by Day Leclaire
She stared in bewilderment. “Okay. Thank you.” She cleared her throat, shrugging in bewilderment. “What does it do? Where do I input codes?”
“Codes?” He groaned. “It doesn’t take codes. I told you. It’s a rack. You hang things on it. You know. A rack?”
“Oh. I thought it was another of your electronic doohickeys.”
“No. It serves a much more practical purpose. Now, pay attention.” He plucked her glasses off the tip of her nose. “Glasses.” He folded the earpieces and dropped them in the pocket of her lab coat. “Glasses in pocket.”
“Oh, for—”
But he wasn’t through yet. Not even close. He rummaged in her hair, quelling her struggles with ease. “Clip. Clip in pocket.”
“You really are obsessed with my hair, aren’t you,” she complained, shoving at his hands.
“Yes. And now I’ll show you what else I’m obsessed with.” Before she could do more than squeak in alarm, he tackled the buttons of her lab coat. “Lab coat. Remove lab coat.”
“Stop it, Flynn. This isn’t funny anymore.”
“You got that right.” It wasn’t in the least funny. The minute he’d stripped her of her security blanket, she’d gone into a flat-out panic. “Lab coat on hook.”
“I need that.”
He stopped her when she reached for it. “No, you don’t. Not when you’re outside the lab. You don’t need to tie your hair up, either. Or wear your glasses.”
“I do if I’m going to read something.”
“How many pairs do you have in the house?”
Her mouth opened, then closed again. “Okay. Fine. But what if I’m conducting an experiment outside of the lab?”
“Here’s a shocking suggestion. Why don’t you do it in your everyday clothes?” He didn’t wait for a response. “Get your purse. We’re leaving.”
“I have an extra pair of glasses in my purse, you know.”
“I don’t doubt it for a minute. So long as you don’t have a lab coat in there, I think we’re safe.”
“You certainly have a fixation about that particular garment,” she grumbled. But at least she did what he asked.
“That’s because I know what it represents. You use that damn coat to hold people at a distance. To announce, ‘I’m different.’”
“I most certainly do not,” she instantly objected.
“Sure you do. You spend half your life putting up barriers to keep people at a safe distance.”
To his surprise, she didn’t continue to deny the assertion. “How would you know?” she asked instead.
He dropped an arm around her waist and swept her toward the door. “I know because I do it, too,” he informed her calmly. “But I’m not quite as obvious.”
That made her sputter a bit, just long enough for him to get her out of the building. He felt her gaze as they walked across the backyard, curiosity coming off her in waves. “So what do you use to keep people at a distance?”
“You tell me.”
Her response came with painful promptness. “You treat everything like it’s a joke or as if you don’t care. You don’t take anything seriously.” She threw a glance over her shoulder. “Like my lab coat.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, honey. I take that coat very seriously. That’s why we’re leaving it on the hook.”
“Why? Where are we going?”
“Out.”
She returned to the subject of deepest concern, like Dipstick worrying a bone. “I have more lab coats in the house, you know. And lots more glasses.”
“Yeah.” His mouth compressed. “That’s why we’re going out. Go inside and get your purse. I’ll wait here. Fair warning, take longer than five minutes and I’m coming in after you.”
“We’ll see about that.” She stomped toward the house, curls bouncing along her spine, muttering her displeasure all the way.
As soon as she disappeared from sight, Flynn turned to where Paulie hovered in the bushes. “You’re as bad as her crazy uncles. Come on out of there.”
“Hey, loitering in the bushes is sheer self-preservation,” he claimed. “Last time you two were together on a lawn, I understand some very eye-opening events took place. I wouldn’t want to walk up on anything untoward.”
“If anything untoward were taking place, I’d trust you’d keep your eyes closed and make yourself scarce.” Flynn dismissed the discussion with an impatient shake of his head. “Update me, Paulie. How close are we to finishing up? I’m ready to pack it in.”
“Almost done. There are a few last connections.” He grimaced. “Then there’s her lab.”
“Damn. I can’t get her to agree on a system for in there.” Flynn’s jaw firmed. “Enough is enough. I want you to take care of it today. I don’t care what Her Highness says, you know what I want installed. Get it put together as quickly as possible and do your best to hide the alterations. I’ll keep her busy for most of the day. That should give you time to get the preliminary work done.”
“What about Barstow?”
“I’d almost managed to forget about him.” Flynn sighed. “He’s after a file on Jane’s computer. See if Hickory can print it off and I’ll take a look.”
“And then?”
“And then, we give the man what he wants.” Flynn glanced toward Jane’s house. “He’s paying enough for it.”
Paulie shook his head. “Your scamming’s going to get you in serious trouble, boy.”
“I was born in serious trouble.” Cynicism colored his voice. “This will just get me in a little more.”
“What happens when Lady Jane finds out what you’ve done?”
Flynn clenched his hands at his sides. “Then she’ll be only too happy to see the last of us. The wisest course, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Normally? Yes. But this woman’s different.”
“You don’t have to tell me that.”
“I like her.”
It was a major confession and one Flynn had never heard from his partner before. “Forget it, Paulie. The lady’s out of our league. She’s a hurt waiting to happen and I’m not gonna be the one to inflict it.”
As though his comment had summoned her, Jane appeared in the kitchen doorway, purse in hand and a pair of glasses defiantly perched on the tip of her nose. Paulie lowered his voice, offering a final parting shot. “It’s not all business with her, no matter what she says.”
“Yeah? Well, it’s all business with me.”
Then he gave lie to his words by striding across the lawn and snatching Jane into his arms with such determination, it knocked off her glasses. The kiss he gave her was long and thorough and left him in a painful state of arousal. It was a state he’d unfortunately become all too familiar with.
“Why did you do that?” she demanded. “I thought we had an agreement.”
Flynn captured her chin in his palm and gently turned her face to his. Wary green eyes gazed up at him. So serious. So vulnerable. So incredibly beautiful. “You told me to say something when your perfume was working. Well, mark this down as a red-letter day in your notebook, sweetheart. It’s working. At least, something’s working.”
“You’re just saying that.”
“I believe in your perfumes, Jane,” he insisted quietly. “More than that, I believe in you.”
Tears filled her eyes. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He bent and picked up her glasses, handing them over with a wry grin. “I see you’ve come prepared.”
“Yes.” She fumbled as she put her glasses in her purse, and he found her momentary awkwardness endearing. “You never said. Where are we going?”
“To a former client’s house. His name’s Vince Martelli and I want to show you his setup.”
“Oh, right. I remember you mentioning him.”
They accomplished the drive in a comfortable silence. Clouds scuttled in from the west and closed down over the Cascades, hiding the mountains from view and bringing with it a misty rain. Fortunately, it let u
p by the time he pulled into the driveway of a huge mansion. “This is it. Paulie and I installed the security system for this place about three years ago.”
“You came all the way up from San Francisco to do one house?”
“Vince’s primary residence is there.” He slanted her an amused glance. “This is just his getaway cottage.”
She shook her head in amazement. “Some cottage.”
“Vince liked the work we did on the first place so much, he insisted we come out and do this one.” He shut off the engine. “I called him when I first arrived and asked if I could take you through. He’s out of town but gave me the codes to get in.”
“He obviously trusts you.”
“I’m a trustworthy man, these days.” He needed to keep reminding himself of that—especially around Jane. Maybe it would help him keep his hands off her. “I’ve worked hard to earn my reputation in this business.”
She smiled, tempting him to kiss her again. “I don’t doubt that for a minute.” She opened the car door. “Come on. Show me what you’re planning to do to my poor lab.”
“Jane, listen.” He caught her arm before she could leave the car. “Once I’m done with the lab, my contract with your uncles will be fulfilled. I’ll be returning to San Francisco.”
She strove for an I-don’t-give-a-damn attitude. It killed him to see how miserably she failed. He swore beneath his breath. He was going to strangle her uncles for putting him in this position. They’d claimed they’d researched him. But they couldn’t have done a very good job of it. Otherwise they wouldn’t have let him within a million miles of their precious niece. In fact, the only thing keeping her safe right now was his ragged sense of honor. The cynical side of his nature questioned how long that would last, how long it would take him to put honor aside and revert to his baser personality.
Not long, if he didn’t stop kissing a certain curly-haired, green-eyed, sweet-smelling chemist.
Without a word, she climbed from the car and started up the sidewalk ahead of him, every movement a blatant invitation. Her curls blew around her head, whispering silken pleas for him to gather them up and twine them in his fingers. Her cute little backside swaying seductively from side to side added another, far louder call. Take. Me. Swish. Take. Me. Swish. Hell, even her dress taunted him, fluttering in a teasing dance around her trim calves.
“Stop doing that,” he ordered.
She spun around, staring in bewilderment. “What? What am I doing?”
He started to answer, then gave it up. He couldn’t think of a single thing to say that wouldn’t make him sound like a raving lunatic. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Are you wearing perfume?”
“I thought we already established that, remember? When you kissed me not an hour ago?”
“Did you put more on?”
“Finding me irresistible again?” she asked sweetly.
Aw, hell. “Forget I asked. I already know the answer.” He pushed by, grabbing a surreptitious sniff. Yup. She was wearing it, all right. He paused on the porch and tapped a series of numbers into a keypad mounted by the front door. “Ready for the lecture on security equipment?”
“I look forward to it.”
Over the next hour, Flynn went over every inch of the house with Jane, deliberately driving her crazy with an endless stream of technical details. He wanted to be certain Paulie had plenty of time to get his work done. She took it well, he’d give her that. Her eyes only glazed over twice.
“Are we almost through?” she finally asked.
“Just about. There’s only one more room.”
“No, please. I’ve had enough, Flynn. You’ve convinced me. I know exactly what I want for my lab.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Not one blessed thing. It’s too much hassle. And video cameras watching me all the time?” She shook her head, shuddering. “Forget it.”
He shot her a curious look. “You’ve mentioned that before. It’s not so bad, honest. At least let me show you Martelli’s office. He has a lot of expensive high-tech computer equipment in there, so it’s the most secure room in the house. It has a lockdown feature that might work for you, if you want to keep things simple.”
She caved. “Okay. One more.” Her jaw poked out. “But only one.”
The office was in a beautifully renovated basement, and he gave Jane a few minutes to admire the setup before continuing his lecture. “This might work best since it doesn’t take a lot of effort on your part. Once you leave, you push a button. That sets the alarm. If someone breaks in, the door locks behind the intruder. The minute he tries to leave, the whole place shuts down—electricity, phones, everything. Then the system sends an automated call to the police.”
“What if I want to return to the lab after I’ve set the alarm?”
“If it’s late and you want to lock yourself in or if it’s for a quick visit and you don’t want to turn off the alarm, just leave the alarm set and walk in. To get back out, all you have to do is punch in your code before you open the door to leave. Forget that minor detail and all hell breaks loose.”
“Got it.” She looked around a final time and nodded. “Okay. This will do. It doesn’t sound too complicated.”
“Then let’s go.” She preceded him up the steps and reached for the knob a second before he realized what she intended. “Jane, don’t! I haven’t punched in the code.”
She twisted the knob at the same instant she looked over her shoulder at him, wrinkling her brow in confusion. “What...?” The lights winked out and the soft hum of equipment purred into silence. She cleared her throat. “I guess I shouldn’t have done that, huh?”
Only one reply came to mind. “No shit, Sherlock.”
* * *
“THE COPS SHOULD BE HERE before too much longer.”
“Can’t you call them and explain it’s a false alarm?”
“The phones are down, remember?” Flynn’s voice came to Jane from across the room. For some reason he’d insisted on putting as much distance between them as possible. “I’d call on my cell phone, but I left it in the car.”
She sighed. “I’m not sure I like this particular system, after all.”
“It’s set up this way to trap the burglar inside until the police can arrive.”
“You might have warned me before we went up the steps,” she mentioned. She slid cautiously to the floor with her back against the wall, her arms wrapped around her bent legs. “If you had, we wouldn’t be in this predicament.”
“I’d just finished explaining how it worked. I said you had to punch in the number before you accessed the door. What more did you need?”
She shivered at the anger in his voice. “Still... You might have warned me a little sooner. And a little louder.”
Silence.
“Flynn?”
“What?”
“I figured it out.”
“What did you figure out?”
“Why you said what you did in my lab the other day.”
“Right. I’m glad you figured it out.” He sighed. “Whatever the hell that means.”
“I mean all that stuff you spouted about not being willing to work on the security system or help with my experiments if we slept together. You said it so I’d choose business over pleasure and back off. You were protecting me, weren’t you? It was really very sweet. Honorable, even. But after I thought about it for a while, I realized it was all a put-on.”
“It wasn’t a put-on. I was being serious.”
She rested her cheek on her knees, hearing the lie in his voice. “Don’t,” she pleaded. “Not here. Not now. Not when it’s just the two of us.”
Silence.
“I can smell you,” he whispered.
“I’m sorry.”
“You smell good.”
“Flynn?”
“What?”
“How’d you get that bruise by your mouth?”
He remained quiet so long, she didn’t think he’d answer. Finally, he s
aid, “Paulie socked me.”
“Why?”
“It’s a long story and I’d rather not go into it. Suffice to say I did something he didn’t like, he pegged me for it and I deserved the pegging. Now answer me a question.”
“Okay.”
“What’s that thing on top of Hickory’s cane?”
“The gold handle? It’s a chemical reaction.”
“I’d pretty much figured out that part. What sort of reaction?”
“The criscrossing lines are a deuterium nucleus colliding with a tritium nucleus. They then fuse, which is the solid center part. When that happens a neutron and a helium nucleus are released and burn instantaneously—not to mention explosively. Those are the parts at the top that form the handle.”
“Uh-huh. Translation?”
“It’s a model for a fusion reaction. Hickory was part of some hush-hush project years ago and each of the scientists involved received a similar model. Hickory chose to stick his on top of a cane.”
“A fusion reaction. As in...blowing-things-up fusion?”
“It can be, I suppose. Actually, I like to think of it as sunshine.”
“Come again?”
“The sun. It’s a giant fusion reactor, the byproduct of which is heat and light. So I guess you could say Hickory carries life around on the end of his cane since without the sun we wouldn’t be here.”
“And these are the people that raised you?”
She grinned. “Yeah. Mind-boggling, isn’t it?”
“It boggles mine.”
Silence.
“So how did you get into the security business, anyway?” she asked, desperate for something to say.
“Dumb luck. It seemed like a growing field. It meant I could start my own business and—” He sighed. “And that’s all a load of crap. You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“You’re not going to like it.”
“Then I won’t like it. But at least I’ll know it’s the truth.”
“Okay, honey. I hope you’re sitting down.”
She clutched her hands in her lap. This was going to be bad, she just knew it. “I’m sitting.”
“I said it was dumb luck, but I lied.” His voice had dropped so low she could scarcely hear it. For the first time ever, an oddly vulnerable note crept into his voice. “It was dumb, all right. But far from lucky. I became an expert on security systems while learning how to circumvent them.”
