by Sara Orwig
She frowned and looked toward the north. Her white cotton blouse pulled over her full breasts and was tucked into the narrow waist of her cutoffs. Jake thought about Vance’s question and wondered if he could still keep a cool head if Meskell got to them. He felt he could, yet he knew he would never react in the same manner now as he would have the first night or two on the job.
“Things just get worse,” she said.
“Let me do the worrying,” he replied quietly. “You and your girls are still safe, and you're getting your work done.”
She nodded, going back to work.
* * *
That night while Rebecca tucked the girls into bed, Jake roamed the house. Feeling uneasier than ever, he switched off the lights, silently cursing Meskell for stretching out the time until his nerves were frayed.
He and Rebecca sat up and talked until three in the morning. Earlier in the evening, thunder had rumbled in the distance, but by three it was closer at hand, thunderclaps rattling the windowpanes.
“I know I should go to bed so I'll be able to work tomorrow, but the storm makes me uneasy. I can tell you that. I can’t tell that to the girls.”
“Will it wake them or frighten them?”
“I think they could sleep beside the airport runway and never wake up.”
Jake hadn’t told her yet about Sissy’s bad dreams, and he still felt reluctant to give Rebecca one more worry.
“Good night, Jake.” Rebecca stood up, and Jake fought the urge to cross the room to her.
“Night.” Lightning flashed, and in seconds there was another rolling boom of thunder. Rebecca went to her room, wiping her brow and wishing she could take off the chambray shirt to sleep. The night was steamy, and she longed for a rain to cool the air. She lay down in bed feeling restless, dreading sleep because her dreams were beginning to be filled with Jake Delancy.
A loud clap of thunder rattled the panes, and Rebecca sat up. Rain drummed against the house and she looked at the clock, startled to see that it was almost four. She had dozed and dreamed, and then something had wakened her.
Lightning flashed with a silvery brilliance and then thunder boomed again, and she shivered in spite of the heat. Suddenly she felt an eerie prickling, wondering if everything was all right. The storm would hide the sound of anyone breaking into the house, and the surveillance teams might not be able to see anything in this downpour.
She glanced at her partially closed door and wondered about the girls. Wanting to reassure herself about them, she slipped out of bed.
She tugged open the door, and her heart seemed to stop beating.
Someone was moving in the girls' room.
Chapter 10
All rational thought was gone. Rebecca rushed toward their room as the man stepped into the hall, and she barreled into him.
Jake’s hands caught her. “Rebecca? Lord, what’s the matter?”
She felt weak with relief when she heard his voice. “I saw a man in the girls' room—”
“I thought you were sleeping. You should have known it was me.”
“I should have, but I didn’t,” she said, shaking now that the crisis had passed. “You've never been in their room late at night.”
“Yes, I have. I check on them during the night,” he whispered, his first startled moment changing swiftly to an acute awareness of her in his arms. She was wearing only the chambray shirt. The cutoffs she usually wore around the house at night were missing. A faint scent of perfume was on her skin. Jake had one hand on her shoulder, one on her hip. Her could feel her trembling and knew she had been thoroughly shaken.
“The storm must have wakened me, and then I felt uneasy.”
“That’s not unusual. I've felt apprehensive all evening, and I'm sure it’s just due to the storm.”
“I had to get up to check on the girls, and when I opened my door wide and looked across the hall, I just could imagine Meskell getting—”
She broke off and looked up at Jake and in the dim light from the small bulb in the bathroom, her eyes looked wide and luminous. Her gaze went down over his chest, which was bare, and then back up to his face.
Rebecca’s heart began to thud, and she forgot the storm. The girls were safe, and now she realized she was standing with Jake’s hand on her hip, his other hand stroking her shoulder. He stood only inches away, his muscled chest almost touching her. He was strong and appealing and he filled a void in her life. Now, when she was with him, he seemed to fill the emptiness that she had thought she had learned to live with. As she gazed into Jake’s eyes, she trembled.
“Jake,” she whispered, saying his name tentatively, forgetting her resolve.
Jake’s breath went out in a long sigh and his arm slipped around her waist, drawing her to him. The moment her body pressed against his, he groaned, desire exploding into a blaze within him.
Nothing in the world could have stopped him from bending his head and covering her mouth with his. Jake’s tongue went into her silken, wet mouth, tasting her fiery sweetness while he shook with need. She felt so right in his arms, as if he had waited all these years for this woman.
Her soft breasts pressed against him, and he let his fingers wind in her hair, tilting her head up so he could kiss her deeply. His arousal was swift, pressing against her while Rebecca moaned and slipped her fingers across his shoulders.
The moment she wrapped her arms around him and clung to him, he felt on fire. Lightning flashed and he opened his eyes, the silvery illumination catching his attention. He remembered the girls sleeping right behind him and bent his head, kissing Rebecca while he walked them into her room and nudged the door closed behind him.
Rebecca knew he had moved them into her room. She knew they had crossed another threshold, as well. If she kept kissing him, she was going to have to admit that she was willing to explore running risks again. Did she really want to get involved with him? Was she willing to be hurt badly all over again?
As if he knew her thoughts, Jake trailed kisses to her ear. “It’s only a few kisses,” he whispered, his breath warm against her ear.
“That’s what we keep saying,” she murmured in return, turning her mouth, seeking his again. Each time they kissed, she opened her heart more to him and became more bound to him. Each day the attraction became stronger. Dimly she remembered that she didn’t want this. But right now, in his strong arms, with his hand wound in her hair, she didn’t want to stop.
As Rebecca’s pulse raced, she wrapped her arms around his neck. His marvelous strength enveloped her, pressing her more tightly against his long, powerful body.
With a racing heart, Jake bent over her and kissed her. She had yielded some of her convictions, or she wouldn’t be responding to him. Was he ready to relinquish his freedom? With each kiss he was binding himself to this woman and he had sworn he didn’t want to.
He groaned, torn between what his body wanted, what he wanted, and what he had decided he would avoid for years.
Half expecting her to push him away at any moment, he slid his hand along her slender throat. Her pulse beat as wildly as his, and then his hand drifted lower. He caressed her breast, feeling the taut bud pushing against her shirt.
He raised his head to look at her. She was eager, instantly responsive, and he knew she was vulnerable. And he knew they were about to cross a line to a place where their relationship might become so entangled, one of them would have deep regrets. Her arm tightened around his neck, and his thoughts were consumed by desire. In spite of his caution and his careful reasoning, he wanted her.
He turned so that he could get to the buttons on her shirt, twisting them free, still wondering when she would grab his wrist and stop him. He shoved open the blue shirt. He cupped her breast, her softness making him feel as if he were caught in an inferno.
His pulse roared, and he desired her with a desperate need that he had never felt before. He flicked a glance at her face.
Her eyes were closed, her hands on his shoulders, her lips part
ed. He continued to cup her breasts, his thumbs circling her nipples. Her breasts were full, so incredibly soft, her skin fine-grained and pale. She gasped, clutching his arms, moaning as she held him, and he wondered how long he could maintain his control. He wanted to shove her down now and take her, to feel her softness envelop him, her long legs wrap around him.
He could tell himself she was experienced enough to make her own decisions and take risks. She knew he was not a marrying man. Yet his arguments were useless. Rebecca Bolen was fast becoming a very special woman, and he didn’t want to hurt her.
Jake leaned forward to kiss her, taking her right breast in his mouth, his tongue playing over the pink bud. She moaned, clinging to him, her fingers biting into his arm.
Engulfed by desire, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against his bare chest, groaning as he kissed her hard and deep.
Rebecca trembled in his arms. He felt so marvelous. She needed his strength, wanted his caresses and kisses. Yet she could remember Dan’s death and the pain it had caused and continued to cause. If only Jake weren’t a cop. But he was. Completely and thoroughly. Her thoughts spun as he bent his head to kiss her other breast.
“Jake,” she whispered, struggling for reason, knowing she must make him stop now. It was impossible to try to remember her resolutions while he kissed her, and in minutes they would be gone like petals in a storm.
She pushed gently against him, and he raised his head to look at her. It was too dark to see the expression on his face, but her hands were on his chest and she felt his pounding pulse and she had felt his arousal. They were both as breathless as if they had run a race.
“Jake, we have to stop. If we make love, it'll go against all good judgment and what we both want.”
He trailed his fingers lightly down over her throat, down to the swell of her breast, and she trembled as she caught his wrists and pulled his hands down away from her.
“We have to stop,” she said firmly, knowing she was not going to escape getting hurt one way or another by this man. The silence stretched between them, broken by their raspy breath, the tension almost tangible in the air.
“I can’t get out of your room until you move out of the way,” he said gruffly.
Hurting, wanting him, every inch of her body quivering with a yearning for his hands and lips, Rebecca stepped to one side.
Jake opened the door and disappeared into the hall, closing the door quietly behind him.
She sagged against the wall, wanting to call him back. This was really what she should want—distance between them. She tried to remember the hurt when she had lost Dan, tried to remember her promises to herself to never again get involved with a man who had a physical job involving risk.
Her skin tingled and her body ached with longing. And she wondered how dreadful it was going to be to go back to her solitary life with the girls, the long hours after they were in bed asleep. When she lost Dan, she had expected that she would never love again. Now Jake had come into her life and had changed so many of her ideas about what she would or would not do.
Another clap of thunder shook the house, and lightning streaked the sky, revealing a bright strip of space around the old window shades. The house was steamy, her body on fire. She wiped her forehead and buttoned her shirt.
If they turned on the attic fan and opened some windows, the house would be cool in minutes. Even a few windows would help. She wondered whether Jake would agree, and she wondered if she could face him again without melting into his arms.
Instead of going to find him, she crossed the room and sank down on the bed, sitting on the side of it, her head in her hands, while she hoped her body would cool. Was Jake in as much turmoil as she was, or was it just his body that suffered? she wondered.
The floor creaked slightly in the hall and she knew he was moving around. She sat quietly, waiting until she was more composed before she went out to see about opening the house and turning on the fan.
Jake stepped out the kitchen door into the rain, feeling the cold drops beat against his shoulders and chest, drenching his jeans. He wanted to cool down. Rebecca set him on fire. Falling into the Arctic Ocean might be the only thing to cool him right now.
He gazed at the woods behind the house. Meskell was probably holed up somewhere avoiding the storm, waiting for a clear night, yet the storm made Jake edgy. And it had frightened Rebecca, or she wouldn’t have assumed that a man in the girls' bedroom was Meskell.
Jake walked around the house, his thoughts churning because he had to admit that no woman had been as irresistible to him as Rebecca Bolen. Not one. He had never come close to thinking about marriage. He tried to recall the years when his brothers had been in college, the huge stack of bills he’d thought he would never get through. Freedom. It had always sounded so heady, something he wanted to relish and enjoy for years. Why did it sound empty now?
Jake kicked a pebble, watching it splash into a mud puddle. Lightning flared, momentarily blinding him. His jeans would be soaked, his boots wet and muddy, and he wasn’t gaining anything by standing outside in the rain. Except that he needed to cool down.
And he needed to make a decision. It wasn’t going to do any good to make a play for Rebecca and figure she could take care of herself. He didn’t want to hurt her, and he suspected that before long, he wasn’t going to be able to give her up without hurting himself, too.
Rain beat against him, plastering his hair to his head, and he paused, shaking his head. He had left his pistol inside, high on a kitchen shelf. He was standing in the rain, unarmed, getting drenched—all because of gorgeous big blue eyes, blond hair and a luscious body. Only it was more than that. If that had been all, he could have resisted her.
He placed his hands on his hips, stared at her darkened windows and shook his head.
Disgusted, coming to no solution, he stomped back to the kitchen door, his boots splashing in the water.
One thing he knew—he would give up his life to protect Rebecca and her girls, and he would kill Meskell if he came anywhere close to them.
Jake rounded the corner of the house and stopped in his tracks. The kitchen door stood wide open.
Jake charged inside, swearing at his foolishness in going out in the rain to cool down, as well as going out unarmed. Swinging the door shut behind him, he yanked the pistol off the top shelf. “Rebecca!” he called.
As he started across the kitchen, she appeared in the doorway and stopped. “Jake? What’s wrong?”
“I was about to ask you the same question. The kitchen door was wide open.”
“I couldn’t find you.”
“I was outside walking around.”
“In this storm?” she asked. Lightning flashed, giving a momentary brilliance that bathed them both in light. Rebecca turned on the kitchen light and stared at Jake. His jeans were soaked, his brown hair was plastered to his head, his shoulders and chest glistened with wetness, and the pistol was in his hand.
“What were you doing outside?” she asked, frowning at him.
He gave a jerk of his head, his wet hair swinging away from his face, and then he ran his hand over his face. “I wanted to cool off,” he said abruptly.
“Oh!” She felt her cheeks flush. “Won’t that rain ruin your gun?”
“It was in here. Why was the back door open?”
She bit her lip, knowing that what she had done had gone against safety. But already the house had cooled. “I turned on the attic fan. I'll switch it off now if you want,” she said, her gaze drifting down over his chest again. She could have kept looking at him forever, and she remembered how it had felt to be pressed against his strong body only a short time ago.
“It only takes a little time to cool the house when the windows and doors are open,” she added.
“Is the front door standing open now?” He asked the question calmly, but she suspected he was angry. He placed the pistol up high again, the muscles in his back rippling as he stretched out his arm. He turned aroun
d and came toward her.
“No. It’s slightly ajar and the screen is hooked. I opened the windows and I'll close them right up, but with you here...” Her voice trailed away as Jake approached her. His body was wet, the jeans plastered to his trim hips. There was a look of exasperation in his expression, but his hazel eyes were smoldering, and it wasn’t anger she saw in them.
“Jake,” she said quietly, in a half protest.
“I'll close the front door.” He moved past her and went down the hall, and she let out her breath, feeling as if she had just had a narrow escape. At the same time, she wished he hadn’t brushed past her and ignored her. In moments he returned. “I keep another pair of jeans in the pickup. I'll go out and get them, and as soon as the house cools slightly, I want to close it up. It would be safer to run the air conditioners than to have everything open. Meskell would hop in his stolen car right now and beat it out here if he knew the only barrier was a screen door.”
“You were just walking around in the rain?”
“Right,” he answered gruffly. “Trying to remember that I should keep my hands to myself.” He yanked out his radio. “I'll call McCauley and tell him I'm going to my truck. He knows I walk around the house, but anything beyond a few yards from here and I'm supposed to notify him.”
“If you want to throw your jeans into the dryer, you can have a sheet to wrap around you and you won’t have to go to the truck.”
He gave her a level look and put away his radio while she tried to stop imagining his strong body in only a sheet.
“Okay. Get a sheet and I'll start closing up the house again.”
In minutes she was in the living room, which was far cooler, listening to Jake moving around in the kitchen, putting his clothes in the dryer. He reappeared with a white sheet wrapped around his hips trailing the floor behind him, and she drew a sharp breath.
“I turned on the window unit in the kitchen because it will get stuffy in here before long.”
“Fine,” she answered perfunctorily. She couldn’t resist looking at him. His legs were bare from the knees down, covered in short brown hair. The white sheet was wrapped low on his hips, revealing more of his flat stomach than she had seen before; his dark skin was a vivid contrast to the expanse of white.
