A Steamy Bodyguard Romance Anthology: Just One Look

by Joanne Rock

  “Really?” She ran a hand through her hair as if to loosen it, her fingers half scratching her scalp as she kicked up the curls. “Since when do you care what people think about you?”

  “I don’t care what anyone thinks of me on a personal basis, but I’m definitely invested in the perception of my business.”

  Grinning, she strutted past him to pull two sodas out of her refrigerator and he found himself holding his breath waiting for that flash of skin at her waist as her T-shirt rode up with each swaggering step. If he didn’t get to work soon, he’d have those long legs of hers wrapped around his waist in no time and she deserved more than a quickie in the middle of an investigation.

  Besides, she might have her ex on her mind after her visit to the prison and Sean needed to be one hundred and twenty percent sure she was over the guy before he plunged himself heart-deep inside her again.

  “So you left the department to be a rebel, but you founded a business that forces you to play conservative.”

  He took a deep breath—not that it helped much—and opted to lose himself in work rather than in her luscious body.

  “That’s about the size of it.” He forced himself to do a couple of basic searches on their new suspect, running multiple windows at once to see what he could find. “You live and learn. But for someone like me, it’s easier to take direction from myself than to have some desk-bound lieutenant telling me what to do.”

  She nodded as she set down his drink on a butterfly coaster next to the computer.

  “Sometimes success is just a matter of knowing your strengths and finding ways to work around your weaknesses. Obviously, you’re doing a great job on both counts.” She took a long drink as she went back to stare into her pantry while he continued to work. “But we got terribly off topic from why you’re the king of short term, didn’t we?”

  “Isn’t that a good thing?” His fingers stalled on the keyboard. “I never mind talking about work.”

  She peered over the low cupboard door at him as if he’d said something revealing. He went back to his search.

  “Maybe relationships will turn out like your work,” she observed finally, as she seemed to be chopping something up on a cutting board.

  Did he really want to know what that meant?

  Damn it. He did.

  “How so?” He pushed back from the computer to hear her better.

  “In the world, you just needed to find the right job where you could be yourself and not feel like someone else was bossing you around.” She’d already chopped up some cheese. Now she was slicing a baguette to throw in a basket alongside the platter.

  “Right.” He got up and peeked in her fridge and found some cold cuts to add to the platter that was strictly chick food to his eyes.

  “So maybe you’ve been doing the short-term thing because you haven’t found the right woman who lets you be yourself and doesn’t try to manipulate you.”

  Her words might not have resonated with him if he hadn’t been trying to sneak ham slices onto her platter. As it was, the moment seemed rich with “aha” meaning as she carried the silver tray—ham and all—over to the coffee table.

  “Would you bring the bread basket?” she called over one shoulder.

  “Got it.” He picked up the bread and told himself that people didn’t fall in love over cold cuts.

  But for the first time, he could visualize a future for himself that involved more than work. He’d never been able to imagine being comfortable enough with a woman to want to face the inevitable challenges of a future together. But with someone like Donata, someone who threw herself into work the same way he did, who was as passionate as him, he could see himself kissing the short-term title goodbye.

  * * *

  AFTER HOURS of investigative work, Donata wanted to bang her head on the nearest wall. Sean swore the case was coming together, but there were too many pieces that didn’t fit neatly, too much crime on all sides of this illegal webcam racket.

  They’d at least made some progress on Richie Ford. He was so clean that they’d already determined he must have an alias or two if he was a friend of Serg’s. Sure enough, they’d found another name he’d done business under was also a name once listed as a contact for fastgirlz. The name had been a dead end when Sean had first investigated the company, but now some of the leads from the past were beginning to make sense.

  Richie Ford, aka Richie Feyette, was definitely up to illegal activities. But Donata wasn’t sure why he had a beef with her personally or how he was getting illegal videos made all over the city. Surely he couldn’t sneak into that many bedrooms by himself.

  Even with all the ways the case was finally starting to fall into place, Donata found herself distracted by Sean’s shoulders as he worked at the keyboard, his back straight and muscular. Sometimes she dipped her head closer to his shoulder just so she could find his scent and breathe it in.

  She told herself she wouldn’t have allowed herself to be distracted if her utmost attention would lead to a faster arrest. But she wouldn’t be able to question Richie until the morning at the earliest. Besides, she’d spent serious overtime on the case all week, including the trip to Ray Brook and one sleepless night at the precinct after her apartment had been compromised.

  Didn’t she deserve to make a move on a man who might be out of her life as soon as they started making the arrests that would close the Sara Chapman case?

  “This is our guy.” Sean turned toward her suddenly, his eyes bright with passion for the job more than passion for her. “He’s involved in a slew of Web sites advertising illegal movies and I just got word from the online superstore that his fstgrlz e-mail address is behind hundreds of webcam gifts through their wish list feature. That’s not how Sara Chapman received her webcam, but if we contact a few other gift recipients we should be able to strengthen our case against him.”

  She blinked at the barrage of information when she’d been thinking along far more carnal lines.

  “We still need to tie him to Sara Chapman if I’m going to close her case.” Her brain operated at the speed of sludge, but she forced herself to consider her options. “Our only real link so far is that both Terrance Russell and Richie Ford are friends of Serg’s. They could be working together.”

  She didn’t like the idea of T.J. falling so far from grace that he’d date girls just to obtain illicit video footage to sell at a profit.

  “Maybe you could talk to Terrance again. Bring up Richie’s name and see what happens.” He threaded his fingers in her hair, tilting her face up to his. “Are you okay?”

  Better now. His touch sent a shot of sexual adrenaline through her tired body.

  “Yeah. Just a little brain-dead after reevaluating our information so many times.”

  His hand slid away from her as he glanced at the face of his watch, a massive silver timepiece with multiple readouts and buttons. She’d be lucky to locate a clock on there at all.

  “It’s after midnight. No wonder you’re tired.” He reached for his coat before she could make it clear she wasn’t too tired to jump him, just too tired to think.

  Her cell phone trilled obnoxiously, halting her from reaching for him.

  The caller ID showed an unfamiliar number.

  “Casale.” It wasn’t easy summoning up her work voice when she was exhausted and sex-starved, but she did her best.

  “Donata?” A young woman’s voice was on the other end, her tone unsure and maybe nervous.

  “Yes, this is Donata. Who’s calling?” She motioned to Sean to wait.

  “It’s Katie Juarez. I’m sorry to call so late.”

  Mick’s daughter? A knot twisted in her gut.

  “Hi, Katie. Is your dad okay?” Her tiredness dissolved in a moment of panic. Nothing could happen to him…what would she do?

  “He’s fine. But he’s going to be really angry with me if he finds out what I did.” Her voice broke on the other end of the call.

  Donata’s fears for Mick dou
bled since the only thing worse than something happening to him would be something happening to his kid and she had the feeling Katie was in trouble.

  Late-night phone calls from scared teenagers were never a good sign. She reached for Sean, grateful for his warm strength as she squeezed his arm.

  “Where are you? Are you hurt?”

  “I’m on Long Beach. At a friend’s house.” The girl sniffled. “I’m okay here. But I did something really stupid after Dad went off on me two days ago about being irresponsible.”

  Donata couldn’t imagine how Katie got her cell number unless Mick had given it to her for an emergency. Something struck Donata as strange about the whole conversation since she hardly knew Katie.

  “My dad told me about the case you’ve been working on and he started quizzing me about my computer use and tracking every stupid Web site I’ve ever visited. It was really invasive, you know?” The girl’s voice contained a hint of foreignness, but then she’d been raised abroad until last fall.

  “I’m sure he just wanted to keep you safe. What did you do?” Donata found it a little challenging to empathize with a girl whose father cared so deeply about her and wanted to be involved in her life when Donata’s dad had been quick to push Donata out into the real world to find her happiness as an individual.

  Translation—on her own. By herself. Alone.

  “My boyfriend had been asking me to make him a present for his birthday, but I’d been telling him no because I didn’t feel comfortable.”

  Oh damn. Damn. Damn.

  “What did he want you to do, Katie?” Donata sat on the sofa since her legs had grown weak. Sean disappeared into the kitchen and reemerged with a glass of water for her.

  Had she ever sounded as young as the girl on the other end of the phone? This naive? Donata knew she had, but the thought of being that vulnerable made her heart ache for Katie.

  “He wanted a few…photos.” She spoke softly, as if she didn’t want someone to overhear her. “Not a whole video like in that case my dad said you guys are working on. It was just a picture or two that he wanted to snap with his camera phone.”

  Donata’s heart plummeted.

  “So you let your boyfriend take the pictures because you were mad at your father?” She didn’t mean to sound judgmental to a girl already on a guilt trip, but Donata needed to get the facts straight in case any of this tied into their investigation.

  “Not exactly. I took the pictures myself because we haven’t even done anything yet. He hadn’t ever seen me naked before.”

  Donata couldn’t help but think that nakedness was better shared in person for a girl’s first time, but at the same time, she felt relieved that at least Katie’s relationship hadn’t escalated.

  At twenty-seven, Donata wasn’t even sure she felt emotionally equipped to deal with intimacy. How the hell could a teenager?

  “And you’ve already sent him the pictures?”

  Tears started in earnest then, or so it sounded from the broken sobs.

  “I just hit the Send button about half an hour ago. But instead of feeling empowered the way I imagined I would, I just feel like crap.”

  Donata didn’t know how she could fix this for Mick’s daughter who obviously had a good head on her shoulders despite this unwise move. But she did know she needed to talk to this young woman face to face to share a little hard-won wisdom before she got herself into any more trouble.

  “Katie? I need to see you as soon as possible. Tonight.” She drank the water Sean had brought her, grateful for the look of concern in his eyes. When had a man ever been worried about her going out in the middle of the night alone? Serg might have been jealous, but never worried for her safety.

  Jotting down the address, Donata knew she’d just found a way to finally make peace with her past. Maybe all the mistakes would be made more worthwhile if they helped prevent someone else from making them, too.

  CHAPTER 14

  “WHAT DO YOU MEAN, it’s a setup?” Donata stared at him across the console of his SUV, not bothering to hide her exasperation with him and their case spiraling out of control.

  Sean had let her drive his vehicle since he wanted to check out a few things about Katie’s story on the way and he couldn’t if he was behind the wheel. They were driving toward a Long Beach address in next to no traffic so navigating the road was easy enough. Navigating the mood inside the SUV was anything but.

  They were both tense and frustrated. Lack of sex the past two days didn’t help. At least not on his end. Working next to her all evening without touching her had been painful.

  “Don’t you think it’s strange that she called you for help and advice even though she’s only met you a couple of times?” He’d checked a reverse address directory to find out who owned the property Katie claimed to be staying at, but he’d only come up with a corporation name that didn’t match the friend’s name Katie gave. Of course, the property could be rented.

  “At first I thought it was strange, but if she’s feuding with her parents she obviously didn’t want to share her misdeed with them if she could help it. And she knew about this case because Mick talked to her about online dangers, so it makes sense that she’d think I could help with a similar situation.” She moved into the right lane to exit while Sean worked through the scenario in his head.

  “I can’t believe Mick didn’t want to meet us out here.” If it had been his kid, he would have called in the SWAT team to get her out and bring her home. Or to a convent.

  “He said he didn’t want to upset her since his hard-nosed tactics apparently drove her to rebel in the first place. He’s letting me talk to her, but he’ll be at his ex-wife’s house when we bring her home later so the three of them can have a sit-down.”

  “But he didn’t even know this so-called friend of hers.”

  “Apparently she receives considerable freedom from her mother, so Mick doesn’t make the calls about where she spends her time.”

  Sean wondered what she thought about that since she’d been vocal about her father’s lack of involvement in her own life. Maybe both Donata and her partner had a little too much personal connection to this case to see it objectively because Sean’s every instinct screamed at him that something didn’t feel right tonight.

  And wasn’t that an eye opener?

  He’d been squeezed out of the NYPD for too much personal connection to a case after his sister had been molested and he hadn’t been able to see how much that compromised his work. Now, four years later as he watched Donata and Mick make decisions that didn’t necessarily employ their best professional judgment, he finally recognized how right his department had been to come down hard on him for running rogue on his sister’s case.

  And if it took him four years to face the facts, what were the chances Donata would understand she might be too close to this case in the next few minutes?

  The houses were tightly packed in this section of Long Beach, with one balcony on top of another as they neared the water.

  “I’m not letting you go in alone.”

  “And just who do you think is going to be inside that house besides a freaked-out girl, her friend and possibly a pilfered beer?” Donata lifted her directions to study them under the dashboard light as they sat at an intersection.

  “I don’t know. Maybe a jacked-up boyfriend who works for fastgirlz and doesn’t want his gravy train to stop so he takes out the cop who threatens it?”

  She paused long enough to at least consider the idea.

  “Mick went all through his daughter’s computer. Don’t you think if anything came up that could be a potential red flag he would have been all over it? I think it’s safe to assume she hasn’t been receiving suspicious e-mails or visiting questionable Web sites.”

  Donata turned right up a connector road through the middle of Long Beach. Trinket shops and fast-food places sat side by side with upscale restaurants and small boutiques.

  As they passed an Italian place with a deep red awn
ing and soft candlelight glowing through the windows in the dining room, it occurred to Sean that he’d never even taken Donata on a real date. What kind of a schmuck wooed a woman by sleeping with her at every opportunity and failing to give her anything vaguely resembling romance?

  “But she had a relationship with this boyfriend who wanted naked pictures and no trail of that was on her computer. Who’s to say she doesn’t have other friends that don’t show up on her hard drive?”

  Maybe she was buying his point because she pursed her lips in thought. He liked that she listened to him, that she validated his ideas by not brushing them off the way the top brass had when he was a detective. She might not play as fast and loose with an investigation as he would, but she wasn’t so straitlaced she couldn’t see someone else’s perspective either.

  “Plus you said this is her first year going to school in New York. That kind of transition is bound to make a kid feel isolated at best and make her a target for these kinds of operations at worst.”

  Donata blinked fast and gave a jerky nod.

  “The kids most at risk are the ones who don’t have a good support system at home.”

  Sean reached out to her across the console, rubbing her shoulders with whatever assurance his touch could offer. He assumed she was thinking about her own past since it had to upset a strong woman like Donata to think she’d once been somebody’s target. So it surprised him when she whispered, “This is going to kill Mick.”

  Sean ignored the pang of jealousy to hear her speak another guy’s name with that kind of tenderness. They were just friends. And being partners forged a strong bond in a hurry. Logically, he knew that.

  But damn, he wanted to hear her say his name with that breathy softness that meant she cared.

  “It should be just up ahead here on the right.” He pointed to a house number a few digits higher than the one they were looking for.

  Donata cut the lights and pulled over. Sean closed his laptop and shoved it in the case under the passenger seat.