by Jaci Burton
“A P.I., huh? I’ll bet that was interesting.”
“It was. Lots of lowlifes, cheaters and scammers. Never a dull moment.”
“I can imagine. Is that how you got into the security business?”
“Yeah. We had a client who was a little too zealous in wanting the goods on his ex-wife. She wasn’t doing anything wrong, so we dropped the client but he didn’t drop the harassment. I didn’t like the guy at all—he was scum, and since we initiated the contact, I offered protection for the ex-wife on the side. I installed a state-of-the-art security system for her and bodyguard services. She had a restraining order on him and we caught him breaking and entering at her house, so he went to jail.”
“A good day’s work for you, I’d say.”
“Yeah. I felt bad about that case, and my boss at the P.I. firm kept taking clients on like that because money was money to him, so I left him and started my own company. I’m a little more selective about the clients I take on. I do more thorough background checks.”
She leaned back and swirled her wine around in the glass. He liked the way she looked at him. When a woman looked at you like that, it made you glad to be a man. Too bad this was an assignment.
“So tell me about your life, Elena Madison.”
She shrugged. “Not much to tell other than what you’ve already seen. I own my shop and run it. It pretty much consumes most of my days. We’re open Tuesday through Saturday. And when we’re not open, I’m usually out shopping for new inventory by meeting with artists, or doing paperwork. My life isn’t exciting.”
“I don’t know about that. You love what you do, and that’s always exciting. So how did you get into the business?”
“I like art. Always have. Especially unique pieces that reflect the area, like sand, water, air. It calls to me.”
“Understandable. Family?”
“Just my mother.”
“Does she live nearby?”
She smiled over the rim of her wineglass. “She comes and goes as she pleases.”
He cocked a brow. “Not sure what you mean by that.”
“My mother is what you’d call a free spirit. She’s not really grounded in reality or things like a permanent job or a home. She chooses to eschew the establishment and go her own way.”
“Oh, so she’s a hippie.”
She choked out a laugh. “Yes, I guess you could say that. She’s a holdover from days gone by.”
He held out his water glass in salute. “Good for your mom.”
“You wouldn’t say that if it was your mother. You didn’t have to be raised by her.”
“Was it hard for you?”
She shrugged, but he could tell it bothered her. “Sometimes. When there were events in school that required parental attendance, my mother would be off painting, or she was chasing a band, or an art show, or she’d forgotten because she was at the beach engrossed in the sunset and had to get the colors just right for the latest sculpture. And sometimes she’d go off for weeks at a time and I wouldn’t know where.”
He frowned. “She didn’t leave you alone when you were a kid, did she?”
“No. She had lots of friends and she left me with them. I was well taken care of. There was just no . . . stability.”
“I’m sorry.”
She lifted her gaze to him and smiled. “Don’t be. I survived it just fine.”
He reached across the table for her hand, covered it with his. “Yes, you did, but it still couldn’t have been easy for you.”
Elena looked down at Jed’s hand covering hers. “No, it wasn’t easy. At times I resented her for it.”
“I would have, too. What about your dad?”
“He took off when I was a baby, and they divorced. He was in a band, wanted to work on his career, didn’t much want to be saddled with a wife and kid. Mom got full custody, he signed off on it, and that was that.”
“So you don’t know him? He’s never come back and tried to find you or get in touch with you?”
“No.”
“That sucks. I’m sorry.”
She shrugged. “I got over the no-daddy-in-my-life thing a long time ago. My mom and I did just fine.”
“No other family members to help you?”
“No. It was always just me and my mom.”
He took a drink and studied her, wondered if it bothered her more than she said. “You didn’t even have anyone to complain to about the way she abandoned you.”
That was the word that always lived in the back of Elena’s mind—the word she never gave voice to. One dinner and a short conversation, and Jed had it pegged.
Abandoned. First her father, and then her mother. Her father she never knew, so she never cared. He couldn’t hurt her. But her mother had abandoned her for most of her life. And she couldn’t believe she’d just spilled all that to someone she didn’t know. She never talked about her family.
“Well, enough about that,” she said with a smile. “I’m very excited you bought the mermaid today. I hope you’ll let me see how it looks at your condo.”
“I’ll be glad to invite you to my place to see it. Maybe you can help me organize the furniture there. It needs a woman’s touch.”
And he easily let her back out. He was her hero tonight.
Their food arrived and conversation turned to less touchy subjects, like the bike rally.
“Have you been to the rally before?” she asked.
“Not this one.”
“You go to others?”
“I’ve been to plenty around the country.”
“The one here is rowdy and attracts hundreds of thousands of bikers. It gets crazy.”
“Do you get a lot more business during the rally?”
“I do, though my shop doesn’t really attract the biker clientele.”
He laughed. “Hey, I’m a biker.”
She lifted a forkful of rice to her lips. “You’re a unique kind of biker. Most of them want commemorative T-shirts and biker-type souvenirs, not one-of-a-kind pieces of art. But yes, we do get bikers popping in to check things out.”
“I’ll have to send some people your way, then.”
For some reason, she believed he would. “Thank you.”
Elena didn’t quite know what to make of Jed. He was nice, polite, easy to talk to, and he listened when she talked. And of course he was also sexy, so hot her toes curled, and he rode a Harley like it was part of his body.
He was quite possibly perfect, which meant there had to be something wrong with him; otherwise there would be some woman stapled to his side at this very moment. He looked to be early thirties, and no way a man this good-looking and this nice could have managed to escape the clutches of a woman for this long.
Which meant he was probably a love ’em and leave ’em kind of guy.
That would work out well for her, since she wasn’t looking to settle down now. Or ever.
He probably only wanted sex.
And good God, she really needed sex. She’d really like to have sex with Jed. A delicious, no-holds-barred, all-night-long sex session with someone like Jed should hold her for the next six months or so. Then she could concentrate on her work again.
She wondered if he’d go for it.
Duh. He was a guy. He had a penis. Of course he’d go for it.
They finished dinner and Jed paid the check. They went outside and she started for the bike, but he grabbed her hand. “Let’s go for a walk.”
“Okay.”
He led her across the street to the walkway by the ocean. They strolled in silence for a few minutes, the only sound the crash of the water hitting the shore.
“I can see why you like it here,” he said. “I like the sound of the waves.”
“I leave the door to my balcony open as often as I can just so I can hear
them.”
He turned his head toward her. “Probably not the safest thing.”
“Probably not, but I’ll take the risk to hear the beauty of the ocean. No manufactured ocean waves sound can duplicate the real thing. It lulls me to sleep every time.” She stopped and moved in front of him. “Put your back against the wall here.”
He did.
“Now close your eyes, and just listen.”
She moved into him so she could get closer and whisper in his ear. “Couldn’t you fall asleep to that sound every night?”
He didn’t answer right away. Instead, his arms wound around her waist and drew her against him. He bent and whispered in her ear. “Honestly, it’s hard to concentrate on the ocean waves when your body is pressed up against mine.”
She laughed. “You’re not paying attention.”
“Sorry, you’re distracting.”
He opened his eyes, and she was again struck by the utter masculinity of his features. She reached up and traced her fingers over the slight beard stubble that gave him such a bad boy look, but his face wasn’t a pretty boy one to start with. He had too many harsh lines and angles. His jaw was too square, his nose a little too wide. He was the kind of man to grab onto a woman and hold her tight, just like he was doing now.
“Jed.”
“Yeah.”
“Would you come home with me tonight and sleep with me?”
His lips curved just a little. “You mean like a slumber party?”
“No. I mean like have sex with me.”
That teasing little curve to his lips disappeared. He threaded one arm all the way around her waist. The other dove into her hair the second his lips touched hers.
She was going to take that as a yes. And oh, God, the kiss. An explosion of sensation that sent Fourth of July fireworks skyrocketing through every nerve ending. Her lips tingled, and when he deepened the kiss and tightened his hold on her, her nipples throbbed, and her sex pulsed and moistened with need and expectation.
This was what she missed when she focused too much on business and not enough on pleasure. A man’s touch, the way it felt to be held, to feel his large hand at her hip and the other massaging her scalp. He turned her around and placed her up against the sea wall, moving in to press the length of his body along hers. She reached for his chest, laid her hands on him, felt his heart beat a wild rhythm, the same as hers.
He tore his mouth from hers, his breathing staccato and heavy as he pulled back to search her face. “I probably shouldn’t have started this out here. This is worse than having a glass of wine. I don’t think I can drive now.”
She laughed. “I’m not going to say I’m sorry you did.”
He swept his thumb across her bottom lip. “Good. Let me take you home.”
“Okay.”
It was going to be a long ride home with a throbbing motorcycle between her legs.
FOUR
The cool air blowing on his face on the ride back to Elena’s house did nothing to bring Jed’s temperature down. Not with her breasts mashed against his back, her hands pressing in on his abs and her thighs nestled against him.
All he could think about was that kiss, about the way she tasted, the way her body curled into his when he’d pulled her into his arms.
She’d asked him for sex. Goddamn. What the hell was he supposed to do about that—say no? He was undercover, his assignment to get close to her. This would bring him close to her, wouldn’t it? He’d just be completing the mission.
In a sort of unorthodox way.
He had to keep his head in the game. Unfortunately, the only head doing the thinking right now was the head of his dick, and it was like a divining rod. It wanted sweet, hot pussy, and knew it was right behind him. All the blood from his brain had rushed south, and his dick was doing all the thinking.
The assignment could wait. He was going to have sex with Elena tonight. Tomorrow he’d get back on task.
He rolled around the corner to the gallery, his eye instantly drawn to a dark flash skirting around the edge of her building. He laid on the throttle and Elena’s body tightened.
“Hold on,” he said to her as he kicked it into high gear, tore up the length of asphalt and careened around the corner, sliding to a stop. He threw the kickstand down and flew off the bike, tearing his helmet off.
The first thing he saw was the broken glass. He drew his gun, his gaze shooting to a shocked Elena, who climbed off the bike.
“Shit,” she said, surveying the damage.
He lifted the gun and half turned to her. “Call the cops.”
She stepped over the glass. “My alarm has an autodial to the police.”
“They cut your alarm or it’d be going off right now.”
She looked at him and nodded. “You’re right. Of course.” She dug into her bag and pulled out her phone, made the call, gave the police the information.
“Come with me. Stay right with me, right behind me. And don’t touch anything.”
“Okay.”
Normally he’d leave her outside while he went in to check everything out, but he wasn’t taking a chance on leaving her vulnerable until he knew whether or not this had been a simple breaking and entering, or something else.
He stepped through the wrenched open door and walked inside.
It was a mess. The glass case in front was broken. It had been a smash and run. They hadn’t wanted to linger too long. Probably someone looking to make a quick score and get out, but they knew enough to bypass her security system and bust in through the front door. He inched in farther, looking through the shop toward the back rooms. Nothing disturbed back there. By then he heard the sirens and moved back outside, sliding the gun into his pants.
Elena was right on his heels.
“You have a gun,” she said.
“Yeah. I’m in the security business, remember? And I’m licensed to carry.”
She nodded. “Right. Of course.” She pulled her hair back with both hands. “I’m not thinking clearly right now.”
Jed gave a long look to the broken glass and then to the street before turning his attention back to her. “They’re long gone, probably took off as soon as they saw my bike.”
“Goddammit. I’ve never had a break-in before.”
The police arrived, and Jed stayed out of the way while they did their job and took Elena’s statement. Jed told them what he knew, that he’d seen only a shadow of movement as they turned the corner, but nothing else. It took a few hours for them to fingerprint the place. Jed made arrangements for boards to go up to cover up the broken glass, and he got a replacement lock and put that in on the front door.
When the police and fingerprints unit left, he turned to Elena. Purplish circles shadowed her eyes.
“You look wiped out. I should let you get some rest.”
“Wait.”
He stopped.
“Would you mind coming upstairs with me? I know they cleared everything including the upstairs, and I know I’m being a big baby about this, but this whole break-in freaked me out.”
“Come on. I’ll go up with you.”
Her shoulders slumped in relief. “Thanks. It’s silly, I know.”
He put his arm around her and walked toward the back of the shop. “It’s not silly. It’s scary for you to know someone broke in down here. And now you have a nonworking alarm, so I’m sure you feel vulnerable.”
She turned to face him as they were halfway up the stairs. “Thanks for understanding.”
He stepped in front of her. “Let me go in first and clear the area.”
He opened the door and stepped inside her apartment, switched on the light. He knew the cops had been up here already checking things out, but she didn’t feel safe.
She needed to feel safe in her own home. And right now she was hovering at the lan
ding, still on the stairs, afraid to step foot inside.
Not good. It was a small place—kitchen with living area right off it, and one bedroom and one bath. He had everything checked out within a minute and came back to her with his hand held out.
“Come on.”
She slid her hand in his and allowed him to pull her the rest of the way inside. Then he led her around each room, opening closet doors, checking in the shower and the pantry.
“No one’s here. They were never here. They never even made it to the back of your shop.”
She wrapped her arms around herself. “This really freaks me out. Normally I’m fearless.”
He put his hands on her shoulders. “Tonight you have a right to be scared. Tomorrow you can be fearless again.”
She sighed. “You’re right. And I will be.”
Then she raised her gaze to his. “I had such great plans for us tonight. Dammit.”
He swept his knuckles across her cheek. “I think you need some sleep.”
“I think you’re right. God, I’ll never sleep now.”
“Yes, you will. You’re exhausted. Come here.”
He took her hand and led her to the south window. “See the condos there?”
“Yes.”
“That’s where I’m staying. I’m on the third floor. I can see your place from my place, so I’ll keep watch over you tonight. And if you hear any bumps in the night—what’s left of the night—call me and I’ll come over.” He took her phone and punched in his number.
Her lips lifted. “That helps. But I’m a big girl and I can handle it. Now you go home and get some sleep, too.”
She led him down the back way and to the door. “Thanks for being here.”
“Thanks for coming to dinner with me.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her, reminding her of what they were about to do when some asshole had broken in.
When he pulled away, her face wasn’t pale anymore.
“Good night, Elena.”