month when Jake left? Did you see him? Because he mentioned he'd seen you," Kaycee said and Sarah looked surprised.

"He told you about that?" she asked and Kaycee frowned.

"Of course he told me, he's my husband," she replied and Sarah looked confused.

"What exactly did he tell you?" she asked carefully and Kaycee's suspicions rose.

"What should he have told me?" Kaycee asked and Sarah gave a small laugh.

"Absolutely nothing," she replied making her temper rise further.

"I'm going to ask you something and I want you to be completely honest Sarah," Kaycee said and her sister gave an awkward smile.

"Okay..."

"Are you sleeping with my husband?" she demanded and Sarah's smile faded.

"I can't believe you would accuse me of something like that," Sarah hissed and Kaycee gave a harsh laugh.

"Why? You've done it before," she pointed out and Sarah looked hurt again as she regarded her.

"You need to talk to Jake," Sarah said before she turned and stormed from the building leaving Kaycee with more questions than she had answers to. She stayed where she was for a moment staring around the messy room before turning and leaving deciding that she'd had enough shocks for one day.

Seeing a taxi across the road Kaycee began to cross when all of a sudden out of nowhere a car flew at her and Kaycee barely had time to throw herself out of harms way as it sped past missing her by barely an inch and leaving her lying in the middle of the road stunned and frightened.

The worst part of it was that although she couldn't be certain, for a split second she had thought she saw Sarah driving!