Pulling out a small tile, Tess held it up against the backdrop over the kitchen sink and eyed it with interest.
“I guess you're right,” Patrice murmured, “but I wish you had a better idea of who tried to kidnap you.”
“Me too,” Tess agreed wearily. “I just don’t have a clue who it could be. At first I thought it was most likely a random attempt. Perhaps some pervert saw me outside and decided he was going to take me out and rape and murder me then throw me in the river or something. You know yourself those things happen all the time, but the more I think about it, I don’t think that’s the case. They said ‘let’s get her to the old man.’ What the hell did that mean? And who’s the old man?”
Shaking her head, Patrice frowned. “I don’t know, but I’m with you on that one. It doesn’t sound like something that was done randomly. Whoever this old man is, it’s obvious he wants to talk to you.”
Placing the tile back into the box gently, Tess removed another piece of a brighter color and repeated her earlier action.
“I just wish I knew what it was about. It’s not like I know any big secrets or anything.”
“Hmm, there’s no telling what this guy wants,” Patrice said with a shake of her head. “So, what’s the deal with Mr. Clean?” she asked, changing the subject.
Unable to contain a burst of laughter, Tess turned back to Patrice. “You mean Jack?”
When Patrice nodded, Tess let her laughter die slowly and shook her head. “I don’t know any more about that situation than I do the one we were just discussing.” She eyed the tile then tossed her hands into the air. “I don’t like this one either; it’s too green.”
Nodding her agreement, Patrice handed her a different color. “Yeah, it looks like baby poop. Try this one.”
Taking the tile her friend offered, Tess moved to the backdrop and studied the tile.
“Well,” Patrice began thoughtfully as she rummaged through the jungle of boxes between them, “what do you know about this Jack fellow? What does he do? How’d the two of you meet?”
Giving up on the tile, Tess groaned and moved back to take a seat at the table across from her friend.
For a moment, she contemplated skating around the subject of Jack, but after what had just happened on the sofa, and his promises for later, she decided another woman’s, especially Patrice’s, perspective might not hurt. Patrice had no problem laying it out like it was … or how she saw it, at least. Perhaps she could help Tess see things in a different light.
“We met a couple of days ago when I was outside shutting off the water,” she hedged.
It was the truth, maybe not the whole truth, but she saw no reason to disclose that she’d been completely naked at the time of said meeting. She knew Patrice and her fun-loving nature. The onslaught of ribbing that would stem from reciting the details of such a story would be never-ending.
“And?” Patrice urged impatiently.
Taking a deep breath, Tess leaned back in her chair and peered out over the many samples. She was beginning to think she’d never find the right tile for her kitchen. Nothing seemed to fit. Picking up several rows of small, multi-colored glass tiles, she peered at a piece of clear blue glass and smiled. It reminded her of Jack’s glittering blue gaze.
“Earth to Tess.”
Meeting Patrice’s inquiring gaze, she shrugged and returned to the question at hand.
“He’s lived in the house across the street for about two weeks, and he’s a private investigator.”
Patrice regarded her sardonically.
Patrice was a pretty woman, standing around five-foot three, with a slim build, bright green eyes, and sandy blonde hair. She was the kind of woman who had a gaggle of men nipping at her heels and with no idea why, as she didn’t realize how attractive she was.
And she wasn’t one to pull her punches. If Tess was holding back, Patrice knew it, and she got to the bottom of it before Tess knew what was happening. She could be a master interrogator if she only wanted to, not to mention, she had enough sarcasm to supply the entire United States and most of Canada.
“What?” Tess asked, feeling like a deer caught in the headlights.
“That’s it?” Patrice arched a brow with disbelief. “That’s all you know about him, and yet, he’s staying here with you to protect you?”
Tess frowned. “That about sums it up. I trust him.”
Patrice tapped her full bottom lip with the tip of her finger before looking back to her curiously. “Come on, Tess, what’s really going on with the two of you? I’ve known you a long time and never once have you gone out with a guy you knew so little about. But now you're living with someone, and you know little more than his name? What gives?”
Tess understood where her friend was coming from. She’d asked herself the same questions and was yet to find answers for her actions.
Placing her elbows on the table, Tess leaned forward and held her forehead in her hands.
“I have no idea,” she conceded wearily. “One minute I'm hiding here like a hermit, and the next, I'm straddling some stranger on the couch like a horny teenager. To be honest with you, I think I'm losing my mind.”
That got Patrice's attention, as her eyes widened and a mischievous smile lit her face.
“Wait, you never mentioned straddling Mr. Clean,” she teased.
“I didn’t think it was important.”
Patrice chuckled for a moment then sighed and became as close to serious someone as lighthearted as she could get. “Never leave out the straddling; that’s always important,” she said. “Do you feel something for the man?”
“What?” Tess asked with a mixture of surprise and confusion.
“I’m serious, Tess. Do you feel something for Jack?”
Leaning back in her chair, Tess raised her brows and shrugged. “I barely know the man. How could I feel something for him?”
This time, it was Patrice who leaned back in her chair and raised her brows.
“Don’t play coy with me, Tess. You know as well as I do time doesn’t matter when you meet the one.”
“And you think Jack’s the one for me? That’s asinine. I do feel something for him, but it’s nothing more than simple lust. A good roll in the hay should cure that.”
Patrice looked at her as though she didn’t believe a single word Tess had just uttered. Tess couldn’t blame her. The moment she’d said the words, she started to question herself.
“I don’t know about all that,” Patrice said finally, “but I do know this. Before you met Jack, you wouldn’t even think about going on a date with a man without running a background check first. Even then you would’ve put up one hell of a fight before you let him stay here to protect you, no matter what the captain said.”
Standing up, Patrice downed the last of her coffee and pulled the strap of her handbag over her shoulder.
“You need to take a good, hard look at why you gave in to him so easily. You might be surprised what you discover.”
Tess let her friend’s words roll over her for a moment longer before looking up. “Are you leaving?”
“Yeah, it’s close to midnight, and I gotta work a couple hours in the morning. I’ll come by sometime tomorrow and take some more of these samples back to the store for you.”
“Sounds good.” Tess smiled. “You’ve been a big help.”
Patrice smiled, flipped her hair over her shoulder, and grabbed a couple of boxes. “What are friends for?”
Standing, Tess followed her to the door and switched on the porch light.
Patrice had given her a lot to think about. Too bad she was too tired to give it the consideration it deserved.
Did she feel something for Jack? At first, she’d thought it was just simple lust. After all, it’d been so long since she’d been with a man, and Jack was, by far, the best-looking man she’d ever seen. But now, she couldn’t help but wonder. Would desire be strong enough to make her capitulate so easily? The feeling was strong, but was it that str
ong?
Snapping out of her deep thoughts, she called out to Patrice, “Be careful and call me when you get home.” She’d already lost one friend, and she wanted to make sure the one she had left was safe.
Stepping off the bottom step, Patrice turned with a smile and nodded. “I will, and when I come by tomorrow, I’ll be sure to knock.”
Narrowing her eyes with question, Tess asked, “Why?”
Laughing out loud this time, Patrice grinned. “I wouldn’t want to interrupt another round of tonsil hockey.”
Shaking her head at Patrice’s antics, Tess watched as her friend got into her car, backed out of the drive, and disappeared into the darkness of night.
Closing and locking the door, Tess turned and gazed at the staircase before her. Jack was in his room. Was he waiting for her? Was he aching for her as she was for him or was he regretting his earlier actions?
While Tess wanted to keep her distance from him in case their interaction put him in danger, she couldn’t. Jack was a treasure she didn’t want to relinquish. A hot, heavy ache settled once again between her thighs. She squeezed her legs together.
What would it hurt if she went to him? One of two things would happen. He would welcome her or he would reject her. Either way, she’d know what was what between them.
Decision made, she took the stairs two at a time in her rush to be wrapped in Jack’s arms once again.
Padding quietly across the thick runner rug stretching the length of the hallway, she approached Jack’s door and raised her hand to knock, but Jack’s muffled voice caused her to pause.
Listening closely, she dropped her hand and sighed.
He was on the phone, most likely helping his partner with a case.
While she wanted desperately to go to him, knock the phone from his hands, and give him the full cowgirl treatment, she knew she couldn’t. He’d been helping her, and not once had she thought about the neglect he could be giving to his job and partner.
Turning, she crossed the hall and trudged into her room. She needed a cold shower, and a little more sleep, as she was obviously not thinking too clearly if she was contemplating attacking the man for her own sexual pleasure.
Chapter Eleven
“You think the partner had something to do with this?” Robbie’s voice echoed over the line.
Jack flopped back on the bed and hooked one arm behind his head. The rest of the evening had passed quickly. Tess and her friend had holed up in the kitchen among stacks of tile, their voices drifting up to him as he looked over a couple of cases and made his call to Robbie.
“I doubt her partner had anything to do with it since he’s been dead for more than six weeks,” Jack said dryly. “But possibly someone he was affiliated with or wronged in some way. It’s obvious someone wants her alive. The comment about getting her to the old man was enough to tell us that. We can assume they think she has some information they need because her partner’s wife wasn’t only murdered; she appeared to have been tortured.”
“You can’t tell me you really don’t think this girl knows anything about what’s going on? You said yourself she admitted she and the wife didn’t like each other. Isn’t it possible she knows who these guys are and what they’re after? Couldn’t she be involved?”
Jack grumbled. “She doesn’t know anything. She might not have liked the wife, but she isn’t a killer. Besides, what would she get from staging her own kidnapping? All that would do is put the spotlight on her, and I highly doubt, if she were a murderer, she’d want that much attention directed at her.”
“I guess you're right,” Robbie said, blowing out a breath. “I’m wrapping things up here. I’ll be headed that way first thing in the morning. If my plane’s on time, I should be landing around three o’clock.”
“Good,” Jack replied. “Did you get any evidence?”
Jack hated to ask because he already knew the answer. The guy Robbie had been tailing down in Mexico for the last three weeks had cheater written all over his face.
“Oh yeah, more pictures and video than you could imagine. He’s a real pig.”
Nodding, Jack closed his eyes for a moment and wondered how people could be so callous to the ones they vowed to love.
“I’ve already called the wife, and she wants to meet me at the airport. She has a flight leaving an hour after mine is supposed to land. I think she already knows what I found and is heading somewhere she can get a quickie divorce.”
“Most likely. Whatever’s easiest for her,” Jack said easily. “Call me when you're finished and I’ll pick you up at the airport. Tess said something about going into the city and picking up a kitchen sink she ordered.”
Robbie snickered.
“What?”
“You got it bad, bro.” He laughed.
“What are you babbling about now?”
“You buy a house after seeing a hot chick living across the street, you run to her rescue and offer to help remodel her house, and now you're living with her, knowing full well, that if someone is after her, you’re now directly in the line of fire.”
“I like her, that’s all,” Jack lied. He wasn’t sure what he felt for Tess, but he was pretty sure it was more than a simple case of like.
“Bull funky, you love that girl.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Jack said, sitting up as quick as a shot. He jumped off the bed then paced to the window. “I don’t know her well enough for all that. I’ll admit, I like her a hell of a lot, but love? I don’t think so.”
But even as he denied it profusely, he couldn’t help but question his feelings. Was it possible to love someone so quickly? He wasn’t a believer in love at first sight; it was a ludicrous concept. But he knew a few couples that claimed that’s exactly what had happened to them.
Hopeless romantics, the whole lot of them.
“Keep telling yourself that, brother. But I haven’t ever seen you act like this before. Wow, if I’d known how exciting your vacation was going to be, I’d have joined you. I can’t wait to see what you do next.”
Jack closed his eyes and struggled to remain calm. Robbie was his best friend. He was also the absolute best at trying his patience.
Jack watched out the bedroom window as the woman he’d been introduced to earlier in the evening piled a couple of boxes into the backseat of her small red car. She then turned toward the porch and smiled. She said something he couldn’t discern then laughed before she slid into the driver seat, started the engine, and pulled away from the house. She drove through the main gates and out of sight.
He and Tess were alone. Every image, every touch, every silky slide of her tongue against his surged to the fore of his mind. She’d been fire in his arms, her desire feeding his own. And what was even more surprising was the fact she hadn’t tried to make him cease his advances. As a matter of fact, she’d urged him on. Just the thought of her gripping his shoulders and pressing her body against him seductively sent a fire-hot need racing through him.
“Hey, you still there?”
The sound of Robbie’s voice ripped him away from his heated thoughts. Shaking his head, he replied, “Yeah, I’m here. It’s getting late.” He faked a yawn. “Call me when you get to the airport. Once you're here, I’ll give you all the details.”
“You got it, boss. Talk to you tomorrow.”
Jack disconnected the call and tossed his phone onto the dresser. He gazed out the window a moment longer. Robbie’s words still rang in his ears.
It was hard to admit, but Robbie was right. He’d never been this attracted to a woman and never had he been as protective or as willing to put his life in danger for a woman he hardly knew.
But when he was with Tess, it was as if she was all that existed. Her happiness, her safety, the only things he wanted.
Perhaps he should give more thought to what Robbie had said about love at first sight.
“This is crazy,” he said to himself disgustedly. Turning from the window, he strode back to the bed.
Love at first sight was just something hopeless romantics dreamed about. It wasn’t real. What he felt for Tess had to be something simpler; perhaps it was the beginning stages of love or something that over time could blossom into love. There was no doubt he was attracted to her, desired her, and, despite their short acquaintance, cared about her.
But love this early in the game? No way.
As much as he wanted to go to Tess and pick up where they’d left off, he couldn’t. Her unexpected reaction to his caresses, his premature feelings, and Robbie’s words had built so many questions within him, and if he was correct, Tess probably needed a break herself. If this situation was confusing to him, it had to be confusing to her as well. Over the coming days he’d take things slower while he tried to find the answers to his surmounting questions, but deep down, he knew his attempts to do so would be futile. He only wondered how long his attempts at gentlemanly behavior would actually last.
Pulling off his loose-fitting jeans, he slid into bed and tugged the thick bedding over his head. Closing his eyes, he groaned wearily as sleep finally claimed him.
Chapter Twelve
Just as Patrice had said she would, she’d showed up a little after noon and they’d spent less than an hour going over tile samples before they finally decided that Tess’s choice of the small, blue-and-green multi-colored glass tiles were the right choice to go with her recycled glass countertops.
Once that was settled, Patrice took the extra tile samples and headed back to the city while Tess accompanied Jack to the Home Depot.
“So this is where you get all of the materials for your house?”
Tess glanced up and smiled. “Not all of my materials. I like to shop around, you know, look for the best deal. This place just happened to be the one to give me the best deal on this sink.”
He nodded as they made their way to the service desk.
“Can I help you?”
The Stranger Next Door Page 9