by Janzen, Tara
She’d seldom heard anyone talk so seriously and openly about sex. He wasn’t teasing her, and he sure as hell wasn’t flirting. He meant every word he was saying, but no matter what he said, wanting to see how far he could get taking her clothes off with his mouth was scandalous.
“You were angry when I walked through your door,” she corrected him.
“I was naked.”
Her blush deepened. She was floundering. He was more than she could handle—physically, emotionally, or verbally. “That wasn’t my fault either.”
“I’d be happy to give you a shot at making my nakedness your fault.” He helped himself to noodles and gave her a quick, sardonic grin she pretended not to see. “Every time you kiss me, I get the idea you’d know just how to go about it, and as we’ve already ascertained, I’ve got a hundred ways I’d like to do it to you.”
It was impossible for her blush to deepen, so it spread. Jessica knew she was supposed to like her body—every feminist said so—and she was proud of the two children she’d borne and nurtured, but getting naked with Cooper Daniels would be a tricky move if she wanted to keep her ego intact.
“We’re not really . . . uh, right for each other.” She hadn’t wanted to voice the obvious, but somebody had to keep things in perspective.
“I know,” he said, cocking his head and giving her a wry look. “But that doesn’t seem to be making a hell of a lot of difference in how I feel.”
She knew exactly what he meant, and she knew it meant trouble.
“I’ll be gone in two days,” she said.
“If I thought it would change your mind about what we should do with the afternoon, I’d fire you right after lunch. But I don’t think our job association is the only barrier between me, you, and a pair of damp sheets.”
“You’re crude.”
“I’m honest, and I want you.”
No one had ever said that to her. Such honesty could be flustering, and darkly thrilling.
“I’m no expert,” she said, trying to regain her perspective. “But don’t most men use a more subtle approach?”
He laughed and turned back to his plate. “I’m not sure I’ve got enough time to do this subtly.”
Alarmed, she looked over at him and found him gazing at her.
“If Baolian wanted you dead, she wouldn’t be trying to buy you off,” she said with conviction, as much for her own peace of mind as for his.
“Yeah,” he agreed, his face sobering. “But I’m not going to be bought.”
She went back to her lunch, though her appetite was long gone.
“So men don’t come on to you?”
Of all the things he could have come up with to continue the conversation, nothing could have been better designed to exasperate her—and get her mind off his very serious situation.
“No, Cooper. Men don’t come on to me.” She faced him and lifted her bangs. “Can’t you see the ‘wife’ and ‘mother’ signs branded on my forehead?”
“You’re not married.”
“No, but I was for long enough for the label to stick.” She gave him a look that said the conversation was over, but he didn’t take the hint.
“Lots of men find that especially attractive in a woman, her being married to someone else.”
“In my experience, it’s the other way around, with women finding other people’s husbands especially attractive.”
“Paul told me about Ian,” he said.
“I don’t want to talk about him with you.” She set her chopsticks down and prepared herself for getting up and leaving. They had already crossed the bounds of propriety and professionalism, and if they talked about her ex-husband, they were going to cross the bounds of civility.
Cooper’s hand on her arm stopped her getaway before she had a chance to move.
“If he’s part of the barrier, he’s going to get talked about.”
“Don’t try to analyze me, Cooper.” The edge in her voice gave away more of her feelings than she had intended, but it was too late for a flippant reply.
A heavy silence fell between them, and she could swear she heard his jaw clench.
“I don’t want to analyze you,” he finally said. “I want to make love with you, and believe me, I wouldn’t be telling you that if I didn’t have a damn good reason for thinking you wanted the same thing. I’m not a fool. I don’t go around setting myself up for rejection, and I sure as hell don’t make a pass at every woman who catches my eye. But you—” He stopped, frustration getting the better of him. He was silent for a long moment, and when he continued, his voice had softened to a pained whisper. “But you make me forget, Jessie, and I want more.”
She was frozen in place by his words, her heartbeat slowing to a dull throb. She ached for him, for what he’d lost.
He swore, one succinct obscenity, and rolled to his feet. Walking away, he swore again, the same harsh sound. She turned on her pillow to follow him with her eyes. He stopped in front of the window and raked his hands through his hair. The sun-streaked layers slipped through his fingers like falling silk, making her want to do the same, to touch him and feel the life of him in her hands.
“We’ve only known each other a week,” she said, her voice as unsure as she suddenly felt.
He looked over his shoulder at her, and there was a resignation on his face, a sadness that reached out and quietly broke her heart.
“It’s been a hell of a week,” he said, and turned back to the view.
He needed love, physical love, but despite the yearning she felt, Jessica knew she couldn’t be the one to give it to him. The sacrifice was too great, the cost too high. He would go on and either triumph over his nemesis or be killed, and the odds were very high on him getting killed.
“You’re right,” she said. “It’s been a hell of a week. I’ll do what I can with the Grand Cayman banker and write up my recommendation.”
Cooper heard her move behind him, and with a certainty that forced him into action, he knew he wasn’t ready to let her go.
She finished rising from the floor and brushed off her skirt. It was a floral cotton thing, kind of full, but elegant rather than casual with its black background and overblown cinnabar peonies. The matching blouse had a stand-up collar and buttoned down one side. It was the loops around the buttons that had made him think of taking her clothes off with his mouth.
She was beautiful. She’d kissed him with warmth and passion, and talking with her about making love had smothered his last polite instinct.
She began walking toward the door, and he swiftly crossed the room to cut her off.
“I think you should concentrate your efforts on the herb shop,” he said. “The Chinese are very particular about their herbs.”
“There’s not much there to concentrate on.”
They both stopped at the door. Cooper put his hand on the knob and wondered just how far he’d go to keep her with him awhile longer. “I’ll send John this afternoon to check it out.”
“Okay.” Her lashes lowered. He could tell by the hesitation in her movements that she wanted to say something else.
“What, Jessie?”
“Maybe when all this is over . . .” She paused for a deep breath and lifted her eyes to meet his gaze. “Maybe then we could see each other.”
“Why?” He asked the question softly, feeling a rush of hope surge into his bloodstream. Quickly on hope’s heels came another dose of frustration. He didn’t want to wait until anything was over. When everything was over, he’d probably be over too. God, if Baolian didn’t get him, another cutthroat probably would. He’d pushed himself so far out on a limb, he couldn’t even see the damn tree anymore. He’d called in favors and twisted arms that were used to doing the twisting. He’d all but put his soul in hock to people who wouldn’t hesitate to claim it if he didn’t come through for them.
She faltered for a second, obviously caught off guard by his directness. Then she surprised him.
“Because you fascinate me,�
� she answered, “and every time you kiss me, I feel something I’ve never felt before. I want to find out what it is.”
He hadn’t expected such honesty.
“Part of it is lust,” he said, feeling compelled to match her honesty with his own.
“And the rest of it?” she asked.
“Part loneliness,” he admitted, knowing that particular truth didn’t put either of them in a very noble light.
“There’s still something more.” She sounded convinced, and he didn’t dissuade her. He believed it too.
“Yes. There’s something more, and I’m no more sure of what it is than you are. But I—”
He was interrupted by someone’s noisy entrance into the reception area. Their eyes held for a second, then he moved a panel hidden in the elaborate carving of the dragon door and looked through a secret peephole.
“Chow Sheng has arrived with two of his guards,” he told her. “Stay here until he leaves. I don’t want him getting any more ideas about you.”
Jessica stepped back and watched him leave, realizing she’d just made a fatal error. She’d told him the truth about her feelings. The enormity of her stupidity made her groan.
* * *
Jessica kept a vigil at the dragon door for over half an hour before she left her post to put together a snack off their lunch table and to pull a chair to the door so she could get off her feet. The conversation had alternated between English and Cantonese, with enough of her mother tongue used for her to have learned the reason for Chow’s imperious disregard for Cooper’s privacy and time.
Cooper owed him money. Lots of money. Chow had come to suggest Cooper reconsider Baolian’s offer, using the threat of calling his loan as an incentive for Cooper’s cooperation.
Cooper had countered with a threat of his own: to tell Fang Baolian that her lackey dog had given money to the enemy, to pad the enemy’s war chest against his mistress.
Chow had blanched at Cooper’s words, and made it very clear that he and Baolian were nothing more than business associates, for only a mad monkey-dog would enter the jade gate of a dragon whore, which, it was said, had more teeth than a jackal. Chow had said all of this in English, wanting to make sure, Jessica surmised, that Cooper understood every single word.
As to Cooper’s threat, Chow had been unimpressed. Fang Baolian preferred her business associates to have power over her enemies, he’d told Cooper, and it had been such a worthless amount of money. Even Cooper must be able to see that Chow had not endangered the empress of the South China Sea. If anything, he had done her a favor by indenturing her enemy to himself with the loan.
Jessica’s heart and hopes had sunk with every revelation. Cooper’s ship was taking on water at an alarming rate. He was sure to go down.
But he hadn’t taken Chow’s offer. Baolian had doubled her payoff, and still Cooper had held firm. Jessica had always thought she admired men with principles, but she was afraid watching a man die for his principles would greatly change her appreciation for the art of compromise.
“Damn you, Cooper.” She picked up a shrimp, then let it fall back onto her plate when the phone rang, startling her. Before she could make a move to answer it, the ringing stopped. She checked the outer office and saw Cooper speaking into the receiver.
Thinking how awkward it might be for him if the caller was delivering vital information, she debated if she should get on the other line, then decided he could handle the situation without her resorting to possible rudeness. She reached for the shrimp again. Again she returned it to the plate. Her stomach was growling, but it was in a tangle of knots that precluded eating.
Tucking her feet under her on the chair, she leaned on the padded arm and looked back through the peephole, only to discover things had changed in the other room—dramatically. Her body stiffened and the plate slipped to the floor unnoticed.
John Liu and Cao Bo were just returning, and their entrance sent instantaneous shock waves through the reception area. A moment’s more dallying with the shrimp, and Jessica would have missed the most important exchange she’d seen since she started working for Daniels, Ltd.
If Chow Sheng had blanched at the mention of Baolian as his mistress, he turned absolutely bloodless when Cao Bo walked into the room. His dark, slanted eyes widened into perfect O’s, and his long-nailed fingers fluttered over his heart, as if he could contain the shock that organ had just received. As quickly as he’d fallen apart, he pulled himself together, turning his face aside and speaking to one of his guards.
For her part, Cao Bo dropped her cloak of shy insecurity. When she saw whom she’d walked in on, her immediate reaction of fear was eclipsed by defiance. Her slight shoulders drew back and a challenge glittered in her amber eyes.
The whole exchange happened within the space of a breath, before Cooper could turn from the telephone, before John got all the way in the door, but the impact of it stunned Jessica. She swore softly, a word she’d never used but appreciated now for its earthiness.
In the reception area, much dissembling was taking place. Chow Sheng sedately informed his adversary of a prior appointment, assuring Cooper that their negotiations would be continued at a later date. No introductions were made, but John had drawn Bo close, as if she were a girl he was seeing and happened to bring with him to drop in on his boss. Yuxi inconspicuously placed himself in front of the couple and spoke in rapid-fire Cantonese, drawing all the attention in the room to himself.
Cooper looked disgusted with the unexpected turn of events and did his best to smooth things over and get Chow out of his office. The older man did not need any encouraging. He left in a flurry of silk robes and bodyguards, as if he hoped a speedy escape would absolve him of any repercussions from the chance meeting. That was the way Jessica read the situation, and she considered herself damn good at reading situations.
Her questions about Cao Bo tripled in the time it took for the outer doors to close behind the last bodyguard. Jessica understood the young woman’s initial fear. The defiance was a different animal altogether. Defiance implied enmity, and enmity implied acquaintance. Chow Sheng and Cao Bo knew each other, and while Cao Bo may have been afraid of every other person she’d met in the last few days, she was not afraid of Chow Sheng. Quite the opposite, in fact. Chow Sheng was afraid of the young woman.
He was also afraid of Fang Baolian. The coincidence was not lost on Jessica.
Eleven
The minute Chow Sheng was out the door, Jessica went into action. She ducked her head into the reception area and started giving orders.
“Yuxi, lock the door, please. John, will you come and secure the elevator? Make sure it won’t move, then come back here to wait with Yuxi and Bo. Cooper, I need to see you in your office—alone.” She ducked her head back behind the dragon doors, then popped it out again with a last question. “Does anybody have a firearm?”
All three men had turned toward her, and they nodded in unison. It was more backup than Jessica had expected, especially in the office. When Bo added her hesitant nod, she didn’t know whether to feel additional relief or to give in to a stronger surge of dismay.
Dismay won. A glance at Cooper showed him having the same reaction. John was quicker than both of them, swinging the woman around and flattening her against the wall for a brief but thorough frisking. He came up with the handgun out of her tunic and gave Cooper an apologetic smile tinged with self-recrimination.
“Pretty women,” he said with a shrug, as if there was no understanding them and he should have known better than to trust one.
Cooper agreed with both sentiments with a slight lifting of his brows.
Yuxi stayed with Bo as the rest of them went into Cooper’s office. After securing the elevator, John returned to the reception area, leaving the two of them alone.
“General Langston, I presume?” Cooper said dryly, striding toward the table and the half-empty wineglass he’d left there.
Jessica ignored the sarcasm. She was too concerned with h
ow to approach him with what she thought she knew.
“Nice little disaster we just had out there,” he said, the idleness of the comment belied by the tightness of his jaw. He picked up his glass and tossed off the contents in one swallow.
“That wasn’t a disaster, Cooper. That was a godsend,” she said.
His gaze narrowed on her. “You’ve never struck me as the overly optimistic type. Do you want to explain your definition of a godsend?”
She wasn’t sure just yet, and her uncertainty showed in her hesitation. “First I want . . . no. First I need to know what you’re going to do with Fang Baolian.”
“I thought that was apparent. I’m going to destroy her.”
“Do you want to explain your definition of destroy?” she asked, throwing his question back at him.
He looked at her for a long moment, unnerving her with the intensity of his gaze. When he spoke, his voice was dangerously quiet.
“What do you know, Jessie?”
“I’m not sure.”
“You were sure enough two minutes ago to cordon off the area and do a weapons check,” he said, correctly interpreting her intent and her actions. “I want to know what was behind your decision.”
She’d started the discussion. She was going to have to finish it, but she didn’t have to give her knowledge away. “I need some guarantees.”
Cooper stared at her. “Aren’t you forgetting whose interests you are being well paid to keep in mind?”
“This isn’t about money.” She nervously clasped her hands together near her waist.
“What is it about, then, Jessie?”
“A woman’s life,” she said, then blurted out, “I don’t want her killed. I don’t want you to kill her.” Jessica hadn’t even known how important that truth was to her, until she’d realized she might hold the power to bring Baolian to her knees at Cooper’s feet.
“Killing is her game, not mine,” he said, lowering his gaze as he placed his empty glass back on the table.
“I don’t believe you.” She’d seen him with Chow Sheng. She remembered the way he’d looked the first time she’d seen him—wild and capable of anything.
