That grabbed Jackson’s attention. “Why?” He continued to watch Bailey. She was looking around, as if she expected someone to jump out and attack her.
“Robin wants to see Bailey and you. Apparently, the renewed interest from SAPD has unnerved her, and she wants to try to convince you that she’s innocent.”
“Is she?”
There was a soft knock at his door, and Jackson got up to let Bailey in. She was leaning so close to the door that she practically spilled into his arms. Jackson put his hand on her waist, to steady her.
And to touch her, too.
She seemed to need some kind of reassurance, and Jackson suddenly felt more than willing to give it to her.
“I’m not sure if Robin is innocent or not,” Evan answered. “Do you want to talk to her and ask her yourself?”
Jackson caught Bailey’s gaze. “You think it’s a good idea if we have a meeting with Robin Russo?”
Bailey’s eyes widened and she nodded. “Yes, especially if Robin can give us any information about who launched this attack.”
Jackson wasn’t sure they would get that from the woman, but since the danger could very well be linked to what happened at the maternity hospital four months ago, he didn’t think it would hurt to hear what Robin had to say.
“Bring her out to the estate. To the guesthouse,” Jackson corrected.
“But isn’t the guesthouse where Bailey is staying?” Evan questioned.
Not any more. But since Bailey didn’t know that yet, Jackson kept it to himself. “Just bring Robin and get me those DNA test results,” Jackson insisted, and he ended the call.
“Robin is coming here?” Bailey asked.
“Yes. Evan is leaving his office with her now, but I won’t bring her inside the house itself.” Of course, last time that hadn’t worked very well, since their attacker hadn’t even gotten on the grounds, and yet he’d managed to do some serious damage to both to the estate and Bailey’s and his peace of mind.
Bailey scrubbed her hands down the sides of her dress. “Well, at least the sheriff and his deputies are here in case something goes wrong.”
True. The timing was in their favor anyway. “I’ll have her searched for any weapons before she’ll be allowed through the gate,” he explained. Though again, would that be enough?
“Tracy said you’re installing a new perimeter security system,” Bailey commented.
Man, her nerves were right there at the surface. Her mind was probably still firing on all cylinders as well, but he was betting the adrenaline crash had left her beyond exhausted. It certainly had for him.
“I am. There are sensors that will detect anyone or anything that gets near the fence. I’m having the fence reinforced as well.”
More hand rubbing. “Must have been hard to get all the workers here, with Christmas just two days away.”
It was. But money spoke loud and clear, even if the workers would rather be spending this time with their families.
“Evan said he emailed me some updates on Shannon Wright and Robin Russo,” Jackson told her, hoping it would get her mind off all the security details he was already obsessing over.
One obsession at a time, he reminded himself.
But then he made the mistake of looking at Bailey.
There it was. That punch below the belt. She looked so feminine and soft, the exact opposite of how she made him feel. And those eyes… Her eyes always seemed to be giving him some kind of invitation unintentionally.
Still, she was attracted to him, too. He could feel that as well.
But feeling it and acting on it were two different things. He couldn’t control his body’s response to her, but he sure as hell could control what he did about that response. Jackson hoped.
Mentally groaning, he opened the email Evan had sent him and read through the reports. Bailey moved behind him, her hand gripping the back of his chair. Her fingers brushed against his shoulder.
So much for hoping. She might as well have kissed him.
He was toast.
“Both women seem to have some financial issues,” Bailey said, obviously reading the email and hopefully not noticing his reaction to her touch.
“Yeah,” Jackson agreed, forcing himself to concentrate on the reports. This was damn serious stuff, and he shouldn’t be thinking about her softness, her eyes, or any other part of her.
“Evan thinks Shannon is living beyond her means,” she concluded. Bailey moved closer, dipping down so that her head was right next to his. “She certainly has a lot of debt for her income.”
She did. About fifty thousand dollars in credit card bills and loans. But that made her appear to be a poor money manager, not necessarily a baby snatcher.
“If she’d sold your son, then Shannon would have gotten a chunk of that one million dollars. So why hasn’t she used the money to pay off her bills?”
“Maybe she knew if she used the cash right away, it would draw attention to her,” Bailey pointed out. “After all, the police are still investigating her.”
True. And that meant Shannon could have the money stashed offshore somewhere. Or maybe she had used it to a pay for a hired gun or two.
Bailey’s warm breath hit his neck, and she slid her hand around the outside of his arm so she could touch the screen. Great.
Now, he could feel her and take in her scent, too. Added to that, she was close enough to kiss. He couldn’t think about kissing her, because that last session nearly had him dragging her off to bed. Not the way to keep the distance between them.
But maybe there was no need for distance.
Maybe he could take her and still be objective about this investigation.
He rolled his eyes. Sheez. An aroused man could come up with all kinds of stupid justifications for kissing an attractive woman.
“Look at this.” Bailey tapped the report on Robin Russo. “Robin Russo recently bought a house and paid cash.”
Now that was a massive red flag, and he wondered if SAPD knew about it. Of course, there were a lot of reasons why someone might pay cash, but paired with Robin’s presence at the hospital the day of the hostage crisis, it made the transaction suspicious.
“I’ll have Evan dig deeper into her financials,” Jackson added. “And we can ask her about it when she’s here.”
Bailey pulled back slightly, but still stayed close. “Why do you think she wants to see us?”
“Probably to get us to back off any investigation. Even if she’s innocent, it can’t be fun to have the cops examining her every move.”
At least he hoped that’s what the cops were doing. He also hoped SAPD still had both Shannon and Robin under surveillance, because if either of the women had hired the gunmen, there might have been some kind of contact or face-to-face meeting to make the payment.
“What are you thinking?” Bailey asked, still staring at the screen.
He could have given her a good answer. Nothing sexual. Nothing to do with kissing. One that proved to her that he was pouring over every detail of Evan’s report. But he had already absorbed the details. He was good at that—taking huge chunks of information and processing them quickly.
Still, there were things to be done.
Jackson would have to contact SAPD about that surveillance question. He would need more financial info on both women. He wanted to check for offshore accounts. And he’d do all those things and more. But for now, he had to get something off his chest. Or rather on it.
Hell. He was going with his gut here, and not his business brain, because he was reasonably sure his brain would get outvoted by the rest of him.
Bailey was still so close to him that he didn’t have to move far. Jackson simply reached out, slid his hand around the back of her neck and eased her down to him. He took his time. Kept the motion slow and easy so she would have a chance to back away.
But she didn’t.
Bailey moved closer as well, and their mouths met.
Her lips were soft. There was that
word again. Soft. But he couldn’t remember soft ever feeling so damn good. However, it was more than just pleasurable. Jackson felt that jolt deep inside him. Familiar but different. This felt like something more than just a reaction to a really good kiss.
It couldn’t be more.
Kissing Bailey was a bad enough complication, but making more out of it than it really was could be a huge mistake. They weren’t friends. Or lovers. Even though it suddenly felt as if they were.
“Oh,” she muttered, stretching out the syllable so that it sounded dreamy. “You’re a really good kisser.”
That was information he didn’t need to hear. Though it made him smile.
Toast.
Yes, that’s exactly what he was.
“You’re not so bad yourself,” he let her know.
“Really? Because I think this is all your doing. I think I’m under your spell.”
Good. Because he didn’t care why she was melting into him, only that she was. He wanted Bailey hot, wanting and ready. And she was getting there fast.
She made a feminine sound when the tip of his tongue touched hers. That sound created another jolt of heat and need. The jolt got stronger when she slipped her arm around him, turning her body so that she was directly in front of him.
Finally, she was against his chest.
He could feel her breasts. Small but firm. He dropped his hand from the back of her neck to her waist, and he pulled her onto his lap.
Jackson figured he’d lost his mind. But he no longer cared. The only thing that he could think of right now was taking Bailey.
Chapter Nine
Bailey couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t stop her heart from racing. And she definitely couldn’t stop herself from touching Jackson.
But what she could do was feel.
Oh, yes. She could do that all right.
She was suddenly aware of every inch of her body. And Jackson’s. That probably had something to do with the fact she was now on his lap. Her hands were on his chest and on all those toned muscles that she had fantasized about. Now she didn’t have to fantasize. He was hers for the touching.
So she touched.
Bailey slid her hand down to this stomach and had the pleasure of feeling those muscles respond. Jackson responded, too. There was a deep rumble in his throat, and he snapped her even closer.
The kiss deepened and got even hotter. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been swept away like this. And all with just kisses. If he could set these kind of white-hot fires inside her with just his mouth, it left her breathless to think of what it would be like to make love with him. He wouldn’t be gentle. Not Jackson. She was betting he was as take-charge and thorough in bed as he was in business.
And Bailey was burning to find out if that was true.
She felt his hand on her leg. On her bare skin. And while he kept up the intensity of the kiss, he slid his palm up, pushing up her dress along with it.
In the back of her mind, she realized this was too much too soon. She hardly knew him. They had a ton of other things they should be doing. But in the front of her mind, Bailey could only feel the electric sensations he was creating.
His hand stopped midway up her thigh.
She wanted him to move higher. She wanted him to take this to the next level, even if that meant having sex on his desk. The thought of that shocked her.
And made her even hotter.
She’d never had sex on a desk. Never had sex with a man like Jackson. But she was betting it would be an experience she’d never forget.
He brought everything to a standstill, pulling back just slightly so they could make eye contact.
“You aren’t going to stop me, are you?” he asked.
Bailey felt herself blush, but she wasn’t actually embarrassed. The fire was too hot for that, and she was still trying to figure out if she wanted to keep pressing. It wouldn’t take much. After all, she was on his lap and she could feel the proof of his arousal.
He was ready to do what she was fantasizing about.
Well, physically ready anyway.
She saw the doubt in his eyes, doubt that mirrored in hers.
“I was just…” But she didn’t know how to finish the statement. I was just going to let you do whatever you wanted to me? I was just too hot to stop?
No.
Best not to pour out her raunchy thoughts like that. Besides, Jackson already knew that she wanted him. It wouldn’t help this situation to spell it out.
“Should I apologize?” he asked.
Bailey got up from his lap, not easily, and smoothed down her dress. “Don’t you dare.”
Jackson smiled, causing that killer dimple to wink in his right cheek. But the smile quickly faded. “So what should I do?”
His words dripped with carnal undertones. “Not that,” she murmured, giving him a quick kiss. “You were right to stop.”
“Really? Because it doesn’t feel right.”
Oh, the man was a charmer, and coupled with those incredible hot looks, he was charming her right into his bed—or his desktop.
The phone on his desk buzzed, but it was several long moments before Jackson tore his gaze from hers to answer it.
Sweet heaven.
What was she going to do about this untimely attraction?
“Let them in,” she heard Jackson say, and then he hung up the phone. “Evan is on his way with Robin Russo.”
That required Bailey to take a deep breath.
“You don’t want to see her?” Jackson questioned, obviously not missing her reaction.
“No. I do. I’ve met her before. Actually, she’s the one who filed the restraining order against me because I was following her. I thought she might have answers about my missing son.”
“She never volunteered anything or let anything slip?”
Bailey shook her head. “But then I wasn’t very subtle. I was desperate. Still am.” She paused. “Which is probably why you should handle the questions. When I see Robin Russo and Shannon Wright, my instincts are to shake them senseless until they tell me what I want to hear—that one of them took my son, that he’s safe and that he’ll be returned to me immediately.”
Jackson slid his hand over hers. “Maybe that’ll happen today.”
She didn’t miss the slight catch in his voice, perhaps because if that miracle did happen, it could mean they would learn that her missing son was Caden. And that would create even more of a firestorm than this insane attraction between Jackson and her.
He patted her hand and stood. “I’ve changed my mind about meeting them in the guesthouse,” he let her know. “I don’t want you outside just yet. So I’ll have them brought into the sitting area just off the foyer. Fewer windows in there.”
And not too far from the front door. Bailey approved of that, even though she doubted they were going to have to toss Robin or Evan out of the house.
Jackson typed in some keys on his laptop and tapped into the video feed from the nursery. She saw Tracy in the rocking chair next to the crib. Caden was still sleeping. Maybe he would continue napping through this meeting, and then Bailey could sneak back up to the nursery. Jackson hadn’t exactly issued an invitation for her to visit with Caden, but he hadn’t objected to her presence there after the shooting.
He touched the screen, running his fingers along Caden’s sleeping face. Then he huffed and opened his desk drawer. He took out a small handgun and slipped it into the back waist of his pants.
“It’s just a precaution,” he assured her, probably because she didn’t completely choke off a gasp.
Good. Despite the surprised gasp, Bailey wanted to take all possible precautions. She didn’t want another attack like the last one.
While they walked toward the stairs, Jackson made a call. “Tracy,” he said. “It’s time to move Caden into the panic room.”
Yet another precaution Bailey approved of, even though it would probably wake him. The baby had already had too much of his routin
e disrupted, and that riled her. This needed to end so that Caden could have some normalcy.
Jackson led her down the stairs and into the foyer. They walked past the tree and Bailey made a mental note to finish decorating it if the danger—and—life settled down long enough for that to happen. It seemed a little trivial in the grand scheme of things, but she wanted Caden to have as much of a Christmas experience as possible.
Even if she wouldn’t be there to share it.
Bailey had to accept that, despite the hot kisses they’d just experienced, Jackson could at any moment demand that she leave.
They’d just made it into the sitting room when the front door opened, and Steven ushered both Evan and Robin inside. Robin gave her a cool glance, followed by a huff. Evan’s reaction was more of an eye roll. He obviously didn’t want Bailey there at the estate, encroaching on his boss’s territory.
Robin had a different reason for that huff.
It had been only a month since Bailey had last seen Robin. Or rather, since she’d last watched the woman. Bailey had sat in her car across from the medical clinic where Robin now worked, and waited for her to come out. Bailey had followed her, praying that Robin would lead her to any clues about the baby. But nothing came of it. Robin had merely done some grocery shopping and had then returned to her apartment. Hardly incriminating.
Like now.
Robin was the picture of propriety, with her sleek shoulder-length brunette hair, perfectly styled. Her makeup was perfect as well. And she looked holiday festive in her emerald-green business suit that was almost an exact match with her eyes. Which were narrowed.
“You wanted to speak to us,” Jackson prompted. “To you,” Robin clarified, turning her entire body in Jackson’s direction. “I haven’t had much luck convincing Miss Hodges that I didn’t take her son.”
Jackson shrugged and sat on the sofa with Bailey. “Why do you think that is? Have you done something to make Bailey suspicious?”
That didn’t improve Robin’s narrowed eyes. “I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. The San Antonio Maternity Hospital should have provided better security. They didn’t. And because they didn’t, those gunmen were allowed to storm in and take the hostages. I was nearly taken myself, but I managed to duck into a supply closet.”
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