He took a sip of the perfectly brewed milk and coffee, staring at her over the rim. “I don’t think so, Princess. There’s no way I’m going to let you hustle me.”
She pushed out her lower lip. “You took my credit cards, so I’m going to have to try to get some cash any way I can. How can I shop in Key West if I’m flat broke?”
“How much do you think you’re going to need?”
“More than I have on me. And I could get a lot more if I had access to an ATM.”
Attractive lines fanned out around his dark eyes when Jacob smiled. “Do you actually believe I’m going to give you back your credit cards?”
“You can’t blame me for trying. You can call Diego and tell him to send Henri down with some cash.”
“No.”
“I may as well be broke.”
“You’re hardly broke, Ana.”
“I feel broke.”
Jacob ruffled her curly hair. “Usted chica rica, pequeña y pobre.”
Ana swatted his hand. She resented the fact that he’d called her a poor little rich girl. “Does it bother you that I have more money than you do?”
He shook his head. “Not in the least. If I was concerned about becoming wealthy I never would’ve become a cop.”
Ana sobered. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound condescending and I’m not begrudging you for what you do, because I doubt if I could ever make it in law enforcement. My older brother’s wife is an ex-DEA agent. She said there were times when she was so deep undercover that she actually identified with the people she’d been entrusted to bring down. Summer told me there was a drug dealer who had so much money stashed in a safe house that it was incalculable. She claimed it took two people three days, using a counting machine, to add up the money he’d made from selling two hundred kilos of nearly pure cocaine in a single month.”
“I’m familiar with a few of those maggots.”
“Just what do you do?” Ana asked Jacob between sips of coffee.
“As an assistant director I oversee staff that supervises the U.S. Marshal Service at four Miami federal detention centers.”
“That’s a lot of responsibility.”
Jacob nodded. “It is, but it’s a lot less dangerous than chasing down bad guys.”
“I always thought of directors as older men with receding hairlines and beer guts.”
“Shame on you, Princess. I never figured you’d be into stereotypes. We only look like that after retirement,” he added, chuckling softly.
She rolled her eyes at him. “You’re too vain to let yourself go.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Didn’t you say you work out?”
“I work out to relieve stress. I could always do sit-ups and push-ups at home, but I go to the gym because it has a lap pool.”
“There’s a pool and health club in the building where I live.”
“Now that’s convenient.”
Jacob didn’t know if Ana was boasting that by virtue of her wealth she could have anything within reason. She sent out her laundry, didn’t clean her house and had her dry cleaning and groceries delivered. He didn’t have unlimited funds at his disposal, but at least he could go to sleep at night knowing he earned his salary from doing an honest day’s work.
He’d grown up with kids who wanted to make fast money and a few of them were either in jail or in the cemetery. Perhaps if Stephen Jacob Jones hadn’t put the fear of God in him that if he did mess up he would make certain to dispense his own brand of justice before turning him over to the proper authorities that kept him on the right road.
He set his cup on a side table. “Don’t worry about money. I’ll pay for whatever you want when we go shopping.”
Ana leaned closer to Jacob in order to share his body heat. The air-conditioning in the room was much cooler than her bedroom. “I’ll repay you once this craziness is concluded.”
“Ana, Ana, Ana,” he intoned. “Let’s not talk about money anymore.”
“But—”
“¡Bastante! No más.”
“Excuse me,” she drawled facetiously.
“You are excused, sweetheart. Now, can we please talk about something else?”
She wanted to get up and leave, but didn’t want Jacob to think she was the type to pout or run away. He just didn’t know how independent she actually was. Even as a child she’d always wanted to do things on her own terms. Her favorite childhood catchphrase was “I can do it by myself.” Her mother only had to show her once how to tie her shoes before she’d attempted it herself and got it right. It was the same with learning to swim or ride a bike. Wherein her brothers and sister took swimming lessons Ana decided to jump in and started swimming. Her parents may have thought she was gifted, but the reality was she’d watched and mimicked her older siblings. She’d learned to play the piano and a few other instruments. Fortunately for Ana she did inherit her father’s gift for recognizing exceptional musical talent. What she didn’t have, unlike Gabriel and Jason, was the gift for composing music.
“How many CDs do you have?” she asked.
“Probably close to 800.” Jacob pushed off the sofa, walking to the jukebox and punching several buttons before he returned to sit beside Ana, pulling her feet to rest on his thigh. “Your toes are cold.”
“That’s because it’s cold in here.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
Ana flashed a sexy moue. “It’s cold in here, Jacob.”
“I’ve programmed the thermostat, but I can always make it warmer for you.”
“That’s okay. It’s time I go back to bed.”
Jacob increased his hold on her feet. “Don’t go. Not yet.”
She went completely still. “What are you going to do?” Ana didn’t have time to react when she found herself scooped off the sofa as Jacob carried her across the room to a door that led into a space no larger than a dorm room. A queen-size bed took up most of the space. “What are you doing?”
Jacob placed Ana on the bed and covered her with a sheet and blanket. “I’m going to keep you warm while we talk and listen to music.”
“Wait!” Her protest came too late when he turned on his heels and walked out of the bedroom. She didn’t want to believe she was in the bed of a man she hadn’t known twenty-four hours; a man who’d promised to protect her from someone who wanted her dead. But who, she mused, was going to save her from him?
Sitting up, she pressed her back to the mound of pillows piled against a brown cordovan leather headboard. The music from the jukebox flowed into the room from speakers concealed in the ceiling. Closing her eyes, Ana felt as if she was in Brazil. The musical selection was a fusion of samba and jazz. Her eyes opened when Jacob returned and touched the dimmer switch on the wall and crawled into bed with her.
“I thought we weren’t going to sleep together.”
He pressed a kiss to her hair. “What we are doing is sharing a bed. That’s different from sleeping together.”
“Same difference,” she drawled.
Wrapping his arms around her shoulders, Jacob pulled her close to his chest. “Warmer?”
Ana smiled. “A little, but my feet are still cold.”
“Do you want a pair of socks?”
“I wouldn’t need a pair of socks if I was in my own bed.”
“Put your feet between my legs. Is that better?” Jacob asked after he’d sandwiched her feet with his legs.
Ana tried making out his expression in the dim light. “Yes. Thank you.” A beat passed. “I like the selection. It reminds me of Brazil.”
Jacob rested his chin on the top of her head. “I see you recognize bossa.”
“It’s very distinctive.”
He shifted into a more comfortable position when Ana rested her head on his shoulder. “That’s a country I would like to visit.”
“You could if you decide to come with me to Salvador da Bahia.”
“Is that where your cousin lives?”
&
nbsp; “Sí. She and her husband own a coffee plantation in the mountains. It’s beautiful and primordial. I went there for Carnivale and partied so hard that I needed a vacation when I came back to the States.”
Jacob played with the short curls clinging to Ana’s scalp. “Do you want me to call Diego and tell him you want to go there?”
“No,” Ana said much too quickly. “Even though I love Regina to death, there wouldn’t be much for me to do there by myself. And I doubt that at fifty-something and a grandmother that she’d want to hang out at night.”
“What does her husband do?”
“Aaron’s a pediatric microbiologist. He was born in the States, but raised in Brazil. He inherited the plantation from his aunt. It sounds kinky, but Regina was married to Aaron’s father first. Theirs was a marriage in name only because she was nineteen and he was close to seventy.”
“Damn! Talk about robbing the nursery.”
Ana gave Jacob a playful tap on his shoulder. “It wasn’t like that.”
“Your family must have a lot of drama.”
Smiling, she closed her eyes. “You just don’t know the half of it. The Coles put the d in drama. It began with my grandfather cheating on my grandmother with his young secretary, and it was rumored that she’d set out to seduce him. When she discovered she was carrying his baby his chief financial officer offered to marry her and pass the baby off as his. It got real grimy when Teresa confronted my abuela, who was also pregnant at the time, boasting that both were carrying the same man’s baby.”
“That’s drama taken to the ninth degree,” Jacob drawled.
“You’ve got that right. That single act nearly destroyed my family. My grandparents were estranged for years even though they lived under the same roof. After they reconciled my father was born.”
“I’ve heard that make-up sex is the best.”
“You’ve heard or you know for a fact?”
“Sorry, baby, but I’m going to plead the Fifth. By the way, whatever happened to your father’s half brother?”
“Joshua had remained the Coles’ best kept secret until he turned seventeen. His mother approached my grandfather for the first time because she needed his help getting Uncle Josh into West Point. That’s when my father, uncle and aunts discovered they had a half brother. Daddy said it wasn’t easy for Joshua, because everyone blamed his mother for the affair when Abuelo was just as guilty. After all, he was a married man. Josh was about thirty before he was totally accepted as a Cole.”
“That sounds a little pretentious, don’t you think?”
“Of course,” Ana agreed. “But you have to remember it was another generation. Nowadays it doesn’t matter whether you’re so-called illegitimate or adopted, if you claimed one drop of Cole blood or the surname on your birth certificate says Cole, then you’re one of us.”
“Where does that put me on the family-tree schematic?” Jacob asked.
“As a godfather you’re an unofficial Cole. Matthew Sterling was an unofficial Cole even before we knew that his stepson had married my first cousin. Abuelo named him in his will, along with his daughter and stepson. I know you don’t want to talk about money, but if that’s the only way we can show our appreciation then that’s what we do.”
“What if I want something other than money?”
Her eyes grew wider. “What would that be?” she asked after a pregnant silence.
“Maybe a kiss. Or even a hug before I take you back to your bed.”
Another pause ensued. “Is that all you want?”
Jacob chuckled under his breath. “I can assure you that I can come up with something else, but I don’t want you to get the wrong impression.”
“And that is?”
“Take advantage of you.”
It was Ana’s turn to laugh. “No, you...” Her words trailed off when without warning she found herself on her back and Jacob straddling her.
Lowering his head, he fastened his mouth to the column of her neck, breathing a kiss there. “Thank you,” he said in her ear.
A shiver of awareness eddied throughout her body when the heat from Jacob’s body seeped into hers, and Ana was certain he could feel her trembling. It wasn’t fear that had her heart racing but the sudden rush of desire heating her blood. His nearness was overwhelming as dormant feelings were aroused too, reminding her of how long it had been since a man had made love to her.
“Jacob.”
“It’s okay, Princess. Nothing’s going to happen.” He rolled off her body and the bed. Resting his hands at his waist, he watched as she slipped off the bed. His steady gaze bore into her. “Shall I walk you to your bedroom?”
Ana combed her fingers through her hair. She hadn’t wanted to believe she’d spent the past twenty minutes in bed, wearing nothing more than a nightgown and bikini panties, with a man who disturbed her in every way. “I think I can find my way, thank you. Good night.”
“Actually it’s good morning.”
She offered him a dimpled smile. “Good morning, Jacob.”
He executed a mock bow. “Good morning, Princess.”
Ana brushed past him, her skin tingling when it touched Jacob’s arm. There was a maddening arrogance about her protector but there was also something maddeningly charming about a man who made her more than aware of why she’d been born female.
Careful, girl, or you’ll find yourself in over your head. It was as if she could hear Sam’s voice cautioning her about Jacob. And it wouldn’t be the first time her friend had warned her about getting involved with a man.
She wanted to tell the voice in her head not to worry only because she doubted whether she would live with Jacob long enough to become emotionally involved with her protector.
Chapter 6
Ana woke feeling more tired than she did when she’d finally drifted off to the sleep. Rolling over, she peered at the clock on the bedside table; she’d slept away most of the morning. She closed her eyes again, trying to sort out her thoughts. Her mind was in tumult from a disturbing nightmare of someone chasing her. She wasn’t certain whether it was a man or a woman because she couldn’t see their face. Somehow she’d managed to escape her pursuer. Believing she was safe she’d turned a corner only to find a lurking dark-robed figure with a macabre grin waiting for her approach. She’d awakened in a cold sweat, shaking uncontrollably, while biting down on her fist to keep from crying aloud and possibly waking Jacob.
Ana remembered sitting up and resting her forehead on her knees, while waiting in the darkened room until fatigue claimed her enough to fall asleep again. The dreams returned; however, this time they were different. The erotic images of her in bed with a man, writhing under his kisses and caresses, his warm, moist breath in her ear and his hardness sliding in and out of her body had left her moaning, the area between her legs wet and pulsing, and her glorying in the aftermath of a long-forgotten orgasm.
Exhaling audibly Ana realized her body wasn’t as tired as her overactive imagination. What she’d found puzzling was that she rarely dreamed or if she did then she hardly ever remembered them. But the nightmare and the erotic dream that followed were burned like a brand into her brain.
It was nearly eleven and she knew it was time for her to get out of bed. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d slept so late. Even when she didn’t have to go into the office she was up and working out at the health club. Her friends who’d dubbed themselves The Wild Bunch always complained about her getting up with the chickens after they’d partied well into the early-morning hours. What they hadn’t understood was the internal alarm clock that went off whenever the sky brightened with daylight. The exception had been today. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she walked in the direction of the en suite bath.
Half an hour later Ana walked into the kitchen to find a note pinned to a corkboard. She read Jacob’s barely legible scrawl: Taking Baron to Miami. Will return for dinner.
Ana smiled. That meant she would have the house to herself for se
veral hours. Opening the refrigerator, she found the container with the ingredients for an omelet. She removed it along with two large eggs, butter and a loaf of wheat bread. Jacob kept a well-stocked refrigerator and freezer. There was another container, this one with marinating chicken. Most of the men she’d dated were so inept in the kitchen they had restaurants on speed dial. Then there was one guy she
really liked who’d invited her to his home. Her liking quickly turned to revulsion when greeted with the clutter of take-out containers, pizza boxes and piles of dirty laundry scattered about the floor or tossed onto chairs. The “excuse the mess” was something she refused to excuse. And what she didn’t understand was he could afford to hire a cleaning service, but hadn’t deemed it a priority. When she’d asked if he ever cleaned his place his comeback was his girlfriends would pick up after him. Needless to say she never became his girlfriend.
The house appeared unnaturally quiet without Jacob or Baron around and Ana chided herself for not getting up earlier to see them off. Her gaze drifted to the wall phone, contemplating whether she should call Jason and tell him about her nightmare, then thought better of it. If Jason had believed her in imminent danger he would contact Diego, who in turn would call Jacob.
Somehow Ana managed to push the frightening images of the nightmare to the furthest recesses of her mind when she went through the motions of preparing what had become brunch. She ate her meal at the table in the kitchen, while thumbing through the current issue of Time magazine. If Jacob hadn’t activated the alarm she would’ve taken her meal outdoors. After two cups of coffee, she cleaned up the kitchen, then made her way to the family room to watch television. Luckily she found a romantic comedy she hadn’t seen and within minutes of the opening credits she found herself laughing so hard she had to raise the volume in order to hear the dialogue.
* * *
Jacob maneuvered into the driveway leading to Brian Murphy’s modest home in an upper-middle-class gated Miami suburb. Brian had called him earlier to tell him that he’d returned from his fishing trip and would drive down later that afternoon to pick up his dog.
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