by Dani Criss
“All right,” she said slowly. “I’ll give you my word that I will follow your instructions if things get ugly, providing you give me yours that you will not operate behind my back, that you will be honest with me, that you will discuss things with me, and...” She poked him in the chest one final time. “You will listen to and consider my wishes.”
“Katie, this is my field—”
“You’re starting to repeat yourself, Jake.”
Jake narrowed his eyes in irritation. This conversation was not working out exactly the way he’d planned. He didn’t like not having total control, in this instance particularly. In a crisis situation there wasn’t time to explain your reasons to a client and wait for approval. You had to act first and analyze later. When protecting his clients, he demanded ultimate and unquestioning authority to operate as he saw fit, or he told them to find someone else.
Katie wouldn’t give him that much leeway. But with her he couldn’t—wouldn’t—put her safety in anyone else’s hands. He would have to compromise and hope he didn’t regret it down the road. She was leaving him no other choice.
“All right,” he muttered tightly. “But I don’t like this one bit.”
The all-too-triumphant smile she gave him made Jake extremely uneasy. As if he’d overlooked something crucial, something that would come back to haunt him at a time when he could least afford it. He rubbed the back of his neck, hoping that fatigue had him imagining things.
“Go grab a hot shower to work out the kinks,” she told him, getting to her feet. “I’ll start the coffee.”
“Coffee?” he asked suspiciously.
“I have it in the house and I’ll even make some for you.” She pointed to the bedroom. “Use my shower.”
Obediently he got to his feet. Once he was on his way to the bathroom and she was in the kitchen, Kaitlyn allowed her pleased smile full rein. She put grounds in the coffeemaker and filled it with water, hardly daring to believe her luck. Yes, she’d had to agree to follow Jake’s orders if things got ugly. However, in what was a rare stroke of good fortune for her, he’d failed to define “ugly,” and that left her with a lot of room to maneuver.
Chapter 5
Jake Riley fresh out of the shower was even more dangerous to Kaitlyn’s senses. His bare chest was a distraction a saint couldn’t ignore. How she wanted to touch him. Feel that soft, dark hair under her palms as she brushed her hands over his broad, muscled torso and down to his waist. Determinedly she forced her thoughts, and her gaze, to stop there where his towel began.
“Thanks,” he said as she handed him a mug of coffee. He looked past her shoulder to the coffeemaker. “Have you developed a taste for the stuff?”
“Not really. I do a lot of entertaining here at the house. Travel parties where we focus on a particular trip, what there is to see and do, what the customs are if it’s outside the country. That’s why I have the big-screen TV in the rec room downstairs—to better display the travel videos.”
He leaned back against the counter, crossing those long and powerfully built legs of his at the ankles as he settled comfortably to listen to her. But Kaitlyn wasn’t comfortable at all. The towel parted an inch at the bottom hem, displaying a tiny bit more of his outer thigh, enough to make her body heat rise a few degrees. There was too much intimacy and too much masculinity in the room to suit her, and too many memories of the passion they’d shared all those years ago.
Finally she paused in her monologue about travel films, unable to stand the torment of looking and not touching another second. “Clothes would be nice, Jake.”
He gave his appearance a cursory glance to make sure he was somewhat decent. “They’re in the car.”
She blinked. “You have a change of clothes in your car?” Had he been planning all along to stay the night here when he hadn’t even known Craig Fallon would be at the party or that he would give her that note? How could that be?
“Take it easy, Katie. There’ve been times that I’ve met with a client and decided immediate physical security was necessary,” Jake explained quickly before she could get the wrong idea. “Those times I can’t get home for fresh clothes, so I keep a shirt, a change of underwear and a razor in a bag in the trunk.”
She was squirming, unsettled, he realized, all because he was in her kitchen first thing in the morning, drinking her coffee, wearing nothing more than a pale green bath towel. He could read it in her wide eyes and in the way her pert breasts rose and fell with her rapid breathing. It did wonderful things to his ego and equally painful things to his libido.
“I’ll go get the bag,” she offered, holding out her hand. “Where are your car keys?”
“That’s all right. Tell me more about these parties. How many people do you usually have over?”
“Three or four couples. Occasionally five. Only people I’ve dealt with for a long time.”
“Then Fallon hasn’t been here?” Jake asked softly. He hated reminding Katie of the weirdo, but it couldn’t be helped.
“No,” she said on a shaky breath. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll answer the rest of your questions once you’re dressed,” she told him emphatically.
He gave her a pleased grin. “I still have that effect on you.”
She groaned. “You and your oversize ego,” she muttered. “Look at you, Jake. Any woman would drool.”
“I’m not talking about any woman, Katie. I’m talking about you. And me. We were damn good together in bed. We still would be.”
He knew instantly he’d pushed her into realizing what she did not want to admit even to herself. She straightened. Her eyes shot blue fury at him.
“If you go down that road, you’ll go alone.” She whirled around toward the living room, halting abruptly as the back doorbell rang.
“That should be Dallas Steele,” Jake said, making no attempt to move away from the counter. “He’ll be in charge of the crew putting in your system.”
Her anger with Jake only slightly under control, Kaitlyn yanked open the back door. A brown-haired version of masculinity strolled in, casting her a lusty grin as he looked her up and down.
“Well, hello-o, darlin’,” he said. “Aren’t you a gorgeous sight in the morning?”
She gave him a frosty glare that didn’t dim his cocky grin in the least. He placed a bakery box on the counter, then turned to Jake. His eyebrow shot up as he took in his employer’s state of undress.
“Hey, Boss, I hope my, uh, timing—” he began.
“Is fine. There’s nothing going on here,” Kaitlyn snapped, shoving the door closed, then stalking out of the room. As she passed the two men, she muttered that it was men and not children who should be seen and not heard from.
Jake’s chuckle didn’t sit any better on her mind than his comment about...them. There was no them. There couldn’t be. But she’d sure wanted there to be. She’d wanted to walk up to him and wrap her arms around his neck, to drag him off to her bed and never let him go. His comment about them in bed was right. There they were a perfect fit. So perfect that she’d never been with anyone else, knowing nothing or no one could compare with the match she and Jake made.
The trouble was, she realized as she closed the bedroom door solidly, when they were not making love, Jake would overpower her with his need to take care of her.
She got into the shower, recalling how it had been between them. Jake was strong, physically and emotionally, and she had cared for him much more than she’d thought she could care for anyone. It would have been so easy to let him take over, make her decisions for her. He was thoughtful, tender, caring, and most of their clashes would not have occurred had she put herself in his capable hands.
But each time she’d considered doing just that, she’d thought about her mother and how she’d allowed her husband to control her life and how devastated she’d been when he’d left her. She’d never been able to function on her own.
Kaitlyn had come very close to letting Jake Riley detour her progress toward self
-sufficiency, and it was very unsettling to realize that she needed all her willpower to keep from throwing it all away for another fling with him, another chance at heaven in his arms.
She finished her shower, toweled off and dried her hair, all the while berating her hormones for eternally kicking into overdrive around the man. She slipped into a print skirt and a sleeveless yellow blouse, made her bed, spent as much time as she could on her hair and light makeup, all to avoid having to go out there and face Jake and what he did to her senses.
When she could delay no longer, she grabbed her briefcase out of the spare bedroom she used as an office, carried it into the kitchen and set it next to her purse and keys.
Four people now sat around her table, enjoying coffee and doughnuts—Dallas Steele and three others, one of them a young blond-haired woman about Kaitlyn’s age. Jake, as devastating in a suit and tie as he was in a towel, introduced the woman as Dev, the young man with the round glasses as Nate and the dark-haired man as Max Slater, their computer whiz.
Dallas jumped to his feet and held out his chair for Kaitlyn. “Here you go, darlin’. I’ve got it all warmed up for you.”
“Are you this obnoxious all the time or just in the morning?” she asked him, pleased to see a look of shock replace his smug grin.
The other three hooted with laughter. “It’s about time someone put the egomaniac in his place,” Dev said, giving Kaitlyn a wide grin.
Smiling at the friendly put-down and the camaraderie among the four, Kaitlyn snatched a chocolate doughnut out of the box, then collected her purse, keys and briefcase. Jake grabbed another doughnut and his briefcase and started after her. She came to a dead stop, one hand on the doorknob.
“I’ll ride with you,” he said, inclining his head toward the garage.
Kaitlyn needed to assert herself. Now. She needed distance from Jake. Time to think. Time to figure out how to bring her longings for him in line. She couldn’t do that when he was a mere glance away. “Thanks, but I can find my way to the office on my own.”
“That’s why I’m letting you drive.”
Letting her drive? Oh, but the man had nerve. “It’s kind of you to allow me to drive my own car to my office,” she said sharply. “The question is why you feel you have to tag along.”
“Because Rob Donovan is meeting us there at ten.” He grinned. “No sense taking two cars.”
She gave a growl of frustration as she pulled the door open, then led the way into the garage and over to her navy blue Honda. Jake wondered how much of her present sniping had to do with frustration of the sexual kind.
Comforting to think he wasn’t suffering alone, he mused as she negotiated the Saturday-morning traffic east on 119th Street and north on Quivera. Again her light scent wafted through the small car, teasing his nose, testing his resolve.
He knew full well they weren’t suited for each other. What he wanted from Katie—what he realized he still needed from her—was for her to come to him, let him help her fight her battles. Five years ago, he’d wanted to do the fighting for her, but since then he’d learned not to crowd a person.
He wanted Katie to consult him, to let him advise and help her. But she couldn’t do that. She needed to do everything on her own—as if she still had something to prove to her domineering father. Or perhaps to herself. Being with her this time around, he was sensing that Katie Adams had her own personal demons to slay. Alone.
With an inward frustrated sigh, he finished his doughnut just as she pulled into the lot of a three-story brick-andmirrored-glass building. She checked her mouth in the rearview mirror; then, satisfied there were no chocolate smudges, she got out of the car.
Kaitlyn was very aware of Jake, her tall shadow following her into the building. She’d been very aware of him in her car. Too much so. The fact that she had absolutely no control over this attraction was unnerving. She didn’t have a clue how to change that, but she would have to come up with something. Soon. Or go crazy with longing.
As they headed toward the wide marble stairs to the second floor, Kaitlyn noticed how he catalogued every bit of the building they walked through, committing it all to memory, then muttering about the lack of any form of security at the front door or in the spacious foyer.
“The guy’s probably in his office,” Kaitlyn told him. “Probably watching the monitors or something.”
“Meanwhile, anyone could get in this place,” Jake grumbled.
“That’s right,” she gasped with mock fright. “Office staff. Clients. Customers in the food court. Really dangerous people.”
“When are you going to start taking this seriously?” he demanded, catching her arm to bring her to a stop at the foot of the stairs. “When Fallon shows up with a loaded automatic?”
Her eyes widened, then she squared her shoulders. “I doubt that’s likely to happen.” She yanked her arm free and started briskly up the stairs.
Jake caught up with her on the second-floor landing. “You met him two weeks ago and last night he decided you’re engaged to him. What’s he going to decide two weeks from now—that if he can’t have you, no one will? I’ve seen it happen over and over again.”
She came to an abrupt stop. Though her face was suddenly drained of color, she glared up at him. “You couldn’t bully me into submission,” she told him with quiet fury. “So you’re trying to scare me into it, instead.”
“I’m simply making you aware of the potential—”
“Give it a rest, Jake. I know exactly what you’re doing. A cowering client is a clinging client and that’s the way you want things to be. Well, I won’t cower and I won’t cling.”
It took a moment for her words to register in Jake’s mind. Before he could form a halfhearted denial, she was heading down the hall. How the hell she could move so fast in those high heels was beyond him. He picked up his pace, reaching her as she slowed her steps in front of the glass office door with Memories To Go Travel emblazoned in vivid yellow, blue and red.
“Katie, listen—”
“Save your breath. We both know I’m right.”
Kaitlyn opened the door to her office and stepped inside, nodding to her assistant, whose smile was as bright and friendly as always. This time, though, Mary was more interested in the man who walked in behind Kaitlyn than in greeting her boss. The girl’s hazel eyes lit up with curiosity.
“Didn’t expect to see you again,” she said warmly to Jake.
Kaitlyn scowled. “Since you seem to enjoy his company, he can sit out here with you.” With that she sauntered into her inner office and shut the door softly.
Jake stared at the glass panel in the door and the closed miniblinds, wondering how long it would take for Kaitlyn to cool off. From their interaction this morning, he guessed she didn’t hold on to her anger as long as she would have before. However, he’d backed her into a corner with his scare tactics and that was a ploy she hated.
It occurred to him once more that she might not be as tough as she let on, that behind the biting words, the stabbing glares and the battle-ready stance, there was that vulnerability that she refused to show. No matter what it cost her emotionally, she would hide her fear, especially from him.
What direction would their lives have taken had he made this realization when they’d lived together?
By the time Rob showed up, Kaitlyn’s temper had cooled, thanks to the physical work of cleaning up the mess the police and then Jake’s crew had left behind. Between helping with phone calls, she’d dusted and run the vacuum, polished the furniture, then had looked for spots she’d missed the first time around. All the while she was aware that Jake was in the outer room, giving her some space.
Something the old Jake would never have done. How many times in the past had he pushed and prodded until she’d caved in or until they were both fighting mad? It appeared they’d both done some maturing over the past few years. But it was also apparent Jake’s methods weren’t going to change. He got what he wanted, one way or another.
Maybe it was for the best that he wasn’t letting her cling to false hopes, she decided as she saw him hand Rob the note. This was serious business. The sooner she faced that harsh reality, the better.
“Grab yourself a cup of coffee, Rob,” she said, opening the door between the two rooms.
“Thanks. Yours is a hell of a lot better than the crud they have at the station. Want a refill, Jake?” he asked, holding up the pot.
Jake held out his cup, then once the coffee was poured, the two followed Kaitlyn into her office, Jake shutting the door behind them.
“I’ll get the lab on the prints as soon as I get back to the station,” Rob said, dropping into a chair. “McDonald didn’t find much on the first note. Doubt he’ll find much more on this one Jake gave me this morning. Still don’t have anything from the computer on this guy, either. Too many people out on vacation right now.”
“It would help to know if he had a record,” Jake added. “We could make the judge aware of priors when we get that restraining order Monday morning.”
Kaitlyn sighed. “Next time I meet someone, I’ll be sure and get his life history,” she bit out.
Rob’s brow arched at the sharpness in her voice. He threw a glance at Jake, who merely shrugged.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’m a bit testy this morning.”
“Understandable.” Rob took a drink from his coffee cup. “I didn’t see anyone hanging out in the hallway. I take it our fellow’s not out there.”
Kaitlyn shook her head. “I didn’t see him yesterday, either.” She’d begun to hope he might be gone from her life, but then Andrew had given her that note. Could the man really be planning their wedding details? A very chilling thought.
“Well, I’m sure he’ll show up before long,” Rob said. “These weirdos don’t usually just go away.”
“When he does show up,” Jake put in, “we’ll have gotten that restraining order and can have him arrested.”