“Yes.”
She wouldn’t meet his eyes. A wash of color stained her face a delicate pink. Her lips were puffy, looking thoroughly kissed and highly enticing. If he didn’t stop staring at her, they were going to be right back up against the cabinets.
“We need to go somewhere public. You’re a powerful temptation, lady.”
The pink deepened to a soft rose. “But—”
“Trust me.”
She stared at him in silence, then inhaled sharply and expelled her breath in a whoosh of air. A smile touched her lips. It was timid and a little cynical perhaps, but it was a smile. “Tell me something,” she said. “Why do men think ‘trust me’ is an answer to anything?”
AN HOUR AND A HALF LATER, they decided it was much too late for anything resembling breakfast, so they sat inside a busy hamburger franchise finishing lunch with the rest of the noontime crowd. They hadn’t talked much, but the silences that fell between them weren’t strained.
J.D. was a comfortable man to be with despite what had happened between them earlier. Jackie didn’t want to know if his thoughts were tracking along the same lines as hers because she couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened in the kitchen.
Her reaction to his mind-boggling kisses shocked her. Should she be embarrassed, ashamed or annoyed? Larry had never stirred her senses the way J.D. did. But how did J.D. feel?
Women wanted intimacy. Men wanted sex.
The explosion of passion between Jackie and J.D. felt like so much more than lust Beyond the desire had been a yearning she’d never experienced before. Did he feel it as well?
Oh, Lord, what if he just felt sorry for her?
“We’ll need to get you a surge protector,” J.D. said suddenly.
“What?”
“A surge protector. For the computer.” He smiled and the smile lit his eyes, not just his mouth. “What were you thinking about?”
“Nothing,” she said quickly. Too quickly, obviously. His expression turned knowing and she looked away, trying not to blush.
She changed the subject. “Thank you for bringing the computer over to the shop and for setting it up for me. I told Angel she could play with it when she isn’t busy.”
The brackets at the side of his mouth deepened into those hidden dimples that so captivated her.
“I heard you.” His slow, sexy smile said he knew exactly what she was trying to do. “Angel seems extremely competent.”
“She is.”
“Are you finished eating?” he asked, looking at her plate.
“Yes.” She pushed the remains of the meal to one side.
J.D. signaled for the check. “Then we should get going. I thought we’d pay a call on Teller’s photography shop.” The waitress smiled when he handed her a couple of bills and stood to reach for Jackie’s crutches.
“Why are we going there?”
“Because they’re the ones who supplied the elves.”
Her heart clattered in her throat, while acid began to churn away at the food she’d just eaten. “Then you do believe me!”
“Jackie, even Ben Thompkins can’t dismiss all the crazy things that have been happening to you. I just thought if we were discreet, we could ask a few questions and maybe give Ben something concrete to follow up on.”
She quickly swallowed the lump that clogged her throat, blinking away a shimmer of grateful tears. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized how desperately she wanted him to believe her. If they went there and proved the elf existed…
A new and frightening thought suddenly struck her. “What if he’s there?”
J.D.’s lips formed a grim line as he led her outside. “If the elf from the mall is there, we won’t give him a chance to change places this time.”
About to get in his car, Jackie paused as she saw a police cruiser pick up speed and veer toward them. Instinctively, she knew who the driver would be.
Officer Thompkins pulled up, opened the door and placed one leg on the pavement. Half in and half out of his car, he didn’t waste time on a greeting.
“Good thing I spotted the two of you. A neighbor just called in. Someone tried to get inside Ms. Neeley’s house. You guys can follow me over there.”
“Right behind you,” J.D. promised. Jackie practically fell inside as J.D. hurried around to the driver’s seat. They raced behind the squad car until they reached her house, where another unit sat parked in the driveway.
Her neighbors must love seeing the police at her door on a daily basis, Jackie thought. A policeman came around the far corner of the house.
“It’s secure,” he told Thompkins.
Jackie recognized the policeman from the night the elf had reappeared in her living room.
“No sign anyone got inside. When the key didn’t work, he tried to jimmy the door. That must have been when the neighbor spotted him. She called out to him and he jumped off the far side of the porch and took off running. I found this on the porch.”
He held up an evidence bag, and even from where Jackie stood she saw the small tarnished key inside. J.D. slid an arm around her shoulders and Jackie slumped against him, grateful for his presence. She didn’t doubt the key would have fit her old locks.
“Ms. Neeley? You want to go inside and have a look around? Just to make sure everything’s okay?” the officer asked. “There’s no sign that anyone entered, but we should check to be sure.”
“Did the neighbor get a description?” Thompkins asked.
His companion made a wry face. “Average build, dark hair and dark clothing, that’s all she noticed.”
“Figures.”
Jackie’s hand shook as she delved for the bright new keys and handed them over. They entered the eerily silent house with care. Nothing appeared out of place downstairs. Jackie waited while Thompkins unlocked the basement door and the men descended for a look around.
Fear pulled at her mind. Would they find the body of the dead elf in some new and unexpected place? Part of her hoped so, even as she dreaded the idea. If only this nightmare would end.
Jackie and J.D. followed as they went from room to room. The officers were thorough this time around. More thorough than their searches in the past had been. This time they peered behind furniture and inside closets—to no avail.
Too bad her next-door neighbor hadn’t also seen the dead elf. Obviously, she made a more credible witness than Jackie herself.
In the master bedroom, Thompkins checked the closet, shut the door and suddenly snapped it open again. He stepped inside and stared at the ceiling. Without a word, he motioned them back and the other officer forward.
Jackie watched them pull down the rickety steps leading to the storage area in the attic overhead. She’d forgotten all about that space. Thompkins climbed warily, one hand on his weapon.
J.D. rubbed her back, a silent, supportive caress, but he barely took his gaze away as Thompkins disappeared from sight. The second man vanished to his waist, but went no farther. Their voices were muffled. Then, they came back down.
“Ms. Neeley, have you been in that overhead since you moved into the house?” Thompkins asked.
“No. Why? What’s up there?”
Thompkins frowned. “Nothing at all except dust and cobwebs.”
“But?” J.D. questioned.
“But…it doesn’t mean anything since there’s no way to tell when it happened.” His shoulders lifted and dropped quickly. “But the dust has been disturbed.”
“By a body?” J.D. asked.
Thompkins shrugged.
“But it could have been a body?” Jackie asked carefully. “A body someone might have hidden because they didn’t want you to find it the first time I called?”
The men exchanged glances and Thompkins faced her squarely, his expression troubled. “Possible. Not likely, but possible.”
Jackie closed her eyes. She couldn’t decide whether to be relieved or angry. At last she had more “almost proof” that she wasn’t insane. She opened her eyes
and limped to the chair in the corner to sit down.
“She shouldn’t stay here alone,” Thompkins told J.D. sotto voce.
“She isn’t going to,” he responded gruffly.
“Good. Ms. Neeley?”
Jackie raised her face, marveling at the tiredness tugging at her.
“Who else had keys to your house?”
That didn’t take any thought. “Bessie, her husband, Frank, and her son, Donnie,” she rattled off. “He lived here before me and may have given keys to any number of people.”
Thompkins scowled. “That’s a dead end. Half the town could have had access.”
Jackie started thinking about the house keys hanging in Bessie’s kitchen…the ones she had taken this morning…the ones Bessie claimed to have lost. Should she mention them?
Why had Bessie lied to her?
Jackie shut her eyes again, letting the men’s voices rumble above her. Lack of sleep and the constant state of anxiety were trying to suck her down into a yawning pit of exhaustion.
“Jackie? Come on, love. You don’t want to sleep in that chair. Wake up.”
Her eyes fluttered open and focused on J.D.’s face. His concern was so loving. She reached out and touched his face, running her fingers down his smoothly shaven cheeks.
“J.D.”
“You fell asleep. The police left.”
She nodded, still feeling half-asleep. “I like the aftershave you wear.”
His chuckle was husky. “You do, huh?”
“Mmm. Sexy.”
His lips brushed hers, then returned to linger in a long, soft kiss. He held her face gently between his palms. “I’ll bet you aren’t a morning person, are you?”
“No, why?”
“I can tell.”
Her breath caught as J.D. lowered his face and kissed her so tenderly, her defenses melted away leaving behind an ache only he could fill. He drew back watching her.
“Wh-why are you looking at me like that?”
“I like looking at you. You’re very beautiful.”
The intensity of his expression caused her body to tighten. “I’m really not, J.D.”
He shook his head. “Beneath those baggy outfits lies a beautiful woman.”
Her breathing quickened. “You have no idea what my body looks like.”
“I have a wonderful imagination,” he teased gently.
So did she and she was imagining all sorts of possibilities right now.
“I want to spend some time getting to know you.”
A low, slow heat stirred to life. “Me? Or my body?”
J.D. rubbed his thumb softly against her lower lip. “Both.”
She began to tremble. No man had ever unsettled her like this.
“Just for a couple of hours, can we be friends?” he murmured. “No elves. No children. Nobody and nothing but a man called J.D. and a woman called Jackie.”
Larry had looked at her like that once, but it had been only another illusion. One of the many masks Larry used to convince the world what a nice person he was.
Years of caution sent the words tumbling past her lips before she could stop them. “Does that line usually work?”
Hurt came and went, leaving his features totally masked and unreadable. “You have more lines of defense than the military,” he said sadly.
She closed her eyes. “I’m scared, J.D.”
“I know. With all that’s been happening—”
“No.” Her eyes opened and she shook her head, willing him to understand. “I mean here. Right now. The way you make me feel.”
“How do I make you feel?”
“Giddy. Like I’m riding a rocket into space with no idea where I’ll land or what will happen.”
His features relaxed. “Nothing will happen you don’t want to happen.”
“I…I think maybe that’s my problem. I have a good imagination, too.”
The corners of his lips tugged upward. “I think I like the sound of that. Do I haunt your dreams, Jackie? The way you haunt mine?”
She gripped the arms of the chair, remembering the erotic dream in which he’d recently starred.
He chuckled. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“We really need to talk about your arrogance,” she told him. But she found herself smiling, reaching out to caress his chest.
“I don’t think we really need to talk, at all.” He leaned forward, but instead of kissing her he nipped at the vulnerable tip of her earlobe.
Jackie gasped. Shivers of anticipation raced along her nerve endings. His lips feathered kisses down her cheek until he kissed, then gently sucked at the sensitive skin of her neck.
The coil of heat tightened inside her. Jackie nearly surged off the chair.
“What are you doing to me?”
“Whatever you like,” he promised huskily.
“Oh.”
His eyes glittered, a deep smoky gray that seemed to envelop her in a passionate haze. “I’d really like to see if my imagination did you justice. May I?”
He didn’t wait for an answer, but knelt to remove her sock and cast He stroked the bottom of her foot, rubbing sensually.
“J.D….” She couldn’t find words. The sensations were too staggering as his hands drifted upward, caressing her ankle, gliding up her calf.
“We can’t.”
His fingers stopped moving. “Why not?”
She didn’t want his fingers to stop moving. She didn’t ever want him to stop this slow seduction. “I need…I want…I haven’t even had a bath today.”
Merriment danced across his face. “What a wonderful idea.”
He stood and walked into her bathroom. Water began to run in the tub. The sound mingled with the cascading thud of her heartbeat. All the reasons why she shouldn’t do this suddenly seemed unimportant. She wanted this moment out of time with him.
J.D. strode into the bedroom trailing the scent of her bubble bath. The image of him sitting in a tub full of bubbles made her smile. J.D. was a large man. Tall. Big. Strong.
“Our bath awaits.” And with that one wicked grin, he banished her remaining fears. J.D. was not Larry.
“Our bath?”
“Well, you didn’t think I’d let you have all the fun, now, did you? I wash your back and you wash mine.”
The idea of the two of them crowded into her bathtub tightened that knot of anticipation into unbearable pressure. “We won’t both fit,” she warned him weakly.
His eyes darkened. “We’ll fit just fine.”
Unbelievably, he proved to be right.
She helped him tug at the elastic of her sweats, wishing she owned sexy satin underwear instead of plain white cotton. But J.D. didn’t seem to mind. His own white briefs clung to his hips like a lover’s caress, barely concealing the strength of his arousal.
His chest was broad, powerful. Masculine. With her eyes, she traced the scattering of hair that arrowed downward until it disappeared below the waistband of his briefs.
He reached around her, unhooking the bra, sliding the straps off her arms in a slow striptease. Her nipples tightened, puckering beneath his gaze.
“I knew you had a lovely body.”
“So do you.” And it was true. All hard planes and rippling muscles, but not the kind that bulged and threatened.
He lifted her gently, as he carried her into the bathroom.
He set her down, supporting her with one hand, while he slid his other fingers inside the elastic of her panties. “Let’s see the rest.”
She stood before him naked and curiously unashamed.
“Beautiful.”
His look truly made her feel beautiful.
He helped her into the warm water heaped with bubbles, mindful of her sore ankle. When she was settled, he waggled his eyebrows in a bad Groucho Marx imitation. “Now for the fun part. I get to wash all that lovely skin.”
The words sent up a tingling everywhere. “What do I get to wash?” she demanded.
His eyes glittere
d. “Anything you desire.”
“Your knees,” she said promptly. “I’ve always had a thing for knees,” she teased.
“Damn. And I only have two.”
“Well, maybe I can find something else of interest.”
His fingers went to the waistband of his briefs. “I hope so,” he said, lowering them with deliberate slowness. “I certainly hope so.”
A happy, light feeling bubbled inside her. Loving this man would be so easy. J.D. was nothing like Larry. And she was no longer a naive twenty-two-year-old girl.
He urged her to scoot forward, then slid in behind her. Water sloshed unheeded on the bathroom floor. She’d never felt anything like the sensation of his body pressed against hers. Until he squirted soap into his bare hands, rubbing them together to form a lather and began to caress her breasts. He touched her everywhere, rubbing and stroking until she feared she’d dissolve under the intensity of the sensations.
She gripped his hands, stilling their exploration. “J.D., please! I need to touch you, too.”
“All right” He stood, dripping water, and reached for a towel.
“What are you doing?”
He dropped the towel on the floor, stepped from the tub and told her to slide back. Instantly, she complied and he got back in as they switched places.
Rubbing soap across his chest and back was every bit as erotic as having him touch her. She moved lower, then around the sides, to find him wickedly erect. She slid her soapy hands up and down, savoring the feel until he stood abruptly, sloshing water, and turned toward her, his face tight with passion. Bubbles dripped down his body.
He looked magnificent.
J.D. added more bubble bath to the water and turned on the tap for a few minutes. This time, he settled her in front, facing him.
“Can we go back to the kissing part for a minute?” she asked. “You’re very good at that.”
His chuckle rumbled as he took her mouth.
The kiss tantalized, stirring all the warm, building urgency within her. She kissed him back, running her hands over his slick skin.
She was more than ready when he positioned her carefully onto his lap. The warm, soapy water and the tight confines of the bathtub added an incredible element of excitement as she fitted her body to his, feeling stretched and wonderfully alive.
Better Watch Out Page 13