“That one is from the Cambridge Sun. Beth hates it, but my grandmother gave it to her.” Lew commented. “The Journal only printed nice pictures. They let her have her dignity. Beth says The Sun goes for the throat.”
“The Sun is only a half step above a tabloid,” Kevin added.
Jack didn’t say anything. All he could see was Katherine surrounded on all sides by police. In every picture, she had someone in a blue uniform at her elbow or with an arm around her shoulders. According to the articles Jack skimmed when he could tear his eyes from the pictures, an investigation cleared the officer whose gun discharged during a struggle with a suspect, killing Gary. They described her fiancé as a paragon of police virtue, listing his exemplary record and mentioned Katherine having won an award for teaching the previous year.
And three years later, they hadn’t even been able to call her back when her garage roof started leaking.
“What a bunch of jerks,” he snarled.
“Excuse me?” Kevin asked rearing back.
“Look at them, all circling around her trying to get some of her fiancé’s glory to rub off on them. Trying to cover up the fact that one of their guys screwed up and killed one of their own. And then they dumped her.” Jack snapped the scrapbook closed.
“Gentlemen, can we get the day going?” The captain stood in the doorway with a clipboard under his elbow.
“How could they?” Jack shoved the scrapbook at Lew. “They left her high and dry.”
“Left who high and dry?” the captain asked.
“His landlady. She’s Officer Ringer’s widow. Sort of.” Lew placed the scrapbook in his locker.
“I remember that incident. He was shot in some kind of messy business, wasn’t he? She’s your landlady?”
“How could they forget about her?” Jack asked the captain. “How could they promise to help her, and then not even return her calls?”
The captain shrugged. “It’s hard to look at a widow and not want to promise her anything. Lots of times you end up making promises you can’t keep. And when she’s not a legal widow...”
“But Cap, we keep our promises,” Dan pointed out. He stood by the door to the showers with his arms folded, looking almost as angry as Jack. “I’m still on Daisy Wells’ speed dial. And that was five years ago.”
Cap shrugged. “Some of us take our promises more seriously than others. And sometimes sticky business gets in the way. Ringer was shot by another cop. They had to protect their own.”
“That's not how you protect your own,” Dan grumbled.
“We never accidentally shoot anyone,” Cap pointed out.
“But she thinks we’re like them,” Jack said.
“Well, you’ll have to change her mind. Now, can we have lineup, or would you rather discuss your new girlfriend a little more?”
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Not yet,” Kevin said, walking past him out of the locker room.
* * * *
Katherine knew she would have to face him eventually. She lay on her bed watching the sun creep across the ceiling. Yesterday, she’d avoided him the same way she’d avoided him Thursday. She stayed in. She’d even gone to the library to stock up on books and she’d already finished two of them. The third was not going to last the day. At least there was school to look forward to tomorrow. It would give her a good excuse to be away. She had lesson plans ready to be disrupted by assemblies for the rest of the school year. Her stomach had dropped when she realized school would be out in two months, and she had all summer to spend with her new tenant.
She couldn’t avoid him all that time, even if she got another job again.
And she couldn’t be near him without wanting him.
Sticking her foot out from under the covers, she tested the air. Cool but not cold. She slid out of bed. The floor felt a little colder than she liked, but she couldn’t do anything about it if she wanted to afford the heating bill. She padded to the kitchen to make a cup of tea without a robe or slippers. Maybe the cold would shock some sense into her, but she couldn’t help wondering how warm it must be in Jack’s bed, curled up between him and Archer, languid and sated and… Katherine shook her head to drive out the image. Maybe she should get her own dog to warm her bed. Significantly less trouble than worrying about Jack every time he went on duty.
In the kitchen, she noticed the faucet had stopped dripping, leaving her with only a half cup of water for tea. She grimaced. Now she’d have to fight the knob to get water. She grabbed the knob with both hands because, since the last time Randy ‘fixed’ it, it refused to budge otherwise, and twisted.
The knob snapped off in her hand. Cold water sprayed up, fountaining against the ceiling.
Katherine stumbled backward, dropping the knob. “Oh my God!” She stared at the water showering off the ceiling for a moment before diving under the sink and pulling out the pots and pans. She leaned back to check which side was spraying, banging her head on the cupboard. Then she ducked under again and grabbed the right shut off valve, which promptly fell off in her hand. She opened her hand and looked at the knob. It was cracked clear across.
Randy. That idiot Randy. He broke the valve and put it on anyway.
She scrambled to her feet, gaping at the disaster. Cold water splashed against the ceiling, ran down the walls, and soaked into the carpet, making it squish under her feet. In minutes it would be raining in Jack’s kitchen.
Jack.
“Jack!” She screamed. She thundered down the stairs and outside, clutching the shut off valve. She slipped at the corner of the house and almost went down in the oregano, but caught herself on the edge of the porch.
“Jack!” She almost managed to stop before slamming bodily into Jack’s door and began beating on it. Inside, Archer barked like a wild thing.
* * * *
Jack rolled out of bed when the alarm sounded and couldn’t understand why he couldn’t get his turnout pants pulled up. His feet wouldn’t go into the boots and the suspenders were missing altogether. He also couldn’t understand why Archer was at the station. The alarm sounded funny, more like a woman screaming. He staggered across the floor and about the time he tripped into the door jam, he realized Archer wasn’t at the station. He wasn’t at the station either. And these weren’t his turnouts, they were jeans. The screaming woman alarm wasn’t the alarm, it was Katherine screaming his name.
And it was raining in the kitchen.
He yanked open the front door.
“The faucet—it broke—” Katherine thrust a small silver object at him. “Water everywhere!”
Jack looked at the object. It kind of looked like a knob, but it had cracked clear across. Katherine was wet and barefoot in a night gown. Water rained through the ceiling. The pieces came together as Archer charged past him out the door.
“Wait a minute.” He ran to the back door and flung it open. He grabbed the entire toolbox. He ran around the side of the house with Katherine on his heels and took the stairs two at a time.
Water shot out of the knob stem straight to the ceiling, splashing down in all directions and soaking into the carpet, which explained the rain.
Jack grabbed a heavy glass pot off the floor and put it over the knob stem redirecting most of the water into the sink. He ducked under the sink, snapping open his toolbox at the same time. He located his small wrench by feel. A moment later he had shut off the water. Then he leaned back on his heels and listened to the dripping from the ceiling for a minute. When he turned around Katherine had come to a stop in the doorway with one fist pressed against her mouth and the other gripping the door frame.
“Oh no.” She moaned. “Look at the ceiling. Look at the floor. Oh God, it’s soaked everything in your kitchen.”
“I can fix it.” He stood and found the knob in the sink. The screw was stripped. “I’ll replace this piece, and you’re good as new.”
“New is what led to this.” She wrapped her arms around herself and started shivering.
Then Jack noticed she was wearing only a white nightgown. A wet, white nightgown. He tried to focus on her face, but it was hard not to stare. She was sexier than he’d imagined. Especially with her arms wrapped around her, mounding her breasts together. Through the wet cotton, he could make out her dusky pink nipples, erect from the cold. The nightgown also plastered across her hips, giving him a perfect view of her narrow waist and generous hips. He knew he was too cold and too groggy to be this aroused, but couldn’t convince his body of it.
“Then I’ll make it better than new.” He walked across the room and put his hand on her shoulder. Her skin felt icy. “You’re freezing.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m so stupid. I should have known better than to hire the school janitor to put in plumbing. God only knows what else he screwed up.” She hung her head. Some of her hair slithered forward and started dripping on the floor.
“School janitor?” Jack paused remembering the blond guy answering her door when he came to sign the lease and saying ‘you could call me that’ when Jack asked if he was a friend. He’d assumed they were more than friends, not less.
“Oh, Randy’s fine building things, but he doesn’t know the first thing about plumbing, no matter what he says.”
“Randy put this in?” Blondie was the school janitor? Nothing more than a hired hand? And when he came over that night, he was coming to fix the sink?
“Yes. Oh, he is dumb as a box of rocks, and I’m dumber for hiring him in the first place.”
Jack put his arms around her shoulders trying to tell himself he just wanted to offer comfort and not believing a word of it.“I can fix it. It’ll be all right.”
She leaned against him sighing.
His heart pounded. Her breath whispered across his bare chest. She shifted so her body pressed against his, warm and wet. Her damp, wild hair clung to his shoulder. He let his hand slide down the slope of her back, catching on the fabric of her nightgown, melding her tighter to his body. Her breath caught.
She turned her face up, locking his eyes to hers. Her parted lips trembled. Then she rose up on her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pressed her lips against his.
* * * *
Though she may have initiated the kiss, she lost control of it immediately. Jack pulled her against his hard body as he tasted her lips in a leisurely pace. She warmed under his expert touch. Her blood temperature rose to a rolling boil. His hands slid up her back, leaving scorched skin behind and dragging her nightgown up to the top of her thighs. Her whole body smoldered.
She moaned, incapable of coherent thought. Somewhere in her mind she knew she shouldn’t be doing this.
But she couldn’t remember why. She tried to follow the thought. It seemed important to someone, but that someone wasn’t her at this moment. Her feet no longer touched the floor. The only solid thing in her universe was Jack. He had one arm secure around her back keeping her body tight against his while his other hand caressed her cheek. Trailing down her body, he brushed the side of her breast, making it ache to be caressed more. His heart beat against her ribs.
Breathing quickening, he lifted his soft mouth from hers and started working his way down her throat, murmuring her name. She buried her fingers in his wet hair. Her head bent forward. She brushed her lips along his collar bone, tasting his skin.
Her hands slipped across his powerful shoulders, pulling her body against his. Skin burned under her fingers. One of his hands trailed around her waist. It dipped down, cupping her buttocks. Something in her belly knotted and opened at the same time and a liquid heat spilled out. His hands slipped under her nightgown and over her hip. She gasped as his hands closed around her naked waist. He could almost encircle her with his fingers and they burned into her like molten steel.
Archer’s bark jerked her back to reality and out of Jack’s arms.
She stumbled into the door frame across the hall and put one hand over her mouth. It felt bruised and swollen. The cold room and the wet carpet under her feet shocked her. She looked down at herself and realized her cotton nightgown had become transparent when it got wet.
“Nothing like making a bad situation worse,” she whispered. Her throat threatened to close on a sob. Her entire body wanted to fall forward into his arms. Back where she felt warm and safe and beautiful.
Jack looked stunned. “What? What bad situation?” He reached for her.
“I can’t do this.” She whirled around and sprinted for her bedroom, all the while trying to shake her nightgown back down to cover her.
Jack followed close behind. “Why can’t you do this? You just did.”
She grabbed her robe and held it in front of her.
“What are you doing in my bedroom?” she demanded. She wanted to stop shivering, to present some kind of composed exterior, but at the moment she was hot, cold and shattered. The world had flattened and shifted. Not square any more, that’s what he’d said about the door. She didn’t feel at all square either.
Jack took one more step inside her bedroom. “I’m trying to get a simple answer.”
Archer walked between them and jumped on her bed. Jack’s eyes followed him enviously. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Archer had made himself comfortable in the exact center of the bed. She took another step back and bumped into the mattress. He might never forgive her for this.
It didn’t matter. No more heroes.
“I can’t. Are you going to fix the faucet or not?”
Jack threw his hands up. “Of course I’m going to fix the faucet. I said I would. Katherine, what is going on?”
“Nothing.” She yanked her robe on and tied the belt so tightly it threatened to cut her in half. Her mattress pressed against the backs of her thighs, and Jack loomed in the doorway, not even an arm’s length away. It would be so easy to reach out to him. To pull him closer. Everything seemed less square with each passing moment. The sooner she got him out of her bedroom, out of her apartment, the better. Before she did something else she’d regret.
“Nothing is going on.”
“Is there another guy? I know it’s not Randy.”
“What do you know about Randy?”
“Damn little, but I know you’re not seeing him.” Jack’s voice verged on a shout, but she refused to flinch under his anger.
Katherine pursed her lips. “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”
“Oh really? Is that before or after what just happened? Because I think it might change a few things between us.” He gestured toward her kitchen, smacking his hand against the wall. She flinched. Then she noticed a long thin bruise on his shoulder that looked very new. It was right about where she’d kissed him.
“Well,” Katherine's mind went blank. She wanted it to change things. Wanted more. Before she knew what it was, she’d wanted it. And now—now she didn’t know how she’d survive the day knowing his hands would never touch again. “Well, it doesn’t. Do you want to move? I’ll let you break your lease.” Her knees almost gave out. She had not planned on saying that. She hadn’t planned any of this. The landlord book didn’t have any text on dealing with overwhelming attraction to your tenant.
What if he did move out? Out of sight would not be out of mind with Jack Conley. Especially with him working three blocks away. She had visions of herself deciding to take long walks around the neighborhood just to walk past the station on the off chance she would see him.
“Move,” he repeated, taking an uneven step backward out of her bedroom. “Move? No. I don’t want to move.” Opening his mouth to speak, he stopped and shook his head. “I’m going to need a part to fix that sink. I’ll have to get it when the hardware store opens. Archer, come.”
Archer leaped off the bed behind her and followed Jack down the stairs. Katherine managed to keep her feet until she heard the door close. Then she let go and sank down on the bed. Her whole body ached with wanting him and her cheeks were scraped raw by his rough face. Everything scraped raw. She pulled her knees up
to her chin and rolled sideways on the bed.
What if he changed his mind? What if he decided to break the lease? What if she lost him? And if she didn’t lose him, how would she be able to face him now that he knew she slept without panties?
* * * *
Jack managed to get as far as the foyer, but had to collapse on the two odd steps sticking out of the wall. They would have been the beginning of the staircase. Then, he’d be able to walk upstairs and shake some sense into her. He’d be able to bend her back on that bed and finish what they’d started. Slouching against the wall, he listened for her. Whatever she was doing, she was being quiet about it.
He’d thought everything would be all right when she told him Randy was the school janitor.
He’d thought when she kissed him it would work out.
He’d thought when she responded so eagerly all the uncertainty was over.
Break his lease?
Treat her gently, his grandmother said. Well, what had happened could hardly be considered gentle.
But well worth it. Closing his eyes, he recalled her expression. He could go to his grave happy with the memory of her sweet face turning up toward his. Those soft, dark eyes focusing on him with desire. He’d been too stunned to react. She'd dropped her defenses before he’d had to breach them and been so pliable and soft in his arms. A little hesitant, but with very little direction, eager. The light touch of her hands on his shoulders. The texture of her hot mouth brushing his skin. The breathy gasp when he wrapped his hands around her waist. He could still feel her body pressed against his.
He stood up. It was time for a cold shower. Even wet and cold, she had the ability to arouse him more than he liked. Stopping in the bathroom door, he savored the memory of standing in her bedroom door. Even furious and yelling at him, he’d wanted her. He’d wanted to step forward, take her in his arms and lay her back on her bed. But his grandmother told him to treat her gently.
Three Alarm Tenant Page 12
