‘You’re not going to believe this, but he’s a cop.’
‘No kidding?’ He took another swig of his beer. ‘What branch?’
Becky always found it hard to exactly describe what her brother did. He was guarded about the details, as if by telling his family what he did was going to somehow compromise him.
‘He moves around a bit,’ she hedged. ‘He’s been in traffic, then accident investigation and now I think he’s doing a stint in the drug squad.’
‘Tough call,’ Matt said.
‘That sounds like the voice of experience,’ she observed.
He gave her a twisted smile. ‘I’ve moved around a bit, too. You see it all eventually.’
She gave her straw another twirl. ‘It’s not an easy job, being a cop.’
‘No, but sometimes you get results and it makes it all worthwhile,’ he said.
She set her drink to one side, not sure she really liked the taste of it in spite of its colourful umbrella and little kebab stick of tropical fruit.
‘So.’ She met his eyes once more. ‘What did you want to ask me?’
He leaned forward in his chair. ‘There’s something about the robbery and the intruder that doesn’t quite add up.’
‘What do you mean?’
He glanced around the bar as if he expected someone to be listening in. Becky couldn’t help noticing the likeness to Ben. Once a cop always a cop, she thought as she leaned in closer to hear.
‘I could be wrong, but I don’t think the robber and the intruder are the same guy,’ Matt said in a low voice.
Becky reached for her drink, for something to do with her suddenly twitchy hands. ‘You don’t?’
He shook his head.
‘Who do you think it is?’
He pursed his lips for a moment. ‘I’m not sure.’
She swallowed. ‘You mean two people are after me?’
‘I wouldn’t go as far as saying someone’s after you. The two incidents could very well prove to be totally unconnected.’
‘If that’s supposed to give me peace of mind, let me tell you it hasn’t quite done the job.’
‘No, I imagine not,’ he said. ‘Being burgled is a violating experience but having an intruder looking at you in the middle of the night is something else again.’
‘Tell me about it.’ She suppressed a shudder and took another sip of her drink, doing her best not to screw up her face at the taste.
‘I had an unmarked car drive by your place a few times last night but so far nothing has come up that’s in any way suspicious.’
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I really appreciate it.’
‘There’s been a spate of burglaries in your area lately,’ he said. ‘It’s not always the case, of course, but as a general rule we often find the same gang is responsible for each of the break-ins. They do an area and then move on to somewhere else.’
‘You think my break-in was the work of a locally operating gang?’
He gave her a lengthy look. ‘On first appearances it would appear to be a straightforward forced entry and quick grab for goods, but…’
‘But?’ she prompted.
‘That scrawl in lipstick on the mirror.’ He gave her an unblinking look. ‘Is there anyone in your life you suspect of ill feeling towards you? I know you’ve been asked that before but sometimes it takes a while for it to sink in.’
A vision of Jack flitted into her mind but she just as quickly dismissed it.
‘No.’
‘Are you sure?’
She met his concerned gaze and was again reminded of her brother. It seemed as if cops were all the same, no matter what their rank.
‘Look, I’m the first to admit I don’t have the best track record where relationships are concerned,’ she confessed with a little grimace. ‘I’ve been engaged three times, but I’m absolutely sure none of my ex-fiancés would hold anything against me. Believe me, revenge would be the last thing on their minds. All they wanted was their freedom. I haven’t heard from any of them for years.’
‘Have you had anything else happen to you lately that could be considered a little suspicious?’ he asked.
She chewed her lip for a moment then told him, ‘I’ve had three flat tyres over the last week, and my tyres were slashed yesterday in the hospital car park.’
‘Did you report all that?’
She shook her head. ‘I was going to, but…’
‘But?’
‘I didn’t want to face it, I guess,’ she said. ‘I’m not used to thinking of myself as a victim of crime.’
‘You’re not alone in that,’ he said. ‘No one wants to face such a prospect, but it happens all the same.’
‘Yes, I know.’
‘Does anyone else know you’re staying here?’
She lifted her gaze to his. ‘No. I haven’t told anyone but you.’
‘Good.’ He looked relieved. ‘Let’s keep it that way for a while. I’m working on a few leads and it would suit me if no one knows where you are spending the night. If anyone needs to contact you, let them do it via your mobile.’
‘But I gave my name at Reception. If anyone asks…’
‘Put a block on it,’ he said. ‘Tell Reception you don’t want your details handed out. I can do it for you on my way out if you like. You’d be amazed at what a flash of a badge can achieve.’
‘Oh, would you?’ She gave him a grateful look. ‘I’m pathetic at all this cloak-and-dagger stuff.’
He gave her a reassuring smile. ‘Let’s hope none of this turns out to be in that category. For all we know, this is probably a simple case of mistaken identity or at the very least a straightforward break and entry.’
‘I certainly hope you’re right,’ she said, taking another sip of her loathsome drink. ‘I don’t like to think of myself as somebody’s target practice.’
‘Random acts of violence are thankfully very rare. Statistics show that most victims of violent crime have known the perpetrator in some way.’
‘So what you’re saying is I’m somehow connected to these people?’
He gave her a brief look as he set his empty glass down. ‘Suffice it to say I’m not ruling it out.’
‘Great,’ she said wryly. ‘And I just sent off all my Christmas cards, too.’
‘Want me to run a check on all the names?’ he offered.
‘No,’ she said. ‘But I’m going to have a serious rethink about my Christmas shopping.’
He stood up to leave, offering her his hand with a friendly smile. ‘You really should meet my sister,’ he said.
She returned his smile with one of her own. ‘And you definitely should meet my brother.’
‘You never know,’ he said with an inscrutable little smile. ‘Maybe I already have.’
Becky opened her mouth to respond but he’d already turned and slipped away.
CHAPTER SEVEN
BECKY swiped her card key and opened the door of her suite only to come up short when a tall dark figure rose from the sofa as the door closed behind her.
‘How did you get in here?’ she gasped as Jack stepped towards her.
He held up a swipe card in two long, tanned fingers, his green eyes locking on to hers.
‘I told the person at Reception I was your husband.’
‘What?’
He smiled a self-satisfied smile. ‘I don’t think they believed me at first—they weren’t too keen to let me in—but I managed to convince them in the end.’
‘How?’ She eyeballed him suspiciously, wondering what he had done that could have gone beyond the authority of Matt Daniels’s police badge.
He took out his wallet and waved a hundred-dollar note in front of her nose.
‘You bastard!’ She slapped at his hand in anger. ‘How dare you invade my privacy? You had no right!’
He captured her hand and tugged her towards him, his eyes glittering dangerously. ‘I told you I’d track you down and now I have.’
‘Let me go!’ She pulled against his
hold but it was so firm she could feel the steady beat of his heart underneath her flattened palm, making her pulse kick up to a breakneck pace.
‘Why did you disappear like that?’ he asked.
‘It’s none of your business.’ She gave him a glare. ‘I don’t have to answer to you.’
‘I beg to differ, young lady,’ he said, his fingers tightening a fraction around hers. ‘Don’t forget you still owe me for the replacement of my bumper, not to mention the renewal of your four tyres, which I paid for this morning, as well as the towing fee to the repair shop.’
She felt her stomach drop as she thought of her credit-card limit, and wished she hadn’t been quite so reckless with her purchases that day. The dress she was wearing was worth at least two of his stupid bumpers, and just one of her shoes would have paid for a tyre at the very least.
‘I’ll pay you back every cent,’ she said. ‘Now, get out of here before I call the police.’
‘Ah, yes.’ His top lip curled back in scorn. ‘That reminds me. How was your little date with the man in blue?’
She clamped her lips together, refusing to answer him.
‘I must say he didn’t stay long,’ he mused. ‘One drink and he was gone.’
Her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened in affront. ‘You were watching?’
The self-satisfied smile returned. ‘I was expecting you to bring lover boy up here. What’s wrong, Becky, losing your touch?’
Her eyes flashed at him in fury. ‘Do you know how much I loathe and detest you?’
‘I have a fair idea, but quite frankly it doesn’t bother me all that much.’
‘I don’t think there is a single thing you could do either now or any time in the future to make me hate you more than I do right at this moment,’ she said through tight lips.
‘Good,’ he said, suddenly pulling her even closer. ‘Then you won’t hate me any more for doing this.’
His eyes held hers for two or three heartbeats, which should have been enough warning but somehow wasn’t. Her startled gasp disappeared into the warm cave of his mouth as it connected with hers with bruising force, her limbs going to water at the first determined thrust of his tongue as it arrogantly hunted down hers.
Becky felt the draining away of her resistance as if someone had suddenly pulled a plug within her, leaving her totally at the mercy of her urgent, desperate need for the sensory overload his hard, angry kiss was stoking within her. She could feel it flying with scorching heat along the pathways of her veins, the deep heady throb of it coming to a pulsating point of aching pressure between her legs where one of his hard muscled thighs had moved in to separate them.
His kiss became all the more determined, leaving no corner of her trembling mouth unexplored. She felt herself being swept away on a great wave of feeling, the pressure of his aroused body on the soft yielding of hers too much for her to withstand. She felt the sag of her legs even as he half lifted, half pushed her towards the bed behind her, the collapse of their combined weight on the mattress sending her breath out of her lungs in a startled gasp of pure pleasure as his hard frame moulded itself to hers, his angles fitting neatly into her curves while his tongue duelled hungrily with hers.
Jack wasn’t sure exactly who was kissing whom. He had started this in anger but he wasn’t feeling angry any more. What he was feeling now was a need so strong it was threatening to take over every moral boundary he’d constructed in the past to keep him from putting his hands on his best friend’s little sister. She was in his arms and responding to him in a way he had not realised he’d wanted until he’d felt it again, just the way he’d felt it twelve years ago, just the way he’d felt it when he’d kissed her to shut her up—had it really only been yesterday? He didn’t know or care. All he knew was that his body wanted her with a fierce, out-of-control desire, and nothing could stop him from consummating it right here and now.
With his mouth still locked to hers, he shifted the tiny sparkling straps of her dress to one side, his hand covering her revealed breast, his lower stomach tilting in sharp pleasure at the feel of her soft perfection, the tight bud of her nipple driving into the bed of his palm.
He felt her squirming beneath him, her body’s instinctive movements thrilling him in a way no one had ever done before. He’d always kept himself slightly aloof from the emotional aspect of physical union, seeing it as something that could only complicate and blur the edges of reason in a casual relationship. But with Becky in his arms it felt different, as if she had somehow crawled under his skin and made it feel alive in a way it had never felt before. He felt it when her hands skimmed the muscles of his back, he felt it when her fingers dug into his buttocks to bring him even closer, he felt it when she undid his waistband and freed him into her hands.
‘Oh, no,’ he groaned, placing his hand on hers, the pulse of his erection still beneath her fingers.
She blinked up at him with wide uncertain eyes and he gritted his teeth and rolled off her, keeping her hand on him as consolation to his untimely overactive conscience.
‘This is all wrong.’ He put his free hand up to his eyes to cover them.
She splayed her fingers, which produced another deep agonised groan from his throat, but his hand kept hers in place regardless.
He uncovered his eyes and turned his head to look at her. ‘Do you realise how close I am to following through on this?’
Becky moistened her lips with her tongue, not sure what to say. A few moments ago she’d been furious with him, but now…
‘Becky…’ He hitched himself up on one elbow and turned his upper body toward her, leaving her caressing hand where it was.
Becky moved her fingers once more, stroking the hard pulsing length of him, revelling in the dark glitter of desire her actions produced in his eyes as they held hers.
She traced her fingertip over his moistened tip, watching in awe as his features contorted with pleasure at her touch. He was like silk-encased steel under her caress, his body totally under her command, her feminine power apparent to her in a way it had never been before.
She knew then, as if someone sitting on her shoulder had just whispered it in her ear. She had been waiting for this moment ever since she’d been seventeen when his hard mouth had crushed down onto hers in a kiss of hot fire and frustration.
No wonder her three attempts at being engaged had failed! How could she fall in love with another man when all this time she’d been in love with Jack Colcannon?
In love with Jack…
She drew in a tiny breath as her fingers curled around him, the realisation of her feelings making her glow inside with liquid warmth.
She loved him.
‘We have to stop this right now.’ Although Jack’s tone was determined, he did nothing to move out of her reach. ‘It’s total madness.’
She slowly lifted her luminous eyes to his. ‘Why do we have to stop?’
His dark brows drew together momentarily. ‘What are you saying, Becky—that you want to continue?’
She let her fingers do the talking and he sucked in a prickly breath, his body as tense as a tightly bound spring.
‘Wouldn’t it be nice if just for once we stopped arguing and tried another way of communicating?’ she said softly, her caresses becoming bolder.
He ran his tongue over his dry mouth, staring at the fullness of hers as his blood charged through his body at turbo speed. He could almost feel her mouth on him, her little cat-like tongue…
With a strength he’d not known he’d possessed he wrenched himself out of her hold and got off the bed, tucking himself back into his trousers, his breathing still choppy as he put some distance between them. He scored a pathway through his hair with one hand and began to pace the room agitatedly, rubbing his jaw, cracking his knuckles, all the time avoiding her eyes.
Becky felt his rejection as if he’d slapped her with it. Shame ran like a hot red tide through her, completing its journey by settling in twin circles on her cheeks. She cou
ld see the undisguised distaste for her etched on his features. Even the line of his mouth was grim.
She got off the bed and straightened her straps with as much dignity as she could gather. It was spread pretty thinly.
‘OK, so it looks like we continue with the arguing,’ she said dryly. ‘Where were we? Was it my turn to throw a verbal punch or yours?’
He stopped pacing to look at her. ‘If it’s any salve to your pride I was going to sleep with you. I’ve never been that close to losing control before.’
‘Well, congratulations for withstanding the temptation,’ she bit out. ‘You really know how to make a girl feel irresistible.’
He frowned as she stalked across the room to pick up her shoes, her movements stiff with injured pride.
‘Look, I don’t want you to think I’m not attracted to you.’
She turned back to face him, shoes in hand. ‘What are you scared of, Jack, that I might ask you for an engagement ring?’
‘No, of course not, it’s just…difficult.’
‘Look, why don’t you just leave right now before you make it any worse? I get the message. You don’t have to wrap it up to make it more palatable.’
‘Becky.’ He turned her around to face him, his hands on her upper arms, his eyes holding hers. ‘Believe me, you’ll thank me for this in the morning. You’ve been under a lot of strain and you’re not thinking clearly right now.’ He gave her arms a little squeeze. ‘You hate me, remember? What sort of guy would I be if I slept with you, knowing that?’
It was on the tip of her tongue to vehemently deny it but she stopped herself at the last moment. It was clear he felt nothing for her, so what would be the point of revealing her feelings for him? For years she’d actively demonstrated her dislike of him, had practically made it her life’s work to annoy him. Telling him she loved him now would be nothing less than emotional suicide.
‘You’re right.’ She gave him a self-deprecating smile. ‘I’m not myself right now. God, what was I thinking? You are so not my type.’ She eased herself out of his hold. ‘Under normal circumstances you are the very last man on earth I would ever think of sleeping with.’ She forced a laugh and moved her shoulders in what she hoped looked like a physical cringe. ‘I wonder what was in that cocktail I had downstairs. Ben’s always saying how alcohol impairs one’s judgement. It must have been totally loaded.’
A Surgeon Worth Waiting For Page 8
