by Dani Criss
“A few times in jail would make him change his mind, you’d think,” Kaitlyn mused aloud.
“Unfortunately,” Rob said, “that’s not always the case. But don’t worry, Jake and I will be looking out for you. You’ve got my pager number in case you need to reach me, right?”
She nodded.
He finished his coffee, then stretched as he got to his feet. “Shelly reminded me to thank you for that party last night. We had a great time. She’s phoning the caterer and the deejay this morning to see if they’re available for the wedding reception.” He turned to Jake. “I’ll call as soon as I find out anything about this guy.”
Jake walked him to the door, then once Rob was gone, he turned to face Kaitlyn. “I wanted to apologize for the way I acted on the way up here,” he told her. “I guess my methods could stand some improving.”
He looked so genuinely contrite, so sorry for having upset her. He’d had her safety on his mind, nothing more. How could she not forgive him?
“Yes, they could,” she agreed, giving him a small smile. “But I understand why you did what you did.” She decided she needed to make peace with him. After all, they would have to work together. “I wanted to tell you that I slept really well last night.”
He eyed her suspiciously. “I noticed. I, on the other hand...” He reached up to massage the back of his neck.
Kaitlyn laughed. “I owe you a neck rub.”
“I’ll take you up on that later.” His eyes were all soft and warm again for an instant, then they turned serious. “I know there’s a security guard somewhere on the premises. I’m going to see if I can find him, inform him of the situation. You should be all right here with Mary, but do me a favor and don’t go anywhere by yourself. Okay?”
“All right,” she assured him. “Security’s office is on the first floor. One of the rooms on the north side.”
She was being surprisingly cooperative, Jake thought as he walked down the hall toward the steps. If it were anyone else, he wouldn’t have questioned his good fortune. But this was Katie, the woman he’d once known so well, so completely. She was trying to see matters from his perspective. Perhaps he’d be wise to try harder to see things from her point of view before he lost her trust.
Without that he would fail for sure, as he’d failed with Candy. This situation had some striking similarities. Candy had met a man at a party. She’d been nineteen and the man twenty-three. It had been Jake’s first encounter with a stalker and he hadn’t reacted quickly enough to the things his sister told him. He’d nearly lost Candice. He wouldn’t make the same mistake with Katie, he vowed.
He found the security guard in room 105, watching morning cartoons, but at least the man looked fit enough to run the length of the building without passing out. And the man was helpful and concerned when Jake explained the situation. He agreed to keep his eye on Katie’s office, to escort her to and from her car as many times a day as necessary, and more important, he promised Jake a full report at the end of each day.
Deciding the man was competent despite the cartoon watching, Jake headed back up the stairs to Katie’s office. As he started down the hall, he detected movement out of the corner of his eye. Someone was in the hallway and had ducked into the doorway of an office when he’d heard Jake coming.
Jake worked to keep his steps even and unhurried despite the panic he felt. His heart thumped double time. He passed one office, then a second, slowing slightly as he neared the one across from Katie’s. The man pretended to study a computer services poster, but Jake knew the guy was watching him. He was blond haired, good-looking, average build, just under six-foot.
Nonchalantly, Jake strolled past the man. Then suddenly he spun around. He grabbed the man by the arm, wrenched it back. Fallon cursed vehemently. Jake shoved him up against the window, pressing his face into the glass.
“You lousy, son of a—” he started to say.
“Shut up!” Jake rammed his body into the man’s, leaning hard against him. He wanted the creep put away for a long time, but so far the only proven crime the man had committed was loitering. Not an arrestable offense. Rob would say his hands were tied until the restraining order was in place or until the man was caught actually trying to hurt Katie. Jake was not willing to wait for that to happen.
He reached for Fallon’s wallet and flipped it open. He realized Kaitlyn and her assistant had heard the commotion and had come out to see what was going on. He tossed the wallet to Katie.
“Take out his driver’s license and make a copy of it,” he told her.
She blinked a couple of times in surprise, then hurried to do as he commanded.
“Is this the creep?” he asked Mary.
She nodded.
“Get security up here,” he ordered.
She raced for the telephone.
Jake put his mouth against Fallon’s right ear. “Now, you listen to me—”
“Get off me, you bastard.”
Jake grabbed the man’s collar and whirled him around, then pinned him against the glass. “You are going to stay away from this building,” he snarled. “You are going to stay away from her house and away from her. She tells me she sees you anywhere, I’ll hunt you down and break you into little bitty pieces. You got that?”
The guy didn’t answer. He was staring at Kaitlyn, who’d returned with the wallet. Jake pressed his arm into the man’s throat. When he gasped, Jake knew he had his attention.
“You understand what I said?” Jake demanded.
Fallon only glared at him, hatred burning in his eyes. Jake pressed harder, until Fallon’s eyes glazed over.
Kaitlyn grabbed his arm. “Jake, stop.” He didn’t respond. “Jake,” she shouted, pulling at his arm. “You’re going to kill him.”
Jake heard footsteps racing down the hall toward them, then a deep voice commanded, “Let him go, Mr. Riley.”
Jake dimly realized the security man was also trying to pull him off Fallon. Slowly he released his prisoner, shoving him at the guard. He took the wallet from Katie and rammed it into Fallon’s back pocket.
“Get him out of my sight,” Jake growled at the guard.
He turned to Kaitlyn. She was breathing hard. Her eyes were huge in her pale face. He took her arm and led her back into her office, closing the door, then pulling her into his arms before she collapsed.
“Are you all right?” he asked against her hair. It smelled like heaven.
“I thought you were going to kill him.”
He’d wanted to. With a strength that stunned him. The thought that Katie was in danger had overridden everything else.
She was trembling. So was he—with the knowledge that her stalker had been close by, that he’d shown up the moment Jake had left the scene. And with the nearness of her. He was holding her again—something he’d never dreamed would happen. But here she was, in his arms, looking up at him, her eyes full of concern and caring.
She fit as perfectly as ever. Felt small and fragile in his embrace. He wrapped his arms more tightly around her, rested his chin on the top of her head and drank in that perfume of wildflowers and sunshine. She sighed, laid her head on his shoulder. Her arms went around him.
What was she doing? Kaitlyn asked herself. She shouldn’t be holding him, shouldn’t let him hold her so tightly she could feel every plane and contour of his rock-hard chest. Pull away. That’s what she should do. But this was where she wanted to be. She felt safe, cherished, things no other man’s embrace could make her feel. He stroked her hair with infinite gentleness. His warm breath fanned through the strands.
“Katie,” he said softly, “I’m sorry if I frightened you.”
“You did,” she told him, her voice still shaky.
“I saw him standing there in that doorway and I thought maybe I could scare him into leaving you alone.” And vent some of his frustrations on the creep.
She gazed up at him, the fear in her eyes replaced with what looked suspiciously like admiration. For him? Was she
grateful for what he’d tried to do for her?
He trailed a fingertip along the softness of her cheek. Did she seem to lean into his touch? Her eyes went warm. Her mouth parted. Suddenly he couldn’t help himself. He had to kiss her. Before he could think of all the reasons against it, he brushed his mouth over hers.
She tasted sweeter than he’d remembered. Felt softer. He wanted more; but he heard her sharply drawn breath and stopped himself. She stared up at him, surprise warring with need in the depths of her gaze.
“Jake,” she whispered, “we can’t do this.”
“I know.” He found himself nuzzling her ear.
“We’ll only regret it.”
“I know.” But his hand traced the column of her neck, her lovely throat. “We couldn’t make it work before.”
“Right.” She drew an uneven breath as his tongue traced a path along her earlobe. “You know what you’re doing doesn’t make a bit of sense.”
“Yeah,” he said against her ear. “But right now if I told you to shut up and kiss me, you would do it.”
“Not because you order me to,” she had to emphasize. She’d do it because she had no choice.
She turned her head and found his mouth. The kiss was possessive and powerful, swamping her senses. She sagged against him, weak-kneed. The hunger would come. First she wanted to savor. His hands, strong, firm on her shoulder and back, holding her so tightly against him. His mouth, insistent, knowing exactly how to please her. Oh, the places he could take her.
His kiss was as breath-stealing as a ride on a roller coaster. As dizzying as dangling over a cliff. Sinful. Wonderful. Heaven, and she wanted to stay forever in the circle of his strong arms, wanted to feel the heat of him surround her.
She felt alive, very much a woman and very much desired. His hand moved lower, to the curve of her hip, drawing her closer still to the brink of danger. Yet she couldn’t pull away, didn’t want to. His other hand wound through her hair, tilting her head back so he could deepen the kiss.
Jake touched his tongue to her bottom lip, pleased when her mouth opened and she moaned softly. It had always been this way between them. The heat. The need. The give-and-take.
And right now he was taking, he thought. Katie gave herself so generously, holding nothing back. Her grip on his shoulders was fierce, as if she had to cling to him for support. Did she have any idea what that did to him? And those little throaty moans. And the way her tongue sparred with his.
He could feel the curve of her small breasts pressed against his chest. Feel her hip next to his, their thighs touching. Her breathing was rapid and shallow, like his. All he could think about was how much she wanted him and he wanted her.
The ring of the phone startled them both. She gasped, as if the full importance of what they’d done had just slammed into her. As the phone rang a second time, she started to pull away. But Jake wouldn’t let her.
“Mary will get it,” he told her. “Stay here for just a minute longer.”
Kaitlyn didn’t protest, though she knew she should. This need to have him hold her and kiss her had started when he’d pulled her onto his lap this morning. She’d wanted it to happen then, wanted it still. But it couldn’t be. She sighed. There were things she had to explain to him.
“Jake, leaving you was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. You have to know that.” Leaving had torn her apart, and it had taken a long time to put the pieces back together. She couldn’t go through this a second time and survive.
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through, too.”
She heard the sincerity in his voice and felt it tug at her heart. “Then you have to understand that we can’t let this happen.”
He didn’t answer for a long moment. Finally he said, “You’re right, I know....”
“But?” she asked at his hesitation.
He gave her a wry smile. “I wish there were some way we could make it work.”
Nothing would make her happier, Kaitlyn thought, but she knew it could never be.
Chapter 6
So here comes the third degree—at last, Kaitlyn thought. But this time it was not coming from Jake. Rather, it was about him, and Shelly was asking the questions. Kaitlyn had actually expected it much sooner. She and Shelly had been shopping for nearly four hours, after all. But Shelly had had wedding details on her mind. Now that the invitations were ordered and the wedding dress was being altered to fit, the future bride was free to turn her attention to her friend.
“So how did you and Jake meet? Back then, I mean,” she queried as they got into her Mustang.
“You don’t really want to know.”
“Of course I do.”
Kaitlyn took a moment to buckle her seat belt before answering. “It’s truly boring stuff.”
“Liar. Now, quit stalling and give me the facts. I’ve been very patient.” Shelly gave her a firm look before turning to back the car out of the space.
“It was late one night and I wanted chocolate milk,”. Kaitlyn began. “I—stupidly, according to Jake—walked into this convenience store.”
“Why ‘stupidly’?”
“Because I walked into a’ robbery-in-progress. Jake thought I should have known there’d been a rash of robberies in that area. I shouldn’t have been out alone that late. I should have known the place had been hit half a dozen times in the three months prior to that, and that the owner started keeping a gun under the counter.”
“How were you supposed to have known all that?” Shelly cried.
Kaitlyn shrugged. “I should have been more aware of the things going on around me, I suppose. However, Jake went a little too far with his tirade and it didn’t take me long to get fed up with it.”
She smiled to herself, remembering that night and Jake’s fury at the thought she might have been hurt. He hadn’t even known her then, but he’d been overly concerned with her welfare nonetheless.
“I calmly opened the carton of milk,” she continued, “took a swallow, then poured the rest on him.”
Shelly gaped in shock, then she laughed. “You didn’t! What did he do?”
“Took down my license number when I drove off, looked me up on the computer and showed up on my doorstep the next day.”
“With flowers and candy?”
“With a dry-cleaning bill. He’d had his shirt and jeans cleaned and pressed and he wanted me to pay for it.”
“I don’t believe you. He had his jeans pressed?”
Kaitlyn nodded. “Jake believes in looking your best no matter what the situation, no matter the type of clothes. Scruffy is not his style.” She’d always liked that about him, she thought.
“Come to think of it,” Shelly said, “it’s not your style, either.” She made a left turn out of Oak Park Mall and headed south on Quivera. “So what was the problem between you two?”
“I suppose we were both a little immature and both very headstrong,” Kaitlyn said on a sigh. And they’d both needed very different things from a relationship. Still did. That was the part they would never be able to reconcile. She would have to work to remember that the next time he tried to kiss her.
It couldn’t happen again—though she knew that would be much easier said than done. She could still recall the feel of his mouth on hers. The coffee taste of him. How her willpower turned to mush in his embrace. What was she going to do about that?
She sighed once more.
“Then is being together again going to cause problems for you guys?” Shelly asked.
How like Shelly to be concerned about their feelings. Kaitlyn touched her friend’s arm. “We seem to be managing fairly well. But if things get difficult, Jake and I will deal with it. We’ve already agreed we won’t do anything to spoil the wedding.”
“Thanks,” Shelly said with relief. “Rob really wants Jake for best man and I really want you for maid of honor.” She made a right turn onto 119th Street. “You know, I’ve never understood what you have against marriage. Was your eight months wi
th Jake so bad?”
“My time with him did convince me I was better off on my own, but Jake isn’t responsible for the way I feel about marriage. I’d decided it wasn’t for me long before he came along. I just don’t want to be...married.”
In most of the relationships she saw, either one person was stronger, dominant, and the other person surrendered, or both were strong and they clashed continually. In her mother’s case, it had been the former and it had cost her everything. Kaitlyn had tried the latter with Jake and that didn’t work for her, either. She didn’t want to be in that situation of having to do battle with a strong-willed man and she couldn’t tolerate living with a weak male.
Growing up, she had decided she would prefer living alone. She’d had enough of answering to another person, especially someone as demanding and critical as her father. Jake’s overprotectiveness had only strengthened her conviction that she couldn’t risk losing herself, couldn’t risk ending up broken, devastated emotionally, helpless, unable to cope, a shell of the woman she could have been. Like her mother.
“Still,” Shelly continued, “I’ve always liked the thought of having a best friend, a soul mate, to share my life with. I think Jake is ready to settle down and start a family.”
Kaitlyn heard the note of concern in her friend’s words and thought again that Shelly was well suited for a career in the public defender’s office. “Don’t worry. If that’s what he wants, he’ll find someone to make it happen. Jake has a way of getting what he wants.”
“I suppose you’re right.” Shelly brightened as she turned into Kaitlyn’s driveway and spotted her intended helping Jake with the wiring of a floodlight over the garage.
The two men had taken off their suit jackets and ties and were working in their shirtsleeves. From high on the ladder, Jake looked down at her, his gaze filled with heat. Kaitlyn knew he was recalling what had transpired in her office and that he wanted a repeat performance as much as she. But hadn’t they agreed it couldn’t happen again?
Jake put the screwdriver in his back pocket, climbed down the ladder, then walked over to Kaitlyn. “How’d the shopping go?” he asked, his gaze locked with hers.